Saturns Newest Moons:
Three new moons discovered around Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft have been given provisional names.
The discoveries were made last year, not long after Cassini had arrived in orbit around the ringed planet.
Two moons detected in August have been given the names Methone and Pallene, while another found in October has been provisionally named Polydeuces.
Three more candidate objects are still awaiting confirmation as moons.
Methone and Pallene circle Saturn between the orbits of two other Saturnian moons, Mimas and Enceladus. They were discovered by Sebastien Charnoz at the University of Paris, France.
So it appears moons can also be supported in what should be an unstable and decaying orbit - due to the gravitational forces of a large moon 'shadowing' its path? Interesting stuff that the vector is not enough to keep the thing in a stable orbit
It begs the question of what other things can we still learn about our own solar system before we move off?! We have managed to track an asteroid that will give the closest 'near miss' to the earth (if it hit it would be total destruction) for the year 2048 or something - but missed objects in orbit around Saturn? Should not the gravitational effects have caused annomolies on the orbits of other bodies around the planet etc - especially since the actual path changes so much for these 'new' moons!!
Martian Gas:
An Italian scientist working on the Mars Express probe says gases detected in the planet's atmosphere may indicate life exists on the Red Planet today.
Vittorio Formisano told a Dutch space conference methane and formaldehyde could signify biological activity.
But the cautious professor, from the Institute of Interplanetary Space Physics in Rome, said only soil analysis on the planet could prove it.
Confirmation came through hard data, not "fantasy", he told BBC News.
"[My observations should not be taken as a statement that there is life on Mars today, because we need to go there, to drill the soil, take samples, and analyse them before possibly concluding that life is there," Professor Formisano said
As someone so delicately put it - they have discovered alien farts....
The methane would have been produced as a bi product of biological activity - and I would imagine the formaldehyde would have been produced the same way. Methane itself would be broken down in sunlight - so to appear in those readings, it would have had to have been recently produced,
Could there already be primitive life there? After all - we know mosses and fungi can survive in the harsh artic/antartic regions, as well as in the sulphorous scalding hot deep sea vents - where there is no oxygen either!
Dark Galaxies:
Astronomers have discovered an object that appears to be an invisible galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter.
The team, led by Cardiff University, UK, claims it is the first such object to be detected.
A dark galaxy is an area in the Universe containing a large amount of mass that rotates like a galaxy, but contains no stars.
It was found 50 million light-years away using radio telescopes in England and Puerto Rico.
A dense dark matter galaxy, where it would only be spotted due to the radiation of the hydrogen atoms being emmitted from it. Once more - shouldn't the gravity of the thing had a noticeable affect on the surroundings that it caused annomolies that we should have noticed? Good to see England having a hand in this interesting one!
Sadly I forgot to post about the intense burst of energy that emerged from a mere 10,000 light years away from ourselves - where a star had a mini 'star quake' - emitting so much radiation in one burst, that if we had been within 10 light years - it would have stripped the atmosphere from our planet, and caused a massive extinction of life! What other phenonomen has yet to be discovered. Interesting stuff I think - any views?
What should we be looking at, do these things have consequences or are they useless things that we now are 'better' for knowing? Should more money be spent on the discovery and understanding of our universe - or do you find this constant 'search' for answers to be a drain on the worlds resources and minds?
*edit* put particle instead of atom! Tard!
Edited by - Chips on 2/27/2005 2:30:03 AM
Sun Feb 27, 2005 2:27 am 
