Study designate that "megavolcanes" swab out half the world's species Agencies

New techniques for dating rocks confirmed that a chain of giant volcanic eruptions 200 million years ago caused the sudden extinction of half the species now inhabiting the Earth.

The result of the research provides far more precise date of when this occurred, for 564 000 201 000 000 000 years ago, in the Triassic extinction event known as Final, or fourth mass extinction, when the eruption of a volcano chain revolutionized the climate by emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to the report in the journal Science.

Scientists capture the image of a extraordinary object orbiting two stars giant

Two years ago, gave scientists reported in the journal Science the existence, 200 light years away from Earth, a planet with two suns, like the fictional world Tatooine , home of the young Skywalker of Star Wars. Later, astronomers found new examples of similar worlds and suggested that there may be millions of them. Now, an international team of scientists led by Philippe Delorme space, Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, has taken what may be the first photograph of a planet orbiting two suns.

Young, hot and blue

The universe is very old - well 13.8 billion years. Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is also very old - some of their stars bring it to more than 13 billion years (eso0425).

Nevertheless, there is much going on: New objects are created, others are destroyed. In this picture you can see some of the newcomers: young stars that make up the star cluster NGC 2547.

But how young these cosmic youngsters really are? Although her exact age remains uncertain,

Russian super-heavy carrier rocket will save the Earth from the lethal asteroid

President of RSC Energies of Vitaly Lopota said that through the threat of asteroids and comets can handle only super-heavy carrier rocket. It can be created based on existing missile components from the program "LV Energy." "This launch vehicle able to deliver and deploy components of the system to detect and track (if necessary - and thermonuclear charge) to a dangerous space objects," - said the president of the corporation.

A new theory on how to grow giant stars

Scientists have put forward a new theory of how can grow giant stars.

According to scientists, the young stars can grow to unusually large sizes, exceeding the size and mass of our sun 10 times. Such a huge and massive size of these stars can afford in the event that they are surrounded by a cocoon of old stars. These old stars and continually nurture its gas, like a powerful fuel, the young star that is in the process of its formation.

Selected new names for craters of Mercury

International Astronomical Union (International Astronomical Union, IAU) approved the names of the nine craters Mercury.

The choice of names was associated with the names of famous artists, writers, musicians, which is in accordance with the rules established for the geological structures IAU planet.

LRO observes mercury and hydrogen explosion in the spectrum probes GRAIL

When NASA's twin probes GRAIL mission scientists were deliberately destroyed, sent spacecraft into collision with the lunar surface in December, complex scientific instruments Orbiter Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) were in a good position to monitor the effects of this collision. In escaped after the explosion of a gas jet tool Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP),