Giant 'balloon of magma' inflates under Santorini

A new survey suggests that the chamber of molten rock beneath Santorini's volcano expanded 10-20 million cubic metres - up to 15 times the size of London's Olympic Stadium - between January 2011 and April 2012. The growth of this 'balloon' of magma has seen the surface of the island rise 8-14 centimetres during this period, a team led by Oxford University scientists has found.

The results come from an expedition, funded by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council, which used satellite radar images and Global Positioning System receivers (GPS) that can detect movements of the Earth's surface of just a few millimetres.

Cameras to focus on dark energy

A pair of detectors that measure minute distortions in images of distant galaxies will probe the riddle of cosmic acceleration.

Even the best pictures of a distant galaxy are a bit lopsided. But this is an attribute, not a bug. Because mass distorts space-time, light coming from distant galaxies is bent as it passes through intervening shoals of invisible matter, leaving the images of these distant objects minutely sheared and stretched.

Two astronomical surveys now scheduled to come online seek to take advantage of this effect, which is known as weak gravitational lensing. The surveys aim to use the technique to get a firmer handle on dark energy, the mysterious force that is apparently speeding up the expansion of the Universe. By observing the patterns of distortions across large swathes of sky (see ‘Falling into line’), astronomers hope to map the density and distribution of dark matter, the web-like invisible scaffolding around which visible matter is thought to have first coalesced. Then, by looking at changes in this hidden web across cosmic time, they hope to discern the imprint of dark energy.

China Focus: Timeline for China's space research revealed

A senior Chinese astronomer on Friday revealed a timeline for China's planned program of space research. In an interview with Xinhua, Zhang Shuangnan, an astrophysicist at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said key developments will include China launching its first space telescope around 2015 and the country's space station being completed around 2020.

Speaking at the sidelines of the 28th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, being held in Beijing from Aug. 20-31, he said the space station will become a platform to study black holes, dark matter and dark energy.

Plate tectonics cretaceous

More PowerPoint presentations from claudio

Despre cercetarea spatiului cosmic, cu astrofizicianul Zhang Shuangnan

Astrofizicianul Zhang Shuangnan, de la Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science, a declarat că ţara sa va lansa primul telescop spaţial în jurul anului 2015, iar prima staţie spaţială proprie va fi completă probabil în 2020.

Vorbind cu ocazia celei de-a douăzeci şi opta Adunare Generală a Uniunii Astronomice Internaţionale de la Beijing, care s-a desfăşurat între 20 şi 31 August, astrofizicianul chinez a spus că viitoarea staţie spaţială chineză va deveni o platformă pentru studiul găurilor negre, a materiei negre şi a energiei negre.

Noi pepiniere de stele descoperite in Calea Lactee

Calea Lactee genereaza aproximativ sapte noi stele pe an, in medie. Stelele mai masive se formeaza in ceea ce numim regiuni H II – numite astfel deoarece gazul prezent in aceste pepiniere de stele este ionizat de radiatia stelelor masive tinere care se formeaza in acestea. 

Regiunile recent descoperite din Calea Lactee, care sunt pepiniere pentru stelele masive, pot detine indicii importante cu privire la compozitia chimica si constitutia structurala a galaxiei noastre. Locatiile acestor zone de formare a stelelor pot fi relationate in mod clar cu structura generala a galaxiei noastre. Studiile suplimentare le vor permite oamenilor de stiinta sa inteleaga mai bine procesul de formare a stelelor si sa compare compozitia chimica a acestor locatii la distante foarte diferite de centrul Caii Lactee.

Stea in formare in centrul galaxiei noastre, chiar langa gaura neagra - Va supravietui?

O stea tanara, in plina formare, care in prezent arata ca un nor, este atrasa de o gaura neagra imensa aflata in centrul galaxiei noastre, anunta astronomii. Desi norul ce o inconjoara va fi absorbit de gaura neagra, este posibil ca steaua sa supravietuiasca.

Ca si alte galaxii, Calea Lactee gazduieste o gaura neagra, cunoscuta ca Sagittarius A, in centrul sau, relateaza BBC.

Film’s next wave? With Kon-Tiki and The Deep, Nordic maritime survival gets its cinematic moment

“We wanted to get to know Thor a little better.” Not a line one hears often, even in the inflated-ego world that is the Toronto International Film Festival. “Because he’s probably the most professional PR man Norway has ever seen.”

Not the Norse god, then, but Thor Heyerdahl, the scientist-adventurer who in 1947 set out to prove that the mid-Pacific Polynesian islands had been colonized 1,500 years earlier by Peruvians who drifted 8,000 westward on balsa-wood rafts. His method, simple and possibly suicidal: Construct a balsa-wood raft, place it off the coast of Peru, climb aboard — and wait.

Beyond Chichen Itza: Less traveled Maya sites

For longtime travelers to the Yucatan, the 2012 mythology that has taken hold brings a delicious irony: Worldwide attention is finally turning from the Yucatan's white-powder beaches and sequestered all-inclusives to the remnants of the "lost civilization" buried under the jungle that drew the first travelers to Mexico's mysterious southern peninsula after New York writer John Lloyd Stephens and illustrator Frederick Catherwood recounted their explorations in the mid-19th century.

ATLANTIS REAL OR MYTH?

Was it real or is it just a myth? So many attention seekers have exaggerated or distorted the story that it has become synonymous with a "Fantasy" or an impossible quest.

Real or Myth?

Could Atlantis have existed as an actual country?  The answer could be yes.  Is it likely that Atlantis really existed exactly as described in Plato’s writings?