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LATEST SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS
Archeo- | Eco- | Health | Living world
Paleo- | Robot diaries | Strange news | Tech-
 Venus Express searching for life – on Earth
(Oct 13, 2008) Scientists using ESA's Venus Express are trying to observe whether Earth is habitable. Silly, you might think, when we know that Earth is richly stocked with life. In fact, far from being a pointless exercise, Venus Express is paving the way for an exciting new era in astronomy.
Read more. Source: ESA |
 US space tourist set for launch
(Oct 12, 2008) US space tourist Richard Garriott will follow in the footsteps of his astronaut father when he blasts off into space on Sunday. Mr Garriott has paid about $30m (£15m) for his 10-day trip to the International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft, mounted on a three-stage rocket, is due to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 0701 GMT (0301 EDT).
Read more. Source: BBC |
 Goldmine bug DNA may be key to alien life
(Oct 10, 2008) A bug discovered deep in a goldmine and nicknamed "the bold traveller" has got astrobiologists buzzing with excitement. Its unique ability to live in complete isolation of any other living species suggests it could be the key to life on other planets.
Read more. Source: New Scientist |
 Galactic hit-and-run leaves trail of destruction
(Oct 9, 2008) A trail of gas connecting two galaxies shows they once suffered a high-speed collision. The event could help explain why many galaxies cannot form new stars. One victim of this intergalactic accident is the "disturbed" spiral galaxy NGC 4438, which sits roughly 50 million light years from us in the Virgo galaxy cluster.
Read more. Source: New Scientist |
 Mercury as never seen before
(Oct 8, 2008) On Oct. 6, at 4:40 am EDT, MESSENGER successfully completed its second flyby of Mercury. The next day, the images taken during the encounter began to be received back on Earth. The spectacular image shown here is one of the first to be returned and shows the departing planet about 90 minutes after the spacecraft's closest approach. The bright crater just south of the center of the image is Kuiper, identified on images from the Mariner 10 mission in the 1970s.
Read more. Source: Johns Hopkins APL |
 COROT discovery stirs exoplanet classification rethink
(Oct 7, 2008) COROT has discovered a massive planet-sized object orbiting its parent star closely, unlike anything ever spotted before. It is so exotic, that scientists are unsure as to whether this oddity is actually a planet or a failed star. The object, named COROT-exo-3b, is about the size of Jupiter, but packs more than 20 times the mass. It takes only 4 days and 6 hours to orbit its parent star, which is slightly larger than the Sun.
Read more. Source: ESA |
 Cassini plans doubleheader flybys of Saturn's geyser moon
(Oct 7, 2008) As major league baseball readies for the World Series, NASA's Cassini team will come to bat twice this month when the spacecraft flies by Saturn's geyser moon, Enceladus. The Oct. 9 flyby is an inside pitch – the closest flyby yet of any moon of Saturn, at only 25 km (16 mi.) from the surface. The Oct. 31 flyby is farther out, at 196 km(122 mi.).
Read more. Source: NASA/JPL |
 Europe follows fusion twin track
(Oct 7, 2008) An alternative fusion project has been kicked off in Europe that would seek abundant clean energy using a colossal laser the size of a football stadium. The laser would tap the energy by squeezing together heavy atoms of hydrogen – a process very similar to the one that powers the Sun. Europe is already engaged in the Iter fusion venture that aims for the same outcome but via magnetic compression.
Read more. Source: BBC |
 Space rock found on collision course with Earth
(Oct 6, 2008) For the first time, astronomers have found an object on a certain collision course with Earth. Fortunately, it is so small it is not expected to cause any damage, burning up in the atmosphere somewhere above northern Sudan in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. The space rock, dubbed 2008 TC3, was first spotted on Monday in a survey by the Mt Lemmon Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. Its brightness suggests it is no more than about 5 meters across.
Read more. Source: New Scientist |
 One way up: U.S. space plan relies on Russia
(Oct 6, 2008) In two years Star City, Russia, will be the only place to send astronauts from any nation to the International Space Station. The gap is coming: from 2010, when NASA shuts down the Space Shuttle program, to 2015, when the next generation of American spacecraft is scheduled to arrive, the Agency expects to have no human flight capacity and will depend on Russia to get to the $100 billion station, buying seats on Soyuz craft as space tourists do.
Read more. Source: New York Times (requires free registration) |
 NASA spacecraft finds the Sun is not a perfect sphere
(Oct 5, 2008) Scientists using the RHESSI spacecraft have measured the roundness of the Sun with unprecedented precision. They find that it is not a perfect sphere. During years of high solar activity the Sun develops a thin "cantaloupe skin" that significantly increases its apparent oblateness: the Sun's equatorial radius becomes slightly larger than its polar radius.
