NASA’s durable twin Mars rovers have successfully explored the surface of the mysterious red planet for a full Martian year (687 Earth days). Opportunity starts its second Martian year Dec. 11; Spirit started its new year three weeks ago. The rovers’ original mission was scheduled for only three months.

“The rovers went through all of the Martian seasons and are back to late summer,” said Dr. John Callas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. He is d

Astronomers track massive shockwaves in plasma escaping newborn star

Like traffic on a freeway, plasma spewing from the poles of newborn stars moves in clumps that travel at different speeds. When fast-moving particles run into slower material on these cosmic freeways, the resulting “traffic jams” create massive shock waves that travel trillions of miles.

Thanks to highly resolved images from the Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers have created the first mov

Looking at atmospheric disturbances during space storms

Scientists from NASA and the National Science Foundation discovered a way to combine ground and space observations to create an unprecedented view of upper atmosphere disturbances during space storms.

Large, global-scale disturbances resemble weather cold fronts. They form in the Earth’s electrified upper atmosphere during space storms. The disturbances result from plumes of electrified plasma that form in the i

Physicists at Kiel University discover an unusual state of matter

The existence of an unusual state of matter, a crystal that consists entirely of holes, has been proven at Kiel University. As reported in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters (December 2nd , 2005), an international team led by Professor Michael Bonitz has, for the first time, demonstrated with the help of extensive computer simulations that this exotic phenomenon, the existence of which was hitherto only a

Thanks to one of the most productive spacecraft ever built, scientists are far better acquainted with the star that lights our world and gives us life. Built for ESA by European industry, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) went into space on 2 December 1995.

The tenth anniversary of SOHO’s launch is a time for celebration for the scientists and engineers in Europe and the USA who conceived, created and still operate this unprecedented solar spacecraft – and who have

Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has been awarded one of the UK’s most prestigious educational awards for its astronomical excellence and public engagement in science.

The biennial Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Further and Higher Education recognise and reward the outstanding contribution that universities and colleges in the United Kingdom make to the intellectual, economic, cultural and social life of the nation.

LJMU’s winning entry relates to the develo

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have successfully conducted an important round of successful laser experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), validating key computer simulations and theoretical projections relevant to the plasma and X-ray environment necessary to achieve ignition.

NIF, which is more than 80 percent complete, is a 10-story building in which 192 laser beams are focused on a tiny target inside a 30-foot diameter aluminum-lined

The IMPRESS project saw the first launch of an experimental payload, the Electromagnetic Levitator, onboard an ESA/DLR-funded Texus 42 sounding rocket, from the Esrange launch site near Kiruna in northern Sweden, on 1 December at 10:06 hours CET.

This experimental payload, jointly developed by ESA and the DLR, enables accurate measurement of the properties of highly-reactive liquid metal alloys. Such measurements are unattainable on Earth and will greatly benefit the project.

A “cagey” strategy to stack more hydrogen in nanoscale scaffoldings made of zinc-based boxes may yield a viable approach to storing hydrogen and, ultimately, replacing fossil fuels in future automobiles, according to new results from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers.

Using beams of neutrons as probes, NIST scientists determined where hydrogen latches onto the lattice-like arrangement of zinc and oxygen clusters in a custom-made material known as a

A new Hubble image – among the largest ever produced with the Earth-orbiting observatory – gives the most detailed view so far of the entire Crab Nebula. The Crab is arguably the single most interesting object, as well as one of the most studied, in all of astronomy. The image is the largest ever taken with Hubble’s WFPC2 workhorse camera.
The Crab Nebula is one of the most intricately structured and dynamic objects ever observed. The new Hubble image of the Crab was assembled

ATI and CEVP joint venture set to catalyse revolution in flat displays, ICs, high-brightness light sources, etc

CEVP has developed a fabrication tool to commercialise the revolutionary low temperature carbon nanotube growth process developed by the University of Surrey’s (UniS) Advanced Technology Institute (ATI). The new tool – NanoGrowth – is currently being trialled and characterised by UniS, and the two partners anticipate releasing the technology for commercial use in Ma

HARPS Instrument Finds Neptune-Mass Exoplanet Around Small Star

A team of French and Swiss astronomers [1] have discovered one of the lightest exoplanets ever found using the HARPS instrument [2] on ESO’s 3.6-m telescope at La Silla (Chile). The new planet orbits a star belonging to the class of red dwarfs. As these stars are very common, this discovery proves crucial in the census of other planetary systems.

“Our finding possibly means that planets are rather frequen

For the first time in the history of planetary exploration, the MARSIS radar on board ESA’s Mars Express has provided direct information about the deep subsurface of Mars.

First data include buried impact craters, probing of layered deposits at the north pole and hints of the presence of deep underground water-ice. The subsurface of Mars has been so far unexplored territory. Only glimpses of the Martian depths could be deduced through analysis of impact crater and valley wa

Substantial quantities of liquid water must have been stably present in the early history of Mars. The findings of OMEGA, on board ESA’s Mars Express, have implications on the climatic history of the planet and the question of its ’habitability’ at some point in its history.

These conclusions were drawn thanks to data on Martian surface minerals obtained by OMEGA (Observatoire pour la Mineralogy, l’Eau, les Glaces et l’Activité), the visible and infrared map

After a seven-year journey on board the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft, ESA’s Huygens probe was released on 25 December 2004. It reached the upper layer of Titan’s atmosphere on 14 January 2005 and landed on the surface after a parachute descent of 2 hours and 28 minutes.

Clear images of the surface were obtained below 40 km altitude – revealing an extraordinary world, resembling Earth in many respects, especially in meteorology, geomorphology and fluvial activity. The images

Strong turbulence in the upper atmosphere, a second ionospheric layer and possible lightning were among the surprises found by the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI) during the descent to Titan’s surface.

HASI provided measurements from an altitude of 1400 km down to the surface of the physical characteristics of the atmosphere and surface, such as temperature and density profiles, electrical conductivity, and surface structure. The Huygens SSP made measurements just