Skymania News | Space headlines

Life may have survived warmer Mars

2009-06-29T13:29:00.004Z

Fresh evidence that there could be life on Mars has been discovered by scientists. That is because the weather on the Red Planet was significantly warmer in the recent past than previously thought, they revealed today.

The findings mean any martian life that existed then could still be living today beneath the now icy surface.

It is a major boost to the search for alien life, and supports NASA's announcement in January that fresh plumes of methane may be from living organisms.

The latest research, by Dr Matthew Balme, of The Open University at Milton Keynes, is based on a study of landforms that were created by the melting of frozen soils.

It suggests that the last great thaw occurred "only" two million years ago - planetary scientists had generally believed that Mars was locked permafrost conditions for billions of years.

Dr Balme studied high-resolution photos taken from orbit around the Red Planet by he most powerful camera ever sent to another world - the HiRise instrument aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

He said: "The features of this terrain were previously interpreted to be the result of volcanic processes. The amazingly detailed images from HiRise show that the features are instead caused by the expansion and contraction of ice, and by thawing of ice-rich ground. This all suggests a very different climate to what we see today."

All of the landforms observed are in an outflow channel, thought to have been active as recently as two to eight million years ago. Since the landforms exist within, and cut across, the pre-existing features of the channel, this suggests that they too were created within this timeframe.

The pictures show polygonal patterns, branched channels, blocky debris and other structures similar to those on Earth in areas where permafrost terrain is melting.

Dr Balme said, "These observations demonstrate not only that there was ice near the Martian equator in the last few million years, but also that the ice melted to form liquid water and then refroze.

"And this probably happened for many cycles. Given that liquid water seems to be essential for life, these kinds of environments could be a great place to look for evidence of past life on Mars."

Earlier this month, it was announced that the site of an ancient lake on Mars has been located. HiRise has found other evidence that water flowed on the planet. Europe's Mars Express has also spotted strong clues for running water in the past and NASA's robot rovers have found signs on the surface.

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Space blobs powered by black holes

2009-06-25T09:42:00.007Z

Mysterious, brilliantly glowing blobs of gas in the furthest reaches of the universe have finally been explained by astronomers.

James Geach, of Durham University, used a powerful NASA space telescope to discover that the space blobs are being powered by supermassive black holes hidden behind dense layers of dust and gas.

The bright blobs - immense reservoirs of hydrogen hundreds of thousands of light-years wide - were first spotted around ten years ago during a survey of young, distant galaxies. They glow brightly but the source of the immense energy needed was a mystery until now.

Dr Geach and his team turned NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes onto a region of sky dubbed SSA22 where 29 blobs have been seen. They detected bursts of newly-born stars plus streams of radiation that are the tell-tale signs of enormous black holes.

The discovery suggest that blobs mark a stage when the galaxies and black holes are just starting to switch off their rapid growth - a crucial stage in their evolution that astronomers have long been trying to understand.

Dr Geach said: "For ten years the secrets of the blobs had been buried from view, but now we've uncovered their power source. Now we can settle some important arguments about what role they played in the original construction of galaxies and black holes."

The blobs are so far away that they are being seen as they were when the universe was only about two billion years old - around a seventh of its current age.

Dr Geach and his team now want to peer even further back in time to try to catch black holes and galaxies actually forming within the blobs of hydrogen gas.

A supermassive black hole is known to lie at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. Chandra's previous triumphs have included helping take a snaphot of the sky that includes 1,000 black holes.

Picture: A combined image of a glowing blob, left, and an artist's representation of what is happening. (Credits: Left panel: X-ray (NASA/CXC/Durham Univ./D.Alexander et al.); Optical (NASA/ESA/STScI/IoA/S.Chapman et al.); Lyman-alpha Optical (NAOJ/Subaru/Tohoku Univ./T.Hayashino et al.); Infrared (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Durham Univ./J.Geach et al.); Right, Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss.)

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Tunguska impact riddle solved at last

2009-06-24T19:10:00.005Z

Scientists believe they have solved the century-old mystery of an explosion that devastated a vast region of Earth - thanks to the space shuttle.

They say the blast known as the Tunguska Event that flattened 830 square miles of forest in a thankfully remote region of Siberia in April 1908 was caused by a comet entering the atmosphere.

The findings by a team from Cornell University, New York, are based on a study of the exhaust plume left by the shuttle during a launch.

Scientists connected the two events because each has been followed around a day later by the appearance of rare but brilliant noctilucent clouds - clouds of ice particles in the highest reaches of the atmosphere that are visible at night.

Previous speculation had ranged from a crumbly asteroid to a passing alien spacecraft - but a comet has been a favourite candidate due to the lack of an impact crater. It seems the explosion happened above Siberia before any impact could occur.

But expeditions that eventually reached the region showed the incredible result with trees blown to the ground. The blast is estimated to have been equivalent ten to 15 million tons of TNT. Bright glows were seen later over Europe and Asia but no traces of the impacting body have ever been found. Italian scientists recently suggested that a nearby lake could be the impact site but this has not been generally accepted.

The researchers believe that the massive amount of water vapour spewed into the atmosphere by the comet's icy nucleus was caught up in energetic, swirling eddies. The process, called two-dimensional turbulence, explains why the noctilucent clouds formed a day later many thousands of miles away.

The space shuttle exhaust plume resembled the comet's action, say the team. A single launch injects 300 metric tons of water vapour into the Earth's thermosphere, and the water particles have been found to travel to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, where they also form noctilucent clouds.

