Haipai's Blog

Did creation need a creator?

British physicist and mathematician Stephen Hawking, shown in this file photo, argues in his new book that there need not be a God behind the creation of the universe. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

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Staff attempt to load the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) detector into a U.S. Air Force Galaxy aircraft during last preparations at Cointrin Airport in Geneva August 25, 2010. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

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Two giant Saturn-sized planets have been spotted passing in front of the same star, Nasa scientists announced today.
It is the first time more than one planet has ever been discovered ‘transiting’ a single star.
The two planets were discovered by the space telescope Kepler and will give scientists vital information about how planets were formed and how they interact with each other.
Kepler scientists have also identified what appears to be a third, much smaller possible planet which is around 1.5 times the size of Earth but which is orbiting in a scorching 1.6 day-orbit very close to the sun.

An artist's impression of the two Saturn-sized planets as they orbit the same star

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Nanotechnology used in autonomous robots that could work in swarms to clean up oil spills

MIT researchers have used nanotechnology to develop a robot that can autonomously navigate across the surface of the ocean to clean up an oil spill.

Scientists envision using a fleet of the devices, dubbed a Seaswarm, to clean up oil spills more efficiently and at less cost than current methods, according to the university. Researchers report that a fleet of 5,000 Seaswarm robots would be able to clean a spill the size of the recent one in the Gulf of Mexico in a single month.

MIT's Seaswarm robot for cleaning oil spills. (Photo courtesy of MIT.)

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The claim is that Mars will appear so large in the sky on Friday that it will look as if Earth has two moons. But the planet will appear as a mere pinprick of light, not a moonlike orb.

It is claimed that Mars (pictured) will appear so large in the sky on Aug. 27 that it will look as if Earth has two moons.

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Scientists have catalogued 450 exoplanets in the past 15 years, but most finds include up to three planets per star, usually gargantuan balls of gas similar to Jupiter or Saturn. (Illustration by France's space agency, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales)

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