entire Web this site SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS: January 2008 home > space & science news > space & science news: January 2008: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Bizarre spider scar found on Mercury's surface Jan 31, 2008 Dark energy makes galaxies keep their distance Jan 31, 2008 Mercury's volcanic past revealed Jan 30, 2008 Asteroid makes close Earth pass Jan 30, 2008 Cosmic suburbia is a better breeding ground for stars Jan 29, 2008 Space impact creates giant mushroom cloud Jan 28, 2008 Satellite could plummet to Earth Jan 27, 2008 Largest asteroid to come near Earth in 22 years Jan 25, 2008 Comet samples are surprisingly asteroid-like Jan 25, 2008 Jupiter's raging thunderstorms a sign of 'global upheaval' Jan 24, 2008 Virgin unveils spaceship designs Jan 23, 2008 Milky Way's antimatter linked to exotic black holes Jan 22, 2008 Tremors keep crust-dwelling microbes alive Jan 22, 2008 NASA investigates virtual space Jan 21, 2008 European probe aims for Mercury Jan 20, 2008 'Monsters' blamed for extreme chaos in black holes Jan 18, 2008 Teleportation: fact or fiction? Jan 18, 2008 Ice clouds put Mars in the shade Jan 17, 2008 Upgraded neutrino detector could root out dark matter Jan 17, 2008 MESSENGER's first look at Mercury's previously unseen side Jan 16, 2008 Ocean rocket returns to business Jan 16, 2008 Hubble peers into dark matter web Jan 15, 2008 Photons orbit black hole 'roulette wheel' Jan 15, 2008 Cosmic dust disc to force rethink Jan 14, 2008 Hubble finds double Einstein ring Jan 14, 2008 Giant gas cloud to crash into our galaxy Jan 12, 2008 Even thin galaxies can grow fat black holes Jan 12, 2008 Where planets can form, they do Jan 12, 2008 Rapid spin for giant black holes Jan 12, 2008 MESSENGER set for historic Mercury flyby Jan 11, 2008 Middleweight black holes roam the galaxy undetected Jan 11, 2008 Fix will give Hubble major boost Jan 11, 2008 Risk of Mars impact drops to 1 in 10,000 Jan 10, 2008 Biggest black hole in the cosmos discovered Jan 10, 2008 Planets form twice for old stars Jan 10, 2008 Planet collision could explain alien world's heat Jan 10, 2008 Milky Way 'ancestors' discovered Jan 9, 2008 Galaxy's spiral arms point in opposite directions Jan 9, 2008 'Maverick' sunspot heralds new solar cycle Jan 8, 2008 Red dust in planet-forming disk may harbor precursors to life Jan 7, 2008 Hot cyclones churn at both ends of Saturn Jan 5, 2008 10,000 Earths' worth of fresh dust found near star explosion Jan 5, 2008 Possible Mars impact highlights risk to Earth Jan 4, 2008 Airborne astronomers to track intense meteor shower Jan 3, 2008 First planet discovered around a youthful star Jan 2, 2008 Second thoughts on life, the universe and everything by world's best brains Jan 1, 2008 Bizarre spider scar found on Mercury's surface (Jan 31, 2008) A bizarre spider shape has been discovered on the surface of Mercury during the first flyby of the planet by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. The discovery of the spider – which is unlike anything seen elsewhere in the solar system – was announced on Wednesday along with other results from the historic pass. Read more. Source: New Scientist Dark energy makes galaxies keep their distance (Jan 31, 2008) Galaxies today are struggling to clump together against the incredible repulsive power of dark energy, hints a new survey of thousands of galaxies. Measuring this anti-clumping effect puts a new arrow in the quiver of cosmologists seeking to uncover the nature of the mysterious force. Read more. Source: New Scientist Mercury's volcanic past revealed (Jan 30, 2008) A fly-by by a NASA unmanned space probe has revealed evidence of "widespread" volcanism on the planet Mercury. The US Mercury MESSENGER spacecraft made a close pass of the first planet from the Sun on 14 January. Evidence from the Mariner 10 probe launched in the 1970s had provided only tenuous evidence for volcanic activity. Read more. Source: BBC Asteroid makes close Earth pass (Jan 30, 2008) An asteroid some 250m (600ft) across has swept past the Earth. There was no chance of it hitting the planet, but astronomers trained telescopes and radar on the object to learn as much about it as they could. The asteroid – which carries the rather dull designation 2007 TU24 – passed by at a distance of 538,000km (334,000 miles), just outside the Moon's orbit. Read more. Source: BBC Cosmic suburbia is a better breeding ground for stars (Jan 29, 2008) New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that galaxies prefer to raise stars in cosmic suburbia rather than in "big cities." For the first time, Spitzer's supersensitive eyes have caught an infrared glimpse of several galaxies traveling along two filamentary roads into a galaxy cluster called Abell 1763. Read more. Source: Caltech/NASA Space impact creates giant mushroom cloud (Jan 28, 2008) A mushroom-shaped hydrogen cloud rearing 1000 light years above the plane of our galaxy is the aftermath of a massive gas cloud that dive-bombed the Milky Way, new computer simulations suggest. The work explains why the cloud is unlike any other found so far. Read more. Source: New Scientist Satellite could plummet to Earth (Jan 27, 2008) A "large" US spy satellite has gone out of control and is expected to crash to Earth some time in late February or March, government sources say. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the satellite had lost power and propulsion, and could contain hazardous materials. The White House said it was monitoring the situation. Read more. Source: BBC Largest asteroid to come near Earth in 22 years (Jan 25, 2008) The largest asteroid to come near the Earth in more than 20 years will make its closest approach on Tuesday, venturing as close as 1.4 times the distance to the Moon. Already, the first radar observations of the space rock reveal it may have formed from two separate asteroids that fell together and stuck. Read more. Source: New Scientist Comet samples are surprisingly asteroid-like (Jan 25, 2008) Samples of Comet Wild 2 suggest it is made of rocky material, like an asteroid, rather than the fluffy dust expected of a comet. The object may be a refugee that formed in the asteroid belt before getting kicked to the chilly fringes of the solar system, or it might have formed in that frigid realm from material thrown out of the inner solar system, scientists say. Read more. Source: New Scientist Jupiter's raging thunderstorms a sign of 'global upheaval' (Jan 24, 2008) Towering storms more than 100 kilometres tall have been caught punching up through Jupiter's cloud deck for the first time, thanks to a series of Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observations. The rare storms – a sign of recent turmoil on the planet – are helping scientists deduce what lies hidden beneath the clouds that shroud the solar system's largest planet. Read more. Source: New Scientist 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 BACK TO TOP

You are here: Home > Space & Science news > January 2008: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Other news sections Latest science news Archeo news Eco news Health news Living world news Paleo news Strange news Tech news Also on this site: Encyclopedia of Science Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy and Sustainable Living News archive Bookshop Contact Partner site: Transport Concepts & Designs