SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: March 2005
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Evidence of dark energy missed 30 years
ago
(Mar 12, 2005)
The discovery in the 1990s that there could be some kind of mysterious
dark energy that is accelerating the expansion of the universe came
from studies of supernovae billions of light years away. Now, it turns
out that the evidence for dark energy was there in our cosmic backyard
all along, and that astronomers could have discovered it nearly 30
years ago.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Stars can only grow so big
(Mar 11, 2005)
We'll never find a star larger than about 150 times the size of our
Sun, according to observations of a star cluster at the centre of
our Galaxy. Astronomers have previously been unable to agree whether
stars have a natural limit to their size, or what that limit might
be. Theoretical estimates based on the turbulent dynamics of stars'
guts have ranged from 10 to 1000 solar masses. So Donald Figer, an
astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore,
Maryland, searched for massive stars within the Arches cluster (shown
here) using the Hubble Space Telescope.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
Voyager probes in funding crisis
(Mar 11, 2005)
NASA's twin Voyager probes may have to close down in October to save
money, the US space agency has said. Launched in 1977, Voyagers One
and Two are now more than 14 billion and 11 billion km from Earth,
respectively. They are on their final mission to locate the boundary
between the Sun's domain and interstellar space. But the agency's
Earth-Sun System division has had to cut its budget for next year
from $74m to $53m, meaning that some projects will be abandoned.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Meteor Crater formation revisited
(Mar 10, 2005)
The iron mass that smashed into Arizona some 49,000 years ago to create
Meteor Crater was just the crumbled remains of a far larger rock body.
What is more, this shower of debris was moving much slower than researchers
had previously thought. The re-assessment is the work of Drs Jay Melosh
and Gareth Collins. The US scientists tell Nature magazine that a
re-modelling of the impact has thrown up new ideas about the 1.2km-wide
hole in the ground.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Experts weigh super-volcano risks
(Mar 9, 2005)
Geologists have called for a taskforce to be set up to consider emergency
management in the event of a massive volcanic eruption, or super-eruption.
The recommendation comes in a report timed to coincide with a BBC
TV drama that depicts a fictional super-eruption at Yellowstone Park
in Wyoming, US. Experts say such an event would have a colossal impact
on a global scale. A super-eruption is also five to 10 times more
likely to happen than an asteroid impact, the report claims.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Zapped neutrinos zip through the Earth
(Mar 8, 2005)
Scientists are to zap neutrinos through the Earth to better understand
the mysterious particles' shifting nature with a new experiment at
the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, US. Neutrinos
are subatomic particles with no charge. They exist in three forms
- or "flavours" – called electron, muon and tau neutrinos. The
$180 million experiment, called the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation
Search, was launched on Friday to study how neutrinos oscillate between
flavours. Previous experiments to detect this shifting state have
been in uncontrolled environments – using neutrinos from space.
But this new project is the first controlled experiment of its kind.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Scientists unearth early skeleton
(Mar 7, 2005)
US and Ethiopian scientists say they have discovered the fossilised
remains of one of the earliest human ancestors. The research team,
working in the north-east of Ethiopia, believe the remains of the
hominid, or primitive human, date back four million years. They say
initial study of the bones indicates the creature was bipedal –
it walked around on two legs. The fossils were found just 60km (40
miles) from the site where the famous hominid Lucy was discovered.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Star 'gnome' is nuclear surprise
(Mar 5, 2005)
A shining star has been located that is not much bigger than Jupiter,
the biggest planet in our Solar System. The discovery is fascinating,
say scientists, because it shows how small an object can be and still
trigger the nuclear reactions for sunshine. The existence of the star,
known as OGLE-TR-122B, was confirmed by the Very Large Telescope (VLT)
in Chile. Sited in the Carina constellation, the stellar "gnome" was
seen to pass in front of a much bigger companion star. As it did so,
it dimmed the companion's light received at the VLT, a facility run
by the European Southern Observatory organisation.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Unweaving the song of whales
(Mar 4, 2005)
For nearly a decade, Cornell University researcher Christopher Clark
has been eavesdropping on the ocean, hoping to decipher the enigmatic
songs of whales. Using old US Navy hydrophones once employed to track
submarines, he has collected thousands of acoustical tracks of singing
blue, fin, humpback and minke whales. His bioacoustics lab is now
able to pinpoint the location of individual singers, and determine
the length of their song. As a result, he's had to redraw the map
of whale acoustics. "The range is enormous," explained Dr Clark. "They
have voices that span an entire ocean."
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Comet spacecraft makes Earth pass
(Mar 3, 2005)
The European spacecraft Rosetta will fly past the Earth on Friday
as it builds up the speed needed to chase down and orbit a comet in
2014. The probe will get as close as 1,900km (1,200 miles) to the
planet, as it accelerates under the pull of gravity on a slingshot
manoeuvre out to Mars. It is the first of three Earth flybys Rosetta
will make before travelling through the asteroid belt to Jupiter.
There, it will rendezvous with the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
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