8 of the Most Extreme Places in the Solar System [Slide Show]

The universe is a mighty big place, but there is no shortage of amazement right here in our celestial neighborhood. From Venus's searing surface temperatures, hot enough to melt lead, to Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a storm that has been raging for hundreds of years, to the cryovolcanoes of the Saturnian moon Enceladus , the solar system boasts plenty of extreme locales. Solar System - Venus - Enceladus - Jupiter - AstronomyBy rss.sciam.com

Nearby asteroids are a diverse bunch in terms of reflectivity and composition

A space-based survey of 101 objects that pass relatively close to Earth has found they have a wide range of reflectivity, indicating that their composition is varied as well. Asteroid - Earth - Solar System - Astronomy - Small BodiesBy rss.sciam.com

Which Ray?: Conflicting Data on High-Energy Cosmic Rays Leave Their Source–or Sources–Unresolved

Nature certainly has a way of one-upping the fruits of human ingenuity. Extreme astrophysical objects have long been known to accelerate the particles that make up cosmic rays to whopping energies that make the Large Hadron Collider look like a child's slingshot. The mammoth collider near Geneva, Switzerland, which resumed service in 2009 after an aborted start-up the year before, will ultimately boost protons to energies of seven trillion electron volts. Cosmic-ray protons, in comparison, have been clocked striking Earth with tens of million times as much energy; a single proton can pack as much punch as a baseball hurled ... Read More

A Little Flight Music: NASA Contest for Wake-Up Songs Prompts Astronauts to Recall Tuneful Highlights

As deejay gigs go this is a short one, but the audience is captive and the venue is very exclusive. With a recently announced contest , NASA has opened the door to the public to choose music to be played for astronauts during the final two scheduled space shuttle missions. Four winning songs will serve as wake-up music on the missions, currently pegged for November and February launches. NASA - Space Shuttle - Astronaut - Technology - SpaceBy rss.sciam.com

What Comes Next: Experts Predict the Future (preview)

The Age of Digital Entanglement By Danny Hillis Future - Business - Eric Mangini - MySpace - Quantum entanglementBy rss.sciam.com

Distant astrophysical beacons reveal masses of the solar system’s planets

Electromagnetic pulses from far-flung celestial objects can provide a sort of scale with which to gauge the mass of the planets, according to a new study. Solar System - Mass - Astronomy - Astronomical object - Extrasolar planetBy rss.sciam.com

Death to Humans! Visions of the Apocalypse in Movies and Literature

All things must come to an end, but we humans have an endless fascination with the inevitable. Our September 2010 special issue and our web exclusives explore some of those endings. Writers and filmmakers, of course, have been tackling apocalyptic themes for decades, at times using them to highlight emotional aspects of sacrifice, heroism and dedication, to varying degrees of success. Apocalypse - Human - Art - Death - Writers ResourcesBy rss.sciam.com

The Paradox of Time: Why It Can’t Stop But Must (preview)

In our experience, nothing ever really ends. When we die, our bodies decay and the material in them returns to the earth and the air, allowing for the creation of new life. We live on in what comes after. But will that always be the case? Might there come a point sometime in the future when there is no “after”? Depressingly, modern physics suggests the answer is yes. Time itself could end. All activity would cease, and there would be no renewal or recovery. The end of time would be the end of endings.This grisly prospect was an unanticipated prediction ... Read More

One Big Family: Exoplanet System Hosts at Least 5, and Possibly 7, New Worlds

A team of European astronomers has located what may be the largest collection of planets discovered to date outside our own solar system. Extrasolar planet - Solar System - Astronomy - High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher - TechnologyBy rss.sciam.com

Laying Odds on the Apocalypse: Experts Assess Doomsday (preview)

With all due respect to T. S. Eliot, maybe the world really does end with a bang, not a whimper. Whether of our own creation (nuclear holocaust) or of nature’s (asteroid impact), plenty of cataclysms could doom civilization--perhaps even putting the survival of the species in jeopardy. We assessed the likelihood of several doomsday scenarios, from oft-discussed threats such as climate change to more fanciful ideas such as quantum fluctuations that would destroy our universe. The probabilities listed here are not scientific fact--an impossible goal when estimating the possibility of unprecedented events--but informed conjecture based on researchers’ expert opinions. We ... Read More