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By Daniel Fischer Every page present in Europe & the U.S.!
| Ahead | Awards 
The latest issue!
| A German companion - only available here! Current mission news: MGS (latest pictures!) + Cassini + Stardust |
for every month have been created by Anderson - they are helpful for planning astronomical expeditions. ESA launched European weather site: Weather Today, ESA Release, AFP. Amateur finds variable nebula, was active in 1966, too: IAUC, picture, HAS & SEDS pages, APOD, S&T (earlier), BBC, SC, Roerig picture. Stellar occultation by binary asteroid on Feb. 16: Mainz page. Observe asteroid occultations: EAON pages. Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) with a tail: Feb. 15, 14, Jan. 20. Looking ahead to the transit of Venus: ESO Press Release, SC.
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Spirit on the road again after dig, Opportunity works El CapitanOn its 50th sol on Mars (corresponding roughly to Feb. 23 UTC on Earth), Spirit finished observations of the trench at "Laguna Hollow" it had dug on sol 47 and continued on its journey toward the crater called "Bonneville." Spirit had used three instruments on its robotic arm to examine the subsurface soil exposed by the digging of the trench. This was done the same way that Opportunity dug its 9 to 10 cm trench at Meridiani. However, because the ground at its location is harder, Spirit had to dig for twice as long as Opportunity - going back and forth over the surface 11 times instead of 6. Meanwhile Opportunity has moved its arm repeatedly to make close-up inspections the "El Capitan" part of the street-curb-sized outcrop in the crater where the rover is working. Before that, "super resolution" and "super spectral" observations from the science instruments had been taken to locate the best spots to place the rock abrasion tool.Opportunity examines trench as Spirit prepares to dig one, tooBy inspecting the sides and floor of a hole it has dug on Mars, Opportunity is finding some things it did not see beforehand. Meanwhile Spirit has reached a site with such interesting soil that scientists have decided to robotically dig a hole there, too. Spirit's trenching at a shallow depression dubbed "Laguna Hollow" could answer questions about whether traits on the soil surface resulted from repeated swelling and shrinking of an upper layer bearing concentrated brine, among other possibilities. Some soil in "Laguna Hollow" appeared to stick to Spirit's wheels. Possible explanations include very fine-grained dust or concentrated salt making the soil sticky. After trenching to seek clues about those possibilities, Spirit will continue on its trek toward the rim of a crater nicknamed "Bonneville," now estimated to be about 135 m away from the rover. Spirit has already driven 128 meters.Opportunity has manipulated its robotic arm to use its microscope on five different locations within the trench the rover dug on Feb. 16, finding round pebbles that are shiny and soil so fine-grained that the rover's microscope can't make out individual particles. It has also taken spectrometer readings of two sites. The trench - the first dug by either Mars Exploration Rover - is about 50 cm long and 10 cm deep. Two features that soon caught scientists' attention were the clotty texture of soil in the upper wall of the trench and the brightness of soil on the trench floor. The rover had alternately pushed soil forward and backward out of the trench with its right front wheel while other wheels held the rover in place, turning slightly between bouts of digging to widen the hole. The process had lasted 22 minutes. Based on the earlier photo survey of the bedrock outcrop, scientists have chosen a feature they have dubbed "El Capitan" as the next target for intensive investigation by Opportunity. While both MER travel around Mars, ESA declares Beagle 2 dead, vows to investigateBoth Mars Explorations Rovers are now driving around quite happily on Mars: While Spirit is almost racing towards crater Bonneville (progressing up to 21 meters per move), Opportunity has begun a systematic close-up photographic survey of the outcrop in its crater, moving in steps along the 30 meter long bedrock formation. The latter has an amazing fine structure: layers only a few mm thick, with embedded spherical grains that are falling out where the outcrop is being eroded. The current thinking is that the rocks were formed by wind sedimentation, not in a watery process. The origin of the little greyish spheres - which are also littered on the soil - is still a mystery: They could be impact or volcanic ejecta or have formed in situ when a liquid percolated through the rock. Meanwhile Spirit has been declared perfectly healthy again, and it has brushed dust off and then drilled into Adirondack (which turned out to be a typical volcanic basalt) before going on its long trip - which has been interrupted, though, because