[Independent, The; London (UK)]

THE HUNT for life in the Universe has shifted into a higher gear - with the backing of a powerful alliance of scientists of all kinds that includes astronomers, geologists, chemists, biologists and experts in intelligence. This was a central message from a conference on Bioastronomy, held in Iceland this month.

A few years ago, such conferences were very much the province of the Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) community. They are the folks who are "listening out" for a radio signal from an alien intelligence. Although they have widened the search by now looking for signals conveyed by light or other radiations, the Seti researchers have still - after 40 years - failed to pick up that phone call from ET.

The rest of the story can be find here.

Acceleron, anyone?
Dark energy may arise from the interaction of neutrinos and a hypothetical particle.
Francis Reddy
July 27, 2004

If there is a phantom in physics, then the neutrino is it. The nuclear fires of the stars form these subatomic particles by the trillions every second, yet neutrinos stream unperturbed through the cosmos at nearly the speed of light, their passage through planets and people almost entirely unnoticed.

During the past decade, particle physicists have devised experiments that reveal the neutrino is a bit more substantial than previously thought. Over the same period, astronomers have found that the expansion of the universe is accelerating and that the bulk of energy in the cosmos is "dark energy" of an undetermined nature. Could all these things be linked?

The rest of the story can be read here.

Moon rock odyssey

July 29, 2004

A meteorite found in Oman in 2002 can be traced back to the Imbrium basin and the crater Lalande on the lunar nearside. The meteorite's history may compel scientists to revise the Moon's early chronology.
Robert Burnham

A fist-size meteorite named Sayh al Uhaymir 169 experienced three lunar impacts while on the Moon before a fourth ejected it and sent it earthward, says a team of planetary scientists who studied the meteorite's isotope chemistry. While the meteorite's lunar provenance has been known since it was found in early 2002, both its link to a specific crater and the history of its wanderings are new.

For the rest of the story yu can go here.

Solar system may be exception not rule

14:40 04 August 04

NewScientist.com news service

Although many more planets are being discovered outside the solar system, none of them looks anything like our own planets. And it is possible that they formed in a completely different way, making our planetary system rather unique.

In the traditional model of planet formation, the dust in a disc of gas around a star gradually clumps together into rocks, which eventually merge to make planetary cores. The cores then accumulate gaseous atmospheres. In this model, gas giants such as Jupiter form in the relatively cooler outskirts of the system.

But this model does not fully explain the formation of the 110 or so extrasolar planets that have been discovered in the past decade. Typically, these planets are much heavier than Jupiter, and most are so-called "hot Jupiters" that orbit closer to their star than does the Earth, or even Mercury.

The rest of the article can be find here.

Life on Mars Likely, Scientist Claims

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET
03 August 2004


DENVER, COLORADO – Those twin robots hard at work on Mars have transmitted teasing views that reinforce the prospect that microbial life may exist on the red planet.

Results from NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers are being looked over by a legion of planetary experts, including a scientist who remains steadfast that his experiment in 1976 proved the presence of active microbial life in the topsoil of Mars.

You can read the full article here.

Opportunity Rover Dining on Diamonds

When scientists found their second Mars' rover had landed inside a crater, they expressed surprise. When evidence pointed to that crater once having been soaked in water, they had accomplished a primary mission goal. Months later, the stream of images from Opportunity continue to show these mysterious martian blueberries.

Astrobiology Magazine -- As Opportunity creeps down the slopes of Endurance Crater, it stops to do a grind. When the rover took on a rock called 'Diamond Jenness', it found more of what has fascinated scientists since January: the mystery of martian blueberries.


On February 11, principal investigator Steve Squyres revealed his surprise in his mission journal: "... we saw some very strange things... we see these strange round objects we're calling 'spherules' embedded in the outcrop, like blueberries in a muffin. The outcrop erodes away as it gets sandblasted, and the spherules (which seem to resist erosion better than the rest of the outcrop does) fall out and roll down the hill. Weird."

The rest of the story can be find here.

NASA Scientist Sees Possible Mat of Martian Microbes

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 09 August 2004
04:00 AM ET


DENVER, COLORADO -- A future astronaut traipsing across the landing sites of the Mars Exploration Rovers – Spirit and Opportunity – might be squishing into a welcome mat of microbes, according to one NASA scientist.

While the twin robots push ahead in scouring their real estate locations at Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum, they leave behind a tantalizing trail of issues that need to be sorted out.

One big unknown: Did life ever take root on Mars? And if so, is that planet home to living organisms today? So far, the life-on-Mars card has not played out. Rover scientists have seen nothing they regard as needing a biological explanation.

The full story can be read here.

SHARPEST IMAGE EVER OBTAINED OF A CIRCUMSTELLAR DISK REVEALS SIGNS OF YOUNG PLANETS

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii (August 12, 2004)
The sharpest image ever taken of a dust disk around another star has revealed structures in the disk which are signs of unseen planets.

