Yup.
Solar Loops
Image courtesy: SDO/NASA
Huge loops of plasma—superheated, charged gas—rise from an active region on the sun in a newly released picture from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Each loop is as tall as several Earths stacked on top of each other.
Mars_22_01_2012_1015ut-IrRGB-EMr (by Jaicoa)
<i>Via Flickr:</i>
Mars this week (January 22nd) showing a pronounce region Auroroe Sinus (finger like) lower left and the chrise region at center and at the Polar Cap region Mare Acidolium.
cwnl:
Russia Takes Lead to Create Manned Moon Base with USA & Europe
Officials from Russia’s Space Agency, Roscosmos, are reportedly in talks with Europe’s ESA and NASA over possibly establishing a collective an orbital station around the moon, or a manned lunar research base. According to Russian news site RIA Novosti, while the country intends on making the moon its focal point, Russia’s plans calls for more than merely putting boots on the lunar surface.
According to Roscosmos chief, Vladimir Popovkin, that leaves only two options: “setup a base on the Moon, or launch a station to orbit around it. We don’t want the man to just step on the Moon,” Popovkin stated in an interview with Russian radio station Vesti FM.
“Today, we know enough about it, we know that there is water in its polar areas,” he said of the moon, adding “we are now discussing how to begin exploration with NASA and the European Space Agency,” he added.
During the late 1950’s Soviet and US. Scientists first began discussing the possibility of establishing a permanent manned outpost, but as the Cold War drew on, those plans never went any further.
(via ikenbot)
Babies with Three Parents Possible within Three Years
Researchers have secured £6m in funding to develop the groundbreaking treatment which could prevent genetic conditions affecting the heart, muscle or brain being passed on to children and future generations.
But the method is controversial because it involves transferring the parents’ DNA into a donor egg, meaning the resulting child would inherit a tiny fraction of their genetic coding from a third party.
While regulations currently forbid scientists from implanting such eggs into patients, the Wellcome Trust and Newcastle University has announced a £5.8m package for further lab-based research aimed at assessing the safety of the technique.
Big Bang camera goes dark
On Saturday, 1.5-million kilometres from Earth, a tank of liquid helium coolant went dry. Thus ended the working life of the Planck Surveyor, a European satellite that took the most expensive single picture in history
The Haunting Beauty of NGC 3190 —A Deadly Supernova Factory
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This magnificent galaxy inspires us, again, to ask: does advanced life exist there? The fact that we have no proof of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe may simply mean that intelligent civilizations have all too finite lifetimes. NGC 3190 is a spiral galaxy of unbearable beauty in the constellation Leo. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. In 2002, astronomers uncovered one supernova in March in the southeastern part and then another team uncovered a second supernova on the other side two months later -sure destroyers of vicinity-based life.
The spectacular image below is the “Trio in Leo.” There is actually a fourth member of this group which not shown- but the group also goes by another catalogued name of “Hickson 44.” These galaxies are estimated to be 60 million light years away. The galaxy furthest to the left is an elliptical galaxy (NGC 3193) and is fairly devoid of detail. The top center of the image features NGC 3190.
(via dailygalaxy)