SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: August 2004
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| Scientists discover first of
a new class of extrasolar planets |
Aug 31, 2004 |
| Comet pioneer Fred Whipple dies |
Aug 31, 2004 |
| Life on Mars: a definite possibility |
Aug 31, 2004 |
| Getting a grip on antimatter |
Aug 31, 2004 |
| Deep hole in Clovis |
Aug 30, 2004 |
| Major NASA extrasolar planet
discovery announcement scheduled for August 31 |
Aug 27, 2004 |
| Meteorites supplied Earth life
with phosphorus, scientists say |
Aug 26, 2004 |
| Smallest 'Earth-like' planet
seen |
Aug 25, 2004 |
| Martian teardrop carved in crater |
Aug 25, 2004 |
| Asteroid shaves past Earth's
atmosphere |
Aug 24, 2004 |
| Remnants of
1994 comet impact leave puzzle at Jupiter |
Aug 24, 2004 |
| Antarctic
craters reveal strike |
Aug 22, 2004 |
| Mars hill
find hints at wet past |
Aug 20, 2004 |
| Unique moon
may partner Sedna |
Aug 19, 2004 |
| Five new moons
for Neptune |
Aug 19, 2004 |
| Stars reveal
the Milky Way's age |
Aug 18, 2004 |
| Cassini finds
new Saturn moons |
Aug 17, 2004 |
| Forming galaxy
cluster captured |
Aug 16, 2004 |
| Closing in
on planet formation |
Aug 15, 2004 |
| Hubble peers
at celestial bubble |
Aug 13 2004 |
| Socialites
unite dolphin groups |
Aug 12, 2004 |
| First space
test for solar sailing |
Aug 11, 2004 |
| Chances of
aliens finding Earth disappearing |
Aug 10 2004 |
| Fossilized—or
even present-day—alien bacteria? |
Aug 9, 2004 |
| Erratic 'superbolts'
of lightning seen on Saturn |
Aug 9, 2004 |
| New ocean
species discovered |
Aug 7, 2004 |
| Second team
goes for space prize |
Aug 6, 2004 |
| Red Planet
had 'recent' volcanism |
Aug 5, 2004 |
| Solar system
may be exception not rule |
Aug 5, 2004 |
| ESA's Integral
detects closest cosmic gamma-ray burst |
Aug 5, 2004 |
| Cassini peers
into Titan's haze |
Aug 4, 2004 |
| Space probe
blasts off to Mercury |
Aug 3, 2004 |
| NASA's new
space hot rod |
Aug 2, 2004 |
Scientists discover first of a new class
of extrasolar planets
(Aug 31, 2004)
Astronomers announced today the first discovery of a new class of
planets beyond our solar system about 10 to 20 times the size of Earth
– far smaller than any previously detected. The planets make
up a new class of Neptune-sized extrasolar planets. In addition, one
of the new planets joins three others around the nearby star 55 Cancri
to form the first known four-planet system. [N.b. A European team
announced a similar discovery several days ago – see news item
for Aug. 25. However, the European results have yet to be published
in a peer-reviewed journal.]
Read
more. Source: NASA/JPL |
Comet pioneer Fred Whipple dies
(Aug 31, 2004)
Fred Whipple – the astronomer who first correctly described
comets as "dirty snowballs" – has died aged 97. He revolutionised
the study of comets when in 1950-51 he proposed that they were not
"sandbags" but small bodies made or rock, dust and ice. He also predicted
the coming of artificial satellites and was prepared with a satellite
tracking network when Sputnik was launched in 1957.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Life on Mars: a definite possibility
(Aug 31, 2004)
Was Mars once a living world? Does life continue, even today, in a
holding pattern, waiting until the next global warming event comes
along? Many people would like to believe so. Scientists are no exception.
But so far no evidence has been found that convinces even a sizable
minority of the scientific community that the red planet was ever
home to life. What the evidence does indicate, though, is that Mars
was once a habitable world. Life, as we know it, could have taken
hold there.
