SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: October 2009
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Fusion delays sow concern
(Oct 14, 2009)
Construction at the site of ITER – the multibillion-euro
project to prove controlled nuclear fusion
– has been at a standstill since April, Nature has learned.
The stoppage comes as European contributors negotiate how to pay
for their share of ITER, a collaboration between Europe, Japan,
South Korea, Russia, the United States, China and India.
Read
more. Source: Nature |
The collider, the particle and a theory
about fate
(Oct 13, 2009)
More than a year after an explosion of sparks, soot and frigid
helium shut it down, the Large
Hadron Collider is poised to start up again. Then it will
be time to test one of the most bizarre and revolutionary theories
in science – the notion that the troubled collider is being
sabotaged by its own future.
Read
more. Source: New York Times |
Asteroid isn't just a dry heap of
rubble
(Oct 13, 2009)
Two independent teams, from Johns Hopkins University and the NASA
Infrared Telescope Facility (shown here), have found what may
be the first direct evidence of water ice on the surface of an
asteroid. The discovery of water on 24 Themis
lends support to the idea that asteroids could have helped deliver
water to the early Earth.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
DARPA tries to tap elusive Casmir
effect for breakthrough technology
(Oct 12, 2009)
The Casimir effect
governs interactions of matter with the energy that is present
in a vacuum. By harnessing this force researchers might someday
develop low-friction ballistics and even levitating objects that
defy gravity. For now, the U.S. Defense Department's Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a two-year, $10-million
project encouraging scientists to work on ways to manipulate this
quirk of quantum electrodynamics.
Read
more. Source: Scientific American |
Pallas is 'Peter Pan' space rock
(Oct 11, 2009)
The Hubble telescope has provided new insight on 2 Pallas,
one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System. The nearly 600km-wide
rock is an example of an object that started out on the process
of becoming a planet but never grew up into the real thing. Researchers
have published a 3D model of the grapefruit-shaped mini-world
in Science magazine.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
NASA puzzles over 'invisible' moon
impact
(Oct 10, 2009)
In the final minutes of its plunge toward the moon, NASA's LCROSS
spacecraft spotted the brief infrared flash of a rocket booster
hitting the lunar surface just ahead of it – and it even
saw heat from the crater formed by the impact. But scientists
remain puzzled about why the event did not seem to generate a
visible plume of debris as expected.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
US spacecraft crash into the Moon
(Oct 9, 2009)
NASA has crashed two unmanned spacecraft into the Moon
in a bid to detect the presence of water-ice. But no light flash
was apparent in images broadcast on NASA TV as an empty 2,200kg
rocket stage slammed into Cabeus Crater at the Moon's south pole.
Another spacecraft carrying science instruments was set to analyze
the huge debris cloud anticipated on impact.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
NASA refines asteroid Apophis' path
toward Earth
(Oct 8, 2009)
Using updated information, NASA scientists have recalculated the
path of the asteroid Apophis.
The refined path indicates a significantly reduced likelihood
of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036. The chances of a
collision with Apophis, which is approximately the size of two-and-a-half
football fields, has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a
million.
Read
more. Source: NASA/JPL |
Russia plots return to Venus
(Oct 8, 2009)
Densely clouded in acid-laden mist, Venus
used to be the Soviet Union's favorite target for planetary exploration.
Now, after a lull of almost three decades, Russia is making plans
for a new mission to the "morning star" and has invited Western
scientists to participate. Last week, Moscow-based space research
institute IKI hosted an international conference aimed at luring
scientists from Europe and possibly other countries such as the
US into the ambitious project, officially scheduled for launch
in 2016.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Largest ring in solar system found
around Saturn
(Oct 7, 2009)
A colossal ring
of debris found around Saturn
is the largest in the solar system. The new ring could be the
'smoking gun' that explains the curious two-faced appearance of
Saturn's moon Iapetus,
whose leading hemisphere is much darker than its trailing side.
Until now, the biggest known rings in the solar system were Saturn's
E ring and faint, gossamer sheets of dust orbiting Jupiter.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Rocket company tests world's most
powerful ion engine
(Oct 6, 2009)
Rockets that would use charged particles to propel super-fast
missions to Mars are one step closer, now that a small-scale prototype
of a system called VASIMR
(Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) has been demonstrated
at full power. The ion engine may be used to maintain the orbit
of the International Space Station within the next five years,
and could lay the groundwork for rockets that could one day travel
to Mars in about a month.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Life span of the universe downgraded
(Oct 5, 2009)
For all its tumult the cosmos is surprisingly orderly. Theoretical
calculations have long shown that the entropy
(degree of disorder) of the universe is only a tiny fraction of
the maximum allowable amount. A new calculation upholds that general
result but suggests that the universe is messier than had been
thought, and a bit further along on its gradual journey to death.
Read
more. Source: Science News |
Herschel scans hidden Milky Way
(Oct 3, 2009)
A remarkable view of our Galaxy
has been obtained by Europe's billion-euro Herschel
Space Observatory. The telescope was put in a special scanning
mode to map a patch of sky. The images reveal in exquisite detail
the dense, contorted clouds of cold gas that are collapsing in
on themselves to form new stars.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Mercury flyby successful
(Oct 2, 2009)
On September 29, 2009, the MESSENGER
spacecraft passed by Mercury
for the third time, flying 141.7 miles above the planet's surface
for a final gravity assist that will enable it to enter orbit
about Mercury in 2011. During the encounter, MESSENGER's cameras
imaged a portion of Mercury's never-before-seen surface and the
Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer observed
Mercury's exospheric "tail" during approach.
Read
more. Source: NASA / Johns Hopkins |
Galaxy study hints at cracks in dark
matter theories
(Oct 1, 2009)
Dark
matter is either weirder than we thought or does not exist
at all, a new study suggests. A galaxy is supposed to sit at the
heart of a giant cloud of dark matter and interact with it through
gravity alone. The dark matter originally provided enough attraction
for the galaxy to form and now keeps it rotating. But observations
are not bearing out this simple picture.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
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