SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: February 2004
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Giant black hole rips star apart
(Feb 19, 2004)
A super-massive black hole has ripped apart a star and consumed a
portion of it, according to data from ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's
Chandra X-ray observatories. These results are the best evidence yet
that such a phenomenon, long predicted by theory, does actually happen.
Astronomers believe that a doomed star came too close to a giant black
hole after a close encounter with another star threw it off course.
As it neared the enormous gravity of the black hole, the star was
stretched by tidal forces until it was torn apart. This discovery
provides crucial information on how these black holes grow and affect
the surrounding stars and gas.
Read
more. Source: ESA |
Distant galaxies line up in space
(Feb 18, 2004)
Astronomers are puzzled by an image of a distant cluster of galaxies
in which they are lined up like a string that is stretched across
the Universe. The Japanese-built Subaru telescope, positioned on an
extinct volcano in Hawaii, took the extraordinary picture. Astronomers
think the cosmic alignment has something to do with the way the cluster
of galaxies is being assembled. Most galaxies in the Cosmos belong
to a cluster, and in turn galaxy clusters form clusters of themselves
as well.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Rover goes for longest trip yet
(Feb 17, 2004)
The Spirit rover went for its longest trip yet on the surface of Mars,
traveling just over 88 feet (26.4 meters) but stopping short of the
distance NASA had hoped it would cover, scientists said Monday. Engineers
had hoped the rover would travel 164 feet (49.2 meters) on its way
to a crater known as "Bonneville" to examine rocks and soil for evidence
that water may have existed on the red planet, mission manager Jim
Erickson said. "Spirit, she's put some more territory behind her,"
Erickson said. "We're closer but not as close as we'd wanted to be."
The rover didn't cover the full distance because it spent more time
than initially planned studying rocks and soil along the way, he said.
Read
more. Source: CNN |
Diamond star thrills astronomers
(Feb 16, 2004)
Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion
carats, astronomers have discovered. The cosmic diamond is a chunk
of crystallised carbon, 1,500 km across, some 50 light-years from
the Earth in the constellation Centaurus. It's the compressed heart
of an old star that was once bright like our Sun but has since faded
and shrunk. Astronomers have decided to call the star "Lucy," after
the Beatles song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Hubble sees most distant object
(Feb 16, 2004)
The farthest object in the Universe yet detected has been seen by
scientists using the Hubble and Keck telescopes. It is so distant
its light must have set out when the Universe was just 750m years
old to reach the Earth now. Details of the discovery were revealed
by a team of astrophysicists from the California Institute of Technology.
The new object was first seen in a series of observations of a cluster
of galaxies known as Abell 2218, conducted with Hubble's Advanced
Camera for Surveys, installed on its last servicing mission. The object
is not in the cluster but situated a long way behind it. Abell 2218
was simply used as a "gravitational lens" - a massive foreground object
that can bend and magnify the light of objects much further away.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Huygens probe aims for white-knuckle descent
(Feb 14, 2004)
Scientists have been giving details of the Huygens space probe, which
is due to land on Saturn's moon Titan in just under a year's time.
The probe, a joint mission between the US and European space agencies,
will focus on the oily oceans which researchers believe cover much
of the surface. Huygens marks a new stage in man's quest to explore
the Solar System. It will be the first time that a craft has landed
on a moon other than our own. Depending on where it touches down,
it may also be the first time that something made by the hands of
humans has entered an ocean anywhere else than on Earth. But Titan's
oceans are completely unlike Earth's – they are dark and oily,
made of liquid methane and ethane.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Mars Express stares at volcano
(Feb 13, 2004)
Europe's Mars Express space probe in orbit around the Red Planet has
produced a stunning image of the highest volcano in the Solar System.
The probe produced images of Olympus Mons, a 22 kilometre-high volcano.
The images show the volcano's caldera, the circular depression from
which magma erupts or is withdrawn. "I was amazed myself at how good
it is," Professor Gerhard Neukum, principal investigator on the probe's
camera told BBC News Online. Olympus Mons is almost three times the
height of Mount Everest in the Himalayas. The Martian volcano's caldera
alone has a depth of 3 km.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Mars rover reveals new details about rocks
(Feb 13, 2004)
NASA's Opportunity rover has revealed new details about the finely
layered rocks that partially ring the shallow crater cradling the
spacecraft. New photographs of the rock outcrop, no taller than a
curb, show the layers aren't always parallel to one another, NASA
said. That suggests the layers were laid down in a dynamic environment.
Scientists believe volcanic ash blown across the landscape or dust,
transported by water or wind, accumulated to form the angled layers
visible in the sulfur-rich rock. "That generally means whatever medium
the matrix was deposited in was in motion – whether it was the
air or water," said Steve Squyres, a Cornell University astronomer
and the mission's main scientist.
Read
more. Source: CNN |
New star emerges from dust cocoon
(Feb 12, 2004)
An amateur astronomer in the US has detected the emergence of a young
star from the cocoon of gas and dust in which it was born. Such an
event has only rarely been recorded by astronomers. "This is exciting
for all astronomers, especially those interested in the birth of stars,"
University of Hawaii astronomer Bo Reipurth told the BBC. The new
object was first spotted on 23 January by amateur astronomer Jay McNeil
from his observatory at Paducah in Kentucky and had appeared alongside
the well-known gas cloud known as Messier 78 (see photo).
Read
more. Source: BBC |
NASA to boost Mars rovers' distance mark
(Feb 12, 2004)
Not content to allow the Spirit rover to rest on its laurels, NASA
wants to send the six-wheeled spacecraft on what should be longer
drives on Mars. Spirit already has broken the one-day distance record
on Mars by rolling nearly 70 feet across the planet's rocky surface.
No other robot, including Spirit's twin, Opportunity, has ever rolled
as far on Mars in a day. NASA, emboldened by the feat, plans to gradually
increase that distance for both identical rovers. Eventually, it could
command the pair to make daily trips of 140 feet and more. Spirit's
longest drive so far took it three times the distance that NASA's
tiny Sojourner rover ever traveled in a day during its own 1997 mission
to Mars. "Probably it just will continue to climb from here," said
mission manager Jim Erickson.
Read
more. Source: CNN |
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