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Friday, 19 January 2007 20:48

THEMIS five-satellite spacecraft to study magnetic space storms

THEMIS is a group of five satellites that will study the Earth’s magnetic field (the magnetosphere) and improve our understanding of the world’s weather. It will be launched by NASA in February 2007. THEMIS project manager Peter Harvey, of the University of California at Berkeley, says of the mission: “We look forward to some terrific scientific discoveries.”

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Friday, 19 January 2007 05:19

All quiet at the Galactic centre

By Stephen Withers

Astronomers studying the centre of our galaxy via the ESA's Integral gamma ray observatory have seen a temporary fading of emissions from around ten normally high-energy sources.

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Thursday, 18 January 2007 21:31

Researchers think wrinkles could be prevented with nanoparticles

Chemical engineering researchers IIsoon Lee and Troy Hendricks from Michigan State University (MSU) have postulated that nanoparticles could prevent human skin from wrinkling. While researching the use of nanoparticles to prevent the buckling and wrinkling of thin polymer films, they conclude that their research results could equally be applied to human skin wrinkles.

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Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:01

Large Hadron Collider: Does every particle in the universe consist of points, strings, or loops?

For many years String theory has been a viable adjustment to the Standard Model of particle physics—a quantum field theory that cosmologists hope will unite all the fundamental forces of nature (weak, strong, electromagnetic, and gravitational). In other words, explain how the universe works. The problem so far has been that the Standard Model does not explain the gravitational force. And recently, String theory, without any experimental conclusions to back it up, has being challenged by other theories such as Loop Quantum Gravity.

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Wednesday, 17 January 2007 07:52

NASA goes metric for Moon missions

Every country in the world has adopted the metric system for its units of measurements except for Liberia, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and the United States. The people of the United States tried to convert to metric—mostly in the 1960s and 1970s (remember metrification?)—but it failed miserably. However, to avoid confusion, minimize safety concerns, and support international cooperation, NASA has decided to use the metric units for all operations with respect to its new lunar initiatives.

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Tuesday, 16 January 2007 04:47

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft to fly past Jupiter on way to Pluto-Charon system

On January 19, 2006, the NASA New Frontiers space mission called New Horizons was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, for its mission to the planet Pluto and its moon Charon. Now about one year later, astronomers are preparing for its flyby of the planet Jupiter before it reaches dwarf planets Pluto and Charon. Scientists estimate that its closest approach to Jupiter will be at approximately 06:00 UTC (coordinated universal time) on February 28, 2007, which is 1:00 a.m. eastern standard time.

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Monday, 15 January 2007 04:00

Was that the McNaut comet we saw?

By Stan Beer

Yesterday at sunset, the kids and I went down to the beach armed with a couple of pairs of binoculars to do a little Southern Hemisphere stargazing. In fact, to be more precise, we were there to do some comet spotting.

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Sunday, 14 January 2007 22:28

A Tribute to Sergey Korolyov: Soviet Space Pioneer

January 12 and 14, 2007 passed without much fanfare for the one-hundredth and forty-first anniversaries of the birth and death (respectively) of an important man to the development of robotic and human space exploration: Sergey Korolyov (sometimes spelled Sergei Korolev).

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Sunday, 14 January 2007 05:50

The New Space Race: It's not just the United States versus the Soviet Union anymore!

The 1957-1975 Space Race was a highly competitive contest between the United States and the Societ Union to ultimately land humans on the Moon. However, in the twenty-first century, the manned race to the Moon and beyond has gotten a bit more crowded with three more participants. The principle players in the New Space Race include the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and India.

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Saturday, 13 January 2007 22:59

First extrasolar asteroid belt helps confirm planet-making process

Over the past thirty years astronomers have gathered information on an asteroid belt around a star other than the Sun. That star—Zeta Leporis—is about 70 light-years away from the Earth. Evidence collected in 2006 about Zeta Leporis’ asteroid belt helps confirm that planet-making processes are occurring around stars other than the Sun.

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