A Hole in Mars

What created this unusual hole in Mars? The hole was discovered by chance in 2011 on images of the dusty slopes of Mars’ Pavonis Mons volcano taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The hole, shown in representative color, appears to be an opening to an underground cavern, partly illuminated on the image right. Analysis of this and follow-up images revealed the opening to be about 35 meters across, while the interior shadow angle indicates that the underlying cavern is roughly 20 meters deep. Why there is a circular crater surrounding this hole remains a topic of speculation, as is the full extent of the underlying cavern. Holes such as this are of particular interest because their interior caves are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life. These pits are therefore prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers. via NASA https://ift.tt/2T8SqWB

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Montana Open Government Champion John Kuglin Dies at 78 by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

John Kuglin, a former Associated Press bureau chief for Montana and Wyoming who was a champion for open government and the public’s right to know, has died, his son said Saturday. He was 78.

Published: February 29, 2020 at 09:26PM

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North Korean Leader Calls for Stronger Anti-Virus Efforts by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for stronger anti-virus efforts to guard against COVID-19, saying there will be “serious consequences” if the illness spreads to the country.

Published: February 28, 2020 at 08:17PM

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Julius Caesar and Leap Days

In 46 BC Julius Caesar reformed the calendar system. Based on advice by astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, the Julian calendar included one leap day every four years to account for the fact that an Earth year is slightly more than 365 days long. In modern terms, the time it takes for the planet to orbit the Sun once is 365.24219 mean solar days. So if calendar years contained exactly 365 days they would drift from the Earth’s year by about 1 day every 4 years and eventually July (named for Julius Caesar himself) would occur during the northern hemisphere winter. By adopting a leap year with an extra day every four years, the Julian calendar year would drift much less. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII provided the further fine-tuning that leap days should not occur in years ending in 00, unless divisible by 400. This Gregorian Calendar system is the one in wide use today. Of course, tidal friction in the Earth-Moon system slows Earth’s rotation and gradually lengthens the day by about 14 milliseconds per century. That means that leap days like today will not be necessary … about 4 million years from now. via NASA https://ift.tt/39cQ9zs

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Two Days With the Designer Behind Kenzo’s New Era by Alice Cavanagh

By Alice Cavanagh

Ahead of his debut show as the brand’s creative director, Felipe Oliveira Baptista looked to the house’s past to inspire its next chapter.

Published: February 28, 2020 at 05:21PM

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Wall Street Losses Broaden With No Clarity on Coronavirus Impact by Reuters

By Reuters

Wall Street’s main indexes tumbled for the seventh straight day and were on track for their biggest weekly dip since the 2008 global financial crisis on worries the fast-spreading coronavirus could lead to a recession.

Published: February 28, 2020 at 08:17AM

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Friends, Family Remember Victims of Brewery Shooting by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

A Packers fan and avid fisherman. A Navy veteran who worked on submarines. A grandpa of two who always waved to his neighbors. A father of two small kids. An electrician who played in the golf league at a local bar.

Published: February 28, 2020 at 03:05PM

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Take Five: The Virus Data Fog by Reuters

By Reuters

1/DATA DIAGNOSIS

Published: February 28, 2020 at 12:17PM

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Lisel Mueller, Pulitzer-Winning Poet, Is Dead at 96 by Neil Genzlinger

By Neil Genzlinger

Her themes included language, nature and history, including her own flight from Nazi Germany.

Published: February 28, 2020 at 11:50AM

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Census Hiccups in Alaska May Offer Preview for Rest of US by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

More than a month into the start of the 2020 census in rural Alaska, some workers going door to door have grown frustrated by not knowing when they will get their next assignments. Others have bought gear to protect against the brutal cold only to…

Published: February 28, 2020 at 10:26AM

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‘We Do Not Accept Time Pressure’ in UK Talks, Says French Europe Minister by Reuters

By Reuters

French European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin said on Friday the European Union would not accept “artificial deadlines” in talks on a future relationship with Britain, urging London to be led by reason in the negotiations.

Published: February 28, 2020 at 07:20AM

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Ex-Philippine Official Warns of ‘Tragedy’ if US Pact Ends by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

A former Philippine foreign secretary warned Friday that the president’s decision to end a key U.S. security pact will undermine the ability of American forces to help the country deal with major disasters and deter aggression in the disputed Sout…

Published: February 28, 2020 at 06:38AM

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A Slice of the Fulton Fish Market Gets A New Life by John Freeman Gill

By John Freeman Gill

The 1907 Tin Building is disassembled and recreated nearby on the Manhattan waterfront.

