SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: April 2005
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| Table-top fusion 'demonstrated' |
Apr 30, 2005 |
| Saturn probe spies 'cheese' moon |
Apr 29, 2005 |
| NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft
spots its quarry |
Apr 28, 2005 |
| Whatever happened to machines
that think? |
Apr 27, 2005 |
| Organic materials spotted high
above Titan's surface |
Apr 26, 2005 |
| Cavers smash world depth record |
Apr 25, 2005 |
| Mice put in 'suspended animation' |
Apr 22, 2005 |
| Dusty debris may be asteroid
belt |
Apr 21, 2005 |
| Five giant impact basins reveal
the ancient equator of Mars |
Apr 20, 2005 |
| Early Universe was a liquid |
Apr 19, 2005 |
| Early Universe
was packed with mini black holes |
Apr 18, 2005 |
| Distant planetoid
Sedna gives up more secrets |
Apr 16, 2005 |
| Eggs found
inside dinosaur fossil |
Apr 15, 2005 |
| Relic star
poses cosmic puzzles |
Apr 14, 2005 |
| Sunny spot
picked out for future lunar base |
Apr 14, 2005 |
| Look out for
giant triangles in space |
Apr 13, 2005 |
| Ray burst
is extinction suspect |
Apr 12, 2005 |
| Cosmic particle
accelerator seen |
Apr 12, 2005 |
| Why Einstein
may have got it wrong |
Apr 11, 2005 |
| Titan probe's
pebble 'bash-down' |
Apr 11, 2005 |
| Ground telescopes
to 'super-size' |
Apr 10, 2005 |
| Deepest X-rays
tell merger story |
Apr 8, 2005 |
| Possible signs
of life on Titan |
Apr 7, 2005 |
| Swift measures
distance to gamma-ray bursts |
Apr 7, 2005 |
| Fleshing out
the 'first ape-man' |
Apr 7, 2005 |
| Mars rovers
enjoy a new lease of life |
Apr 7, 2005 |
| Telescope
catches early starlight |
Apr 6, 2005 |
| Galaxy has
mystery star clusters |
Apr 5, 2005 |
| Plenty of
Earths await discovery |
Apr 5, 2005 |
| Black holes
'do not exist' |
Apr 4, 2005 |
| Great extinction
came in phases |
Apr 4, 2005 |
| Confirmed
picture of a planet beyond the solar system |
Apr 2, 2005 |
Table-top fusion 'demonstrated'
(Apr 30, 2005)
A US team has created a "pocket-sized" nuclear fusion reactor that
generates neutrons,
Nature magazine reports. Scientists have tried to harness nuclear
fusion – the same process that powers the Sun – for
commercial uses but this goal has remained elusive. The new device
is expected only to have small niche applications, such as in fine-control
thrusters on spacecraft. Full-scale fusion is a key target because
it would provide an abundant source of relatively clean energy.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Saturn probe spies 'cheese' moon
(Apr 29, 2005)
The international Cassini
spacecraft has obtained the closest picture yet of Saturn's small
moon Epimetheus.
At just 116 km (72 miles) across, the satellite is slightly smaller
than its companion moon, Janus,
which orbits at much the same distance from Saturn.
Looking not unlike a large lump of cheese, Epimetheus sports many
craters. One large impact site featured in the new picture is known
as Hilairea, and appears as a deep hole with a diameter of about 33
km (21 miles).
Read
more. Source: BBC |
NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft spots its
quarry
(Apr 28, 2005)
Sixty-nine days before it gets up-close-and-personal with a comet,
NASA's Deep Impact
spacecraft successfully photographed its quarry, comet Tempel 1, at
a distance of 39.7 million miles. The image, the first of many comet
portraits it will take over the next 10 weeks, will aid Deep Impact's
navigators, engineers and scientists as they plot their final trajectory
toward an Independence Day encounter.
Read
more. Source: NASA/JPL |
Whatever happened to machines that think?
(Apr 27, 2005)
Clever computers are everywhere. From robotic lawnmowers to intelligent
lighting, washing machines and even car engines that self-diagnose
faults, there's a silicon brain in just about every modern device
you can think of. But can you honestly call any machine intelligent
in a meaningful sense of the word? ... the next few months, after
being patiently nurtured for 22 years, an artificial
brain called Cyc (pronounced "psych") will be put online for the
world to interact with. And it's only going to get cleverer.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Organic materials spotted high above Titan's
surface
(Apr 26, 2005)
During its closest flyby of Saturn's moon Titan
on April 16, the Cassini spacecraft came within 1,027 kilometers (638
miles) of the moon's surface and found that the outer layer of the
thick, hazy atmosphere is brimming with complex hydrocarbons.
Scientists believe that Titan's atmosphere may be a laboratory for
studying the organic chemistry that preceded life and provided the
building blocks for life on Earth. The role of the upper atmosphere
in this organic "factory" of hydrocarbons is very intriguing to scientists,
especially given the large number of different hydrocarbons detected
by Cassini during
the flyby.
Read
more. Source: NASA/JPL |
Cavers smash world depth record
(Apr 25, 2005)
A Ukrainian team has set a new depth record for caving. The nine-strong
group travelled 2,080 m (6,822 ft) underground, passing the elusive
2,000 m mark at Krubera, the world's deepest known cave. The team
was part of a project that has made breaking through 2,000 m its goal
for the past four years. It built on records set by a previous expedition,
which blasted through blocked passages in the cave, within Georgia's
breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Mice put in 'suspended animation'
(Apr 22, 2005)
Mice have been placed in a state of near suspended
animation, raising the possibility that hibernation could one
day be induced in humans. If so, it might be possible to put astronauts
into hibernation-like states for long-haul space flights – as
often depicted in science fiction films. A US team from Seattle reports
its findings in Science magazine. In this case, suspended animation
means the reversible cessation of all visible life processes in an
organism.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Dusty debris may be asteroid belt
(Apr 21, 2005)
The Spitzer
telescope has detected what looks to be an asteroid belt around
a star some 41 light-years from Earth. US astronomers say that if
confirmed it would be the first such band of rocky material found
around a star of similar age and size to our own Sun. The alien girdle
is quite close to its star, known as HD69830, and is much thicker
than the asteroid
belt seen between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The scientists
hope to use the Spitzer data to learn about planet
formation.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Five giant impact basins reveal the ancient
equator of Mars
(Apr 20, 2005)
Since the time billions of years ago when Mars
was formed, it has never been a spherically symmetric planet, nor
is it composed of similar materials throughout, say scientists who
have studied the planet. Since its formation, it has changed its shape,
for example, through the development of the Tharsis bulge, an eight
kilometer [five mile] high feature that covers one-sixth of the Martian
surface, and through volcanic activity. As a result of these and other
factors, its polar axis has not been stable relative to surface features
and is known to have wandered through the eons as Mars rotated around
it and revolved around the Sun. Now, a Canadian researcher has calculated
the location of Mars' ancient poles, based upon the location of five
giant impact basins on the planet's surface.
Read
more. Source: spaceref/AGU |
Early Universe was a liquid
(Apr 19, 2005)
The Universe consisted of a perfect liquid in its first moments, according
to results from an atom-smashing experiment. Scientists at the Relativistic
Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long
Island, New York, have spent five years searching for the quark-gluon
plasma that is thought to have filled our Universe in the first microseconds
of its existence. Most of them are now convinced they have found it.
But, strangely, it seems to be a liquid rather than the expected hot
gas.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
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