Professor Michael Kelley, who led the new research, said: "It's almost like putting together a 100-year-old murder mystery. The evidence is pretty strong that the Earth was hit by a comet in 1908."

The team had to explain how the vapour travelled so far without dispersing. They suggest that this can be explained by extremely energetic eddies that travel rapidly through the upper atmosphere, or mesosphere.

Picture: Trees lie flattened by the blast above Tunguska in 1908.

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Could sea life flourish on Enceladus?

2009-06-24T14:53:00.008Z

The Cassini space probe has tasted the salty spray from an alien ocean that could become a breeding ground for life. New studies have convinced scientists that a sea of liquid water is buried deep beneath the icy surface of Enceladus, one of the moons of giant ringed planet Saturn.

The scientists say it may be several miles deep and that it appears to contain organic compounds that are the essential building blocks of life.

Enceladus, the sixth biggest of Saturn's moons, is only 300 miles wide and a frozen world. But Saturn's tidal pull creates energy that makes the interior warm enough for liquid water, making it possibly an ideal environment for life to grow.

The existence of the hidden sea, previously suspected, was confirmed by fresh grains of salt in the outermost of the spectacular rings that encircle Saturn, which lies around 900 million miles from the Sun.

NASA's robotic Cassini probe, in orbit on an extended mission around Saturn, detected the salt - which is just like that on your table - in the E Ring. European scientists who help run the mission say it is being replenished by jets of ice and vapour spurting from cracks in the moon's surface. And they say that only a reservoir of liquid water could produce the quantities of salt that Cassini found.

Scientists from NASA and the European Space Agency flew to London to announce their findings, which are published this week in the journal Nature. Mission scientist Frank Postberg, of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, said: "The presence of liquid water with an energy source there enhances the chances of life."

US colleague John Spencer, of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, said: "We seem to have all the organic molecules - feedstock that life could use."

The team cannot say whether life has yet evolved in Enceladus's oceans. Dr Spencer said: "We don't yet know how life originated on Earth. But that means it would be useful to find other places where life may have formed."

Enceladus's sea is salty for the same reason that Earth's are - the salt has been dissolved from within the rocks that the water is in contact with.

The existence of the ocean on Enceladus is disputed by a second team of US scientists who have studied the jets from Enceladus from Earth using the Keck 1 telescope on Hawaii and the Anglo-Australian telescope in New South Wales. Professor Nicholas Schneider's team from the University of Colorado tell Nature that they failed to detect salts in the expelled vapour.

Picture: An impression of the scene on Enceladus, by William K. Hartmann.

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Now it's Buzz Aldrin, rap star!

2009-06-23T15:35:00.005Z

Space legend Buzz Aldrin, who made the first Moon landing with Neil Armstrong, has taken off in a new direction - rap music. Buzz, 79, recorded the track Rocket Experience, about his Apollo adventure, with Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli.

Quincy Jones and Soulja Boy also make appearances on the session, the making of which was filmed for comedy website Funny or Die. You can see Buzz rapping here.

The single, released this week just before the 40th anniversary of Buzz's flight to the Moon on Apollo 11, can be downloaded from iTunes.

The video includes Buzz getting a rap masterclass from expert Snoop. Soulja Boy calls the former NASA astronaut the biggest inspiration in his life.

Buzz, who runs the ShareSpace Foundation to promote science and exploration, says he wanted to make the single to reach out to youngsters. He says: "I have only two passions - space exploration and hip hop. I'm not too good at carrying a tune, but I do have rhythm."

And he adds: "I want kids interested in space. It's their future." Buzz's rather unlikely lines include:

"I tell the story about the time on the Moon now
The sky was black even though the sun shine down
Moon walking's such a trip, it's so fine
When you're walking in the lunar dust.

"It took us four days riding on a rocket
To set foot for the very first time
I'm gonna tell you 'bout the meaning of it all
We came in peace for all mankind."

Picture: A grab from the "making of" video for Rocket Experience. Buzz is centre (obviously) with Snoop left and Talib on the right. (Credit: FunnyorDie.com).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Aliens face Earth TV switch-off

2009-06-19T11:25:00.006Z

ET is about to miss out on all his favourite TV shows from Earth, according to the world's top alien-hunter. The global switchover to digital TV will destroy the signal for "zillions of viewers" on other planets, says Seth Shostak, chief astronomer at the SETI Institute - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

Dr Shostak paints a humorous picture to make an interesting scientific point - that humans have been making their presence known thanks to more than half a century of broadcasting.

Standard analog TV signals have been leaking away into space for more than 60 years. It means that, travelling at the speed of light, they have reached planets orbiting stars up to 60 light-years away.

If other civilisations have giant radio telescopes, they could be tuning in to some TV classics, according to Skymania's own calculations.

Aliens in the Tau Eridani star system could currently be enjoying early episodes of top British soap Coronation Street from 1960. Around Capella, they will be catching up with the first episodes of Doctor Who, from 1963, while at 55 Cancri they are getting early Star Trek Original episodes of the BBC's EastEnders are now puzzling any residents of planets orbiting Chi Bootis.

Dr Shostak tells Space.com: "Digital TV sounds like a winner. But there may be losers, zillions of viewers who might not have a converter box or a digital-ready TV – namely, the aliens.

"Ever since the Second World War, television signals (as well as FM radio and radar) have served as Homo sapiens' emissaries into deep space. High-frequency, high-power broadcasts have filled an Earth-centered bubble more than 60 light-years in radius with signals.

"Unfortunately, the switch to digital might leave the aliens with nothing but snow on their wall-size plasmas."