Published: February 28, 2020 at 05:00AM

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‘It’s Scary’: Residents Near Mystery Coronavirus Case Worry and Wonder by Unknown Author

By Unknown Author

Solano County, Calif., is where a woman tested positive for the coronavirus without a known explanation. Officials are tracking her contacts, and residents have questions.

Published: February 28, 2020 at 05:00AM

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South Celestial Rocket Launch

At sunset on December 6 a Rocket Lab Electron rocket was launched from a rotating planet. With multiple small satellites on board it departed on a mission to low Earth orbit dubbed Running Out of Fingers from Mahia Peninsula on New Zealand’s north island. The firey trace of the Electron’s graceful launch arc is toward the south in this southern sea and skyscape. Drifting vapor trails and rocket exhaust plumes catch the sunlight even as the sky grows dark though, the setting Sun still shinning at altitude along the rocket’s trajectory. Fixed to a tripod, the camera’s perspective nearly aligns the peak of the rocket arc with the South Celestial Pole, but no bright star marks that location in the southern hemisphere’s evening sky. Still, it’s easy to find at the center of the star trail arcs in the timelapse composite. via NASA https://ift.tt/2VtfLUw

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Report to Assess Removal of 4 Snake River Dams for Salmon by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

A long-awaited federal report due Friday is expected to address the feasibility of removing four hydroelectric dams on a major Pacific Northwest river in a last-ditch effort to save more than a dozen species of threatened or endangered salmon.

Published: February 27, 2020 at 11:14PM

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Grandfather, Navy Vet Among 5 Victims of Wisconsin Shooting by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

The five men who were killed by a co-worker at a Milwaukee brewery include an electrician, a Navy veteran, a father of two small children, a fisherman and a grandfather who is being remembered as someone who “always put his family’s needs before h…

Published: February 27, 2020 at 07:38PM

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Neighbors: Brewery Shooter Built Guns From Mail-Order Parts by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

A Milwaukee electrician who police identified Thursday as the man who fatally shot five co-workers at one of the nation’s largest breweries enjoyed building guns, according to neighbors.

Published: February 27, 2020 at 03:32PM

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On the Trail: Biden, Sanders Clash Over Healthcare as Biden Consolidates Black Voter Support by Reuters

By Reuters

Democratic presidential hopefuls spread out across South Carolina on Thursday as the clock ticked down to the state’s Saturday primary, the first big test of their appeal with African-American voters.

Published: February 27, 2020 at 06:20AM

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Britain and the E.U. Enter Trade Talks, Acrimoniously by Mark Landler

By Mark Landler

Each side is accusing the other of bad faith, and London is once again talking about a no-deal exit. But these are still early days.

Published: February 27, 2020 at 02:49PM

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Athletics: Hammer Thrower Dry Gets Four-Year Ban for Anti-Doping Violation by Reuters

By Reuters

British hammer thrower Mark Dry has been banned from all sport for four years for lying about his whereabouts to anti-doping officials, UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) said in a statement on Thursday.

Published: February 27, 2020 at 10:11AM

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Factbox: What Britain Wants From the EU on Trade by Reuters

By Reuters

Britain has unveiled a tough negotiating mandate for talks with the European Union, underlining its desire for future economic and political independence that pits London on a collision course with Brussels.

Published: February 27, 2020 at 08:29AM

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UK Opens EU Trade Talks With Threat to Walk Away by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

Britain published its opening demands for trade talks with the European Union on Thursday, delivering a blunt threat to walk away from the table if there is no progress within four months.

Published: February 27, 2020 at 05:50AM

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Britain on Collision Course With EU With Trade Talks Mandate by Reuters

By Reuters

Britain unveiled a negotiating mandate on Thursday for talks with the European Union that puts it on a collision course with Brussels, underlining its desire for future economic and political independence.

