One of the notable aspects of climate change that has been observed is the further toward the poles one looks, the more pronounced global warming’s impact becomes. While the tropics have warmed somewhat, average temperatures in the Artic have soared: the North Pole was a full degree warmer than Seattle on Dec 30 2015, and while the contiguous U.S. broke a 3.3ºF (1.83ºC) above-average heat record for June of this year, Alaska saw a temperature record of nearly three times that level for the same month, at 9ºF (5.0ºC) above average.
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An exoplanet 320 light-years from Earth has been found in a trinary star system, photographed by the ESO Very Large Telescope in Chile. Aside from having the distinction of being one of mere handful of exoplanets that have been directly imaged, the planet, labeled as HD 131399Ab, has a year that lasts 550 Earth years, as it orbits the large central star.
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An Asian studies expert and amateur satellite tracker have voiced their concerns over the possibility that China’s Tiangong-1 space station may be de-orbiting without control from the ground. The station, launched in 2011, was a temporary testbed for the technologies for Tiangong-2, a permanent station scheduled to be launched in September of this year. Beijing’s original plan was to de-orbit the spacecraft in 2013, but Tiangong-1, Chinese for "Heavenly Palace 1", remained in orbit after that date, conducting long-term endurance tests of the now unmanned station’s components.
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