Slashdot Mirror

Jared writes: "A story at space.com reports that new research indicates that black hole formation is tied directly to the amount of mass in a galaxy's central bulge, an ancient and dense sphere of stars that populates the central regions of many galaxies, including our own Milky Way."

Jared writes: "A story at space.com reports that new research indicates that black hole formation is tied directly to the amount of mass in a galaxy's central bulge, an ancient and dense sphere of stars that populates the central regions of many galaxies, including our own Milky Way."

Barbarian writes: "CNN reports that a Russian Submarine has launched a rocket containing a solar sail payload sucessfully. The mission is a 30 minute sub-orbital test. space.com has more details on the craft." Our earlier story. Another submitter noted that today is the 25th anniversary of the landing of the Viking 1 Mars probe. JPL has a Mars site, which is not responding as I write this. Maybe the Martians got to it. :)

Anonymous Coward writes "Space.com is running a series called Inside JPL. The first part is called 'Dark times: hope on the heels of failure.' It's an interesting read discussing a little history, and management changes underway to make JPL more efficient. Some of the changes include throwing out the rules." The history is certainly interesting and well worth reading, but the parts about changing management are a bit rah-rah and cliche-ridden for me.

Dada writes: "The crews of the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station successfully installed the 'Quest' airlock to the ISS. The Canadian-built space station arm actually worked!"

Un1v4c writes: "According to this article on MSN... "A Delaware-based archaeological group is sufficiently intrigued to send a diving team to an atoll 2,000 miles southwest of Hawaii to get an up-close look at whatever produced the rust-colored spots on the space photographs taken by Space Imaging of Thornton. "Nothing out there occurs naturally that's rust colored," said Rick Gallespie of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. He believes the rusty object just beyond the reef that surrounds the uninhabited atoll could be an engine and the landing gear of Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Special Electra."" See also this article on space.com and the picture in question. Apparently Earhart never had a piece of outhouse wash up on shore to help her escape.

Un1v4c writes: "According to this article on MSN... "A Delaware-based archaeological group is sufficiently intrigued to send a diving team to an atoll 2,000 miles southwest of Hawaii to get an up-close look at whatever produced the rust-colored spots on the space photographs taken by Space Imaging of Thornton. "Nothing out there occurs naturally that's rust colored," said Rick Gallespie of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. He believes the rusty object just beyond the reef that surrounds the uninhabited atoll could be an engine and the landing gear of Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Special Electra."" See also this article on space.com and the picture in question. Apparently Earhart never had a piece of outhouse wash up on shore to help her escape.

Manhigh writes: "According to Space.com a rather large celestial body has been found orbiting the Sun in the Kuiper belt, beyond Neptune. It will probably never be classified as a planet since even Pluto's status as a planet is somewhat controversial. Here's an excerpt from the article: 'Under one assumption about the object's reflectivity (albedo), 2001 KX76 is probably 788 miles (1,270 kilometers), making it 44 miles larger across than Charon and even bigger than Ceres, the largest known asteroid.'"

Manhigh writes: "According to Space.com a rather large celestial body has been found orbiting the Sun in the Kuiper belt, beyond Neptune. It will probably never be classified as a planet since even Pluto's status as a planet is somewhat controversial. Here's an excerpt from the article: 'Under one assumption about the object's reflectivity (albedo), 2001 KX76 is probably 788 miles (1,270 kilometers), making it 44 miles larger across than Charon and even bigger than Ceres, the largest known asteroid.'"

McSpew writes: "Astronauts on the International Space Station accidentally banged the space station's $600 million robot arm into the side of the station. No damage was done, but engineers still haven't figured out just what's wrong with the arm."

EccentricAnomaly writes: "David Cash has some interesting pictures of the International Space Station made with a Celestron telescope and webcam. This makes me want to get back into amateur astronomy ... in part, as a fun way to learn image processing." The resolution Cash achieved with consumer-grade equipment (Celestron Ultima 9.25 telescope and Philips Vesta Pro camera) is amazing. Demanding a slightly more visceral approach to space is "Rocket Guy" Brian Walker, who plans in the near future to launch himself to around 30 miles up in a home-brewed rocket. An unnamed reader points out the current feature on Walker over at space.com.

hozzies writes: "This article at Space.com explains why black holes are "relatively nearby in cosmic terms... [but] don't seem to be eating much these days." This phenomenon has fascinated both scientists and the general public since it was first theorized. It explains a big chunk of the early universe—that is, if we can every prove they exist in the first place."

hozzies writes: "This article at Space.com explains why black holes are "relatively nearby in cosmic terms... [but] don't seem to be eating much these days." This phenomenon has fascinated both scientists and the general public since it was first theorized. It explains a big chunk of the early universe—that is, if we can every prove they exist in the first place."

