Month: January 2014

Scientists have revealed that the reason behind dark mornings in January can be explained with a formula called the ‘Equation of Time’.

Scientist have explained that if Earth’s axis were perpendicular to its orbit instead of tilted, and if its orbit were a circle instead of an ellipse, then the Sun would appear in the same spot in the sky each day and clocks and sundials would always match, the Daily Express reported.

Spanish scientists have discovered what may be the first binary system ever known to consist of a black hole and a “spinning” star, which is more accurately known as a Be-type star.

Although predicted by theory, none had previously been found.

The observations that led to the discovery were performed with the Liverpool and Mercator telescopes at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (Canary Islands, Spain).

Be-type stars are quite common across the universe. In our galaxy alone more than 80 of them are known in binary systems together with neutron stars.

Researchers are puzzled over their new discovery of Himiko, which is an enormous galaxy, with a hot glowing gaseous halo extending over 55,000 light-years.

Himiko is extraordinarily distant, seen at a time approximately 800 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 6 percent of its present size and stars and galaxies were just beginning to form.

Despite their greater age, big, old trees do more than small, young ones to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, said a study that explores how well forests slow global warming.

The findings overturn the conventional view that old, large trees are relatively unproductive in absorbing heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

In more than 400 tree species studied, it was the bigger and older specimens that grew fastest and trapped most carbon, the scientists found.