Dr Shostak says old-fashioned analog TV broadcasts produce energetic spikes in the signals that would tell aliens we are here. But DTV just gives out a "low, smooth hiss" which would be harder to detect at cosmic distances.

He says: "It's not impossible to pick up our DTV broadcasts from your favourite planet, but I reckon it would require antennas at least five times larger than demanded for good, old analog TV. ET may balk at the additional cost."

Dr Shostak says aliens will still be able to discover that we are here thanks to other signals broadcast from Earth, such as radar signals aimed at the upper atmosphere and asteroids. That is apart from stunts like sending adverts for snacks into space or broadcasting the Beatles' hit Across The Universe to the Pole Star.

He says: "Earthlings will continue to pump the kilowatts into the ether. And eventually, when those signals have washed over a few hundred thousand star systems, someone may notice."

There has also been some debate as to whether we should actively beam messages out into space in a deliberate bid to contact any aliens. You can read Seth Shostak's original article here on Space.com.

Picture: A giant radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in the UK. (Photo: Paul Sutherland).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Ancient Martian lake is clue to life

2009-06-18T13:07:00.004Z

Space scientists have discovered the site of a huge ancient lake on Mars, boosting the chances that the planet has harboured alien life. High-resolution photos from an orbiting spacecraft reveal "unambiguous evidence" for beaches and shorelines, they say.

The lake, which is estimated to be more than three billion years old, is fresh evidence that liquid water once covered the Red Planet. It makes it a prime site for future missions to land on Mars.

The lake appears to have covered up to 80 square miles and been up to 1,500 ft deep. Its bed is located within a much larger valley known as the Shalbatana Vallis.

The lake was identified by researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder. They found a series of alternating ridges and troughs thought to be surviving remnants of beach deposits along a broad delta.

The team's leader Gaetano Di Achille said: "This is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars. On Earth, deltas and lakes are excellent collectors and preservers of signs of past life. If life ever arose on Mars, deltas may be the key to unlocking Mars' biological past."

Pictures used by the scientists were taken by the most powerful camera sent to another planet, called HiRISE, on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It can resolve features on the surface down to one meter in size from its orbit 200 miles above Mars and has found other evidence that water flowed on the planet. Europe's Mars Express has also spotted strong clues for running water in the past and NASA's robot rovers have found signs on the surface.

Colorado colleague Assistant Professor Brian Hynek said: "Finding shorelines is a Holy Grail of sorts to us. Not only does this research prove there was a long-lived lake system on Mars, but we can see that the lake formed after the warm, wet period is thought to have dissipated."

Professor Hynek said Martian lakes would have provided cosy habitats rich in nutrients to feed microbes. In January, NASA revealed that they had detected plumes of methane from Mars which scientists believe may be from simple organisms.

Picture: A reconstruction of the ancient Shalbatana lake on Mars using data from NASA and the European Space Agency. (G. Di Achille, University of Colorado).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Mystery space clouds dazzle Europe

2009-06-18T12:46:00.005Z

Rare electric-blue clouds on the edge of space have been putting on a spectacular light-show this week. The mysterious sky glows, which have nothing to do with normal clouds, could be seen glowing brilliantly late at night.

Amateur astronomers across Europe have been taking snapshots of the luminous, wispy patterns painted by the clouds across the northern sky. Jamie Cooper, of Northampton, is one who has taken stunning images of them, including the one above on the evening of 16 June.

They are called noctilucent - or night-shining - clouds. Experts believe they occur in summer and when solar activity is low - unlike the aurora, or northern lights, which are seen more when the sun's behaviour is particularly violent.

Although they are beautiful, some scientists believe these space clouds, up to 60 miles high near the top of the atmosphere, are an indicator of global warming or pollution.

Amateur astronomers say the displays of noctilucent clouds this week have been some of the best for years. They can be seen to the north, glowing against a dark sky from around an hour after sunset until midnight.

Robin Scagell, vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, said today: "Noctilucent clouds are rare but they've been a stunning sight this week. You can't mistake them for normal clouds because they shimmer in a spectacular way, long after the sun has set."

More photos of noctilucent clouds can be found at SpaceWeather.com.

Picture: Noctilucent cloud display pictured by Jamie Cooper from Northampton, UK, on 16 June.

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Exploding death star rocks Earth

2009-06-17T16:07:00.005Z

A huge blast from deep space buffeted the Earth for months, scientists have revealed. The mysterious eruption has been traced to one of the most powerful magnets in the universe - a rare and mysterious death star.

A surge of X-rays from the explosion triggered an alarm on NASA's Swift satellite on August 22 last year. Other space telescopes, including Europe's XMM-Newton and Integral space observatories, quickly swung into action to monitor the radiation.

The outburst lasted for four months during which hundreds of smaller blasts were also recorded. Astronomers identified the source as a magnetar - one of only 15 known in the Milky Way.

Its magnetic pull is 10,000 million times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field which directs compasses. If it lay half as far away as the Moon, it would wipe the details off the magnetic strips on every credit card in existence.

Fortunately the magnetar, now labelled SGR 0501+4516, lies much further away - around 15,000 light-years distant - and it was not known of before the "shock waves" from last year's outburst hit the Earth.

Astronomers believe the explosion, reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, happened when the dead star's unstable magnetic field pulled on its crust, producing an exotic volcanic eruption.

A magnetar outburst can send as much energy to Earth as a solar flare, despite the fact they are far across our galaxy, whereas the Sun is right on our doorstep, relatively speaking. Another magnetar was spotted exploding like a firecracker later last year until early in 2009.

