Scientists Find Most Earth-like Planet Yet
April 25, 2007 || Category: Science News | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — European astronomers have spotted what they say is the most Earth-like planet yet outside our solar system, with balmy temperatures that could support water and, potentially, life.
They have not directly seen the planet, orbiting a red dwarf star called Gliese 581. But measurements of the star suggest that a planet not much [...]
Source: BBC News
Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.
A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia.
According to movie and comic-book storylines, kryptonite is supposed to sap Superman’s powers whenever he is exposed to [...]
China creates first artificial snow in Tibet
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has created artificial snow for the first time in Tibet, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday, months after experts warned of melting glaciers and drought in the Himalayan region.
The Tibet meteorological station had performed a “successful artificial snowfall operation” last week in northern Tibet, [...]
Water Found on Planet Outside Our Solar System
April 11, 2007 || Category: Science News | 6 Comments
Scientists have uncovered an exciting finding on planet HD 209458b located a mere 150 light years from our planet Earth. This planet resides in the Pegasus Constellation (and no, it’s not the one where Atlantis is located).
As most scientists are aware, generally where there is water, there is life — so you can imagine [...]
The universe is a strange, mysterious and glorious place. An unusual event has taken place at the North Pole of the planet Saturn. A huge weather system over the pole has created a bizarre hexagon-shaped formation within the center of the massive storm.
The first time this was noted was over 26 years ago [...]
Newfound Data Could Solve NASA’s Great Gravity Mystery
March 27, 2007 || Category: Science News | Leave a Comment
NEW YORK – It’s been years since NASA last heard from either of its two Pioneer probes hurtling out of the solar system, but scientists are still debating the source of an odd force pushing against the outbound spacecraft.
Dubbed the Pioneer Anomaly, the unexplained force appears to be acting against NASA’s identical Pioneer 10 [...]
Our solar system is about to welcome a new neighbor. Comet Lovejoy will be dropping by for a quick visit. One feature of this comet that makes it so intriquing to astronomers is its lovely shade of green.
This green comet was first discovered (just recently) by two comet watchers from down under, Terry [...]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — When a billionaire who keeps company with Martha Stewart goes into space, he can’t be expected to eat freeze-dried spaghetti and wash it down with powdered orange drink.
Space Adventures Ltd., the company that will be sending software mogul Charles Simonyi to the international space station on April 7, said on Tuesday he [...]
Orbital Outposts: A Better Bet Than a Moonbase?
March 16, 2007 || Category: Science News | 1 Comment
Because we are planetary creatures, most people assume the first and most numerous space settlements must be on the Moon or Mars. In fact, we may live in orbit long before settling the Moon or Mars, and there may always be far more space settlers in orbit than on any planet or moon.
Orbital settlements are [...]
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Scientists have discovered what appear to be sea-size bodies of liquid, probably methane or ethane, on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon.
The discovery by the international Cassini spacecraft was welcomed by researchers, who have long theorized that Titan possessed hydrocarbon seas because of methane and other organic compounds in its [...]
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 54
48th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Joni Marie Gutierrez
A JOINT MEMORIAL DECLARING PLUTO A PLANET AND DECLARING MARCH 13, 2007, “PLUTO PLANET DAY” AT THE LEGISLATURE
WHEREAS, the state of New Mexico is a global center for astronomy, astrophysics and planetary science; and
WHEREAS, New Mexico [...]
Astronomers have been give the unique opportunity to bear witness to the birth of a new sun.
This brand new star, which could likely turn out to be a twin of our own Sun was given birth within the womb of the famous towering star maker known as the Pillars of Creation.
“We think this is a [...]
Alien Worlds Have Dry Waterless Atmospheres
February 21, 2007 || Category: Science News | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists taking their first “sniffs of air” from planets outside our solar system are a bit baffled by what they did not find: water.
One of the more basic assumptions of astronomy is that the two distant, hot gaseous planets they examined must contain water in their atmospheres. The two suns the planets [...]
The Kepler Mission: The Search for Earth-like Planets
February 20, 2007 || Category: Science News | 1 Comment
BOULDER, Colorado – The hunt for Earth-like worlds orbiting distant suns will get a big boost next year with the liftoff of NASA’s Kepler mission. That spacecraft’s job is to monitor 100,000 stars in a stellar staring contest intended to detect periodic decreases in a star’s brightness—a falloff of light due to planets transiting their [...]
New Theory Explains Mysterious Dark Galaxies
February 15, 2007 || Category: Science News | 1 Comment
Source: SPACE.com
Written by: Charles Q. Choi (Special to SPACE.com)
The darkest galaxies in the universe, made nearly entirely of matter which researchers think can zip right through normal matter with virtually no effect, now might be explained by a new scientific model that sheds light on their strange existence.