Published: February 27, 2020 at 05:38AM

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Two Hemisphere Night Sky

The Sun is hidden by a horizon that runs across the middle in this two hemisphere view of Earth’s night sky. The digitally stitched mosaics were recorded from corresponding latitudes, one 29 degrees north and one 29 degrees south of the planet’s equator. On top is the northern view from the IAC observatory at La Palma taken in February 2020. Below is a well-matched southern scene from the ESO La Silla Observatory recorded in April 2016. In this projection, the Milky Way runs almost vertically above and below the horizon. Its dark clouds and and bright nebulae are prominent near the galactic center in the lower half of the frame. In the upper half, brilliant Venus is immersed in zodiacal light. Sunlight faintly scattered by interplanetary dust, the zodiacal light traces the Solar System’s ecliptic plane in a complete circle through the starry sky. Large telescope domes bulge along the inverted horizon from La Silla while at La Palma, multi-mirror Magic telescopes stand above center. Explore this two hemisphere night sky and you can also find the Andromeda Galaxy and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. via NASA https://ift.tt/3cf8OMC

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Britain Wants Control Over State Aid, Labor and Environment Laws in EU Trade Talks: FT by Reuters

By Reuters

Britain will insist on control over rules on state aid, labor laws and environment when it publishes negotiating mandate trade talks with the European Union on Thursday, the Financial Times reported.

Published: February 26, 2020 at 02:53PM

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Tourism in Antarctica: Edging Toward the (Risky) Mainstream by Paige McClanahan

By Paige McClanahan

Travel to one of the most remote parts of the planet is booming. What does that mean for the environment and visitor safety?

Published: February 26, 2020 at 05:00AM

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The Truth About Alligators in the Sewers of New York by Corey Kilgannon

By Corey Kilgannon

Sightings over the decades have lent an air of legitimacy to the century-old urban myth. Here’s how it all started.

Published: February 26, 2020 at 03:00AM

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NGST 10b: Discovery of a Doomed Planet

This hot jupiter is doomed. Hot jupiters are giant planets like Jupiter that orbit much closer to their parent stars than Mercury does to our Sun. But some hot jupiters are more extreme than others. NGTS-10b, illustrated generically, is the closest and fastest-orbiting giant planet yet discovered, circling its home star in only 18 hours. NGTS-10b is a little larger than Jupiter, but it orbits less than two times the diameter of its parent star away from the starâ€s surface. When a planet orbits this close, it is expected to spiral inward, pulled down by tidal forces to be eventually ripped apart by the starâ€s gravity. NGTS-10b, discovered by researchers at the University of Warwick, is named after the ESOâ€s Next Generation Transit Survey, which detected the imperiled planet when it passed in front of its star, blocking some of the light. Although the violent demise of NGTS-10b will happen eventually, we don’t yet know when. via NASA https://ift.tt/2SYL5J0

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‘Disappearance at Clifton Hill’ Review: A Childhood Trauma Resurfaces by Glenn Kenny

By Glenn Kenny

David Cronenberg resurfaces, too, where you least expect him, in this dread-dredged thriller.

Published: February 25, 2020 at 08:30PM

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South Africa’s Lobster Catchers Suffer in Coronavirus Fallout by Reuters

By Reuters

The lobster catchers of South Africa’s Western Cape have become an unexpected casualty of the coronavirus after China halted imports of the West Coast rock lobster last month as part of measures to contain the outbreak.

Published: February 25, 2020 at 01:53PM

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To Save Louisiana’s Vanishing Coast, Build a Mini Mississippi Near Boston by John Schwartz and Tony Luong

By John Schwartz and Tony Luong

A $1.4 billion project to protect the Louisiana coast from subsidence and climate change is being tested in a warehouse-size lab in Massachusetts.

Published: February 25, 2020 at 12:41PM

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EU Approves Tough Negotiating Mandate for UK Trade Talks by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

The European Union on Tuesday gave its chief negotiator Michel Barnier a robust negotiating mandate to get a free trade deal with Britain, which counters several of the red lines that London has set.

Published: February 25, 2020 at 03:59AM

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Spring Break: Where to Get the Biggest Bang for Your Buck by Amy Tara Koch

By Amy Tara Koch

Uruguay instead of Miami, spring skiing and more money-saving tips.

Published: February 25, 2020 at 05:00AM

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Your Tuesday Briefing by Penn Bullock

By Penn Bullock

Coronavirus, Harvey Weinstein, Brexit: Here’s what you need to know.

