The growth of the commercial space-flight industry could be stifled by over-regulating it, space tourism entrepreneurs warned US government officials on Wednesday. In June 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first private vehicle to carry a human into space. Then in December, the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 – signed into law by President George W Bush – established regulatory authority over space tourism. As the law stands, the US government will grant the licences for commercial spacecraft, while the US Federal Aviation Administration – responsible for civil aviation – will regulate the industry with respect to the protection of the public on the ground. But the FAA will not be allowed to issue safety regulations for passengers and crew for eight years – unless specific features or practices within the fledgling industry cause a serious or fatal injury.
Huygens had a rough ride during its descent to Titan Scientists have successfully measured the wind speeds that pummelled Huygens during its bumpy descent through the atmosphere of Titan. Researchers initially feared the information was lost because one of Cassini's receivers was faulty. But a network of terrestrial radio telescopes has managed to salvage the data, to the delight of the team. Measurements reveal that wind speeds are weak near the surface of Titan, becoming stronger with altitude.
Did stardust trigger snowball Earth?
(Feb 10, 2005)
Our planet may have frozen over in the past as it drifted though giant dust clouds in space. The result of the dust-bath would have been an almost complete overcoat of ice for the world, according to a new theory. A group of US and Russian researchers argue that interstellar dust might have accumulated in Earth's atmosphere and cooled the planet, tipping the climate towards a 'snowball Earth' event in which ice sheets keep growing until they cover almost the entire globe.
Infrared images of Saturn's atmosphere, taken by the Keck observatory, show the planet's "hot spot" at the south pole. The pictures reveal how temperatures on the planet take a sudden jump, from about 30 degrees south, with another sharp rise at the very tip of the pole. In Earth's atmosphere, polar vortices would usually trap cold air. On Saturn, US space agency (NASA) scientists think vortices may constrain particles warmed by the Sun in the stratosphere and high troposphere.
First stellar outcast discovered by astronomers
(Feb 9, 2005)
Using the MMT Observatory in Tucson, AZ, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) are the first to report the discovery of a star leaving our galaxy, speeding along at over 1.5 million miles per hour. This incredible speed likely resulted from a close encounter with the Milky Way's central black hole, which flung the star outward like a stone from a slingshot. So strong was the event that the speedy star eventually will be lost altogether, traveling alone in the blackness of intergalactic space. "We have never before seen a star moving fast enough to completely escape the confines of our galaxy," said co-discoverer Warren Brown (CfA). "We're tempted to call it the outcast star because it was forcefully tossed from its home."
Read more. Source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Carbon-rich planets may boast diamond interiors
(Feb 9, 2005)
Bizarre planets with internal layers of diamond many kilometres thick may form in carbon-rich areas of the galaxy, a new study suggests. The diamond-rich planets could form from the dusty protoplanetary discs found around many stars, if they are rich in carbon and poor in oxygen, says Marc Kuchner at Princeton University, New Jersey. Composed largely of heat-resistant carbides and graphite – as well as diamond – these planets could withstand much higher temperatures than terrestrial planets or gas giants, he says. This might account for giant non-gas planets found surprisingly close to other stars. (Artwork: Lynette Cook)
Astronomers discover beginnings of 'mini' solar system
(Feb 8, 2005)
Moons circle planets, and planets circle stars. Now, astronomers have learned that planets may also circle celestial bodies almost as small as planets. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted a dusty disk of planet-building material around an extraordinarily low-mass brown dwarf, or "failed star." The brown dwarf, called OTS 44, is only 15 times the mass of Jupiter. Previously, the smallest brown dwarf known to host a planet-forming disk was 25 to 30 times more massive than Jupiter. The finding will ultimately help astronomers better understand how and where planets – including rocky ones resembling our own – form.
The Hubble Space Telescope and a mission to explore Jupiter's moons look to be the biggest casualties in NASA's 2006 budget plans outlined on Monday. Under the proposals, a mission to service Hubble would be scrapped and the observatory brought back to earth. NASA's total budget would rise 2.4% over 2005 to about $16.5bn (£9bn), but only $93m would be spent on Hubble. About $75m (£40m) of that would be used to develop a robot mission to steer it into the ocean at the end of its life.
Mars Express 'divining rod' to deploy
(Feb 7, 2005)
A "divining rod" to search for underground water on Mars will be deployed on Europe's Mars Express spacecraft early this spring, after a year of delays. The new deployment date for the radar antenna – to be announced within days – is likely to fall in April 2005. Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding – or MARSIS – consists of wires strung inside three long fibreglass tubes. These will seek water – which might provide oases for life – as deep as several kilometres below the Martian surface. The tubes, currently folded and stored onboard Mars Express, were originally scheduled for deployment in April 2004.
Greenhouse gases could breathe life into Mars
(Feb 6, 2005)
Pumping greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere over hundreds or even thousands of years could warm the frozen planet enough to sustain life, according to new research. Synthetic fluorine-based gases could produce global warming on Mars while also creating an atmosphere conducive to life, say scientists at the NASA Ames Research Centre, California, US. Conditions on Mars are currently inhospitable for advanced life. Temperatures on the Red Planet currently dip down to -120°C at night near the poles. And the atmospheric pressure on Mars is much less than on Earth as its atmosphere is thinner and its gravity lower. In order to support life, scientists have proposed transforming Mars into an Earth-like planet in a process called terraforming.
Tiny single-celled creatures, many of them previously unknown to science, have been found at the deepest point in the world's oceans, almost 11km down. The soft-walled foraminifera, a form of plankton, were recovered by the Japanese remote submersible Kaiko. Yuko Todo and colleagues report their discovery in Science magazine. They say the organisms have become adapted to the crushing pressures that exist in a location of the Marianas Trench known as Challenger Deep.
Underground search for 'God particle'
(Feb 4, 2005)
At the foot of the Jura Mountains, where Switzerland meets France, is a laboratory so vast it boggles the mind. But take a drive past the open fields, traditional chalets and petite new apartment blocks and you will look for it in vain. To find this enormous complex, you have to travel beneath the surface. One hundred metres below Geneva's western suburbs is a dimly lit tunnel that runs in a perfect circle for 27 km (17 miles). The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a powerful and impossibly complicated machine that will smash particles together at super-fast speeds in a bid to unlock the secrets of the Universe.
Step out of the Florida heat into the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at Nasa's launch complex at Cape Canaveral and you enter a cool dark cathedral to spaceflight. It is a structure more than 50 storeys high that has witnessed the greatest and the worst moments of America's ventures into the heavens. It was here that the giant Saturn rockets were pieced together before the Apollo missions to the Moon. The cranes and catwalks and mobile platforms are now frantically busy once more as engineers prepare for an event which could prove pivotal for the future of NASA: getting the space shuttle flying again. NASA only has three of the spacecraft left so this mission cannot fail. A provisional launch date has been set for May 12.
Birds rise in intellectual pecking order
(Feb 1, 2005)
The skylark could be going up in the world. The crow has something to crow about. Scientists could be about to think again about the little grey cells of the grey goose. From now on, a bird's brain may no longer be classed as birdbrained. Mammals have complex brains, including a neocortex for learning tricks and nerve cells called basal ganglia which control instinctive behaviour. Birds, until now, have been thought to have only basal ganglia. But the avian nomenclature consortium – an international team of 29 neuroscientists led by Erich Jarvis of Duke University medical centre in North Carolina – argue today in Nature Reviews Neuroscience that it is time for a change.