The normal matter of which the stars, planets, [...]
Source: SPACE.com
When space travelers finally traipse across the dusty Martian surface, they’ll know just what kind of terrain to expect thanks to scientists at the European Space Agency who are producing the first “hiker’s maps†of the red planet.
The new topographic maps, based on data collected by the ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, could become the [...]
Source: SPACE.com
Written by: Joe Rao (SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist)
Soon after sunset on Saturday evening, March 3, skywatchers in eastern North America can watch the rising full Moon undergoing its first total eclipse in nearly 2-½ years.
In Europe and Africa the eclipse takes place late at night high in a dark sky.
For North Americans, [...]
Skeleton Couple Locked in Embrace for 5,000 Years
February 7, 2007 || Category: Science News | 10 Comments
ROME, Italy (FoxNews) — It could be humanity’s oldest story of doomed love.
Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet.
Buried between 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, [...]
In this very rare glimpse back to Earth, the home from which the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft blasted off nearly 10 years ago, the ship looks back for a glance at home as it passes by the rings of Saturn. Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI unmanned space mission intended to study Saturn and its moons.
Earth appears [...]
Drug Kills Most Cancers — Why Aren’t Drug Companies Listening?
January 31, 2007 || Category: Science News | 3 Comments
Source: New Scientist
Written by: Andy Coghlan
Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers
It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortalityâ€. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively [...]
Speaking of Hubble — Its Main Camera Shuts Down — Again!
January 29, 2007 || Category: Science News | 1 Comment
BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) — The main camera on the popular Hubble Space Telescope shut down again over the weekend, the third outage in less than a year, NASA said Monday.
The orbiting observatory entered a protective “safe mode” Saturday morning. An initial investigation determined the backup power supply for the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the [...]
Here are just a few reasons why we cannot let the Hubble Telescope languish and die out:
If you can forgive me the pun…to loose Hubble would be not only inexcusable, but an astronomical loss to science that would be monumental in scope.
Rare Prehistoric Shark Found Alive Off Japan’s Coastal Waters
January 26, 2007 || Category: Science News | 5 Comments
Reuters — A rare frilled shark was captured alive by fishermen off the coast of Japan. The toothy eel-like creature was taken to Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka where it later died.
The 5-foot (1.6 meter) long shark was likely ill based upon the shallow waters it was swimming in. Generally this ancient species, called [...]
Written by: Ker Than (LiveScience Staff Writer)
The discovery of spherical fossils that resemble tiny baseballs could reveal how the earliest known egg-laying organism developed from embryo to adulthood.
In 1998, researchers discovered thousands of 600-million-year-old fossilized embryos in the Doushantuo Formation, a fossil deposit in South China. Two years later, the same team unearthed fossils [...]
Source: SPACE.com
Written by: Edna DeVore (SETI Institute)
Eavesdropping on ET Sooner Than We Think
SEATTLE — On Wednesday, January 10, here at the American Astronomical Society Meeting, theorist Dr. Avi Loeb from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics led a press conference on the search for ET. “Soon, we may be eavesdropping on signals from Galactic [...]
Source: Science Daily
Researcher Placing Eye Implants In Cats To Help Humans See
In “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” Geordi La Forge is a blind character who can see through the assistance of special implants in his eyes. While the Star Trek character “lives” in the 24th century, people living in the 21st century may not have [...]
SCI-FI to SCI-FACT: Astronomers Create 3D Map of Dark Matter
January 8, 2007 || Category: Science News | Leave a Comment
Source: SPACE.com
Written by: Ker Than (SPACE.com Staff Writer)
SEATTLE - Astronomers have mapped the positions of vast, invisible isles of dark matter in the sky, within which normal “bright” matter galaxies are embedded like glittering gems. The three-dimensional map [image] spans not only space, but also time, and stretches back to when the universe was [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have found alien microbes on the Red Planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist is theorizing.
The Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life, so they didn’t recognize it, a geology professor at Washington State University [...]
Source: SPACE.com
Witten by: Michael Schirber
The highly ionized solar wind blows around our planet, disrupting satellites and endangering unprotected astronauts. A flotilla of four satellites have recently measured random variations in the solar wind’s propagation, providing the first definitive detection of turbulence in space.
The observation could improve space weather forecasts, as well as help improve models [...]
NASA Makes Plans for Manned Asteroid Mission
December 28, 2006 || Category: Science News | Leave a Comment
Source: SPACE.com
Written by: Leonard David (Space Staff Writer)
Progress is being made on defining a human mission to an asteroid.
Experts at several NASA centers are sketching out a prospective piloted stopover at an asteroid — a trek that could return samples from a targeted space rock as well as honing astronaut proficiency and test needed equipment [...]
