Envisat observes resurgent ozone hole
...the Earth's 'limb' the band of atmosphere between planetary surface and empty space, as observed from behind Envisat. Working through day and night, MIPAS can map the atmospheric concentrations of more than 20 trace gases, including ozone as well as the pollutants that attack it. This makes the instrument inv...NSF news tips - September 22, 2003
...t who devises laboratory experiments to understand planetary evolution. His NSF CAREER award supported his studies of geological fluid mechanics (EAR-9701768), and NSF has funded his studies of magma flow prior to eruptions (EAR-0207471) and mantle dynamics in Earth-like planets (EAR-0124972), among others. ...New study of Europa may explain mysterious ice domes, places to search for evidence of life
...s thick," said Pappalardo of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department. "Our models now show that a combination of upwelling warm ice in the frozen shell's interior, combined with small amounts of impurities such as sodium chloride or sulfuric acid, would provide enough of a force to form these dome...Popular Science announces second annual 'Brilliant 10:' the country's top young scientists
...the field of geophysics. Manga wants to understand planetary evolution, but he doesn't have a few million years to sit around and observe. So he and his colleagues have built a few Earths of their own and successfully compressed a billion-year phenomenon into an hour. Recently, Manga and a student disproved a ...Industry asked to design Mars rover and payload
...Manager. "Not only will it include Europe's first planetary roving vehicle, but it will also be the first of its kind to carry an exobiology payload, a set of instruments specifically designed to search for life," he said. "Interplanetary spacecraft, and landing vehicles in particular, need to be very compac...Science Picks-Leads, Feeds and Story Seeds (June 2003)
...he planets and their moons and to plan and conduct planetary exploration missions. In the process, USGS has produced an amazing collection of images, maps, and animations that are just out of this world! Check it out at http://astrogeology.usgs.gov. A.B. Wade, abwade@usgs.gov , 703-648-4460. STORY SEEDS ...Carnegie Mellon, NASA to develop robot illustrating how to seek life on distant planets
...Denis Strelow and Vandi Verma. Nathalie Cabrol, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the SETI Institute, will lead the science team for the investigation of the Atacama. Members of the science team are geologists and biologists who study both Earth and Mars at institutions including NASA A...Dinosaur, crab fossils reveal ecosystem secrets
...hua Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, have found a well-preserved fossil of a crab within inches of a tail vertebra from a massive plant-eating dinosaur. Necrocarcinidae (crab) meet titanosaurian sauropod (dinosaur). The find, in Egypt's...Carnegie Mellon University receives NASA award to develop probes to detect life on Mars
...h to couple with different types of rovers used in planetary expeditions. The scope of the grant includes developing dyes and testing their feasibility in local environments, as well as areas hostile to life, such as the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, where relatively few pockets of life persist. Given i...American Physical Society March Meeting 2003
...ough scale models that explain what happens in the planetary arena. UCLA physicists have experimentally studied how the size of a crater depends on the impact object, a vital piece of information in understanding past impact events (A13.002). The shapes of craters also provides information about an impact and ...'The end of the world' has already begun, UW scientists say
...s of a planet suddenly covered in black paint? Any planetary remediation project would always run the risk of making things worse." Eventually, though, scorching heat will drive land creatures to the sea for respite. Those that can adapt will survive for a time, but eventually the oceans will warm too much for...Antarctic ice seals life's fate
...to suck-out samples. "We'll do it like we're on a planetary mission," said Doran. "While we don't expect to find 'Lake Vidas' on Mars today, it's a good analogue for something in Mars' past. Also, if there are brines leaking out from Mars' subsurface today, they could well come from a buried 'Lake Vida.'"...New CU-NASA research belies previous idea that Mars was once warm, wet planet
... Mars theory of rivers and oceans embraced by many planetary scientists, since such impactors were so infrequent. "There apparently were some brief warm and wet periods on Mars, but we believe that through most of its history, Mars has been a cold, dry planet," said Segura, currently a visiting researcher at ...Scientist probes fossil oddity: Giant redwoods near North Pole
... Hope Jahren, an assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University, recently published results that partially demystified Axel Heilbergs vanished forests. Jahren and colleague Leo Sternberg of the University of Miami uncovered eviden...Purdue to help NASA create life-supporting ecosystem in space
... of enabling self-sustaining human colonization of planetary surfaces beginning during the late second or early third decades of the 21st century," Mitchell said. Universities competing for the NASA center were encouraged to include a minority university with expertise in the appropriate technical fields in ag...Common microbes survive pressures equal to those found at 50 kilometers inside the Earths crust
... new doors for looking for life much deeper inside planetary bodies than previously considered. According to Dr. Anurag Sharma the lead author, It is exciting to observe the microbes under such unusual environments. Their continued biological activity says a lot about their resilience. The scientific team is ......tudy author James Kirchner, professor of earth and planetary science at UC Berkeley. "There seem to be biological mechanisms that limit diversification of new organisms and control which ones become successful enough to persist," he said. "Biodiversity is slow to recover after an extinction." This apparent spe...NIST 'microhotplate' may help search for extraterrestrial life
...g biogenic (produced by living organisms) gases in planetary atmospheres, investigating organic materials on comets for studies of the history of the universe, or monitoring air quality in habitats. This advanced measurement system already has proven applicable to environmental monitoring and military operati...Deep-ocean research program office established at Penn State
...ship between the geological processes that lead to planetary renewal in the deep ocean and life forms that thrive in the absence of sunlight has found a home at Penn State. The RIDGE 2000 Program, created with the input of more than 200 U.S. scientists and funded by the National Science Foundation, has elect...Astrobiologist and national security expert Christopher Chyba named 2001 MacArthur
...ate astronomer Carl Sagan a long-time advocate of planetary exploration.Receiving a MacArthur Fellowship can be a life-changing experience, according to the foundation, but Chyba doesnt foresee immediate changes. "I have kind of my dream job at the SETI Institute and Stanford, which allow me to pursue the upc...