Space telescope will seek new Earths

A spaceprobe blasted off today on the first mission to seek out new worlds like Earth which could hold life. UK scientists will work closely with Europe's 80 million-euro (£50 million) Corot satellite which will scour thousands of other stars for small rocky planets. But unlike Star Trek, it will not fly to other stars to find them. Instead it will use a powerful telescope to watch the stars from its orbit around the Earth. More than 200 other planets have already been detected beyond our own solar system. But they were giant gassy worlds like Jupiter. Astronomers hope to find Earth-type planets more likely to harbour living organisms. If they are successful, it will be a vital step in the search for ET. Corot, which was launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 2.23pm UK time, will use a telescope with a 12-inch wide "shaving mirror" to monitor the light from 120,000 other stars in our Milky Way. The robotic instrument, which is the size of a campervan, will watch five areas of the sky for six months at a time to check for changes in their appearance. Its sensitive "eye" - a sophisticated version of the chip inside a digital camera - will detect the tiniest fadings in the starlight which would reveal the presence of a small planet passing in front of it. If, as expected, it identifies nearby stars as having planets just like Earth, it will have huge implications by indicating that life is widespread in the universe. It is also expected to spot many more of the bigger gas worlds - so-called "hot Jupiters". Corot will be sensitive enough to observe starquakes too, caused by huge seismic disturbances inside the stars. Professor Ian Roxburgh, of Queen Mary University, London, has ben involved with Corot since the mission was first planned in 1993. He told me today: "It was originally planned just to check what stars are made of but then someone pointed out we could use the same technique to look for other worlds. "Corot will be able to spot much smaller planets than before, down to about twice the size of the Earth. Worlds that small must be rocky like our own and if they are at the right distance from their parent star then they could be habitable." Professor Roxburgh's own special interest is in what stars are made of. He said: "From the wobbles in the light we will be able to map out the insides of the stars and learn more about stellar evolution. That will tell us more about out own sun." It was third time lucky for Corot, whose name stands for "Convection Rotation and planetary Transits". Two previous lift-off attempts were called off. Yesterday's launch, aboard an unmanned Soyuz rocket, lit up the night sky in Kazakhstan. Corot's orbit will carry it 515 miles above the Earth, flying from the north to the south pole, on a mission that is due to last two and a half years. Australia and Brazil are among international partners in the French-led mission, which will examine stars out to a distance of about three thousand light-years - our own cosmic neighbourhood. Picture: An ESA impression of Corot's telescope in operation. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

How Santa tours the world in one night

A space scientist has proved that Santa's epic journey to all the world's children in one night is possible. Laws of physics can explain his seemingly fantastic Christmas Eve marathon, he says. Dr Larry Silverberg, an American professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has made a special study of Father Christmas's activities. He says Santa - pictured here by a North American Aerospace Defense Command satellite passing the International Space Station earlier tonight - combines his awareness of electromagnetic waves, computer science, nanotechnology, genetic engineering and the space-time continuum to get the job done. First, he tunes in to what children want for Christmas with an aerial using technology found in mobile phones and heart monitors. A computer filters the data - but letters sent by ordinary mail still get read too. Santa is able to nip around the globe in one night thanks to a "relativity cloud" - Einstein's discovery that time can be stretched and space squeezed. "Rips in time allow him months to deliver presents while only a few minutes pass on Earth," says Dr Silverberg, of North Carolina State University. SatNav-style technology in his on-board computer helps prepare a detailed route. The sleigh is pulled by reindeer that have been genetically bred to fly, balance on rooftops and see in the dark. There are no weight problems on the sleigh because the toys are only built when Santa reaches each child's home, using a nano-toymaker. This creates them atom by atom from snow and soot, in a similar way to how DNA makes body parts grow. The same "relativity cloud" that allows Santa to deliver all presents in the wink of an eye lets him squeeze his body down chimneys into people’s homes. Food left out for Santa and the reindeer at millions of homes is not wasted. They enjoy a quick nibble but the rest is preserved by the sleigh’s built-in food dehydrator for future consumption. Dr Silverberg says: “Children shouldn’t put too much credence in the opinions of those who say it’s not possible to deliver presents all over the world in one night. It is possible, and it’s based on plausible science.” ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Black hole blast baffles astronomers

