DSOM Post Darkest Planet Found

From:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news

Coal-Black, It Reflects Almost No Light

 

Illustration of TrES-2b

About the size of Jupiter.

The newfound gas-giant planet TrES-2b is black with a slight red glow, 
experts estimate.


Orbiting only about three million miles out from its star, the Jupiter-size gas giant planet, dubbed TrES-2b, is heated to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit 
(980 degrees Celsius).
 

Link:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/08/110812-new-planet-darkest-black-coal-kipping-science-space-kepler/

TinyURL:  http://tinyurl.com/4xc3s3r

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DSOM Post Texas and Antarctica Were Attached, Rocks Hint

About 1.1 billion years ago, what are now El Paso, Texas, and Antarctica appear to have existed side by side, scientists say.

The find is part of a decades-long effort to piece together fragments of an ancient supercontinent that existed before Pangaea.

 

 

Link:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/08/110815-texas-antarcica-connected-supercontinent-rodinia-science/

 

 

TinyURL:  http://tinyurl.com/3gql5uo

 

 

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MC2's DSOM Post We Don't Need No Stinkin Soil?

From:  http://news.cnet.com 

Someone Must have read Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Tomatoes, Melons, Cucumbers Grown 

on Thin Films

Who needs soil when you can grow crops on film? Japan's Mebiol is growing a Garden of Eden of sorts on its thin hydro-membranes, which are only microns thick.

As the vid below shows, the firm's Integrated Membrane Culture, or IMEC (PDF), is a technology for farming using a substrate that's made from hydrogels. No soil is needed, as the plants absorb water and nutrients from the film.

Link:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20093749-1/tomatoes-melons-cucumbers-grown-on-thin-films/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

TinyURL:  http://tinyurl.com/3f4hrrw

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