NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has constructed the first portrait of our solar system by combining 34 images taken by the spacecraft’s Wide Angle Camera on Nov. 3 and 16, 2010.
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The mosaic, pieced together over a period of a few weeks, comprises all of the planets except for Uranus and Neptune, which were too faint to detect. On March 17, 2011, MESSENGER may become the first probe ever to orbit Mercury. Scientists hope orbital observations will provide new answers to how Earth-like planets, like Mercury, are assembled and evolve.
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
At least 24 people have been killed in anti-government protests in Libya in recent days, rights activists say.
Many others were wounded in the clashes between security forces and protesters, the US-based Human Rights Watch said.
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Protests continued overnight with thousands on the streets of the eastern city of Benghazi, while activists set up camps in al-Bayda, after Thursday's "Day of Rage", witnesses said.
Large protests are uncommon in Libya, where dissent is rarely allowed.
Pro-democracy protests have recently swept through several Arab nations, with the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt forced from power amid growing unrest.
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Funerals
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says violent confrontations are reported to have spread to five Libyan cities in demonstrations so far, but not yet to Tripoli, the capital, in any large numbers.
Protests have also taken place in the UK
Our correspondent says the reports reflect an extremely tough government response, including the use of gunfire and even denying supplies to hospitals.
Funerals of some of those killed are expected to be held on Friday in Benghazi and al-Bayda, which correspondents say could spur more protests.
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Eyewitnesses believe the death toll could be even higher, our correspondent says.
In Benghazi, an eyewitness said that most protesters went home by 0500 local time (0700 GMT) after running battles with police in several districts overnight.
A source in the city told the BBC that "several" peaceful protesters who had stayed put overnight in front of the courthouse were forcibly removed in the very early hours on Friday by a large number of police.
BENGHAZI
Libya's second-largest city with some 670,000 residents
Has history of antagonism with Col Gaddafi since 1969 coup
Many relatives of inmates allegedly killed at Abu Salim prison in 1996 live in city
Hit world headlines with HIV infection trial involving Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor in 1998
They have now reportedly been taken to a detainment facility in Gwarsha, about 10km (6 miles) outside the city.
Correspondents say the city was calm on Friday morning, but there are an enormous number of security personnel on the streets.
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It seems to be in preparation for what they fear will be an even bigger demonstration today after Friday prayers, correspondents say.
A resident who lives on Benghazi's main thoroughfare, Nasser Street, told Reuters on Friday morning the city was much quieter than the night before.
"Last night was very hard, there were a lot of people in the street, thousands of people. I saw soldiers in the street," he said.
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"I heard shooting. I saw one person fall down (from a gunshot wound)."
Activists supporting Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, have also been out on the streets in Tripoli, chanting pro-government slogans in Green Square.
Col Gaddafi briefly visited the square in the early hours of Friday, according to images aired by state TV, AFP news agency reports.
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'Internet blocked'
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Activists had used social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter to call for Thursday's "Day of Rage". Human Rights Watch says hundreds of peaceful demonstrators had taken to the streets in al-Bayda, Benghazi, Zintan, Darna, and Ajdabiya.
It quotes witnesses as saying the Libyan security forces shot and killed demonstrators in efforts to disperse the crowds.
Col Gaddafi has ruled Libya since 1969 -
A doctor from Jalla hospital in Benghazi told the BBC that by 0300 on Friday, 15 dead bodies had arrived, including a 13-year-old boy.
All had been killed by gunshot wounds, the doctor said.
Six police cars in front of Jalla hospital were set alight by angry parents and relatives of victims and the injured, according to an eyewitness on Friday.
One protester, speaking to the BBC late on Thursday, said he had seen three demonstrators killed in al-Bayda.
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"The police are using their guns... I have a video which shows the police shooting people but the government has blocked the internet in al-Bayda. We are asking the authorities to unblock the internet service.
