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The Astronomical Journal – Early astronomers reported seeing canals on Mars and now a modern group has found a mysterious dark streak on Pluto, the most distant planet in the Solar System.

Pluto is covered with nitrogen frost, containing traces of carbon dioxide ice. The dark, reddish streak just south of its equator may indicate a region where more complex molecules exist.

Pluto is so far out that some astronomers no longer think it’s a planet. Images from Pluto are small and blurred and it’s hard to see details clearly, even using the Hubble Space Telescope.

Scientists will be able to find out more when we send a space probe past Pluto, but that won’t happen until 2015 at the earliest.
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Ariel Sharon has become the new Prime Minister of Israel after a landslide win in the election today. Palestinian leaders have pledged to work with him toward peace, but there is pessimism that the peace process will continue in any meaningful way.

Palestinians said that Tuesday would be a “day of rage.” There were clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers at Ramallah. The Israel Defense Force sealed off the Palestinian territories and deployed 15,000 troops.

A U.S. Army brigade equipped with Patriot anti-aircraft missiles has arrived in Israel and is preparing for what officials claim is a military exercise that will last 14 days.
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Brian Barrett, a victim of terminal brain cancer, believes his tumor was caused by his cell phone and says that the CAT scan of his brain shows that his tumor exactly matches the area of the radiation penetration from a cell phone antenna. He is bringing a lawsuit against the cell phone industry.

“I was an active cell phone user for many years, since the ’90s, mid-1994, and still use it but in an entirely different way because of what happened,” he says. “My billing would be a thousand, over 2,000 minutes per month.” He now uses a model with a separate ear piece.

“Brian’s case is very similar to over 100 potential plaintiffs we’ve spoken to around the country and in Europe,” says his lawyer, Joanne Suder. “We see a pattern here.”
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When we think about traveling to Mars, we forget about one of the biggestproblems we’ll have: how to take along enough food.

Food is heavy and carrying all that weight so far costs money. It could costas much as $53,000 to launch a pound of food into deep space. Eating anapple in space could cost $22,000. Astronauts on the International SpaceStation eat a diet of mostly freeze-dried foods, to which they add water.

A freeze-dried diet would be hard to stomach over the many years it wouldtake to make a round trip to Mars, so scientists are trying to figure outhow to make some favorite foods space-worthy.
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