Comet Snowball near Mars



Comet Snowball near Mars

 

 

A comet the size of a small mountain is about  to skim past Mars, and NASA hopes its spacecraft will be able to photograph the once-in-a-million-years encounter. The comet, known as Siding Spring (C/2013 A1), is set to hurtle past Mars at a close distance of about 141,600 kilometeres. The closest pass is expected to happen on Monday at 4.27 am AEDT. Astronomers do not expect it will come any where near colliding with Mars, but they do hope it will be close enough to reveal clues about the origins of the solar system. That is because the comet is believed to have originated billions of years ago in the Oort Cloud, a distant region of space at the outskirts of the solar system. The comet is flying through space at a breakneck speed of 200,000 kilometres per hour. Another interesting thing about the comet, about a mile wide in diameter, is that it is only about as solid as a pile of talcum powder.

Mars Orbiter Mission

Mars Orbiter Mission

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan "Mars-craft" (Sanskrit मंगल maṅgala "Mars" + यान yāna "craft) is a Mars orbiter launched into Earth orbit on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was successfully inserted into orbit of Mars on 24 September 2014, making India the first country in the world to successfully send a spacecraft to Mars on its very first attempt.

 

 

The success of the Mars Orbiter Mission, lauded for its low price tag of Rs 450 crore, will boost India's five-decade-old space programme.

With a spacecraft around Mars, India joins a small group of nations that have successfully sent probes to orbit or land on Mars. Others, however, failed several times initially.

Chef killed by severed snake head

Chef killed by severed snake head

A snake came back from the dead to deliver a deadly bite to a chef, 20 minutes after he had chopped its head off.  The chef was preparing a dish from cobra flesh when the snake’s head bit him.

Victim Peng Fan had chopped off the head of the Indochinese spitting cobra, a rare delicacy in Asia, to prepare for making the special dish. But when he went to throw the severed snake head into the bin it bit him on the hand, injecting him with fast-acting, deadly venom.

Police say Mr Peng died before he could be given lifesaving anti-venom in hospital.

44-Year-Old Fetus in 84 –Year-Old Woman

44-Year-Old Fetus in 84 –Year-Old Woman



44-Year-Old Fetus in 84 –Year-Old Woman

A 44-year-old fetus has been found in an 84-year-old Brazilian woman. The discovery came last Friday, when the woman's intense stomach pains landed her in a hospital in Tocantins state in central Brazil.

X-rays revealed the unthinkable: a "stone baby." This is a rare phenomenon known as lithopedion, in which the fetus grows and then dies outside of the uterus. With the body unable to rid itself of it, the dead fetus is instead covered in calcium as a means of protection, resulting in the "stone baby."

The X-rays discovered the face, the bones of the arms, of the legs, the ribs, and the spine of the fetus, which is believed to have died at between 20 and 28 weeks. That woman says she does not want the fetus removed.