ScienceDaily: Space & Time News

Researchers assessed the potential impact of a rocket launch on atmospheric pollution by investigating the heat and mass transfer and rapid mixing of the combustion byproducts. The team modeled the exhaust gases and developing plume at several altitudes along a typical trajectory of a standard present-day rocket. They did this as a prototypical example of a two-stage rocket to transport people and payloads into Earth's orbit and beyond and found the impact on the atmosphere locally and momentarily in the mesosphere can be significant.

Seasonal imbalance between the solar energy absorbed and released by the planet Mars could be a cause of the Red Planet's dust storms, according to new research. Understanding how the system works on Mars could help scientists predict how climate change could affect Earth.

The extraterrestrial Hypatia stone found in Egypt could be the first tangible evidence on Earth of a supernova type Ia explosion. These rare supernovas are some of the most energetic events in the universe. If the hypothesis is correct, Hypatia would be a 'forensic' clue of an epic cosmic story started sometime in the early formation of our solar system.

Scientists have used computer modeling to show how a hypothesized type of supernova would evolve on the scale of thousands of years, giving researchers a way to look for examples of supernovae of this model, known as 'D6.'