Erston writes "It seems as if this could really make it to market. Mad Catz is working on a game controller that will zap you with electrodes when you are on the receiving end of your enemies' weapon. The story is here. I hope the zapper will work without the controller- I'm a keyboard/mouse fragger myself. But the more senses that I can get involved in Quake, the better-- There is also an interesting trivia piece on the bottom of the page that talks about electroshock/bio(force)feedback and how it relates to a chimpanzee in the pre-manned spaceflight era of NASA. . . " I've been using similiar technology to train CowboyNeal to get me coffee/cookies/girls and so far it hasn't been successful, but this appears to be much more practical.

Erston writes "It seems as if this could really make it to market. Mad Catz is working on a game controller that will zap you with electrodes when you are on the receiving end of your enemies' weapon. The story is here. I hope the zapper will work without the controller- I'm a keyboard/mouse fragger myself. But the more senses that I can get involved in Quake, the better-- There is also an interesting trivia piece on the bottom of the page that talks about electroshock/bio(force)feedback and how it relates to a chimpanzee in the pre-manned spaceflight era of NASA. . . " I've been using similiar technology to train CowboyNeal to get me coffee/cookies/girls and so far it hasn't been successful, but this appears to be much more practical.

SatelliteBoy writes: "Robert Bigelow, the tycoon behind Budget Suites of America, has founded Bigelow Aerospace. He just announced plans to launch a space station. He claims it can go up within 30 months. Let's see what this costs to visit..."

Soft writes: "Atlantis' rainsoaked tiles were barely dry when SpaceflightNow reported that the International Space Station's brand-new arm might have developed a problem in the Shoulder Pitch joint, which could require on-orbit replacement in what they call a "daring spacewalk". The incident could play havoc with the shuttle launch schedule, since the next mission, which was to deliver the station's big US airlock, requires a fully-functional arm there." There's another article about the malfunctioning arm at space.com.

selectspec writes: "The NYTimes is reporting that a panel of scientists has recommended that NASA treat samples returned from Mars from future missions be quarantined as if they contained deadly viruses until proven otherwise. ABC news also has the scoop, as does space.com. Of course many scientists agree this is pure politics given that over a ton of Martian material enters our atmosphere every year, spit up from meteor impacts on Mars. In the unlikely event that life currently existed on Mars in the past million or so years, such debris would have likely transported microbial organizisms here. Many forms of microbial life would be able to survive such a journey."

Faux_Pseudo writes: "In an attempt to flood your field of vison with more advertising the NY Times (free reg)has an article on how "digital technology may be used for the first time to place "virtual" products in scenes of a syndicated television series." If you were taken aback by The Duke selling Coors beer you might want to unplug the TV now." This sort of digital manipulation isn't totally new, but it seems like what we've seen so far is just the tip of the reality-distortion iceberg. As xueexueg puts it, "With any luck we'll see Capt. Janeway ask the food replicator for a meal, and a personal pan pizza will materialize."

Anonymous Coward writes: "While the world is scrambling to nail down the 1972 treaty of biological and chemical weapons, scientists are bracing for GM weapons. Some top experts in the field speculate in an article about "genetic assassination," "lifestyle targeting," "superweeds" to kill GM crops, etc. This goes way beyond just beefing up known pathogens or splicing a couple of them together, even beyond the 1997 fears of an "ethnic bomb." All very over-the-horizon, but fascinating. I'm glad these scientists stuck their necks out to discuss these controversial topics. Especially the step-by-step instructions for making a virus with one person's name on it given by William Nierman, the director of research of the Institute for Genomic Research, and a "lifestyle" weapon conceived by a Harvard geneticist. There's comment from the White House and others, too. At very least a fun read." A little premature reading about this today, but give it a few years... Reading about nuclear weapons in 1940 would have seemed outrageous too.

n9avg writes "Put aside those absurd claims the Apollo moon landings were a hoax. Two scientists pouring over photos taken by a lunar orbiting spacecraft have eyed evidence for a touchdown. New research led by Misha Kreslavsky, a space scientist in the department of geological sciences at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, has found anomalies in the moon's surface in the vicinity of the Apollo 15 landing site. Check out the picture! http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/apol lo15_touchdown_photos_010427.html"

The Night Watchman writes: "There's an article on SPACE.com regarding a newly-developed material made up of nanostructures. The stuff is basically a kind of varnish that gives an extremely strong, low-permeability coating on, say, an inflatable habitat for Mars colonization. I imagine something like this would be staggeringly useful right here on Earth as well."

