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POPSQuiet Explosion: Object Intermediate Between Normal Supernovae And Gamma-ray Bursts Found Stars that were at birth more massive than about 8 times the mass of our Sun end their relatively short life in a cosmic, cataclysmic firework lighting up the Universe. The outcome is the formation of the densest objects that exist, neutron stars and black holes. When exploding, some of the most massive stars emit a short cry of agony, in the form of a burst of very energetic light, X- or gamma-rays.
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POPSA Test of the Copernican Principle Disproving the Copernican Principle would amount to a a Copernican revolution on its own account :-) Also, certain aspects of general relativity would need a profound review. Fortunately it seems Copernicus was right after all. Or was he?
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POPSCould Jupiter wreck the solar system?
"So what's the likelihood Mercury could crash into the Earth? If it did, the asteroid that most likely wiped out the dinosaurs will seem like a drop in the ocean compared with a planet 4880 km in diameter slamming into us. There will be very little left after this wrecking ball impact. But here's the kicker: There is only a 1% chance that these gravitational instabilities of the inner Solar System are likely to cause any kind of chaos before the Sun turns into a Red Giant and swallows Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars in 7 billion years time. So, no need to look out for death-wish Mercury quite yet… there's a very low chance that any of this will happen. But some good news for Mars; the researchers have also found that if the chaos does ensue, the Red Planet may be flung out of the Solar System, possibly escaping our expanding Sun. So, let's get those Mars colonies started! Well, within the next few billions of years anyhow…" Good stuff for the next science-fiction movie :-)
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POPSPlot of the Innermost Solar System, March 29, 2008 The plot below shows the current location of the major planets (Mercury through Mars) and the minor planets that are in the innermost region of the solar system. Just in case you thought it's lonely out there in the space ;-)
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