From The Times
December 27, 2008
Dark matter in Galaxy cluster
Space Images of a spectacular intergalactic collision between galaxy clusters have provided new evidence for the existence of dark matter, which scientists believe forms an invisible framework for the Universe.
The pink in the picture above indicates ordinary matter - mostly hot gas - while the blue area is believed to indicate the presence of dark matter. As the two clusters merged at millions of miles per hour, the hot gas collided and slowed down, while the dark matter did not, explaining the wider spread of blue.
The collision happened halfway across the Universe about 100 million years ago. The image of the cluster, known as MACSJ0025.4-1222, was captured with the Nasa Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. source
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Water in Saturn's moon
A pleasant surprise from Saturn’s moon
Geyser-like eruptions of ice particles and water vapour from Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
WASHINGTON: Astronomers looking at the spectacular supersonic plumes of gas and dust shooting off one of Saturn’s moons have said there are strong hints of liquid water, a key building block of life.
Their research, appearing in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature, adds to the growing push to explore further the moon Enceladus, as one of the solar system’s most compelling places for potential life.
Using images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Cassini probe, astronomers had already figured that the mysterious plumes shooting from Enceladus’ icy terrain contain water vapour.
New calculations suggesting the gas and dust spew at speeds faster-than-sound make the case for liquid, said study lead author Candice Hansen of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Her team calculated that the plumes travel more than 2,176 kmph. Reaching that speed “is hard to do without liquids,” Ms. Hansen said. more
Saturday, November 15, 2008
India became the fourth nation to mark its presence on the Moon on Friday, Nov. 14, 2008
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Former Indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, right, greets Indian Space Research Organization Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, left, soon after India's Moon Impact Probe successfully landed on the lunar surface, in Bangalore, India, Friday, Nov. 14, 2008. India became the fourth nation to mark its presence on the Moon after a Moon Impact Probe painted with the national tri-color successfully landed on the lunar surface after being detached from the unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation. (AP Photo) | ||
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India celebrates planting its flag on moon
NEW DELHI (AP) — India rejoiced Saturday at joining an elite club by planting its flag on the moon as the country's space agency released the first pictures of the cratered surface taken by its maiden lunar mission.
A probe sent late Friday from the orbiting mother spacecraft took pictures and gathered other data India needs for a future moon landing as it plummeted to a crash-landing at the moon's south pole, said Indian Space Research Organization spokesman B.R. Guruprasad.
The box-shaped probe was painted with India's saffron, white and green flag, sparking celebrations in the country that is striving to become a world power.
"The tricolor has landed," the Hindustan Times said in a banner headline, while The Asian Age proclaimed "India is big cheese."
As India's economy has boomed in recent years, it has sought to convert its newfound wealth — built on the nation's high-tech sector — into political and military clout. The moon mission comes just months after it finalized a deal with the United States that recognizes India as a nuclear power, and leaders hope the mission will further enhance its prestige.
"This momentous achievement shall be etched in the history of India as a grateful tribute to our scientific community for their resolute efforts to take India to a global leadership position," said Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party.
To date only the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China — and now India — have sent missions to the moon.
But while the celebrations conjured up images akin to that of the U.S. flag unfurled on the moon by Apollo astronauts, India's flag is most likely scattered over a wide swath of the moon's Shackleton crater after the probe slammed into the surface at more than 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) per hour.
The violent landing was planned and Indian scientists hope to study the images and data sent back by the probe during its 25-minute descent to prepare for a future "soft" landing, Guruprasad told The Associated Press. It carried a video imaging system, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer.
The video imaging system took pictures of the moon's surface, while the altimeter measured the rate of descent of the probe and the mass spectrometer studied the extremely thin lunar atmosphere.
Guruprasad said the pictures that were released were raw images and that scientists had not yet analyzed the information sent by the probe.
It was the first stage of a two-year mission aimed at measuring not only the surface of the moon, but what lies beneath. The probe was one of 11 payloads on the spacecraft Chandrayaan-1. Chandrayaan means "moon craft" in ancient Sanskrit.
India plans to follow the mission by landing a rover on the moon in 2011 and, eventually, with a manned space program, though this has not been authorized yet.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Planets outside the solar system - 130 light years away
Planets outside the solar system
GALACTIC SURPRISE: A dust ring, in red, surrounds the star Fomalhaut, located at the centre of the image but is not visible.
A little more of the universe has been pried out of the shadows. Two groups of astronomers have taken the first pictures of what are most likely planets going around other stars.
The achievement, the result of years of effort on improved observational techniques and better data analysis, presages more such discoveries, the experts said, and will open the door to new investigations and discoveries of what planets are and how they came to be formed.
“It’s the tip of iceberg,” said Christian Marois of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics. “Now that we know they are there, there is going to be an explosion.”
Mr. Marois is the leader of a team that recorded three planets circling a star known as HR 8799 that is 130 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. The other team, led by Paul Kalas of the University of California, Berkeley, found a planet orbiting the star Fomalhaut, 25 light-years from earth, in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. more
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Mars Mission Ends for Phoenix
Mars Mission Ends for Phoenix Spacecraft
By ALICIA CHANG
, AP
LOS ANGELES (Nov. 10) - NASA on Monday declared an end to the Phoenix mission, some five months after the spacecraft became the first to land in Mars' arctic plains and taste water on another planet.
Mission engineers have not heard from the Phoenix lander in over a week. It fell silent shortly after a raging dust storm blocked sunlight from reaching its solar panels. Although ground controllers will direct two satellites orbiting Mars to listen for Phoenix for several more weeks, the chances that it will respond are slim.
"We are actually ceasing operations, declaring an end of mission operations at this point," said project manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which managed the $475 million mission.
Phoenix's demise was predicted. Unlike its hardy twin rover cousins Spirit and Opportunity, which are approaching their fifth year near the red planet's more hospitable equatorial region, Phoenix's days were numbered from the outset. With sunlight waning and winter encroaching the arctic plains, scientists had said it was a matter of time before Phoenix would freeze to death.
Doug McCuistion, who heads the Mars exploration program at NASA headquarters, said people should view Phoenix's end as "an Irish wake rather than a funeral."
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