SPACEWhile many were not quite surprised to hear the European Space Agency (ESA) clenched the win for journal Physics World’s Breakthrough of the Year 2014 for its landing of the Rosetta mission’s Philae Lander on a speeding comet 511 million km away, most are also not aware that the list doesn’t just end there.
While there are many requisite features for a planet to be host to forms of life, even as simple as archaea species, the most important known feature is the existence of organic molecules from which they can be created. And though there are still many questions left unanswered about our red neighbor on the galactic block, Mars, researchers from NASA say that the Curiosity Rover Mission has successfully identified methane and other organics which may give their teams a better insight into the possible watery past of our solar system’s famed “Red Planet”.
While many were not quite surprised to hear the European Space Agency (ESA) clenched the win for journal Physics World’s Breakthrough of the Year 2014 for its landing of the Rosetta mission’s Philae Lander on a speeding comet 511 million km away, most are also not aware that the list doesn’t just end there.
For decades now, researchers have long believed that the ever-elusive dark matter has comprised roughly 80 percent of the entire universe’s mass. But in spite of advancing technology, taking astronomers past the moon to far off comets/planets and back, researchers have not yet been able to identify the existence of dark matter in our galaxy or any other, and have not yet been able to isolate the hypothetical invisible particles in Earth labs either. But in what appears to be a strange X-ray emission from nearby galactic clusters, two independent European research teams believe that they may have found the first true dark matter known to man—and it’s not too far away either.
It’s no big surprise that this year when reporters and editors of the journal Physics World came together to award the top-10 revolutionary breakthroughs of the year, that the team would have many breakthroughs to consider for the year of 2014. And though perhaps not necessarily the most technically successful mission this year, on account of the vast distances between Earth and itself as well as it bouncy landing, the team narrowed down the prospective list down to one to name the November 12, 2014 touchdown of the Philae Lander to be the most historic moment of the year.
Early images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko described the topography of the space rock, and gave researchers a unique view of the rocky surface. But what ESA astronomers on the Rosetta space team were not expecting was that early black & white images may also be conveying the comet’s truer colors.
While the ever elusive “dark matter” was first proposed by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in the early 1930s, a team of European scientists this week believe that they may have detected the first ever evidence of dark matter in mysterious photo emissions of the X-ray spectra, emitting from the Andromeda galaxy, the Draco dwarf galaxy, and other galactic clusters far outside our own solar system.
While some parts of the nation are fighting Winter storms of snow and sleet, eyes this week are o water of the liquid variety. And more specifically, researchers and reporters are looking towards the molecule’s importance in developing life, as well as its origins story too. News this week of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta Mission, revealed a recently published study reporting that the sustenance of our Earth and of all life, water, may in fact have not originated on comets from the Kuiper Belt as once believed. And what’s more, now that researchers have debunked false origin stories of the miracle molecule, they’re now beginning to question whether water alone can make a planet habitable for life, or if there are other mitigating conditions as well.
After an arduous ten year journey throughout some tough terrain of space, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission set records this past summer for being the first spacecraft to orbit a comet in mid-flight. And while many expected the mission to reveal a bit more insight into the behavior and composition of comets from the outer edges of our solar system, no one expected to learn exactly how Earth came to be so unique and the perfect host to life, only three planets away from our sun.
While researchers have long known of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and its sandy surface, new research presented this week in two separate studies published in the journal Nature reveals that the 300 foot sand dunes on the moon’s surface may have originated from very different circumstances than those on Earth. Titan, which is much like the Earth, is one of the most intriguing moons our solar system has come to offer. But while it is the only other celestial body that has standing reservoirs of liquid on its surface and fields of dunes like those of the Sahara desert, astronomers are now finding that the events leading to Titan’s surface are far unlike what happened here on Earth.
A mosaic of a series of images captured by Rosetta's OSIRIS camera over a 30 minute period shows the European Space Agency's lander Philae descending towards the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko before touchdown November 12, 2014.
Ever imagine that the red planet’s surface may once have had a different appearance? Well while researchers at NASA have had rovers scoping out Mars’ surface for years, new information received from NASA’s Curiosity Rover suggests that the planet’s craters may once have served a different purpose, and that the arid red planet may once have had long-lasting above ground lakes. Though new evidence challenges the popular theory that water on the planet only existed in the liquid form underground in aquifers, evidence of above ground lakes would undoubtedly mean that the planet was much more likely to sustain life some time ago.
An unmanned Antares rocket is seen exploding seconds after lift off from a commercial launch pad in this still image from video shot by Matthew Travis of Zero-G News from the press area at Wallops Island, Virginia October 28, 2014.
It was a message from 2.9 billion miles away, yet NASA researchers heard it loud and clear. Early this Saturday, Dec. 6, researchers from NASA confirmed that the New Horizons Orbiter spacecraft had awakened from its hibernation state, and was ready begin the climax of its nine-year trip to Pluto.