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Astronomy News and Research - March 2008 Archives
 | Judi Provencal is star-struck, but not so much by the glitz and glam of Hollywood. ...> Full Article |
Study confirms 1966 prediction: The most energetic particles in the universe are not from the neighborhood
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 | Astrophysicists observe a circumstellar disk with telltale signs of planet formation ...> Full Article |
 | Cassini has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan. The findings were made using radar measurements of Titan's rotation. ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists detect amino acetonitrile near the centre of our Milky Way ...> Full Article |
 | Final results from the University of Utah's High-Resolution Fly's Eye cosmic ray observatory show that the most energetic particles in the universe rarely reach Earth at full strength because they come from great distances, so most of them collide with radiation left over from the birth of the universe. ...> Full Article |
 | A study of meteorites suggests that Mars, the Earth and the Moon share a common composition from 'growing up' in a unique planetary nursery in the inner solar system. ...> Full Article |
 | Astronomers have made the best ever determination of the power of a supernova explosion that was visible from Earth long ago. By observing the remnant of a supernova and a light echo from the initial outburst, they have established the validity of a powerful new method for studying supernovas. ...> Full Article |
 | scientists are designing a satellite-based observatory that they say could for the first time provide a sensitive survey of the entire sky to search for planets outside the solar system that appear to cross in front of bright stars. The system could rapidly discover hundreds of planets similar to the Earth. ...> Full Article |
Water is an essential ingredient for forming planets, yet has remained hidden from scientists searching for it in protoplanetary systems, the spinning disks of particles surrounding newly formed stars where planets are born. Now the detection of water vapor in the inner part of two extrasolar protoplanetary disks brings scientists one step closer to understanding water's role during terrestrial planet formation.
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 | Graduate student Cristina Thomas has been making observations of asteroids using a large NASA telescope in Hawaii, at least once a month for more than three years now. Doing this kind of astronomical research has traditionally required a lot of time and money for travel, but Thomas usually can get to the telescope just by walking down the hall. ...> Full Article |
Using visible and infrared data collected from telescopes on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, a team of scientists, led by the University of Maryland's Jessica Sunshine, have identified three asteroids that appear to be among our Solar System's oldest objects.
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 | Scientists using a Mars-orbiting camera designed and operated at ASU's Mars Space Flight Facility have found the first evidence for deposits of chloride minerals - salts - in numerous places on Mars. ...> Full Article |
 | A UK/US team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made the first detection ever of an organic molecule in a planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough is an important step in eventually identifying signs of life on a planet outside our Solar System. ...> Full Article |
Extraordinary event could have been witnessed with the naked eye
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 | Predicting the behavior of a sunspot cycle is fairly reliable once the cycle is well underway (about 3 years after the minimum in sunspot number occurs. Prior to that time the predictions are less reliable but nonetheless equally as important. Planning for satellite orbits and space missions often require knowledge of solar activity levels years in advance. ...> Full Article |
 | The Vanguard I satellite celebrates its 50th birthday this year. Its launch on March 17, 1958 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, culminated the efforts of America's first official space satellite program begun in September 1955. The first solar-powered satellite, Vanguard I has the distinction of being the oldest artificial satellite orbiting the earth. Its predecessors, Sputniks I and II and Explorer I, have since fallen out of orbit. ...> Full Article |
 | Promethei Planum, an area seasonally covered with a more than 3500 m thick layer of ice in the martian south polar region, was the subject of the High Resolution Stereo Camera's focus on 22 September 2005 as Mars Express was in orbit above the Red Planet. ...> Full Article |
 | Simulation reveals possible cause of Mercury's distinctive features ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists have observed unexpected luminous spots on Jupiter caused by its moon Io. ...> Full Article |
One of the great ongoing challenges of astrophysics, to find out how stars evolve and die, is to be tackled in an ambitious European research programme. This will involve studying in the laboratory over 25 critical nuclear reactions using low-energy stable beams of ions, in order to understand stellar evolution. "This programme will enhance the ongoing effort to understand the lifecycle of stars, together with the structure and processes of stellar evolution," said the workshop's convenor Sotirios Harissopulos from the National Centre of Scientific Research "Demokritos", Greece . "We also want to try and understand what happens when stars explode and how heavy elements are produced as a result."
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 | A new analysis of impact cratering data from Mars reveals that the planet has undergone a series of global volcanic upheavals. These violent episodes spewed lava and water onto the surface, sculpting the landscape that ESA's Mars Express looks down on today. ...> Full Article |
Study provides clues about the formation of Earth-like planets
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 | Amino acids that are the building blocks of life have been found in their highest ever concentration ...> Full Article |
 | Venus Express has constantly been observing the south pole of Venus and has found it to be surprisingly fickle. An enormous structure with a central part that looks like the eye of a hurricane, morphs and changes shape within a matter of days, leaving scientists puzzled. ...> Full Article |
 | Engineers are conducting experiments using a new hydrogen facility to help NASA create designs to improve the cooling efficiency and performance of the J-2X rocket engine, critical for future missions to Mars and the moon. ...> Full Article |
 | Newly-released images of the lunar south-polar region obtained by ESA's SMART-1 are proving to be wonderful tools to zero-in on suitable study sites for potential future lunar exploration missions. ...> Full Article |
 | Professor's study of the Peruvian meteorite has yielded some interesting conclusions that could upend the conventional wisdom about the size and type of meteorites that can strike Earth. ...> Full Article |
 | A team of scientists and engineers has been selected by NASA to study design concepts for a radio telescope destined for the far side of the Moon. The telescope, at present dubbed the Dark Ages Lunar Interferometer (DALI), will peer into the last unexplored epoch in the early history of the universe. The team is led by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and includes key contributions from Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) personnel. ...> Full Article |
Radio waves accelerate electrons within Jupiter's magnetic field in the same way as they do on Earth, according to new research published in Nature Physics this week. The discovery overturns a theory that has held sway for more than a generation and has important implications for protecting Earth-orbiting satellites.
