SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: December 2007
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& science news > space & science news: December 2007: 1
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Intergalactic particle beam is longest
yet found
(Dec 8, 2007)
An intergalactic particle beam stretching for more than a million
light years is the longest ever seen. According to the team that discovered
this record breaker, it could help reveal how such jets of matter
bind themselves together. The latest discovery emerges from a large
elliptical galaxy called CGCG 049-033, which is about 600 million
light years away.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Saturn's 'flying saucer' moons built of
ring material
(Dec 7, 2007)
Two of Saturn's small moons look eerily like flying saucers, new observations
by the Cassini spacecraft reveal. The moons (Pan
and Atlas), which lie
within the giant planet's rings,
may have come by their strange shape by gradually accumulating ring
particles in a ridge around their equators.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Roiling magnetic waves explain solar enigma
(Dec 7, 2007)
Magnetic waves ripple through the Sun's
outer atmosphere with enough energy to heat the region to its astonishing
temperature of millions of degrees, new views from the Hinode
spacecraft suggest. If correct, the waves could solve a decades-long
puzzle about the source of this heat.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Meteorite dates lunar volcanoes
(Dec 6, 2007)
Volcanoes were active on the Moon's
surface soon after it was formed, a new study in the journal Nature
suggests. Precision dating of a lunar
rock that fell to Earth shows our satellite must have had lava
erupting across its vast plains 4.35 billion years ago. This is hundreds
of millions of years earlier than had been indicated by the rocks
collected by Apollo astronauts.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Planets can survive extreme roasting by
their stars
(Dec 6, 2007)
Gas giant planets can get twice as close to their stars as Mercury
is to the Sun without evaporating, a new computer simulation suggests.
The work suggests the 'hot Jupiters' discovered on tight orbits around
their stars are in no immediate danger of boiling away into space.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Embryonic star captured with jets flaring
(Dec 6, 2007)
A developing star wrapped in a black cocoon of dust is seen sprouting
giant jets in a new image from NASA's Spitzer
Space Telescope. The stellar portrait, captured in infrared light,
offers the first glimpse at a very early stage in the life of an embryonic
sun-like star – a time when the star's natal envelope is beginning
to flatten and collapse, and streams of gas are escaping.
Read
more. Source: NASA/Caltech |
Mars rover Spirit escapes from sandy 'dungeon'
(Dec 5, 2007)
NASA's Mars rover Spirit has freed itself from the loose soil it had
been stuck in for about two weeks, but over the next month it will
have to navigate similarly treacherous terrain to reach a safe spot
to ride out the coming Martian winter. Spirit got stuck in the sandy
soil, nicknamed "Tartarus" after an underworld dungeon in Greek mythology,
in mid-November.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Sun-like stars get a kick out of death
(Dec 5, 2007)
Stars like the Sun may
drift into space like ghosts when they die, Hubble Space Telescope
observations reveal. But what propels them is still a mystery. Relatively
low-mass stars like the Sun do not explode as supernovae
when they die. Instead, they bloat up into red
giant stars before shedding their outer layers and becoming dense
embers called white
dwarfs. But surprisingly few white dwarfs have been found in low-mass
groupings of stars called open
star clusters.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
European lab 'is ready for space'
(Dec 5, 2007)
With this week's launch of the Columbus space laboratory, Europe will
make the transition from a part-time tenant to full-time owner of
an outpost in orbit. To oversee integration of Columbus into the International
Space Station, two European Space Agency astronauts will fly aboard
the space shuttle Atlantis. The shuttle is due to lift off with the
new module in its cargo hold at 1631 EST on Thursday from the Kennedy
Space Center.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Universe's first stars may have been dark
(Dec 4, 2007)
The universe's first stars may have been bloated behemoths powered
by dark matter, suggests
an intriguing, if speculative, new study. These 'dark stars' might
have delayed the creation of heavy elements, which make up everything
from planets to people, as well as cosmic reionisation, which made
the universe transparent to light billions of years ago.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Is Mercury's magnetic field sapped by
solar wind?
(Dec 3, 2007)
Mercury's
puny magnetic field may be so weak thanks to constant wrangles with
the solar wind.
NASA's Mariner 10 mission detected a magnetic field around our solar
system's innermost planet in 1974, but its cause remained a mystery
– until recent measurements suggested that Mercury's core may
be partly molten.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Probing the nurseries of miniature planetary
systems
(Dec 2, 2007)
New research led by a University of St Andrews astronomer has found
evidence for what might be the raw material for the beginning of shrunken
versions of our solar system – miniature worlds in the making.
In their study Alexander Scholz, SUPA Advanced Fellow at the University
of St Andrews, and Ray Jayawardhana, from the University of Toronto,
challenge the assumption that other planetary systems in the Universe
would necessarily look like our own solar system.
Read
more. Source: University of St Andrews |
Massive black hole smashes record
(Dec 1, 2007)
Using two NASA satellites, astronomers have discovered the heftiest
known black hole
to orbit a star. The new black hole, with a mass 24 to 33 times that
of our Sun, is more massive than scientists expected for a black hole
that formed from a dying star.
Read
more. Source: NASA Goddard |
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