Blue Alien Network | The Hive

Jasmin Malik Chua

Ah, the pitter patter of four-legged feet as they whip through your living room at overclocked speeds or uproot your prize gladiolas with manic fervor. But Snookiepuss and Mrs. Fluffypants are practically family, right? So why should they settle for anything less than top drawer when their health and wellbeing are at stake? Throw the planet a bone while you’re at it; we’ve got the goods on how to reduce your pets’ carbon paw prints—without making your wallet roll over and play dead.

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Will space solar power ever be practical?

Linda Shiner

We want to believe. The latest report on a 40-year-old concept—satellites that could gather energy from the sun and supply it to the world as electricity—makes the technology seem reachable and even, eventually, affordable.

Here’s the plan: Construct in Earth orbit, where the sun never sets, gigantic collectors (a 1979 proposal envisioned arrays six miles by three miles) that would beam solar energy to similarly huge receivers on Earth, which would convert it to electricity. In other words, hook the sun up to the grid.

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SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for “life in the universe”

The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a “red dwarf” is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.

There’s still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is known about it. And it’s worth noting that scientists’ requirements for habitability count Mars in that category: a size relatively similar to Earth’s with temperatures that would permit liquid water. However, this is the first outside our solar system that meets those standards.

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Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Evidence of water has been detected for the first time in a planet outside our solar system, an astronomer said on Tuesday, a tantalizing find for scientists eager to know whether life exists beyond Earth.

Travis Barman, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, said water vapor has been found in the atmosphere of a large, Jupiter-like gaseous planet located 150 light years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. The planet is known as HD 209458b.

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PARIS (AFP)

Astronomers on Wednesday announced they had spotted the first planet beyond the Solar System that has water, the precious ingredient for life.

The watery world, though, is far beyond the reach of our puny chemically-powered rockets — and in any case is quite uninhabitable.

It is made of gas rather than rock and its atmosphere reaches temperatures hot enough to melt steel, which means the water exists only as superheated steam.

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A Distant Solar System Has Five Planets
Find Means ‘Now We Know Our Sun and Its Family Is Not Unusual’

Marc Kaufman

Astronomers have discovered a fifth planet orbiting a distant sun, marking the first time that another solar system with that many circling bodies has been found.

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How can we live lightly on the Earth and save money at the same time? Staff members at the Worldwatch Institute, a global environmental organization, share ideas on how to
GO GREEN and SAVE GREEN at home and at work.

Climate change is in the news. It seems like everyone’s “going green.” We’re glad you want to take action, too. Luckily, many of the steps we can take to stop climate change can make our lives better. Our grandchildren-and their children-will thank us for living more sustainably. Let’s start now.

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“A grain of salt flares - dream a while. Into time - eat away. Cup of Java, a smoke to clear our thoughts - a little sip and count the stars. You and me among dreams of the few - in fields of time that extends. You and me, we count the months - on the lights that blind our eyes. We’ll open the doors to the cosmos - and we will find all that we need. You and me must image the dreams above - in the fields of green and blue”. ~ rawHYPE

Fields, Black Bone, Only Human

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