NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed the existence of a completely new type of planet.
By analyzing the previously identified world GJ 1214b -- an Earth-like superplanet located outside of our solar system -- astronomer Zachory Berta and his team have discovered a strangely unique water-based planet.


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The moon's crust was apparently active far more recently than previously believed, scientists say.
These new findings raise questions about how the moon formed and evolved, researchers said.
Although the Earth's crust is still shifting, driven by the churning semimolten rock underneath it, researchers had thought the moon had cooled off much too long ago to still have any such tectonic activity. For instance, the youngest known tectonic features on the lunar landscape until now — small cliffs in the lunar highlands resulting from wrinkling of the surface as the moon's interior cooled and shrunk — are thought to be less than 1 billion years old, although by how much is uncertain.


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The Corpus Christi Astronomical Society has joined facebook!!!
So, if you are a Facebook aficionado.....check us out!!

Great meeting tonight!
In attendance:
Gene Glass, Dale Smolik, Wilbur Bandemar, Mike Malloy, Galina Reid, Mria Krueger, Karen Martin

The current calendar as posted was approved, so please be sure to check the website calendar for events.
The next scheduled business meeting for the club is set for May 11th.

Primary topics of discussion:
What to do with the club's 12" scope. Wilbur, Dale, and Maria will be looking into options. Some ideas were to sell the 12" and make a new F5 12". Other ideas cleaning up the current lenses, revamping the tube assembly to make it more portable.

Galina will be developing a basic powerpoint presentation on "What to Look for in aTelescope" for our presentation at Janet F. Harte Library.

Mike Malloy will be looking into the idea of raising funds for the club projects and possibly working with the King High Planetarium for events.

Gene will be putting together a list of dark sky locations for the private club nights, so we can start viewing the sky from different locations.

Club dues need to be sent to the Astro League by June, so please get your dues to me as soon as possible!

And , finally, the club is having a private star party Saturday, Feb 25th. We will meet up at the old Post Office on Chapman Ranch Rd. round 7pm. Hope to see you guys there!!!

A tremendous tornado whirling across the surface of the sun was captured by a NASA satellite recently -- an amazing wonder of the solar system that may be as big as the Earth itself.

The video was recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a sun-watching satellite that has transmitted a series of stunning photos of solar flares in recent months. The new video shows darker, cooler plasma shifting back and forth above the sun's surface over the span of nearly 30 hours stretching from Feb. 7 to Feb. 8.



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