Space Science Update from NASA HQ 7 Dec 2000
What’s new lately at http://spacescience.nasa.gov :
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In what may be their most significant discovery yet, Mars scientists say
high-resolution pictures from MGS showing layers of sedimentary rock paint
a portrait of an ancient Mars that long ago may have featured numerous
lakes and shallow seas. This was hinted at by old Viking images, but the
new MGS images are pretty
compelling. http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/dec00_seds/
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A couple of months ago there was a report of a new “mini-Pluto”
approximately 300-700 km in diameter. Now there’s another member of the
Solar System that orbits the Sun beyond Neptune. It could be between 650
and 1,300 km (half the size of Pluto) in diameter.
new rock: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1054000/1054157.stm
previous rock:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/plutino_001024.html
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Chandra captures cooling flow in galaxy cluster: have you ever looked at a
galaxy in a telescope? If you haven’t, you should. Here’s proof that they
really are cool, relatively speaking…
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cycle1/0163/index.html
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An international team of astronomers has succeeded in mapping the “dark”
(invisible) matter in the Universe. They find that it is unlikely that mass
alone would stop the current expansion of the Universe. That doesn’t seem
too surprising, given all the recent evidence that the expansion of the
Universe is actually accelerating and not slowing down, but the technique
that they used here is interesting. Not that I fully understand it. You
try at http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2000/pr-24-00.html
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Astronomers using HST are studying the Circinus galaxy and seeing evidence
of a powerful black hole at its center. Pretty pic at
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2000/37/index.html
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Astronomers have stripped a galaxy near the Big Dipper of its title as
“Most Distant Object Known” by using different techniques to make improved
estimates of its distance that show it is closer than it first
appeared. Still a good day’s drive
though. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2000/distantobject.html
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Scientists with our Astrobiology Institute have discovered fossilized
remnants of microbial mats that developed on land between 2.6 billion and
2.7 billion years ago. This pushes the date for the colonization of land
way back, and may increase the chances of identifying life on planets
around other stars. http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2000/00_79AR.html
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JPL is developing a small hopping robot with froglike abilities for
potential use in future solar system exploration missions. If the gravity
is too low to drive, maybe jumping around would be better. Weird tech at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2000/frog.html
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Web site of the week: ever heard about being able to “buy a star”? See
what the International Astronomical Union has to say about it at
http://www.iau.org/starnames.html
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