SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: January 2005
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Why the Sun seems to be 'dimming'
(Jan 16, 2005)
We are all seeing rather less of the Sun, according to scientists
who have been looking at five decades of sunlight measurements. They
have reached the disturbing conclusion that the amount of solar energy
reaching the Earth's surface has been gradually falling. Paradoxically,
the decline in sunlight may mean that global warming is a far greater
threat to society than previously thought. The effect was first spotted
by Gerry Stanhill, an English scientist working in Israel.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
From 750m miles away, a glimpse of a frozen,
ancient Earth
(Jan 15, 2005)
Scientists last night unveiled an aerial study of an alien world,
across a distance of more than 750 million miles. From an altitude
of 10 miles, a little European robot equipped with camera and microphone
took the first picture of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. Below
the thick methane haze, the descending intruder saw evidence of a
shoreline – and perhaps a sea or an ocean – and the telltale
pattern of drainage. Close-up pictures from the surface of Titan revealed
an enigmatic landscape of eroded boulders. It was the climax of more
than 20 years of planning, and a 2bn-mile voyage lasting seven years.
The pictures took 67 minutes to return.
Read
more. Source: Guardian |
Space probe lands on Titan
(Jan 14, 2005)
The Huygens space probe has touched down on the surface of one of
Saturn's moons, Titan, and is sending back signals, say space agency
scientists. The spacecraft probe had been transmitting data for over
two hours as it plunged towards the moon's surface. This data has
not arrived on Earth yet, but the Green Bank radio telescope in West
Virginia, US, detected its carrier signal – a sign the probe
was working. It is the furthest from Earth a spacecraft has ever been
landed.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Opportunity spots curious object On Mars
(Jan 14, 2005)
NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover has come across an interesting object
– perhaps a meteorite sitting out in the open at Meridiani Planum.
Initial data taken by the robot’s Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer
(Mini-TES) is suggestive that the odd-looking “rock” is made of metal.
The curious-looking object stands out in the parking-lot like landscape
of Meridiani Planum. “We're curious about it too. We have Mini-TES
data on it now, and they suggest that it may actually be made of metal,”
said Steve Squyres, lead scientist on the Mars Exploration Rover mission
from Cornell University. “So we are beginning to suspect that it may
be a meteorite. I stress that this is very preliminary!”, Squyres
told SPACE.com.
Read
more. Source: space.com |
Huygens set for Titan encounter
(Jan 13, 2005)
The Huygens spacecraft is ready to make history as it heads for its
rendezvous with Saturn's smog-shrouded moon Titan. On 14 January,
Huygens will dive through Titan's atmosphere taking images and readings
on the way. Its scientific investigation of this mysterious world
could yield clues to how life first arose on Earth. The robotic lab
will hit Titan's atmosphere at 0907 GMT. If all goes well, it will
be the furthest from Earth a spacecraft has been landed.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Three largest stars identified
(Jan 12, 2005)
Astronomers have identified the three biggest stars known to science.
If they were located in the same place as our own Sun – at the
centre of the Solar System – the stars would stretch out further
than the orbit of Jupiter. The red "supergiant" stars are more than
1.5 billion km across, pushing the previous record holder, Herschel's
"Garnet Star", into fourth place. The new research was presented on
Monday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in San Diego,
US.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Comet probe prepares for lift-off
(Jan 11, 2005)
NASA's Deep Impact mission, which will crash a projectile into Comet
Tempel 1, is ready to launch from Cape Canaveral at 1847 GMT on Wednesday
12 January. It will arrive at Tempel 1 six months later and eject
a 372kg projectile into its path to blast a deep hole in its nucleus
and reveal what lies beneath. The projectile will collide with the
comet on 4 July – 24 hours after its release – travelling
at 37,000km/h. It could punch a crater in the comet big enough to
swallow Rome's Colloseum.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Iapetus moon bulges at the sides
(Jan 10, 2005)
The Cassini spacecraft's flyby of Saturn's moon Iapetus has revealed
a bizarre geological feature in its images: a bulging ridge at its
equator. Mission scientists have started to release detailed images
of the moon's surface, which is sharply divided into a bright half
and a dark half. The ridge is around 13km (8 miles) high in some places
– taller than Mount Everest, the tallest peak on Earth. Data
from the pass may help solve how the moon looks the way it does.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
New study shows that dark matter clumps
in galaxies
(Jan 10, 2005)
Hubble Space Telescope data, analyzed by a Yale astronomer using gravitational
lensing techniques, has generated a spatial map demonstrating the
clumped substructure of dark matter inside clusters of galaxies. Clusters
of galaxies are typically made up of hundreds of galaxies bound together
by gravity. About 90 percent of their mass is dark matter. The rest
is ordinary atoms in the form of hot gas and stars. Although little
is known about it, cold dark matter is thought to have structure at
all magnitudes. Theoretical models of the clumping properties were
derived from detailed, high resolution simulations of the growth of
structure in the Universe. Although previous evidence supported the
“concordance model” of a Universe mostly composed of cold, dark matter,
the predicted substructure had never been detected.
Read
more. Source: Yale University |
Rats show off language skills
(Jan 10, 2005)
Rats can tell the difference between Dutch and Japanese, suggests
a new study. But it is not because some spy agency has bioengineered
them to eavesdrop on conversations in Tokyo or Amsterdam. They are
simply recognising the difference in rhythmic properties of the languages,
says Juan Toro, a neuroscientist at the University of Barcelona in
Spain, whose study is part of an effort to trace the origins of the
skills that humans use to analyse speech. Human infants are extremely
sensitive to the rhythmic regularities of language, which researchers
think may help infants to break sound into patterns they can decipher
as words. Earlier experiments showed that both tamarin monkeys and
human infants can discriminate between Dutch and Japanese –
two languages with rhythmic content that differs greatly.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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