There are two theories to explain magnetars. Some believe they are the tiny cores left after a highly magnetic star dies. Others think they may form after the demise of a normal star when the spin of its central core speeds up.

Picture: An artist's impression of a magnetar. (Image: Robert S. Mallozzi, University of Alabama in Huntsville, and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

NASA's mission to bomb the Moon

2009-06-17T15:43:00.006Z

NASA will tomorrow launch a spectacular mission to bomb the Moon. Their LCROSS mission will blast off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying a missile that will blast a hole in the lunar surface at twice the speed of a bullet.

The missile, a Centaur rocket, will be steered by a shepherding spacecraft that will guide it towards its target - a crater close to the Moon's south pole.

Scientists expect the blast to be so powerful that a huge plume of debris will be ejected.

The attack on the Moon is not a declaration of war or act of wanton vandalism. Space scientists want to see if any water ice or vapour is revealed in the cloud of debris.

Though the Moon mostly a dry airless desert, they believe ice could be trapped in crater shadows near the south pole which never receive any sunlight. If so it could provide vital supplies for a manned moonbase.

Last year, British scientists identified regions where water might be found on the Moon and estimated that there could be enough to fill one of Europe's largest reservoirs.

The spacecraft will not head straight for the Moon. First it will orbit the Earth a number of times while its precise target is identified. Finally, it will send the missile into the Moon at twice the speed of a bullet on October 8.

The shepherding spacecraft will follow close behind, taking pictures and analysing the ejected debris as it looks for evidence of water. It has just four minutes to do this before it crashes into the Moon itself, producing a spectacular explosion that should be visible in amateur astronomers' telescopes.

It is a busy time for Moon crashes. Last week Japan's Kaguya probe collided with the Moon at the end of its own mission.

The LCROSS mission - it stands for Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite - will launch on an Atlas V rocket together with another spacecraft, called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The orbiter will circle the Moon for at least a year searching for potential landing sites for astronauts when they return there in the next decade. It will also look for suitable materials that might support a colony.

The dual mission was due to blast off today but was delayed to make way for the shuttle Endeavour. However, another hydrogen leak means that the shuttle launch has now been delayed until next month.

Picture: An artist's impression of LCROSS missile being fired at the Moon. (NASA).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Walk-on role in space for TV comic

2009-06-16T09:17:00.004Z

NASA have had the last laugh on a top TV comic who "won" their space station naming contest. They have awarded Stephen Colbert a consolation prize - by putting his name on the orbiting outpost's new treadmill.

Colbert, who shot to fame as the roving reporter on The Daily Show, got his army of fans to put his name forward for a section of the International Space Station, 230 miles above the Earth.

They got the most votes. But NASA ignored the fix and called the new module Tranquility instead.

Now space chiefs have got their revenge by naming a new exercise machine the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill - or COLBERT for short.

NASA artists have even designed a humorous "mission patch" for the new treadmill which will be delivered to the space station in August.

It means astronauts' feet will be pounding on the US comic's namesake whenever they need to keep in shape, stay fit and fight off bone loss and muscle decay. Bungee-style cords will tie them to the machine so that they do not float away in weightlessness.

NASA have more about the treadmill here. Colbert now stars in hit comedy satire The Colbert Report.

Picture: The COLBERT "mission patch". (Credit: NASA).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Bug resurrected after 120,000 years

2009-06-15T09:46:00.007Z

Scientists have brought a newly-discovered bug back to life after more than 120,000 years in hibernation. It raises hopes that dormant life might be revived on Mars.

The tiny purple microbe, dubbed called Herminiimonas glaciei, lay trapped beneath nearly two miles of ice in Greenland. It took 11 months to revive it by gently warming it in an incubator.

Finally the bug sprang back to life and began producing fresh colonies of purple brown bacteria.

Space scientists are excited by the find because it suggests alien creatures might be resurrected on other frozen worlds - especially the Red Planet.

NASA revealed in January that plumes of methane on Mars could be from living organisms. Some scientists believe that any microbes are lying dormant beneath thick underground ice on the Red Planet. A future space mission could dig them up and bring them back to life.

A European orbiting spacecraft, Mars Express, has identified other regions that may have sheltered primitive forms of alien life.

The new Earth bug was found by Dr Jennifer Loveland-Curtze and a team of scientists from Pennsylvania State University.

The team showed great patience in coaxing the dormant microbe back to life. First they incubated their samples at 2˚C (two degrees C) for seven months and then at 5˚C (five degrees C) for a further four and a half months, after which colonies of very small purple-brown bacteria were seen.

The H. glaciei microbe is tiny - ten to 50 times smaller than E. coli. Experts say its small size probably helped it to survive in the liquid veins among ice crystals and the thin liquid film on their surfaces.

Dr Loveland-Curtze says that similar microorganisms could exist on other worlds and studying them in extreme conditions on Earth may provide insight into what sorts of life forms could survive elsewhere in the solar system.

She told Skymania News: "Many scientists consider polar ice on Earth as the best analogue of any extraterrestrial life on other planets, especially where ice has been detected. Polar ice on Earth can preserve microbial cells and nucleic acids for hundreds of thousands of years. Microbial cells have been cultivated from 750,000 years old earth ice and several million years old permafrost." But she added: " At this moment we can not say whether any cells, if they exist, can be revived from Mars."

Earlier bugs found in the Canadian Arctic were brought back to life after 30,000 years. A leading UK Mars scientist believes Martian microbes may also be dormant and waiting to be revived.