Read
more. Source: Astrobiology Magazine/NASA |
Getting a grip on antimatter
(Aug 31, 2004)
Research into what separates matter from antimatter is accelerating
in particle physics experiments around the world. Scientists are hoping
the difference will help explain why you, me and all the things around
us are made of matter instead of its opposite. Shortly after the Big
Bang theoretically kicked off everything, the universe was a hot soup
of equal parts matter and antimatter, scientists say. Why the former
came to dominate is a question that physicists have yet to answer
fully. Recent results from the BaBar experiment in California have
confirmed one departure between the two substances, but to solve the
puzzle more deviations will have to be found. Also see antimatter
propulsion.
Read
more. Source: space.com |
Deep hole in Clovis
(Aug 30, 2004)
At a rock called "Clovis," the rock abrasion tool on NASA’s Mars Exploration
Rover Spirit cut a 9-millimeter (0.35-inch) hole during the rover's
216th martian day, or sol (Aug. 11, 2004). The hole is the deepest
drilled in a rock on Mars so far. This approximately true-color view
was made from images taken by Spirit's panoramic camera on sol 226
(Aug. 21, 2004) at around 12:50 p.m. local true solar time –
early afternoon in Gusev Crater on Mars.
Read
more. Source: Space Daily / JPL |
Major NASA extrasolar planet discovery
announcement scheduled for August 31
(Aug 27, 2004)
A team of planet-hunters will announce their discovery of a new class
of planets beyond our solar system at a NASA Science Update at 1 p.m.
EDT on Tuesday, August 31. Their discovery represents a significant
and much-anticipated advance in the hunt for extra-solar planets.
The news conference will be carried live on NASA Television, with
two-way question-and-answer capability from participating NASA centers.
Read
more. Source: spaceref.com |
Meteorites supplied Earth life with phosphorus,
scientists say
(Aug 26, 2004)
University of Arizona scientists have discovered that meteorites,
particularly iron meteorites, may have been critical to the evolution
of life on Earth. Their research shows that meteorites easily could
have provided more phosphorus than naturally occurs on Earth –
enough phosphorus to give rise to biomolecules which eventually assembled
into living, replicating organisms.
Read
more. Source: Astrobiology Magazine / U. of Arizona |
Smallest 'Earth-like' planet seen
(Aug 25, 2004)
European scientists have discovered what they describe as the smallest
Earth-like planet orbiting a star outside our Solar System. The planet
is 14 times the mass of Earth – not so large that it qualifies
as a gas giant – and is close enough to the star that it is
unlikely to be icy. Dr Nuno Santos of the University of Lisbon, the
new planet can be thought of as "super-Earth-like".
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Martian teardrop carved in crater
(Aug 25, 2004)
Dark, rippling dunes of volcanic ash – similar to Hawaii's black
sand beaches – cast a teardrop shape in an ancient Martian crater,
reveal the latest images from Mars Express. Wind is likely to have
carved the 12-kilometre-long tear shape a million or more years ago
when the Martian atmosphere was thicker, says Gerhard Neukum, principal
investigator of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Europe's Mars
orbiter. Now, the atmosphere has thinned so much that the dune's shape
is likely to remain fixed for at least hundreds of thousands of years,
he says.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Asteroid shaves past Earth's atmosphere
(Aug 24, 2004)
The closest observed asteroid yet to skim past the Earth without hitting
the atmosphere, was reported by astronomers on Sunday. The previously
unknown object, spanning five to 10 metres across, has been named
2004 FU162. It streaked across the sky just 6500 kilometres –
roughly the radius of the Earth – above the ground on 31 March,
although details have only now emerged. The MIT Lincoln Laboratory's
asteroid-hunting LINEAR telescope (shown here) in Socorro, New Mexico,
observed the new object four times over a 44-minute period, several
hours before its closest approach in March.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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