Current Events

  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.
  • Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows
    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 ...Read more

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    Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows

    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. For more information about this study, see the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
  • Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust
    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials fr...Read more

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    Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust

    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth’s crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into the Earth’s mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth’s surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. For more information about these results, see the press release from the Carnegie Institution.

Some More Comet Hyakutake Images



Most Recent Image: March 25, 1996


This is a full view of Comet Hyakatuke(11K)
Image provided courtesy of Hal Weaver (Applied Research Corp.), HST Comet Hyakutake Observing Team and NASA



Chronological Images of Hyakutake

This is a full size false-color image in R band taken February 20, 1996. (134K)
Image provided courtesy of Michael Brown (University of Melbourne), Chris Fluke (University of Melbourne) and Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories



This is a false-color image in R band with a log scale color map. It was taken on February 20, 1996. (134K)
Image provided courtesy of Michael Brown (University of Melbourne), Chris Fluke (University of Melbourne) and Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories



This is a color image of Comet Hyakutake using a 40 inch telescope taken on the morning of February 25, 1996. (385K)
Image provided courtesy of Michael Brown (University of Melbourne), Chris Fluke (University of Melbourne) and Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories



This is an image of Comet Hyakatuke's finder chart. It shows the comet's position in reference to the stars from March 20 - April 22.(49K)
Image courtesy of Abrams Planetarium, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Michigan State University



This is an orbit diagram from March 27, 1996. (61K)
Image provided courtesy of Dr. Dale Ireland



This photograph shows the comet Hyakutake (60K GIF)
Image provided courtesy of Shigemi Numazawa, Japan Planetarium Lab. Inc.



The Haykutake Comet
(96K GIF)
Image supplied by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Hyakutake home page



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