Dr John Murray, of the UK's Open University and a lead scientist for Europe's Mars Express mission, has discovered compelling evidence of a vast frozen ocean beneath the dust near the martian equator where simple life could have thrived as microbes.

Picture: The newly found Greenland bug viewed through a powerful microscope. (Photo: Penn State).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Planet 'spotted' in Andromeda galaxy

2009-06-14T20:12:00.004Z

Astronomers believe they may have discovered the first planet ever detected in another galaxy. The new world was apparently glimpsed in the closest giant spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, Messier 31 in the constellation of Andromeda.

It lies an incredible 2.5 million light-years away - too far normally to be seen.

But it revealed itself thanks to a phenomenon called microlensing where the gravitational field of an object closer to Earth acts like a magnifying glass.

Amazingly, it has taken the astronomers five years to realise that they probably netted an extra-galactic planet. They observed a peculiar microlensing event while studying the Andromeda galaxy - which can be seen as a dim blur with the unaided eye - in 2004.

The international team, using the UK's Isaac Newton Telescope on the Canary Island of La Palma, thought at the time that they had recorded a pair of stars orbiting each other.

But computer simulations and other calculations have persuaded them that they actually observed a star with a smaller, planet sized companion about six times bigger than Jupiter.

More than 300 so-called exoplanets have been found orbiting other stars in our own galaxy. And NASA has launched a $595 million spaceprobe called Kepler to watch 100,000 stars for signs of world like Earth.

Picture: A photo of the galaxy M31 in visible light. (Photo: John Lanoue).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

500th astronaut heads for space

2009-06-14T12:44:00.005Z

A little-noticed but historic milestone will be reached this week when the 500th person ever to fly in space blasts off. The moment will come whenever NASA's shuttle Endeavour finally launches to continue building the international space station.

Endeavour's crew of seven will include four rookie astronauts, making their first trip into orbit. But the crew agreed that former naval commander Chris Cassidy, 39, who has led combat missions in Afghanistan, will take the honour.

Space website collectSpace reports the reaching of the 500 milestone and includes a list of all 500 brave spacemen and women.

There is some debate about which of the rookies will actually cross the space boundary first, considering their seating position and the roll of the spacecraft, but at the speed Endeavour will be going, it is probably academic.

First human in space was Russian Yuri Gagarin, in 1961. (First woman in space was another Russian, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963).

Interestingly, the 250th person in space was Britain's first astronaut, Helen Sharman. A food chemist who helped invent Mars ice cream, Helen, now 46, flew a Russian Soyuz ship to the Mir space station in 1991.

The 26th man in space, Neil Armstrong, later became the first man on the Moon.

The shuttle Endeavour was due to launch on Saturday but that was scrubbed due to a hydrogen leak. It is now set to fly between Wednesday and Saturday.

Shuttle commander Mark Polansky will continue his Twitter updates - although he has admitted that they will be uploaded for him by a PR person back on Earth.

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

Picture: NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (Photo: NASA).

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Why you can't really Twitter in orbit

2009-06-13T09:56:00.006Z

Shuttle commander Mark Polansky admitted yesterday what many already suspected - you can't really Twitter from space. NASA astronaut Mark has been issuing regular tweets to update followers on preparations for the next shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

One was the first that most of us knew that today's planned launch of space shuttle Endeavour had been postponed because of a hydrogen leak. Mark has promised regular reports from space too.

Last month, newspapers made much of the story that Mike Massimino was using Twitter as Astro_Mike to report on his crew's work aboard sister shuttle Atlantis to repair the Hubble space telescope.

But responding to queries from other twitterers, Mark, pictured here, has revealed that, once in orbit, he will have to download his comments to NASA's mission control where someone will post them for him.

In a series of genuinely direct tweets under his username Astro_127, Mark said:

"Twitter from orbit 101 Part 1: I do NOT have online internet access. 3 times a day, mission control sends up files that include email."

"Twitter from orbit Part 2: While my email in arrives, my email out that have sat in a folder since I wrote them will b brought 2 the ground."

"Twitter from Orbit Part 3: Once my emails 4 twitter arrive on the ground, someone will take them and post them on my twitter account."

"Twitter from orbit Part 4: No one will edit my twitter posts, but they will NOT b live. I will put the date & time (CDT) that I wrote them."

"Twitter from Orbit Part 5: Hope that clears up how twitter from orbit REALLY works."

Endeavour's launch has been tentatively postponed until Wednesday for a 16-day mission to continue building the space station. But the launch window will remain open until 20 June.

Photo: Shuttle commander Mark Polansky (NASA).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Will space station be full to bursting?

2009-06-12T12:51:00.007Z

The shuttle Endeavour is due to blast off to the International Space Station tomorrow - but is it a mission that will see astronauts queuing for the bathroom?

Endeavour's crew of seven is due to arrive on Monday at the orbiting outpost which already a six spacemen aboard.

It means that there will be a record 13 astronauts on the space station which has only one lavatory, repaired on a recent shuttle mission.

Launch manager Mike Moses, of the Kennedy Space Centre, tells CBS News: "It's like having your family descend on you for the holidays, right? And they're going to stay for a very long time."

If demand for bathroom facilities is too great, they can retreat to a second toilet on the shuttle. And if if they are really desperate, there is another on a Soyuz "lifeboat" attached to the space station.

Endeavour's 16-day mission will be one of the most challenging yet as construction of the space station continues 220 miles above the Earth.