Lostman writes: "CNN has an article that details a computer glitch that has occured at the international space station. The problem disrupted all communication from the command computers on the station. Although NASA knows that this was because an onboard server had crashed, the cause of this was not immediately known." See also space.com, the BBC, or NASA's status update. NASA is using Windows for most of their computing functions, as mentioned here.

NeoCode writes: "It's been 11 years already and the stats are mind boggling. Hubble is celebrating its 11th birthday and it sent another beautiful image. Stories here (CNN) and here (Space). A lot of these images have been called "space-art". The image bank can be found here."

NeoCode writes: "It's been 11 years already and the stats are mind boggling. Hubble is celebrating its 11th birthday and it sent another beautiful image. Stories here (CNN) and here (Space). A lot of these images have been called "space-art". The image bank can be found here."

FortKnox writes: "Just when you thought you heard the end of it, Russian engineers unveiled plans for the Mir2. Fortunately, the Russian government has no plans to put this on the agenda. Why can't we all just build the ISS like good little countries??" Taking the Russian space budget into account, this seems unlikely to occur any time soon. But it's nice to dream...

johndeerejedi writes: "The 4th Infantry Division (US Army)is conducting an exercise called the Division Capstone Exercise. The official website can be found here. There are lots of videos and photos for those with the bandwidth and/or the patience. We're using the latest digital goodies to give us the edge in this fight. Stuff like the M1A2 SEP tank, FBCB2, and a host of other cool stuff. One thing I thought you might all be interested in is that the FBCB2 and several other command and control systems appear to use a version of Solaris. FBCB2 and many of the other systems our here are used to enhance situational awareness and command and control via a tactical intranet." The combat computer looks pretty cool - automatically tracks its own location with GPS and reports to headquarters...

jerkface writes: "The biggest sunspot in 10 years has released an outburst of solar matter that will likely reach Earth on Friday, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). See space.com or the NOAA. There is a chance this will lead to a geomagnetic storm Friday or early Saturday." The standard sysadmin response for what caused a computer problem is actually valid now.

ParticleGirl asks: "Dennis Tito's flight to the ISS is scheduled for the same time that the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)'s robotic arm is supposed to be installed. Speaking for the CSA, Marc Garneau did an interview with Space.com. Now that Canada has come out against Tito going into space, it'll be interesting to see what kind of a compromise will be reached. Until now, this has been a sort-of standoff between Russia and the United States, but now other countries are entering the fray. Should this dude have access to the space station just because he's got the cash? He did work for NASA, and he seems to be intelligent and capable. On the other hand, he's not a trained astronaut and could plausibly be a liability if there is some sort of emergency. Will this be our first extra-orbital international incident?" While the article at Space.Com downplays any possibility of such an occurence, I can see reasons for both sides, here: Russia should be able to run their own space program, without any interference from the US, however Tito's presence on the ISS affects more than Russian interests. If the issue is a matter of training, however, I'm sure that Tito will need to pass some form of certification for space travel. Another thing to remember: the Russians have been at this space-travel thing longer than the US has. As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this issue.

ParticleGirl asks: "Dennis Tito's flight to the ISS is scheduled for the same time that the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)'s robotic arm is supposed to be installed. Speaking for the CSA, Marc Garneau did an interview with Space.com. Now that Canada has come out against Tito going into space, it'll be interesting to see what kind of a compromise will be reached. Until now, this has been a sort-of standoff between Russia and the United States, but now other countries are entering the fray. Should this dude have access to the space station just because he's got the cash? He did work for NASA, and he seems to be intelligent and capable. On the other hand, he's not a trained astronaut and could plausibly be a liability if there is some sort of emergency. Will this be our first extra-orbital international incident?" While the article at Space.Com downplays any possibility of such an occurence, I can see reasons for both sides, here: Russia should be able to run their own space program, without any interference from the US, however Tito's presence on the ISS affects more than Russian interests. If the issue is a matter of training, however, I'm sure that Tito will need to pass some form of certification for space travel. Another thing to remember: the Russians have been at this space-travel thing longer than the US has. As always, feel free to share your thoughts on this issue.