Read more. Source: NASA |
 What happened to the Kuiper Belt's smallest objects?
(Oct 4, 2008) The hunt continues for the outer solar system's tiniest residents. A two-year search to find small objects in the Kuiper Belt has turned up nothing, bolstering theories that 'all hell broke loose' in the solar system just a few hundred million years after it formed. [Image: Eris and its moon Dysnomia]
Read more. Source: New Scientist |
 Dark matter makes galaxy's stars live long and prosper
(Oct 3, 2008) Stars at the centre of the Milky Way could gobble up enough dark matter to extend their lifetimes by a billion or more years, a new study suggests. If such stars are found, they could help reveal what the mysterious dark matter is actually made of.
Read more. Source: New Scientist |
 Infrared echoes give Spitzer a supernova flashback
(Oct 2, 2008) Hot spots near the shattered remains of an exploded star are echoing the blast's first moments, say scientists using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Eli Dwek of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. and Richard Arendt of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, say these echoes are powered by radiation from Cassiopeia A supernova shock wave that blew the star apart some 11,000 years ago.
Read more. Source: NASA/Spitzer |
 Precocious galaxy's magnetic field is bizarrely strong
(Oct 2, 2008) A young galaxy has been found with a magnetic field that is 10 times stronger than the Milky Way's. The find could challenge the prevailing idea of how galaxies 'spin up' their own fields. DLA-3C286 [shown here] lies 6.5 billion light-years away.
Read more. Source: New Scientist |
 Virgin Galactic to join climate experiment
(Oct 1, 2008) Virgin Galactic is to look at carrying scientific instruments on board one of its space tourism vehicles to gather data on climate change. The company will join up with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOASS) for the venture. The first instrument would provide data on atmospheric composition – particularly greenhouse gases.
Read more. Source: BBC |
 Martian fossils may be hiding inside white rocks
(Oct 1, 2008) Where should scientists hunt for evidence of Martian life? On Earth, at least, they should scout for white-colored meteorites made of sedimentary rock, a new study suggests. [Terrestrial sedimentary rocks were attached to the bottom of this Foton M3 capsule's heat shield to test if they could survive re-entry.]
Read more. Source: New Scientist |
 Phoenix sees snow and finds evidence of past water on Mars
(Sep 30, 2008) NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth.
Read more. Source: NASA/JPL |
 NASA identifies carbon-rich molecules in meteorites as the 'origin of life'
(Sep 30, 2008) Tons, perhaps tens of tons, of carbon molecules in dust particles and meteorites fall on Earth daily. Meteorites are especially valuable to astronomers because they provide relatively big chunks of carbon molecules that are easily analyzed in the laboratory. In the past few years, researchers have noticed that most meteorite carbon are molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are very stable compounds and are survivors.
Read more. Source: NASA/Ames |
 Hubble failure delays repair mission to 2009
(Sep 30, 2008) A critical failure on the Hubble Space Telescope has forced NASA to delay its mission to upgrade the observatory until at least February 2009. That will allow NASA to test and prepare a replacement part for launch, NASA officials said on Monday.
Read more. Source: New Scientist |
 Space freighter destroyed over Pacific
(Sep 29, 2008) Europe's "Jules Verne" space freighter [see ATV] has destroyed itself in a controlled burn-up over the southern Pacific. The 13.5-tonne cargo ship had completed a six-month mission to the space station and was packed with the orbiting platform's rubbish. Two engine firings were required to slow the freighter sufficiently to pull it into the atmosphere.
Read more. Source: BBC |
 SpaceX successfully launches Falcon 1 to orbit
(Sep 29, 2008) Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) announces that Flight 4 of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle has successfully launched and achieved Earth orbit. With this key milestone, Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth.
Read more. Source: SpaceX |
 China spacecraft returns to Earth
(Sep 28, 2008) China's Shenzhou VII space capsule has returned to Earth after a successful mission orbiting the planet. The spacecraft touched down in the Mongolian desert to rapturous applause from mission control in Beijing. Looking well, the three astronauts emerged to wave to cameras before being given bouquets of flowers.
Read more. Source: BBC |
 Chinese astronaut walks in space
(Sep 27, 2008) A Chinese astronaut has become the first in his country's history to take a walk in space. In an operation broadcast live on national TV, fighter pilot Zhai Zhigang emerged from the capsule orbiting the Earth to wave a Chinese flag. Mr Zhai, 42, stayed outside the capsule for 15 minutes while his two fellow astronauts stayed in the spacecraft.
Read more. Source: BBC |
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