A new type of explosion discovered in two separate galaxies is intriguing astronomers, they reveal today. Both blasts were detected as brilliant flashes of gamma rays lasting several seconds by Nasa's Swift satellite. Such huge explosions - the brightest in the universe - usually mark the creation of a black hole as an old star blows itself to pieces in a spectacular supernova. But in the two blasts observed, no sign of a supernova could be seen, several papers in the journal Nature reveal this week. The first, labelled GRB 060505, lasted four seconds and was detected in a galaxy more just over a billion light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The second, GRB 060614, lasted almost two minutes and was recorded near a galaxy 1.6 billion light years away, towards the constellation Indus. Astronomers have ruled out the possibility that clouds of dust might have blocked their view of any supernova. Gamma-ray bursts were first seen 40 years ago and they appeared to fall into two types. Apart from the "longer" supernova-forming blasts, shorter explosions, lasting less than two seconds, are thought to be due to two incredibly dense neutron stars colliding and forming a black hole. Joshua Bloom, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, said: "Instead of simplicity and clarity, we're seeing a rich diversity emerge - there are more ways than we thought for producing flashes of gamma-rays." Neil Gehrels, of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, added: "This is brand new territory. We have no theories to guide us." The image is a Nasa artist's impression of Swift with a gamma-ray burst in the background. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Spitzer spots universe's first stars

Space scientists have looked further back in time than ever before and spotted starlight from the earliest days of the universe. Nasa's Spitzer space telescope detected the faint glow of the first objects ever created, as they were more than 13 billion years ago. The "heat-seeking" telescope recorded patches of the infrared light splattered right across the sky. Studies show that it comes from clusters of bright, monstrous objects more than 13 billion light-years away. The record-breaking views back in time are revealed in the latest issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Chief investigator Dr Alexander Kashlinsky, of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre, Maryland, said: "We are pushing our telescopes to the limit and are tantalizingly close to getting a clear picture of the very first collections of objects." He added: "Whatever these objects are, they are intrinsically incredibly bright and very different from anything in existence today." Astronomers believe the objects are either the first stars - humongous stars more than 1,000 times the mass of our sun - or voracious black holes that are consuming gas and spilling out tons of energy. If the objects are stars, then the observed clusters might be the first mini-galaxies containing the equivalent to about one million suns. The Milky Way galaxy holds the equivalent of approximately 100 billion suns and was probably created when mini-galaxies like these merged. Scientists believe that space, time and matter originated 13.7 billion years ago in a tremendous explosion called the Big Bang. Results from Spitzer strongly support this theory. Detecting the glow was a major piece of detective work. Scientists first carefully had to remove the light from all foreground stars and galaxies in the five regions of the sky being studied, leaving only the most ancient light. The Nasa photo here shows one of the regions, in the constellation of Ursa Major. They then studied fluctuations in the intensity of infrared brightness in the faint and diffuse glow that remained. The fluctuations revealed a clustering of objects that produced the observed light pattern. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Google map out new course for Nasa

Google are joining up with Nasa to give everyone the chance to take virtual spaceflights around the Moon and Mars. They will work with the space agency to produce high-resolution 3D maps of the distant worlds in the same amazing detail as Google Earth. It forms part of a Space Act Agreement that the internet search giant signed today with Nasa's Ames Research Centre in California. Google currently has only very crude mappings of the Moon, as indicated by the accompanying cheesy "close-up", and Mars based on their cult Earth version of the program. The collaboration will also seek to make useful Nasa data available on the internet. Examples will include live weather maps and forecasts, plus real-time tracking of the International Space Station and shuttle. Nasa chief Michael Griffin said today: "This agreement will soon allow Americans to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the Moon or through the canyons of Mars. This innovative combination of information technology and space science will make Nasa's space exploration work accessible to everyone." Google will also help Nasa to manage the vast amounts of information held across the agency's network of computers. I am waiting for Google to act on a suggestion I emailed to them a while back - to produce a map of the sky that we could explore in a similar way to Google Earth. There is already plenty of data from observatories' sky surveys that could map the sky as a celestial sphere. Would anyone else like to see Google Universe? ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Stardust reveals planets' chaotic birth

