One of the strangest moons in our solar system is Hyperion, a Saturnian satellite so pockmarked by deep craters that it looks like a giant, rotating bath sponge adrift in space.
New image analyses suggest the moon's odd appearance is the result of a highly porous surface that preserves craters, allowing them to remain nearly as pristine as the day they were created.
This view of Hyperion, captured during the Cassini spacecraft's flyby in September 2005, reveals details of the moon's spongy surface. The picture is a combination of images taken using infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters.
Comment: This is just the latest in a long line of evidence that there is far more loose material floating around our solar system than previously expected. Funny how it is never expressed in those terms.
Jamie Beatson The Scotsman Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:37 UTC
Archaeologists working on a remote Scottish island have discovered an ancient stone ceremonial enclosure that is perfectly aligned to the winter and summer solstices.
The find was made by members of the Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society (Bacas) working on the island of Foula.
Although the discrepancy is not large, it is significant: Geodesists from the University of Bonn have remeasured the size of the Earth in a long lasting international cooperation project. The blue planet is accordingly some millimeters smaller than up to now assumed. The results are important, for example, to be able to demonstrate a climate contingent rise in sea level. The results have now appeared in the renowned Journal of Geodesy.
The system of measurement used by the Bonn Geodesists is invisible. It consists of radiowaves that are transmitted into space from punctiform sources, the so-called Quasars. A network of more than 70 radio telescopes worldwide receives these waves. Because the gaging stations are so far apart from each other, the radio signals are received with a slight time-lag. ,From this difference we can measure the distance betwen the radio telescopes - and to the preciseness of two millimeters per 1,000 kilometers," explained Dr. Axel Nothnagel, reasearch group leader for the Geodesy Institute of the University of Bonn.
Ice cores drilled from southern Greenland have revealed the first evidence of a surprisingly lush forest that existed in the region within the past million years. The findings from an international study published today in the journal Science suggest that the southern Greenland ice sheet may be much more stable against rising temperatures than previously thought.
Researchers analysed ice cores from a number of locations in Greenland, including Dye 3 in the south of the country. From the base of the 2km deep Dye 3 core, they were able to extract what they believe is likely to be the oldest authenticated DNA obtained to date.
By analysing these DNA samples, the researchers identified a surprising variety of plant and insect life, including species of trees such as alder, spruce, pine and members of the yew family, as well as invertebrates related to beetles, flies, spiders, butterflies and moths. The researchers believe that the samples date back to between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago.
"We have shown for the first time that southern Greenland, which is currently hidden under more than 2km of ice, was once very different to the Greenland we see today," explains Professor Eske Willerslev, a Wellcome Trust Bioarchaeology Fellow from the University of Copenhagen, who led the study."Back then, it was inhabited by a diverse array of conifer trees and insects."
Villagers in central China dug up a ton of dinosaur bones and boiled them in soup or ground them into powder for traditional medicine, believing they were from flying dragons and had healing powers.
Until last year, the fossils were being sold in Henan province as "dragon bones" at about 2 yuan, or about 25 cents, per pound, scientist Dong Zhiming told the Associated Press yesterday.
Mr. Dong, a professor with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said when the villagers found out the bones were from dinosaurs they donated 440 pounds to him and his colleagues for research.
Investigations of a buried layer at sites from California to Belgium reveal materials that include metallic microspherules, carbon spherules, nanodiamonds, fullerenes, charcoal, and soot. The layer's composition may indicate that a massive body, possibly a comet, exploded in the atmosphere over the Laurentide Ice Sheet 12,900 years ago. The timing coincides with a great die-off of mammoths and other North American megafauna and the onset of a period of cooling in Northern Europe and elswhere known as the Younger Dryas Event. The American Clovis culture appears to have been dramatically affected, even terminated, at this same time. Speakers discuss numerous lines of evidence contributing to the impact hypothesis. The nature and frequency of this new kind of impact event could have major implications for our understanding of extinctions and climate change.
WASHINGTON -- Two NASA spacecraft now have new assignments after successfully completing their missions. The duo will make new observations of comets and characterize extrasolar planets. Stardust and Deep Impact will use their flight-proven hardware to perform new, previously unplanned, investigations.
Bois Cheri, Mauritius - The remains of a dodo found in a cave beneath bamboo and tea plantations in Mauritius offer the best chance yet to learn about the extinct flightless bird, a scientist said on Friday.
Comment: This is just the latest in a long line of evidence that there is far more loose material floating around our solar system than previously expected. Funny how it is never expressed in those terms.