Dr. Michael Liu, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, has acquired high resolution images of the nearby star AU Microscopii (AU Mic) using the Keck II Telescope, the world's largest infrared telescope. At a distance of only 33 light years, AU Mic is the nearest star possessing a visible disk of dust. Such disks are believed to be the birthplaces of planets.

"We cannot yet directly image young planets around AU Mic, but they cannot completely hide from us either. They reveal themselves through their gravitational influence, forming patterns in the sea of dust grains orbiting the star," said Dr. Liu.

The results will be published in the August 12th online Science Express and in the September print edition of Science.

A dust disk ordinarily would appear relatively featureless and symmetric, because any disturbances would be smoothed out as the material orbits the star. However, this is not observed in the case of AU Mic. Instead, Dr. Liu has found its disk is uneven and possesses clumps. These structures arise and are maintained due to the gravitational influence of unseen planetary companions.

The rest of the story can be read here.

From SpaceDaily

Meteorites Supplied Earth Life With Phosphorus

by Lori Stiles

Tucson AZ (SPX) Aug 25, 2004
University of Arizona scientists have discovered that meteorites, particularly iron meteorites, may have been critical to the evolution of life on Earth.
Their research shows that meteorites easily could have provided more phosphorus than naturally occurs on Earth - enough phosphorus to give rise to biomolecules which eventually assembled into living, replicating organisms.

Phosphorus is central to life. It forms the backbone of DNA and RNA because it connects these molecules' genetic bases into long chains.

It is vital to metabolism because it is linked with life's fundamental fuel, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy that powers growth and movement. And phosphorus is part of living architecture – it is in the phospholipids that make up cell walls and in the bones of vertebrates.

"In terms of mass, phosphorus is the fifth most important biologic element, after carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen," said Matthew A. Pasek, a doctoral candidate in UA's planetary sciences department and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

The full story can be read here.

ESO Press Release 22/04
25 August 2004
For immediate release
Fourteen Times the Earth
ESO HARPS Instrument Discovers Smallest Ever Extra-Solar Planet

The HARPS collimator mirror


Summary

A European team of astronomers has discovered the lightest known planet orbiting a star other than the sun (an "exoplanet").

The new exoplanet orbits the bright star mu Arae located in the southern constellation of the Altar. It is the second planet discovered around this star and completes a full revolution in 9.5 days.

With a mass of only 14 times the mass of the Earth, the new planet lies at the threshold of the largest possible rocky planets, making it a possible super Earth-like object. Uranus, the smallest of the giant planets of the Solar System has a similar mass. However Uranus and the new exoplanet differ so much by their distance from the host star that their formation and structure are likely to be very different.

This discovery was made possible by the unprecedented accuracy of the HARPS spectrograph on ESO's 3.6-m telescope at La Silla, which allows radial velocities to be measured with a precision better than 1 m/s. It is another clear demonstration of the European leadership in the field of exoplanet research.

The full story can be read here.

ESO Press Release 21/04
24 August 2004
For immediate release
SINFONI Opens with Upbeat Chords
First Observations with New VLT Instrument Hold Great Promise



The following thirteen nights served to evaluate the performance of the new instrument and to explore its capabilities by test observations on a selection of exciting astronomical targets. They included the Galactic Centre region, already imaged with the NACO AO-instrument on the same telescope. Unprecedented high-angular resolution spectra and images were obtained of stars in the immediate vicinity of the massive central black hole. During the night of July 15 - 16, SINFONI recorded a flare from this black hole in great detail.

Other interesting objects observed during this period include galaxies with active nuclei (e.g., the Circinus Galaxy and NGC 7469), a merging galaxy system (NGC 6240) and a young starforming galaxy pair at redshift 2 (BX 404/405).

These first results were greeted with enthusiasm by the team of astronomers and engineers [2] from the consortium of German and Dutch Institutes and ESO who have worked on the development of SINFONI for nearly 7 years.

The full article is here.

From Sky and Telescope

Sedna's Origin Solved?
By Alan M. MacRobert
August 24, 2004

Last year astronomers discovered what’s probably the biggest body found in the solar system since Pluto in 1930, and they didn’t know what to make of it. Sedna, as 2003 VB12 was informally named, is about half the size of the Moon and ranges from 75 to 985 astronomical units from the Sun in a highly elliptical orbit. Neptune, by comparison, is 30 a.u. from the Sun, Pluto averages 40 a.u., and the icy objects populating the Kuiper Belt drop off sharply after 55. (Early suggestions that Sedna might have a moon of its own proved false.)

So how did Sedna get way out there? It couldn’t have formed in place; the Sun’s protoplanetary disk was too sparse that far out. Now Alessandro Morbidelli (Côte d’Azur Observatory) and Harold F. Levison (Southwest Research Institute) have analyzed various theories in detail. In a paper to appear in the November Astronomical Journal, they rule out the possibility that Sedna could have been worked into its present orbit by gravitational interactions if Neptune were once in a more eccentric orbit, or by the past existence of massive planets in the Kuiper Belt, or by the gravitation of a massive belt itself.