The Sun's planets had a mixed-up birth far more turbulent than previously believed, British scientists reveal today. Dust from a comet was found to be made from material from the inner reaches and the distant edges of the Solar System. It means there must have been a massive amount of mixing going on within the disks of gas and dust from which the planets formed billions of years ago. UK astronomers made the discovery by examining minute pieces of dust brought back to Earth from a comet called Wild 2 in January this year. The particles, captured by a Nasa spaceprobe called Stardust on a seven year, 2.88 million-mile round-trip, were parachuted into the Utah Desert. They gave scientists a unique opportunity to study pristine material unchanged since the earliest days of the Solar System. Nasa sent some to scientists from The Open University, Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum and the Universities of Kent, Manchester and Glasgow. Their results are published today in the journal Science. Professor Monica Grady, of The Open University, said: “We are all very excited about what these results mean for our understanding of how the Solar System formed - and what this also means for other planetary systems. "It seems that the cloud of gas and dust from which our Sun and planets grew was much more active and turbulent than had been appreciated, with mixing between different populations of grains taking place across the whole width of the disk.” The image is a Nasa artist's impression of Stardust at Comet Wild 2. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

$50,000 reward to tag an asteroid

A $50,000 reward was announced yesterday to whoever can help save the world from a devastating asteroid impact. The Planetary Society promised the prize for the best plan to fit a cosmic missile called Apophis with an "electronic tag" to make sure it stays out of trouble and does not threaten Earth. The 400-yard wide space rock, weighing 25 million tons, will fly so close to us of Friday 13th of April, 2029, that it will pass closer than Sky's TV satellites. No one knows what effect that close pass will have on its orbit and experts are still unable to rule out a collision exactly seven years later. If Apophis passes through a several hundred-yard wide "keyhole" in 2029, it will impact Earth in 2036. Striking the Earth at a speed of 28,000mph, it will explode with the force of 65,000 atom bombs and could wipe out a small country or cause a huge tsunami. Blasting the asteroid with a nuclear missile, as in the movie Armageddon, is not seen as the answer because it could just produce a greater number of smaller rocks to threaten us. Instead, the US-based Planetary Society's Apophis competition seeks designs for a mission to rendezvous with the asteroid - one of thousands of so-called Near Earth Objects - and tag it. Landing a marker will help track the space rock accurately and provide the data needed to decide whether to follow up with another mission to deflect its orbit. Former Apollo astronaut and asteroid campaigner Rusty Schweickart said: "While the odds are very slim that this particular asteroid will hit Earth in 30 years, they are not zero. Apophis and other NEOs represent threats that need to be addressed." Bruce Betts, the Planetary Society's Director of Projects said, "With this competition, we hope not only to generate creative thinking about tagging Apophis, but also to stimulate greater awareness of the broader near-Earth object threat." The Planetary Society is conducting the competition in cooperation with groups including Nasa and the European Space Agency. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Buried craters found on Mars

Planet-piercing radar has revealed ancient impact craters beneath the surface of Mars. Radio beams from Europe's Mars Express probe, in orbit around the Red Planet, penetrated the surface to expose its older face. The echoes showed craters from asteroid impacts a few billion of years ago beneath today's smooth, low plains of the martian northern hemisphere. The discovery, revealed today in the journal Nature, will help scientists to understand how Mars and the Earth evolved. X-ray-like images were produced with the spaceprobe's Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding instrument, MARSIS. It helps solve the riddle of why Mars's southern hemisphere is rough and heavily cratered but the north is smoother. Scientists believe the lowland craters were buried by volcanic lava and then sediment from ancient floods. UK team member Professor Iwan Williams, of Queen Mary University, London, said yesterday: “These latest results show how MARSIS is able to do much more than just look for water a few kilometres below the surface. In mapping the subsurface of Mars the instrument has found numerous craters in an ancient surface that has since been covered by more recent debris." He added: “This discovery changes one of the outstanding problems regarding the martian surface. Instead of asking, 'Why are the northern uplands young compared to the south', we now need to ask, 'Why did only the North get covered with dust or debris?'." The ESA image shows a projection of Mars radar results on a false-colour image of Mars. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Flaring sunspot threatens shuttle

