SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: December 2005
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Geologists witness 'ocean birth'
(Dec 12, 2005)
Scientists say they have witnessed the possible birth of a future
ocean basin growing in north-eastern Ethiopia. The team watched an
8-meter rift develop in the ground in just three weeks in the Afar
desert region last September. It is one small step in a long-term
split that is tearing the east of the country from the rest of Africa
and should eventually create a huge sea. The UK-Ethiopian group says
it was astonished at the speed with which the 60km-long fissure system
developed.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
US group proposes Neptune mission
(Dec 11, 2005)
Neptune and its largest moon, Triton, could be the targets of a major
space mission in the decades ahead, if a group of US researchers gets
its way. The team has put together a concept for a "mothership" and
probes that would investigate the ice giant which orbits some 4.5bn
km from the Sun. So far, only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, has visited
Neptune – a flyby in 1989.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Spiral arm of Milky Way looms closer than
thought
(Dec 9, 2005)
One of the Milky Way's star-studded spiral arms lies twice as close
to Earth as some previous estimates suggested. New research has produced
the most accurate distance measurement ever made of the arm, which
could help astronomers understand how our galaxy's spiral structure
formed. The Milky Way appears to be made up of four main arms that
curve around its centre like a pinwheel. "However, our view from the
interior makes it difficult to determine its spiral structure," writes
a team led by Ye Xu of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China,
in Science.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Chile desert's super-dry history
(Dec 8, 2005)
The Atacama desert in South America has been in a super-dry state
far longer than any other location on Earth - nearly 40 million years
in some places. The Atacama is well known for its lack of rainfall,
but scientists are only now getting a handle on how long it has experienced
low precipitation levels. Dr Tibor Dunai from Edinburgh, UK, is working
in the region to date surfaces. His team reports the existence of
hyper-arid conditions in the desert have lasted at least 20 million
years.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Extreme bugs back idea of life on Mars
(Dec 8, 2005)
Methane-producing microbes have been discovered in two extreme environments
on Earth - buried under kilometres of ice in Greenland and living
in hot, dry desert soil. The findings lend weight to the idea that
similar organisms may have lived on Mars. Live microbes making methane
were found in a glacial ice core sample retrieved from three kilometres
under Greenland by researchers from the University of California,
Berkeley, US. It is the first time such archaea have been found at
that depth, says Buford Price, one of the research team, which published
its results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
It's called Apophis. It's 390m wide. And
it could hit Earth in 31 years time
(Dec 7, 2005)
In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction,
a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness.
A fitting name, astronomers reasoned, for a menace now hurtling towards
Earth from outerspace. Scientists are monitoring the progress of a
390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on
a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments
to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.
Read
more. Source: Guardian |
Mystery mammal discovered in Borneo’s
forests
(Dec 6, 2005)
A mysterious red furry creature, captured on film in the dense forests
of Borneo, could be a new species of carnivore. The mammal, which
is slightly larger than a domestic cat, has dark red fur and a long,
bushy tail. It was snapped twice at night by a camera trap set up
by researchers from the conservation group WWF. Its general shape
– with a possibly pointed snout, small ears, and large powerful hind
legs – suggests it is a meat-eater. It has some similarities with
martens or civets and could belong to these groups, or it may belong
to an entirely new group, says WWF.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
XCOR rocket plane soars into record book
(Dec 5, 2005)
XCOR's EZ-Rocket flew into the history books today. The craft made
a record-setting point-to-point flight, departing here from the Mojave
California Spaceport, gliding to a touchdown at a neighboring airport
in California City. The rocket plane was piloted by Dick Rutan, no
stranger to milestone-making voyages. In 1986, Rutan was co-pilot
on the Voyager airplane that made the first nonstop, around-the-world
flight without refueling. The EZ-Rocket is a modified Long-EZ homebuilt
aircraft. The vehicle is propelled by twin 400-pound thrust, regeneratively
cooled rocket engines and fueled by isopropyl alcohol and liquid oxygen.
Read
more. Source: space.com |
Black hole's colossal sphere of influence
revealed
(Dec 3, 2005)
The observation of colossal bubbles of energetic particles in space
by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed the enormous sphere
of influence exerted by some black holes. This vast reach can also
slow down the growth of surrounding galaxies by slowing star formation.
“Direct observational evidence for a black hole having a large influence
has not been forthcoming till now,” says Andrew Fabian, at Cambridge
University, UK and leader of the study. “But we think this image really
shows something going on.”
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Study treads on footprint claim
(Dec 2, 2005)
Impressions in volcanic ash hailed as footprints made by the earliest
known human settlers in the Americas may not be what they seem, Nature
journal says. If confirmed, the 40,000-year-old marks would have debunked
accepted theories of human migration into the Americas. But the ash
has now been dated to 1.3 million years ago – more than a million
years before modern humans evolved.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Titan's atmosphere revealed as multilayered
mystery
(Dec 1, 2005)
Titan's atmosphere is remarkably like Earth's, but even more complex
and multilayered, according to results from the European Space Agency’s
Huygens probe. The lander also saw signs of lightning and found chemical
clues to the source of Titan's methane, which probably bubbles up
from deep inside Saturn’s giant moon. Titan is the only satellite
in the solar system to have any appreciable atmosphere. It is mainly
nitrogen, like Earth’s air, but it is 10 times as dense as our terrestrial
atmosphere. As a result, the parachute-braked descent of Huygens to
the surface in January took a leisurely 2.5 hours, giving it ample
time to sample the gases around it.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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