SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: March 2004
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Mystery of the Martian 'blueberries' solved
(Mar 17, 2004)
The Mars rover Opportunity has now solved the key puzzle it was sent
to the Meridiani Planum to figure out: where is the hematite that
was spotted in the area by the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter? The answer
is in the "blueberries", the tiny mineral spheres that litter the
rover's landing site. The question was a key one, because hematite
almost always forms in water, and water is thought to be a pre-requisite
for life. Scientists led by Arizona State University's Phil Christensen
revealed their discovery at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference
in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday. Finding the hematite in the spheres
makes sense, because earlier data from the rover showed the spheres
are almost certainly concretions formed when water deposited layer
after layer of minerals around a minute grain of sand.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Mars mission criticized by watchdog
(Mar 17, 2004)
A public spending watchdog criticized scientists behind the doomed
Beagle 2 mission to Mars Tuesday for neglecting to highlight the chances
of mission failure when they applied for British government funding.
The government plowed more than $40 million into the British-built
Mars lander, which has not been heard from since it was ejected from
its mother ship in mid-December. Beagle 2 – Europe's first attempt
to land a probe on the Red Planet – was designed to search for
clues of life on Mars. The tiny lander was due to spend six months
probing and analyzing rocks and soil with its robotic arm, sending
back data via the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. Mission
controllers now believe it's likely that the lander crash-landed on
the Red Planet on Christmas Day, probably because the atmosphere was
less dense than expected.
Source: CNN/AP |
Sun's massive explosion upgraded
(Mar 16, 2004)
The massive solar flare that erupted from the Sun last November was
far bigger than scientists first thought. At the time, satellite detectors
were unable to record its true size because they were blinded by its
radiation. But University of Otago physicists say they have now estimated
the probable scale of the huge explosion by studying how X-rays hit
the Earth's atmosphere. They tell Geophysical Research Letters the
X45 class event was more than twice as big as the previous record
flare. Fortunately, the Earth did not take a direct hit from this
immense blast of radiation and matter. Had it done so, several orbiting
satellites would almost certainly have been damaged and there could
have been considerable disruption of radio communications and power
grids on the planet's surface.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Early human marks are 'symbols'
(Mar 16, 2004)
A series of parallel lines engraved in an animal bone between 1.4
and 1.2 million years ago may be the earliest example of human symbolic
behaviour. University of Bordeaux experts say no practical process,
such as butchering a carcass, can explain the markings. But many researchers
believe the capacity for true symbolic thinking arose much later with
the emergence of modern humans, Homo sapiens. The 8cm-long bone was
unearthed at the Kozarnika cave in north-west Bulgaria. Another animal
bone found at the site is incised with 27 marks along its edge.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
New planet may have a moon
(Mar 16, 2004)
The distant object that some astronomers think could be the Solar
System's 10th planet may have a moon. The new planetary candidate,
which has been named Sedna, rotates more slowly on itself than expected,
suggesting it may have a satellite orbiting it. One of the scientists
who found Sedna has been giving further details of its discovery at
a news conference. Observations show it measures less than 1,700km
(about 1,000 miles) in diameter, which is smaller than Pluto. "We
think that there's evidence there is a satellite around Sedna," said
Dr Mike Brown, of the California Institute of Technology, US, and
leader of the research team that found the body.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Plan to melt through Europa's ice
(Mar 15, 2004)
Researchers are testing technology that could allow a lander to melt
through the ice crust of Jupiter's moon Europa to reach the water
ocean beneath. Space scientists want to send a craft to the Jovian
moon because its ocean might, in theory, harbour life. Once through
the 10-30km ice sheet, the probe could take a sample of water, to
analyse it for microbial life. But significant engineering challenges
remain before the German Aerospace Centre lander could be sent to
Europa. "The idea is to land on Europa and somehow get through the
ice," the centre's Dr Stephan Ulamec told BBC News Online. "One needs
some kind of melting probe which can melt through the ice and carry
out investigation in the liquid ocean expected underneath." The prototype
being tested by Dr Ulamec is a 225cm-long hollow aluminium cylinder
with a copper melting head powered by an electrical cable.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Astronomers find new planet or planetoid
around Sun
(Mar 15, 2004)
Astronomers have discovered a new world circling the Sun farther away
than other planets. Found in an outer Solar System survey by the recently
launched Spitzer Space Telescope, it has been called Sedna after the
Inuit goddess of the ocean. Observations show it is about 2,000 km
across, and it may even be larger than Pluto which is 2,250 km across.
The Hubble Space Telescope has also seen it. Details will be announced
by the US space agency NASA on Monday. Sedna is the largest object
found circling the Sun since the discovery of Pluto in 1930. Its size
is uncertain.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Clumps seen in Saturn's rings
(Mar 14, 2004)
Scientists have only a rough idea of the lifetime of clumps in Saturn's
rings – a mystery that Cassini may help answer. The latest images
taken by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft show clumps seemingly embedded
within Saturn’s narrow, outermost F ring. The narrow angle camera
took the images on Feb. 23, 2004, from a distance of 62.9 million
km. The two images taken nearly two hours apart show these clumps
as they revolve about the planet. The small dot at center right in
the second image is one of Saturn's small moons, Janus, which is 181
km, across. Like all particles in Saturn's ring system, these clump
features orbit the planet in the same direction in which the planet
rotates. This direction is clockwise as seen from Cassini's southern
vantage point below the ring plane. Two clumps in particular, one
of them extended, is visible in the upper part of the F ring in the
image on the left, and in the lower part of the ring in the image
on the right. Other knot-like irregularities in the ring's brightness
are visible in the image on the right.
Read
more. Source: NASA/JPL |
Mystery of Uranus and Neptune magnetic
fields solved?
(Mar 13, 2004)
Geophysicists might have solved one of the biggest mysteries in the
solar system - why do the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune differ
from those of the other planets? Computer simulations by Sabine Stanley
and Jeremy Bloxham of Harvard University suggest that the two planets
have a fluid core that is surrounded by a relatively thin outer layer.
The Earth and other planets such as Jupiter and Saturn have an inner
rocky core that is surrounded by a thick convecting shell. The results
mean it may be possible to use magnetic fields to learn more about
the internal structure and composition of planets. Photo: Voyager
2 image of Neptune.
Read
more. Source: PhysicsWeb |
Asteroid targets picked for Rosetta
(Mar 12, 2004)
Today the Rosetta Science Working Team has made the final selection
of the asteroids that Rosetta will observe at close quarters during
its journey to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Steins and Lutetia
lie in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Rosetta's
scientific goals always included the possibility of studying one or
more asteroids from close range. However, only after Rosetta's launch
and its insertion into interplanetary orbit could the ESA mission
managers assess how much fuel was actually available for fly-bys.
Information from the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany
enabled Rosetta's Science Working Team to select a pair of asteroids
of high scientific interest, well within the fuel budget.
Read
more. Source: ESA |
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