Within the star cluster, the scientists estimate that only four stars weigh more than 150 times the mass of the Sun but even though there are over 100,000 stars within the cluster, with the four heaviest objects accounting for nearly half of all the solar wind and radiation emitted from the cluster.

The new findings support the idea that there are lower size limits for stars.

At 60,000 ft., the aircraft endured coious amount sof solar energy to charge its lithium-sulphur batteries and to keep its two propellers going. Though the plane lost altitude during the night, the energy stories in its batteries maintained flight. Qinetiq is now looking to the Ministry of Defense and the DoD (US Department of Defense) to put the plane into service, as its no longer experimental.

The observatory was launched with the Planck Telescope aboard an Ariane 5 heavy-lift delivery system. Using the three sensitive scientific instruments aboard Herschel, experts learned that a peculiar distribution of carbon monoxide exists on Neptune, which is the main evidence that points to a comet collision. The three detectors aboard the telescope are PACS (the Photodetecting Array Camera and Spectrometer), SPIRE (the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver), and HIFI (the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared).

The regular cycle of millions of years has been very troubling and confusing, and an element in our solar system causing the problem seems reasonable. The galaxy takes about 250 million years to orbit the center.

An ultra low-mass star such as a red or white dwarf might orbiting at a large distance, possibly a light year away. It would theoretically take 27 million years to finish an orbit. At that rate, once during each orbit it may enter a collection of comets surrounding the solar system called the Oort cloud. When the star passes through the Oort cloud, it could disturb the orbits of many comets, causing a shower of comets on Earth at such an extreme rate to cause such events.

A new study has confirmed that the 27-million-year cycle exists, with an excess of extinctions happening around those peaks. There are extinctions that occur in the middle of a cycle, and sometimes when a peak comes around the Earth has been safe. But, scientists confirmed that life gets a riskier here every 27 million years.

The very last mission now has a Feb. 26 launch date. Endeavour will close out the shuttle program by delivering a major scientific instrument to the space station. NASA has said that it will decide in August to make more shuttle launch decisions.

So, after it’s successful launch more than three weeks ago, the dormant upper stage of the first Falcon 9 rocket plunged back into the atmosphere this weekend at 0050 GMT Sunday. The vehicle should have entered into the atmosphere and burned up over Iraq and Syria, but the actual location is not certain. Most of the 12-foot-wide rocket stage likely burned up during re-entry.

The company has also teamed up with Bigelow Aerospace, a Las Vegas-based company that recently joined the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. This company is developing private inflatable space habitats with the goal of launching a commercial space station in 2014. The company has already launched two prototype modules into orbit.

Two NASA satellites are capturing images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20, 2010, with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. This series of images reveals a space-based view of the burning oil rig and the ensuing oil spill, through May 24. The imagery comes from the MODIS instruments aboard NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. The oil slick appears grayish-beige in these images. The shape of the spill changes due to weather conditions, currents and the use of oil-dispersing chemicals. The images in this video were selected to show the spill most clearly. The full image archive is available at http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov.

Plus, Oil Spill at the Mouth of the Mississippi River!

Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill laps around the mouth of the Mississippi River delta in this May 24, 2010, image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft.  Ribbons and patches of oil that have leaked from the Deepwater Horizon well offshore appear silver against the light blue color of the adjacent water. Vegetation is red.  Image credit: Jesse Allen/NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.

The students in Dennis Mitchell’s science class were examining Martian lava tubes as their project in the Mars Student Imaging Program offered by NASA and Arizona State University. According to the university, the imaging program allows students in upper elementary grades through to college students to participate in Mars research by having them develop a geological question to answer. The students actually command a Mars-orbiting camera to take an image to answer their question. Since MSIP began in 2004, more than 50,000 students have participated.

“The students developed a research project focused on finding the most common locations of lava tubes on Mars,” Mitchell said. “Do they occur most often near the summit of a volcano, on its flanks or the plains surrounding it?”

The feature, on the slope of an equatorial volcano named Pavonis Mons, appears to be a skylight in an underground lava tube. Similar ‘cave skylight’ features have been found elsewhere on Mars, but this is the first seen on this volcano.

The students subsequently submitted the site as a candidate for imaging by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. HiRISE can image the surface at about 30 centimeters (12 inches) per pixel, which may allow a look inside the hole in the ground.

“It gives the students a good understanding of the way research is conducted and how that research can be important for the scientific community. This has been a wonderful experience,” Mitchell said.”

Sixteen seventh-graders at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found the Martian pit feature at the center of the superimposed red square in this image. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU