? For over 100 years, the Seismo Lab has pioneered geology and geophysics research, and provided information on earthquakes to the general public—where they occur, how strong they are, and what the likelihood is for aftershocks, for example. Indeed, local news trucks are often seen parked outside of the lab, which is located in the South Mudd building, mere minutes after an earthquake in the South... More »
Kepler’s follow-up team includes astronomers who work with the Keck Telescopes in Hawaii (top), the Spitzer Space Telescope (middle), and other instruments using the doppler method of finding exoplanets (bottom). Kepler’s follow-up observers confirm new discoveries More than 2,300 exoplanet candidate discoveries have made it the most prolific planet hunter in history. But even NASA’s Kepler miss... More »
A Four-Star Planet: An artist’s illustration of PH1, a planet discovered by volunteers from the Planet Hunters citizen science project. PH1, shown in the foreground, is the first reported case of a planet orbiting a double-star that, in turn, is orbited by a second distant pair of stars. The phenomenon is called a circumbinary planet in a four-star system. Image credit: Haven Giguere/Yale The disc... More »
pictures courtesy of When Sammy Skinner was hired to replace longtime Maranatha athletic director Brian DeHaan, he didn’t really have thoughts of leading the MHS softball program. As the season kept creeping closer and closer and there wasn’t any suitable candidates that matched the high standards that Maranatha looks for in their coaches and leaders, a decision still needed to be made and soon. E... More »
This artist’s concept shows a Super Venus planet on the left, and a Super Earth on the right. Researchers use a concept known as the habitable zone to distinguish between these two types of planets, which exist beyond our solar system. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ames There is only one planet we know of, so far, that is drenched with life. That planet is Earth, as you may have guessed, and it h... More »
Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corporation, today reported its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2014. The Company, which previously declared a $0.67 per share dividend for the quarter, recorded GAAP net income of $67.6 million, or $1.68 per basic and diluted share for the second quarter ended June 30, 2014. Core earnings for the period were $30.0 million, or $0.75 per basic and dilute... More »
NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star like our sun, approximately 210 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun. The planets are loca... More »
Pasadena Unified’s Octavia E. Butler (OEB) Magnet, a Dual Language STEAM Middle School in Pasadena, California, has achieved national recognition as a Nationally Certified-Demonstration Magnet School, demonstrating its commitment to providing high-quality, innovative educational options to families and students. The August 31 recognition is awarded to magnet schools that provide high-quality, inno... More »
Sue Smrekar really wants to go back to Venus. In her office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, the planetary scientist displays a 30-year-old image of Venus’ surface taken by the Magellan spacecraft, a reminder of how much time has passed since an American mission orbited the planet. The image reveals a hellish landscape: a young surface with more volcanoes than any other body in the... More »
Scientists have discovered a new planet with the mass of Earth, orbiting its star at the same distance that we orbit our sun. The planet is likely far too cold to be habitable for life as we know it, however, because its star is so faint. But the discovery adds to scientists’ understanding of the types of planetary systems that exist beyond our own. “This ‘iceball’ planet is the lowest-mass planet... More »
