Word: opening
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Ordinarily, astronomers can take the measure of a star within hours after obtaining its spectrum. But when the Caltech astronomers got their first look at this object's spectrum, displayed in the form of an EKG-like graph on a computer screen, they were shocked. "Our mouths fell open," says Djorgovski. "I suspect that what we said was not printable. But the gist of it was, 'What the heck is this...
...built the place, is a Cuban immigrant. "Where I grew up," he jokes, "the elderly sat on the porch and fought with the neighborhood kids. It gave them incentive to get out of bed in the morning." But in the U.S., he says, "old folks are told, 'Don't open your door and go out at night. You might get mugged.' So, many of them have no one to talk to all day. They can only sit and watch television...
Today the shop is not only open, it is one of more than 200 Kinkade galleries nationwide. Media Arts Group, the artist's publicly traded company, based in San Jose, Calif., recorded $126 million in sales last year. Kinkade, who owns 24% of the shares, is worth $30 million. Canvas lithographs of his paintings routinely sell for as much as $15,000. "It's staggering," he admits. Equally staggering are the profits--$5 million last year--derived from slapping the images from Kinkade's paintings onto everything from calendars to table lamps. The merchandising machine will go into overdrive this...
Then when you finally get a question you do like, it's open season...
Water, water, everywhere ?- it?s not just a theory anymore. Astronomers have cracked open a meteorite that dates back 4.5 billion years ?- to the birth of the solar system ?- and found tiny droplets of seawater, still in liquid form and capable of answering one of astronomy?s big questions: Was Earth born with water, or was water thrust upon it? Some scientists say water was created on Earth by happy circumstance, but others insist that it was delivered on comets and meteorites ?- and therefore might have nurtured life elsewhere. "It?s no real surprise that there would be water left...