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Friday, August 31, 2012

First detailed images of ocean currents


The European satellite GOCE-Explorer Gravity field and Ocean Circulation, for its contraction in English, was able to obtain, for the first time, extremely detailed images of how water currents move around the planet. These images record the effect of gravity on the ocean currents, which allows scientists to determine the direction and speed of the same.

The data obtained by Goce used to improve climate models studying how the oceans move heat around the globe. In the new map you can clearly see the famous Gulf Stream, the most intense of all streams, in which the water passes rapidly, reaching even more than a meter per second, in some places.

An asteroid with us on our trip around the sun


Astronomers detected an asteroid which follows the orbit of the Earth around the sun. The rock-between 200 and 300 meters in diameter and 2010 TK7-christened it the Trojans, which are those that share an orbit with a planet near stable points. Because they remain in front of or behind the planets in the same orbit, never collide with them.

According to the science specialist for the BBC, Jonathan Amos, it is a fascinating finding because the relative stability and proximity of the Trojan asteroids makes them potential targets for future space missions, when they go beyond the International Space Station (EEI).

The telescopes of the world is ready for a giant asteroid


Has a diameter of more than four football fields or, as defined by NASA, is as big an aircraft carrier. This is a big one, in terms of space; pass close to Earth. YU55, as the space rock is called circular, not dangerous in any way, there is no risk of collision with the Earth as it is in the closest point (about 324,600 kilometers), its gravitational effect on the Earth will be so minuscule that can hardly be measured. But his interest in another aspect: its rarity.