Physical Science

Cosmic rays are extremely high-energy particles, most of which were originally emitted by sources far outside of Earth’s solar system. Like many breakthroughs in science, the existence of cosmic rays was discovered largely by accident in the early 20th century…
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Carl Sagan once famously said that “We are made of star stuff.” The great astronomer was referring to the various elements formed long ago in the hearts of exploding stars, but scientists now think that his statement may prove to…
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During the early 20th Century radium held the promise of being the energy of the future. After almost 70 years of fission reactors and more than four decades chasing the elusive promise of nuclear fusion power, the element thorium has…
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NASA’s Kepler space observatory was launched on March 7, 2009. It cost 550 million dollars and was manufactured by Bell Aerospace And Technologies. It was named after the astronomer Johannes Kepler. Its mission was to find planets that are located in the area where…
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For those who have long believed in or hoped for the possibility of human life out in space, the search just got a lot closer to reality. Only days ago, scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced…
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In 2005 it was reported by a team of astronomers from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona that the three largest stars ever known had been found.  All three are red supergiants and the largest is named KW Sagitarii. It is almost…
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On almost all resistors there are four or five color bands that someone that doesn’t know better might think are merely decoration, however this is not the case. The color bands on the common resistor are a color code. Resistor…
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Astronomy is the study of celestial objects, which are objects in the sky, as opposed to terrestrial objects, which are found on Earth. Modern astronomy begins where Earth’s atmosphere ends. The Earth-Moon system Earth has a single moon, the Moon….
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The term “light pollution” means exactly what it sounds like. It is artificial light that is wasted. It is caused by poorly installed light fixtures, over powered lights such as those typically in a shopping mall parking lot and inefficient…
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The USA’s budget crunch is about to impact another science, this time the venerable study of the cosmos. Professional stargazers across America were abruptly brought down to earth by the not so stellar news that the National Science Foundation’s (NSF)…
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