News – Page 209 – Astronomy Now

Did Earth receive its water from comets, or geologically from within?

21 December 2014 Astronomy Now

Was the Earth dry and inhospitable to life until icy comets pelted the planet and deposited water on the surface? Two researchers at Ohio State University believe that Earth was formed with water in its interior and propose a mechanism for bringing it to the surface.

Europe’s Venus Express mission is at its end

19 December 2014 Stephen Clark

The European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft has run out of fuel and will burn up in the atmosphere of Venus in January after a successful eight-year mission.

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft proves it can still find planets

19 December 2014 Astronomy Now

When the primary mission of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft ended in May 2013 due to a failure of its stabilisation system, a team of scientists and engineers developed an ingenious strategy to control the spacecraft. The resulting second mission, K2, has a newfound planet — HIP 116454b

Mars rover detects methane spike, organic molecules

17 December 2014 William Harwood

Carefully analyzing data collected by NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover, scientists discovered a sudden, unexpected spike in methane levels in the martian atmosphere over a two-month period one year ago.

Carnegie hosts Mercury crater-naming contest

16 December 2014 Astronomy Now

To celebrate MESSENGER’s highly successful ten-year mission, you’re invited to immortalise five famous artists, composers or writers by naming craters on Mercury in their honour — but hurry, the contest closes 15th January 2015!

Swarms of Pluto-size objects kick up dust around adolescent Sun-like star

14 December 2014 Astronomy Now

ALMA observations of the dusty protoplanetary disc surrounding a star known as HD 107146 provides evidence for an entire family of orbiting Pluto-size objects, a solar system in transition from early life to maturity where planets have finished forming.

Researchers detect possible signal from dark matter

13 December 2014 Astronomy Now

EPFL scientists have picked up an atypical photon emission in X-rays coming from space, and say it could be evidence for the existence of a particle of dark matter. If confirmed, it could open up new perspectives in cosmology.

New Horizons awake for Pluto encounter

11 December 2014 Stephen Clark

Speeding through the outer solar system after a nine-year trek from Earth, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is awake and preparing for an encounter next summer with Pluto.

NASA’s Curiosity rover finds clues to how water helped shape Martian landscape

9 December 2014 Astronomy Now

Observations by NASA’s Curiosity Rover indicate Mars’ Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years, challenging the notion that warm and wet conditions were transient, local, or only underground on the Red Planet.

Dunes on Saturn’s moon Titan need firm winds to move

8 December 2014 Astronomy Now

Titan is the only planetary moon known to have fields of wind-blown dunes on its surface. Experiments with the high pressure wind tunnel at Arizona State University’s Planetary Aeolian Laboratory provide key data for understanding dunes on Saturn’s largest moon.