In the outer reaches of the solar system, there is an object known as 2003 EL61 that looks like and spins like a football being drop-kicked over the proverbial goalpost of life. Still awaiting a more poetic name, 2003 EL61 largely escaped the media hubbub during last year's demotion of Pluto, but new findings could make it one of the most important of the Kuiper-belt objects for understanding the workings of the solar system.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers has shown how to use the chemical composition of stars in clusters to shed light on the formation of our Milky Way. This discovery is a fundamental test for the development of a new chemical tagging technique uncovering the birth and growth of our galactic cradle.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A method of processing lunar image data significantly improves how finely scientists can discern a key geochemical feature of the Moon's surface, a new study finds.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A burst of protons from the Sun in 1859 destroyed several times more ozone in Earth's atmosphere than did a 1989 solar flare that was the strongest ever monitored by satellite, a new analysis finds.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
BepiColombo, ESA's mission to explore planet Mercury, has been definitively "adopted" by the Agency's Science Program Committee. The mission will now start its industrial implementation phase, to prepare for launch in August 2013.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
During the very first observations of Rosetta's flyby target 2867-Steins in March 2006 the onboard camera OSIRIS obtained the most accurate 'light curve' of this asteroid so far.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Several hundred images taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have been woven together into a rich tapestry of at least 50,000 galaxies. The Hubble view is yielding new clues about the universe's youth, from its "pre-teen" years to young adulthood.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
NASA scientist Bill Cooke is shooting marbles and he's playing "keepsies." The prize won't be another player's marbles, but knowledge that will help keep astronauts safe when America returns to the Moon in the next decade. Cooke is firing quarter-inch diameter clear shooters -- Pyrex glass, to be exact -- at soil rather than at other marbles. And he has to use a new one on each round because every 16,000 mph (7 km/s) shot destroys his shooter.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Researchers suggest locations where future Mars missions might seek liquid water underneath Martian soil. They used a planetary environmental chamber to simulate conditions found on Mars - a carbon dioxide atmosphere, 7 millibars of pressure and temperatures near zero degrees Celsius in the study.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Scientists have used the world's largest robotic telescope to make the earliest-ever measurement of the optical polarisation of a Gamma Ray Burst, just 203 seconds after the start of the cosmic explosion.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
It may have been 40 degrees below zero at the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska, but aurora and weather came together one recent winter night in a perfect match for Clemson University researchers and students who launched four rockets to study heat in the upper atmosphere.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
New measurements of Mars' south polar region indicate extensive frozen water. The polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 11 meters (36 feet) deep. A joint NASA-Italian Space Agency instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft provided these data.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Later this year ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli will serve as Mission Specialist on the STS-120 mission to the International Space Station. Together with the rest of the Shuttle crew, Nespoli is training intensively ahead of this complex ISS assembly mission.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Instruments known as solid-state telescopes (SSTs), built with detectors fabricated at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and carried aboard the recently launched THEMIS mission, have delivered their first data on how charged particles in the solar wind interact with Earth's magnetic field to shape the planet's magnetosphere.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Are bigger bones stronger bones? Not necessarily, according to a recent NASA study that seeks to ensure healthy bones in astronauts. A four-year study of the long-term effects of microgravity on the bones of International Space Station crew members showed that the astronauts, on average, lost roughly 11 percent of their total hip bone mass over the course of their mission.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Some bright Martian soil containing lots of sulfur and a trace of water intrigues researchers who are studying information provided by NASA's Spirit rover.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
By casting a wide net, astronomers have captured an image of more than a thousand supermassive black holes. These results give astronomers a snapshot of a crucial period when these monster black holes are growing, and provide insight into the environments in which they occur.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Images made with ESO's New Technology Telescope at La Silla by a team of German astronomers reveal a rich circular cluster of stars in the inner parts of our Galaxy. Located 30,000 light-years away, this previously unknown closely-packed group of about 100,000 stars is most likely a new globular cluster.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Proof that certain double star systems can erupt in full-blown explosions and then continue to flare up with smaller bursts has been spotted by the ultraviolet eyes of NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Instruments on NASA's Cassini spacecraft have found evidence for seas, likely filled with liquid methane or ethane, in the high northern latitudes of Saturn's moon Titan. One such feature is larger than any of the Great Lakes of North America and is about the same size as several seas on Earth.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A hot start billions of years ago might have set into motion the forces that power geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Building a satellite in just three years is without doubt an ambitious undertaking. Nevertheless, the decision to rebuild CryoSat and recover the mission includes just that goal. A year on and the mission is now well on the way to recovery, with a design that incorporates no less than 85 separate improvements.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Plasma physicists have made an unprecedented measurement in their study of the Earth's magnetic field. Thanks to ESA's Cluster satellites they detected an electric field thought to be a key element in the process of "magnetic reconnection."
