SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: May 2005
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US robot builds copies of itself
(May 12, 2005)
US researchers have devised a simple robot that can make copies of
itself from spare parts. Writing in Nature, the robot's creators say
their experiment shows the ability to reproduce is not unique to biology.
Their long-term plan is to design robots made from hundreds or thousands
of identical basic modules. These could repair themselves if parts
fail, reconfigure themselves to better perform the task they have
been set, or even to make extra helpers.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Blast hints at black hole birth
(May 11, 2005)
Astronomers are poring over images of a distant galaxy for what may
be evidence of the birth of a black hole. On Monday, the US space
agency's (NASA) Swift satellite detected a brief burst of gamma-rays
– high energy radiation – originating from deep space.
Within a minute, Swift was homing in on the burst to be followed by
dozens of the world's most powerful telescopes. It could be due to
two neutron stars merging or a collision between a neutron star and
black hole.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Time travellers invited back from the
future
(May 11, 2005)
One of the strongest arguments against time travel is that we are
not overrun with curious tourists from the future. A university student
in Boston plans to change that, by inviting budding Doctor Whos to
the world's first time traveller convention this weekend. The organiser,
Amal Dorai – a masters student in electrical engineering and
computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology –
aims to test the theory of time travel by inviting people from the
future to the event.
Read
more. Source: Guardian |
Lost asteroid clue to Pioneer puzzle
(May 10, 2005)
Far-flung asteroids could help reveal the nature of the mysterious
force that has nudged NASA's 33-year-old Pioneer 10 spacecraft about
400,000 kilometres off course. The so-called Pioneer anomaly could
be accounted for by a force pulling the probe towards the sun with
a strength of just one ten-billionth of the gravity at Earth's surface.
But no one has managed to explain the nature of this force, and many
suspect that it is just a systematic error in the data or a fault
of the spacecraft design. Others have suggested sending another spacecraft
to study the effect, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
But there might be a cheaper way to find an explanation. Gary Page
of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and his colleagues
have identified 15 asteroids that might also be subjected to the mysterious
force.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
NASA plots escape for stranded Mars rover
(May 9, 2005)
NASA could take its first steps to rescue its Opportunity rover from
a Martian sand dune on Monday. On 25 April, the ground control team
at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, woke
up to find that Opportunity had not progressed to the point they expected.
Some of its wheels had dug themselves into a sand dune, and were slipping.
Controllers immediately halted Opportunity and instructed it to take
pictures of its wheels. Its corner wheels were between halfway and
three-quarters buried. “That’s not where we’d like them to be,” says
Jim Erickson, the rovers’ project manager.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Image may be Mars Polar Lander
(May 8, 2005)
An imaging scientist thinks he may have found NASA's Mars Polar Lander
(MPL). The US space agency probe went missing as it attempted to touch
down at the Red Planet's south pole in 1999. Michael Malin's team
has re-examined pictures taken by the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft, which searched for the lander in 1999-2000. He reports
the assessment of the images in the July issue of Sky and Telescope
magazine, and says they could help confirm why the mission failed.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Modified mice enjoy one-fifth more life
(May 6, 2005)
A mouse with the ability to mop up free radicals at the cellular level
– and live longer as a result – has been created by scientists.
The research is a boost for the free radical theory of ageing. This
proposes that reactive oxygen species damage cells and tissues, leading
to declining health and, eventually, death. “We hope that in future
years, this knowledge can be applied to deliver similar benefits to
humans,” says lead researcher Peter Rabinovitch, a pathologist working
on ageing at the University of Washington, Seattle, US. The results
may also encourage those on the fringes of mainstream research who
long for immortality.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Phoebe moon may be captured comet
(May 5, 2005)
Saturn's pock-marked moon Phoebe could be a comet that was captured
by the gravity of the ringed planet. Data from the Cassini spacecraft
suggests it originated in the frozen outer Solar System region called
the Kuiper Belt – a reservoir for comets. Two studies of Phoebe
are carried in this week's issue of Nature magazine. The tiny satellite
is very different in its chemical composition to Saturn's larger moons
and circles the planet in the opposite direction to them.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Twelve new moons for Saturn
(May 5, 2005)
Astronomers have discovered 12 new moons orbiting Saturn, bringing
its number of natural satellites to 46. The moons are small, irregular
bodies – probably only about 3-7km in size – that are
far from Saturn and take about two years to complete one orbit. All
but one circles Saturn in the opposite direction to its larger moons
– a characteristic of captured bodies. Jupiter is the planet
with the most moons, 63 at the last count. Saturn now has 46. Uranus
has 27 and Neptune 13.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Fastest-evolving genes in humans and chimps
revealed
(May 3, 2005)
The most comprehensive study to date exploring the genetic divergence
of humans and chimpanzees has revealed that the genes most favoured
by natural selection are those associated with immunity, tumour suppression,
and programmed cell death. These genes show signs of positive natural
selection in both branches of the evolutionary tree and are changing
more swiftly than would be expected through random mutation alone.
Lead scientist Rasmus Nielsen and colleagues at the University of
Copenhagen, Denmark, examined the 13,731 chimp genes that have equivalent
genes with known functions in humans.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Underground radar hunt for life on Mars
(May 2, 2005)
Scientists are about to deploy a giant radar telescope above Mars
in a bid to pinpoint underground lakes and flooded caverns. Discoveries
of these hidden seas would be a major boost for researchers seeking
life on the Red Planet. Water is considered essential for the evolution
of life. The instrument, called Marsis (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface
and Ionosphere Sounding instrument), is carried on Europe's Mars Express
satellite. Over the past 16 months, it has made several key discoveries
of dried-up lakes and seabeds on the planet. Now it is hoped Marsis
will find reservoirs of water beneath the surface.
Read
more. Source: Guardian |
Planet 'seen' around distant sun
(May 1, 2005)
European and American scientists say they have photographed a planet
outside the Solar System for the first time. The European Southern
Observatory group said the red image is the first direct shot of a
planet around another star. The planet, known as 2M1207b, is about
five times the size of Jupiter and is orbiting at a distance nearly
twice as far as Neptune is from our Sun. The parent star and planet
are more than 200 light-years away near the southern constellation
of Hydra.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
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