Stars are younger
Trieste, Italy (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
The highly anticipated update of the analysis of data from the European Space Agency's Planck satellite starts with a first paper published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, which already holds in store a few major surprises.
The first article in fact "rejuvenates" the stars of our Universe. Thanks to new maps of cosmic background radiation (in particular, those containing "polarization aniso ...
more
SSC expands at the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility
Solna, Sweden (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) is increasing its capacity at the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility in Inuvik, Canada, with the addition of a new multi-mission antenna. The expansion is driven by increasing customer demand for communication with polar-orbiting satellites, normally used for Earth observation and atmospheric monitoring.
Inuvik's strategic location in the Northwest Territ ...
more
EIAST discusses future collaboration on meteorology satellites with NCMS
Dubai, UAE (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
A team from the National Center of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS), headed by Executive Director H.E. Dr. Abdullah Ahmed Mandoos were received at The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) and met with the institution's executives headed by H.E. Yousuf Al Shaibani, Director General of EIAST. The NCMS delegation expressed their interest in collaborating with EIAST on s ...
more
SNC Completes Dream Chaser Study with German Aerospace Industry Partners
Sparks NE (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Space Systems and OHB System AG (OHB) announce the completion of the initial Dream Chaser for European Utilization (DC4EU) study co-funded by the Space Administration of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and OHB. OHB and DLR are both based in Germany.
As announced by the companies in late 2013, SNC and OHB entered into an agreement to study the feasibility ...
more
Russia suspends joint space program with Ukraine
Moscow, Russia (XNA) Feb 06, 2015 -
Russia has suspended cooperation with Ukraine over joint space commercial program Dnepr, federal space agency Roscosmos said Monday. "The project for the launch of Dnepr carrier rockets has been suspended. The prospects of this program will be determined later, " Tass news agency quoted Roscosmos as saying.
Roscosmos deputy chief Sergei Ponomaryov said last May that Russia and Ukraine plan ...
more
Hubble Captures Rare Triple-Moon Conjunction
Baltimore MD (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
Firing off a string of action snapshots like a sports photographer at a NASCAR race, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured the rare occurrence of three of Jupiter's largest moons racing across the banded face of the gas-giant planet: Europa, Callisto, and Io.
These so-called Galilean moons, named after the 17th century scientist Galileo Galilei, who discovered them with a telescope, compl ...
more
DigitalGlobe's Geospatial Big Data Platform Enabling New Commercial Solutions
Longmont CO (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
DigitalGlobe, Inc. (DGI), a leading global provider of high-resolution earth imagery and geospatial solutions, today announced an agreement to provide another innovative commercial customer with access to its Geospatial Big Data (GBD) platform, paving the way for new analytic products serving the insurance, forestry, oil and gas, and mining industries.
DigitalGlobe's cloud-based GBD offeri ...
more
India Interested in Russia's Glonass Satellite Navigation System
Moscow, Russia (Sputnik) Feb 06, 2015 -
Indian partners have expressed interest in Russia's Glonass satellite navigation systems, a spokesperson for Glonass Union said Thursday.
"At the moment, India is actively developing the market of telematics services... Governmental organizations, including police service, express interest in navigation technologies," the spokesperson told RIA Novosti.
According to Glonass Union pres ...
more
Scientists predict earth-like planets around most stars
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
Planetary scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which might support life.
The new research, led by PhD student Tim Bovaird and Associate Professor Charley Lineweaver from The Australian National University (ANU), made the finding by applying a 200 year old idea to the thousands of exo-planets discovered by the Kepler space telesc ...
more
Death rate in US blacks infected with HIV drops 28%
Washington (AFP) Feb 5, 2015 -
The mortality rate of African-Americans infected with HIV has dropped sharply in recent years and the gap between whites and blacks is narrowing, new figures show.
A new report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the death rate for blacks infected by the HIV virus dropped 28 percent from 2008 to 2012, a greater decrease than other races and ethnicities.
The CD ...
more
In Rio favela, hungry caimans complicate water hunt
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Feb 5, 2015 -
Residents of a Rio de Janeiro favela face a dangerous challenge in their quest for clean drinking water: a canal infested with hungry caimans, South America's alligator cousins.
With a severe drought that's left much of southeastern Brazil parched and the main water company accused of skimping on favela water supplies to benefit wealthier parts of town, residents are illegally tapping into a ...
more
Poor vision more common in China's well-off kids: study
Miami (AFP) Feb 5, 2015 -
A study involving 20,000 children in China said Thursday that poor kids are far less likely to be nearsighted than their wealthier peers.
Nearsightedness, or myopia, was twice as prevalent in the middle-income province of Shaanxi - where students have greater access to books that require close-up focusing - compared to the poorer neighboring province of Gansu, said research in Ophthalmolog ...
more
Herdsman in China's Xinjiang strikes gold: Xinhua
Beijing (AFP) Feb 5, 2015 -
A herdsman in China's remote far west has struck gold after stumbling upon a huge nugget of the precious metal estimated to be worth at least $250,000, state media reported Thursday.
