SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: November 2008
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& science news > space & science news: November 2008: 1
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Planet imaged closer to star than ever
before?
(Nov 24, 2008)
A planet may have been imaged closer to its star than any photographed
previously, astronomers say. The candidate planet, which might still
turn out to be a foreground or background object, appears to lie at
about the orbital distance of Saturn around the well-studied star
Beta Pictoris.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
NASA, ATK successfully test first Orion
launch abort motor
(Nov 23, 2008)
Flames shot more than 100 feet high in a successful 5.5-second ground
test firing Thursday, Nov. 20, of a launch abort motor for NASA's
next generation spacecraft, the Orion
crew exploration vehicle. NASA and the Orion industry team conducted
the firing at the Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, facility in Promontory,
Utah.
Read
more. Source: NASA |
Nothing lost in space – this time
(Nov 22, 2008)
Repairs to jammed mechanical joints on the International
Space Station's solar collectors have been successful, says NASA.
On Tuesday the space walkers lost an expensive tool bag while attempting
similar repairs. This time they took no chances triple checking all
their equipment to make sure it was all tied down.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Buried glaciers found on Mars
(Nov 21, 2008)
Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed vast Martian glaciers of water
ice under protective blankets of rocky debris at much lower latitudes
than any ice previously identified on the Red Planet. Scientists analyzed
data from the spacecraft’s ground-penetrating radar and report in
the Nov. 21 issue of the journal Science that buried glaciers extend
for dozens of miles from edges of mountains or cliffs.
Read
more. Source: NASA/JPL |
It's confirmed: Matter is merely vacuum
fluctuations
(Nov 21, 2008)
Matter is built on flaky foundations. Physicists have now confirmed
that the apparently substantial stuff is actually no more than fluctuations
in the quantum
vacuum. The researchers simulated the frantic activity that goes
on inside protons and
neutrons. These particles
provide almost all the mass of ordinary matter.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Hubble solves puzzle of loner galaxy
(Nov 21, 2008)
Astronomers have long puzzled over why a small, nearby, isolated galaxy
is pumping out new stars faster than any galaxy in our local neighborhood.
Now NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
has helped astronomers solve the mystery of the loner starburst galaxy,
called NGC 1569, by showing that it is one and a half times farther
away than astronomers thought.
Read
more. Source: NASA/STScI |
Site list narrows for NASA's next Mars
landing
(Nov 20, 2008)
Four intriguing places on Mars have risen to the final round as NASA
selects a landing site for its next Mars mission, the Mars
Science Laboratory. The agency had a wider range of possible landing
sites to choose from than for any previous mission, thanks to the
Mars Science Laboratory's advanced technologies, and the highly capable
orbiters helping this mission identify scientifically compelling places
to explore.
Read
more. Source: NASA/JPL |
XMM-Newton and Integral clues on magnetic
powerhouses
(Nov 20, 2008)
X-ray and gamma-ray data from ESA's XMM-Newton
and Integral orbiting
observatories has been used to test, for the first time, the physical
processes that make magnetars,
an atypical class of neutron stars, shine in X-rays.
Read
more. Source: ESA |
NASA tests first deep-space Internet
(Nov 20, 2008)
NASA has successfully tested the first deep space communications network
modeled on the Internet. Working as part of a NASA-wide team, engineers
from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, used software called
Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, to transmit dozens of space
images to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about more than
32 million km (20 million miles) from Earth.
Read
more. Source: NASA/JPL |
Mysterious electrons may be sign of dark
matter
(Nov 19, 2008)
Dark
matter is proving less shadowy than its name suggests. Its signature
may have been detected by a balloon-borne experiment that measured
a surprisingly high number of energetic electrons
streaming in from space.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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