...> Full Article
 | New Studies May Vindicate 300-Year-Old Astronomical 'Mistake' ...> Full Article |
 | Mapping the interior of interstellar clouds in great detail ...> Full Article |
Astronomers from The University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, have captured rare video of a meteor falling to Earth.
...> Full Article
 | The campaign to broadcast the first ever advert into space is launched today (Friday March 7)- with University of Leicester space scientists playing a key part in the process. ...> Full Article |
 | NASA released this week five years of data collected by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) that refines our understanding of the universe and its development. It is a treasure trove of information, including at least three major findings: ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists studying images from The University of Arizona-led High Resolution Imaging Experiment camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have discovered never-before-seen impact "megabreccia" and a possibly once-habitable ancient lake on Mars at a place called Holden crater. ...> Full Article |
 | Yesterday, members of the media visited ESA-ESTEC, the agency's European Research and Technology Centre, to see and learn about GIOVE-B, the second Galileo in-orbit validation satellite, before it is packed for shipping to the launch site. ...> Full Article |
 | A rocky planet similar to Earth may be orbiting one of our nearest stellar neighbors and could be detected using existing techniques ...> Full Article |
 | UK scientists and international colleagues using NASA's Cassini spacecraft which is currently orbiting Saturn have found evidence of material orbiting Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. This finding is the first time rings may have been found around a moon. ...> Full Article |
 | Using two ESA spacecraft, planetary scientists are watching the atmospheres of Mars and Venus being stripped away into space. The simultaneous observations by Mars Express and Venus Express give scientists the data they need to investigate the evolution of the two planets' atmospheres. ...> Full Article |
 | Astrophysicists are having a heated debate over the wave structure of the Sun's Corona - a debate which may one day influence solar weather forecasting and the theory behind fusion reactors. ...> Full Article |
 | Astronomers hail first views with twin giant mirrors a milestone for science ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists at the University of St Andrews have used lasers to simulate a black hole in their laboratory ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists have solved a 40-year-old puzzle by identifying the origin of the intense radio waves in the Earth's upper atmosphere that control the dynamics of the Van Allen radiation belts -- belts consisting of high-energy electrons that can damage satellites and spacecraft and pose a risk to astronauts performing activities outside their spacecraft. ...> Full Article |
 | Probing a glowing bubble of gas and dust encircling a dying star, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals a wealth of previously unseen structures. ...> Full Article |
 | A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near the Red Planet's north pole. The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down. ...> Full Article |
Modelling of the Earth's atmosphere has acquired economic importance due to its use in the prediction of ozone depletion and in measuring the impact of global warming. Now researchers have found that the rate at which electrons lose energy to carbon monoxide is greater than that to carbon dioxide at higher levels in the atmospheres of both Mars and Venus.
...> Full Article
 | Liquid water has not been found on the Martian surface within the last decade after all, according to new research. ...> Full Article |
 | Diamonds may be rare on Earth, but surprisingly common in space -- and the super-sensitive infrared eyes of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are perfect for scouting them, say scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. ...> Full Article |
An important discovery has been made with respect to the mystery of "handedness" in biomolecules. Researchers led by Sandra Pizzarello, a research professor at Arizona State University, found that some of the possible abiotic precursors to the origin of life on Earth have been shown to carry "handedness" in a larger number than previously thought.
...> Full Article
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'Anaconda' meets 'Jurassic Park': Study shows ancient snakes ate dinosaur babies
Scientists locate apparent hydrothermal vents off Antarctica
Artificial bee silk a big step closer to reality
Predicting the fate of stem cells
Artificial foot recycles energy for easier walking
New fiber nanogenerators could lead to electric clothing
What drives our genes? Researchers map the first complete human epigenome
Juggling enhances connections in the brain
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Fill 'er up - with algae
Scientists discover quantum fingerprints of chaos
Researchers help identify cows that gain more while eating less
Phobos flyby success
The cosmic bat
First signal received by future telescope
NASA's Fermi probes 'dragons' of the gamma-ray sky
Astronomically large lenses measure the age and size of the universe
First of missing primitive stars discovered
Mars Express heading for closest flyby of Phobos
First measurement of the age of cometary material
Light, wind and fire
Torn apart by its own tides, massive planet is on a 'death march'
NASA unveils new space-weather science tool
Jurassic space: Ancient galaxies come together after billions of years