The full story can be find here.

A new discovered comet could brighten to naked-eye visibility in early January

From Sky and Telescope

A New Comet Machholz
By Roger W. Sinnott
August 29, 2004

Veteran observer Donald E. Machholz of Colfax, California, has discovered a telescopic comet in the constellation Eridanus. IAU Circular 8394 announced the find on August 27th. When discovered earlier that day, the comet was drifting slowly southeastward toward Lepus.
From 38 observations over a four-day period, Brian G. Marsden (Minor Planet Center) has calculated a preliminary orbit for this new interloper, officially designated C/2004 Q2. The comet is headed toward the Sun, and over the next two months it will migrate as far south as declination –30°.

But then its motion across the sky will turn sharply northward, making the comet well positioned for Northern Hemisphere observers by year's end. Marsden's orbit suggests that the comet could brighten to naked-eye visibility in early January — just as it glides right by the Pleiades. Comet Machholz should reach perihelion on January 24th, when it will be 1.2 astronomical units (180 million kilometers) from the Sun but less than half that distance from Earth.

See the full story here.

Recent comet magnitudes can be found here.

An amateur astronomer in Belgium has detected an extrasolar planet crossing the disk of its parent star.

From Sky and Telescope
Amateur Detects Exoplanet Transit
By Robert Naeye
September 2, 2004

On August 24th, a team of professional astronomers announced the discovery of TrES-1, an extrasolar planet that transits its host star. Just 8 days later, an amateur astronomer from Landen, Belgium detected a transit of the same planet. The discovery highlights the growing capabilities of amateur astronomers and proves that amateur astronomers can, in principle, discover an exoplanet by the transit method.

Read the full story here.

SCIENTISTS GAIN GLIMPSE OF BIZARRE MATTER IN A NEUTRON STAR

From Goddard Space Flight Center
September 8, 2004 - (date of web publication)

Scientists have obtained their best measurement yet of the size and contents of a neutron star, an ultra-dense object containing the strangest and rarest matter in the Universe.
......
They said their best estimate of the radius of a neutron star is 7 miles (11.5 kilometers), plus or minus a stroll around the French Quarter. The mass appears to be 1.75 times that of the Sun, more massive than some theories predict.

The full story is here.

Space probes feel cosmic tug of bizarre forces

From The Observer
Sunday September 12, 2004

Something strange is tugging at America's oldest spacecraft. As the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes head towards distant stars, scientists have discovered that the craft - launched more than 30 years ago - appear to be in the grip of a mysterious force that is holding them back as they sweep out of the solar system.
Some researchers say unseen 'dark matter' may permeate the universe and that this is affecting the Pioneers' passage. Others say flaws in our understanding of the laws of gravity best explain the crafts' wayward behaviour.

As a result, scientists are to press a European Space Agency (Esa) meeting, called Cosmic Visions, in Paris this week for backing for a mission that would follow the Pioneers and pinpoint the cause of their erratic movements.

The full story is here.

Huygens Test Successful

September 17, 2004
(Source: European Space Agency)

ESA's Huygens probe, now orbiting Saturn on board the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft, is in good health and successfully passed its fifteenth "In-Flight Checkout" on 14 September 2004.

This in-flight checkout procedure was the last but one planned before separation of the Huygens probe from Cassini in December this year, and it included some specific activities that were intended to prepare for the separation. The main difference in this procedure from previous checkouts was that there was a test of the Master Timer Unit (MTU).

For the full story please go here.

S@h Berkeley's Staff Friends Club m7 ©

A new approach to improve the quality of optical telescopes.

LASER VISION GIVES NEW EYES TO KECK TELESCOPE.

MAUNA KEA (Sept. 17, 2004)

The Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system at the W. M. Keck Observatory is exceeding performance expectations and is poised to revolutionize many fields of astronomy. The new guide star system, the only one of its kind on a very large telescope, allows astronomers to use adaptive optics to study astronomical objects with unprecedented resolution anywhere in the night sky. The system also opens the door to wide-field imaging with adaptive optics.

“We are just thunderstruck with this new capability,” said Dr. Frederic Chaffee, director of the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. “Laser guide stars on large telescopes are a remarkable breakthrough for ground-based astronomy and we look forward to providing this astonishing capability to Keck astronomers as quickly as possible.”

The dramatic boost in telescope performance is due to a new laser system that allows adaptive optics (AO) to make precise atmospheric corrections to a scientific target. Before the laser guide star (LGS) system, Keck astronomers had to rely on the availability of a relatively bright, naturally-occurring star to measure and correct for atmospheric distortions. However, such relatively bright stars are available in only about one percent of the sky. The new astronomical laser removes these limitations and gives almost full access to the sky for study with adaptive optics.

The full story is here.

Thanks Mr. Van Driessche

Greetings from the Belgian Clan.