RECENT NEWS: 1
The Worlds of David Darling > Recent News: 1
RECENT NEWS: 2 | LATEST NEWS | NEWS ARCHIVES
(Oct 29, 2009) A hint that quantum fluctuations in the fabric of the universe slow the speed of light has not been borne out in observations by NASA's Fermi telescope. The measurements contradict a 2005 result that supported the idea that space and time are not smooth. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 29, 2009) How many universes are there? Cosmologists Andrei Linde and Vitaly Vanchurin at Stanford University in California calculate that the number dwarfs the 10500 universes postulated in string theory, and raise the provocative notion that the answer may depend on the human brain. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 29, 2009) An armada of robots may one day fly above the mountain tops of Saturn's moon Titan, cross its vast dunes and sail in its liquid lakes. Wolfgang Fink, visiting associate in physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena says we are on the brink of a great paradigm shift in planetary exploration, and the next round of robotic explorers will be nothing like what we see today. Read more. Source: NASA/JPL |
(Oct 28, 2009) NASA has launched a prototype rocket designed to replace the ageing space shuttle. The Ares I-X blasted off from Florida on a flight that will test technology for the development of a future manned launch vehicle. The 100m-tall, syringe-like rocket roared into the sky at 1530 GMT from Kennedy Space Center. Read more. Source: BBC |
(Oct 28, 2009) This may look like an elaborate tattoo, but it is actually a Martian windstorm. The storm was snapped using the high resolution imaging science experiment camera on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The photo shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing with lighter colored terrains that cover the surface of Mars. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 28, 2009) What is causing a mysterious "haze" of radiation at the center of the Milky Way? It may be a load of monster supernovae kicking out radiation which is then amplified by magnetic stellar winds and turbulence near the galaxy's core. The haze first came to light in 2003 when the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) found a patch of particularly energetic microwave radiation in the center of our galaxy. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 27, 2009) As the US government ponders a strategy to deal with threatening asteroids, a dramatic explosion over Indonesia has underscored how blind we still are to hurtling space rocks. On 8 October an asteroid detonated high in the atmosphere above South Sulawesi, Indonesia, releasing about as much energy as 50,000 tons of TNT, according to a NASA estimate released on Friday. That's about three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 27, 2009) Engineers working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have successfully injected beams of particles into two sections of the vast machine. An LHC spokesperson said this was the first time particle beams had been inside the LHC since it was shut down late in September 2008. Scientists working on the giant particle accelerator described the success as "a milestone". Read more. Source: BBC |
(Oct 26, 2009) A rocket designed to replace the aging space shuttle is set for its first test-flight, despite questions over the future of the program. If there are clear skies, the 100m-long Ares I-X will blast off from the Kennedy Space Center on 27 October. The two-minute flight will allow NASA to test technology crucial for the development of the manned Ares I craft. Read more. Source: BBC |
(Oct 26, 2009) The profusion of planets discovered around other stars in the past 15 years has led to a naming problem. Most of these exoplanets are known only by drab scientific designations like MOA-2007-BLG-400-L b. Unsatisfied with this situation, Wladimir Lyra, an expert on planet formation, has proposed new names for all 400 of them. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 24, 2009) A newly discovered crater on Mercury may have been geologically active as recently as a billion years ago. The discovery was made by NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft on its latest fly-by of the innermost planet of the Solar System on 29 September. Read more. Source: Nature |
(Oct 24, 2009) ESA's Rosetta comet chaser will swing by Earth on 13 November to pick up orbital energy and begin the final leg of its 10-year journey to the outer Solar System. Several observations of the Earth–Moon system are planned before the spacecraft heads out to study comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Read more. Source: ESA |
(Oct 23, 2009) Experts asked to review the US human spaceflight program have given strong support to the use of commercial services to launch astronauts. The Augustine panel published its final report on Thursday and said America could find cheaper, faster successors to the shuttle in the private sector. The US space agency is developing two new rockets and a crew capsule. Read more. Source: BBC |
(Oct 23, 2009) This is a composite image of the most distant galaxy cluster yet detected. This image contains X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, optical data from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and optical and infrared data from the Digitized Sky Survey. This record-breaking object, known as JKCS041, is observed as it was when the Universe was just one quarter of its current age. Read more. Source: NASA/Chandra |
(Oct 23, 2009) A deep hole on the Moon that could open into a vast underground tunnel has been found for the first time. The discovery strengthens evidence for subsurface, lava-carved channels that could shield future human colonists from space radiation and other hazards. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 23, 2009) Microscopes revolutionized the study of life on Earth. Now a rugged, easy-to-use instrument is aiming to be equally influential in the search for alien life in locations such as the oceans beneath the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. Called the digital inline holographic microscope, it consists of a pair of watertight compartments separated by a chamber into which water can flow. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 22, 2009) Peering far beyond our solar system, NASA researchers have detected the basic chemistry for life in a second hot gas planet, HD 209458b, advancing astronomers toward the goal of being able to characterize planets where life could exist. The planet is not habitable but it has the same chemistry that, if found around a rocky planet in the future, could indicate the presence of life. Read more. Source: NASA/JPL |
(Oct 21, 2009) Researchers are once again proposing that an orbiting telescope may have seen evidence for dark matter – the undetected material that is believed to permeate the Universe. The Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope has captured flashes of high-energy gamma rays that might come from dark matter, according to Lisa Goodenough of New York University in New York City and Dan Hooper at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Read more. Source: Nature |
(Oct 20, 2009) The US space agency will roll out its Ares 1-X test rocket later. The super-slim, 100m-tall launcher is a demonstrator for the vehicle NASA plans to use in the next decade to take its new astronaut crewship into orbit. The Ares I-X is expected to make an unmanned, two-minute flight at the end of the month to check out basic design concepts and gather engineering data. Read more. Source: BBC |
(Oct 19, 2009) Astronomers have announced a haul of planets found beyond our Solar System. The 32 "exoplanets" ranged in size from six times the mass of Earth to 5-10 times the mass of Jupiter, the researchers said. The objects were found using the HARPS spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory (ESO) 3.6m telescope at La Silla in Chile. Read more. Source: BBC |
(Oct 19, 2009) Do aliens pollute their planets? Let's hope they do, as this would give us a promising way of spotting where they live. Observed over interstellar distances, theylight from our cities would reveal to the observer the presence of a technology, says a team of astronomers led by Jean Schneider of the Paris Observatory at Meudon, France. In a paper to appear in Astrobiology, the team suggests we should look for a similar glow on alien planets. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 18, 2009) The first image of lunar material kicked up by the impact of NASA's LCROSS mission has been released, a week after the impact occurred. It was taken by a spacecraft trailing behind the impactor, whose bird's-eye view allowed it to see what has so far eluded the best telescopes on Earth and in Earth-orbit. Read more. Source: New Scientist |
(Oct 17, 2009) Physicists have created a black hole for light that can fit in your coat pocket. Their device, which measures just 22 centimeters across, can suck up microwave light and convert it into heat. The hole is the latest clever device to use 'metamaterials', specially engineered materials that can bend light in unusual ways. Read more. Source: Nature |
