The US military plans to boost the number of satellites it routinely monitors for the risk of a smash-up with orbiting debris. The move could prevent future accidents like the recent collision between a US communications satellite and a defunct Russian probe.
The US Air Force has catalogued more than 19,000 pieces of space debris larger than 10 centimetres across, General Robert Kehler, Commander of Air Force Space Command, told reporters on Tuesday at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
But despite the extensive catalogue, the military does not have the ability to calculate the risk this space junk poses to every operational satellite. "We keep that catalogue up to date, but we do not watch everything for collision purposes all the time," Kehler said.
Science & Technology
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser bay at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
Scientists working at the National Ignition Facility of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, have built the most powerful laser in the world, capable of simulating the energy force of a hydrogen bomb and the sun itself.
"The system already has produced 25 times more energy than any other laser system," said NIF Director Ed Moses.
© National Academy of Sciences
The reconstructed skull of a 530,000-year-old early human child shows evidence of a rare birth defect known as craniosynostosis, in which the skull segments close too early, interfering with brain development.
The reconstructed skull of a 530,000-year-old early human child shows evidence of a rare birth defect known as craniosynostosis, in which the skull segments close too early, interfering with brain development.
Many mammals are known to reject newborns with severe deformities. Scientists had therefore assumed that ancient humans behaved likewise.
But a new study shows that a 530,000-year-old fossil skull belonged to a child who lived to around the age of ten despite being born with a rare birth defect known as craniosynostosis, in which the skull segments close too early, interfering with brain development.
© Mark Richards
This man's genome has hacked. That was for work purposes. You may not be so lucky
This man's genome has hacked. That was for work purposes. You may not be so lucky
That's the disturbing finding of a New Scientist investigation, in which one of us - Michael Reilly - "hacked" the genome of the other - Peter Aldhous - armed with only a credit card, a private email account and a home address.
You might have thought that genome hacking requires specialist skills, and personal access to sophisticated equipment. But in recent years, some companies have started to offer personal genome scans to the public over the internet. Other firms routinely analyse genomes on behalf of scientists involved in human genetics research. In theory, both types of service are vulnerable to abuse by a genome hacker determined to submit someone else's DNA for covert analysis.
© ESO/A-M Lagrange et al.
The light from the star Beta Pictoris (which has been blocked out in this near-infrared image) is 1000 times brighter than the bluish-white dot left of centre, which may be a planet.
The light from the star Beta Pictoris (which has been blocked out in this near-infrared image) is 1000 times brighter than the bluish-white dot left of centre, which may be a planet.
The first sighting of another solar system was announced in 1992, but a system found more recently may have shown its presence a decade earlier, when a mysterious blip in a star's brightness was recorded. So says Alain Lecavelier des Etangs and Alfred Vidal-Madjar of the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris, France.
The suspected planet was identified in 2008 around the star Beta Pictoris by a team at Grenoble Observatory in France using images taken by the Very Large Telescope in Chile. The object's orbit was estimated to be about eight times the diameter of Earth's.
'Super-sized lions' roamed the British Isles as recently as 13,000 years ago, according to an Oxford University study looking at the fossilised remains of the giant creatures.
Previously, scientists had thought prehistoric big cats were more like jaguars or tigers.
However comparisons between the skulls of modern big cats and the fossilised remains of their ancestors revealed the animals found in the British Isles, Europe and North America as recently as 13,000 years ago were more like lions.
© Oxford University
Huge lions once roamed Britain alongside tigers and jaguars. By comparing their skulls, scientists revealed that British lions would have weighed up to 50 stone (317kg) ? the equivalent of a small car ? compared to African lions which weigh up to 39 stone
Huge lions once roamed Britain alongside tigers and jaguars. By comparing their skulls, scientists revealed that British lions would have weighed up to 50 stone (317kg) ? the equivalent of a small car ? compared to African lions which weigh up to 39 stone
Previously, scientists had thought prehistoric big cats were more like jaguars or tigers.
However comparisons between the skulls of modern big cats and the fossilised remains of their ancestors revealed the animals found in the British Isles, Europe and North America as recently as 13,000 years ago were more like lions.
The big bang theory's back. But this time the theory doesn't involve the cosmos, just a comet.
Some scientists hypothesize that relatively recently in our geological history a comet collided with Earth. And they're not talking about the collision 65 million years ago that did in the dinosaurs. They're talking about a collision 12,900 years ago, which did away with woolly mammoths, saber-tooth tigers and giant sloths, among some three dozen large mammals.
Some scientists hypothesize that relatively recently in our geological history a comet collided with Earth. And they're not talking about the collision 65 million years ago that did in the dinosaurs. They're talking about a collision 12,900 years ago, which did away with woolly mammoths, saber-tooth tigers and giant sloths, among some three dozen large mammals.
© Claude Borg of the Valletta Rehabilitation Project
Discovered in February 2009 in the capital of the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, this tunnel is thought to be part of a centuries-old underground water system built by the Knights of Malta.
Discovered in February 2009 in the capital of the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, this tunnel is thought to be part of a centuries-old underground water system built by the Knights of Malta.
Thousand-Year-Old Fighting Force
Also known as the Knights Hospitaller and the Order of St. John, the Knights of Malta, established in 1099, gained a formidable military reputation as enemies of Muslims during the Crusades, a series of Christian military campaigns that originally had the goal of capturing Jerusalem.
In 1530 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V offered the knights the island of Malta for the princely sum of one falcon a year. The Christian order, though vastly outnumbered by Ottoman Turks, triumphed in the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. The experience, though, inspired them to found the fortress city of Valletta on a high peninsula that was secure but lacking in natural water sources.
Washington - NASA gave visitors to the National Mall in Washington a peek at a full-size mock-up of the spacecraft designed to carry U.S. astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars one day.
The U.S. Navy-built Orion crew exploration vehicle will replace the space shuttle NASA plans to retire in 2010, and become the cornerstone of the agency's Constellation Program to explore the moon, Mars and beyond.
"We're just very proud to build this, do some testing and demonstrate to America that we're moving beyond the space shuttle onto another generation of spacecraft," said Don Pearson, project manager for the Post-Landing Orion Recovery Test or PORT.
The U.S. Navy-built Orion crew exploration vehicle will replace the space shuttle NASA plans to retire in 2010, and become the cornerstone of the agency's Constellation Program to explore the moon, Mars and beyond.
"We're just very proud to build this, do some testing and demonstrate to America that we're moving beyond the space shuttle onto another generation of spacecraft," said Don Pearson, project manager for the Post-Landing Orion Recovery Test or PORT.
Boston - Fraud on the Internet reported to U.S. authorities increased by 33 percent last year, rising for the first time in three years, and is surging this year as the recession deepens, federal authorities said on Monday.
Internet fraud losses reported in the United States reached a record high $264.6 million in 2008, according to a report released on Monday from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, run by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.
Online scams originating from across the globe -- mostly from the United States, Canada, Britain, Nigeria and China -- are gathering steam this year with a nearly 50 percent increase in complaints reported to U.S. authorities in March alone.
Internet fraud losses reported in the United States reached a record high $264.6 million in 2008, according to a report released on Monday from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, run by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.
Online scams originating from across the globe -- mostly from the United States, Canada, Britain, Nigeria and China -- are gathering steam this year with a nearly 50 percent increase in complaints reported to U.S. authorities in March alone.
