SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: December 2000
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& science news > space & science news: December 2000
| Ganymede and Jupiter flybys |
Dec 29, 2000 |
| Cassini closing in on Jupiter |
Dec 24, 2000 |
| Pluto-Charon probe back under
consideration |
Dec 21, 2000 |
| Landing site chosen for
Beagle 2 |
Dec 20, 2000 |
| Plans to drill into the Chicxulub
crater |
Dec 19, 2000 |
| An ocean for Ganymede |
Dec 17, 2000 |
| Magnetite in Mars meteorite
biogenic conclude researchers |
Dec 13, 2000 |
| Three new extrasolar planets
in the Southern Hemisphere |
Dec 11, 2000 |
| Four new moons for Saturn |
Dec 10, 2000 |
| The real starship(s) Voyager |
Dec 7, 2000 |
| More images and coverage
of Martian layered rocks |
Dec 5, 2000 |
| Evidence of sedimentary
rock layers on Mars |
Dec 4, 2000 |
| Ancient sea and lake beds
found on Mars |
Dec 3, 2000 |
| Major Mars announcement to be
made on Dec. 7 |
Dec 2, 2000 |
| Lunar meteorites clue to
intense Earth bombardment 4 billion years ago |
Dec 1, 2000 |
Ganymede and Jupiter flybys
(Dec. 29, 2000)
Galileo
skimmed over the surface of Jupiter's (and the solar system's) largest
moon, Ganymede, yesterday,
at a distance of only 2,326 km. Ganymede is becoming of increasing
interest to astrobiologists in light of recent claims that, like Europa,
it may harbor an underground watery ocean. Cassini,
meanwhile, is heading toward its closest approach to Jupiter tomorrow
at a distance of 9.7 million km. Happily, it is taking pictures once
again now that all of its reaction wheels are fully functional.
For more, visit the homepages of the Galileo
and Cassini
missions. |
Cassini closing in on Jupiter
(Dec. 24, 2000)
The earliest seafloor hydrothermal
vents – supposedly more than three billion years old –
may be nothing more than deposits from underground springs active
in the last few thousand years. That is the claim of two US geologists
who carried out a new analysis of rocks from South Africa which were
previously dated to the Archaean period – when life first began
to diversify. The findings could have important implications for our
understanding of the early Earth and the microbial life forms that
lived there. But one authority on the geology of the Barberton greenstone
belt – where the rocks are found – launched a vigorous
defense of evidence that they contain ancient hydrothermal vents.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Pluto-Charon probe back under consideration
(Dec. 21, 2000)
After recently canceling the long-heralded mission to Pluto
and its moon Charon,
NASA has revived the project. Pluto is the only major world in the
Solar System not yet examined at close range and planetary astronomers
had protested that cancellation of the probe meant wasting an opportunity
to study the planet's atmosphere. As Pluto moves further from the
Sun its thin atmosphere will freeze out and not build up again for
another two centuries. Launch in 2004 Will enable a flyby in around
2014. NASA will make a firm decision about the probe over the coming
months.
For more, go here. |
Landing site chosen for Beagle 2
(Dec. 20, 2000)
ESA has announced that the Mars
Express lander, Beagle
2, will touch down on Isidis
Planitia, a large flat region that overlies the boundary between
the ancient highlands and the northern plains. The region appears
to be a sedimentary basin where traces of life could have been preserved,
if primitive life really did exist at some time on Mars. For more,
go here
(ESA) and here
(BBC). |
Plans to drill into the Chicxulub crater
(Dec. 19, 2000)
Buck Sharpton of the Department of Geology and Geophysics, University
of Alaska, and his colleagues plan to drill 2.4 km into the crater
linked to the demise of the dinosaurs (see Chicxulub
crater. The researchers announced their intention at the autumn
meeting of the American Geophysical Union, in San Francisco. The drilling
site is about 80 kilometres south of Merida, Mexico. Results of the
work will hopefully shed light on the dynamics of the impact and its
environmental consequences. For more, go here. |
An ocean for Ganymede?
