From DiscoverMagazine.com

A supernova — an exploding star — is among the brightest single objects in the known Universe. A supernova can release as much energy in a single second as the Sun will in a thousand years.
Most people think of supernovae as massive stars exploding at the end of their lives, but there is another kind. When the Sun finally dies in a few billion more years, it will shed most of the material making up its outer layers, revealing the white-hot, dense core. This superhot ball will have half the mass of the Sun in it, but only be the size of the Earth. We call such a thing a white dwarf.
If a white dwarf orbits a normal star like the Sun, it can draw material off. This matter piles up on the surface and can eventually detonate like a stellar thermonuclear bomb. We call these Type Ia supernovae.

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Every bullet when fired is stamped with markings unique to the gun from which it was shot. As seen on TV and in real-life police investigations, the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS) is a computer-based program that allows police to distinguish and match bullets used in crimes. The system was pioneered by Forensic Technology in an effort to get criminals off the streets, and their technology is now used all over the world. In this video, WatchMojo.com speaks with a firearm expert to learn more about the IBIS system, and to get a look at how it works. For more information, click Here

According to the Discovery Channel:

Until this week, many veterinarians asserted that it was a myth that house cats could catch the deadly H1N1 flu from their owners.
Those veterinarians, along with other health experts, are revising their views after an Iowa Department of Public Health announcement Wednesday that the virus has been confirmed in an indoor 13-year-old cat, which likely contracted the illness from two flu-sick humans in its home.
Although all of the victims have since recovered, this latest H1N1 animal case puts the focus on humans as the primary carriers of the illness, which experts don’t even want to call “swine” flu anymore.

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SciFi films can be pretty scary, but it always helps to know that you’re watching fiction. Here are frightening facts from space that are anything but fictional.

Space Corpses in the Sky: Space exploration research has claimed a number of animal lives, and while the idea of sacrificing monkeys and dogs on the altar of science is rather disheartening, the notion that there are dead simian and canine space explorers in orbit RIGHT NOW just adds to the creepiness.

Several early space missions involved re-entry procedures, but not every spacecraft was recovered. This leads many to theorize that perhaps dozens of mummified animals are still making the orbital rounds up there. Think about that the next time you wish upon a star.

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According to science men should marry younger, smarter women for a lasting relationship.

Scientists analyzed couples who are in a successful relationships to look for patterns on why they worked.

They found that neither should have been divorced in the past, the man should be five or more years older and the woman should have received more education than the man.

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According to Discovery News:

broken bone one day, a particular infection a few months later and depression the following year may appear to be separate, medical issues.
However, to a new artificial intelligence program developed by Boston doctors, these are all symptoms of domestic abuse.
The new software can identify abuse victims up to six years before these cases would otherwise be found and could eventually be used to diagnose just about any disease or injury.
“It’s very difficult to detect domestic abuse because it often happens in the privacy of the home,” said Ben Reis, a doctor at Children’s Hospital Boston (CHB) who helped develop the program.
Doctors are often on the front lines of detecting abuse, but so often the doctor is focused on treating the injury, they don’t see the context behind it.”

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The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on 24 April, 1990. This tool, built as a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, is one of humanity’s most important tools in discovering the Universe. Since its start, it has shown us distant galaxies, nebulae, and has even given us a clear idea of the Earth’s age. It has answered some of the most lingering questions in astronomy, and is helping us discover whether life exists outside our planet. In this video, WatchMojo.com takes a look at some of the Hubble’s most notable and extraordinary discoveries.

NASA smacked two spacecraft into the lunar south pole Friday morning in a search for hidden ice. Instruments confirm that a large empty rocket hull barreled into the moon at 7:31 a.m., followed four minutes later by a probe with cameras taking pictures of the first crash.

But initial photos show that the moon didn’t give the reaction to the double jabs that NASA expected.

And the public definitely didn’t get the live explosive views they may have anticipated from the mission called LCROSS, short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.

Screens got fuzz and no immediate pictures of the crash or the six-mile plume of lunar dust that the mission was supposed to kick up for scientists to study. The public, which followed the crashes on the Internet and at observatories, seemed puzzled.

NASA officials touted loads of data from the probe and telescopes around the world and in orbit. But the crash photos and videos they offered at a morning news conference were few and showed little more than a fuzzy white flash.

Still, NASA scientists were happy.

“This is so cool,” said Jennifer Heldmann, coordinator for NASA’s observation campaign. “We’re thrilled.”

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