The exciting thing about this is that the infrared detectors these beetles use are different from the ones of their Northern Hemisphere cousins.

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Current solar power largely ignores near-infrared light and wastes about 40 percent of the potential energy it could harness.

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The image was discovered by the Wide-Field Infared Survey Explorer (WISE), which scans the night sky for lights in the infrared range to discover more about different aspects of astronomical objects.

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At the head of the device is an infrared sensor, but forget about using it as an IR-blaster like the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, it's only designed to work with 6100-series handsets and compatible printers.

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Using NASA's WISE infrared satellite, astronomers estimate there are about 5, 000 known meteors that can impact the Earth with sizes of about 100 feet or larger -- that is, larger than the Chelyabinsk meteor.

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The US space agency observatory is well suited to picking up the infrared signal expected from cold grains of dust about 10 microns (millionths of a metre) in size.

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Equipped with high-definition infrared cameras and ranging (LiDAR) sensors, Ti feeds information to the utility about specific conditions of specific assets at specific places on a transmission line.

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