Word: welled
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...orbit its star in the so-called habitable zone, a "Goldilocks" location that allows a planet to be neither too hot nor too cold. In that respect, GJ 1214b is again a near miss. Its surface temperature hovers at a sweltering 190°C (374°F), which is well above the boiling point of water, at least in Earth's atmospheric pressure. Fortunately, GJ 1214b's atmosphere makes the pressure a lot higher than on Earth - "crushing," as Charbonneau describes it - and increases the odds of liquid water. (Under pressure, water can remain liquid above...
Astronomers were further able to estimate the planet's makeup by calculating its size, based on the amount of light that GJ 1214b blocked when it passed in front of its star, as well as its mass (6.6 times Earth's mass), based on the wobble in the wavelength of starlight caused by GJ 1214b's gravitational pull on its star. That analysis revealed the new planet's density: about one-third of Earth's. Because water has a much lower density than rock, astronomers figured that the "most plausible scenario is a planet made mostly of water, with...
...find something like GJ 1214b," says Charbonneau. "It took just six months. Either we got really lucky, or these planets are common." If they are, then it wouldn't be surprising for astronomers to find planets that are slightly smaller and slightly cooler - in short, more Earth-like - as well...
Correa, a Chávez ally, set up the commission review last spring to independently investigate a controversial raid by Colombian commandos on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) camp in Angostura, just inside Ecuador, as well as allegations that Ecuador was supporting the rebels. Colombia assaulted the camp on March 1, 2008, killing nearly two dozen people, including one of the guerrillas' top commanders, who is known as Raul Reyes. The attack was criticized throughout Latin America for violating Ecuadorian territory. But the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe argued that laptops found by Colombian troops during...
Drug seizures inside Ecuador provide evidence that the FARC, having been seriously weakened by Uribe's military drive against them, have increasingly begun to refine cocaine in Ecuador rather than just smuggling it. Ecuadorian police have discovered numerous drug labs near the borders with Colombia and Peru as well as on farms deep inside the South American country, including one just west of the capital, Quito. René Vargas Pazzos, a retired general and former ambassador to Venezuela, rented a farm to a FARC commander, the report says. As a result, Huerta warned that Ecuador faces the same corrosive influence...