Pluto’s atmosphere is cold and hazy. Recent observations have shown it to be much colder than predicted theoretically, suggesting an unknown cooling mechanism. Atmospheric gas molecules, particularly water vapour, have been proposed as a coolant; however, because Pluto’s thermal structure is expected to be in radiative–conductive equilibrium, the required water …
ON NOVEMBER 6, 1993, a relatively rare celestial phenomenon enraptured Indian skywatchers. From many parts of the country, at 8.36 am, they witnessed a black spot -- the planet Mercury -- graze past the Sun. This phenomenon, known as the transit of Mercury, last occurred on November 13, 1986, and …
WITH LATUR so fresh in the mind, it is with a sense of trepidation that one picks up B V Raman's book. While scientists would obviously scoff at astrology, B V Raman argues convincingly that astrology has not been explored adequately as a valuable tool in anticipating weather and earthquakes. …
FOR CENTURIES, human behaviour has been governed by regulations. And, in step with technology advances, environmental problems have come to need more and more stringent regulations. But most of these problems are multinational in character and fall within the domain of international law and multilateral management. International Environmental Negotiation, edited …
BRITAIN is to spend L29.5 million over the next 10 years on an international project to enable astronomers to witness the birth of a planet. The project, Gemini, involves setting up two eight-metre telescopes that will detect both planets in the making as well as stars being formed in galactic …
IS THERE a tenth planet in our solar system? Astronomers who have observed Uranus and Neptune deviate from their calculated orbits, attribute such irregularities to the gravitational pull of an unknown planet, usually referred to as Planet X (Nature, Vol 363, No 6424). But Myles Standish of the Jet Propulsion …
ALL PLANETS are believed to possess hot interiors that periodic volcanic activity helps to cool. But now American geophysicists have found Venus to be the odd one out (Science, Vol 259, No 5100). Quite unlike its namesake -- the goddess Venus who was known for her profligacy -- the planet, …
WERE IT not for the Moon, the climate on Earth would be dramatically different, say French geophysicists who have studied the effect on climate of the Earth's obliquity. The term refers to the angle through which Earth's spin axis leans away from the perpendicular to its orbital plane. The obliquity …
EN ROUTE to the sun, the spacecraft Ulysses dropped in on planet Jupiter in February this year. Launched on October 6, 1990, by the space shuttle Discovery, Ulysses -- a joint venture of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency -- has sent home valuable information …
European Space Agency (ESA) officials are heaving a sigh of relief following a report from the US National Research Council that says probes landing on Mars need not be sterilised if they are not conducting extraterrestrial biological experiments (Nature, Vol 358 No 6389). ESA was worried that stringent planet protection …
