Omega Centauri is the largest globular star cluster and also nearby … and ancient

Omega Centauri is the largest globular star cluster and also nearby … and ancient

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Roberto Colombari] This huge ball of stars predates our Sun. Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed, and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited a young Milky Way Galaxy. Of the 200 or so globular clusters that survive today, Omega Centauri is the […]

‘Mindfulness’ seen as alternative treatment for depression

‘Mindfulness’ seen as alternative treatment for depression

Therapy based on the controversial concept of ‘mindfulness’ works as well as some anti-depressant drugs, according to a major new study. Inspired in part by Buddhist philosophy, mindfulness involves training the brain to deal with negative emotions using techniques such as meditation, breathing exercises and yoga. Some critics have claimed mindfulness techniques can bring on […]

Light reaching us from these colliding galaxies emitted when dinosaurs lived

Light reaching us from these colliding galaxies emitted when dinosaurs lived

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO; Processing & License: Judy Schmidt What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known. The galaxy’s protracted […]

Prince’s dealer: Doctor’s ignorance of his addiction to opiates may have killed him

Prince’s dealer: Doctor’s ignorance of his addiction to opiates may have killed him

Prince’s former drug dealer . . . [“Doctor D”] said the musician, who he described as ‘majorly addicted’, regularly bought drugs from him between 1984 and 2008. The dealer, often to the stars, said Prince suffered crippling stage fright and could not get on stage and perform without the drugs [highly addictive opioid pain killers] […]

Guess which 2 celestial objects are within our Milky Way galaxy

Guess which 2 celestial objects are within our Milky Way galaxy

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Bob Franke] Comet C/2014 S2 (PanSTARRS) poses for a Messier moment in this telescopic snapshot from April 18. In fact it shares the 1.5 degree wide field-of-view with two well-known entries in the 18th century comet-hunting astronomer’s famous catalog. Outward bound and sweeping through northern skies just below the […]

Home away from home

Home away from home

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, STS-132 Crew, Expedition 23 Crew, NASA] The International Space Station is the largest object ever constructed by humans in space. The station perimeter extends over roughly the area of a football field, although only a small fraction of this is composed of modules habitable by humans. The station is […]

Female students sent home in Malaysia after reports ‘bad spirits’ got physical

Female students sent home in Malaysia after reports ‘bad spirits’ got physical

Schools in Malaysia have been struck by a mass hysteria ‘epidemic’ in which students claim they are having visions of female vampiric ghosts and are being physically pinned down by evil spirits. Called ‘body possession phenomenon’, one bizarre incident saw 20 female students sent home from a single school after complaining of being overwhelmed by […]

Social media gods: More powerful than an all-powerful government?

Social media gods: More powerful than an all-powerful government?

Special to WorldTribune.com The late 19th century was a period known as “the Gilded Age” in America … as Andrew Carnegie, a steel magnate, and the oil baron John D Rockefeller … wielded massive power through business, political efforts and philanthropy. Yet even Carnegie, whose ruthlessness earned him a reputation as a “robber baron”, would […]

‘We are why they are destroying the region’: Syrian village doomed by an apocalyptic prophecy

‘We are why they are destroying the region’: Syrian village doomed by an apocalyptic prophecy

For more than a century, Dabiq was one of northern Syria’s forsaken villages, a speck on a vast agricultural plain between the Turkish border and the deserts of Iraq. … That was until the jihadists of Islamic State (Isis) arrived in early 2014, an event that the Dabiq elders had feared from the moment the […]

After 14-year dance with Saturn, Cassini prepares for grand finale

After 14-year dance with Saturn, Cassini prepares for  grand finale

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Cassini Imaging Team, SWRI, JPL, ESA, NASA] Cassini, a robot spacecraft launched in 1997 by NASA, became close enough in 2002 to resolve many rings and moons of its destination planet: Saturn. At that time, Cassini snapped several images during an engineering test. Several of those images were combined […]