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A magnetic vortex almost as big as Earth races across your computer screen, twisting, turning, finally erupting in a powerful solar flare.

This particular movie is visually stunning, but the most amazing thing about it, notes Davis, is where the scene unfolded--in the sun's chromosphere. "We used to think the chromosphere was a fairly uneventful place, but Hinode is shattering those misconceptions."

There is nothing gentle, however, about "spicules" shooting into the chromosphere from the underlying photosphere. "These are jets of gas as big as Texas," says Davis. "They rise and fall on time scales of 10 minutes."

PLUTO OCCULTATION: On Sunday morning, March 18th, Pluto will pass directly in front of a star in the constellation Sagittarius. This occultation will be visible through large backyard telescopes in the western United States, offering a rare look into Pluto's surprising atmosphere. Experienced amateur astronomers are encouraged to observe.

One of the seas [image] is larger than any of the Great Lakes in North America and possibly only slightly smaller than the Caspian Sea

located near Titan's north pole, and one of them measures at least 39,000 square miles

There is no proof yet that these seas contain liquid, but their shape and darkness indicate smoothness, and other properties point to the presence of liquid

The seas discovery has prompted Cassini mission engineers to repoint Cassini's radar instrument to pass directly over the dark areas during a May flyby of the moon.

Scientists believe heat from radioactive decay...shortly after it formed billions of years ago may explain why geysers are erupting from the surface today.

raising the possibility that the moon, which has an overall surface temperature of about minus-330 degrees, may have an internal environment suitable for primitive life.

a new model suggests ancient radioactive decay played a key role in shaping the moon's warm south pole region...According to the theory, Enceladus formed some 4.5 billion years ago by the mixing of ice and rock containing radioactive isotopes of aluminum and iron. Over a period of several million years, the rapid decay of the isotopes produced a burst of heat that resulted in a rocky core enclosed by an ice sheet. Over time, the remaining decomposition in the core further warmed and melted the moon's interior.

“It tells us that conditions inside Enceladus either were or still are conducive to biochemical reactions"...Cassini scientists plan to measure the composition of the gas rising from the plume during an Enceladus flyby in 2008.

I blush to admit, I didn't know that. What else, I wonder?

Ha Ha, Pluto only got it’s own holiday because it’s status is controversial. It needs to clear it's area to be a planet rhight?

Forget the lunacy of people claiming to tell us the precise temperature of planet Earth in 1918 based on tree rings. Or the fact that in the '70s liberals were issuing similarly dire warnings about "global cooling."

They want us to starve the productive sector of fossil fuel and allow the world's factories to grind to a halt.

There are more reputable scientists defending astrology than defending "global warming"

They think they can live in a world of only Malibu and East Hampton -- with no Trentons or Detroits. It does not occur to them that someone has to manufacture the tiles and steel and glass and solar panels that go into those "eco-friendly" mansions, and someone has to truck it all to their beachfront properties, and someone else has to transport all the workers there to build it.

Because of the industrialization of agriculture -- using massive amounts of fossil fuel -- only 2 percent of Americans work in farming. And yet they produce enough food to feed all 300 million Americans, with plenty left over for export. When are liberals going to break the news to their friends in Darfur that they all have to starve to death to save the planet?

It seems not to have occurred to the jet set that when California is as poor as Mexico, they might have trouble finding a maid. Without trucking, packaging, manufacturing, shipping and refrigeration in their Bel-Air fantasy world, they'll be chasing the rear-end of an animal every time their stomachs growl

RESEARCH said to prove that greenhouse gases cause climate change has been condemned as a sham by UK scientists.

A recent United Nations report said humans were very likely to blame for global warming and there was "virtually no doubt" it was linked to man's use of fossil fuels.

But sceptical climate experts say there is little scientific evidence to support the theory.

In fact, they claim global warming could be caused by increased solar activity.

Ice core samples from Antarctica have been used as proof of how warming over the centuries has been accompanied by raised carbon dioxide levels.

But University of Ottawa professor of paleoclimatology Ian Clark claims that warmer periods of the Earth's history came around 800 years before rises in carbon dioxide levels.

The program also highlights how, after World War II, there was a huge surge in carbon dioxide emissions, yet global temperatures fell.

