SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: September 2005
home > space
& science news > space & science news: September 2005: 1
| 2 | 3
| 4 | 5
Liquid drop takes big nano step
(Sep 8, 2005)
Edinburgh scientists have made a small blob of liquid move across
a surface by shining a light in front of it. It may not sound like
much but the molecular engineering that went into this feat is said
to be a step forward in the emerging area of nanotechnology. The trick
is in tiny "machines" about a millionth of a millimetre in size that
coat the surface and propel the drop. The team envisages this technology
moving biological samples around a diagnostic chip to detect disease.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Deep Impact collision ejected the stuff
of life
(Sep 7, 2005)
Millions of kilograms of fine dust particles and water and a "surprisingly
high" amount of organic molecules sprayed into space when NASA crashed
its Deep Impact spacecraft into Comet 9P/Tempel 1 on 4 July 2005,
reveal a trio of new studies. The observations bolster theories that
comets may have seeded Earth with the raw materials for life and suggest
they may be sponge-like – rather than hardened – at their
cores.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Martian volcanoes 'may be active'
(Sep 7, 2005)
Fields of volcanic cones discovered at the North Pole of Mars suggest
the Red Planet could still be geologically active, scientists have
said. The cones, seen in images from Europe's Mars Express probe,
have no blemishes from impact craters. This suggests the volcanoes
erupted very recently and that the sites could have ongoing volcanism.
Mars Express scientist Gerhard Neukum presented the results at a conference
in Cambridge.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Martian dunes hide water secret
(Sep 6, 2005)
Scientists have found evidence that large amounts of water-ice hide
within massive sand dunes on Mars. One of the dunes, which spans 6.5km
and rises 475m above the Martian surface, may be the single largest
sand dune in the entire Solar System. The icy dunes could be a valuable
resource for any future manned missions to the planet, said Dr Mary
Bourke.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Aerobot aims for Titan
(Sep 6, 2005)
An intelligent floating robot could help to explore Saturn's moon
Titan, following flight tests that prove it can survey large areas
of land completely autonomously. The aerobot is even smart enough
to avoid dangerous turbulence. "After the Huygens probe returned those
stunning pictures of Titan's surface, there's been a lot of interest
in another mission," says Alberto Elfes, a robotics expert at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He and his colleagues
think that their aerobot could spend months cruising through the moon's
atmosphere, mapping the surface and collecting samples.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
Saturn ring particles 'fluffy'
(Sep 6, 2005)
The particles that make up Saturn's rings are more like "fluffy" snowballs
than hard ice cubes, as some scientists had previously described them.
And these grains have been found to be spinning more slowly than thought,
according to new data from the US-European Cassini space probe. This
is even the case in parts of the rings that are densely packed and
where there should be many collisions.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Rover's image from Mars hill peak
(Sep 5, 2005)
NASA's robotic rover Spirit has sent back a partial panoramic view
from the summit of "Husband Hill" at Gusev Crater on Mars. Spirit
was still sending down data that makes up the colour 360-degree picture
when Nasa held a news conference. The robot reached the hill's summit
at the end of August following a 14-month climb, driving in reverse
and forward modes to reduce wear on its wheels.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Dark matter highlights extra dimensions
(Sep 4, 2005)
Welcome to the fourth dimension. And the fifth, and the sixth. A team
of astrophysicists claims to have identified evidence that space is
six-dimensional. Joseph Silk of the University of Oxford, UK, and
his co-workers say that these extra spatial dimensions can be inferred
from the perplexing behaviour of dark matter. This mysterious stuff
cannot be seen, but its presence in galaxies is betrayed by the gravitational
tug that it exerts on visible stars.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
Design choices may hurry humans to Mars
(Sep 2, 2005)
A human mission to Mars could be accomplished much sooner than NASA
previously hoped – providing the right choices are made for
the shuttle's replacement. Using various components of the shuttle's
successor – the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) – for several
types of mission will enable NASA to reach the Moon and Mars more
quickly, according to a new study. Furthermore, the study suggests
that the most efficient scheme for lunar exploration would involve
sending a spacecraft non-stop to the Moon’s surface, and then back
again.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Fastest pulsar set to escape the Milky
Way
(Sep 1, 2005)
Astronomers have spotted the fastest moving stellar corpse to date
– and it appears to be headed straight out of our galaxy. A team from
the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Socorro, New
Mexico, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA)
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, clocked the dead star at 1100 kilometres
per second. The object, called B1508+55, is a rotating neutron star,
or pulsar. It is the superdense core of a massive star that exploded
as a supernova about 2.5 million years ago. The explosion seems to
have ejected the pulsar with such force that it will eventually escape
the Milky Way entirely.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Robotic space penguin to hop across the
Moon
(Sep 1, 2005)
The first lunar colonists may not be humans but compact robots capable
of jumping more than a kilometre in a single bound. Engineers at US
defence contractor Raytheon, in Massachusetts, have developed a robot,
dubbed the Lunar Penguin, that could one day bounce across perilous
craters and imposing mountains on the Moon's craggy surface using
a set of compact rocket boosters. President George W Bush has made
returning to the Moon, and later reaching Mars, a crucial part of
his vision for future US space exploration. But, in order for humans
to make the Moon a second home, robotic scouts will need to search
for safe landing spots and useful minerals for colonists to mine.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
First chimpanzee fossils found
(Sep 1, 2005)
The only chimpanzee fossils known to science have been unearthed in
Kenya, the journal Nature reports. The three 545,000-year-old chimp
teeth were dug up in the country's Tugen Hills and probably belonged
to the same individual, the US discoverers say. Plenty of fossils
belonging to early human ancestors, or hominids, have been found at
dig sites all over the world. But until now, scientists had not identified
a single fossil belonging to humankind's closest living relative.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5
BACK TO TOP
|
You
are here:
Home
> Space & Science news
> September 2005:
1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5
Other news sections
Latest science news
Archeo news
Eco news
Health news
Living world news
Paleo news
Strange news
Tech news
Also on this site:
Encyclopedia of Science
Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy
and Sustainable Living
News archive
Bookshop
Contact
|