Astronauts will make five lengthy spacewalks to attach a Japanese platform and replace massive batteries for the solar panels.

Shuttle commander Mark Polansky has already begun using Twitter to keep space fans updated on the mission's progress - his username is Astro_127.

Endeavour was already prepared for launch last month in case it was needed to rescue astronauts on a daring mission aboard sister ship Atlantis to repair the Hubble space telescope.

Picture: Endeavour's crew gather at launch pad 39a. (Photo: NASA)

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Mars and Earth 'on collision course'

2009-06-11T12:15:00.005Z

Have you heard? It's in the stars. Next July we collide with Mars... Well not next July, that is just how Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sang it in High Society.

But new predictions suggest that Earth could crash into Mars - or possibly Venus. It would be a catastrophic event but the good news is it will not happen for a few billion years.

Alternatively, a similar fate could befall Mars and Jupiter, or Mercury and Venus, according to French astronomers in research reported this week in the journal Nature.

The team, led by Jacques Laskar of Paris Observatory, ran simulations on supercomputers to calculate how the orbits of planetary orbits in the solar system will evolve.

They found that fluctuations in these elliptical paths around the Sun meant that close encounters between neighbouring planets will occasionally occur in time.

Collisions between planet-sized bodies were relatively common in the early days of the solar system. Some astronomers believe an impact with the Earth produced the Moon. Others suggest that a planetary collision produced Mercury from a much larger world, explaining its present dense nature.

But there is great order in the solar system at present and no danger of any planets colliding in the foreseeable future. There is a danger, however, of smaller asteroids or comets striking planets including the Earth.

A small asteroid struck the Sudan last year and a comet crash on Jupiter was observed in 1994, giving the giant planet a series of black eyes.

Astronomers are trying to monitor Earth-crossing asteroids big enough to do significant damage. An impact has still not been ruled out with a space rock called Apophis in 2036, although it is highly unlikely.

Picture: A planetary collision imagined by a NASA artist (NASA).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com

Kaguya Moon crash seen from Earth

2009-06-11T09:02:00.003Z

Astronomers using one of the world's largest telescopes captured the brilliant explosion as the Kaguya spacecraft slammed into the Moon.

Jeremy Bailey and colleague Steve Lee used the 3.9-metre (153-inch) Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales to record a bright flash marking the impact of the Japan space agency JAXA's robotic probe.

The crash, at around 4.25am local time today in New South Wales, happened on the unlit, dark side of the Moon, close to the edge of the side illuminated by sunlight, called the terminator.

A mountain peak can be seen shining brightly in the pictures as it is caught by the rising sun over that region of the Moon. The impact flash is visible to the lower right of that peak in the photo sequence, taken with an infrared camera.

The probe, flying at nearly 4,000 mph, collided at a shallow angle which was expected to send it skipping across the lunar surface like a pebble on a pond.

Kaguya, which was named after a legendary lunar princess, was launched in September 2007 and has been in orbit around the Moon collecting data including the first HD TV images. Previously known as Selene, it carried no fuel and the brilliant explosion was caused purely by the energy of the impact.

NASA is due to launch a new unmanned probe next Wednesday that will fire a missile into a crater near the Moon's south pole in October.

The polar region is being considered as a site for a manned landing and scientists want to check if there is any water in the craters' permanent shadows.

Picture: A sequence of images shows the bright flash as Kaguya strikes the Moon. (Photo: Jeremy Bailey, Steve Lee, Anglo-Australian Observatory).

• Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

Aliens will be revealed by starlight

2009-06-10T17:54:00.006Z

Alien-hunters have developed a powerful new tool to discover life on other worlds. It works by checking a distant planet's atmosphere for the "fingerprints" of ET.

Astronomers tested it by using the Moon as a mirror during a total lunar eclipse to reflect back sunlight that had passed through the Earth's own atmosphere.

A giant UK telescope in the Canary Islands was used in the experiment - which provided even more powerful evidence of life on Earth than the scientists expected.

They say it vastly improves our chances of finding alien life outside the solar system. It comes hot on the heels of news that US scientists have devised a way to detect oceans of water on planets outside the solar system.

The test was carried out during a total lunar eclipse because that is when the only light we see from the Moon is sunlight that has been scattered onto it through our own atmosphere.

The light carries vital data about the chemistry of our own planet in what is called a transmission spectrum. Astronomers say they will observe similar spectra when an alien planet passes in front of its parent star and the starlight shines through that planet's atmosphere.

Teh experiment, using the UK's William Herschel Telescope and neighbouring Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma, is reported in this week's issue of Nature.

Enric Palle, lead author of the paper, from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, said: "Now we know what the transmission spectrum of a inhabited planet looks like, we have a much better idea of how to find and recognize Earth-like planets outside our solar system where life may be thriving.

"The information in this spectrum shows us that this is a very effective way to gather information about the biological processes that may be taking place on a planet."

Pilar Montañes-Rodriguez, from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, added, "Many discoveries of Earth-size planets are expected in the next decades and some will orbit in the habitable zone of their parent stars.

"Obtaining their atmospheric properties will be highly challenging; the greatest reward will happen when one of those planets shows a spectrum like that of our Earth."

More than 300 planets have been found orbiting other stars in the last 15 years and astronomers expect to find more resembling Earth soon using space telescopes and improved techniques on the ground.

Picture: An artist's impression of sunlight shining through the Earth's atmosphere as seen from the Moon. (Credit: Gabriel Perez Diaz, SMM, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias).

• What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.