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A gamma-ray burst observed by NASA's Swift satellite on July 29, 2006, generated an X-ray afterglow that remained detectable to the spacecraft's X-ray Telescope (XRT) for 125 days, an astonishing long time, indicating the possible formation of a magnetar. If Chandra or XMM-Newton can see the afterglow later this year, GRB 060729 will break the record for longest observed X-ray afterglow.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A newly launched spacecraft includes a tiny analyzer to study plasma bubbles in the ionosphere that disrupt satellite communications.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A menacing lump of rock and dust in space called 10195 (1999 RQ36) would barely be noticed except for two crucial facts: First, "It's a treasure trove of organic material, so it holds clues to how Earth formed and life got started," said Joseph Nuth of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Second, it regularly crosses Earth's orbit, so it might impact us someday.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Two innovative experiments built at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) launched into low earth orbit on Thursday, March 8, onboard the Space Test Program Satellite-1 (STPSat-1). Both payloads contain pioneering technology designed to answer compelling scientific questions about the Earth's atmosphere.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A decade-long mystery has been solved using data from ESA's X-ray observatory XMM-Newton. The brightest member of the so-called "magnificent seven" has been found to pulsate with a period of seven seconds.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
ESA's SMART-1 moon mission has become a bridge to the future of lunar science and exploration.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Scientists return this week to the world's deepest known sinkhole for tests of a NASA-funded robot called DEPTHX, designed to survey and explore for life in one of Earth's most extreme regions and potentially in outer space. DEPTHX's technology could aid future space probes of Europa, where scientists believe deep holes in the ice could hold extraterrestrial life.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
ESA's Mars Express and Venus Express missions, to explore our nearest neighbor planets Mars and Venus respectively, will continue to operate until early May 2009. The decision was unanimously taken by ESA's Science Program Committee.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Professor Sam Braunstein, of the University of York's Department of Computer Science, and Dr Arun Pati, of the Institute of Physics, Sainik School, Bhubaneswar, India, have established that quantum information cannot be 'hidden' in conventional ways, or in Braunstein's words, "quantum information can run but it can't hide."
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
NASA-funded researchers are refining a tool that could not only check for the faintest traces of life's molecular building blocks on Mars, but could also determine whether they have been produced by anything alive.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Certain double, or binary, star systems erupt in full-blown explosions and then flare up with smaller bursts, according to new information gathered by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and analyzed by a team of astronomers, including postdoctoral researcher Mark Seibert of the Carnegie Observatories. The data bolster a 20-year-old theory suggesting that double star systems experience both explosion types, rather than just one or the other.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
For the very first time, astronomers have witnessed the speeding up of an asteroid's rotation, and have shown that it is due to a theoretical effect predicted but never seen before. The asteroid's rotation period currently decreases by 1 millisecond every year, as a consequence of the heating of the asteroid's surface by the Sun. Eventually it may spin faster than any known asteroid in the solar system and even break apart.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
New data obtained on the apparent celestial couple, NGC 5011 B and C, taken with the 3.6-m ESO telescope, reveal that the two galaxies are not at the same distance, as was believed for the past 23 years. The observations show that NGC 5011C is not a giant, but a dwarf galaxy, an overlooked member of a group of galaxies in the vicinity of the Milky Way.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A team of European astronomers offer new evidence that high-mass stars could form in a similar way to low-mass stars, that is, from accretion of gas and dust through a disk surrounding the forming star. Their article, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, reports the discovery of a jet of molecular hydrogen arising from a forming high-mass star located in the Omega nebula (M17).
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
On Feb. 28, 2007, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Jupiter on its ultimate journey to Pluto. This flyby gave scientists a unique opportunity to study Jupiter using the package of instruments available on New Horizons, while coordinating observations from both space- and ground-based telescopes including NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A massive project to generate an all-color map of the galaxies in a small area of sky is yielding new information about the universe's "pre-teen" years and the early evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters. The UC Berkeley-led AEGIS survey has already generated 19 papers set for publication this spring, reporting a binary black hole at the core of one galaxy, new lensing galaxies, and information about our universe as it matured through early adolescence.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
The latest panoramic images from National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) twin STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft enable scientists to track solar storms from the sun to the Earth for the first time.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
A brand new image taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 shows the planetary nebula NGC 2440 -- the chaotic structure of the demise of a star.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Archeologists from Yale and the University of Leicester have identified an ancient solar observatory at Chankillo, Peru, as the oldest in the Americas with alignments covering the entire solar year, according to an article in the March 2 issue of Science.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured never-before-seen views of Saturn from perspectives high above and below the planet's rings. Over the last several months, the spacecraft has climbed to higher and higher inclinations, providing its cameras with glimpses of the planet and rings that have scientists gushing.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Over 60 scientists and technicians have taken up temporary residence in European Space Agency's brand new microgravity science laboratory, where, for the coming days, they will rehearse procedures to prepare experiments for the Foton M3 mission later this year.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft successfully completed a flyby of Jupiter early this morning (Feb. 28), using the massive planet's gravity to pick up speed for its 3-billion mile voyage to Pluto and the unexplored Kuiper Belt region beyond.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Just days before nations around the world were set to begin a coordinated global research campaign called the International Polar Year (IPY), scientists at the South Pole aimed a massive new telescope at Jupiter and successfully collected the instrument's first test observations.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grantee Peter Austin and three other researchers have just completed a survey of hospital visits in Ontario, Canada, showing that, compared to people born under other astrological signs, Virgos have an increased risk of vomiting during pregnancy, Pisces have an increased risk of heart failure, and Libras have an increased risk of fracturing their pelvises. In fact, each of the 12 astrological signs had at least two associated medical disorders. The study, which used data from 10,000,000 Ontario residents in 2000, was conducted with tongue firmly in cheek.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
The black hole at the center of our Milky Way could be working like a cosmic particle accelerator, revving up protons that smash at incredible speeds into lower energy protons and creating high-energy gamma rays, University of Arizona astrophysicists say.
Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:45:24 PST
