Clipmarks | invictus's 'space' clips

High-Speed Crash Makes Hot, 'Sterile' Galaxies

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:37:46 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Oct. 9, 2008 -- A new wider view of two very well-known galaxies has revealed a big surprise: They are connected by faint, starless filaments of hydrogen gas which trace back to a very high-speed intergalactic collision.

The smash-up between galaxies M86 and NGC4438 not been suspected before, and may explain why M86, which is visible to the naked eye, is unable to give birth to new stars.

Tags: space, universe, galaxies, science

Supervoids and clusters reveal dark energy

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:16:09 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

SYDNEY: Astronomers say they have detected the clearest evidence yet for the mysterious dark energy that stretches and flattens out the universe.

Dark energy is a little understood type of energy that pervades space and tends to increase the rate of expansion of the universe.

The researchers looked for signs of it in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) as mapped by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which aims to map one-quarter of the universe. The CMB is made up of the relict microwaves left over when photons interacted with newly recombined atoms soon following the Big Bang.

While the CMB has remained relatively unchanged since the beginning of the universe, subtle variations can illuminate how radiation travels through regions of space.

The researchers looked at 50 of the largest superclusters and 50 of the largest voids and measured the strength of the microwave radiation travelling through these regions.

Tags: universe, astrophysics, dark energy, physics, science

"Exploding Asteroid" Theory Strengthened By New Evidence

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 03:40:11 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (July 3, 2008) — Geological evidence found in Ohio and Indiana in recent weeks is strengthening the case to attribute what happened 12,900 years ago in North America -- when the end of the last Ice Age unexpectedly turned into a phase of extinction for animals and humans – to a cataclysmic comet or asteroid explosion over top of Canada.

A comet/asteroid theory advanced by Arizona-based geophysicist Allen West in the past two years says that an object from space exploded just above the earth’s surface at that time over modern-day Canada, sparking a massive shock wave and heat-generating event that set large parts of the northern hemisphere ablaze, setting the stage for the extinctions.

"The kind of evidence we are finding does suggest that climate change at the end of the last Ice Age was the result of a catastrophic event," Tankersley says.

Tags: ice age, catastrophe, asteroids, comets, climate change

Solar system a bit squashed, not nicely round

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:50:46 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

"Imagine a balloon is being blown up by the solar wind. You might imagine that if you took a balloon, which is mainly spherical, and pushed it against the wall, it would be blunted on one side," said Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology, one of the scientists involved in the research.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

The solar system may not be a nice round shape, but rather a bit squashed and oblong, according to data from the Voyager 2 spacecraft exploring the solar system's outer limits, scientists said on Wednesday.

Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 unmanned probes are now studying the edges of the heliosphere, the huge magnetic "bubble" around our solar system created by the solar wind as it runs up against the thin gas in interstellar space.

Voyager 2 in August 2007 crossed this boundary 7.8 billion miles from the sun.

Voyager 1 had crossed the boundary in December 2004 about 10 billion miles away from Voyager 1 and almost a billion miles farther from the sun.

Scientists think this indicates that the bubble carved into interstellar space by the heliosphere, which extends well past the distant orbit of Pluto, is not perfectly round, and the solar system is shaped a bit like an oblong.

Tags: space, solar system, heliosphere, voyager, science

Martian soil supports life: "You can grow veggies"

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:44:00 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

Pressed on whether there was still any doubt that life existed on Mars in some form, Kounaves said the results were "very preliminary" and more analysis was needed.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Flabbergasted" NASA scientists said on Thursday that Martian soil appeared to contain the requirements to support life, although more work would be needed to prove it.

Scientists working on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission, which has already found ice on the planet, said preliminary analysis by the lander's instruments on a sample of soil scooped up by the spacecraft's robotic arm had shown it to be much more alkaline than expected.

"We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past present or future," Sam Kounaves, the lead investigator for the wet chemistry laboratory on Phoenix, told journalists.

"It is the type of soil you would probably have in your back yard, you know, alkaline. You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well. ... It is very exciting for us."

Tags: space, mars, phoenix, life, nasa, science

Ice on Mars surface

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:45:22 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

LOS ANGELES - Scientists believe NASA's Phoenix Mars lander exposed bits of ice while recently digging a trench in the soil of the Martian arctic, the mission's principal investigator said.

Crumbs of bright material initially photographed in the trench later vanished, meaning they must have been frozen water that vaporized after being exposed, Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said in a statement Thursday.

"These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it's ice," Smith said. "There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can't do that."

Phoenix Mars is studying whether the arctic region of the Red Planet could be habitable. The probe is using its robotic arm to dig up soil samples, and scientists hope it will find frozen water.

Tags: space, solar system, mars, phoenix, planets, water, life, science

Astronauts say there must be life in space

Mon, 12 May 2008 14:44:03 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

TOKYO (AFP) - The human race will find life elsewhere in the universe as it pushes ahead with space exploration, astronauts back from the latest US space mission said Monday.

"If we push back boundaries far enough, I'm sure eventually we'll find something out there," said Mike Foreman, a mission specialist on the Endeavour, which returned to Earth in March.

"Maybe not as evolved as we are, but it's hard to believe that there is not life somewhere else in this great universe," he told a news conference in Tokyo.

Tags: space, universe, life, science

Hubble telescope captures crashing galaxies

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:20:16 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Images of colliding galaxies show them spinning, sliding and slipping into one another, wreaking stellar destruction that will give birth to new and larger galaxies.

