SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: August 2009
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| California fire threatens historic
observatory |
Aug 31, 2009 |
| Tevatron tightens up the race
for the Higgs |
Aug 31, 2009 |
| India loses Moon satellite links |
Aug 30, 2009 |
| Why future astronauts may be
sent to 'gravity holes' |
Aug 29, 2009 |
| Space shuttle lifts off for ISS |
Aug 29, 2009 |
| Balmy water once bathed Mars
rock claimed to host life |
Aug 29, 2009 |
| Single molecule's stunning image |
Aug 28, 2009 |
| Sunspots stir oceans |
Aug 28, 2009 |
| Test for NASA's new rocket motor |
Aug 27, 2009 |
| Space probes fly in tandem to
search for lunar water |
Aug 26, 2009 |
| Flashback
to Triton |
Aug 26, 2009 |
| Shuttle to
deliver 'hot and cold' |
Aug 25, 2009 |
| Landing sites
on Europa identified |
Aug 25, 2009 |
| Stopwatch
found for Solar System |
Aug 24, 2009 |
| Upwards lightning
caught on film |
Aug 24, 2009 |
| Mega black
hole twice as big as we thought |
Aug 23, 2009 |
| Saturn moon's
mirror-smooth lake 'good for skipping rocks' |
Aug 21, 2009 |
| A step closer
to 'synthetic life' |
Aug 21, 2009 |
| Gravity wave
detectors home in on their quarry |
Aug 20, 2009 |
| Galaxies demand
a stellar recount |
Aug 20, 2009 |
| SETI telescope
array produces first science results |
Aug 19, 2009 |
| First amino
acid on a comet found |
Aug 18, 2009 |
| Black hole
parasites explain cosmic flashes |
Aug 18, 2009 |
| NASA assembles
Ares test rocket |
Aug 17, 2009 |
| Meteorite
found on Mars yields clues about planet's past |
Aug 17, 2009 |
| US probe captures
Saturn equinox |
Aug 16, 2009 |
| Houston, we
have a cashflow problem |
Aug 14, 2009 |
| Second backwards
planet found, a day after the first |
Aug 14, 2009 |
| Milky Way
may have a huge hidden neighbor |
Aug 14, 2009 |
| Space telescopes
find trigger-happy star formation |
Aug 14, 2009 |
| New planet
displays exotic orbit |
Aug 13, 2009 |
| Earth could
be blindsided by asteroids, panel warns |
Aug 12, 2009 |
| Rovers rev
up for Google's moonshot jackpot |
Aug 12, 2009 |
| Planet smash-up
sends vaporized rock, hot lava flying |
Aug 11, 2009 |
| Equinox to
reveal Saturn secrets |
Aug 11, 2009 |
| Perseid shower
to produce 'shooting stars' |
Aug 10, 2009 |
| Fast-spinning
black holes might reveal all |
Aug 9, 2009 |
| Giant moon
Titan resembles Earth |
Aug 8, 2009 |
| Triple asteroid
system triples observers' interest |
Aug 8, 2009 |
| Kepler spacecraft
sees its first exoplanets |
Aug 7, 2009 |
| Large Hadron
Collider to restart at half its designed energy |
Aug 7, 2009 |
| Martian methane
mystery deepens |
Aug 6, 2009 |
| Crazy quilt'
of moves may free stuck Mars rover |
Aug 5, 2009 |
| Five snacks
that are shaped like the universe |
Aug 4, 2009 |
| Possible meteorite
imaged by Opportunity rover |
Aug 3, 2009 |
| Comets 'not
cause of extinctions' |
Aug 3, 2009 |
| Experts puzzled
by spot on Venus |
Aug 2, 2009 |
| Space shuttle
touches down safely |
Aug 1, 2009 |
California fire threatens historic observatory
(Aug 31, 2009)
A rampaging fire in the Angeles National Forest in southern California
is threatening a historic observatory at the summit of Mount Wilson,
as well as a dense crowd of television transmitters there. The "Station
Fire" fire began on Wednesday afternoon but has spread quickly, doubling
in size overnight, to an area covering more than 345 square km. By
Sunday evening, it had moved to within 3.2 km of Mount
Wilson Observatory.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist / Sky & Telescope |
Tevatron tightens up the race for
the Higgs
(Aug 31, 2009)
With the Large
Hadron Collider still in the repair shop, the race to find the
Higgs boson has
become a lot tighter, thanks to the older and less powerful –
but working – Tevatron collider near Chicago. "The Tevatron
definitely has a chance," says Greg Landsberg of Brown University
in Providence, Rhode Island, who works on one of the LHC's detectors.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
India loses Moon satellite links
(Aug 30, 2009)
All communication links with the only Indian satellite orbiting the
Moon have been lost,
India's space agency says. Radio contact with the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft
was lost abruptly early on Saturday, said India's Bangalore-based
Space Research Organization. The unmanned craft was launched last
October in what was billed as a two-year mission of exploration.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Why future astronauts may be sent to 'gravity
holes'
(Aug 29, 2009)
With doubts brewing about the feasibility of returning to the moon
or aiming straight for Mars, another option has emerged for our next
steps into space: gravitational "sweet spots" called Lagrangian
points that lie at least 1 million kilometers away. Lagrangian
points are great swathes of space where the gravitational acceleration
from the Earth and the Sun are exactly equal, letting objects stick
there with very little effort.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Space shuttle lifts off for ISS
(Aug 29, 2009)
NASA has launched the US shuttle Discovery
for a mission to the International
Space Station, with seven astronauts on board. It lifted off from
the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2359 EDT Friday (0359 GMT Saturday).
Two previous attempts to launch the orbiter had been postponed by
a mix of bad weather and a technical glitch affecting its main propulsion
system.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Balmy water once bathed Mars rock claimed
to host life
(Aug 29, 2009)
A 1996 claim of fossilized microbes in the ALH84001
meteorite from Mars has yet to be confirmed, but a new study does
suggest the rock's Martian environment had conditions conducive to
life. The study, led by Paul Niles of NASA's Johnson Space Center,
concludes that the water involved in deposited the carbon-based substances
in the rock was cool enough to allow for life.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Single molecule's stunning image
(Aug 28, 2009)
The detailed chemical structure of a single molecule
has been imaged for the first time, say researchers. The physical
shape of single carbon nanotubes has been outlined before, using similar
techniques – but the new method even shows up chemical
bonds. Understanding molecular structure on this scale could help
in the design of many things on the molecular scale, particularly
electronics or even drugs.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Sunspots stir oceans
(Aug 28, 2009)
Computer simulations are showing how tiny variations in the Sun's
brightness can have a big influence on weather above the Pacific Ocean.
The simulations match observations that show precipitation in the
eastern Pacific varies with the Sun's brightness over an 11-year
cycle. However, the model does not indicate a relationship between
solar activity and the rise in global temperature over the past century.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
Test for NASA's new rocket motor
(Aug 27, 2009)
The first-stage rocket motor that US space agency (NASA) hopes will
launch astronauts in future undergoes its first full-scale test on
Thursday. The static firing will take place at a facility owned by
manufacturer Alliant Techsystems Inc (ATK) in Utah. The five-segment
booster is intended to power the early flight phase of NASA's Ares
1 rocket, the vehicle designed to loft its new Orion
crew carrier.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Space probes fly in tandem to search for
lunar water
(Aug 26, 2009)
A delicate joint maneuver between the US Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Indian Chandrayaan-1 probe orbiting
the Moon could turn up
evidence for valuable lunar
water. Some scientists suspect water ice – which would be
a precious resource for future explorers – may be trapped in
permanently shadowed craters at the Moon's poles.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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