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 …
two new findings by astronomers have raised hopes of discovering life elsewhere in the Universe. The first is the discovery of water vapour around stars, planets and their satellites by the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory, which orbits the Earth. The second is a snapshot taken by us National …
the Earth is dragging space and time around itself as it rotates. For the first time there is evidence of a phenomenon predicted 80 years ago on the basis of Einstein's theory of general relativity. This theory predicts that huge objects, in this case a planet, drag space-time around themselves …
The next US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission to Mars will boast of a microphone on board to record the sounds of the Red Planet. These sounds, recorded by the microphone on the Mars Polar Landau, which is due to touch down on the planet in 1999, will …
The Moon has never had it so good. Looked at longingly by both lovers and werewolves for centuries and composed of the stuff which lends wings to poetry, today the Moon is full of a precious resource which is attracting the attention of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( …
After giving a detailed survey of our Universe, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), has now provided astronomers with proofs of a newborn planet in the dust cloud surrounding a nearby star. The disk, encircling Beta Pictoris (a star 60 light years away from us), is warped, suggesting planet birth. The …
Surf's up There are many obvious parallels between the Internet and the oceans. You can surf on both, a lot of people are scared by both, and the deeper you go into them the more horrible are the things that you might dredge up. But all that aside, there is …
for those who had been thirsting for news on the moon, this certainly is exciting. The cold, dark side of the moon has something that its bright side does not
researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa) say that water flowed on Mars for a million years. The present findings support the theory that life existed on Mars. According to Wesley Huntress, nasa 's associate administrator for space science, recent photographs from the Mars Global Surveyor orbiting Mars …
no more controversies. It looks like there really is a planet orbiting the star 51 Pegasi. This new development has discredited all previous theories suggesting that the planet was merely a mirage. Three years ago, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the Geneva Observatory reported that the star 51 Pegasi …
the launch of Cassini, which will visit Saturn, is another major event in space exploration in this decade. The probe, part of a project that began almost 13 years ago, took off on October 13, 1997, and will reach Saturn in about seven years. Its mission: getting detailed information about …
LOOKING, at the images clicked by spacecraft Galileo's closest flyby of Europa on February 20, 1997, scientists say they are confident that the Jovian moon has a thin ice crust covering either liquid water or slush. The tantalising new images put forward the possibility that the slushy concoction of chemicals …
EXTRATERRESTRIAL life has been speculated about by many scientists for long. Some efforts like the search for extraterrestrial intelligence have been going on for some time now, though most of the research has been at the theoretical level. With the discovery of giant planets and other solar systems (planets orbiting …
ROBOTS do their specific tasks quite well, but they are no good when confronted the new tasks. Similarly, they find it with difficult to deal with changes in terrain or working conditions. Engineers all around the world find it easier to design one robot for one job (Spectrum, No 256, …
Two physicists claim that dark matter making up as much as 99 per cent of the universe, may have changed the course of life on earth. Samar Abbas and Asfar Abbas of the Institute of Physics at Utkal University in Bhubaneswar (Orissa), suggest that the earth might haw encountered dense …
John Matese and Daniel Whitmire of the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, in a recent paper say that tide-like variations in the pull exerted on the orbit of the solar system by the rest of the galaxy causes comets to pummel Earth once every 30 million years. Most comets orbit …
the possibility of life on Mars has been given a jolt by two new analyses, one published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta and the other accepted for publication by the same journal. This could well end claims made by nasa scientist David McKay and his team in August 1996, of …
RECENTLY, two groups of researchers published their findings on comet Hyakutake. They have detected certain compounds in the comet which could provide us with valuable information about the composition of the nebula from which our Sun and the planets emerged. Comets are also believed to have been a source of …