of a frozen HGA.The Beagle 2 Management Board has met in London on Friday 6 February and, following an assessment of the situation (i.e. the total absence of any signals from Mars), declared Beagle 2 lost. On Feb. 11 the UK Science Minister Lord Sainsbury and ESA announced that an ESA/UK inquiry would be held into the failure the lander. The Inquiry Board is to be chaired by the ESA Inspector General, Ren� Bonnefoy, and the UK deputy chairman will be David Link MBE. It will investigate whether it can be established why Beagle 2 may have failed and set out any lessons which can be learnt for future missions. Such inquiries are routine in the event of unsuccessful space missions and this one will help inform future ESA robotic missions, to Mars and other bodies in the solar system. A search for the remains of Beagle 2 with the Mars Global Surveyor camera has already begun, but no trace whatsoever was found in the first section of the landing ellipse imaged at high resolution. |
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Supernova shock wave producing new light showSeventeen years ago, astronomers spotted the brightest stellar explosion ever seen since the one observed by Johannes Kepler 400 years ago. Called SN 1987A, the titanic supernova explosion blazed with the power of 100,000,000 suns for several months following its discovery on Feb. 23, 1987. Although the supernova itself is now a million times fainter than 17 years ago, a new light show in the space surrounding it is just beginning. An image, taken last November by Hubble's ACS, shows many bright spots along a ring of gas, like pearls on a necklace: These cosmic "pearls" are being produced as a supersonic shock wave unleashed during the explosion slams into the ring at more than a million miles per hour. The collision is heating the gas ring, causing its innermost regions to glow. Astronomers had detected the first "hot spot" in 1996, but now they see dozens of them all around the ring - and more hot spots are coming. In the next few years, the entire ring will be ablaze as it absorbs the full force of the crash. The glowing ring is expected to become bright enough to illuminate the star's surroundings, thus providing astronomers with new information on how the star ejected material before the explosion. |
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Basel astronomers fight for survival of instituteOn 22nd January 2004, the Univercity Council announced in its report about the "Portfolio Cleansing" of the University that the Astronomical Institute of the University Basel - founded 1874 and presently integral part of the Department for Physcis and Astronomy - shall be closed by 2008. "In its 100 year long existence, the Astronomical Institute in Basel has made important contributions to this process and earned its world wide reputation," the astronomers say in a drive for support: "It is on the forefront of research and is the Swiss partner in a number of international projects. The excellent scientific work of the Astronomical Institute is recognized internationally and has been acknowledged by the University Council in their report. Astronomy is an essential part of the curriculum in Physics and is, moreover, taught in lectures for students of other subjects as well as for auditors. A broad audience appreciates the high quality and our rich public outreach program." |
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ISS, Manned Space, NASA Budget UpdateNASA Releases on a delay of the next shuttle flight to at least March 2005, crew changes for and an EVA from the ISS, the ISS Status on Feb. 16 (with an explanation of an Feb. 15 'UFO'), Science@NASA on bugs on the ISS and the health risks of Mars travel, "Moon to Mars", the official homepage of the "Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond", House and European Comm. Releases asking questions, NASA's FY 2005 Budget Request, a NASA Release about it, AIP FYIs about the 2005 budget in general and the NSF budget and coverage (and yet more opinion) of Feb. 23: HC, WP, ST, SpaceRev, SC, NZ. Feb. 22: ST. Feb. 21: FT. Feb. 20: SN, FT (other story), Dsc., AP, SC (other and another story), RP, NZ. Feb. 19: Tech.Rev, SD, SN, BBC, FT, SD, SR, HC, SC, ST. |
Feb. 18:
Dsc,
FT
(other story,
OpEd),
HC,
JAXA News,
New Sci.,
SC
(other and
another story),
ST.
Feb. 17:
Chem.&Eng.News,
CSM,
SR,
FT
(OpEd),
ST
(other story).
Feb. 16:
SpaceRev
(other story).
Feb. 15:
Ast.
Feb. 14:
AB.
Feb. 13:
Ast.,
SD,
AD,
HC,
SC,
ST.
Feb. 12:
AD,
HC,
FT
(other story),
SR
(earlier),
SC,
ST.
Feb. 11:
JSR,
FT
(other story),
HC,
CSM,
SD,
SC
(other story),
ST.
Feb. 10:
AFP,
HC,
Stanf.Daily,
SC
(other story),
NZ,
RP,
CENAP.
Feb. 9:
SpaceRev,
SC
(other story),
ChicST,
NSU,
ST.
Feb. 8:
FT,
ST.
Feb. 7:
FT.
Feb. 6:
Dsc,
Barry,
FT
(OpEd),
Guard.,
ST.
Feb. 5:
Austral.,
NewMars,
SC,
ST.
Feb. 4:
AD,
FT
(other story),
SR,
SF
Gate, New Sci.,
SC,
ST
(other story).
Feb. 3:
AD,
BBC,
SC
(other story).
