NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has been turning up new images of features that look like lakes on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. The latest image shows a large lake that appears to be surrounding an island. Unlike the familar lakes here on Earth, this lake is likely filled with liquid hydrocarbons.
https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09180
Solscape
World's thinnest material
Physicists from the University of Manchester and the Max-Planck Institute in Germany have created a new kind of membrane that is only one atom thick. It’s believed that this super-small structure can be used to sieve gases, make ultra-fast electronic switches and image individual molecules with unprecedented accuracy.
Wissenschaftler stellen hauchdünne Membranen her
Transistors made from organic materials
A flat screen that can be rolled up and put into a jacket pocket – organic transistors with low energy consumption could make this possible. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart and at the Universities of Stuttgart and Erlangen have constructed complementary circuits from organic transistors characterised by low supply voltages and low consumption values. These energy-saving electronic components consist of two different transistor types.
Scientists construct complementary circuits from organic materials
Ancient Solar Observatory Discovered
The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been discovered in coastal Peru, archeologists from Yale and the University of Leicester announced today. The 2.300-year-old ceremonial complex featured the Towers of Chankillo, 13 towers running north to south along a low ridge and spread across 300 meters to form a toothed horizon that was used for solar observations.
Peruvian Citadel is Site of Earliest Ancient Solar Observatory in the Americas
Physicist Hawking will experience flight in zero gravity
Renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who authored the best-selling book „A Brief History of Time“, soon will experience a brief history with weightlessness. Hawking, who uses a wheelchair and is almost completely paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, plans to go on a weightless flight on April 26, 2007, officials at the Zero Gravity Corporation at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said Thursday. Hawking will be flying aboard a specially configured Boeing 727 aircraft that travels a curving parabolic path.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6409597.stm
Rosetta teams up with New Horizons
ESA and NASA are mounting a joint campaign to observe Jupiter over the next few weeks with two different spacecraft. Rosetta will watch the big picture from its current position near Mars, whilst New Horizons will take close-up data as it speeds past the largest planet in our Solar System on its journey to Pluto.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_teams_up_with_New_Horizons
Digital atlases of the brains posted online
Digital atlases of the brains of humans, monkeys, dogs, cats, mice, birds and other animals have been created and posted online by researchers at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience. BrainMaps.org features the highest resolution whole-brain atlases ever constructed, with over 50 terabytes of brain image data directly accessible online.
Handheld sensing system resembles Star Trek’s "tricorder"
Purdue University researchers have created a handheld sensing system like Star Trek’s „tricorder“ which can be used for ultrafast chemical-analysis.
Mars Express and Venus Express operations extended
ESA’s Mars Express and Venus Express missions, to explore our nearest neighbour planets Mars and Venus, will continue to operate until early May 2009. The decision was made by ESA’s Science Programme Committee last Friday.
Envisat still going strong after five successful years
Launched from Kourou in French Guiana on the night of February 28, 2002, ESA’s Envisat spacecraft marks its fifth year in space. Having orbited Earth more than 26.000 times, the world’s largest and most complex environmental satellite ever launched has travelled a distance of more than 1.000.000.000 kilometres – nearly the equivalent of travelling to Jupiter and back. Generating some 280 Gigabytes of data products daily, Envisat has gathered 500 Terabytes to date.
To mark five years of Envisat, four picture galleries have been created to provide an overview of the mission: