SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: November 2005
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| Radar sees ice deep below Mars |
Nov 30, 2005 |
| Thruster problem may scupper
Hayabusa's return to Earth |
Nov 30, 2005 |
| Cassini snapshot reveals Saturn's
volcanic moon |
Nov 29, 2005 |
| NASA criticised over space station
management |
Nov 29, 2005 |
| Japan's asteroid probe to head
home despite glitch |
Nov 28, 2005 |
| Probe 'gathers asteroid material' |
Nov 26, 2005 |
| Dark energy refuses to fade away |
Nov 25, 2005 |
| Scientists, be on guard ... ET
might be a malicious hacker |
Nov 25, 2005 |
| Asteroid probe 'did touch down' |
Nov 24, 2005 |
| Dwarfs found in colliding galaxies'
wake |
Nov 23, 2005 |
| Space cadets
taken for a ride |
Nov 22, 2005 |
| Cassini lets
Pandora’s secret out of the box |
Nov 21, 2005 |
| Celestial
odd couple baffles astronomers |
Nov 20, 2005 |
| Japan's asteroid
touchdown fails |
Nov 20, 2005 |
| Private company
revives old NASA shuttle design |
Nov 18, 2005 |
| Space trip
delay for Trek actor |
Nov 17, 2005 |
| Heavy-lift
Ariane flies skyward |
Nov 17, 2005 |
| Polarised
light may reveal hidden exoplanets |
Nov 16, 2005 |
| ‘Lunar lawnmower’
to deal with Moon dust menace |
Nov 15, 2005 |
| ‘Blended wing’
craft passes wind-tunnel tests |
Nov 14, 2005 |
| Japanese asteroid
probe apparently lost in space |
Nov 14, 2005 |
| McCartney
in live space broadcast |
Nov 13, 2005 |
| Technical
hitch delays Ariane 5 |
Nov 13, 2005 |
| Black hole
ate my twin, but it can’t catch me |
Nov 12, 2005 |
| Surprising
star birth seen in bear-shaped nebula |
Nov 12, 2005 |
| Hardy lichen
shown to survive in space |
Nov 11, 2005 |
| NASA seeks
private space-ferries |
Nov 10, 2005 |
| Gravity tug
to deflect asteroids |
Nov 10, 2005 |
| Europe's Venus
mission blasts off |
Nov 9, 2005 |
| Intergalactic
attraction creates bumper star crop |
Nov 8, 2005 |
| NASA tightens
its belt, again |
Nov 7, 2005 |
| 'Cloudshine'
may reveal secrets of star birth |
Nov 7, 2005 |
| Volcanoes
ruled out for Martian methane |
Nov 6, 2005 |
| Neutron star
found where a black hole was expected |
Nov 4, 2005 |
| Asteroid encounter
postponed |
Nov 4, 2005 |
| Burned-up
meteors add to Martian atmosphere |
Nov 4, 2005 |
| Scientists
see light that may be from first objects in Universe |
Nov 3, 2005 |
| Astronomers
zoom in on galaxy’s glittering heart |
Nov 3, 2005 |
| China finds
ancient observatory |
Nov 2, 2005 |
| NASA decline
to deflect asteroid - for now |
Nov 1, 2005 |
| NASA's Hubble
reveals possible new moons around Pluto |
Nov 1, 2005 |
Radar sees ice deep below Mars
(Nov 30, 2005)
Mars Express has become the first spacecraft to detect reserves of
water ice beneath the surface of the Red Planet, experts have announced.
The Marsis radar experiment carried onboard appears to have discovered
water ice 2km into the subsurface. It is thought the greatest reservoir
of retained water on Mars could be found beneath the surface, perhaps
providing a habitat for microbial life. The US-European Marsis team
report their findings in the journal Science.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Thruster problem may scupper Hayabusa's
return to Earth
(Nov 30, 2005)
A fuel thruster problem with Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft appears to
be more serious than originally thought – and could prevent
the mission from returning to Earth with the first-ever samples from
an asteroid. Hayabusa briefly landed on the asteroid Itokawa on Saturday
and fired two pellets into its surface to drive up material for collection.
But shortly afterwards, mission controllers noticed the spacecraft
was pointing in the wrong direction – apparently because of
a problem with one or two of its 12 fuel thrusters.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Cassini snapshot reveals Saturn's volcanic
moon
(Nov 29, 2005)
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured unique views of two of Saturn's
moons. The probe’s first close encounter with the large moon Rhea
was somewhat eclipsed by a sidelong snapshot of the moon Enceladus,
revealing active volcanic plumes above its surface. On a previous,
much closer pass by Enceladus, Cassini detected that the south pole
of Enceladus is spewing out a vast plume of water vapour that stretches
hundreds of kilometres from the moon's surface and keeps Saturn's
E-ring topped up – but it has now captured the first images of this
activity.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
NASA criticised over space station management
(Nov 29, 2005)
NASA's plans to send humans to the Moon and Mars depend upon solving
problems with the International Space Station, concludes a report
issued by the US National Research Council. The station "provides
an essential platform for research and technology testing" to support
lengthy missions, according to the report, but NASA currently lacks
a complete or convincing plan for finishing and making use of the
orbiting outpost. Key problems identified in the NRC report include
the space shuttle's limited availability to reach the station, the
current reduction in the station’s crew, and restricted research –
all of which can be traced back to funding issues.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Japan's asteroid probe to head home despite
glitch
(Nov 28, 2005)
A Japanese spacecraft on an unprecedented mission to bring asteroid
material back to Earth is set to start home despite showing signs
of trouble earlier, an executive of Japan's space agency, JAXA, said
Sunday. On Saturday, the Hayabusa probe apparently landed on the Itokawa
asteroid and collected surface samples. After the landing, the probe
hovered about three miles from the asteroid and appeared to be shaking
due to a possible gas leak from a thruster, JAXA said. The probe shut
down all its engines Saturday and switched to solar power while JAXA
investigated the problem. But the probe appears to be stabilizing,
and JAXA plans to re-ignite its engines by Dec. 10 for the return
journey, JAXA executive Yasunori Matogawa said.
Read
more. Source: space.com/AP |
Probe 'gathers asteroid material'
(Nov 26, 2005)
A Japanese space probe has become the first collect samples from the
surface of an asteroid, mission scientists say. The probe, called
Hayabusa – Japanese for falcon – briefly touched down
on the Itokawa asteroid and fired a projectile to loosen surface material.
Scientists believe it collected the debris, but will only be sure
when the craft returns to Earth in 2007. Moon rocks have been analysed
before, but asteroids could contain material from the birth of the
solar system. Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(Jaxa) confirmed that the Hayabusa touched down on Itokawa for a few
seconds.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Dark energy refuses to fade away
(Nov 25, 2005)
The first results from an international effort to probe the nature
of dark energy suggest that this mysterious force has remained constant
over the life of the universe, rather than fading away as some hypotheses
suggest. The Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) project has enlisted some
of the world's largest telescopes to search for the same cosmic evidence
that first suggested the existence of dark energy: a kind of stellar
explosion called a type Ia supernova. Measuring and comparing the
brightness and spectral signature of this type of supernova tells
astronomers how much the universe has expanded since these explosions
occurred.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Scientists, be on guard ... ET might be
a malicious hacker
(Nov 25, 2005)
As if spotty teenagers releasing computer viruses on to the internet
from darkened rooms were not enough of a headache. According to a
scientific report, planet Earth's computers are wide open to a virus
attack from Little Green Men. The concern is raised in the next issue
of the journal Acta Astronautica by Richard Carrigan, a particle physicist
at the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. He believes
scientists searching the heavens for signals from extra-terrestrial
civilisations are putting Earth's security at risk, by distributing
the jumble of signals they receive to computers all over the world.
Read
more. Source: Guardian |
Asteroid probe 'did touch down'
(Nov 24, 2005)
The Hayabusa space probe landed successfully on its asteroid target
despite the initial announcement of a failure, Japan's space agency
says. It apparently failed to drop equipment to collect material from
the surface of asteroid Itokawa. The Japanese spacecraft is on a mission
to return surface samples to Earth. But a team member told the BBC
Hayabusa could have disturbed enough surface material for some to
have got into its sample collection chamber by accident.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Dwarfs found in colliding galaxies' wake
(Nov 23, 2005)
A new method to detect small, faint galaxies that spring up in the
wake of violent galactic collisions has been devised by astronomers
using the Spitzer Space Telescope. The method could shed light on
how most of the galaxies near our own formed. The vast majority of
local galaxies are "dwarfs" – our galaxy, the Milky Way, has 1000
times more mass in stars. But it is not clear how these dwarfs form.
Some may have condensed directly from primordial gas soon after the
big bang. But astronomers are not sure these lightweight galaxies
would have been able to survive unscathed the relatively common galactic
smash-ups that occurred in the early universe.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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