(Dec. 17, 2000)
University of California scientists claim to have found evidence of
an ocean of salt water on Jupiter's moon Ganymede
based on magnetic field data returned by the Galileo
probe. The measurements suggest a melted layer several kilometers
deep some 200 km underground. Other researchers have identified what
appear to be hydrated salt minerals on the moon's surface, possibly
the result of brine making its way to the surface by eruptions or
through cracks – the same as is believed to have happened on
Europa. The hypothesis
of water on what is the largest satellite in the Solar Systems has
been boosted by new, high-resolution images of Ganymede sent back
by Galileo. The images hint that water or slushy ice may have surfaced
through the fractured crust to create smooth areas in between separated
areas of crust.
For more, go here. |
Magnetite in Mars meteorite biogenic conclude
researchers
(Dec. 13, 2000)
A team of researchers has published further evidence in the December
issue of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta that certain magnetite
crystals embedded in the Martian meteorite ALH
84001 are of a type produced only by a biological process unique
to magnetotactic bacteria.
Dennis Bazylinski, associate professor of microbiology at Iowa State
University and a member of the team, said: "Finding these type of
magnetic crystals in any material from another planet is an amazing
and important finding." The researchers discovered that about one-fourth
of the magnetites in the meteorite are identical to the magnetites
produced by a strain of magnetotactic bacteria called MV-1, which
have been isolated and studied extensively by Bazylinski. "There is
currently no known chemical means of producing these magnetite crystals
with their unique morphologies," said Bazylinski. "The significance
to astrobiology and geobiology is that many scientists have been searching
for 'biomarkers' for life, that is, chemical, isotopic, and/or mineral
indications that life was present, either in extreme habitats or in
ancient materials on Earth and, of course, now in extraterrestrial
materials. The need for biomarkers is obvious and these magnetite
crystals might prove to be an excellent biomarker." Since the team
began the research in 1996, observations from the Mars
Global Surveyor have indicated that Mars had a strong magnetic
field at about time that the carbonate containing the unique magnetites
was formed. "Now we are trying to answer the question of whether magnetotactic
bacteria could have actually lived on Mars," Bazylinski said. "And
we have found certain aspects of their metabolism which suggest that
they might have been able to do so."
For more, go here
(spaceref), here
(Spaceflight Now) and here
(BBC). |
Three new extrasolar planets in the
Southern Hemisphere
(Dec. 11, 2000)
An international team of astronomers, using the Anglo-Australian
Telescope has found three new planets circling around Sun-like
stars. One of the planets, estimated to be about the size of Jupiter,
lies in the habitable
zone of its parent star, epsilon Reticulum. Another is a "hot
Jupiter" lying just 6 million kilometres from HD 179949 in the constellation
Sagittarius. The third is almost twice as massive as Jupiter and circles
Mu Arae in an orbit
slightly larger than that of Mars. These are exciting results because
they confirm that scientists are starting to find planets in more
conventional orbits, further away from their host stars. As Alan Penny,
a member of the discovery team, points out: "Two of these planets
are Earth- and Mars-distances from their stars, so we are now working
our way out as the survey techniques get more sensitive."
For more, go here. |
Four new moons for Saturn
(Dec. 10, 2000)
An international team of astronomers using the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, has announced the discovery of
four new moons around Saturn.
Temporarily designated S/2000 S7 through S/2000 S10, they appear to
be similar in nature to the six other moons the same team found recently
in the Saturn system. They are all suspected of having once been Centaurs
– icy dwarf objects that orbit the Sun between Saturn and Uranus.
The new discoveries brings Saturn's satellite complement to 28, compared
with moon tallies of 21 for Uranus, 18 for Jupiter, 8 for Neptune,
2 for Mars, 1 each for Earth and Pluto, and none for Mercury and Venus
– a grand solar system total of 79. Further observations over
the coming months will be needed to confirm the findings and establish
accurate orbital details.
