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Stories about: Dust


Where House Dust Comes From

Everyone who has ever wiped out dust from an entire house can tell you that, just hours after cleaning, the stuff always returns undisturbed, as if nothing ever happened. This is naturally a nuisance to people who spend hours trying to clean up. Most of us have also wondered as to where all the dust keeps coming from...

13 November 2009
16:31 GMT

Comet Dust Reveals 'Surprise' Particles

Gathering and studying cometary dust is arguably one of the most difficult enterprises today, as the technology to do so is still some years away. But, in 2003, the proverbial mountain came to the scientists, in the form of an Earth-crossing comet that left behind a trail of material that got experts excited. High-fl...

3 November 2009
05:09 GMT

The Real Reason Why Mars Is Red

Many experts currently consider that Mars' reddish hue is owed to rusted rocks, which were subjected to the action of the water that once covered the planet. This idea has been proposed and debated for a long time, but recent laboratory studies are beginning to infirm it, some experts say. The investigations hav...

18 September 2009
08:47 GMT

Large Dust Problems Expect Astronauts upon Returning to the Moon

According to an Australian researcher, there is a very tight connection between the amounts of dust that are in the lunar atmosphere at each given point and the time of the day when dust readings are recorded. He says that, when astronauts in the 1960s and the 1970s walked on the Moon, it was in the early hours of th...

22 April 2009
16:01 GMT

Stellar 'Nursery' Discovered in the Orion Nebula

The Orion Nebula is, perhaps, one of the most scrutinized objects in the sky, mainly because it can be seen with the naked eye during bright nights. Located in the Orion Constellation, some 1,270 light-years away from Earth, the giant formation has been recently proven to be the stage for the formation of countless n...

21 April 2009
19:01 GMT

Dust in Glaciers Hints at Past Climate Changes

For quite some time now, climatologists have known that the layers found in most ancient ice shelves and in large icebergs can be used to get a glimpse into our planet's ancient history, at least as far as climate changes go. Each layer is specific to a certain period of time in our planet's past, and each ...

30 March 2009
06:38 GMT

Ubuntu 9.04's New Themes

Well, here we go again... it appears the Canonical just uploaded some new and very nice desktop themes for the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) operating system, in order to please their devoted users. Softpedia is once again the first website to offer you a preview of the new artwork, which will probably be p...

17 March 2009
06:41 GMT

Astronomers Identify the Mysterious 'Dust Fountain'

Over the last decades, our solar system has been experiencing a massive sand storm, not unlike those that can be found in the desert. All the planets orbited the Sun in a halo of sand particles that is now considerably larger than it was a century ago. The reason for these large amounts of cosmic debris has kept astr...

10 February 2009
10:02 GMT

Gravitational Instability Is Dead, Long Live Stellar Storms

There seems to be a constant rush as of late to demonstrate that what we used to know and treat as a given is wrong. Evolving technology and the increased amount of accurate scientific data provide more insight on many of these aspects that were not thoroughly investigated so far. As such, it appears that the prevale...

15 December 2008
18:01 GMT

Life Is Also Due to Lack of Comet Impacts

Possibly, Drake's equation should also take into account the factor of comet activity in the environment of the planets that could actually support life. New statistics suggest that our own solar system is far more spared by such cosmic catastrophes than the similar nearby ones, so we own our very existence, to ...

1 December 2008
04:55 GMT

Smog and Dust Particles Allow Twisters to Form

New research shows that pollution in the atmosphere is very likely to encourage the formation of wind swirls underneath super cell storm clouds. This leads to the formation of twisters, which pose significant risks to human lives and cause millions of dollars’ worth of damages each year, in the Midwest during t...

12 November 2008
04:50 GMT

Moon Dust Secrets Locked in Ancient Tapes

As described in a previous article, Moon dust is a terrible problem that astronauts have to face and which has to be solved if humans are ever supposed to set a firm foot on lunar surface for more than just an erratic scientific expedition. That type of dust is extremely fine and rugged, as well as very adherent to a...

11 November 2008
07:18 GMT

Spring on Mars Triggers Avalanche Season

While going through the large amount of pictures taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE high resolution camera, a group of experts from the University of Berne, Switzerland, led by Patrick Russell have come across a series of photos showing a phenomenon strikingly resembling one happening on Earth. By the no...

10 November 2008
08:22 GMT

Measuring Environmental Dust Levels

Dust has been associated with damages to the nose, throat and lungs for a very long time, especially in the case of those working underground, inside mines or in quarries. Over the years, large amounts of dust are inhaled by workers. These tiny particles can form deposits inside the lung, diminishing their capacity t...

