Scientific American - Space

NASA-funded monkey-radiation experiment raises hackles

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:59:00 EST

A nonprofit group that promotes animal rights in medical research has taken issue with a NASA grant funding an assessment of the long-term effects of radiation on monkeys. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), based in Washington, D.C., sent an appeal Thursday to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, urging that the radiobiology study, intended to test the effects of radiation encountered in long-range spaceflight, be suspended. [More]

Tweak Gravity: What If There Is No Dark Matter?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:01:00 EST

Theorists and observational astronomers are hot on the trail of dark matter , the invisible material thought to account for puzzling mass disparities in large-scale astronomical structures. For instance, galaxies and galactic clusters behave as if they were far more massive than would be expected if they comprised only atoms and molecules, spinning faster than their observable mass would explain. What is more, the very presence of assemblages such as our Milky Way Galaxy speaks to the influence of more mass than we can see. If the mass of the universe were confined to atoms, the clumping of matter that allowed galaxies to take shape would never have transpired. [More]

Will E.T. Look Like Us?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

What are the odds that intelligent, technically advanced aliens would look anything like the ones in films, with an emaciated torso and limbs, spindly fingers and a bulbous, bald head with large, almond-shaped eyes? What are the odds that they would even be humanoid? In a YouTube video, produced by Josh Timonen of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, I argue that the chances are close to zero ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKAXrmkx12g ). Richard Dawkins himself made this interesting observation in a private communication after viewing it:

I would agree with [Shermer] in betting against aliens being bipedal primates, and I think the point is worth making, but I think he greatly overestimates the odds against. [University of Cambridge paleontologist] Simon Conway Morris, whose authority is not to be dismissed, thinks it positively likely that aliens would be, in effect, bipedal primates. [Harvard University biologist] Ed Wilson gave at least some time to the speculation that, if it had not been for the end-Cretaceous catastrophe, dinosaurs might have produced something like the attached [referring to paleontologist Dale A. Russell’s illustrated evolutionary projection of how a bipedal dinosaur might have evolved into a reptilian humanoid].

[More]

Stellar deal: NASA awards $2 million to X PRIZE winners for helping develop a lunar lander

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:13:00 EST

Less than one month after NASA crashed its Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) into the moon's surface in order to analyze the resulting plume of debris for signs of water , the U.S. space agency is handing out nearly $2 million on Thursday to engineers developing technology for a much softer landing on the lunar surface as part of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge . [More]

Emission Impossible?: Is Dark Matter Behind the Hazy Radiation at the Milky Way's Center?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST

A haze of radiation at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy that appears in sky maps taken by two spacecraft at two different wavelengths likely results from a population of high-energy electrons, according to a new analysis of gamma rays in the galaxy. Curiously, some researchers maintain, those electrons are not readily explained by known astrophysical processes--and work is under way to determine if dark matter particles might be responsible. [More]

How Noise Can Help Quantum Entanglement

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

Wouldn’t it be nice to be an electron? Then you, too, could take advantage of the marvels of quantum mechanics, such as being in two places at once--very handy for juggling the competing demands of modern life. Alas, physicists have long spoiled the fantasy by saying that quantum mechanics applies only to microscopic things.

Yet that is a myth. In the modern view that has gained traction in the past decade, you don’t see quantum effects in everyday life not because you are big, per se, but because those effects are camouflaged by their own sheer complexity. They are there if you know how to look, and physicists have been realizing that they show up in the macroscopic world more than they thought. “The standard arguments may be too pessimistic as to the survival of quantum effects,” says Nobel laureate physicist Anthony Leggett of the University of Illinois.

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The Long-Lost Siblings of the Sun (preview)

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

People have often sought solitude in the starry night sky, and it is an appropriate place for that. The night is dark because, in cosmic terms, our sun and its family of planets are very lonely. Neighboring stars are so far away that they look like mere specks of light, and more distant stars blur together into a feeble glow. Our fastest space probes will take tens of thousands of years to cross the distance to the nearest star. Space isolates us like an ocean around a tiny island.

Yet not all stars are so secluded. About one in 10 belongs to a cluster, a swarm of hundreds to tens of thousands of stars with a diameter of a few light-years. In fact, most stars are born in such groups, which generally disperse over billions of years, their stars blending in with the rest of the galaxy. What about our sun? Might it, too, have come into existence in a star cluster? If so, our location in the galaxy was not always so desolate. It only became so as the cluster dispersed in due time.

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Parachute failure before splashdown left Ares 1-X booster badly dinged

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:40:00 EST

NASA's launch of the Ares 1-X test rocket Wednesday was a success --but, as it turns out, a qualified one. The rocket's first booster stage, which splashed down in the ocean as planned six minutes after launch, was found to be significantly dented when divers reached the mammoth cylinder to prep it for retrieval. [More]

NASA's Ares 1-X test rocket lifts off successfully

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:19:00 EST

A prototype NASA rocket for a planned crew launcher lifted off into the Florida sky Wednesday morning, providing an unmanned flight demonstration of the new technology. The 100-meter-tall Ares 1-X, powered by a solid rocket booster, flew from Kennedy Space Center to an altitude of 45 kilometers before splashing down six minutes later in the Atlantic Ocean as planned. [More]

