|  Alien Planet May Lurk Around Nearby Failed Stars  | If confirmed, the alien world would be one of the closest to our sun ever found. Scientists only discovered the pair of failed stars, known as brown dwarfs, last year. It's actually so close that "television transmissions from 2006 are now arriving there," Kevin Luhman, of Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, noted when their discovery was first announced in June. The brown dwarf system, which has been dubbed Luhman 16AB and is officially classifed as WISE J104915.57-531906, is slightly more distant than Barnard's star, a red dwarf 6 light-years away that was first seen in 1916.
| Read More » China says satellite network to be big asset, others can use it too  | By Adam Rose BEIJING (Reuters) - China's homegrown satellite navigation system will bring untold economic, social and military benefits and other countries in Asia are welcome to use it, the director of China's satellite navigation agency said on Friday. The year-old Beidou satellite navigation system is a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russian GLONASS. Beidou's 16 satellites serve the Asia-Pacific but the number of satellites is expected to grow to 30 by 2020 as coverage expands globally. The system would bring benefits across the board, in both civilian and military applications, said Ran Chengqi, the director of the Satellite Navigation Office.
| Read More » Duh! The 13 Most Obvious Findings of 2013 Nevertheless, some research turns up results that don't exactly shock and awe. Such no-duh research usually has a serious underlying purpose, from the study of why people cheat to the roots of racism. The "Western diet" of processed and fried foods with a side of sweets and red meat increases the likelihood of premature death, researchers reported in April in The American Journal of Medicine, to the surprise of no one. The study was slightly different than other research into how Twinkies can kill, in that it assessed overall health in old age rather that the effect of diet on specific diseases. Read More » 2013's Wild, Unforgettable Weather: A Roundup  | In Colorado and central Europe, tropical moisture fed heavy rains and floods. Australia was ravaged by heat waves and wildfires for much of the year. Warm Pacific Ocean temperatures fueled major tropical storms that devastated the Philippines and Asia. The unusually warm temperatures are on pace to set a heat record, making 2013 one of the warmest years in more than a century, according to a report released in December by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).
| Read More » Snowflake Science: How It Snows for Days in the Arctic  | For snow to form, there has to be stuff in the atmosphere — microbes, specks of dust — for water molecules to freeze on and then form ice crystals. Researchers at Michigan Technological University in Houghton set out to investigate the mystery of where snow in the Arctic comes from, and how it can fall so persistently in the region. "Within a few hours, you basically purge the atmosphere of all those particles," Raymond Shaw, a physicist at Michigan Technological University, said in a statement. It turns out that atmospheric particles that were thought not to play a role in the formation of ice crystals may actually be key drivers of snowfall in the Arctic, a new study by Shaw and his colleagues finds.
| Read More » Space Shuttle Endeavour Recreated in Flowers for Rose Parade Float  | NASA's retired space shuttle Endeavour is again to take to the streets of Los Angeles, this time as the leading feature on a flower-covered float as part of the 125th Tournament of Roses Parade. "[L.A's] most iconic landmarks are set to be re-imagined in a colorful display of flowers and natural materials," the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board stated. "A soaring shuttle Endeavour, which makes its home at the California Science Center, takes flight at the front of the float." The California Science Center in October celebrated the one year anniversary of the real space shuttle Endeavour being delivered to its Samuel Oschin Pavilion for display.
| Read More » Holiday Blizzard Traps Antarctic Research Ship  | A big year for Antarctic sea ice is causing headaches for ship captains. The Australians were only 2 nautical miles (about 4 kilometers) from open water but couldn't push through the ice on Christmas Eve, expedition leader Chris Turney, a professor at the University of New South Wales, wrote in a blog post. A powerful blizzard then trapped their ship, the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, between fast ice, which is "fastened" to the coastline, and wind-driven ice floes. By Friday morning (Dec. 27), a Chinese icebreaker, the Xue Long (Snow Dragon), was in sight of the ship, and two more icebreakers were en route, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
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