Three billion years ago, Earth was a very different place.
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Infrared Eyes Set to Launch
In the early morning of August 25th at 1:35:39 a.m. EDT, NASA successfully launched the new Space Infrared Telescope Facility aboard a Boeing Delta II Heavy Launch Vehicle into the first-ever Earth-trailing orbit.
August 25, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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Researchers Find Antarctic Lake Water Will Fizz Like a Soda
Water released from Lake Vostok, deep beneath the south polar ice sheet, could gush like a popped can of soda if not contained, opening the lake to possible contamination and posing a potential health hazard to NASA and university researchers.
August 11, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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NASA'S First Scout Mission Selected for 2007 Mars Launch
NASA has selected Phoenix, an innovative and relatively low-cost mission, to study the red planet, as the first Mars Scout mission. The Phoenix lander mission is scheduled for launch in 2007.
August 05, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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The Rise of Oxygen
Understanding the history of oxygen accumulation in Earth’s atmosphere is an important topic in astrobiology. It has ramifications in the evolution of planetary habitability as well as using oxygen as a biomarker in the search for life on extrasolar planets.
July 30, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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Follow the Sun
The two NASA rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which are speeding their way towards a January rendezvous with Mars, are arguably the most advanced robotic spacecraft ever sent to explore another heavenly body. But to the robotics researchers working on the Life in the Atacama project, Spirit and Opportunity are already history.
This group of hardware and software wizards, based at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute are designing rovers that, they hope, will roam the Martian surface, not in this decade, but in the next. Their goal: autonomous robots with sufficient onboard intelligence to explore for days at a time without ...
July 28, 2003 • Posted by: Yael Kovo • Report issue
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Ancient Planet
Some 13 billion years ago in a distant cluster of stars, a planet formed. Remarkably it’s still there, according to data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
July 13, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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Newly Launched 'Opportunity' Follows Mars-Bound 'Spirit'
NASA launched its second Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, late Monday night (July 7) aboard a Delta II launch vehicle whose bright glare briefly illuminated Florida Space Coast beaches.
July 09, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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Shining Light on Life's Origin
When ultraviolet radiation was more intense than today, and the early Earth had a mix of nitrogen-rich molecules, how did this primordial soup get cooked? And how did it not burn?
June 13, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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NASA's 'Spirit' Rises on Its Way to Mars
A NASA robotic geologist named Spirit began its seven-month journey to Mars at 10:58:47 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on June 10 when its Delta II launch vehicle thundered aloft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
June 10, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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The Edge of Life
Life – as we know it – needs water to survive. It doesn’t have to be a lot of water, at least not for microscopic life. Even in most of the world’s deserts, in regions where plant and animal life cannot subsist, bacteria and lichen manage to eke out an existence, clinging to life underneath or in the cracks within rocks.
These organisms have adapted to living in some of the harshest, most extreme conditions on the planet. But are there places on Earth that are so dry that nothing can live there?
That is one of the questions that ...
June 09, 2003 • Posted by: Yael Kovo • Report issue
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Pictures of Earth From Mars
NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has captured unique images of a lovely blue alien world: Earth
May 22, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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NAI Europa Focus Group Visits Arctic Ice-Field
(Editor’s Note: you can click on any image on the right to enlarge it.)
In early May, the NAI Europa Focus group took a field trip to the Arctic Ocean ice cap at Barrow, Alaska. The trip was planned and led by Professors Ron Greeley of Arizona State University, the Chair of the Europa Focus Group, and Hajo Eicken of the University of Alaska, an expert on ocean ice and on the Barrow region. The conference’s objective was to gain direct experience with sea ice and to look for possible analogues with Jupiter’s moon Europa and other icy moons in ...
May 15, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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Photosynthesis in the Abyss
Recently, researchers have discovered a bacterium in the nearly pitch-black environment of deep-sea hydrothermal vents that carries out photosynthesis, using light as its only source of energy.
May 05, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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Lost City Expedition: Life From Rocky Reaction
During their 32 day expedition, 24 scientists onboard the research vessel Atlantis will dive deep into the North Atlantic and use a free swimming robot to create a high resolution map of how life may flourish by living off the ‘rocky’ heat of a chemical reaction.
April 24, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue
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Solar Influence, Part III: Climatological Effects
The Earth’s environment is in a state of constant flux: We expect temperatures to vary from day to day. However, we are ever concerned and dependent upon long-term changes—and with good reason. Not many scientists deny that the Earth has gone through a warming period during the past 100 years, but there is far less of a consensus of how and why this warming takes place.
Conventional Viewpoints about Global Warming
For many years now, scientists have been linking global temperature rise with increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, most often with carbon dioxide (CO2). The evidence is hard to ...
April 08, 2003 • Posted by: Shige Abe • Report issue