For more, go here. |
The real starship(s) Voyager
(Dec. 7, 2000)
Far beyond the orbit of Pluto, the two Voyager spacecraft (together
with Pioneer's 10
and 11) are starbound
on solar escape trajectories. The latest status report reveals that
Voyager 1 is now
12.00 billion km from the Sun, traveling at 38.6 km/s, while its sister
probe Voyager 2 is
9.45 billion km from its home star and moving at 35.7 km/s. Signals
from Earth take 11 hr 7 min and 8 hr 45 min, respectively, to reach
these lonely travelers. Both probes remain active, taking measurements
of their magnetic, particle and radiation environments as they head
toward interstellar space. The best definition of where interplanetary
space ends and interstellar space begins is perhaps the heliopause
– the boundary where the Sun's magnetic influence gives way
to that of the interstellar medium. Both Voyagers are still some distance
from the heliopause, but instruments on the craft have picked up signals
that may be coming from the so-called termination
shock – the zone where the solar wind suddenly slows down
from supersonic to subsonic speed, creating a shock wave. Before the
Voyagers travel beyond the heliopause into interstellar space, they
will pass through this termination shock. Data being returned from
the spacecraft suggest that they may reach the termination shock in
the next three to five years, and the heliopause itself within a decade.
With luck one or both probes may still be active as they penetrate
into interstellar void for the first time. And then? In about 40,000
years, Voyager 1 will drift within 1.6 light years (9.3 trillion miles)
of AC+79 3888, a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis. In some
296,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass Sirius,
the brightest star in our sky, at a distance of about 4.3 light years
(25 trillion miles). Not quite up to warp drive standards, but these
Voyagers do have the advantage of being real! |
More images and coverage of Martian
layered rocks
(Dec. 5, 2000)
For newly released pictures and the latest reports on this breaking
story, go here
(BBC news), here
(Planetary Society), and here
(pictures from Science journal). |
Evidence of sedimentary rock layers on
Mars
(Dec. 4, 2000)
New images from Mars Global
Surveyor show clear evidence of sedimentary rocks on Mars
dating back more than 3.5 million years. If life ever existed on the
Red Planet, its remains may well be found as fossils within these
apparently water-lain beds. The strata have been found inside craters,
between craters and within canyons such as Valles
Marineris, suggesting that they may have been deposited in lakes
within these basins. Researchers Michael Malin and Kenneth Edgett
will be announcing their results on Thursday at a press conference
and in this week's issue of Science.
For more, go here. |
Ancient sea and lake beds found on Mars
(Dec. 3, 2000)
NASA's big announcement to be made this Thursday (Dec. 7) and in Science
is that images from Mars Global
Surveyor show conclusively evidence of sedimentation that could
only be the result of material that has accumulated at the bottom
of bodies of water on Mars
billions of years ago. These ancient beds, which may contain fossil
traces of Martian life if it ever appeared, will become the focal
point of investigation for the next generation of Mars landers, including
Beagle 2, scheduled
for launch in June 2003. Coincidentally, Colin Pillinger at the Open
University in England, who heads the Beagle 2 project, will announce
that he has raised the full 330m pounds ($45m) needed for the UK mission.
He has just been offered 39m pounds by the European Space Agency,
with the rest coming from commercial sponsors. More on this story
over the next few days. |
Major Mars Announcement to be made by
NASA on Thursday, Dec. 7
(Dec. 2, 2000)
What is being described as the "most significant discovery yet" by
a team of researchers involved with NASA's Mars
Global Surveyor currently orbiting the Red Planet will be announced
next Thursday, according to the space agency. Imaging scientists Michael
Malin and Ken Edgett, who produced evidence of Martian "gully washers"
a few months ago, will make their announcement at a Space Science
Update scheduled for 2:00 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) on Thursday, December
7. Their findings are being published in the December 8 issue of Science. |
Lunar meteorites speak of intense Earth
bombardment 4 billion years ago
(Dec.1, 2000)
New research carried out on four of the 20 known lunar
meteorites, by Barbara Anne Cohen and colleagues at the University
of Arizona in this weeks's Science, lends support to the view
that the Moon and Earth were intensely bombarded between about 4 and
3.8 billion years ago. The rocks examined in the study probably came
from all parts of the Moon and all were molten some 3.9 billion years
ago. The bombardment that melted the Moon would, researchers believe,
have been even more intense on the Earth, with its greater gravity,
probably frustrating early attempts by life to get started. Biogenic
traces have been found in rocks dating back 3.8 billion years, however,
leaving very little time for biology to get off the ground after the
intense bombardment ended. Did life emerge somehow during the heavy
bombardment era? Or can biogenesis take place in so short a period
– under 100 million years?
For more, go here. |
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