SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: December 2004
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| Cassini targets 'two-faced' moon |
Dec 31, 2004 |
| Did animals have quake warning? |
Dec 31, 2004 |
| Quake may have made Earth wobble |
Dec 30, 2004 |
| Camera scoops amazing Orion snaps |
Dec 30, 2004 |
| Human brain result of 'extraordinarily
fast' evolution |
Dec 29, 2004 |
| Virgin soars towards new frontier |
Dec 28, 2004 |
| Scientists study orbit of newly
found asteroid |
Dec 27, 2004 |
| Huygens probe unleashed on Titan |
Dec 25, 2004 |
| Mystery of Mars rover's 'carwash'
rolls on |
Dec 24, 2004 |
| Mars may be geologically active,
new photos imply |
Dec 23, 2004 |
| New galaxies
teem with baby stars |
Dec 22, 2004 |
| Monkey vocal
ability investigated |
Dec 21, 2004 |
| New clouds add
to Titan's mystery |
Dec 19, 2004 |
| Saturn’s outer
rings may be eroding |
Dec 19, 2004 |
| Mystery of 'chirping'
pyramid decoded |
Dec 18, 2004 |
| Titan clouds
seen to come and go |
Dec 17, 2004 |
| Giant Mars rover
will search for life |
Dec 17, 2004 |
| Scientists find
new Indian monkey |
Dec 16, 2004 |
| Comet mission
set for 2005 launch |
Dec 15, 2004 |
| Mars rovers
spot water-clue mineral, frost, clouds |
Dec 14, 2004 |
| Cassini makes
Titan return pass |
Dec 13, 2004 |
| Spitzer, Hubble
capture evolving planetary systems |
Dec 12, 2004 |
| Lonely whale's
song remains a mystery |
Dec 11, 2004 |
| Nuclear space
explorer to solve riddles of Neptune |
Dec 10, 2004 |
| Frozen heavenly
body hints at a warm heart |
Dec 9, 2004 |
| Russian call
for Mars volunteers |
Dec 8, 2004 |
| 'Brainwave'
cap controls computer |
Dec 7, 2004 |
| Hubble spots
'youngest galaxy' |
Dec 7, 2004 |
| Artificial cells
take shape |
Dec 7, 2004 |
| Star's pulse
of radiation is strongest ever |
Dec 6, 2004 |
| Mission cleared
for Titan plunge |
Dec 4, 2004 |
| Rover data makes
return a must |
Dec 3, 2004 |
| Did our sun
capture alien worlds? |
Dec 2, 2004 |
| 'Super-rocket'
aims for January |
Dec 1, 2004 |
| Ancestor's DNA
code reconstructed |
Dec 1, 2004 |
Cassini targets 'two-faced' moon
(Dec 31, 2004)
The Cassini spacecraft is set to make a close pass of Saturn's moon
Iapetus, a striking world of two halves. One side of Iapetus' surface
is as bright as snow, while the other is coated in a material as dark
as tar. At 0130 GMT on 1 January, Cassini will swing by the frigid
moon at a distance of 123,400 km on its closest approach. Some scientists
think the dark material on Iapetus' surface came from space, while
others believe it could have spewed out from the moon's interior.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Did animals have quake warning?
(Dec 31, 2004)
Do wild animals have a sixth sense? Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka
have reported that, despite the loss of human life in the Asian disaster,
there have been no recorded animal deaths. Waves from the worst tsunami
in memory sent floodwater surging up to 3.5km (two miles) inland to
the island's biggest wildlife reserve. Many tourists drowned but,
to the surprise of officials, no dead animals have been found. It
has highlighted claims that animals may possess a sixth sense about
danger.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Quake may have made Earth wobble
(Dec 30, 2004)
The deadly Asian earthquake may have permanently accelerated the Earth's
rotation, shortening days by a fraction of a second and caused the
planet to wobble on its axis, US scientists said Tuesday. Richard
Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California,
theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the
quake Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or millionths
of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis.
