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Scientists find meteorite that came from innermost asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 18 (ANI): In a very rare finding, scientists have discovered an unusual kind of meteorite in the Western Australian desert and have uncovered that it came from the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Meteorites are the only surviving physical record of the formation of our Solar System.

However, information about where individual meteorites originated, and how they were moving around the Solar System prior to falling to Earth, is available for only a dozen of around 1100 documented meteorite falls over the past two hundred years.

According to Dr Phil Bland from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, the lead author of the study, “We are incredibly excited about our new finding. Meteorites are the most analysed rocks on Earth, but it’s really rare for us to be able to tell where they came from.”

The new meteorite, which is about the size of cricket ball, is the first to be retrieved since researchers from Imperial College London, Ondrejov Observatory in the Czech Republic, and the Western Australian Museum, set up a trial network of cameras in the Nullarbor Desert in Western Australia in 2006.

The researchers aim to use these cameras to find new meteorites, and work out where in the Solar System they came from, by tracking the fireballs that they form in the sky.

The new meteorite was found on the first day of searching using the new network, by the first search expedition, within 100m of the predicted site of the fall.

The meteorite appears to have been following an unusual orbit, or path around the Sun, prior to falling to Earth in July 2007, according to the researchers’ calculations.

The team believes that it started out as part of an asteroid in the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

It then gradually evolved into an orbit around the Sun that was very similar to Earth’s.

The new meteorite is also unusual because it is composed of a rare type of basaltic igneous rock.

According to the researchers, its composition, together with the data about where the meteorite comes from, fits with a recent theory about how the building blocks for the terrestrial planets were formed.

This theory suggests that the igneous parent asteroids for meteorites like today’s formed deep in the inner Solar System, before being scattered out into the main asteroid belt.

Asteroids are widely believed to be the building blocks for planets like the Earth, so the new finding provides another clue about the origins of the Solar System. (ANI)

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NASA spacecraft provides scientists with 3D view of powerful solar explosions

April 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 15 (ANI): Twin NASA spacecraft have provided scientists with their first view of the speed, trajectory, and three-dimensional shape of powerful explosions from the sun known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.

This new capability will dramatically enhance scientists’ ability to predict if and how these solar tsunamis could affect Earth.

When directed toward our planet, these ejections can be breathtakingly beautiful and yet potentially cause damaging effects worldwide.

The brightly colored phenomena known as auroras – more commonly called Northern or Southern Lights – are examples of Earth’s upper atmosphere harmlessly being disturbed by a CME.

However, ejections can produce a form of solar cosmic rays that can be hazardous to spacecraft, astronauts and technology on Earth.

Space weather produces disturbances in electromagnetic fields on Earth that can induce extreme currents in wires, disrupting power lines and causing wide-spread blackouts.

These sun storms can interfere with communications between ground controllers and satellites and with airplane pilots flying near Earth’s poles.

These ejections carry billions of tons of plasma into space at thousands of miles per hour.

This plasma, which carries with it some of the magnetic field from the corona, can create a large, moving disturbance in space that produces a shock wave.

NASA’s twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, spacecraft are providing the unique scientific tool to study these ejections as never before.

Launched in October 2006, STEREO’s nearly identical observatories can make simultaneous observations of these ejections of plasma and magnetic energy that originate from the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.

The spacecraft are stationed at different vantage points. One leads Earth in its orbit around the sun, while the other trails the planet.

Using three-dimensional observations, solar physicists can examine a CME’s structure, velocity, mass, and direction in the corona while tracking it through interplanetary space.

These measurements can help determine when a CME will reach Earth and predict how much energy it will deliver to our magnetosphere, which is Earth’s protective magnetic shield.

“Before this unique mission, measurements and the subsequent data of a CME observed near the sun had to wait until the ejections arrived at Earth three to seven days later,” said Angelos Vourlidas, a solar physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

“Now, we can see a CME from the time it leaves the solar surface until it reaches Earth, and we can reconstruct the event in 3D directly from the images,” he added. (ANI)

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NASA’s Kepler mission to search for Earth-like planets

March 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 6 (ANI): NASA’s Kepler mission is all set to take off on March 6 from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, in a mission that would to seek other Earth-like planets.

Kepler is designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars in habitable zones – regions where water could pool on the surface of the planets.

Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life.

“This mission attempts to answer a question that is as old as time itself-are other planets like ours out there?” said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“It’s not just a science question – it’s a basic human question,” he said.

After the clock ticks down to liftoff, the Delta II’s first-stage main engine and six strap-on solid rocket boosters will ignite.

Three remaining boosters will ignite 65.5 seconds later, and the first-stage main engine will continue to burn for 4.5 minutes.

The second stage will then ignite, carrying Kepler into a circular orbit about 185 kilometers (115 miles) above Earth less than 10 minutes after launch. After coasting for 43 minutes, the second-stage engine will fire again, followed by second-stage shutdown and separation.

The third stage will then burn for five minutes.

Sixty-two minutes after launch, Kepler will have separated entirely from its rocket and will be in its final Earth-trailing orbit around the Sun, an orbit similar to that of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

“We are very excited to see this magnificent spacecraft come to life when it reaches space,” said James Fanson, Kepler project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

After a commissioning period lasting about two months, Kepler will begin its job of staring at more than 100,000 stars for three-and-one-half years, looking for planets.

Its isolated perch behind Earth will give the telescope an unobstructed view of a single, very large patch of sky near the Cygnus and Lyra constellations.

“We will monitor a wide range of stars; from small cool ones, where planets must circle closely to stay warm, to stars bigger and hotter than the Sun, where planets must stay well clear to avoid being roasted,” said William Borucki, science principal investigator for the mission at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California.

“Everything about the mission is optimized to find Earth-size planets with the potential for life, to help us answer the question – are Earths bountiful or is our planet unique?” he added. (ANI)

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Scientists find meteorite that came from innermost asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

NASA spacecraft provides scientists with 3D view of powerful solar explosions

NASA’s Kepler mission to search for Earth-like planets

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