The HST crisis - studies (disputed by NASA) now claim that the SM4 would be safer than an ISS visit. The studies, a NASA RFI for Hubble Space Telescope End of Mission Alternatives and a related NASA page, an ESA HST Status and coverage (and opinion and counter-opinion) of Feb. 18: SR. Feb. 11: FT. Feb. 10: S&T, WP, FT, BBC, SR, ST. Feb. 9: USAT, ABC, New Sci., SC (other story). Feb. 8: Rtr. Feb. 7: ST. Feb. 5: Ast. Feb. 4: SC. |
Second-biggest Kuiperoid after Pluto found?2004 DW could be even larger than Quaoar as an early rough estimate puts its diameter at 1400 km: Caltech Press Release, Ast., S&T, New Sci., BBC, SC, ST, BdW, NZ, Brennp.The strange story of asteroid 2004 AS1 - that once seemed to have a chance of one-in-four of hitting the planet within 36 hours: NEO News [SR], BBC, SC. Bowling ball thrown from plane for meteorite study: AP. Finding Earth-like exoplanets with the help of dust - the key to locating newborn Earths is to look not for the planet itself, but for a ring of dust orbiting the star that is a fingerprint of terrestrial planet formation: CfA Press Release. Ulysses has met another comet tailThis time a coronal mass ejection helped bringing the comet particles to the spacecraft: ESA Release. Ulysses mission extended til 2008, allowing a third overflight of the Sun's poles: ESA News.Ulysses distant Jupiter encounter under way, dust streams seen once more: ESA News [SR] (earlier). Odd Jovian radio noise: Science@NASA. SMART 1 commissioning begins while engine is out: Status of Feb. 4. Cassini's Huygens programmed: BBC. Why Titan is useful: SC. Galactic building blocks seen swarming around AndromedaApparent leftover building blocks of galaxy formation, neutral hydrogen clouds, are seen swarming around the Andromeda Galaxy by the GBT: a paper by Thilker & al. and an NRAO Press Release.A nice HST picture of Messier 64, the "Black Eye" galaxy: HST Release, APOD, Ast., BBC. Spitzer Space Telescope photographs a cosmic Valentine rose - a cluster of newborn stars herald their birth: CfA Press Release, Dsc., BBC, SC. The central image of a gravitationally lensed quasarhas finally been identified in radio observations of PMN J1632-0033: a paper by Winn & al. and a CfA Press Release.A galaxy with a possible redshift around 7 would be the most distant one found, breaking a record mentioned in Update # 251 story 2 sidebar 2: a paper by Kneib & al., HST, Caltech and ESA Releases, background, APOD, S&T, Ast., Dsc, BBC, CSM, Honolulu Adv., AFP, SC, ST, NZ, BdW; earlier Abell 2218 research. Distant quasars probe end of Cosmic Dark Ages: UA News. |
Giant X-ray flare in distant galaxyseen as evidence of a star being ripped apart by tidal forces next to a supermassive black hole: Science@NASA, NASA, Chandra, ESA (alt.) and MPG Press Releases, S&T, New Sci., BBC, FT, SC, ST, RP, NZ, BdW.More evidence for presence, properties of Dark Energyhas emerged from supernova observations with the HST - astronomers are now twice as confident than before that Einstein's cosmological constant is real, or at least dark energy does not appear to be changing fast enough (if at all) to cause an end to the universe anytime soon: HST and NASA Press Releases, SC, ST.CMBR problems caused by SZ effect? The microwave background may not be as primordial as one would like: paper by Myers & al., RAS Press Release [NASA], illustrations and coverage by Ast., PhysWeb and Economist. Search for the pentaquark gets strongest confirmation yet - an international team of physicists has confirmed the existence of pentaquarks by using a different approach: Renss. PR. Neutrino role in the Universe: Wash. Univ. PR. Momentum from empty space? NSU. ESA members invest big in saving Ariane 5The Member States of the European Space Agency have agreed to release the funds needed to put Ariane 5 back on track and actively prepare the development of future launchers: ESA Press Release, AFP, ST.EU selects finalists to operate Galileo system, a "shortlist" of three ventures that will proceed to the second phase of the competition to win the Galileo concession: Space Today. Apollo umbilical tower saved, doomed againNASA has delayed, then resumed plans to dispose of the hazardous remnants of a historic Apollo launch tower: Save the LUT! Press Release, CollectSpace and pages by the Space Restoration Society and Apollo Saturn Reference. Earlier: FT.Fire kills six at Indian space center - a solid rocket motor caught fire on Feb. 23, triggering an explosion: ISRO Press Release (earlier), Peop.Daily, BBC (earlier), SC, AFP (earlier, still earlier), ST, NZ.
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Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
