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On
the eve of a new era in space,
as humans ponder colonizing other worlds, when new planets are being
discovered, and while hope is high that life exists elsewhere, we
asked five people who know about the final frontier to share their
visions for the future of space exploration and discovery. A
five-part series.
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futurewatch
Pheromones:
New twist on old love potions
11/22: Women produce
a pheromone that can cause other women exposed to it to lengthen their
menstrual cycles by one to 12 days. Others believe the odorless chemicals
can be used to attract a mate.
wil
milan's universe
Star
in a bubble
NOVEMBER: Before
our Sun burns all the planets to a crisp, it will be enshrined in a
planetary nebula.
rocks
from space
Your ancestors may have been Martian extremophiles
NOVEMBER: How
nanobes may have hitched a ride on a Mars rock, then colonized Earth.
out
at night
NOVEMBER: Bruce Dale gives a monthly tour of the
coolest things you can find in the night sky.
See what's up there
site
news
Space.com acquires
explorezone.com
11/03: Lou Dobbs, former CNN business anchor and CEO
of space.com, called ez an "excellent
source for in-depth space and science news."
11/19: Strange
double asteroid / space.com
11/17: Radio
blackouts herald boost in solar activity / space.com
11/16: Lenny
sweeps toward Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands / CNN
11/15: With
visual evidence, astronomers appear to confirm other worlds exist
/ space.com
11/14: Death
toll over 300 from Friday's Turkish quake / CNN
Looking for a
story?
The most recent briefs, stories, and links to Web news are always here,
on our home page. For older news of specific topics, choose a news zone
from the bottom of this page. Or search.
Amazon
search: Science
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Did
asteroid-induced firestorm destroy the dinosaurs?
11/19: Methane
gas ignited by an impacting asteroid may have ignited the world's
biggest barbecue.
Study
of problematic space bubbles electrified
11/18: In space, bubbles don't go up. And they can
grow to the size of footballs. New research seeks ways to control
them.
Controversy
erupts over
theory on solar eruptions
 11/18:
Potentially damaging solar eruptions have an unknown triggering mechanism.
One theory, presented this week, suggests the trigger lies deeper
within the sun than current models suggest.
Leonids
make a storm, albeit light
 11/18:
Count fails to rival the astral display of 33 years ago, but it qualifies
as a "meteor storm."
Jupiter's
composition throws planet-formation theories into disarray
 11/17:
The discovery of high levels of three unexpected elements on Jupiter
has researchers questioning how and when planets form. Some speculate
Jupiter may even be a wanderer.
First
direct evidence of an extrasolar planet
11/15: Astronomers
have witnessed for the first time a distant planet passing in front
of its star, providing direct and independent confirmation of the
existence of extrasolar planets that to date have been inferred only
from the wobble of their star.
Satellites
prepared for head-on collisions with Leonids
11/15:
"Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst," the folks who bring
you weather forecasts, go-anywhere phones and the Golf Channel will
spend 90 hours monitoring their satellites and the meteor storm that
threatens them.
List
of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids grows to 200
11/15: The newly
discovered asteroid, 1999 VP11, was found on Nov. 7 and announced
last week. It's joins the list of rocks in space that might come within
5 million miles of Earth.
Giant plant-eating dinosaur found in Sahara
11/12: Long-necked
dinosaur weighed some 20 tons and grew to a length of 70 feet.
Craters
yield clues to asteroid's history
 11/12:
Mathilde's dimples may have been punched in, like dimples in Styrofoam,
rather than excavated out like most craters.
New
map shows Earth's tectonic activity
 11/12:
NASA's new twist on mapping reveals the broad architecture of the
Earth's crust and shows current and past geologic activity.
Dynamics
of Earth's core reveal hurricanes under your feet
 11/11:
A cyclone of molten material swirls deep inside the planet.
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Bad for sea creatures,
good for land mammals
11/19: Analyzing sediments taken from the ocean floor, scientists have
found strong evidence linking a dramatic period of global warming, approximately
55.5 million years ago, to a massive release of methane. The event has
now been linked to the mass death of deep-sea organisms. In an article
in this week's issue of the journal Science, researchers say
frozen methane was released by the warming, mixing with oxygen in the
water and fueling a cascade of events that led to warmer land temperatures
at higher latitudes. One result: Land mammals scampered north and proliferated.
Lenny goes Cat
4
11/17: In the Caribbean, Hurricane Lenny strengthened dramatically over
the past two days, with top sustained winds growing from 100 mph to
150 mph. That makes Lenny a strong Category 4 storm on the five-level
Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. Hurricane warnings remain
in effect for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as Lenny bears
down on St. Croix. The hurricane is moving northeast at about 12 mph.
Lenny is expected to move toward the north or northeast over the next
couple of days, and on that course it will not threaten the U.S. mainland.
Hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Caribbean
and the Gulf of Mexico, runs through the end of November.
Small vortices
behind rain
11/12: Meteorologists have long known that tiny water droplets in clouds
must work together to make rain, but they have not been able to explain
how the droplets get together as rapidly as they do. New computer calculations
from researchers at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands
have found that small vortices -- each no bigger than a drinking glass
-- within the clouds may be the reason. Acting like miniature centrifuges,
these vortices push droplets outward, where they coalesce into larger
drops that can eventually overcome gravity and fall as rain. Simply
put, tiny pockets of turbulence within clouds seem to cause droplets
to collide more frequently than current theories expected.
Fuel injectors
for hurricanes
10/28: Warm water fuels hurricanes, and recent
research is attempting to put more emphasis on this fact in forecasting
models. A new study, announced today, shows that relatively small but
deep patches of water sometimes act as fuel injectors for hurricanes,
stimulating rapid intensification. University of Miami's Lynn K. "Nick"
Shay, working with Peter Black of NOAA's Hurricane Research Division,
found deep pockets of water that don't cool off (while a hurricane churns
the water near the surface) as rapidly as the surrounding ocean. The
result: Warm water is fed into the storm for longer periods, a scenario
akin to throwing gasoline on a fire. The rings are 180 to 220 kilometers
in diameter and 100 meters or more deep.
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11/22:
Nests of up to five galaxies each seem engaged in multiple collisions
that lead to fiery pileups.
