For some of us, the shock has still never quite settled in. That distant ball of ice Pluto is still tightly woven in our minds as a true planet and even has its very own place within our planetary moniker: “My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas”. But back in 2006, the international Astronomical Union (IAU) stripped Pluto of its planetary status declaring the relatively small compact of ice much closer to a satellite in its new second-tier title as “dwarf planet”.
Increasingly the Ebola epidemic that began last march in West Africa has reached a global level of concern, even more so as the lethal virus has spread to the west. But as health organizations and governments throughout all of Africa divert resources to contain and treat the hemorrhagic fever that has claimed thousands already, they’re ignoring an even deadlier pathogen sitting on the sidelines: Malaria.
Two years ago, a viscous cloud was seen over Titan’s south pole, and planetary scientists mistakenly made the assumption that the anomaly was ordinary gases floating 300 km above Titan’s surface. However, a new study reveals that the cloud is actually composed of hydrogen cyanide ice, and it’s leading researchers to think that the pole is much colder than they once thought.
Now that primary analyses are completed, and the landscape of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is well mapped out, the European Space Agency has planned its next move for the Rosetta mission and set a date.
In shocking news earlier this week, the Ebola epidemic hit the United States, as the CDC announced that a former chauffeur from Liberia was being quarantined in an isolation unit at the Texas Health Presbyterian hospital Dallas. Thomas Eric Duncan, mid-30’s, was diagnosed with Ebola over the weekend after coming down with flu-like symptoms when he fled from his home country of Liberia.
With the arrival of the Harvest Moon last month, the Pacific coast has found itself a desolate attraction of California, as the summer hoards of people basking in the sun have dwindled with the coming of Autumn. But in other regions of the Pacific coastline, where things are traditionally a bit cooler than the So-Cal sun, another species is finding that the beach will have to serve as their home away from home, as temperatures are melting their polar habitat.
With the most decorated Olympic career in the sport of swimming, earning 18 Olympic gold medals while only in his 20’s, Michael Phelps was once America’s golden boy. But, with a known knack for lapses in judgment, he may soon find his legacy sinking in the pool under the weight of yet another DUI.
It’s been less than a week since the controversial headlines of Australia’s lackluster impression on the United Nations’ Climate Change Summit held in New York City, and already research is pouring in with evidence that is leaving many Australians stunned. Most of all, shock besets the Australian government, whose Prime Minister Tony Abbott decided to forego the formal UN proceedings of last week sending Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop in his stead, causing quite an uproar about the island nation’s stances on the issues.