Astronomical Artifact: Most Distant Object Yet Detected Carries Clues from Early Universe

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:01:00 EST

A violent explosion picked up by a NASA satellite earlier this year is the oldest object ever seen by astronomers, its light having been emitted some 13 billion years ago. At that time the universe was roughly 5 percent of its present age and the big bang was a fairly recent occurrence, having taken place just 600 million years earlier. [More]

Weather, stray cargo ship and stuck cover conspire to postpone NASA's Ares 1-X test launch

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:50:00 EST

NASA's towering Ares 1-X rocket , a test vehicle for a planned crew launcher to replace the space shuttle, remains on the ground at Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the space agency scrubbed its Tuesday launch attempt. The launch team will try again Wednesday in a four-hour launch window that begins at 8:00 A.M. (Eastern Daylight Time). [More]

What Galileo and Scientific American have in common: Honored Italian heritage

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:25:00 EST

In the year of Galileo, it is only fitting that the Italian Heritage and Culture Committee of New York would structure its annual celebration of Italian heritage in part around the famed Italian astronomer. The organization's Italian Heritage and Culture Month this year recognized the International Year of Astronomy, commemorating Galileo's revolutionary leap 400 years ago, when he began making celestial observations through the telescopes he built. [More]

On the Web--November 9

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

In-Depth Report Galileo and the International Year of Astronomy [More]

Allegations of spying and links to terrorism land scientists in hot water

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:30:00 EST

Two researchers, one a physicist working on the Large Hadron Collider in Europe and the other a space scientist with leading roles on several lunar satellite missions, have run afoul of the authorities this month for alleged terrorist links and attempted spying, respectively. [More]

Galileo's Contradiction: The Astronomer Who Riled the Inquisition Fathered 2 Nuns

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST

The astronomical discoveries made by Galileo Galilei in the 17th century have secured his place in scientific lore, but a lesser known aspect of the Italian astronomer's life is his role as a father. [More]

An Astronomer's Astronomer: Kepler's Revolutionary Achievements in 1609 Rival Galileo's

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:00:00 EST

Four hundred years ago this year, two events marked what scientists and historians today regard as the birth of modern astronomy. The first of them, the beginning of Galileo's telescopic observations , has been immortalized by playwrights and authors and widely publicized as the cornerstone anniversary for the International Year of Astronomy . Through his looking glass , the Italian astronomer saw the mountains and valleys of the moon, the satellites of Jupiter, and sunspots --observations that would play a huge role in discrediting the prevailing, church-endorsed view of an Earth-centered cosmos. [More]

Dozens of discoveries vault known exoplanet tally over 400

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:40:00 EST

A suite of some 30 newly discovered planets in other solar systems, unveiled today, brings the catalogue of such extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, to more than 400. [More]

How to Get More Bicyclists on the Road

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

Getting people out of cars and onto bicycles, a much more sustainable form of transportation, has long vexed environmentally conscious city planners. Although bike lanes painted on streets and automobile-free “greenways” have increased ridership over the past few years, the share of people relying on bikes for transportation is still less than 2 percent, based on various studies. An emerging body of research suggests that a superior strategy to increase pedal pushing could be had by asking the perennial question: What do women want?

In the U.S., men’s cycling trips surpass women’s by at least 2:1. This ratio stands in marked contrast to cycling in European countries, where urban biking is a way of life and draws about as many women as men--sometimes more. In the Netherlands, where 27 percent of all trips are made by bike, 55 percent of all riders are women. In Germany 12 percent of all trips are on bikes, 49 percent of which are made by women.

[More]

T-minus 18 months and counting: Virgin Galactic and the future of space tourism

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:02:00 EST

Twenty-five years ago when Sir Richard Branson (sans the "sir," at the time) called up Boeing and asked for a spare 747, few would have predicted the brash entrepreneur would so radically disrupt the formerly staid business of air travel. Perhaps folks had higher hopes for the former record executives' feature film production debut at the same time: 1984 . But today Branson is master of airlines on six of seven continents, employing hundreds of jets, and now the ennobled Brit predicts, his company is a scant 18 months from the first commercial suborbital flight . [More]

Another Century of Oil? Getting More from Current Reserves (preview)

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EST

On fourteen dry, flat square miles of California’s Central Valley, more than 8,000 horsehead pumps--as old-fashioned oilmen call them--slowly rise and fall as they suck oil from underground. Glittering pipelines crossing the whole area suggest that the place is not merely a relic of the past. But even to an expert’s eyes, Kern River Oil Field betrays no hint of the technological miracles that have enabled it to survive decades of dire predictions.

When Kern River Oil Field was discovered in 1899, analysts thought that only 10 percent of its unusually viscous crude could be recovered. In 1942, after more than four decades of modest production, the field was estimated to still hold 54 million barrels of recoverable oil, a fraction of the 278 million barrels already recovered. “In the next 44 years, it produced not 54 [million barrels] but 736 million barrels, and it had another 970 million barrels remaining,” energy guru Morris Adelman noted in 1995. But even this estimate proved wrong. In November 2007 U.S. oil giant Chevron, by then the field’s operator, announced that cumulative production had reached two billion barrels. Today Kern River still puts out nearly 80,000 barrels per day, and the state of California estimates its remaining reserves to be about 627 million barrels.

[More]