SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: January 2008
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& science news > space & science news: January 2008: 1
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Virgin unveils spaceship designs
(Jan 23, 2008)
Virgin
Galactic has released the final design of the launch system that
will take fare-paying passengers into space. It is based on the X-Prize-winning
SpaceShipOne
concept – a rocket ship that is lifted initially by a carrier
plane before blasting skywards. The Virgin system is essentially a
refinement, but has been increased in size to take eight people at
a time on a sub-orbital trip, starting in 2010.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Milky Way's antimatter linked to exotic
black holes
(Jan 22, 2008)
Legions of tiny black
holes created during the big bang may lurk at the centre of the
galaxy, creating a
prodigious antimatter
factory, a new study suggests. The work could explain where the
Milky Way's antimatter comes from – one of the biggest mysteries
in astrophysics.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Tremors keep crust-dwelling microbes alive
(Jan 22, 2008)
Earthquakes don't always mean death and destruction – at least
for the microbes deep in the crust. Regular rumblings could be what
enables them to stay alive, and maybe even Martian bugs too.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
NASA investigates virtual space
(Jan 21, 2008)
The US space agency is exploring the possibility of developing a massively
multiplayer online (MMO) game. The virtual world would be aimed at
students and would "simulate real NASA engineering and science missions".
The agency has published a "request for information" (RFI) from organisations
interested in developing the platform.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
European probe aims for Mercury
(Jan 20, 2008)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed an industrial contract
to build a probe to send to the planet Mercury.
BepiColombo will
launch in 2013 on a seven-billion-km flight to the innermost world,
arriving in 2019. The 350m-euro (£260m) deal with EADS Astrium will
lead to the production of major spacecraft components in Germany,
Italy, France and the UK.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
'Monsters' blamed for extreme chaos in
black holes
(Jan 18, 2008)
A single black hole
can contain more disorder than all the stars in the universe put together.
A new study may explain why, by connecting them to chaotic distortions
in the fabric of space-time
known as "monsters".
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Teleportation: fact or fiction?
(Jan 18, 2008)
Making someone vanish in New York and appear an instant later in Tokyo
is way beyond current technology but just might be possible in the
far future, physicists told an audience at MIT attending a preview
and panel discussion about the movie Jumper on Wednesday
(see teleportation).
Actor Hayden Christensen and director Doug Liman were at MIT to show
scenes from the upcoming movie and to discuss it with physicists Max
Tegmark and Edward Farhi.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Ice clouds put Mars in the shade
(Jan 17, 2008)
Until now, Mars has generally
been regarded as a desert world, where a visiting astronaut would
be surprised to see clouds scudding across the orange sky. However,
new results show that the arid planet possesses high-level clouds
that are sufficiently dense to cast a shadow on the surface.
Read
more. Source: ESA |
Upgraded neutrino detector could root
out dark matter
(Jan 17, 2008)
The world's biggest neutrino detector, IceCube, may be augmented to
search for signs of dark
matter at the Sun's core or at the centre of our galaxy.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
MESSENGER's first look at Mercury's previously
unseen side
(Jan 16, 2008)
On January 14, 2008, the MESSENGER
spacecraft observed about half of the hemisphere missed by Mariner
10. This image was snapped by the Wide Angle Camera, part of the Mercury
Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument, about 80 minutes after MESSENGER's
closest approach to Mercury
(2:04 pm EST), when the spacecraft was at a distance of about 27,000
km (about 17,000 miles). The image shows features as small as 10 km
(6 miles) in size.
Read
more. Source: Johns Hopkins Univ. |
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