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Hot Topic
Deep Space
Cosmic Evolution
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| Three Tough Questions |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
04/25/04 |
| When does asking the right questions tell more than necessarily knowing the right answers? Perhaps when crossing the fertile boundary between biology and astronomy. |
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| First Images Show Organic Molecules |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
12/23/03 |
| There are more organic molecules in the universe than what can be discerned in visible light. Using their new orbital infrared telescope, astrophysicists are finding that the basic building blocks of carbon chemistry have found a primary place in some of the most unlikely spots. |
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| Swift Gammas: One Minute of Fame, Everyday |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
10/22/03 |
| On the thirtieth anniversary of the discovery of gamma-ray bursts, a new telescope called SWIFT is expected to deepen our understanding of what causes them. Focused in the high-energy part of the electromagnetic spectrum, gamma-ray bursts represent the biggest explosions since the Big Bang. |
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| Inevitability Beyond Billions |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
07/24/03 |
| A sky survey by Anglo-Australian astronomers has put forward a new calculation for the number of stars in the visible universe. Their estimate is larger than the number of sand grains on Earth. |
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| HabStars: Speeding Up In the Zone |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
04/21/03 |
| When the Allen Telescope Array comes online in a few years, its thousand-fold better radio search capabilities would soon exhaust previously cataloged stars with potentially habitable planets. So Margaret Turnbull and Jill Tarter have a new list, called HabCat: A Catalog of Nearby Habitable Stellar Systems. |
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| Infrared Eyes Set For the Sky |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
04/17/03 |
| A new Sun-circling telescope will reveal the universe with infrared eyes. Unlike what the Hubble Space Telescope shows in visible light, this Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) will look for heat. |
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| Nanodiamonds are Forever? Maybe Not |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
03/05/03 |
| When nanodiamonds were discovered in 1989, they seemed to be remnants of supernovas - tiny grains of physical history even older than the solar system. Logically, comets should be full of these microscopic diamonds. |
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| Looking for Carbonates in Dry Places |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
10/09/02 |
| A research team claims it has found carbonates in dust around two dying stars, where water cannot exist. If the finding is confirmed, astronomers may have to re-think some assumptions about the presence of water during the formation of our own solar system. But both the discovery and its implications are in question. |
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| A Shortage of Planets |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/02/02 |
| When they turned the Hubble Space Telescope on a distant globular cluster of stars, astronomers expected to find fifteen or twenty planets. They found zero. |
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| Galactic Habitable Zones |
| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
05/18/01 |
| Our Milky Way Galaxy is unusual in that it is one of the most massive galaxies in the nearby universe. Our Solar System also seems to have qualities that make it rather unique. These qualities make the Sun one of the few stars in the Galaxy capable of supporting complex life. |
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