Science

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A magnetic monster’s dual personality

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Is it a magnetar or is it a pulsar? A second member of a rare breed of dead, spinning star has been identified thanks to an armada of space-based X-ray telescopes, including ESA’s XMM-Newton. Its curious behaviour is illustrated in this animation.

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NASA's Car-Sized Rover Nears Daring Landing on Mars

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NASA's most advanced planetary rover is on a precise course for an early August landing beside a Martian mountain to begin two years of unprecedented scientific detective work.

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Hubble Sees the Needle Galaxy, Edge-on and Up Close

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This image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals an exquisitely detailed view of part of the disc of the spiral galaxy NGC 4565.

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NASA/NOAA Satellite Sees Western U.S. High Mountain Blazes

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This interactive shows two Suomi NPP images of the Little Bear Fire.

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Big Sunspot 1520 Releases X1.4 Class Flare With Earth-Directed CME

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This image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the sun at 12:45 PM EDT on July 12, 2012 during an X1.4 class flare. The image is captured in the 304 Angstrom wavelength, which is typically colorized in red.

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Flying thermometers

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Sea-surface temperature in the southern Atlantic and Indian oceans surrounding Africa and Madagascar. High temperatures are evident between Madagascar and the mainland, while temperatures cool as waters near the Antarctic.

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Dark Galaxies of the Early Universe Spotted for the First Time

For the first time, dark galaxies — an early phase of galaxy formation, predicted by theory but unobserved until now — may have been spotted. These objects are essentially gas-rich galaxies without stars. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, an international team thinks they have detected these elusive objects by observing them glowing as they are illuminated by a quasar.

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Dark galaxies are small, gas-rich galaxies in the early Universe that are very inefficient at forming stars.

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Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto

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A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is reporting the discovery of another moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto.

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The Titanian Seasons Turn, Turn, Turn

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Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show a concentration of high-altitude haze and a vortex materializing at the south pole of Saturn's moon Titan, signs that the seasons are turning on Saturn's largest moon.

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ESA’s Clean Space targets orbital debris and greener environment

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70% of all catalogued objects are in low-Earth orbit (LEO), which extends to 2000 km above the Earth's surface. To observe the Earth, spacecraft must orbit at such a low altitude. The spatial density of objects increases at high latitudes.