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Jumat, 11 Juni 2010

Pteropus speciosus (Kalong laut, Philippine Gray Flying Fox)

Jumat, 11 Juni 2010
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Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, Class: Mammalia, Order: Chiroptera, Family: Pteropodidae, Genus: Pteropus, Species: P. speciosus
Binomial name
Pteropus speciosus,K. Andersen, 1908
The Philippine Gray Flying Fox (Pteropus speciosus) is a species of bat in the Pteropodidae family. It is found in Indonesia and the Philippines. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
DISTRIBUTION—Two islands in the Java Sea, Indonesia, and the Mindanao and Sulu faunal region. Reported from Basilan (USNM), Malanipa (USNM), Mindanao (Zamboanga del Sur Province [FMNH]), Sanga-sanga (DMNH), Sibutu (DMNH), and Tawi-tawi (AMNH).

HABITAT—Virtually unknown. Recent reports from Tawi-tawi indicate that they are represented by at least several large colonies.

STATUS—Unknown; geographically restricted. IUCN: Vulnerable. CITES: Appendix II.

COMMENT—Includes P. mearnsi (Heaney et al., 1987); may be conspecific with P. griseus (Mickleburgh et al., 1992). Some previous reports from Cebu, Mactan, and Negros were based on subadult P. hypomelanus.

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Jumat, 04 Juni 2010

Golden age of Astronomy

Jumat, 04 Juni 2010
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The second half of the 20th century was truly a golden age for astronomy. Rapid advances in technology made it possible to build very large optical telescopes on the ground. By the early 21st century astronomers were using about a dozen telescopes with mirrors larger than 8 m (300 in) in diameter. Because it is much cheaper to build telescopes on the ground than in space, large ground-based telescopes with their ability to gather large amounts of light (think of a telescope as a bucket for collecting light; the bigger the bucket, the more light collected) are particularly valuable for studying the faintest objects. The most distant objects tend to be very faint, but they are very important for understanding the evolution of the universe. Since light takes a long time to reach us, the universe gives us a kind of time machine so that we can see what it was like when it was much younger than it is now. For the most distant objects observed so far, it took nearly 13 billion years for their light to reach Earth, so we are seeing them as they existed 13 billion years ago.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


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History of astronomy

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History of Astronomy, history of the science that studies all the celestial bodies in the universe. Astronomy includes the study of planets and their satellites, comets and meteors, stars and interstellar matter, star systems known as galaxies, and clusters of galaxies. The field of astronomy has developed from simple observations about the movement of the Sun and Moon into sophisticated theories about the nature of the universe.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


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