Reflections of the earth seen on the moon could help identify surface features on planets orbiting nearby stars, an Australian researcher says. picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago

The smallest planet yet detected outside our Solar System appears to have a solid surface, European astronomers say. The European team describe the exoplanet CoRoT-7b, a so-called Super-Earth, which has a diameter approximately twice that of Earth. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

An astonishing new map has revealed the elevation of nearly every place on Earth.

The Global Digital Elevation Model was created using nearly 1.3million images collected by a Japanese camera on board NASA's Terra spacecraft. It is made up of a giant grid of 23,000 tiles, with each height point spaced 98ft apart. picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago

MESSENGER's two flybys of Mercury in 2008 have greatly increased the portion of the planet's surface that has been imaged by spacecraft, from approximately 45% coverage obtained by Mariner 10 to about 90% coverage following the second flyby.

This significant increase in imaging coverage is enabling global studies of Mercury's surface for the first time. picked by AutumnLotus 7 months ago

In response to INY's post. This was my first ever post on Plime, but I think it was ignored because I was new and looked at as a potential spammer. It really is worth a watch though. Anyway, this is the real surface computing demo.
Crap. Video doesn't embed. Click it below:
picked by sykeo56 2 years ago

Microsoft Surface is a crazy futuristic way to interact with your computer. Microsoft has never done anything quite like this before. picked by orfnerwerdna 2 years ago

By using a specialized microscope that illuminates only a cell’s surface, scientists have become the first to see, in real time and in plain view, hundreds of thousands of molecules coming together in a living cell to form a single particle of the virus that has, in less than 25 years, claimed more than 25 million lives: HIV. Video on homepage. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

Microsoft's Surface computing device costs an estimated $12,000, and is only being initially sold to retailers and restaurant/casinos. Maximum PC didn't want to pay that price nor wait for touchscreen awesomeness and decided to build their own Surface-style computer using open-source software. The result: a fully-functional multitouch device that lets you play games, manipulate documents, and use ... read full post picked by bingo 8 months ago

Cool NASA map. picked by misswinkle 2 years ago

Human activity has had some profound impacts on the surface of the planet; impacts observable from space. Condensed into a few seconds, some of these represent years of change. picked by pocksucket 6 months ago

You know Earth's schematic: core, mantle, crust, right? Sorry, not so simple. picked by Bornbad 2 years ago

The core of the Sun holds secrets into how it and the planets formed billions of years ago, but the bright solar surface obscures the view of its heart. picked by AutumnLotus 3 years ago

Watch this extremely detailed time-lapse movie of the sun's surface. picked by AutumnLotus 3 years ago

Previous research has considered the possibility of micro organisms existing in Venus's atmosphere despite extreme temperatures on its surface. But two scientists at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology say microbes from Venus could actually be blown into the Earth's atmosphere by solar winds. picked by deEPCHIll 1 year ago

It's a classic image from every youngster's science textbook: a cutaway image of Earth's interior. The brown crust is paper-thin; the warm mantle orange, the seething liquid of the outer core yellow, and at the center the core, a ball of solid, red-hot iron. Now a new theory aims to rewrite it all by proposing the seemingly impossible: Earth has not one but two inner cores. picked by AutumnLotus 11 months ago

The groundbreaking discovery was made after analysis of instruments on the US-European Cassini probe, the spacecraft that has been orbiting Saturn since 2004 following a 3.5 billion-kilometer (2.2 billion miles) voyage. picked by AfroMosHi 1 year ago

They show in astonishing detail a network of giant valleys, vast plains and towering waterfalls carved into the surface of our neighbouring planet, millions of miles away. picked by deEPCHIll 1 year ago

A mineral that acts like a sponge beneath Earth's surface stores more oxygen than expected, keeping our planet from becoming dry and inhospitable like Mars. The key to the abundant oxygen storage is the mineral majorite, which exists deep below Earth's surface in the mantle. Without the oxygen stockpile, Earth would probably be a barren planet hostile to life. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

Geologists estimate that plate tectonics began during the Archean period, between 2.5 and 3.8 billion years ago - but they don't know what triggered it. Ancient Earth was too hot for the crust to solidify completely, and the lightest minerals would have floated to the surface over the entire planet, making the subduction of denser plate material unlikely. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

This strange almost perfect 'ice circle' has appeared on a frozen lake in Siberia.

While scientists have ruled out UFO involvement, they are puzzled as to how the mysterious, 2.5mile-wide geological phenomenon has formed in Lake Baikal. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago