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News | Archive (August 2007) [Page 11]
Phoenix heads for polar region of Mars
— 4 Aug 2007 | AstronomyNASA's Phoenix Mars Mission blasted off Saturday, aiming for a 25 May 2008, arrival at the Red Planet and a close-up examination of the surface of the northern polar region. Perched atop a Delta II rocket, the spacecraft left Cape Canaveral Air Force Base at 5:26 AM Eastern Time into the predawn sky above Florida's Atlantic coast…
Possible origin of Saturn's mysterious G ring
— 3 Aug 2007 | AstronomyWith data from the Cassini spacecraft, an international team of scientists may have identified the source of one of Saturn's more mysterious rings. The enigmatic G ring is likely produced by relatively large, icy particles that reside within a bright arc on the ring's inner edge. The particles are confined within the arc by gravitational effects from Saturn's moon Mimas. Micrometeoroids, tiny meteoroids or particles of dust that pervade space, collide with the icy particles, releasing smaller, dust-sized particles that brighten the arc. Plasma, an extremely variable gas made up of charged particles but electrically neutral, pervades the giant planet's magnetic field. It sweeps through this arc continuously, dragging out the fine particles, which create the G ring…
Orangutan charades
— 2 Aug 2007 | BiologyOrangutans communicate as if they were playing charades, according to University of St Andrews research. When using gestures to get their points across, orangutans rely on the same basic strategy that humans follow when playing the popular game and intentionally modify or repeat hand (or other) signals based on the success or failure of their first attempt. The findings are published in today's edition of Current Biology…
Planet orbiting a giant red star discovered with Hobby-Eberly Telescope
— 2 Aug 2007 | AstronomyA planet orbiting a giant red star has been discovered by an astronomy team led by Penn State's Alex Wolszczan, who in 1992 discovered the first planets ever found outside our solar system. The new discovery is helping astronomers to understand what will happen to the planets in our solar system when our Sun becomes a red-giant star, expanding so much that its surface will reach as far as Earth's orbit. The star is 2 times more massive and 10 times larger than the Sun. The new planet circles the giant star every 360 days and is located about 300 light years from Earth, in the constellation Perseus…
Coelacanth fossil sheds light on fin-to-limb evolution
— 1 Aug 2007 | Geology and palaeontologyA 400 million-year-old fossil of a coelacanth fin, the first finding of its kind, fills a shrinking evolutionary gap between fins and limbs. University of Chicago scientists describe the finding in a paper highlighted on the cover of the July/August 2007 issue of Evolution and Development. The fossil shows that the ancestral pattern of lobed fins closely resembles the pattern in the fins of primitive living ray-finned fishes, according to the scientists…
Chickadee, nuthatch presence in conifers increases tree growth
— 1 Aug 2007 | EnvironmentChickadees, nuthatches and warblers foraging their way through forests have been shown to spur the growth of pine trees in the West by as much as one-third, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. The study showed birds removed various species of beetles, caterpillars, ants and aphids from tree branches, increasing the vigour of the trees, said study author Kailen Mooney. Mooney, who conducted the study as part of his doctoral research in CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department, said it is the first study to demonstrate that birds can affect the growth of conifers…
Circumstellar space: Where chemistry happens for the very first time
— 1 Aug 2007 | AstronomyPicture a cool place, teeming with a multitude of hot bodies twirling about in rapidly changing formations of singles and couples, partners and groups, constantly dissolving and reforming. If you were thinking of the dance floor in a modern night club, think again. It's a description of the shells around dying stars, the place where newly formed elements make compounds and life takes off, said Katharina Lodders, PhD, research associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St Louis…
Hubble survey reveals the formation of the first massive galaxies
Astronomers discover youngest and lowest mass dwarfs