A team of European and US scientists, using Cassini-Huygens data, have found that Saturn’s smoggy moon Titan may have volcanoes that release methane in the atmosphere.
These findings may lead scientists to revise the theories that the presence of methane in Titan’s atmosphere is mainly due to the presence of a methane-rich hydrocarbon ocean.
Infrared images taken by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini orbiter, show a bright, 30-kilom
ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has for the first time ever detected an aurora on Mars. This aurora is of a type never previously observed in the Solar System.
Observations by the SPICAM instrument (SPectroscopy for the Investigations and the Characteristics of the Atmosphere on Mars) taken on 11 August 2004, revealed light emissions now interpreted as an aurora.
Aurorae are spectacular displays often seen at the highest latitudes on Earth. On our planet, as well as on the
Astronomers Commission New High-Speed Camera on the Very Large Telescope
British scientists have opened a new window on the Universe with the recent commissioning of ULTRACAM on the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.
ULTRACAM is an ultra fast camera capable of capturing some of the most rapid astronomical events. It can take up to 500 pictures a second in three different colours simultaneously. It has been designed and built b
A University of Leicester team is involved in a newly-selected NASA mission to Jupiter due to be launched in 2010.
The mission, called Juno, will now proceed to preliminary design phase – it is the second in NASA’s New Frontiers Program.
The mission will conduct a first-time, in-depth study of the giant planet. The aim is to place a spacecraft in a polar orbit around Jupiter to investigate the existence of an ice-rock core; determine the amount of global water and a
Thanks to measurements by the D-CIXS X-ray spectrometer, ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft has made the first ever unambiguous remote-sensing detection of calcium on the Moon.
SMART-1 is currently performing the verification and calibration of its instruments, while it runs along its science orbit, reaching 450 kilometres from the Moon at its closest distance. During this calibration phase, which precedes the actual science observations phase, the SMART-1 scientists are getting acquaint
A violent and chaotic-looking mass of gas and dust is seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image of a nearby supernova remnant. Denoted N 63A, the object is the remains of a massive star that exploded, spewing its gaseous layers out into an already turbulent region.
The supernova remnant N 63A is a member of N 63, a star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Visible from the southern hemisphere, the LMC is an irregular galaxy lying 160,000 light-years from our own Milky
Many people have dreamt at some point of being an astronaut and travelling through space but hardly any get the opportunity to fulfil these childhood dreams. If you are a scientist with an engineering, maths or physics background the University of Surrey (UniS) may be able to help you reach for the stars with its newly-launched MSc and BEng/MEng courses in Space Technology and Planetary Exploration. While UniS cannot promise to launch you into the cosmos, these new courses can at least launch your
Of the billions of stars in the universe, the most massive play a crucial role but are the least understood. A major Leeds-led project is searching the skies to locate these elusive stars, and help us understand more about how the galaxies work.
“We know how big stars end – they explode as supernova and can form black holes – but we know little about how they’re formed,” explains Dr René Oudmaijer in physics and astronomy. “These stars play an important role in the evolution
The sequencing of the human genome was only the beginning of a much more complex task – deciphering the secrets of cellular chemistry and the mechanisms of disease. While the genome serves as a blueprint to understanding the body, proteins represent the materials that carry out these plans.
There are about 2 million distinct proteins in the human body. That’s a lot of proteins – and the future of personalized medicine depends on a better understanding of proteins, including their
Just as the printing press revolutionized the creation of reading matter, a “nano-printing” technique developed at MIT could enable the mass production of nano-devices currently built one at a time.
The most immediate candidate for this innovation is the DNA microarray, a nano-device used to diagnose and understand genetic illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, viral illnesses such as AIDS, and certain types of cancer. The ability to mass produce these complex devices would make D
The office that astronomer Lei Hao shares with her fellow research associates on the first floor of the Space Sciences Building at Cornell University is tidy and organized. But Hao has been thinking a lot lately about dust.
Actually, she’s recently found a great deal of it. And she’s thrilled.
The dust in question is between 0.88 billion and 2.4 billion light years away from Hao’s office, in galaxies scientists classify as active galactic nuclei (AGNs
Giant red blobs, picket fences, upward branching carrots, and tentacled octopi — these are just a few of the phrases used to describe sprites — spectacular, eerie flashes of colored light high above the tops of powerful thunderstorms that can travel up to 50 miles high in the atmosphere.
Most researchers have long supported the theory that sprites are linked to major lightning charges. Still, some scientists believe that conditions high in the atmosphere, like meteoritic dust
Sometimes seeing a shadow can be as good or better than seeing the real thing. A new measurement method* developed by researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a case in point. The method uses the shadow cast by a small glass probe to infer the dimensions of tiny, microscale holes or other micrometer-sized components. The technique may provide an improved quality control method for measuring the interior dimensions of fuel nozzles, fiber optic connecto
An international team of scientists has performed the most detailed ever study of the evolution of the Universe.
They have traced the evolution of the cosmos from the ’Big Bang’ 13.7 billion years ago to the present day — in a project similar in complexity to tracking the movement of every single person on Earth.
But instead of tracking people, the team — which includes University of Nottingham scientists — has modelled the paths of 10 billion particles of elusive
Sensors that detect and count single photons, the smallest quantities of light, with 88 percent efficiency have been demonstrated by physicists at the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST). This record efficiency is an important step toward making reliable single photon detectors for use in practical quantum cryptography systems, the most secure method known for ensuring the privacy of a communications channel.
Described in the June issue of Physical Review A, Rapid Commun
New images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) aboard ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show a large depression called Iani Chaos and the upper reaches of a large outflow channel called Ares Vallis.
To see images go to: www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMIKO0DU8E_0.html
Image strips were taken in October 2004, during three orbits from a 350-kilometre altitude, with a
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