SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: January 2008
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& science news > space & science news: January 2008: 1
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Ocean rocket returns to business
(Jan 16, 2008)
The Sea Launch
company has returned to flight with a mission to loft a telecoms satellite
to serve the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. The firm's Zenit
3SL rocket lifted off from its converted oil rig platform stationed
in the Pacific at 1149 GMT. The Thuraya 3 satellite separated from
the vehicle some 98 minutes later.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Hubble peers into dark matter web
(Jan 15, 2008)
Astronomers have revealed the effects of unseen dark
matter as it tugs on galaxies in a crowded supercluster. Dark
matter acts as invisible cosmic "scaffolding" upon which visible stars
and galaxies are assembled. The dark matter in this instance has pooled
into four dense clumps, in which hundreds of old galaxies are embedded.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Photons orbit black hole 'roulette wheel'
(Jan 15, 2008)
A black hole's intense
gravitational field can cause individual photons
of light to go into orbit around it temporarily, new calculations
suggest. That means that photons from a single burst of light that
explodes near the black hole could orbit the hole for different amounts
of time before escaping into space, making the black hole appear to
flash like a strobe light.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Cosmic dust disc to force rethink
(Jan 14, 2008)
The discovery of a large disc of dust around a binary star system
could force astronomers to rethink their computer models of the Universe.
Previous observations turned up no sign of the disc at WZ
Sagittae. But data from NASA's Spitzer infrared telescope confirmed
there was much more to this object than previously thought.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Hubble finds double Einstein ring
(Jan 14, 2008)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed a never-before-seen optical
alignment in space: a pair of glowing rings [called Einstein
rings], one nestled inside the other like a bull's-eye pattern.
The double-ring pattern is caused by the complex bending of light
from two distant galaxies strung directly behind a foreground massive
galaxy, like three beads on a string.
Read
more. Source: Space Telescope Science Institute |
Giant gas cloud to crash into our galaxy
(Jan 12, 2008)
A gas cloud weighing a million times the mass of the Sun is hurtling
towards the Milky Way galaxy and is set to trigger stellar fireworks
after it collides in 20 to 40 million years. A ring of stars in the
Sun's neighbourhood may be the signature of a previous cloud's impact.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Even thin galaxies can grow fat black
holes
(Jan 12, 2008)
NASA's Spitzer
Space Telescope has detected plump black holes where least expected
– skinny galaxies. Scientists have long held that all galaxies
except the slender, bulgeless spirals harbor supermassive
black holes at their cores. Furthermore, bulges were thought to
be required for black holes to grow. The new Spitzer observations
throw this theory into question.
Read
more. Source: NASA/Caltech |
Where planets can form, they do
(Jan 12, 2008)
New work by a team of US astronomers has shown that wherever there
is room for a planet to form around a young star, it does. The researchers
predicted the existence of an unknown planet circling a star more
than 200 light-years from Earth. This prediction was based on a study
of the orbits of two planets already known to orbit the star HD 74156.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Rapid spin for giant black holes
(Jan 12, 2008)
The supermassive
black holes at the centres of most galaxies could be spinning
at a dizzying rate, new research shows. These celestial monsters may
be rotating so fast, they are close to the maximum rates allowed by
Einstein's theory of relativity. The findings are based on observations
of nine giant galaxies using NASA's Chandra
X-ray telescope.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
MESSENGER set for historic Mercury flyby
(Jan 11, 2008)
NASA will return to Mercury
for the first time in almost 33 years on January 14, 2008, when the
MESSENGER spacecraft
makes its first flyby of the Sun's closest neighbor, capturing images
of large portions of the planet never before seen. The probe will
make its closest approach to Mercury at 2:04 p.m. EST that day, skimming
200 km above its surface. This encounter will provide a critical gravity
assist needed to keep the spacecraft on track for its 2011 orbit insertion
around Mercury.
Read
more. Source: Johns Hopkins Univ. |
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