SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: October 2007
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Saturn's rings hide 'sunflowers' and extra
bulk
(Oct 17, 2007)
Round and round it goes, and if it will ever give up its secrets,
nobody knows. Saturn's magnificent ring
system continues to puzzle astronomers, with new observations
by NASA's Cassini
spacecraft revealing dust rings that always point at the Sun and extra
mass hiding in one of the brightest rings, which may be much older
than previously thought.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Youthful-looking galaxy conceals ancient
stars
(Oct 17, 2007)
A bizarre galaxy thought to have started forming stars billions of
years after its peers is not such a late bloomer after all, new Hubble
observations reveal. Nonetheless, its primordial composition –
resembling the first galaxies in the universe – remains a mystery.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
You too can do particle physics
(Oct 16, 2007)
Public involvement in the Large
Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator being built in Switzerland,
has received a boost with the relaunch of the LHC@home project, which
allows users to donate computer time for LHC computing projects. Researchers
hope the project will help them fine-tune the LHC to shed light on
what dark matter is
and why particles have mass.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Super-Earths will have plate tectonics
(Oct 15, 2007)
"Super-Earths" – rocky planets
up to 10 times the mass of Earth that orbit other stars – probably
have similar structures to our world, with a solid inner core surrounded
by a liquid mantle and then a crust. They may even have plate
tectonics, which some argue is necessary for life to evolve.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Forget rockets – go to Mars in a
cosmic fruit bowl
(Oct 14, 2007)
The shape of a spacecraft may be crucial to keeping its crew safe
on long flights. The ideal form, according to Ram Tripathi, a spaceflight
engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is
a grapefruit spiked with cherries on sticks. This bizarre design might
be the only way to protect the crew from cancers triggered by the
searing radiation environments they would experience on longer space
trips, Tripathi says in a new study.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Lunar orbiter births two 'baby' probes
(Oct 13, 2007)
Japan's Kaguya spacecraft
has released its second mini-probe into orbit around the Moon.
The two 'baby' probes will work in concert with their mothership to
reveal the Moon's internal structure by making sensitive measurements
of its gravity field.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Enigmatic supernova smashes brightness
record
(Oct 12, 2007)
An odd celestial explosion recorded two years ago has been confirmed
as the brightest supernova
ever identified. It is so bright that scientists are still scrambling
to explain it. The explosion, called SN 2005ap, was discovered on
3 March 2005 by Robert Quimby as part of the Texas Supernova Survey,
a project he led at the University of Texas in Austin, before moving
to Caltech in 2007.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Moon jets pinned on 'tiger stripes'
(Oct 12, 2007)
Scientists have determined the location of the most powerful jets
spraying from the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
These ejected streams of ice particles come from the hottest spots
of geological fractures known as the "tiger stripes". The results,
reported in the journal Nature, delight scientists who study Enceladus,
even if they do not come entirely as a surprise.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
New radio telescope begins search for
alien signals
(Oct 10, 2007)
The first radio telescope dedicated to the search
for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has formally started
operations. The first phase of the Allen
Telescope Array, which is being built near Hat Creek, California,
has begun functioning with 42 radio antennas. When complete, the ATA
will have 350 dishes, each about 6 metres wide.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Sun to blame for mysterious blemishes
on Saturn moon
(Oct 9, 2007)
Blame the Sun for the mysterious dark blemishes on Saturn's moon Iapetus.
New photos from the Cassini
spacecraft reveal the splotches are mainly found on the sunward-facing
slopes of craters and mountains, suggesting a runaway heating process
is tainting portions of the moon.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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