An exploding sunspot flared, firing a huge wave of radiation towards the Earth today, sounding a warning over the safety of spacewalking astronauts. The massive storm overwhelmed satellite sensors and looked set to produce brilliant displays of the northern lights. But Nasa were watching the giant spot - which is bigger than the Earth - in case it fires more deadly levels of radiation hurtling in our direction. The sunspot, labelled 930, unleased several massive blasts last week when it was near the edge of the Sun. Even though it was then pointed away from Earth, it registered as a loud roar on shortwave radio receivers and space station astronauts practised sheltering procedures. Above is a photo I took at the weekend. Since then, the Sun has revolved and the spot, which had quietened down, has exploded back into life as it faces us. Experts said yesterday's category S2 storm was not a danger to the shuttle cre, but could cause glitches and reboots on satellites. UK solar expert Dr Lucie Green, of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey, told me today: "These explosions are unpredictable and there is a real danger to astronauts if a big one goes off. "X-ray and ultra-violet particles take just 20 to 30 minutes to get here from the Sun so Nasa would have to act quickly to move spacewalking astronauts. "They have a limited amount of protection in their spacesuits but for a major flare they would need to find shelter within the space station." Two of the seven Discovery astronauts are due to make two more lengthy spacewalks this week to continue rewiring work and extending the space station. If another, bigger flare is seen, Nasa expects to have enough time to order them inside to shelter behind water tanks before a dangerous wave of radiation hits them. In August 1972, between the Apollo 16 and 17 missions, a powerful solar flare occurred that could have killed astronauts if they had been on their way to the moon or on the lunar surface. Life on Earth is protected from the effects of solar storms by our planet's magnetic field. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Mile-high mountains on Titan

A range of mountains a mile high has been discovered on the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan. The 93-mile long range (150km) is the tallest seen on the moon, which scientists are comparing to a young Earth. It is blanketed with clouds and coated with a strange "snow" - methane or other organic material possibly like that from which life formed on Earth. The discovery was made by Nasa's Cassini probe, in orbit around ringed planet Saturn, as it flew close to Titan on October 25. It used an infrared camera to peer through the orange haze surrounding Titan which is the only other world in the solar system to have a thick nitrogen-dominated atmosphere like our own. Latest results from the mission were announced at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. The images also revealed dunes and a fan-shaped deposit of material resembling a volcano's lava flow. Scientists believe the mountains formed because of the movement of tectonic plates just as continental drift produces ocean ridges on Earth. Professor John Zarnecki, of the Open University, who led the team that landed the Huygens probe on Titan in January last year, said: "Titan continues to amaze us. We are really beginning to build up a detailed picture of the make-up of this intriguing moon." Cassini scientist Dr Larry Soderblom, of the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona, said: “These mountains are probably as hard as rock, made of icy materials, and are coated with different layers of organics. He added: “Some of this organic gunk falls out of the atmosphere as rain, dust, or smog onto the valley floors and mountain tops, which are coated with dark spots that appear to be brushed, washed, scoured and moved around the surface.” The mountain range can be seen running diagonally across the accompanying Nasa image. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Brilliant launch for shuttle Discovery

