Space

Scientists Discover Rich Medical Drug Resource in Deep Ocean Sediments

Although the oceans cover 70 percent of the planet’s surface, much of their biomedical potential has gone largely unexplored. Until now. A group of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, have for the first time shown that sediments in the deep ocean are a significant biomedical resource for microbes that produce antibiotic molecules. In a series of two papers, a group led by William Fenical, director of the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine (CMBB) at Scripps Institution, has reported the discovery of a novel group of bacteria found to produce molecules with potential in the treatment of infectious diseases and cancer.

Magnetic ‘slinky effect’ may power aurora

The spectacular aurora borealis displays that light up the northern nights could be powered by a gigantic “slinky” effect in Earth’s magnetic field lines, according to research performed at the University of Minnesota. Earth’s magnetic field resemble a slinky in that when “wiggled,” it undulates in waves that travel down the field lines at speeds up to 25 million miles per hour. These waves can pass energy to electrons, accelerating them along the magnetic field lines toward Earth. When the electrons hit atoms in the atmosphere, the atoms become excited and produce the colors of the aurora. Using electric and magnetic field data and images from NASA’s POLAR satellite, the researchers showed that energy from such waves is sufficient to power auroras and that statistically, the waves occur in the same locations as auroras–in a ring around the poles. The work will be published in the Jan. 17 issue of Science.

Isolated star-forming cloud discovered in intracluster space

At a distance of some 50 million light-years, the Virgo Cluster is the nearest galaxy cluster. It is located in the zodiacal constellation of the same name (The Virgin) and is a large and dense assembly of hundreds of galaxies. The “intracluster” space between the Virgo galaxies is permeated by hot X-ray emitting gas and, as has become clear recently, by a sparse “intracluster population of stars”. So far, stars have been observed to form in the luminous parts of galaxies. The most massive young stars are often visible indirectly by the strong emission from surrounding cocoons of hot gas, which is heated by the intense radiation from the embedded stars. New observations by the Japanese 8-m Subaru telescope and the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) have now shown that massive stars can also form in isolation, far from the luminous parts of galaxies.

NASA, universities to launch nanoelectronics institute

In an effort to help create spacecraft that can think, NASA and a group of six colleges led by Purdue University today are meeting in West Lafayette, Ind., to officially launch the NASA Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing. Institute scientists and engineers will collaborate to work on methods to make electronics measured in nanometers — much smaller than today’s components. A nanometer is roughly 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Purdue scientists will work with researchers at Northwestern, Cornell and Yale universities, the University of Florida and the University of California at San Diego.

‘Moss in space’ project to test how plants grow ‘up’

An experiment scheduled for todays Space Shuttle Columbia mission may provide clues about just how plant growth is guided by gravity. The study, an extension of work from a previous shuttle mission in 1997, should test whether the absence of gravity changes how simple plants grow. The experiment will use common roof moss (Ceratodon purpureus), a plant that uses gravity to determine the direction that single cells grow.

NASA tests environmentally friendly rocket fuel

NASA has successfully tested an alternative rocket fuel that may increase operational safety and reduce costs over current solid fuels. The new paraffin-based fuel could eventually be used in Space Shuttle booster rockets. Two years of collaboration between Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., and NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., have led to the development of a non-toxic, easily handled fuel made from a substance similar to what is used in common candles. The by-products of combustion of the new fuel are carbon dioxide and water; unlike conventional rocket fuel that produces aluminum oxide and acidic gasses, such as hydrogen chloride.

‘The end of the world’ has already begun, scientists say

In its 4.5 billion years, Earth has evolved from its hot, violent birth to the celebrated watery blue planet that stands out in pictures from space. But in a new book, two noted astrobiologists say the planet already has begun the long process of devolving into a burned-out cinder, eventually to be swallowed by the sun.

