Alien life founded in meterorite

Source - Hindustan Times

Photo courtesy of Sternberg Astronomical Institute.

A top British scientist has claimed that he has found proof of extraterrestrial life after he discovered tiny fossils of algae, similar to the kind found in seaweed, in a meteorite fragment that crash landed in central Sri Lanka in December. Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe believes it proves we are not alone in the universe, the Mirror reported.
The finding provides strong evidence that human life started outside Earth, he stated.
The two-inch wide rock was one of several fragments of a meteorite that fell to earth in a spectacular fireball. They were still smoking when villagers living near the city of Polonnaruwa picked them up.
The fossils were discovered when the rocks were examined under a powerful scanning electron microscope in a British laboratory.They are similar to micro-organisms found in fossils from the dinosaur age 55 million years ago.
Though critics argued that the rock had probably become contaminated with algae fossils from Earth, Prof Wickramasinghe insisted that they are the remnants of extra-terrestrial life.
He noted that the algae organisms are similar to ones found in Earth fossils and that the rock also has other organisms they have not yet identified.

Asteroid near-miss reported by Russian scientists

Source: Voice of Russia

 by Staff Writers Moscow (Voice of Russia) Oct 07, 2013

Photo courtesy of Sternberg Astronomical Institute.

A 15-meter asteroid, similar to the object that exploded above Russia in February, moving at a speed of 16km per second, was detected hours before it narrowly missed Earth over the weekend, according to Russian scientists.
"The asteroid was discovered on Friday night by our station near Lake Baikal and nine hours later it flew within 11,300km of the Earth's surface, below the orbit of geostationary satellites. It was about 15 meters in size," Vladimir Lipunov of the Moscow State University and the Sternberg Astronomical Institute indicated.
Lipunov also pointed out his team had notified the International Astronomical Union of their discovery, but it is yet to be confirmed, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The Russian astronomers stated that the asteroid has disappeared now.
The scientists also considered the possibility of this asteroid being space debris: a launch-vehicle stage or a piece of an unmanned Mars explorer. Its trajectory was detected to pass near Mars. However, the search in the space debris catalogue shed no light.
It comes less than a year after a meteorite exploded above the city of Chelyabinsk in the Urals. It weighed 10,000 tons prior to the blast, the scientists indicated.
About 1,500 people were injured in the explosion, most of them from the shockwave that broke glass.
Over the next century, astronomers predict many asteroids will pass Earth, with one the closest near-misses expected in April 2029. 99942 Apophis is set to pass 38.5 thousand km from the center of the planet.

World's Largest Solar Sail, Sunjammer, Completes Test

Source - Space Daily

by Staff Writer Tustin CA (SPX) Oct 07, 2013

File image.

NASA officials, team partners, and local students were on hand to witness a key milestone for the Sunjammer Mission as it successfully deployed a quadrant of its solar sail - a critical design component that will eventually herald an era of propellantless spacecraft. Sunjammer will be the largest solar sail ever flown using photonic pressure (or sunlight) to maneuver in space.
Solar Sails have the potential to be a game changer for space exploration as the low-cost, propellantless and highly maneuverable sail craft will enable future satellites and spacecraft to journey throughout the solar system and beyond. The prime contractor, L'Garde Inc., hosted the test deployment at its facility in Tustin, CA, with mission partners NASA and Space Services Inc. present for the event.
The test is a critical milestone for the Sunjammer Mission as lead contractor L'Garde, Inc. demonstrated for the first time the successful coupling and deployment of the sail and deploying beam. The beam pulled a quarter of the sail out to its full open state as it will operate in space.
The demonstration was conducted under more stressful conditions since the Earth's gravity and atmosphere make it more difficult to test given the lightweight sail material. "If this test succeeded under these stressing conditions, we certainly anticipate it will work exceedingly well in space" said Nathan Barnes, President of L'Garde.
We are very pleased by these results, as they bring us one step closer to realizing NASA's vision of a propellantless spacecraft and introduce the exciting potential of solar sails to the world," said public outreach partner Space Services CEO, Charles Chafer.
Sunjammer is slated to launch in January 2015 and is NASA's first solar sail voyage to deep space. It will monitor key solar activity as well as carry a public "Cosmic Archive" of human perspectives including names, messages, photographs, and videos contributed by the public for future generations to discover.

Cassini finds ingredient of household plastic on Saturn moon

Cassini finds ingredient of household plastic on Saturn moon
by Staff Writers Pasadena, Calif. (UPI) Sep 30, 2013

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

The Cassini spacecraft has detected propylene, an ingredient in household plastics, on Saturn's moon, Titan, the U.S. space said Monday.
The detection of the chemical used to make food-storage containers, car bumpers and other products is the first discovery of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet other than Earth, NASA said in a release.
Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer identified a small amount of propylene in Titan's lower atmosphere, NASA said. The instrument measures the infrared light emitted from Saturn and its moons much the same way human hands feel the warmth of a fire.
Propylene is the first molecule to be discovered on Titan using the spectrometer.
"This chemical is all around us in everyday life, strung together in long chains to form a plastic called polypropylene," said Conor Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "That plastic container at the grocery store with the recycling code 5 on the bottom -- that's polypropylene."
Cassini's mass spectrometer had suggested earlier that propylene may be present in the upper atmosphere but a positive identification wasn't made until now, NASA said.
"This new piece of the puzzle will provide an additional test of how well we understand the chemical zoo that makes up Titan's atmosphere," said Scott Edgington, Cassini's deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

NASA Mars mission escapes government shutdown, will launch

Source - Mars Daily

disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

NASA Mars mission escapes government shutdown, will launch
by Staff Writers Greenbelt, Md. (UPI) Oct 4, 2013

NASA says it next mission to Mars has been cleared for takeoff amid fears the U.S. government shutdown could cause it to miss its launch window.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission, or MAVEN, was set for launch as early as Nov. 18.
"I learned this morning that NASA has analyzed the MAVEN mission relative to the Anti-Deficiency Act and determined that it meets the requirements allowing an emergency exception," Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN's lead scientist based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, said in an email to the Los Angeles Times.
MAVEN will be a crucial communications relay between Earth and the Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity, he said, replacing the aging Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that went into orbit around the Red Planet in 2006.
During the government shutdown NASA has furloughed 97 percent of its nearly 18,000 workers, putting all but the most essential activities on hiatus.
If MAVEN had missed its launch windows it could have been grounded for several years until the alignment of Earth and Mars provided the next available launch window, NASA said.
Scientists welcomed news of the go-ahead for the MAVEN mission.
"Wow, that's good news," UCLA planetary scientist David Paige, who was not involved in the mission, said.
"The whole notion that they wouldn't launch this thing is just appalling," he said. "You have this whole rocket almost on the launchpad."