1/3rd of sun-like stars have Earth like planets

A mission launched in “search of habitable planets” by NASA has predicted that one-third of “sun-like” stars may have planets similar to Earth.

Analysis of the first 136 days of data of the mission launched by the Kepler orbiting observatory has already begun and scientists are scrutinizing the scans of 150,000 stars and evidence of 1,235 potential planets.

One of the analysis has predicted that one-third of “sun-like” stars with classification F, G or K will have planets similar to the earth.

“About one-third of FGK stars are predicted to have at least one terrestrial, habitable-zone planet,” the Daily Mail quoted Wesley Traub, Chief Scientist with NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program as saying.

F, G and K stars, which are classified according to the characteristics of their spectrum are “sun-like” stars, and the candidates usually targeted by the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence in scans for signals from space.

Scientists stunned by surface of asteroid Vesta

The first close-up pictures of the massive asteroid Vesta reveal a northern hemisphere littered with craters including a trio nicknamed “Snowman” and a smoother southern half, researchers reported Monday.

Running along the asteroid’s equator are deep grooves, a surprise to scientists who did not expect to see such features.

“We’re seeing quite a varied surface,” said chief scientist Christopher Russell of the University of California, Los Angeles. The images were taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which began orbiting the 330-mile-wide rocky body last month and beaming back incredible surface details that the team is only beginning to pore over. It’s the first time that Vesta has been viewed up close. Until now, it has only been photographed from afar.

Since entering orbit, Dawn has taken more than 500 pictures, while refining its path and inching ever closer to the surface to get a better view. The probe will officially start collecting science data next week once it is 1,700 miles from the surface. It will get as close as 110 miles while it orbits Vesta for a year.

World’s first anti-laser

Yale University scientists have developed the world’s first anti-laser, in which incoming beams of light interfere with one another in such a way as to perfectly cancel each other out.

The discovery could pave the way for a number of novel technologies with applications in everything from optical computing to radiology.

Conventional lasers, which were first invented in 1960, use a so-called “gain medium,” usually a semiconductor like gallium arsenide, to produce a focused beam of coherent light-light waves with the same frequency and amplitude that are in step with one another.

Thunderstorms Create Antimatter Beams: Geeky Small-Talk Fodder from NASA

Last week, NASA announced that their Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected antimatter produced by thunderstorms on Earth. Though it was long suspected that lightning activity (associated with terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs) potentially created antimatter particles, this latest announcement is the first hard evidence of the phenomenon.

New look at Apollo data provides precise readings on the Moon’s core

A new look at data from seismic experiments left on the Moon by astronauts has given researchers a better understanding of the lunar interior.

The Moon’s core appears to be very similar to the Earth’s – with a solid inner core and molten liquid outer core – and its size is right in the middle of previous estimates.

“While the presence of a liquid core had previously been inferred from other geophysical measurements, we have made the first direct seismic observation of a liquid outer core,” said Dr. Renee Weber, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who led the team of researchers.

Vast, mysterious structure discovered at the heart of our galaxy

Two enormous, gamma-ray-emitting structures are bubbling out of the center of our galaxy. And astronomers have no idea what caused them.