October 17, 2011

Good Morning,

When people think of solar power sources, they think of hot places like deserts. However, there are some Japanese researchers that have their solar ambitions invested elsewhere. Check out the first article for more details.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Study: Deserts not only solar power spots

WASHINGTON - Hot deserts usually come to mind as prime places for solar power, but some of Earth's coldest places could be good energy sources, Japanese researchers say. Kotaro Kawajiri and his colleagues, in an article in the U.S. journal Environmental Science & Technology, say many cold regions at high elevations -- including the Himalaya Mountains, the Andes and even Antarctica --receive so much sunlight their potential for producing power from the sun is higher than some desert areas. Part of their study took into account the effects of temperature on the output of solar cells, and future work will take into consideration variables such as transmission losses and snowfall, they said. Still, they said, the potential of high, cold locations is attractive. The Himalayas, for example, which include Mount Everest, could be an ideal locale for solar fields providing electricity for the fast-expanding economy of the People's Republic of China, the researchers said.


Scientists take early Mars' temperature

PASADENA, Calif. - U.S. researchers say they've determined the surface temperature of early Mars for the first time, evidence consistent with a warmer and wetter Martian past. Analyzing a 4-billion-year-old meteorite that originated near the surface of Mars then was blasted into space to land on Earth, scientist at the California Institute of Technology determined that the minerals in the meteorite formed at about 64 degrees Fahrenheit, or 18 degrees Celsius. "The thing that's really cool is that 18 degrees is not particularly cold nor particularly hot," Woody Fischer, assistant professor of geobiology, said in a CalTech release Wednesday. Scientists have been debating the planet's past climate and whether it once had liquid water. "There are all these ideas that have been developed about a warmer, wetter early Mars," Fischer said. The Mars rovers and orbiting spacecraft have found ancient deltas, rivers, lakebeds, and mineral deposits, suggesting water in fact once flowed on Mars. The new finding supports that, researchers said. "It's proof that early in the history of Mars, at least one place on the planet was capable of keeping an Earthlike climate for at least a few hours to a few days," CalTech geochemist John Eiler said.


Indian lofts satellite to study monsoons

MADRAS, India - India says it has successfully launched a satellite to study intense weather associated with monsoon patterns. The 1-ton Megha-Tropiques satellite was launched into orbit Wednesday from Sriharikota, about 50 miles from Madras, the BBC reported. In a so-called low-inclination orbit around the equator, the satellite will pass over India almost 12 times a day. Megha-Tropiques is a joint venture with France, which built the instruments while India constructed the satellite platform and provided the launch rocket. The Indian space agency has been actively seeking ties with its international counterparts. Data from the satellite will be shared with meteorological organizations in Europe and the United States, Indian officials said.


Stars cleared 'fog' from early universe

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Space between galaxies in the early universe was filled with an opaque fog that may have been cleared away by radiation from massive stars, U.S. astronomers say. Astronomers generally have believed early star-forming galaxies could have provided enough of the right kind of high-energy radiation to evaporate the dense hydrogen fog in interstellar regions -- but have not been able to discover how that radiation could escape a galaxy. University of Michigan astronomers say they've discovered a dwarf galaxy near our own Milky Way undergoing a burst of intense star formation that's generating massive amounts of ultraviolet radiation. In these so-called starburst galaxies a "super wind" of radiation from massive stars forming within the galaxy can tunnel through the gas contained in the galaxy, escaping to contribute to clearing the interstellar "fog" between galaxies, researchers said. While rare today, scientists believe starburst galaxies were very common in the early universe, and the discovery offers clues to how the earliest galaxies affected the universe around them.

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