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News
of Astronomy, Space, and Science
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| Monday, August 20, 2001 |
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Mars News
Having
a Ball on Mars
Science@NASA
Aug 17 2001
 Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
have hit upon an idea for exploring the Red Planet that seems
to be equal parts fun and serious science: it's a lightweight,
two-story tall beach ball called "the tumbleweed rover." Equipped
with scientific instruments and propelled by nothing more than
the thin Martian breeze, the tumbleweed could potentially explore
vast tracts of planetary terrain.
Taking
A Tumble Across Mars
Space Daily
Aug 17 2001 7:46AM ET
Exploring
Mars: Blowing In The Wind?
Science Daily
Aug 18 2001 12:53PM ET
Mars:
3-D Dunes
Astronomy Picture
of the Day Aug 15 2001
Exosolar Planets
Astronomers
Find Jupiter-Sized Planet Orbiting Star in Big Dipper
NASA Today Aug 16 2001
A team of astronomers has found a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting
a faint nearby star similar to our Sun, raising intriguing prospects
of finding a solar system like our own. The planet is the second
found orbiting the star 47 Ursae Majoris in the Big Dipper, also
known as Ursa Major or the Big Bear. The new planet is at least
three-fourths the mass of Jupiter and orbits the star at a distance
that, in our Solar System, would place it beyond Mars but within
the orbit of Jupiter. The star is a yellow star similar to the
sun, probably about seven billion years old and located about
51 light-years from Earth. A light-year, the distance light travels
in one year, is approximately 6 trillion miles.
Opinion - Solving
the cosmic puzzle
floridatoday.com Aug 17 2001 7:23PM ET
So why should you care?
Because the space program, and space study, have
always been about trying to figure out who we are, what else (and
who else) might be out there, and where we and our glorious planet
fit into a cosmic puzzle we only are starting to understand.
If our solar system exists, it is reasonable to assume
that others do, too.
With the apparent discovery of a similar system in
the Big Dipper, it appears we are one step closer to understanding.
Astronomers
Spot Jupiter-Size Planet Orbiting a Nearby Star
Scientific
American Aug 17 2001 12:14PM ET
Also see the Astronomy
Picture of the Day for Aug. 17, 2001
NASA Campaign to Study
Hurricanes
Into
the Storm
Science@NASA
Aug 16 2001
 As this year's hurricane
season rolls in, a team of researchers participating in a NASA
study is waiting. Armed with airplanes, robotic aerial vehicles,
and a fleet of sophisticated instruments, they're ready to meet
these potentially deadly storms head-on -- gathering data vital
to improve hurricane modeling and prediction.
News:
NASA Scientists Become Hurricane Chasers. Scientists from
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will head
into hurricanes this summer, hoping to improve predictions of
these deadly storms by using new data-collecting technology.
NASA's
Earth Observatory Download at 8/19/01; 7:20:19 AM
News:
NASA Ames Coordinates Huge Hurricane Observation Campaign.
Learning how to increase the warning time before Atlantic hurricanes
make landfall is a goal of some100 U.S. researchers from NASA
and other agencies who will a begin a 5-week campaign on Aug.
16.
NASA's
Earth Observatory Download at 8/19/01; 7:20:19 AM
News:
UMass Hurricane Hunters Flying Back Into the Eyes of Storms.
University of Massachusetts researchers will be flying into the
eyes of hurricanes again this year, using high-tech weather sensors
developed at the University. (University of Massachusetts Amherst
Release)
NASA's
Earth Observatory Download at 8/19/01; 7:20:19 AM
News:
NASA Langley Participates in 2001 Hurricane Study. Langley
scientists are taking part in the fourth Convection and Moisture
Experiment (CAMEX-4) based out of Naval Air Station, Jacksonville,
Fla., through September. On board specially instrumented aircraft,
researchers will fly in and around hurricanes approaching the
East Coast and Gulf regions of the United States.
NASA's
Earth Observatory Download at 8/19/01; 7:20:19 AM
News:
NCAR Scientists Delve into the Icy Hearts of Hurricanes. Despite
its tropical origin, the upper two-thirds of a typical hurricane
is largely ice. Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric
Research (NCAR) are bringing unique cloud-profiling instruments
into this mysterious realm in a NASA-sponsored project to help
improve hurricane forecasting and modeling. (University Corporation
for Atmospheric Research Release)
NASA's
Earth Observatory Download at 8/19/01; 7:20:19 AM
Space Technology
Samples
of the Future
Science@NASA
Aug 15 2001
The advanced space ships of tomorrow will be crafted from far-out
materials with extraordinary resistance to the harsh environment
of space.
Physics News
Challenge
to a Constant Shakes Modern Physics
Washington
Post Aug 20 2001 2:35AM ET
In 1999, a paper in the prestigious scientific journal Physical
Review Letters indicated that one of nature's fundamental constants
-- a number that, in effect, reflects how tightly atomic particles
stick together -- might be different now than it was in the distant
past.
In the world of physics, this was a potentially revolutionary
result. If the number known as the fine structure constant --
alpha -- was, in fact, changing over time, the "standard model"
of physics, governing everything from nuclear interactions to
the birth, evolution and fate of the universe, was in need of
a major overhaul. ...
In the Aug. 27 issue of Physical Review Letters,
Webb's team published a second paper, this one showing statistical
evidence that the fine structure constant has, in fact, changed
by perhaps one part in 100,000 over the past 12 billion years.
Not much, perhaps, by everyday standards. But more than enough
to send shock waves through the physics community. ...
If the conclusions reached by Webb's team are confirmed,
astronomers may have their first observational evidence that string
theories offer a valid approach to explaining the cosmos. The
stakes are high, and everyone involved stresses additional research
is needed to confirm the conclusions reached by Webb's team.
