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| Early Earth Wasn't So Hellish |
| Nov 18, 2005 - Most geologists believe that the early history of our planet was an extreme, "hellish" environment, under constant bombardment from asteroids, and completely devoid of modern formations, like continents. Researchers from ANU disagree, and think they've found evidence that continents had already formed within the first 500 million years, and there was liquid water interacting with rocks. The Earth at that time might have looked remarkably similar to our current planet, complete with continents and oceans. (Full Story) |
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| Einstein ring gravitational lens: SDSS J163028.15+452036.2. Image credit: Hubble. Click to enlarge |
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| More Einstein Rings Discovered |
| Nov 18, 2005 - Astronomers have turned up 19 new gravitationally lensed quasars using photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). 8 of these are what are known as "Einstein's Rings", where a nearby galaxy and a more distant quasar are perfectly lined up from our vantage point. The nearby galaxy acts as a lens to gravitationally focus the light from the quasar to magnify our view of it. (Full Story) |
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| Artist's impression of MARSIS deployment complete. Image credit: ESA. Click to enlarge |
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| Mars Express Radar Data is Coming In |
| Nov 17, 2005 - After 4 months of operation, Mars Express' MARSIS radar instrument has gathered a tremendous amount of data about the Red Planet. So far, the instrument has been focused on Mars' upper atmosphere, or ionosphere, which is the highly electrically conducting layer maintained by sunlight. ESA scientists are working develop the first conclusions about the nature and behaviour of how this region of Mars' atmosphere interacts with the planet and the surrounding environment. (Full Story) |
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| The number of HabCat stars, as a function of distance. Image credit: Turnbull, Tarter. Click to enlarge |
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| M-Class Dwarfs Could Be Good For Life After All |
| Nov 17, 2005 - More than half the stars in our galaxy are small, dim M-class stars. Until now, researchers looking for extraterrestrial civilizations have passed over them, since they probably don't give off enough light to support life. But SETI researchers now think that they might be good candidates after all. A planet in orbit around an M-class star would have billions and billions of years orbiting its slow-burning star for life to evolve. (Full Story) |
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