27 October 2008
03:33 GMT

Da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus Not Dusty

Leonardo da Vinci was undoubtedly the most brilliant mind of the Renaissance period, a well-skilled inventor and engineer, as well as a master in most of the arts, such as painting, sculpting, music, architecture, mathematics, botany and anatomy. A great part of his most famous works, sketches, designs and handwritin...

22 October 2008
08:23 GMT

Moon Base Walls Made of Lunar Dust Concrete

Since there is not water on the Moon and carrying anything there from the Earth would cost loads of money, it is obviously cheaper to use directly the Moon's resources in order to make water-free concrete. US scientists developed a method that would allow for substituting water with the sulfur found in lunar dus...

21 October 2008
11:21 GMT

Old Galactic Collision Points to Early Massive Black Holes

New observations performed by the Hawaii-based Submillimeter Array's eight antennas indicated that massive black holes had been common since the early ages of the universe. The recent discovery of the collision of two ancient galaxies brought new data on the behavior of black holes.As the artist's concept, ...

17 October 2008
07:49 GMT

Warm Dust Particles Suggest Planetary Collision

By observing vast masses of dust accompanying a distant binary star system, US scientists concluded that it's possible that 2 planets similar to Earth violently collided 300 million light years away from us.  Benjamin Zuckerman, an astronomer at the University of California in Los Angeles, who worked on the...

22 September 2008
05:56 GMT

Phoenix Relays Back Images of Martian Dust Particles

This is the highest resolution image ever sent back to Earth by the Phoenix Mars Lander featuring dust and sand particles. The image was captured by the camera of the optical microscope instrument on board the spacecraft and shows particles of dust as small as one-tenth of the diameter of the human hair. The mission ...

6 June 2008
03:19 GMT

The Universe Is Two Times Brighter Than We See It

Interstellar dust and gas permeates the whole interstellar and intergalactic space, blocking significant amounts of light along the way. But until now, it was unknown exactly how much light was shielded by dust and gas, mostly because most astronomers believe that the effect is irrelevant. New calculations reveal tha...

16 May 2008
02:40 GMT

When Going on the Moon, Remember to Take Duct Tape

They say you can't build anything without it, and it is probably the best invention ever. I don't know about that, however duct tape saved the day during the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon. On 11 December 1972, the Apollo 17 mission landed on the Moon the lunar module Challenger, with astronauts Gene Cernan ...

22 April 2008
05:59 GMT

Hayabusa Pointing in the Wrong Direction

Hayabusa, meaning peregrine falcon in Japanese, is an unmanned space mission carried out by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, having the task of returning dust from the near-Earth asteroid known as 25143 Itokawa, measuring about 540 meters/ 270 meters/ 210 meters. Hayabusa was launched into space on 9 May 2003;...

14 April 2008
03:04 GMT

Laptop Microfans Go Solid State

The newly developed solid-state device has no moving parts thus it is silent, ultra-thin, requires low power to run and, best of all, needs roughly no maintenance, which pretty much makes it ideal for the next generation of microprocessor cooling system for laptops and other electronic devices. The solid-state microf...

19 March 2008
08:02 GMT

Distant Stars Show Presence of Dust Grains

How Earth-like planets form around other planets is not quite known yet, albeit astronomers discover with each passing day that planets are forming in other distant star systems. According to a study presented last week, such a planet forming solar system seems to be forming around a series of stars located about 2,4...

13 March 2008
09:39 GMT

Supernovae Sweep Dust Away

It is generally believed that supernovae usually spread dust into interstellar space as they explode. However, astrophysicists have recently found that this is not always the case, and some might actually collect dust after a supernova phase. These are usually small stars that explode periodically, while gathering cl...

28 January 2008
09:21 GMT

NASA Emits Warning: Watch Out for Flying Rocks!

Physicist Phil Metzger warns about the danger of flying rocks that could have energies high enough to smash concrete poles, and punch holes through chain link fences, during the blast off of the solid rocket engines that lift the space shuttles. The exhaust of the engines can blast concrete pieces from the flame tren...

24 November 2007
05:44 GMT

New Surprises Coming from Jupiter

New secrets of the giant gas planet have been exposed by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its recent flyby on the way towards the dwarf planet Pluto in 2015. New Horizons was sped on by Jupiter's gravity, saving years of its journey to the icy Pluto. This is the closest encounter with Jupiter since the...

10 October 2007
03:45 GMT

The Formation of an Earth-like Planet Detected!

How did the Earth form? Astronomers have detected a "cooking" process for an Earth-like planet. The huge ring of hot dust surrounding a sun-size star 424 light-years away could be shaped into an Earth-like planet in a time period of maximum 100 million years.The team investigating the infrared light coming from the s...

5 October 2007
05:51 GMT

Dirty LCD Screens, Beware!

Sometimes I wonder if there is a piece of computer hardware that does not attract dust in industrial size quantities. Please note that I did not say "dust free" or anything. I know it is not possible, but oh, how I'd like at least only hardware component inside or outside my computer to stay really, really clean...

