SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: November 2004
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| Scientists propose conservation
parks on Mars |
Nov 29, 2004 |
| Bees survived dino extinction |
Nov 27, 2004 |
| Cassini captures Tethys in all
her glory |
Nov 25, 2004 |
| Homing pigeons reveal true magnetism |
Nov 25, 2004 |
| Science taps into ocean secrets |
Nov 23, 2004 |
| NASA launches cosmic blast hunter |
Nov 21, 2004 |
| Following in Pioneer's footsteps |
Nov 20, 2004 |
| Repelling cosmic rays with magnetic
bubbles |
Nov 20, 2004 |
| 'Original' great ape discovered |
Nov 18, 2004 |
| Superfast NASA jet pushes Mach
10 |
Nov 17, 2004 |
| Europe probe
arrives at the Moon |
Nov 16, 2004 |
| New claim
on location of Atlantis |
Nov 15, 2004 |
| NASA 'scramjet'
to launch on Mach 10 flight Monday |
Nov 15, 2004 |
| New observations
help Kuiper Belt lose weight |
Nov 14, 2004 |
| SMART-1 arrives
at the Moon |
Nov 13, 2004 |
| Mars moon
emerges from the dark |
Nov 12, 2004 |
| Firms look
to shuttle successor |
Nov 11, 2004 |
| Solar sail
craft gets launch date |
Nov 11, 2004 |
| Cassini discovers
music of the rings |
Nov 10, 2004 |
| Cassini radar
sees bright flow-like feature across Titan surface |
Nov 9, 2004 |
| Cosmic doomsday
delayed |
Nov 8, 2004 |
| Rover gets
mystery power boost |
Nov 6, 2004 |
| Hunt for shadowy
Kuiper belt objects all set |
Nov 5, 2004 |
| Supernova
debris found on Earth |
Nov 4, 2004 |
| Prometheus
caught stealing from Saturn's rings |
Nov 3, 2004 |
| Spider webs
untangle evolution |
Nov 2, 2004 |
| China aims
for five days in orbit |
Nov 2, 2004 |
| In the stars:
Titan's critical secret |
Nov 1, 2004 |
Scientists propose conservation parks
on Mars
(Nov 29, 2004)
Next time you go for a stroll on Mars, be sure you don't leave any
litter behind. A plan to keep parts of the red planet in their pristine
state could see seven areas turned into 'planetary parks', regulated
just like national parks here on Earth. The scheme has been proposed
by Charles Cockell, a microbiologist for the British Antarctic Survey
in Cambridge, and Gerda Horneck, an astrobiologist from the German
Aerospace Centre in Cologne, Germany.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
Bees survived dino extinction
(Nov 27, 2004)
New evidence shows tropical honeybees survived the post-impact winter
65 million years ago that is thought to have helped kill off the dinosaurs.
An asteroid is thought to have hit our planet at the end of the Cretaceous
Period, throwing up dust that blocked sunlight and dragged down temperatures.
Honeybees trapped in amber before the asteroid strike are nearly identical
to their modern relatives, data shows. Details were given at the Geological
Society of America's 2004 meeting.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Cassini captures Tethys in all her glory
(Nov 25, 2004)
In a portrait of perfect composition, Saturn’s moon Tethys has been
captured hanging suspended in space just below the planet’s horizon.
This latest image in Saturn’s family album was captured on 18 October
at a distance of 3.9 million kilometres from Saturn by the Cassini
spacecraft. It clearly shows the Ithaca Chasma, a vast trench about
65 km wide, on the surface of Tethys.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Homing pigeons reveal true magnetism
(Nov 25, 2004)
It's official: homing pigeons really can sense Earth's magnetic field.
An investigation of their ability to detect different magnetic fields
shows that their impressive navigation skills almost certainly relies
on tiny magnetic particles in their beaks. The discovery seems to
settle the question of how pigeons (Columba livia) have such an impressive
'nose for north'. Some experts had previously suggested that the birds
rely on different odour cues in the atmosphere to work out where they
are. But the latest findings suggest that they are using magnetic
cues.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
Science taps into ocean secrets
(Nov 23, 2004)
Some 13,000 new marine species have been discovered in the past year,
according to information released by an international alliance of
scientists. The Census of Marine Life (COML) has also uncovered previously
unknown migration routes used by fish such as tuna and shark. The
$1bn 10-year project, which is building a huge database, involves
researchers in more than 70 countries.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
NASA launches cosmic blast hunter
(Nov 21, 2004)
A new space observatory has been launched to hunt down and study the
most powerful explosions seen in the Universe since the Big Bang itself.
The Swift satellite will detect and analyse gamma-ray bursts –
very intense but fleeting flashes of radiation. Scientists think they
may signal the birth of black holes which are created when giant stars
fall in on themselves. Swift – a combined US, UK and Italian
mission – was launched on a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral
in Florida.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Following in Pioneer's footsteps
(Nov 20, 2004)
Does the puzzling behaviour of the Pioneer spacecraft at the edge
of the solar system reveal new laws of physics? Space scientists are
calling for a deep-space mission to find out. Even if there is no
revolutionary physics involved, they say that results could be vital
for engineers designing future deep-space probes. Pioneer 10 and 11
were launched in 1972 to explore Jupiter and Saturn. After their studies
there were done, they continued on towards the edge of the Solar System.
But since around 1980, when they passed beyond the orbit of Uranus,
the radio signals that they send back to Earth have been shifted to
progressively shorter wavelengths. This implies that the spacecraft
are decelerating very slightly on their outward journey. But no one
knows why this is happening.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
Repelling cosmic rays with magnetic bubbles
(Nov 20, 2004)
Astronauts could one day be protected from harmful cosmic rays during
a long haul spaceflight by a powerful magnetic bubble generated by
their own craft. A new project to investigate the possibility of fitting
spacecraft with a “magnetosphere” of their own, underway at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, US, recently received a cash boost from the
NASA-funded Institute for Advanced Concepts. Jeffrey Hoffman, an ex-astronaut
who leads the project, envisages generating a magnetic shield using
a superconducting magnet installed aboard a ship.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
'Original' great ape discovered
(Nov 18, 2004)
Scientists have unearthed remains of a primate that could have been
ancestral not only to humans but to all great apes, including chimps
and gorillas. The partial skeleton of this 13-million-year-old "missing
link" was found by palaeontologists working at a dig site near Barcelona
in Spain. Details of the sensational discovery appear in Science magazine.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Superfast NASA jet pushes Mach 10
(Nov 17, 2004)
NASA has flown an unmanned experimental jet to a speed that preliminary
data suggested was just short of 10 times the speed of sound –
a record. The X-43A – a supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet)
– made the run over a naval test range in the Pacific Ocean.
The 3.7m-long vehicle had already set a world best for an "air breathing"
jet of Mach 6.83 – nearly seven times the speed of sound –
on a flight in March.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
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