Word: solarity
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...search for evidence of life in the solar system has led researchers to a new satellite--Europa, one of Jupiter's largest moons...
...school while continuing full-time work for Texas Instruments. Computer scientist Elaine Lipshutz Best says, "I imagine it seems odd to people who remember me that I am working at Los Alamos National Lab. I haven't always felt comfortable there, but I've always managed to find projects--solar energy, earthquake modeling, biomedical applications--that I was glad to contribute...
...Place it at the center of our solar system, and its girth ? sporting a radius somewhere between 93 and 139.5 million miles ? would engulf not only the Earth's orbit but probably Mars as well. Bye bye Pathfinder...
NASA is not amused. Snaps Wesley Huntress, the agency's chief of space science: "NASA believes this mission is safe, period. Otherwise we would not be doing it." Contrary to what the critics say, the agency did consider solar power, insists Cassini engineer Richard Stoller. Because sunlight at Saturn is only 1% as strong as it is on Earth, solar cells would not have done the trick. Neither would batteries and fuel cells; they would never last through the 11-year mission...
...time being, Surveyor won't do much at Mars but orbit. The ship's path around the planet is elliptical, with a low point of 155 miles and a high point of 35,000. Each time Surveyor barnstorms Mars on its close approach, however, it drags a solar panel through the atmosphere in a process called aerobraking. A few months of this cosmic paddling will refine the orbit so that by early next year, the ship will inscribe a near perfect 235-mile circle. Then it will switch on its instruments...