NeoCode writes: "Tomorrow, India will launch its first GSLV satellite using the Russian launchers. Its an amazing feat since they have built the satellite from scratch. If the launch is successful, India will become the sixth nation (US, Russia, China, Japan and the European Space Agency being the others) to build and launch a GSLV class satellite. Rediff.com has complete coverage on the story behind the making of this satellite. More details can found here @CNN, @TribundIndia.com and @Space.com."

This is, I hope, the last Mir story we'll be doing for a long while. Mir's dead. Controllers gave the de-orbit command at 12:08 AM EST, and it apparently came down just before 1 AM EST. Lots of stories out there, here are just a few: Space.com | AP | BBC. Remarkably, pieces of Mir are already being auctioned on Ebay. More information below.

Space.com is giving the splashdown time at 12:58 AM EST, which seems to agree with what everyone else is saying. Unless I can find a more precise time, I'll go with that.

Mir stats: first piece launched Feb. 20, 1986. Returned to Earth Mar. 23, 2001. Total orbits: 86,331 (that's a Trivial Pursuit question in the next edition, guaranteed). Longest stay: 438 days, Cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, currently the record-holder for longest stay in space. Debris footprint: 120 miles by 3,600 miles, centered around 44 S latitude and 150 W longitude.

Jacek Fedorynski took a look at Guess When Mir Will Splash and drew up this nice histogram of the guesses. He also notes that the median guess for Mir's return to Mother Earth was 2001-03-19 10:11:01.

Good guesses:

• 2001-03-23 02:02:02 - looks like 'cowkiller' is our champion Mir-guesser
• 2001-03-23 04:07:33
• 2001-03-23 04:27:42
• 2001-03-23 04:37:28
• 2001-03-22 21:37:19
• 2001-03-22 21:21:21
• 2001-03-23 06:12:25

Skyshadow writes "Space.com is reporting that the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) believes they've located the Mars Polar Lander, intact on it's landing legs. They've apparently had their people looking for the lander in photos taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, which has been tasked to take more photos of the landing area later this year."

Skyshadow writes "Space.com is reporting that the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) believes they've located the Mars Polar Lander, intact on it's landing legs. They've apparently had their people looking for the lander in photos taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, which has been tasked to take more photos of the landing area later this year."

Daktaklakpak writes "Not really new stuff, but it's too cool to pass up. Researchers are developing a method called supercavitation which may one day allow submarines to break the sound barrier. It works by placing the entire vessel in a gas bubble except for the tip, thus reducing the total drag." We've run an article about this before, but this is a bit more informative, with a lot of speculation about possible uses... Update: 03/07 03:24 PM EST by michael : Note that space.com does not use permanent URLs for these "breaking news" stories, so the link above is wrong, but should be findable, for a time at least, on the space.com site.

FortKnox writes "When the NASA budget cuts earlier this week came, the Pluto mission was killed. However, Space.com reports that NASA will attempt to make some proposals to Congress to get money for the project."

abde writes: "Sad news on Space.com -- NASA has canceled the X-33 reusable launch vehicle program due to cost overruns and severe budget cuts. Looks like we are stuck with the aging Space Shuttle ^[?] and NASA has relinquished the quest for cheap space launch capability. But hey, at least rich people get a tax cut (even if they don't want one)..."

abde writes: "Sad news on Space.com -- NASA has canceled the X-33 reusable launch vehicle program due to cost overruns and severe budget cuts. Looks like we are stuck with the aging Space Shuttle ^[?] and NASA has relinquished the quest for cheap space launch capability. But hey, at least rich people get a tax cut (even if they don't want one)..."

