SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: July 2000
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& science news > space & science news: July 2000
NASA decides on rover mission for 2003
(Jul. 28, 2000)
NASA announced its decision yesterday to send a rover – and
possibly two rovers – to Mars in 2003. Mars
Rover will be a larger and more capable version of the highly
successful Mars Pathfinder
that trundled over the Martian surface in 1997. It will use the same
"drop, bounce and roll" landing technology but will carry a larger
array of instruments and be able to move around 100 meters each Martian
day. The landing site(s) have yet to be selected but will probably
be a dry lakebed or water channel. A decision on whether to send one
or two rovers (at an additional cost of $150 million) will be made
in the next few weeks.
For the NASA press release, go here.
For BBC report, go here. |
Two more extrasolar planets
(Jul. 24, 2000)
The discovery of two more extrasolar planets has been announced by
the highly successful San Francisco State planet search team. This
brings the total number now known to more than 40. The new planets
are in orbit around the stars HD 38529 and HD 92788. |
Comets of different age revealed by grain
structure
(Jul. 21, 2000)
New research suggests that comets
could have formed at different times during the evolution of the solar
nebula. Their age is revealed by the structure of their dust grains:
those with amorphous grains being presolar and those with a crystalline
structure in their grains having formed after the Sun began to shine. |
Deep Space 1 to encounter Comet Borrelly
(Jul. 12, 2000)
On June 28, 2000, NASA's Deep
Space 1 ion-powered probe began accelerating toward an encounter
with Comet Borrelly
in September 2001. If the successful, the rensezvous will take place
when Borrelly is near its closest approach to the Sun and, thus, very
active. Mission scientists plan to capture detailed pictures of the
comet's nucleus and gather data on the violent jets of gas and dust
being expelled from it. Deep Space 1 could become just the second
spacecraft to study a comet from a distance of less than 2,000 km;
the first was the European Space Agency's Giotto
mission that flew by Halley's
Comet in 1986. Full story here. |
Star-bound Pioneer 10 still in touch
- just
(Jul. 12, 2000)
Launched over a quarter of a century ago, the first probe to fly through
the asteroid belt
and past Jupiter, Pioneer
10, is now more than 7 billion miles distant and heading for interstellar
space. Controllers at NASA's Deep
Space Network continue to keep in touch with the little craft,
which is still producing enough power from its nuclear batteries to
run its communications gear and some science experiments, though the
telemetry is now incredibly faint.
For more, go here. |
Haughton-Mars Project resumes
(Jul. 11, 2000)
The fourth season's work is underway of a NASA-led international field
research program in the Canadian Arctic. The program centers on the
scientific study of the Haughton impact crater and its surroundings
on Devon Island, considered to be one of the closest analogues on
Earth to a Martian environment. For daily field reports go here. |
Metabolically-active microbes found at
the South Pole
(Jul. 7, 2000)
A research team has discovered evidence of microbes able to thrive
in the extreme cold, low light levels, and heavy ultraviolet bombardment
at the South Pole. Edward Carpenter, of the State University of New
York at Stony Brook, Senjie Lin, of the University of Connecticut,
and Douglas Capone, of the University of Southern California, have
tentatively identified the bacteria as being similar to a species
of Deinococcus. Other members of the genus Deinococcus are well known
for their ability to survive massive doses of radiation by making
extensive genetic repairs. Said Carpenter: "While we expected to find
some bacteria in the South Pole snow, we were surprised that they
were metabolically active and synthesizing DNA and protein at local
ambient temperatures of -12 to -17 Celsius (10.4 to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit)."
If the team's findings are confirmed, the discovery not only has important
implications for the search for microscopic life elsewhere in the
solar system.
For more, go here. |
Galileo impact to protect Europa
(Jul. 3, 2000)
The Space Studies Board's Committee
on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) has recommended to
NASA that the Galileo probe be crashed into Jupiter at the end of
its mission in order to "Safeguard the integrity of future studies
of Europa's biological potential." It's feared that if the spacecraft
were inadvertently to impact on Europa, any terrestrial organisms
it might be carrying could compromise whatever prebiotic or biotic
environment might already exist there.
For more, go here. |
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