"If they do, then it's very exciting," said Charles
Beichman, director of physics and astronomy at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "If they don't, it's highlighted
a problem that's not going to go away. It's just made it harder.
We know somewhere the physics we have has to break down because
we don't have a linkage between gravity and quantum mechanics.
If these guys are right, they've made a very important discovery."
Is
There Nothing Certain? Even the Fundamental Laws of Physics May
Be Mere Suggestions
Time Aug 16
2001 10:57AM ET
| Sunday, August 19, 2001 |
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Cosmology
Observations
of Primordial Helium Illuminate Structure of Early Universe
Scientific American Aug 17 2001 2:23AM ET
Astronomers using NASA's FUSE satellite have seen in unprecedented
detail the gossamer web of primordial helium that permeates space.
A remnant of the big bang, the helium provides key insights into
the structure of the early universe. "Visible galaxies are only
the peaks in the structure of the early universe," notes team
member Gerard Kriss of the Space Telescope Science Institute.
"The FUSE observations of ionized helium show us the details of
the hills and valleys between the mountaintops." The findings
are described in the current issue of the journal Science.
| Monday, July 30, 2001 |
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Dome News Updates Delayed Until Mid-August
There will be no Dome News updates in early August.
Every person deserves to have a vacation - in particular the editor
of the Dome News! So I will be offline until I return from vacation.
All features of the Dome of the Sky will remain available
in my absence, including the Dome
Planetarium, but there will be no daily updates to the Dome
News.
Dome News updates will resume on August 18 or
19 and will continue through the year.
NASA Genesis Mission
to Launch
Probe
wants a piece of the Sun
BBC Jul 30
2001 5:48AM ET
A spacecraft that aims to catch a piece of the Sun has had its
launch delayed.
The Genesis probe was scheduled to have blasted off
from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, US, on Monday,
but concerns about the reliability of a power supply component
on the craft forced mission managers to push back the launch by
at least 24 hours.
Further tests on the troublesome technology could
be completed in time to meet the deadline for a two-minute launch
window at 1232 EDT (1632 GMT) on Tuesday.
Genesis
will bring solar dust to Earth
floridatoday.com Jul 30 2001 12:58AM ET
With its fiery 9,932-degree surface, the sun is a tricky thing
to capture. People can't just go to the surface to pick up a sample
and return it to a lab on Earth.
So instead, NASA will launch an unmanned spacecraft
to catch pieces of the solar wind and return it to Earth for analysis.
The 1,400-pound Genesis probe was set to launch from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a Boeing Delta 2 rocket today.
However, a technical glitch on a tracking unit similar to that
on the Genesis probe prompted NASA to delay the launch for at
least 24 hours.
Click
for a graphic explaining how the Genesis spacecraft works.
floridatoday.com Jul 30 2001 12:58AM ET
Click in the picture to view ZOOM
NASA
to Seek Clues to Solar Systems Origin
Washington
Post Jul 30 2001 3:46AM ET
NASA is readying a small spacecraft for blastoff this week on
an innovative $209 million mission to collect a tiny sample of
the original cloud of gas and dust that coalesced to form the
solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
Surprisingly, perhaps, that raw material -- unchanged
since the birth of the solar system -- can be found today in the
outermost layers of the sun and in the solar wind, the tenuous
gale of electrons, protons and atomic nuclei constantly blown
away into space
Genesis
To Catch Some Solar Rays
SpaceDaily.com Jul 30 2001 12:54AM ET
Spacecraft
seeks to snag sun rays
MSNBC Jul 29
2001 7:58PM ET
Stellar News
X-ray
emission from the jets of infant stars
ESA Jul 30
2001
Studying distant stars and their planets in different states of
evolution is of great interest to astronomers and of immense importance
for astronomy. XMM-Newton has
added its contribution with an observation of a stellar system,
L1551 IRS5. It has enabled ESA's X-ray observatory to detect -
for the first time - the X-ray emission from its spectacular jets.
Lynds 1551 IRS5 is well known for its large-scale
outflows or 'jets' of molecular gas. It is located about 500 light-years
away in an interstellar cloud of dust and gas that is producing
Sun-like stars at a high rate. This young stellar system - in
fact consisting of two stars - is less than a million years old.
Mars News
Avoiding
Waste On The Road To Mars
Space Daily
Jul 30 2001 12:54AM ET
 When the first humans go to Mars, they will need to
pack very carefully. Everything for a three-year trip will need
to fit into one small spacecraft. Once on the journey, the astronauts
will throw nothing away, including human waste. Precisely how
to turn such waste into food, oxygen and water is the subject
of an ESA project, which is building a small pilot plant outside
Barcelona, Spain.
The plant is shortly to be scaled-up and tested on
real consumers -- three rats, whose oxygen demand and carbon dioxide
production is roughly equivalent to that of one human. The rats
will be kept under close veterinary supervision throughout.
News of Our Galaxy
Cold
Cloud On The Galaxy's Edge Casts Shadow Over ISM [InterStellar
Medium] Theories
NRC Jul 30
2001 12:47PM ET
By taking the temperature of a ghostly shadow, astronomers from
the National Research Council Canada (NRC) have uncovered a cold
hard fact that could leave prevailing theories about the interstellar
medium (ISM)* in the dust.
Using 21 cm radio data obtained by the Canadian Galactic
Plane Survey (CGPS), Dr. Lewis Knee and Dr. Christopher Brunt
have accurately measured the temperature of the giant gas cloud
GSH139-03-69 at only 10° above absolute zero (0 K, equal to -273°
Celsius). As reported in the July 19, 2001 issue of Nature, this
is the first finding of a supermassive interstellar cloud composed
primarily of very cold atomic hydrogen.
News
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