27 July 2007
10:58 GMT

Queen Guitarist Brian May Turns Into Astrophysics PhD

Brian May was the lead guitarist and backing (sometimes lead) vocalist for the English rock band Queen for almost forty years. In addition to being famous for writing the band's biggest hits, "We Will Rock You", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "Tie Your Mother Down", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "I Want It All," he�...

26 July 2007
04:17 GMT

Mars Rovers Just Above Critical Energy Levels Because of Continuing Dust Storm

The two rovers on the surface of Mars are not doing very well, as the dust storm continues and is showing no signs of decreasing in intensity. Rising dust blocks sunlight from reaching the two rovers, who are now operating just above the critical energy level.NASA is worried that things could get worse. These storms...

17 July 2007
05:07 GMT

Why Does Mars Have Such Wild Weather?

The Red Planet is full of natural phenomena that are somewhat bizarre, considering the fact that Mars' atmosphere is less than 1 percent as dense as Earth's. But why do these strange phenomena occur, sometimes far more violent than similar ones in the much thicker atmosphere on Earth?Storms are the most en...

11 July 2007
03:35 GMT

Huge Mars Storm Puts Rovers to Sleep Temporarily

The latest development of the Mars dust storm that threatened to damage the two rovers on the surface indicates it has weakened, but would not calm down, so NASA officials are forced to put the robotic probes on regular nap-time schedules to save energy.Precaution measures were necessary after the gigantic storm, co...

7 July 2007
05:17 GMT

Huge Storm Causes Mars Exploration Rovers to Lose Power

A gigantic storm, covering a large portion of the Martian surface has affected the two Mars Exploration Rovers, causing them to lose power. NASA is worried that things could get worse. These storms appear when the planet is closest to the Sun, which increases the overall temperature and produces huge winds that lift...

5 July 2007
05:04 GMT

High Atmospheric Pressure on Sandy Planets Could Make Lander Modules Sink Like a Rock

Landing at high enough speeds on sandy planets could sink the landing module deep in the sand layer, just like a rock diving into a pool. This is the conclusion of a new study that considered the problem of sand on other planets and how that could affect future manned missions to the Moon and Mars.Both Mars and the M...

4 July 2007
10:59 GMT

What's Inside a Pulsing Giant Star?

Astronomers succeeded in dissecting a pulsating red giant star, S Orionis, to examine the layers of dust and gas. This star has a pulse period of 410 days, during which it changes in volume, from one equal to the orbit of Mars to one equal to the orbit of Jupiter.S Orionis is a red giant star in the constellation O...

4 July 2007
05:00 GMT

Two Old Space Probes Sent to Visit a Comet

Two old space probes just received new assignments, after they had fulfilled their original missions. Deep Impact and Stardust are the two robotic space travelers that NASA decided to reactivate and send to chase Comet Tempel 1.Deep Impact is a NASA space probe launched on January 12, 2005 that was designed to stud...

4 July 2007
02:48 GMT

Huge Planetary Size Dust Storm Covers the Surface of Mars

The atmosphere on Mars is thinner than the one on Earth, with a surface pressure less than 1 percent that on Earth, but it is quite dusty. This doesn't prevent the planet from experiencing the largest dust storms in our solar system.Now, a gigantic storm is covering large areas of the surface, having the potent...

28 June 2007
07:03 GMT

Mars' Dust Could Damage NASA's Phoenix Lander

The next robotic probe scheduled to land on Mars is the Phoenix Mars Lander, a new rover built for the purpose of touching and analyzing Martian water for the first time. Right now it is being prepared for launch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.But before the actual launch, scientists are concerned th...

15 June 2007
05:11 GMT

Hidden Planet Forms Strange Elliptical Ring of Dust around a Star

The formation of a star is a long process in which dense parts of molecular clouds collapse into a ball of plasma, triggering the birth of the sun. Stellar evolution begins with a giant molecular cloud, also known as a stellar nursery.Dust clouds surround the young stars and thin out and dissipate as the star reache...

14 June 2007
14:01 GMT

New View of Cosmic Dust Clouds

Almost all small and medium-size stars will end up as white dwarfs, after nearly all the hydrogen in their cores has been fused into helium. Near the end of its nuclear burning stage, such a star goes through a red giant phase and then expels most of its outer material (creating a planetary nebula) until only the ho...

6 April 2007
09:52 GMT

Moon's Dust Is Toxic

A new research points out the fact that the smallest particles in lunar dust might be toxic, and could be a possible threat to astronauts inhaling them. These health effects have been signaled since NASA's Apollo missions. Astronaut Harrison H (Jack) Schmitt, the last man to step on to the Moon in Apollo 17, com...

20 March 2007
04:07 GMT


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