Riddle of Orion's shrinking armpit

2009-06-10T12:19:00.004Z

One of the brightest stars in the sky is mysteriously shrinking, astronomers have discovered. Betelgeuse marks the armpit of Orion the hunter and is easy to spot twinkling in the night sky.

Some astronomers believe the star is a ticking time-bomb on the verge of destroying itself in a massive explosion.

It would become the most spectacular supernova ever seen, shining more brightly than the Moon for months on end and beating a cosmic blast in Cassiopeia in the 16th century.

Betelgeuse is a red giant so big that it is five times the size of the Earth's orbit around the Sun and would stretch out as far as Jupiter.

It is one of the few stars visible as a disk rather than a point of light with the Hubble space telescope. But its diameter has shrunk by more than 15 per cent since 1993.

The change was spotted by astronomers monitoring Betelgeuse with a triple telescope called the Infrared Spatial Interferometer on Mt Wilson in California. However, they say the star's brightness over the same period has shown no significant dimming.

Nobel prize winner Professor Charles Townes, 94, of the University of California Berkeley, said: "To see this change is very striking. We will be watching it carefully over the next few years to see if it will keep contracting or will go back up in size."

Colleague Edward Wishnow said: "We do not know why the star is shrinking. Considering all that we know about galaxies and the distant universe, there are still lots of things we don't know about stars, including what happens as red giants near the ends of their lives."

The brightest supernova of recent times happened in a small companion galaxy of the Milky Way in 1987.

Picture: Professor Townes with one of the telescope's three main components. (Photo: Cristina Ryan).

• What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. You can support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Black hole is a record breaker

2009-06-09T17:47:00.002Z

Astronomers have identified the biggest known black hole in the universe. It is 6.4 billion times more massive than the Sun and lurking 60 million light-years away at the centre of a giant galaxy.

The galaxy, called Messier 87 or M87, is a popular target for backyard stargazers in the constellation of Virgo and was suspected to contain a supermassive black hole.

Now one of the world's most powerful computers has worked out that the cosmic cannibal is up to three times more massive than thought.

The discovery, made using a computer at the University of Texas, in Austin, was revealed at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in California.

Space scientists used a telescope to measured the speeds of stars orbiting within the galaxy. This data was used to calculate the powerful pull and size of the monster black hole.

Last month we reported on the voracious appetite of a similar supermassive black hole in another galaxy that is gobbling up the equivalent of two planet Earths a day. And a 16-year study has confirmed the existence of a similar monster black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy.

Picture: M87 photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA/ESA)

• What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. You can support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Martians hunt gives boost for fuel

2009-06-09T17:18:00.008Z

The world's fuel crisis could be eased thanks to UK space scientists who have found a way to get petrol out of sand. Experts at Imperial College London made the breakthrough when developing an alien-seeking experiment that will be carried on a NASA mission to Mars.

They originally devised a way to extract organic material from martian rocks to discover whether life has ever developed there. But the team discovered the same technique can be used on Earth to process dense deposits of rock mixed with bitumen called tar sands.

Until now, fuel has only been able to be produced from tar sands using vast supplies of water which then remain heavily contaminated for years.

The UK scientists, led by Professor Mark Sephton from Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, found that methods used by instruments to be flown to Mars in 2018 can be adapted to extract fuel cheaply.

The research, funded by the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council, looks set to help solve the global problem of energy supply. There are deposits of tar sands in many countries including the USA, Russia and Africa, but they are found in extremely large quantities in Canada and Venezuela.

Professor Sephton told Skymania News: "We were asked to provide a single solvent to wash out any organisms on Mars. We discovered that if we added an agent that is also found in ice cream to water, it acts as an emulsifier and separates the organic material from the water.

"We realised that the same process could be adapted to on a much larger scale to blast hot water at the tar sands. The emulsifier quickly separates out the petrol - a process that used to take years."

Last year, a European probe, Mars Express, identified regions of Mars that could have been home to life. And in January, NASA revealed that plumes of methane had been detected that might have a biological origin.

Picture: A photo of Mars taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (NASA/ESA).

• What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. You can support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Are aliens already here on Earth?

2009-06-08T11:09:00.002Z

Space scientists scouring the skies for aliens should be looking for them here on Earth, a top scientist claims. Professor Paul Davies says creatures quite different to life as we know it may already be living on our own planet.

He says finding where they are hiding would be a breakthrough in answering the question of whether life is common in the universe.

The professor adds: "It would undoubtedly be the biggest discovery in biology since Darwin and evolution."

Alien-hunters have spent billions of pounds seeking ET by listening for radio signals from space, checking out Mars and looking for organic materials in space.

UK-born Professor Davies, now at Arizona State University, tells the NASA's Astrobiology journal that a hunt should begin in earnest for what he calls "weird life".

That means microbial organisms that may look similar to life as we know it, but whose biochemical makeup is distinctly different.

Such alien organisms will be relatively easy to find in environments too harsh for normal life such as extremely hot vents like volcanoes on the ocean floor, says Professor Davies. They will be harder to spot if they exist with us in familiar surroundings, such as the soil in your back garden.

Cosmologist Professor Davies, director of BEYOND, the Centre for Fundamental Concepts in Science, is famous for thinking outside the box. He recently suggested that the first astronauts visiting Mars could be sent on a one-way trip.

It might seem odd that such alien life has not already been found. Professor Davies suggests that is because the tools used to detect new life forms are tuned to look for life as we know it, containing DNA. Weird life might not have DNA. To standard life-detection tools, a non-DNA life form would be invisible.