In a polemical and thought-provoking documentary, film-maker Martin Durkin argues that the theory of man-made global warming has become such a powerful political force that other explanations for climate change are not being properly aired.

The film features an impressive roll-call of experts, including nine professors – experts in climatology, oceanography, meteorology, environmental science, biogeography and paleoclimatology – from such reputable institutions as MIT, NASA, the International Arctic Research Centre, the Institut Pasteur, the Danish National Space Center and the Universities of London, Ottawa, Jerusalem, Winnipeg, Alabama and Virginia.

'I've often heard it said that there is a consensus of thousands of scientists on the global warming issue, that humans are causing a catastrophic change to the climate system,' says an emminent earth science expert. 'Well I am one scientist, and there are many, that simply think that is not true.'

Controversial director Martin Durkin said: "You can see the problems with the science of global warming, but people just don't believe you - it's taken 10 years to get this commissioned.

"I think it will go down in history as the first chapter in a new era of the relationship between scientists and society. Legitimate scientists - people with qualifications - are the bad guys.
"It is a big story that is going to cause controversy.

"It's very rare that a film changes history, but I think this is a turning point and in five years the idea that the greenhouse effect is the main reason behind global warming will be seen as total bollocks.

He said the influential United Nations report on Climate change, that claimed humans were responsible, was a sham.

It claimed to be the opinion of 2,500 leading scientists, but Prof Reiter said it included names of scientists who disagreed with the findings and resigned from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and said the report was finalised by Government appointees.

The CO2 theory is further undermined by claims that billions of pounds is being provided by governments to fund greenhouse effect research, so thousands of scientists know their job depends on the theory continuing to be seen as fact.

"At the moment, there is almost a McCarthyism movement in science where the greenhouse effect is like a puritanical religion and this is dangerous."

In the programme Mr Calder said: "The greenhouse effect is seen as a religion and if you don't agree, you are a heretic."

He added: "However, I think this programme will help further debate and scientists not directly involved in global warming studies may begin to study what is being said, become more open-minded and more questioning, but this will happen slowly."

Is there ANYTHING federally supported that has produced positive results, since the Bush Administration came into power? I can't think of ONE. And now, we learn of the scandalous conditions at Walter Reed hospital (and others?) that wounded and tramatized veterans of the "war on terror" and their families are encountering. Incompetence personified at the top: two more years to endure, without hope of any lessons learned....

The gas and stars of the Comet Galaxy—moving through the cluster at speeds of more than 2 million mph—are being stripped away by the tidal forces of the cluster. Also, the pressure of the cluster’s scorching gas plasma—known as ram pressure stripping—is adding to the damage.  "...situated 3.2 billion light-years from Earth..."

Elliptical galaxies generally have little gas and dust, and mainly consist of old stars. Unlike spiral galaxies, which are generally found in isolation, elliptical galaxies are spotted in the center of crowded galaxy clusters.

Up until now, it’s been a mystery as to how a gas-rich spiral galaxy evolves into a gas- poor irregular galaxy or a gas-poor elliptical galaxy.  Also, when the Universe was half its present age, only one in five galaxies was a gas-poor elliptical galaxy. This has left astronomers wondering where all of the present day elliptical galaxies came from.

Elliptical galaxies, scientists suspect, are transformation products of other types of galaxies, something no one has seen because the process takes billions of years. What they are observing now is some 200 million years into such a process.

The Comet Galaxy—with a little more mass than the Milky Way—will eventually lose its battle against the tidal forces and pressures of the hot plasma acting on it and end up a gas-poor galaxy with a collection of old stars.

http://www.space.com/news/050921_senate_soyuz.html

We went from the glorious Saturn V to THIS?

We've been reduced to buying other nations' ships??

"And I shall write 'Ichabod' above the temple doorway, for the glory has departed."  -- Some Old Testament prophet, paraphrased.    (Yeah, even if I am an agnostic; it's a suitable quote for how I'm feeling)

Search isn't yielding this up as previously posted...sorry if a repeat (not intentional).

--Cindy

Why would someone write 'Ichabod' above the temple doorway? I keep on thinking about the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.