Bizarre spider scar found on Mercury's surface
(Jan 31, 2008)
A bizarre spider shape has been discovered on the surface of Mercury during the first flyby of the planet by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. The discovery of the spider – which is unlike anything seen elsewhere in the solar system – was announced on Wednesday along with other results from the historic pass.
Dark energy makes galaxies keep their distance
(Jan 31, 2008)
Galaxies today are struggling to clump together against the incredible repulsive power of dark energy, hints a new survey of thousands of galaxies. Measuring this anti-clumping effect puts a new arrow in the quiver of cosmologists seeking to uncover the nature of the mysterious force.
A fly-by by a NASA unmanned space probe has revealed evidence of "widespread" volcanism on the planet Mercury. The US Mercury MESSENGER spacecraft made a close pass of the first planet from the Sun on 14 January. Evidence from the Mariner 10 probe launched in the 1970s had provided only tenuous evidence for volcanic activity.
An asteroid some 250m (600ft) across has swept past the Earth. There was no chance of it hitting the planet, but astronomers trained telescopes and radar on the object to learn as much about it as they could. The asteroid – which carries the rather dull designation 2007 TU24 – passed by at a distance of 538,000km (334,000 miles), just outside the Moon's orbit.
Cosmic suburbia is a better breeding ground for stars
(Jan 29, 2008)
New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that galaxies prefer to raise stars in cosmic suburbia rather than in "big cities." For the first time, Spitzer's supersensitive eyes have caught an infrared glimpse of several galaxies traveling along two filamentary roads into a galaxy cluster called Abell 1763.
Space impact creates giant mushroom cloud
(Jan 28, 2008)
A mushroom-shaped hydrogen cloud rearing 1000 light years above the plane of our galaxy is the aftermath of a massive gas cloud that dive-bombed the Milky Way, new computer simulations suggest. The work explains why the cloud is unlike any other found so far.
A "large" US spy satellite has gone out of control and is expected to crash to Earth some time in late February or March, government sources say. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said the satellite had lost power and propulsion, and could contain hazardous materials. The White House said it was monitoring the situation.
Largest asteroid to come near Earth in 22 years
(Jan 25, 2008)
The largest asteroid to come near the Earth in more than 20 years will make its closest approach on Tuesday, venturing as close as 1.4 times the distance to the Moon. Already, the first radar observations of the space rock reveal it may have formed from two separate asteroids that fell together and stuck.
Comet samples are surprisingly asteroid-like
(Jan 25, 2008)
Samples of Comet Wild 2 suggest it is made of rocky material, like an asteroid, rather than the fluffy dust expected of a comet. The object may be a refugee that formed in the asteroid belt before getting kicked to the chilly fringes of the solar system, or it might have formed in that frigid realm from material thrown out of the inner solar system, scientists say.
Jupiter's raging thunderstorms a sign of 'global upheaval'
(Jan 24, 2008)
Towering storms more than 100 kilometres tall have been caught punching up through Jupiter's cloud deck for the first time, thanks to a series of Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observations. The rare storms – a sign of recent turmoil on the planet – are helping scientists deduce what lies hidden beneath the clouds that shroud the solar system's largest planet.
