News tagged with clouds
New Interstellar Boundary Explorer data show heliosphere's long-theorized bow shock does not exist
For the last few decades, space scientists have generally accepted that the bubble of gas and magnetic fields generated by the sun – known as the heliosphere – moves through space, creating three ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 10, 2012 |
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How black holes grow: New study indicates they eat binary star partners
A study led by a University of Utah astrophysicist found a new explanation for the growth of supermassive black holes in the center of most galaxies: they repeatedly capture and swallow single stars from pairs ...
Apr 02, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (7) |
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Organic compounds found in proto-planetary disks
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study from scientists in the US has reported that organic compounds could be formed in proto-planetary disks, and could have seeded the development of life in our own and other planetary ...
Mar 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (7) |
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Spitzer finds solid buckyballs in space
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space. Prior to this discovery, the microscopic carbon spheres ...
Feb 22, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (15) |
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Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon
(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...
Feb 12, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (8) |
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Quantum mechanics enables perfectly secure cloud computing
Researchers have succeeded in combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography and have shown that perfectly secure cloud computing can be achieved using the principles of ...
Jan 19, 2012 |
4.2 / 5 (15) |
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Disaster looms for gas cloud falling into Milky Way's central black hole
The normally quiet neighborhood around the massive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is being invaded by a gas cloud that is destined in just a few years to be ripped, shredded and largely eaten.
Dec 14, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (11) |
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In the heart of Cygnus, NASA's Fermi reveals a cosmic-ray cocoon
(PhysOrg.com) -- The constellation Cygnus, now visible in the western sky as twilight deepens after sunset, hosts one of our galaxy's richest-known stellar construction zones. Astronomers viewing the region ...
Nov 28, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (12) |
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Rising air pollution worsens drought, flooding, study shows
Increases in air pollution and other particulate matter in the atmosphere can strongly affect cloud development in ways that reduce precipitation in dry regions or seasons, while increasing rain, snowfall ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 13, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (9) |
3
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Astronomers find pristine clouds of primordial gas from the early Universe
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, astronomers have found pristine clouds of the primordial gas that formed in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. The composition of the gas matches theoretical predictions, ...
Nov 10, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (15) |
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Insoluble dust particles can form cloud droplets affecting global and regional climates
New information on the role of insoluble dust particles in forming cloud droplets could improve the accuracy of regional climate models, especially in areas of the world that have significant amounts of mineral ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 13, 2011 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Small distant galaxies host supermassive black holes
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using the Hubble Space Telescope to probe the distant universe, astronomers have found supermassive black holes growing in surprisingly small galaxies. The findings suggest that central black ...
Sep 15, 2011 |
4.2 / 5 (10) |
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What caused a giant arrow-shaped cloud on Saturn's moon Titan?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Why does Titan, Saturn's largest moon, have what looks like an enormous white arrow about the size of Texas on its surface?
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 16, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (20) |
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Alien world is blacker than coal
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet - a distant, Jupiter-sized gas giant known as TrES-2b. Their measurements show that TrES-2b reflects less than one percent of the sunlight ...
Aug 11, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
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Herschel Space Observatory discovers source of cosmic dust in a stellar explosion
(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's Herschel Space Observatory is helping unravel the mystery of where cosmic dust comes from. Thanks to the resolution and sensitivity of Herschel, astronomers have been able to detect ...
Jul 07, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
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Cloud
A cloud is a visible mass of droplets or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body. A cloud is also a visible mass attracted by gravity, such as masses of material in space called interstellar clouds and nebulae. Clouds are studied in the nephology or cloud physics branch of meteorology.
On Earth the condensing substance is typically water vapor, which forms small droplets or ice crystals, typically 0.01 mm in diameter. When surrounded by billions of other droplets or crystals they become visible as clouds. Dense deep clouds exhibit a high reflectance (70% to 95%) throughout the visible range of wavelengths. They thus appear white, at least from the top. Cloud droplets tend to scatter light efficiently, so that the intensity of the solar radiation decreases with depth into the gases, hence the gray or even sometimes dark appearance at the base. Thin clouds may appear to have acquired the color of their environment or background and clouds illuminated by non-white light, such as during sunrise or sunset, may appear colored accordingly. In the near-infrared range, clouds look darker because the water that constitutes the cloud droplets strongly absorbs solar radiation at those wavelengths.
For more information about Cloud, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
