Astronomy Picture of the Day

A different astronomy and space sciencerelated image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.

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Analemma over Ukraine

Explanation: If you took a picture of the Sun at the same time each day, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no, and the shape traced out by the Sun over the course of a year is called an analemma.

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Skin Implant Effectively Destroys Cancerous Tumors in Mice

“A cancer vaccine carried into the body on a carefully engineered, fingernail-sized implant is the first to successfully eliminate tumors in mammals, scientists report this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine.”

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Meat grown in laboratory in world first

Scientists have managed to grow a form of meat in a laboratory for the first time, according to reports.

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Ancient layered hills on Mars

What may appear to some as a terrestrial coastline is in fact a formation of ancient layered hills and wind-blown sand on Mars.

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Thermochromic Ink Swine Flu Mask Helps Alert Others

Inspired by the swine flu pandemic, Hoorshnia’s early warning systems—for other people, at least—span the design gamut, from the traditional medical mask to a rather fetching wrap-around scarf. In addition to full-face sinus masks that detect temperature increases around the forehead or mouth.

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Superconductor Magnet Spacecraft Heat Shield Being Developed

European space agencies and an aerospace giant are developing a new re-entry heat shield that will use superconductor magnets to generate a magnetic field strong enough to deflect the superhot plasma formed during re-entry of returning spacecraft. They plan to test the new technology by attaching a test module to a missile and using a Russian sub..

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The High Rise Urban Farms of the Future

Imagine a full-scale farm right in the heart of New York City, in the deserts of Darfur or on the moon. While you might have to wait some time for your lunar lettuce, vertical farming technologies are increasing the possibilities of cultivating crops much more efficiently here on earth.

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Indian nuclear workers ‘deliberately poisoned’

Workers at a nuclear power plant in southern India were treated for poisoning after drinking water was deliberately spiked with radiation, senior government officials said Sunday.

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Early Snowball Earth may have melted to a mudball

THE idea that Earth was entirely frozen over about 700 million years ago – the so-called Snowball Earth hypothesis – poses one small problem: how did our planet thaw out? The conundrum could be explained if the Earth was more mudball than snowball.

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