A tiny world of molten rock, orbiting scorchingly close to its host star, is the smallest planet ever discovered outside our solar system, NASA announced today. And it’s likely only the first in a parade of planet discoveries to be announced this spring by the Kepler Space Telescope team. Kepler-10b, as the new world is […]
In the past 10 days, Christian churches have been attacked in Egypt and Nigeria and improvised explosive devices have been placed on the doorsteps of Christian families in Iraq – which events, taken together, could mean a co-ordinated assault on Christians by Muslim holy warriors. …. [However] As U.S. political scientist Walter Russell Mead observed in […]
By Huma Imtiaz, Jinnah Institute Aasia Bibi, a mother of five, has been sentenced to death under the Blasphemy Law by a court in the Nankana Sahib district of Punjab. She has been languishing in jail for one year. Aasia, a labourer and a resident of the Ittanwalai village, is reportedly the first woman to […]
Pakistanis hold candles in commemoration of slain governor of Punjab Salman Taseer in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Jan. 7. / AP /Mohammad Sajjad LAHORE: When Punjab Governor Salman Taseer stepped out of the Table Talk restaurant in Islamabad, after having lunch with his hotelier friend Sheikh Waqas on January 4, he was most likely aware of […]
Rings produced by a computer model of a stellar merger (left) mimic those of supernova 1987A (right) / Illustration: T Morris/P Podsiadlowski; Image: C Burrows/ESA/STScI/NASA A merger of two stars and the deadly dance that preceded it produced the distinctive triple ring system of supernova 1987A, a new study says. SN 1987A exploded in the […]
The imaging system on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently had its first of many opportunities to photograph the Apollo landing sites. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) imaged five of the six Apollo sites with the narrow angle cameras (NACs) between July 11 and 15, within days of the 40th anniversary of the […]
Anyone with a cool $4 million and change might consider doing what 43 other people have done, and sign up for an orbital space vacation in 2012 with Galactic Suite Space Resort. The Barcelona-based company plans to open the first space hotel if all goes according to plan. Space customers would spend three nights in […]
Scary beauty surrounds Cameron Barrows. He works in lush groves of fan palms that erupt like mirages from moonscape terrain. Hot springs bubble beneath them. Sand dunes drift nearby. “It’s an amazing place,” said Barrows, director of the Coachella Valley Preserve east of Palm Springs. The 20,000-acre sanctuary owes its splendors to the San Andreas […]
Getting troops to the fight can be as difficult as winning it. And for modern-day soldiers, the sites of conflict are so far-flung, and the political considerations of even flying over another country so complicated, that rapid entry has become nearly impossible. If a group of Marine Corps visionaries have their way, however, 30 years […]