Volunteers Sought for
Mars Test
by Paul Rincon, BBC News
The European Space Agency (Esa) is
seeking volunteers for a simulated human trip to Mars, in which six
crew spend 17 months in an isolation tank.
They will live and work in a series of
interlocked modules at a research institute in Moscow.
Once the hatches are closed, the
crew's only contact with the outside world is a radio link to
"Earth" with a realistic delay of many minutes...
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Moon-based Lasers
Could Uncover Exotic Physics
by David Shiga, New Scientist Space
NASA is
funding the development of lasers that could be placed on the Moon
to check for subtle deviations from the standard theory of gravity.
Lasers
have been used to make very precise measurements of the Earth-Moon
distance since the Apollo era, when astronauts left reflectors at
three sites on the lunar surface. A fourth reflecting device is
attached to a robotic lunar lander launched by the Soviet Union.
To pin
down the Moon's distance, scientists bounce light from Earth-based
lasers off of these reflectors and measure how long it takes to
return. Because the Moon's motion is governed by gravity, such
studies can be used to test whether Einstein's general theory of
relativity gives an accurate description of this motion...
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Team Makes Tunguska
Crater Claim
by Paul Rincon, BBC News
Scientists have identified a possible crater left
by the biggest space impact in modern times - the Tunguska event.
The blast levelled more than 2,000 sq km of forest
near the Tunguska River in Siberia on 30 June 1908.
A comet or asteroid is thought to have exploded in
the Earth's atmosphere with a force equal to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs...
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here for the rest of the story.
Video: Egypt's Most
Famous Female King Found
National Geographic News
June 27, 2007—Egypt's
most famous female pharaoh—known for depictions showing her with a
false beard—has been identified, Egyptian archaeologists announced
today.
The body of
Hatshepsut, who ruled ancient Egypt from 1473 to 1458 B.C., had been
feared lost. But a mummy found decades ago in a rough tomb in the
Valley of the Kings now appears to be the gender-bending queen.
Experts say that a
molar recently found among the queen's embalmed organs exactly
matches a space in the mummy's mouth. (Read
the full story.)
For Zahi Hawass,
Egypt's secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and
a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, the tooth is convincing
evidence that the mummy is Hatshepsut. DNA testing is still underway
and could provide conclusive proof of the mummy's identity. |
