Astronomy

NASA has some new information that is leading them to believe that Mars could support life. They used the special Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (CRISM) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and scientists were able to discover carbonate minerals on the surface of the planet.

For the longest time scientists believed that the environment on Mars was acidic - but because carbonates dissolve in acid they have decided to rethink things. NASA said that these new breakthrough findings lead them to believe that different watery environments once existed. This could mean that it once supported life.

Hundreds of photos of Mercury were beamed to Earth by a U.S. spacecraft. The photos showed images of landscapes on the surface of the planet that have never been seen before. They released four of these high resolution pictures to the media - which were posted on NASA’s Messenger web site.

For quite some time now NASA has been trying to discover whether or not there is water on Mars due to certain pictures that they received from their land rover. That research came to an abrupt end when they discovered that it was snowing on the planet.

The Large Hadron Collider (also knows as the LHC) is the world’s highest-energy particle accelerator. Despite many attempts at trying to delay the activation of the machine it looks like it will be turned on for the very first time September 10th.

The machine was built on the borders of France and Switzerland and has been worked on since the early 1980’s. More then 8,000 physicists from 85 different countries have worked long and hard on this machine and are excited to finally see it in action.

Scientists believe that Mars was once full of benign seas that could have been suitable for living creatures. “There was apparently pervasive water present during the first 600 to 700 million years,” said geologist John Mustard from Brown University.

Mustard’s team studied data returned by the Compact Reconnaisance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, an instrument designed to find traces of minerals that interact with water. Earlier studies have found evidence of ancient gushers, and the Mars Phoenix Lander recently found ice. But Mustard’s analysis provides the clearest picture yet of planet-wide hydrological impacts - and, most tantalizingly, CRISM showed widespread deposits of clay-like minerals that form only at relatively low temperatures.

NASA set the final space shuttle mission for May 31st, 2010. This is exactly four months before the shuttle’s fleet is set to retire. According to NASA the fleet has exactly 10 more missions left.

President Bush ordered that this missions be retired by September 30th, 2010. Five more flights this year have been scheduled, five more in 2009, and three in 2010. At this time the space agency is working on creating a new spacecraft that will be able to take astronauts back to the moon.

European researchers discovered what looked to be three ‘super-Earths’ orbiting around a star and two other solar systems that contained small planets. They believe that these large Earth-like planets are more common then we think.

“Does every single star harbor planets and, if yes, how many?” asked Michel Mayor of Switzerland’s Geneva Observatory. “We may not yet know the answer but we are making huge progress towards it,” Mayor said in a statement.

The Mars Phoenix Lander was able to deliver a detailed view of the soil on Mars back to NASA. It took pictures of clumps of dirt that consisted of what looked like minerals and fine grains.

Scientists stated that the dirt that was picked up and placed on the microscope and was described as having a orange-reddish hue. When zooming in, scientists noticed green particles that could be olivine, a mineral usually associated with volcanic eruptions. The soil also contained round, black glassy specks that could be volcanic glass, said mission scientist Tom Pike of the Imperial College in London.

It hasn’t even been a week and already NASA’s Phoenix lander has taken some interesting pictures of Mar’s surface and discovered a lump of ice or a Martian rock on the surface. Now NASA has ordered the Phoenix to dig up the dirt around it and analyze the material.

The Phoenix Mars Lander from NASA is making its towards the surface of Mars and is scheduled to land in less than two weeks. During landing the probe will try to avoid the crash landing that its predecessor – the Mars Polar Lander – experienced.

“This is not a trip to grandma’s house,” said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky.”