Deep fractures have been found around the giant Isidis impact basin on Mars. This area called NiliFossae is of interest to scientists because telescopes on Earth measured an increase in methane in Mars’s atmosphere over this area. This could mean life or it could be geological. Some of these incisions are up to 500 m [...]
Cassini Creates the First Topographical Map of Titan
Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, has been surveyed by Cassini. Cassini, which is a probe that has been looking at Saturn and its moons, has made a topographic map from the surveys. Titan is a lovely moon that is one of the most earthlike and interesting worlds in the solar system. It is Saturn’s largest [...]
Hawaiian Summit to Gain Giant Telescope
The construction of a large telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea which is opposed by the Hawaiians has permission now to go ahead. This has been opposed because the Hawaiians consider it sacred ground. The construction could start on the top of the 13,800 foot high mountain as early as April 2014. The mountain [...]
The Existing Climate Change Model Could Be Wrong
Climate models may be too conservative in forecasting tropical changes. This is indicated by a large amount of warm water that used to stretch out from Indonesia over to Africa and South America 4 million years ago. This large mass of water would have altered rainfall in the tropics perhaps even removing the monsoon. The [...]
Data That Was Called a Nuisance Leads to a Surprising Discovery about Star Birth
Bright objects appeared in maps in 2008 from data made with the South Pole telescope. These light sources interfered with the measurements that were being made of the cosmic microwave background radiation (the afterglow of the big bang). But this turned out to be a rare find in what was a large survey of the [...]
The Best View of Exoplanets Planets yet
4 Jupiter mass planets, among the most exotic ones to be known, have been seen in more detail than ever before. Project 1640 picked out these planets using the Hale telescope. These planets orbit a star called HR 8799 which is 128 ly away. Light from planets is hard to make out as the stars [...]
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China’s New Space Station Plans Released
The China manned space engineering office has released plans for a 60 ton space station made up of three capsules and a cargo transport for supplies. It looks like it might be public friendly as well as they have asked for suggestions for names for the space station. The space station core module will be [...]
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A Completely Automatic Robot Jet Fighter Passes Further Tests
The X-47B looks exactly the same as the B-2 stealth bomber but there is one major difference, it is totally automated. The X-47B is the US Navy’s newest UAV and it’s the very first robotic fighter to exist. Robotic predator and Reaper drones that are currently in Iraq and Afghanistan are controlled by pilots on [...]
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Manned Spaceflight Versus Unmanned Spaceflight
Are manned missions just a waste of time? Space agencies and presidents insist that manned missions are necessary and will always be in their programmes. The reason normally given is that an astronaut embodies the spirit of the space programme and can also act swiftly and creatively in ways that machines cannot. The critics dismiss [...]
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Messenger Returns Images of Mercury from Orbit for the First Time.
NASA’s Messenger spacecraft (MErcury Surface,Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) has become the first craft to enter orbit around Mercury and now we have the first picture from orbit. Messenger has taken six years to get into orbit around Mercury. If the Messenger probe had been sent to Mercury on a direct course it would have [...]
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Crystal Clear Pictures of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster
The Suzaku observatory has recently made observations by X ray of Perseus, a nearby cluster of galaxies. They are the clearest to date. Galaxy clusters are millions of light years across. Most of the matter these galaxies are made up of comes in the form of X ray gases that fill up the space between [...]
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Why Is an Atmosphere Lost over Time?
There are a lot of planetary atmospheres in the solar system. They vary a lot and this can be seen by comparing Earth and Venus which are of the same size and mass roughly, The surface of Venus is extremely hot which is caused by an atmosphere of carbon dioxide that has the weight of [...]
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Satellites Monitor The Japanese Devastation
Satellite imaging of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 has been invaluable in giving a clear picture of the extent of the devastation and will help in the relief effort.What is called the International Charter ” space and major disasters” was called up by the Japanese government on the same [...]
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Mars Rover Opportunity Poses for a Quick Picture
Opportunity (NASA’s Mars exploration Rover) has been exploring a crater on Mars called Santa Maria and has nearly finished its three-month examination. The picture has been taken from orbit of opportunity posing just on the edge. The pictures were taken by the high resolution imaging science experiment (HIRISE). The tracks from the west that opportunity [...]
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Far Side of the Moon Imaged by the LRO
The moons far side has been imaged in extreme detail by the lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO). A mosaic is being made of the moon by the LRO and this image is one of many building up into a map providing a global view of the moon to a resolution of 100 m per pixel. (Click on [...]
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Excessive Heat Found in Enceladus
Cassini has recorded internal heat produced by the south polar terrain of Enceladus to be extremely more than was predicted. The internal heat is about 15.80 GW which is about the power output of 20 coal fuelled power stations. This doesn’t mean that a bunch of aliens have built 20 coal fuelled power stations on [...]
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Carnival of Space 186
The Carnival of space is where all the different interesting websites and blogs get together and are posted on one particular blog or site. This week as always we have a wide variety of interesting subjects. Apologies for the late posting. Just look at it as an insight into the delays you may experience if [...]
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Jupiter Like Planet Lurking Just Outside our Solar System is Extremely Unlikely
To say that the whole astronomic community was set on fire by the claim that a Jupiter-like planet might be lurking just outside our solar system would be a bit of a stretch, but spirits were indeed high, after this claim was made by John Matese and Daniel Whitmire of the University of Lousiana-Lafayette. Tyche, [...]
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Kepler Finds a Multitude of Planets of All Shapes and Structures
Some great news from the planet front has just arrived. As was expected Kepler has found lots of new planets. These planets are really planetary candidates and have to be positively confirmed but a high percentage definitely will be planets. The recent findings increase the number of planets found by Kepler to 1235. 68 of [...]
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Mars Express Gives New Images & Video of Martian Moon Phobos
The European Space Agency has released close-up portraits of Mars’s moon Phobos, taken as the ESA Mars Express spacecraft flew within 60 miles of it. The images show a load of mysterious grooves etched into Phobos’ surface and resolve features as small as 17 yards across. The images show in detail the currently planned landing [...]
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Fancy Building and Then Getting Your Satellite Launched into Space?
A revolution in satellite engineering has started. As long as I can remember governments and corporations have been building expensive satellites and they just get more and more expensive with each new design. The cost rises because the satellites take longer to design, new launch facilities are needed, global monitoring stations must be built, mission [...]
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Robotic Ghost Knifefish (Ghostbot) Created after Observing a Real Knifefish
After watching a black ghost knife fish and creating computer simulations of its movement researchers at Northwestern University have created a robotic fish. This is a very nimble robot that, after swimming backwards or forwards, can swim vertically almost instantaneously by using a special Ribbon like fin. In the future this will allow robots to [...]
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Rocky Planet Found by Kepler Gets Us Closer to Finding an Earthlike Planet
The race to find an earthlike planet hots up with the Kepler space telescope finding a rocky planet. I say race because the telescope that finds an earthlike planet will enter the history books. This planet orbits a sun like star. The planet is only 40% larger than Earth (all the previous ones were the size [...]
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Plank Finds New Galaxy Clusters and Unidentified Objects
The Plank space observatory has just released its first scientific results from the Plank spacecraft. The findings look at the coldest objects in the universe and our galaxy and out to the edges of the universe. The Plank Observatory is looking to put together a picture of the evolution of the cosmos and these findings [...]
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New Study Shows That Moon Has an Interior like the Earth’s
The moon is more interesting than it looks. The interior could hold clues about our distant past. NASA researchers have found from analysing old data in new ways that the moon has a core. This has been theorised for some time but never proved. These findings were published on January 6 in science and shows [...]
