Tuesday, June 21, 2011

New Types of Supernovae

Supernovae - stars that explode completely? - come in an ever more bewildering variety. They were originally classified by their spectra rather by any understanding of what was actually happening, but we now know that they come in two basic varieties. Spectral Type Ia explosions are the complete thermonuclear detonation of a carbon-rich white-dwarf star that becomes overloaded with more than 1.4 solar masses of material.

The Ogopogo

Hidden treasures and lost cities are often a sparkling targets to bounty hunters. Now it seems mythical beasts are also the object of bounty hunters' affections. Between August 2000 and September 2001three companies from around Lake Okanegan promised $2 million to anyone who could find definitive, living proof that the fabled Ogopogo monster did exist.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Beast of Bodmin Mystery

The Beast of Bodmin, also known as "the Beast of Bodmin Moor" like "the Beast of Exmoor", is a phantom wild cat which is claimed to range in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Bodmin Moor became a centre of these sightings with frequent reports of crippled slain livestock: the alleged panther-like cats of the same region came to be popularly known as the Beast of Bodmin Moor.