Source: CNN/Reuters |
Camera scoops amazing Orion snaps
(Dec 30, 2004)
Astronomers have produced some amazing pictures using a remarkable
new instrument on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope in Hawaii.
The Wide Field Camera (WFCAM), built at the UK Astronomy Technology
Centre in Edinburgh, is the world's most powerful infrared survey
camera. WFCAM was trained on a region of star formation in the Orion
constellation about 1,500 light-years away. The stunning images cover
an area of sky that was unobtainable before.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Human brain result of 'extraordinarily
fast' evolution
(Dec 29, 2004)
The sophistication of the human brain is not simply the result of
steady evolution, according to new research. Instead, humans are truly
privileged animals with brains that have developed in a type of extraordinarily
fast evolution that is unique to the species. "Simply put, evolution
has been working very hard to produce us humans," said Bruce Lahn,
an assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago
and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Our study
offers the first genetic evidence that humans occupy a unique position
in the tree of life."
Read
more. Source: Guardian |
Virgin soars towards new frontier
(Dec 28, 2004)
The crowds are long gone from California's Mojave Airport and Burt
Rutan's team is back at work on a new flying machine. Like SpaceShipOne,
the homebuilt rocketship that claimed a £5.2m cash prize for twice
reaching suborbital space, Rutan's next creation will travel beyond
Earth's atmosphere as well. SpaceShipTwo (SS2), however, will have
more than a single occupant. Rutan is toying with designs to accommodate
up to eight passengers at a time, with enough upgrades to warrant
a ticket in the £104,000 (£200,000) price range.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Scientists study orbit of newly found
asteroid
(Dec 27, 2004)
There's a 1-in-300 chance that a recently discovered asteroid, believed
to be about 1,300 feet long, could hit Earth in 2029, a NASA scientist
said Thursday, but he added that the perceived risk probably will
be eliminated once astronomers get more detail about its orbit. There
have been only a limited number of sightings of Asteroid 2004 MN4,
which has been given an initial rating of 2 on the 10-point Torino
Impact Hazard Scale used by astronomers to predict asteroid or comet
impacts, said Donald Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Program
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. No previously observed
asteroid has been graded higher than 1.
Source: CNN |
Huygens probe unleashed on Titan
(Dec 25, 2004)
The Huygens probe has been released and is heading for Saturn's largest
moon, Titan, scientists have confirmed. A signal that the robot lab
had separated from its mothership, Cassini, was received by the US
space agency at its Jet Propulsion lab in Pasadena. Huygens is now
in a sleep mode and will take three weeks to reach the smog-shrouded
satellite of Saturn. When it enters Titan's atmosphere, the probe
will have just a few hours to collect data before its batteries die.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Mystery of Mars rover's 'carwash' rolls
on
(Dec 24, 2004)
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity seems to have stumbled into something
akin to a carwash that has left its solar panels much cleaner than
those of its twin rover, Spirit. A Martian carwash would account for
a series of unexpected boosts in the electrical power produced by
Opportunity's solar panels. The rovers landed on Mars in January 2004
with solar cells capable of providing more than 900 watt-hours of
electricity per day. Spirit's output has dropped to about 400 watt-hours,
partly because Martian dust has caked its solar panels. Opportunity's
output also declined at first – to around 500 watt-hours –
but over the past six months it has regained power. Lately, its solar
cells have been delivering just over 900 watt-hours.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Mars may be geologically active, new photos
imply
(Dec 23, 2004)
Mars, the red planet, may not after all be the dead planet. New research
today by European scientists suggests that volcanoes on Mars last
erupted only 2 million years ago and could erupt again. And dramatic
photographs by a high-resolution stereoscopic camera aboard the European
spacecraft Mars Express, in the journal Nature, suggest that glacial
ice could survive on the western scarp of Olympus Mons, the biggest
volcano in the solar system. Last week, Nature's US rival Science
named the confirmation of water on Mars as the scientific breakthrough
of 2004. But the revelation that Mars could be geologically "alive"
is even more dramatic.
Read
more. Source: Guardian |
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