British-born astronaut Nick Patrick and his crewmates were woken from their first sleep in space by the Beatles today. Mission controllers at Houston played Here Comes The Sun over the shuttle Discovery's radio at the start of a busy day for the team. Fellow astronaut Shannon Lucid, on the ground, said the song was picked to celebrate the brilliant night-time take-off of Mission STS-116 that lit up Florida on Saturday night - early today UK time. She said: "We especially want to thank you for the burst of sunshine you brought into our lives last night. It was an awesome launch." Nick, 42, who was born at Saltburn, Teesside, later ran into problems when he extended a 50ft robot arm from the shuttle to inspect its heatshield for any damage. The arm's grip was failing to let go automatically but Nasa said Nick would be able to operate it manually by sending a few extra computer commands. The examination, carried out to prevent a repeat of the Columbia disaster in 2003, was begun as the shuttle headed for its rendezvous tomorrow with the International Space Station, 220 miles above the Earth. When Discovery reached orbit, space station commander Mike Lopez-Alegria called Houston and quipped: "We're going to turn our porch light on so they can find us." Also on the 12-day mission to continue building the station is Sweden's first astronaut, Christer Fuglesang of the European Space Agency. The rest of the crew are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and mission specialists Bob Curbeam, Joan Higginbotham and Sunita Williams. A German astronaut, Thomas Reiter, will fly home on the shuttle after a six-month stay in space, to be replaced by Williams. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Flowing water clue to life on Mars

Water is still flowing on the surface of Mars, Nasa revealed last night. It means there is a real possibility that life exists on the red planet. The space agency's scientists called the discovery the most important ever made on Mars. It means astronauts will have access to the most vital necessity for life when they get to Mars and should be able to grow plants for food. But there was bad news for space missions too. For in a second major revelation, Nasa said that meteorites are still blasting out craters on the Martian surface. One spotted in a satellite photo is nearly the size of a football stadium and was caused by a 100-kiloton explosion. Probes had previously seen evidence that water existed on ancient Mars many millions of years ago. Now an orbiting satellite has imaged new white deposits that show it still flows on the surface today. Britain's most famous explorer of Mars, Professor Colin Pillinger of the Open University, told me last night that the discovery meant life may still exist on Mars. He said: "This is a very exciting find. They've been looking for water for ten years and now they've found it. This makes these regions the prime candidate now, as far as I'm concerned, for looking for life on Mars - current life on Mars." Professor Pillinger, whose UK Beagle 2 probe crashed on Mars on Christmas Day, 2003, added: "I think everyone was surprised to see those pictures - even the people who took them. I don't think anyone expected to see something that had happened just a couple of years ago." Prof Pillinger, of the Open University, said it was vital to return to the surface of Mars to investigate further. He told me: "You can't see anything from an orbiter. You might be able to get some analysis of the white deposits but if you want to do the experiment then you're going to have to go there. It would make me very keen to send another probe like Beagle there." Tens of thousand of gullies were photographed by Mars Global Surveyor during nearly ten years of photographing Mars before contact was lost with the probe last month. Two of them showed evidence that the equivalent of five to ten swimming pools of water had flowed down them since they were first photographed. The water vaporises as it flows, leaving white deposits which are quite unlike the dark tracks left by Mars rovers. Nasa Mars expert Ken Edgett told a press conference: "You've all heard of the smmoking gun. This is the squirting gun. No one expected what we have today. We have been able to image gullies repetedly. We found something we didn't expect - changes in shapes that showed movement of water was involved." The two sites where gullies were photographed were inside unnamed craters in the Terra Sirenum and Centauri Montes regions of southern Mars. The latter flow is pictured here. Nasa's Phil Christensen said: "This is a remarkable set of new observations that shows once again how dynamic the surface of Mars is. The mid latitudes of Mars are truly exciting places. Certainly something very remarkable goes on there. The evidence for water is compelling." New probes at Mars and a future lander called Phoenix are expected to help confirm the amazing discovery. In the second major announcement, Mike Meyer showed images of new craters blasted out of the surface of Mars. He said 20 had been recorded in the past six to seven years and it was believed they were forming at a rate of 12 a year. "If you lived on Mars, you'd be close enough to hear one a year," he said. The impacts are a small but real hazard for any Mars colonies and the high rate could be due to the planet being closer to the asteroid belt. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Black hole seen to swallow star