The 7.85 kilo chunk was discovered "practically lying on bare ground", the official Xinhua news agency said, quoting the herder, an ethnic Kazakh named Berek Sawut.
He found the golden lump, described in the ...
more
Negotiators knuckle down to trim draft climate pact
Paris (AFP) Feb 6, 2015 -
UN negotiations resume in Geneva on Sunday to streamline the bloated draft for a climate pact that nations, still at odds over key elements, must sign in Paris in December.
The six-day meeting is one of three special sessions added to this year's schedule of talks meant to culminate in the French capital with a historic deal to curb global warming.
On the table is a sprawling 37-page blu ...
more
China shopping mall fire kills 17: govt
Beijing (AFP) Feb 6, 2015 -
A shopping mall inferno killed 17 people in China, authorities said Friday, the latest deadly accident in a country where safety standards are often flouted.
The fire broke out Thursday on the top floor of a four-storey building in Huidong county in the southern province of Guangdong, the local government said.
Rescue efforts took 18 hours and 17 people died, the Huidong government said ...
more
Emergency declared after Galapagos ship grounding
Quito (AFP) Feb 5, 2015 -
Ecuador activated a state of emergency Wednesday at the famous Galapagos Islands, authorities said, a week after the stranding of a cargo ship loaded with supplies that included hazardous materials.
The alert "will allow authorities to have immediate (financial) means to deal with the situation," a Galapagos National Park spokesman told AFP, amid fears the boat poses an imminent risk to the ...
more
Lonely zoo orca in Florida gets 'endangered' protection
Miami (AFP) Feb 5, 2015 -
Lolita, a captive orca that has spent more than four decades in an aquarium tank, will be granted the same endangered species protection as her wild relatives, US officials said Wednesday.
Advocates hope the ruling will lead to her release from the Miami Seaquarium, but the matter of Lolita's care remains at the center of an impassioned legal dispute.
She was captured as a juvenile from ...
more
Burkina presidential guard calls for PM to step down: security sources
Ouagadougou (AFP) Feb 4, 2015 -
Burkina Faso's elite presidential guard is calling for interim Prime Minister Isaac Zida to step down, security sources said Wednesday.
Members of the army's presidential security regiment (RSP) "are calling for the resignation of the prime minister," who has been in the job for little more than two months following a popular uprising last year, one of the sources told AFP.
Ties between ...
more
Heavy snow blocks highways and pilgrims in north Spain
Aguilar De Campóo, Spain (AFP) Feb 5, 2015 -
Heavy snowfall in northern Spain has blocked roads and rail services as well as pilgrims attempting to reach the city of Santiago de Compostela.
A fresh wave of bitterly cold weather on Thursday hit 33 of Spain's 50 provinces, the meteorological service said.
In the northern province of Leon, civil guards rescued 19 "disoriented" Catholic pilgrims, including three Koreans, a South Afric ...
more
Dirt mounds made by termites in Africa, South America, Asia could prevent spread of deserts
Washington DC (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
Termites might not top the list of humanity's favorite insects, but new research suggests that their large dirt mounds are crucial to stopping deserts from spreading into semi-arid ecosystems. The results indicate that termite mounds could make these areas more resilient to climate change.
The findings could also inspire a change in how scientists determine the possible effects of climate ...
more
Chimpanzees learn 'food calls'
Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
Chimpanzees living in captivity are capable of learning calls that refer to specific food items. This was shown by an evolutionary biologist from the University of Zurich together with English researchers. They now published a behavioral study suggesting, that great apes are capable of referring to objects and socially learn meaningful calls.
A special feature of human language is that obj ...
more
Scientists reprogram plants for drought tolerance
Riverside CA (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
Crops and other plants are constantly faced with adverse environmental conditions, such as rising temperatures (2014 was the warmest year on record) and lessening fresh water supplies, which lower yield and cost farmers billions of dollars annually.
Drought is a major environmental stress factor affecting plant growth and development. When plants encounter drought, they naturally produce a ...
more
Inhospitable climate fosters gold ore formation
Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
South Africa's Witwatersrand is the site of the world's largest and richest gold deposit. In order to explain its formation, ETH professor Christoph Heinrich took a look back into the Earth's early climatic history.
The Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa holds the world's largest gold deposits across a 200-km long swathe. Individual ore deposits are spread out in thin layers over areas up ...
more
Neanderthals disappeared from the Iberian Peninsula before than from the rest of Europe
Barcelona, Spain (SPX) Feb 06, 2015 -
Until a few months ago different scientific articles, including those published in 'Nature', dated the disappearance of the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) from Europe at around 40,000 years ago. However, a new study shows that these hominids could have disappeared before then in the Iberian Peninsula, closer to 45,000 years ago.
A scientific article published in 'Nature' in August 20 ...
more
