500 injured by blasts as meteor falls in Russia

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:34:00 +0000

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian Academy of Sciences is estimating the meteor that streaked into the skies over the Ural Mountains and caused shock waves that injured more than 400 people weighed about 10 tons (11 tons avoirdupois).

The academy said in a statement hours after the Friday morning fall that the meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of at least 54,000 kph (33,000 mph) and shattered about 30-50 kilometers (18-32 miles) above ground.

The fall caused explosions that broke glass over a wide area. The Emergency Ministry says more than 500 people sought treatment after the blasts and that 34 of them were hospitalized.

Astronomers may have found the oldest star in the universe

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Astronomers have discovered the Methuselah of stars — a denizen of our Solar System's neighborhood that is at least 13.2 billion years old and formed shortly after the Big Bang.

“We believe this star is the oldest known in the universe with a well determined age,” says Howard Bond of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, who announced the finding 10 January at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, California.

The venerable star, dubbed HD 140283, lies at a comparatively short distance of 186 light years from our Solar System and has been studied by astronomers for more than a century. Researchers have long known that the object consists almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, a hallmark of having formed early in the history of the universe, before successive generations of stars had a chance to forge heavier elements. But no one knew exactly how old it was.

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500 injured by blasts as meteor falls in Russia

Astronomers may have found the oldest star in the universe