Scientists have watched for the first time as a star was ripped to shreds by a black hole. They caught the distant sun's cosmic scream as the galactic cannibal destroyed it and swallowed it up. The savage act was spotted by a Nasa satellite, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Excited astronomers have never before watched the whole process of a black hole eating up a star. The cosmic feast - shown in the Nasa artist's impression - was witnessed in a galaxy four billion light-years away from the Earth in the constellation of Boötes. The satellite recorded a huge ultraviolet flare as the lurking black hole, believed to be tens of millions of times more massive than our sun, seized the passing star. It was torn to pieces by the incredible gravitational forces. Material then swirled around like water in a plughole before plunging into the black hole, never to be seen again. Dr Suvi Gezari, of the California Institute of Technology, will report on the incredible event in next week's issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters. He said: "This type of event is very rare, so we are lucky to study the entire process from beginning to end." Co-author Dr Christopher Martin said: "This will help us greatly in weighing black holes in the universe, and in understanding how they feed and grow in their host galaxies as the universe evolves." ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Asteroid collision is 'still a threat'

Earth still faces a small but real risk of impact by an asteroid named after a god of destruction, experts are warning. The space rock - called 99942 Apophis - could hit us with the force of 65,000 atom bombs and wipe out a country. I previously reported that Earth had been given the all-clear but a report in the US magazine Popular Mechanics suggests I was premature. Astronomers say they don't have enough data to rule out a collision with the 25 million-ton asteroid even though it is more than two years since it was discovered. The problem is that the 820ft-wide cosmic missile, hurtling through space at more than 28,000mph, will get two chances to smash into us. And although scientists believe it should just miss us the first time, they still cannot say if it will collide seven years later. That is because the first close encounter, on Friday 13th of April, 2029, will have an unpredictable effect on the deadly asteroid's orbit. Apophis will probably fly past us at less than a tenth the distance of the Moon - closer than Sky's TV satellites - appearing like a bright star crossing the night sky. But the asteroid, named after the ancient Egyptian god of darkness and destruction, will pass through a "gravitational keyhole" if it flies by at a distance of 18,893 miles, Popular Mechanics says. That will put the Earth squarely in the crosshairs for a potentially catastrophic impact on April 13, 2036. Scientists tracking Apophis visually and with radar say there is a 45,000-to-one risk of it going through that keyhole. Former Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, 71, is campaigning for NASA to launch an Armageddon-style mission to deflect the asteroid. He said: "We need to act. If we blow this, it'll be criminal." But don't panic. It seems we have the time and the means to handle this threat. Experts say a spaceprobe would only need to nudge the asteroid off course by about a mile to ensure that it avoided striking Earth in 2036. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For books about asteroids, more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Nasa chief highlights light pollution

I wanted to return today to Nasa Administrator Mike Griffin's public lecture at the Royal Society because of one particular element that surprised and delighted me. During his talk about Man's great history of exploration, Dr Griffin drew attention to that great scourge of astronomers, light pollution. The growing fog of light is drowning our night skies and preventing people from seeing the true wonders of the night. The fearful and paranoid switch on ever more lights in a misguided bid to seek security. In so doing, they deny today's and future generations the opportunity to see and appreciate their place in the universe. Dr Griffin said: "One of the minor misfortunes of modern life in our major cities is that our night-time lighting has drowned out our view of the rich constellation of stars and planets in the night sky, and we find other idle pursuits, such as television, to occupy our time. "Thus, we today do not look up nearly as often to marvel at the beauty and mystery of the night sky as did our ancestors, who imagined the stars to represent constellations of mythological beasts and legends, while the planets represented gods. "I am happy that we have progressed beyond this. To me the view of Hadley Rille from a camera mounted on the Apollo lunar rover is more exciting than imagining the moon to be the huntress Diana. But, there is no question that we modern folk are less concerned with the heavens than were our ancestors." Dr Griffin further confirmed his commitment to science by recognising the importance of repairing the Hubble space telescope, the greatest ambassador that astronomy has today. He said: "Last month I made the decision, the culmination of 18 months of work by Nasa engineers and scientists, that we could effectively and safely conduct a space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope to extend the life and capabilities of this great observatory. "I have been struck by the tremendously positive response this decision has received, by the way that people from all over the world have been awed and inspired by Hubble pictures revealing a few of the secrets of our universe. "Hubble provides glimpses into the universe that are far, far beyond the scale of the astronomical unit, the objective for Cook’s first voyage to the South Pacific. The view of our vast universe provided by Hubble uplifts us; it gives us a measure of hope." The satellite picture shows how the USA and its major cities are clearly visible from space at night from the escaping glow of their lights. Photo: The International Dark-Sky Association. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

