Space

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Floored of the Rings: Cassini Baffles Scientists at Saturn

September 6, 2005

For the past few months (02/28/2005), the Cassini spacecraft has had a ringside seat at Saturn, with high inclination orbits that have provided the best viewing angles since orbit insertion last year (07/01/2004). Cassini scored, as it soared around and around the horde of ring particles, and poured its stored data toward waiting scientists at […]

Physics

Marvelous Puzzle: Enceladus South Pole Surface Less Than 1,000 Years Old

August 30, 2005

Enceladus, a moon of Saturn smaller than the British isles (comparison image), has a region at the south pole that is less than 1,000 years old, and maybe only 10 years old. This conclusion, announced at Cassini science briefings in London August 30, is based on multi-instrument observations taken July 14 during the closest flyby […]

Solar System

Meteorite Impacts Solar System Theories

August 18, 2005

A study partly funded by NASA and published in Nature1 has thrown a “monkey wrench” into theories of the origin of the solar system, according to a press release from the University of Toronto. Small grains of minerals called chondrules in two meteorites are “young” – too young to have been formed in the assumed […]

Astronomy

Can Atheism Breathe in an Anthropic Universe?

August 16, 2005

Astronomers Martin Rees and Mario Livio considered “Anthropic Reasoning” in a Science perspectives article.1 The question bears not only on SETI, and whether intelligent life exists elsewhere, but why it exists here. They state the issue: We can imagine universes where the constants of physics and cosmology have different values. Many such “counterfactual” universes would […]

Solar System

Planetary Wanderings

August 9, 2005

Here are news briefs that are out of this world: Death Star Sighted: On August 2, the Cassini Spacecraft took the best-ever pictures of Mimas, the little moon of Saturn with a huge crater Herschel that makes it look like the Death Star from Star Wars. Why this little moon should be one of the […]

Solar System

New Planet Discovered Beyond Pluto; Another Has a Moon

July 30, 2005

A 10th planet, the biggest since Pluto was found 75 years ago, has been discovered. Late Friday, a JPL press release announced the find made in January by Dr. Mike Brown of Caltech in research partly funded by NASA. The planet, temporarily designated 2003 UB313 until a name is approved, is three times farther than […]

Cosmology

Tailpipe Soot: Can It Live?

July 28, 2005

Better stay clear of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). They come out of your tailpipe and furnace, line your chimney, and generally are products of unhealthy processes like industrial waste and cigarette smoke. According to Environment Canada, “PAHs are a concern because some of them can cause cancers in humans and are harmful to fish and […]

Dumb Ideas

Life on Mars and Titan?

July 26, 2005

Life has not been found on Mars, but some scientists, according to National Geographic News, are worried that we are contaminating the planet with Earth germs that will make the search for Martians more difficult. Speaking of Mars, a report in Science Now claims that Mars rarely got above freezing in its entire history. […]

Cosmology

First-Generation Star Claim Discounted

July 18, 2005

e first generation of stars, made of pure hydrogen, might have been detected, are now shown to be erroneous (this is an update on the 04/24/2003 entry). Iwamoto et al. in Science1 have shown that the two hyper-metal-poor stars are actually second-generation stars, seeded with heavy elements by supernovae. Timothy C. Beers (Michigan […]

Astronomy

Planet Orbiting Triple Star Tightens Noose on Planet Formation Theories

July 15, 2005

The discovery of a planet orbiting a triple star system (see JPL Press Release), described by Maciej Konacki in Nature,1 has delivered a severe challenge to theorists. In short, the environment is “particularly prohibitive” for planet formation. This Jupiter-size planet should not be there. Planet-formation theories have taken a triple whammy lately. The […]

Solar System

Cassini Skimmed Over Enceladus at Close Range

July 14, 2005

The Cassini spacecraft made its closest-yet flyby of Enceladus July 14, skimming just 109 miles above the surface. This was the closest approach to any object thus far in the four-year mission. It was nearly three times closer than the earlier record, the March 9 Enceladus flyby (see encounter map). Enceladus has long […]

Solar System

Deep Impact Strikes Comet in Tempel

July 4, 2005

Cheers and hugs erupted at JPL again last night when the Deep Impact spacecraft successfully sent its washing-machine size copper probe plunging into Comet Tempel 1. A somewhat unexpected plume of powdery material was ejected, so opaque it was difficult to image the crater. Speaking of craters, the camera aboard the probe revealed a surface […]

Intelligent Design

SETI Researchers Affirm Planetary Privilege Criteria

June 24, 2005

In the weekly SETI Thursday column on Space.com, Douglas Vakoch corroborated two claims made about the habitability of planets in the film The Privileged Planet (shown at the Smithsonian last night – see 06/09/2005 story): namely, (1) smaller stars have smaller habitable zones or “Goldilocks” zones where life can exist, and (2) planets within the […]

Cosmology

The Cause of a Teapot: Can Physics Explain Design?

June 8, 2005

George F. R. Ellis (U. of Cape Town) wrote a Concepts piece in Nature1 this week that asks fundamental questions about ordinary things, particularly, can we get from fundamental physics to complex hierarchical structures through a chain of cause and effect? A simple statement of fact: there is no physics theory that explains the nature […]

Solar System

Understanding the Sun Not

June 7, 2005

Exclusive The star we understand best should be the closest – our own – right? Despite a revolution in solar observations, there is much we don’t know about Ol’ Sol. That was the flavor of a talk by Dr. Alan Title (Stanford) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Monday. At one point, he showed a […]

All Posts by Date

[archives type="yearly" cat_id="22"]

Floored of the Rings: Cassini Baffles Scientists at Saturn

Marvelous Puzzle: Enceladus South Pole Surface Less Than 1,000 Years Old

Meteorite Impacts Solar System Theories

Can Atheism Breathe in an Anthropic Universe?

Planetary Wanderings

New Planet Discovered Beyond Pluto; Another Has a Moon

Tailpipe Soot: Can It Live?

Life on Mars  and Titan?

First-Generation Star Claim Discounted

Planet Orbiting Triple Star Tightens Noose on Planet Formation Theories

Cassini Skimmed Over Enceladus at Close Range

Deep Impact Strikes Comet in Tempel

SETI Researchers Affirm Planetary Privilege Criteria

The Cause of a Teapot: Can Physics Explain Design?

Understanding the Sun  Not

All Posts by Date

Marvelous Puzzle: Enceladus South Pole Surface Less Than 1,000 Years Old

Life on Mars and Titan?

Understanding the Sun Not