Was our solar system once home to a fifth gas-giant? An astronomer from the Southwest Research Institute in Texas believes it might have been. First, it isn’t entirely unusual for planets to be ejected from planetary systems. In fact, astronomers think one or more planets may have been kicked from a system when there are [...]
Nasa’s Messenger spacecraft has uncovered evidence that not only does water ice exist on the surface of the planet Mercury, but in many places this ice appears to be covered in a 10cm-thick layer of soot-like organic material.1,2 Although the discovery of water ice on the closest planet to the sun was not entirely unexpected, [...]
by Elizabeth Renter While the FDA claims you can have as much as 12 ounces a week of light tuna and up to 6 ounces of albacore, test results from the Mercury Policy Project (MPP) say these amounts are much too high. Mercury exposure through tuna, the MPP reports, is higher than ever, and kids [...]
A small amount of mercury amalgamates itself into an aluminum I-beam and destroys it from within. Gallium scratched into the surface allows the mercury to penetrate the protective oxide layer that normally surrounds anything made of aluminum. This is a time-lapse video, the action takes about two hours in real time. The powdery oxide is [...]