Published: February 25, 2020 at 01:29AM

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Moon Corona, Halo, and Arcs over Manitoba

Yes, but could you get to work on time if the Moon looked like this? As the photographer was preparing to drive to work, refraction, reflection, and even diffraction of moonlight from millions of falling ice crystals turned the familiar icon of our Moon into a menagerie of other-worldly halos and arcs. The featured scene was captured with three combined exposures two weeks ago on a cold winter morning in Manitoba, Canada. The colorful rings are a corona caused by quantum diffraction by small drops of water or ice near the direction of the Moon. Outside of that, a 22-degree halo was created by moonlight refracting through six-sided cylindrical ice crystals. To the sides are moon dogs, caused by light refracting through thin, flat, six-sided ice platelets as they flittered toward the ground. Visible at the top and bottom of the 22-degree halo are upper and lower tangent arcs, created by moonlight refracting through nearly horizontal hexagonal ice cylinders. A few minutes later, from a field just off the road to work, the halo and arcs had disappeared, the sky had returned to normal — with the exception of a single faint moon dog. via NASA https://ift.tt/2SWMxvJ

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Post-Brexit, Britain Is Going Its Own Way. That Way Looks Expensive. by Peter S. Goodman

By Peter S. Goodman

The country, preparing for trade talks with Brussels, is vowing to break with European Union rules. But that could wall off a vast market for its exports.

Published: February 25, 2020 at 12:00AM

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Shaky Truce Appears to Take Hold in Israel-Gaza Fighting by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

A shaky cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad appeared to be taking hold early Tuesday, ending a two-day round of violence that had threatened to disrupt next week’s Israeli national elections.

Published: February 24, 2020 at 06:41AM

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Gaza-Israel Hostilities Flare Through Second Day With Rocket Attacks, Air Strikes by Reuters

By Reuters

Gaza militants on Monday fired rockets toward Israel, which responded with air strikes, in the second day of an escalation that began to ebb after the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad announced a halt to its attacks.

Published: February 24, 2020 at 12:08AM

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Central Park Races to Save a Rare Duck Gagging on a Piece of Plastic by Corey Kilgannon

By Corey Kilgannon

City officials are trying to rescue a rarely seen duck with a discarded plastic ring in its beak.

Published: February 24, 2020 at 03:55PM

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Grand Teton Goat Shoot Suspended After Stern Governor Letter by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

Grand Teton National Park officials have suspended efforts to shoot mountain goats from a helicopter in the wake of criticism from Wyoming’s governor in the hours after the program began.

Published: February 24, 2020 at 03:50PM

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Illegal Net Snares Humpback in Endangered Porpoise Refuge by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

Rescuers in Mexico were partially able to free a humpback whale that became entangled in a fishing net illegally set inside a refuge for the critically endangered vaquita marina porpoise in the upper Gulf of California, a conservationist group sai…

Published: February 24, 2020 at 11:56AM

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Scientists Gather to Study Risk From Microplastic Pollution by The Associated Press

By The Associated Press

Tiny bits of broken-down plastic smaller than a fraction of a grain of riceare turning up everywhere in oceans, from the water tothe guts of fish and the poop of sea otters and giant killer whales.

Published: February 24, 2020 at 12:23AM

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Kanye, Out West by Jonah Engel Bromwich

By Jonah Engel Bromwich

What is the superstar doing in Wyoming?

Published: February 23, 2020 at 05:00AM

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Illustris Simulation of the Universe

How did we get here? Click play, sit back, and watch. A computer simulation of the evolution of the universe provides insight into how galaxies formed and perspectives into humanity’s place in the universe. The Illustris project exhausted 20 million CPU hours in 2014 following 12 billion resolution elements spanning a cube 35 million light years on a side as it evolved over 13 billion years. The simulation tracks matter into the formation of a wide variety of galaxy types. As the virtual universe evolves, some of the matter expanding with the universe soon gravitationally condenses to form filaments, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. The featured video takes the perspective of a virtual camera circling part of this changing universe, first showing the evolution of dark matter, then hydrogen gas coded by temperature (0:45), then heavy elements such as helium and carbon (1:30), and then back to dark matter (2:07). On the lower left the time since the Big Bang is listed, while on the lower right the type of matter being shown is listed. Explosions (0:50) depict galaxy-center supermassive black holes expelling bubbles of hot gas. Interesting discrepancies between Illustris and the real universe have been studied, including why the simulation produced an overabundance of old stars. via NASA https://ift.tt/2SRATCa

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Macron Vows to Defend French Farmers, Fishermen in Uncertain Year by Reuters

By Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday promised to safeguard European farm subsidies, secure compensation for wine producers hit by U.S. tariffs and defend fishermen in talks with Britain, as France’s farming world faces an uncertain year.

Published: February 22, 2020 at 05:38AM

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France’s Macron: Unclear if EU-Britain to Have Trade Deal by Year-End by Reuters

By Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday cast doubt over the likelihood of the European Union and Britain reaching a post-Brexit trade deal by the end of the year, saying he expected fishing talks to be very tough.

Published: February 22, 2020 at 03:38PM

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