SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: March 2006
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Human spaceflight goes commercial
(Mar 22, 2006)
We are about to witness a revolution in human spaceflight. Launching
people into space has until now been the almost exclusive preserve
of superpower governments. But, according to industry experts and
entrepreneurs, the commercial
exploitation of space is about to open a new frontier for mass
tourism. For one of the pioneers of this revolution, Burt Rutan
of the Californian company Scaled
Composites, it reminds him of the imaginings of his youth.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Space impact clue in Antarctica
(Mar 22, 2006)
Evidence for what may be a large and relatively recent impact crater
has been found off the coast of Antarctica. Scientists say the evidence,
if correct, points to a space rock some 5km across having crashed
into the Ross Sea about three million years ago. This could have generated
a huge tsunami, according to a member of the team investigating the
collision. [Image: tektite from core drilling under Ross Sea]
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Station crew gets away for short trip
in Soyuz capsule
(Mar 21, 2006)
The International Space Station's
two-man crew took a little drive aboard a Soyuz spacecraft today,
leaving their orbital home for a short time while moving the capsule
from one docking port to another in preparation for visitors due next
week. Expedition 12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery
Tokarev floated inside the Soyuz parked at the Earth-facing port of
the station's Zarya control module Sunday evening. They had secured
the station's systems in case a problem prevented them from returning.
Read
more. Source: Spaceflight Now |
Probe yields Earth defence clues
(Mar 20, 2006)
Japan's Hayabusa
spacecraft is providing an unprecedented insight into one of the many
asteroids that cross into Earth's neighbourhood. Data from the mission
shows Itokawa is a
relatively young body formed out of debris from the collision of two
larger objects. Scientists presented their results at a major science
US conference held in Houston, Texas. The mission could also provide
clues to preventing asteroid strikes on Earth.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Front wheel on Mars rover stops
(Mar 20, 2006)
One of the wheels on NASA's Martian
rover Spirit has stopped working. The robotic vehicle is now dragging
the wheel as it moves to a slope where it can get maximum sunshine
on its solar cells to sustain it through the winter. Spirit's right-front
wheel has played up before because of a lubrication problem, but engineers
on Earth were able to return it to normal operation. This time, however,
it appears to be the motor that rotates the wheel that has ceased
to function.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Astronomers discover a river of stars
streaming across the northern sky
(Mar 20, 2006)
Astronomers have discovered a narrow stream of stars extending at
least 45 degrees across the northern sky. The stream is about 76,000
light-years distant from Earth and forms a giant arc over the disk
of the Milky Way galaxy. In the March issue of the Astrophysical Journal
Letters, Carl Grillmair, an associate research scientist at the California
Institute of Technology's Spitzer Science Center, and Roberta Johnson,
a graduate student at California State University Long Beach, report
on the discovery.
Read
more. Source: Caltech |
Earth could seed Titan with life
(Mar 19, 2006)
Terrestrial rocks blown into space by asteroid impacts on Earth could
have taken life to Saturn's moon Titan,
scientists have announced. Earth microbes in these meteorites could
have seeded the organic-rich world with life, scientists believe.
They think the impact on Earth that killed off the dinosaurs could
have ejected enough material for some to reach far-off moons like
Titan.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Ice layers record comet creation
(Mar 17, 2006)
The Deep Impact
mission is casting new light on how comets formed and how they shed
their ice in space. The US space agency probe sent a 370kg projectile
crashing into Comet Tempel
1 and then studied the plume of debris with its suite of instruments.
NASA's mission scientists say images from last July's encounter reveal
as many as seven different layers on the comet's surface.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Best ever map of the early universe revealed
(Mar 17, 2006)
The universe went through a traumatic growth spurt before it was a
billionth of a billionth of a second old, according to the latest
data from the Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). The probe has also given physicists
their first clues about what drove that frantic expansion, and revealed
that the cosmic "dark age" before the first stars switched on was
twice as long as previously thought.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Doubt cast on Venus catastrophe
(Mar 17, 2006)
Accepted views of how the planet Venus
evolved are challenged by new age dates for its surface. Massive volcanism
500 million years ago was thought to have covered over much of the
planet's ancient features. But work carried out at Imperial College
London, UK, suggests a "volcanic catastrophe" is not needed to explain
the look of Venus's surface.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
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