SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS: December 2004
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New galaxies teem with baby stars
(Dec 22, 2004)
The Universe still produces massive newborn galaxies full of baby stars, despite being billions of years old. The findings are a surprise - many astronomers thought the Universe had gone through a "cosmic menopause" and was now incapable of such formations. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) telescope detected 36 bright, compact galaxies resembling the youthful ones that existed billions years ago. These "new" galaxies, though, may be as young as 100 million years old, as viewed from Earth.
Read more. Source: BBC |
Monkey vocal ability investigated
(Dec 21, 2004)
Diana monkeys possess a complex vocal tract whose shape can be adjusted to articulate sophisticated sounds – just as humans do, scientists report. Non-human primates were thought to have vocal tracts resembling simple tubes incapable of sophisticated articulation. But a British-US-German team reports in the Journal of Human Evolution that the alarm calls of Diana monkeys would be impossible without a complex tract. It says the finding may shed light on how and when human speech evolved.
Read more. Source: BBC |
New clouds add to Titan's mystery
(Dec 19, 2004)
Using adaptive optics on the Gemini North and Keck II telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i, a US team has discovered a new phenomenon in the atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon Titan. Unlike previous observations showing storms at the south pole, these new images reveal atmospheric disturbances at Titan’s temperate mid latitudes – about halfway between the equator and the poles. Explaining the unexpected activity has proven difficult, and the team speculates that the storms could be driven by anything from short-term surface events to shifts in global wind patterns.
Read more. Source: Gemini Observatory |
Saturn's outer rings may be eroding
(Dec 19, 2004)
A massive eruption of atomic oxygen from Saturn’s outer rings, seen by Cassini's ultraviolet camera as the spacecraft neared its destination, may be an indication that the planet's wispy E ring is eroding so fast that it could disappear within 100 million years if not replenished. Cassini’s Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) detected the oxygen atoms spewing into a huge cloud on the dark side of Saturn’s rings as Cassini prepared to enter orbit around Saturn in January 2004, said Donald Shemansky, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Data indicated that about 275 million pounds (125 million kilograms) of oxygen was abruptly released in a short period of time.
Read more. Source: University of Southern California |
Mystery of 'chirping' pyramid decoded
(Dec 18, 2004)
A theory that the ancient Mayans built their pyramids to act as giant resonators to produce strange and evocative echoes has been supported by a team of Belgian scientists. Nico Declercq of Ghent University and his colleagues have shown how sound waves ricocheting around the tiered steps of the El Castillo pyramid, at the Mayan ruin of Chichén Itzá near Cancún in Mexico, create sounds that mimic the chirp of a bird and the patter of raindrops.
Read more. Source: Nature |
Titan clouds seen to come and go
(Dec 17, 2004)
Scientists now have their first direct evidence of changing weather patterns on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. When the Cassini spacecraft flew past the satellite on Monday it spied clouds at mid-latitudes that were not present on its last flyby in October. The observations will allow researchers to investigate atmospheric dynamics on Titan, the only moon in the Solar System with a thick covering of gas.
Read more. Source: BBC |
Giant Mars rover will search for life
(Dec 17, 2004)
NASA will search for signs of life on Mars with a giant rover due to launch in 2009. The agency selected the vital instruments that the Mars Science Laboratory rover will carry on Tuesday. Scientists have long debated whether life ever blossomed on our neighbouring planet. NASA's twin Viking landers beamed back contradictory evidence for biological activity after they touched down in 1976. But since then, the agency has not searched directly for signs of life but for the conditions and substances that support it, such as water. Now, NASA is planning a rover with three times the mass (600 kilograms) and twice the number of instruments (10) as those currently on Mars, the long-lived Spirit and Opportunity.
Read more. Source: New Scientist |
Scientists find new Indian monkey
(Dec 16, 2004)
A species of monkey unknown to science has been photographed in India by an international team of researchers. The monkey, a member of the macaque family, was sighted in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, which lies in the country's remote north-eastern region. Named the Arunachal macaque, the new monkey is a comparatively large brown primate with a relatively short tail. The scientists say they are surprised to have found a hitherto unknown large mammal in such a populous country.
Read more. Source: BBC |
Comet mission set for 2005 launch
(Dec 15, 2004)
NASA scientists have been giving details of a space mission to crash a projectile into a comet, peeling away its outer skin in order to look inside. The audacious Deep Impact mission will launch on January 12 from Cape Canaveral and will arrive at Comet Tempel 1 six months later. A mother ship will release the 360 kg projectile, called an "impactor", directly into the path of Tempel 1. The projectile will impact on July 4, 24 hours after its release.
Read more. Source: BBC |
Mars rovers spot water-clue mineral, frost, clouds
(Dec 14, 2004)
Scientists have identified a water-signature mineral called goethite in bedrock that the NASA's Mars rover Spirit examined in the "Columbia Hills," one of the mission's surest indicators yet for a wet history on Spirit's side of Mars. "Goethite, like the jarosite that Opportunity found on the other side of Mars, is strong evidence for water activity," said Dr. Goestar Klingelhoefer of the University of Mainz, Germany, lead scientist for the iron-mineral analyzer on each rover, the Moessbauer spectrometer. Goethite forms only in the presence of water, whether in liquid, ice or gaseous form. Hematite, a mineral that had previously been identified in Columbia Hills bedrock, usually, but not always, forms in the presence of water.
Read more. Source: NASA/JPL |
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