The Maryland-based Space Telescope Science Institute released 59 new images from the Hubble Space Telescope on Thursday to celebrate the 18th anniversary of its launch.

"This new Hubble atlas dramatically illustrates how galaxy collisions produce a remarkable variety of intricate structures in never-before-seen detail," the Institute said in a statement.

"Astronomers observe only one out of a million galaxies in the nearby universe in the act of colliding. However, galaxy mergers were much more common long ago when they were closer together, because the expanding universe was smaller."

The color images, available online at http://hubblesite.org/news/2008/16, are a look back in time.

Tags: hubble, space, galaxies, images, science

Arthur C Clarke never lost his sense of wonder

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:27:06 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Saluting Sir Arthur... We lost one of the most inspiring figures of our time, clippers.

Clip Source: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

His far-sightedness led him to write dozens of science fiction novels, of which perhaps the most famous is 2001: A Space Odyssey — made into a spectacular film by the late director Stanley Kubrick.

Clarke and Kubrick created a vision of outer space that was more than just technology but had a mythic quality that probed the philosophy of the universe.

The original story was a short novella dealing with the idea of Man’s evolution being inspired by the intervention of a distant god-like extra-terrestrial civilisation.

To the end of his life he never lost his sense of wonder, his sense of humour or his strong Somerset accent. While sorely disappointed with the failure of Man’s space flight to achieve the lofty goals that he had foreseen, he always retained an optimism about the Universe and Man’s place in it.

Tags: arthur c clarke, science fiction, science, universe, philosophy, literature

Searching for the Space Diamonds

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:15:32 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Diamond said to be abundant in space. Did John Lennon know it when he wrote "Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds"?

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Scientists have devised a way to use an infrared telescope to find diamonds in space.

Unlike the rare terrestrial varieties that sparkle in jewelry, polish hard metals and give drill bits a cutting edge, celestial diamonds are ubiquitous, though extraordinarily petite. About 25,000 of them would fit in a grain of sand.

Still, because space diamonds are made of carbon, the building block of all life on Earth, studying them may help scientists understand how carbon-rich molecules develop.

Tags: space, telescopes, diamonds, carbon molecules, metals, science

Obama on NASA and space program

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:33:04 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: cosmicvariance.com

“I’ve got a strong belief in NASA and the process of space exploration. I do think that our program has been stuck for a while - that the space shuttle mission did not inspire the imagination of the public - that much of the experimentation that was done could have been conducted not necessarily with manned flights. I think that broadening our horizons - and looking at a combination of both unmanned satellites of the sort that we saw with the Jupiter launch - but also looking at where we can start planning for potential manned flights. I think that is something that I’m excited about and could be part of a broader strategy for science and technology investment … The only thing I want to say is that I want to do a thorough review because some of these programs may not be moving in the right direction and I want to make sure that NASA spending is a little more coherent than it has been over the last several years.”

Tags: barack obama, nasa, space program, science

Case builds for water on Saturn moon

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:57:17 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

PARIS (AFP) - Astrophysicists in Germany say they can add evidence to bolster theories that water, one of the precious ingredients for life, exists on the Saturnian moon Enceladus.

Enceladus has a brilliant white shell of ice that is untouched except for some strange-looking grooves and impacts from space rocks.

Heat and water are two of the essentials for life as we know it, although anything that exists in Enceladus's presumed sub-surface ocean is likely to be microbial at best, scientists add.

The new study appears on Thursday in Nature, the weekly British science journal.

Tags: saturn, enceladus, space, science, water, life, solar system

Asteroid flyby today - no impact risk

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:27:52 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

Asteroid 2007 TU24 is flying past Earth today. There's no danger of a collision, but the 250m-wide space rock is close enough (1.4 lunar distances) to photograph through backyard telescopes as it speeds through the constellation Cassiopeia glowing like a 10th magnitude star. NASA radars are monitoring the flyby and may produce new images of the rock by week's end. [ephemeris] [3D orbit]

Tags: astronomy, science, asteroids, space, solar system

Giant concentric stone circle unearthed in Italy

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:09:26 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.stonepages.com

Last July excavations for the new Sant'Anna hospital in San Fermo della Battaglia, near Como (Italy), revealed a double concentric circle of ancient stones. Thought to date back to 3000 BCE, the site is a "highly articulated prehistoric structure that could be either an ancient astronomical observatory or a sacred space," according to Stefania Iorio, Archaeological Superintendent of the region. The diameter of the two circles is about 70 metres, and they are crossed by a sort of pathway, paved with stones.

Tags: archaeology, megaliths, stone circles, italy

'Active glacier found' on Mars

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:21:08 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

If microbes survive deep below Mars, they could be transported to the surface by water gushing up from deep underground.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

White tips may be areas of freshly exposed ice

Enlarge Image

A probable active glacier has been identified for the first time on Mars.

The icy feature has been spotted in images from the European Space Agency's (Esa) Mars Express spacecraft.

Ancient glaciers, many millions of years old, have been seen before on the Red Planet, but these ones may only be several thousand years old.

The young glacier appears in the Deuteronilus Mensae region between Mars' rugged southern highlands and the flat northern lowlands.

"If it was an image of Earth, I would say 'glacier' right away," Dr Gerhard Neukum, chief scientist on the spacecraft's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) told BBC News.

"We have not yet been able to see the spectral signature of water. But we will fly over it in the coming months and take measurements. On the glacial ridges we can see white tips, which can only be freshly exposed ice.

Tags: mars, solar system, planets, water, glacier, life, space, science