UK astronauts could walk on Moon

Nasa Administrator Michael Griffin is offering Britain the chance to join the United States on its return to the Moon in the next decade. And quizzed by Skymania News, he said he hoped that would include flying British astronauts to the lunar surface. The UK currently has a space policy that supports robotic probes but not human spaceflight. This week, Dr Griffin held informal talks in London this week with new science minister Malcolm Wicks and proposed linking up to explore the Moon. Last night, he gave an inspiring public lecture at the Royal Society before an audience that included Stephen Hawking and Beagle scientist Colin Pillinger. Dr Griffin made it clear that he believes it is Man's destiny to explore the solar system, likening it to the great voyages by sailing ships to explore the globe. He said: "The British Royal Astronomical Society recently released a report advocating the expansion of British involvement in human space exploration. "I hope that report receives sober consideration in the policy circles of the United Kingdom, and I hope that I can count on you to be among the international partners who, with the United States, work to develop the first permanent lunar outpost in the next decade." During questions afterwards, I asked Dr Griffin if his invitation extended to training British astronauts. He told me: "The minister and I had an excellent meeting and I did point out that the US strategic plan for NASA today is intended to be international in scope and that I personally would regret it if, when we return to the Moon, we cannot return in company with our closest ally. "And so yes, the invitation absolutely is there for the UK to join us in those journeys. The level and scope and nature of that participation will of course be up to the UK - we are looking for volunteers, not conscripts - and I hope that that level of participation would go so far as to include astronauts. "And of course, if it does - and that is a choice that Great Britain must finally make - then of course we will participate in training them." Former science minister Lord Sainsbury, who resigned for personal reasons last month was known to be opposed to human spaceflight. When I spoke to a press officer at the Department of Trade and Industry about Dr Griffin's offer, he said the official situation had not changed. You can watch a webcast of Dr Griffin's speech here or read this transcript. Regular readers will recall that British-born astronaut Piers Sellers also called for the UK to produce it own astronauts last week. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!

Meteorites may have seeded life

Scientists have discovered new evidence that life may have been seeded on Earth from the depths of space. They found carbon bubbles trapped within a meteorite that crashed to the ground in Canada in the year 2000. It is thought similar material could have provided the raw organic chemicals which helped the first organisms to flourish on our planet. Extensive analysis has proved that the tiny globules are not the result of any contamination on earth. Instead they formed in temperatures close to absolute zero and must therefore have been created in space. The meteorite - called a carbonaceous chondrite - could be the oldest rock found on Earth. Chunks of it, with a consistency similar to barbecue bricks, were found soon after it was seen blazing across the sky to the frozen surface of Tagish Lake in British Columbia. They have been analysed at Nasa's Johnson Space Center at Houston, Texas, by scientists led by Keiko Nakamura-Messenger. The team says the bubbles in the meteorite are likely to be be even older than the Sun. That is because the rock's chemistry shows evidence of the extreme cold that existed in the cloud of gas from which our solar system formed, billions of years ago. The image shows a chunk of the meteorite being examined by Christopher Herd, Curator of the University of Alberta Meteorite Collection. Photo: Michael Holly, University of Alberta. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com • For more space reading, plus other bargains, check out the Skymania store!