He says a microscopic type of bacteria called a nanobe, which appear to contain no DNA, should be check out more closely it is really an alien.

Professor Davies says: "If we found that there is an alternative form of life on Earth, then immediately the central question of astrobiology is answered - that life is obviously easy to make."

He believes that if life arose twice on a single planet, then it would be almost certain to arise on other Earth-like planets too. It would show that we are not alone.

Picture: A hydrothermal vent, such as that pictured in the Atlantic, is one place to look for alien life. (Photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

• What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. You can support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Circus founder is next space tourist

2009-06-04T14:37:00.004Z

The first circus act in space is being trained up to visit the International Space Station. Fire-eater and stilt-walker Guy Laliberté, founder of the world-famous Cirque du Soleil, will fly on a Russian ship as a space tourist in September.

He has begun training with cosmonauts at Star City, near Moscow, for a 12-day trip organised by Space Adventures that will cost him around $20 million.

Canadian Guy, 49, who also plays the accordion and is a skilled poker player, created his circus in 1984. Two years ago, he set up a charity, the One Drop Foundation to fight poverty around the world by providing sustainable access to safe water.

He said yesterday: "Travelling has always been my way of life and I have been researching the possibilities of space travel with Space Adventures since 2004. But I needed it to be the right time and for the right purpose.

"This is the time. And the purpose is clear: to raise awareness on water issues to humankind on planet earth. My mission is dedicated to making a difference on this vital resource by using what I know best: artistry."

Guy will certainly not be allowed to breathe fire on board the space station. And he probably will not be allowed to take his accordion, the other astronauts may be relieved to hear.

He will be joining the Soyuz TMA-16 crew that includes Russian cosmonaut Maksim Surayev and NASA astronaut Jeffery Williams. The launch is scheduled for September 30, 2009.

• What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. You can support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

One-way trip to a Mars Big Brother

2009-06-04T13:39:00.005Z

Space fans are excited by the prospect of manned missions to Mars some time in the next 50 years. But would these first explorers be prepared to make it a one-way trip?

The Red Planet is an undoubtedly inhospitable environment. But it is also the world that is most like our own in the solar system.

A leading scientist famed for thinking outside the box has put forward the idea that pioneering visitors to Mars could stay there, survive and even be "reasonably cosy".

Professor Paul Davies says such a mission would be much easier and cheaper if the crew did not need to be brought home again. And his idea, which involves broadcasting the mission like a TV reality show, sounds like Big Brother in space.

The professor's vision, apparently originally delivered in a speech last year, is reported in NASA-sponsored online journal Astrobiology.

He says a one-way trip would slash up to 80 per cent of the cost of reaching Mars, but it need not be a suicide mission. Instead humans could shelter from deadly radiation from space in underground tunnels called lava tubes.

He adds: "How do we pay for all of this? I think that ultimately this would have to be an international collaboration or some sort of commercial venture. Nobody is going to set up a permanent presence on Mars without having some sort of commercial arrangement.

"Imagine the TV rights - think of what people pay for football rights - I mean, huge sums of money. So a spectacular like this, a real life soap opera from another planet, would be worth a lot of money."

Describing Mars as the second-safest planet in the solar system, Professor Davies says the pioneering astronauts could live on water already on Mars plus supplies sent in advance by robotic spacecraft.

Professor Davies, who heads a taskgroup for SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, claims that cutting out the Mars-to-Earth leg of the journey will actually boost the spacemen's chances of survival.

"Going to Mars on a return journey obviously involves a high level of risk. It shortens your life expectancy. As we know from the two Shuttle disasters, take-off and landing are the most vulnerable times. By eliminating half of these, you would extend your life expectancy.

"Radiation in space is also a serious factor for a Mars mission, and during the journey there and back you'd be exposed twice, for many months each time, to cosmic rays in space. It's true Mars is also a high-radiation environment, but it's easier to shield yourself once you're on Mars."

Professor Davies, now at Arizona State University, but previously at universities in the UK and Australia, adds: "I would envisage probably four people would go in the first instance.

"But a one-way mission to Mars would not just be a one-off exercise. They would be trailblazers. It would be the first step to establishing a permanent human presence on another world.

"Although they would go without the expectation of returning, they would have the expectation that sooner or later they would be joined by others and that this Mars base would grow and eventually become a permanent Mars colony that might take hundreds of years to establish."

Professor Davies says there are plenty of adventurers who are ready to take much greater risks on Earth, such as round-the-world ballooning or climbing Everest without oxygen.

He says: "By comparison, a one-way trip to Mars would not be so risky. But it does need a spirit of adventure of the sort that the early explorers had, in particular the people who opened up Antarctica.

"And what I have in mind is not just four miserable people sitting around on the martian surface waiting to die. They would actually be doing useful work.

"People have said to me it would be horrible living in these conditions. And my answer is, it's not as bad as Guantanamo Bay.

"Living in lava tubes or close to lava tubes will offer some measure of protection from radiation, and water ice and other resources are available. I'm sure that if we look carefully at the Martian surface we can find a location that would be reasonably cosy.

"And once they're there, they can be resupplied every two years. We would send on the sandwiches and letters from home and all that to sustain this colony. Eventually there would be enough money to send on another four colonists, and another four, and so on."

Professor Davies says it is vital to establish a presence on another planet as a kind of lifeboat in case a mega-disaster hits Earth. But he says they would also carry out science such as looking for life.

Picture: An artist's impression of astronauts working in a Mars colony. (NASA).

• What do you think? Skymania welcomes your comments and views. You can support this site by visiting Skymania's stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.