"The biggest problem now is that doctors are not treating the injured and so they die. It's a crime," he said.
Col Gaddafi is the Arab world's longest-serving leader, having ruled oil-rich Libya since a coup in 1969.
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The Middle East has recently seen a wave of protests fuelled by discontent over unemployment, rising living costs, corruption and autocratic leaderships.
This began with the overthrow of Tunisia's leader, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, in January. Protests in Egypt then lead to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.
In recent days there have also been anti-government demonstrations in Yemen, Bahrain, and Iran.
The Hubble Space Telescope revealed this majestic disk of stars and dust lanes in this view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2841.
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A bright cusp of starlight marks the galaxy's center.
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Spiraling outward are dust lanes that are silhouetted against the population of whitish middle-aged stars. Much younger blue stars trace the spiral arms.
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Notably missing are pinkish emission nebulae indicative of new star birth. It is likely that the radiation and supersonic winds from fiery, super-hot, young blue stars cleared out the remaining gas (which glows pink), and hence shut down further star formation in the regions in which they were born. NGC 2841 currently has a relatively low star formation rate compared to other spirals that are ablaze with emission nebulae. NGC 2841 lies 46 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear).
This image was taken in 2010 through four different filters on Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Wavelengths range from ultraviolet light through visible light to near-infrared light. NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: M. Crockett and S. Kaviraj (Oxford University, UK), R. O’Connell (University of Virginia), B. Whitmore (STScI), and the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee
(CNN) -- Boarding teams from the British Navy frigate HMS Cornwall rescued five Yemeni fishermen and captured 17 Somali pirates last week during a rescue operation the Gulf of Aden, the Royal Navy confirmed Tuesday.
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The hostages were the original crew of a fishing dhow who had been held hostage aboard their Yemeni-flagged vessel for 92 days, the Royal Navy said in a statement.
Since taking the dhow on November 11, 2010, the pirates used it as a "mother ship" for raiding operations, equipping three skiffs with powerful outboard motors, ladders and other paraphernalia, according to the statement.
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The rescue operation was carried out Thursday by boarding teams from the Cornwall, supported by Lynx helicopters, according to the statement. The frigate had received a distress call from a South Korean merchant vessel in the area, whose crew had become suspicious of the dhow's actions.
After rescuing the fishing crew and apprehending their captors, the Cornwall restored the vessel to its rightful Yemeni owners, the Royal Navy said.
Cmdr. David Wilkinson of the Cornwall described the action as a "very slick boarding operation which has ensured that this pirate vessel is no longer able to operate" and restored the crew to their families.
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The Cornwall is part of the Combined Maritime Forces, a multinational naval partnership operating in the Gulf of Aden under U.N. Security Council resolutions "to disrupt piracy and armed robbery at sea," and to assist regional partners in developing the capabilities to protect shipping in waters beset by pirates in recent years, the Royal Navy said.
The monster flare was recorded at 0156 GMT on 15 February and directed at the Earth. According to the US space agency, the source of this activity - sunspot 1158 - is growing rapidly.
Preliminary data from the Stereo-B and Soho spacecraft suggest that the explosion produced a fast but not particularly bright coronal mass ejection (CME) - a burst of charged particles released into space.
The unpredictable eruptions on the Sun can interfere with modern technology on Earth, such as electrical power grids, communications systems and satellites - including the satellite navigation network (or sat-nav) signals used on Earth.
The New Solar Telescope captured this image of a sunspot - probably the most detailed picture of a sunspot taken in visible light
On Wednesday, the BGS released a rarely seen archive of geomagnetic records that provide an insight into "space weather" stretching back to the Victorian era.
BGS scientists say that studies of solar storms in the past could inform the prediction of future space weather and help mitigate threats to national infrastructure.
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Displays of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) have already been seen further south than usual in Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the UK. And further solar activity is expected over the next few days.
Researchers say the Sun has been awakening after a period of several years of low activity.
