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strange signs; after the storm

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Written by staff writer

Thursday, 23 August 2007

strange signs

Recent examination of the star Mira by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer has revealed an enormous tail of material being shed by the star as it moves through space. The tail is 13 light-years long.

“This is an utterly new phenomenon to us, and we are still in the process of understanding the physics involved,” said Mark Seibert, of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Pasadena, in a recent NASA release. “We hope to be able to read Mira’s tail like a ticker tape to learn about the star’s life.”

after the storm

The global dust storm which had been gripping Mars is dying down now, according to a recent story on space.com, and it looks like NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity will emerge from it still functional.There had been concern that dust accumulating on the solar panels would cause the power levels of the rovers to drop dangerously low, either during the storm or as dust settled out of the atmosphere after the storm. But NASA scientists say the dust buildup so far is acceptable. Had the dust become too thick, there would not have been enough power to keep the electronics that control the radioactive heater functioning, and the rovers’ temperatures would have dropped low enough for the metal in the electronics to shrink and crack.

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