FortKnox writes "Space.com reports that NEAR is running out of light, and isn't expected on receiving any until November, and not having 'full light' until August 2002. They don't believe the innards will live that long. It's tough to see something that wonderful just die a slow death. It would have been grand to see them launch it and return it to put it in a museum. But, then again, some satellites live longer than expected..."

hey! writes "This just in at space.com -- new details of the Bush NASA budget. It looks like the Pluto-Kuiper express has been cancelled -- possibly our last chance for centuries to get a closeup look at Pluto's atmosphere. As Jupiter moves out of position for gravity assist and Pluto moves further from the Sun it's atmosphere will begin to freeze. My favorite line in the report -- ISS will get increased "consistent with a strategy of constraining space station cost growth." OK, they're talking about being pound wise and penny foolish, but you can't pass up an Orwellian straight line like that."

hey! writes "This just in at space.com -- new details of the Bush NASA budget. It looks like the Pluto-Kuiper express has been cancelled -- possibly our last chance for centuries to get a closeup look at Pluto's atmosphere. As Jupiter moves out of position for gravity assist and Pluto moves further from the Sun it's atmosphere will begin to freeze. My favorite line in the report -- ISS will get increased "consistent with a strategy of constraining space station cost growth." OK, they're talking about being pound wise and penny foolish, but you can't pass up an Orwellian straight line like that."

DerKlempner writes "Space.com is spotlighting a newer, cheaper type of eye-scanning device called the Authenticam. Developed by Iridian Technologies, the Authenticam, instead of scanning the subject's retina, scans the iris of the person it's trying to identify. What makes it most interesting is its price: approximately $300. So, how long before you'll need a password AND an 'eye exam' to log into your school's computer?"

DerKlempner writes "Space.com is spotlighting a newer, cheaper type of eye-scanning device called the Authenticam. Developed by Iridian Technologies, the Authenticam, instead of scanning the subject's retina, scans the iris of the person it's trying to identify. What makes it most interesting is its price: approximately $300. So, how long before you'll need a password AND an 'eye exam' to log into your school's computer?"

david.given writes "Yes, those loons at APL just will not leave the spacecraft in peace. The latest plans are to attempt to fire the thrusters again on Feb 14, 1900UTC (1400EST) and lift off the surface of EROS. If the thrusters work, and the trajectory is correct, and the camera is undamaged, and the communications system holds up, they reckon that they should get some more pictures from about 400m up. What's next? They're going to bring it home?"

Anonymous Coward writes: "This story will be very interesting for women and space geeks. A State University of New York at Stonybrook researcher has invented a machine that stimulates bone growth in subjects by just having them stand on a vibrating platform. A sheep using the gizmo 20 minutes a day had 20% denser bones after only a year. The idea was to help post-menopausal women, but now it might be used to strengthen astronauts' bones before and during flights. As you know, bones in zero gravity tend to get weaker and more brittle. The weird part is how the device works. Muscle builds by responding to damage, but that's apparently not how bone gets stimulated into growing. It seems that muscle contractions occur within frequencies of 20-50Hz and bones "hear" that oscillation as a message to build up. According to the article, the platform mimics that signal by vibrating undetectably within those frequencies. Cool, huh? Here's the story."

stigmatic writes: "The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), which provides maps to defense and intelligence agencies, has sponsored the project to see if a Open Source can benefit the world of spying. It sounds like a joke to some that a U.S. intelligence agency may soon rely on free software to turn complicated data from spy satellites into detailed maps. But a collaboration between the government, private industry and academia may lead to just that with OSSIM, or Open Source Software Image Map. Space.com is carrying the full article."

iso9k writes "As reported from Space.com: The first asteroid touchdown in history is slated for Feb. 12 as NEAR Shoemaker attempts to gently drop itself onto the battered and boulder-strewn surface of Asteroid 433 Eros. The NEAR team itself is out of money for operations. They are out of Deep Space Network tracking time. And the probe itself almost out of fuel. This will be the first time that the United States has been to another body where we are the first ones to land. The race's to the Moon, Venus and Mars were won by by the former Soviet Union. The chances of the probe making a successful touchdown: less than 1%. On the eve of Feb 11 and 12 look up to the heavens and wish our little probe good luck and thank it for its dedication and service."

notcarlos writes: "There's an article at Space.com which discusses how a supernova can trigger a sudden burst of mass "consumption" in black holes. However, when the shock waves from that explosion dissapates, the black hole goes into "remission" and takes in less mass. Nifty, eh?"

notcarlos writes: "There's an article at Space.com which discusses how a supernova can trigger a sudden burst of mass "consumption" in black holes. However, when the shock waves from that explosion dissapates, the black hole goes into "remission" and takes in less mass. Nifty, eh?"

vrmlguy writes "Here's another reason why I'm glad to live well away from any of the coasts, East, Left, or Gulf: The Antarctic icecap (and a large number of Northern Hemisphere glaciers) may be melting faster than previously suspected. New Orleans, which is already 8 feet below sea level, may be just a memory in less than a century." Interesting stuff.