Discovery of nearest known brown dwarf

A team of European astronomers has discovered a Brown Dwarf object (a ‘failed’ star) less than 12 light-years from the Sun. It is the nearest yet known. Now designated Epsilon Indi B, it is a companion to a well-known bright star in the southern sky, Epsilon Indi, previously thought to be single. The binary system is one of the twenty nearest stellar systems to the Sun. The brown dwarf was discovered from the comparatively rapid motion across the sky which it shares with its brighter companion : the pair move a full lunar diameter in less than 400 years. It was first identified using digitised archival photographic plates from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys and confirmed using data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey. Follow-up observations with the near-infrared sensitive SOFI instrument on the ESO 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the La Silla Observatory confirmed its nature and has allowed measurements of its physical properties.

Plasma probe scientists ready for Rosetta blast-off

Scientists who built and will control the instruments to investigate plasma changes around a comet describe their contribution to the ten year long mission at a pre-launch press briefing in London today. While the actual launch date for the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission has yet to be confirmed, the scientists, engineers and technicians behind the plasma-detecting instruments on board the spacecraft are all ready to begin the journey to comet Wirtanen they hope will return a rich scientific bounty.

Is there a ‘Planet X’?

Forget about X-ray vision and gamma ray defence beams. Planet X isn’t a superhero home world but a hypothetical 10th planet in our solar system. “I think this question tends to be intriguing because of X – the unknown,” says astronomer John Percy. “But right now, we just don’t know if there is another planet lurking on the edges of the solar system.” Percy says there are thousands of small objects orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune and Pluto. Called Kuiper Belt Objects, astronomers do not consider these to be planets because of their relatively small size – the largest, Quaoar, is half the size of Pluto. They are icy and disintegrate if diverted by another cosmic body into an orbit closer to the Sun. If this occurs, he adds, they appear to us as comets.

Surprising Image Revises Understanding of Dwarf Galaxies

An intensive study of a neighboring dwarf galaxy has surprised astronomers by showing that most of its molecular gas — the raw material for new stars — is scattered among clumps in the galaxy’s outskirts, not near its center as they expected. “This tells us that the galaxies we call dwarf irregulars are even more irregular than we thought,” said Fabian Walter, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Socorro, NM. “Our new work also shows that these galaxies probably are useful ‘laboratories’ for studying how stars were formed when the Universe was young,” Walter added.

Robotic telescope catches early afterglow of gamma-ray burst

A team of California astronomers announced today that its robotic telescope has captured one of the earliest images ever of the visible afterglow of a gamma-ray burst. The telescope started its exposures 108 seconds after the burst was detected by the HETE-2 satellite and continued for more than 2.5 hours, until brightening of the dawn sky halted the observations. The unprecedented record of the fading glow, captured Dec. 11, will help theorists as they puzzle out the physics of these bizarre cataclysmic events, which are heralded by a brief burst of energetic gamma rays and X-rays emitted billions of years ago and followed by a fading optical light.

Three Distant Quasars Found at Edge of the Universe

Astronomers have discovered three of the oldest, most distant quasars yet found — quasars close to the Big Bang that began the universe. Xiaohui Fan of the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., will present the results at the American Astronomical Society’s meeting in Seattle. Fan, leader of the team that discovered the objects, explained that these distant quasars — compact but luminous objects thought to be powered by super-massive black holes — reach back to a time when the universe was just 800 million years old. The highest redshift quasar is roughly 13 billion light years away and was discovered recently in the constellation Ursa Major.

Zooming-in on star formation in the Orion Nebula

A team of astronomers is using one of the most advanced ground-based telescopes in the world to “zoom-in” on protostars in the Orion Nebula, revealing in unprecedented detail a variety of phenomena associated with star and planet formation in the presence of extremely massive, luminous stars. These phenomena include high-velocity jets of gas launched from the protostars themselves; evaporation flows driven by the intense radiation of nearby massive stars; and colliding winds that form thin, filamentary sheets of gas.