Did A Giant Asteroid Impact Off The Coast Of India Kill All The Dinsaurs?

Did giant Indian impact kill the dinosaurs?Monday, 19 October 2009by Holly HightCosmos OnlinePORTLAND, OREGON:

Move aside Chicxulub; an even bigger asteroid impact in the Shiva basin, off the coast of India, may have been ground zero for the dinosaurs, a team of U.S. and Indian scientists say in a guaranteed-to-be-controversial finding.The huge depression, around 500 km across, appears to be the largest, multi-ringed impact crater in the world, according to Sankar Chatterjee, a geoscientist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, who presented his research at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting in Portland, USA, today.Earth's biggest impact"If we are right, this is the largest crater known on our plane… a bolide of this size, perhaps 40 km in diameter creates its own tectonics," he said. "It may have been the one to kill the dinosaurs."The Chicxulub crater, an impact site beneath the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, was caused by an asteroid 8 to 10 km in diameter. This impactor is commonly believed to have caused a mass extinction at the end of Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago, which wiped out the dinosaurs.
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8.
Comment: The final frontier: open to all?
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:44 am (PDT)
Comment: The final frontier: open to all?A new vision for NASA, where crew and cargo transport to the International Space Station is privatised, emerged last week after remarks by the agency's administrator Charles Bolden.The former Shuttle astronaut made it clear that he has already decided a heavylift rocket is needed for exploration and that commercial companies should provide access to low Earth orbit. These would make up a substantial part of any spaceflight vision.Every word from Bolden is being scrutinised, with the Space Shuttle fleet to be retired in 2010 and its replacement, the Ares I rocket and its Orion crew exploration vehicle, under threat of cancellation because of cost problems.So it was all the more surprising to hear the new administrator express his views before he has even received the final report of US President Barack Obama's human spaceflight review, which will rate options that Bolden will discuss with the president for the new vision. NASA's new vision will be Obama's choice, but Bolden's opinions will hold great sway.More at:http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/10/19/333503/comment-the-final-frontier-open-to-all.html
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9.
Building an Astrobiology Tool Kit: Testing instruments for ExoMars a
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:47 am (PDT)
Building an Astrobiology Tool Kit Testing instruments for ExoMars and Mars Science LaboratoryField trips: How to select a suitable spot for testing instruments in a Martian analogue environment.Image credit: Kjell Ove StorvikBy Juan Diego Rodriguez Blanco (AMASE team)How can we be sure that instruments that will be sent on future Martian missions will work properly? How do we know that they will obtain accurate and precise measurements? How will we be able to compare the data to what we have seen on our planet? The answer is easy: by testing, testing and again testing them during field trips on Earth. This has been one of the most important goals of AMASE 2009. During the AMASE 2009 expedition many different instruments to be sent to Mars have been tested in the course of a series of field deployments. The instruments were used to study specific sedimentary and igneous environments. Several of these instruments have been on AMASE before and the instruments are evolving year by year; they become smaller and more compact, but still remain accurate and are better and better at working under the harsh conditions of the arctic climate. Let's see some of the results that we have achieved this year: Amy McAdam and Paul Mahaffy (behind) working with the SAM instrument.Image credit: Kjell Ove Storvik- SAM: A great instrument capable of giving us tons of information about organics in a Martian environment is SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars). SAM is an integrated suite consisting of a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer and a tunable laser spectrometer that will fly aboard NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission in 2011. SAM can carry out mineral and atmospheric analyses, detecting a wide range of organic compounds as well as obtaining stable isotope analyses of organics and noble gases. To achieve this SAM will use powdered rock samples that are heated from ambient to 1000* C in a helium stream and the evolved gases are continuously analyzed by a mass spectrometer. Paul Mahaffy, the principal investigator of SAM, works at the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This year he has used SAM to study carbonate samples from the Sverrefjell volcano and has focussed on macromolecular carbon (MMC) associated with magnetite in the carbonate globules found in an ice cave formed after the eruption of the volcano into glacial ice. This material is similar to those carbonates in the Martian meteorite ALH84001, but previous AMASE research has shown that the carbonates on Svalbard - although excellent analogues for ALH84001 - have formed abiotically. However, these studies carried out with SAM have been very useful in better understanding the ability and limitations of this in-situ instrument to distinguish biomarkers. More at:http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_expedition&task=detail&id=3274
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10.
NASA looks to relieve space station traffic bottlenecks
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:48 am (PDT)
NASA looks to relieve space station traffic bottlenecksBY STEPHEN CLARKSPACEFLIGHT NOWPosted: October 16, 2009In an attempt to alleviate tightly stacked space missions, managers are re-evaluating a long-standing policy banning other spacecraft from arriving or leaving the International Space Station while the space shuttle is docked to the complex.Since the station's inception, visiting Soyuz and Progress missions have been precluded from docking or undocking from the outpost while a shuttle is attached.The policy has led to undesirable tight launch periods and delays for several shuttle missions.NASA had hoped to move up the launch of shuttle Atlantis next month to Nov. 9 to avoid a logjam of launches at Cape Canaveral in mid-November. But those plans would interfere with a Russian launch of a Progress vehicle with a new docking module for the station.More at:http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts129/091016visiting/
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11.
Ares I-X test: 'New Era' — or dead end?
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:49 am (PDT)
Ares I-X test: 'New Era' — or dead end?The Ares I-X rocket is seen in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center recently as team members simulate launch countdown and do final system checks in preparing Ares for rollout to the launchpad. The rocket is scheduled for a test launch Oct. 27. (RED HUBER, ORLANDO SENTINEL / October 18, 2009)By Robert BlockSentinel Space EditorOctober 19, 2009CAPE CANAVERAL - At first glance, the Ares I-X is a wonder to behold. Standing 327 feet tall and gleaming white inside Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building, it is the tallest rocket in the world and the first major new NASA spaceship design to make it to the launchpad in nearly three decades.But look a little deeper, and the Ares I-X resembles an aerospace Lego project more than a new leap in launch technology. The nearly $400 million rocket is literally made of spare or donated parts from other NASA and military rockets. In reality, it is mostly a dressed-up four-segment solid-rocket booster taken from the space shuttle, with a dummy second stage and capsule and a fake launch-abort system.Nonetheless, if the test rocket makes the slow 4.2-mile journey from the VAB to Pad 39B as scheduled overnight tonight, it will be the first time something other than a shuttle has perched there since 1975, when a Saturn I-B blasted off for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.The rocket's main purpose is to test whether the skinny "stick" design of the Ares I — the rocket supposed to replace the shuttle — can be controlled during flight, and to test the parachutes that will enable recovery of the first stage. It will also gather data from 700 sensors that can be used to refine computer models for the real Ares I, scheduled to launch in 2015 but likely won't before 2017.More at:http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-ares-launch-expected-101909,0,6737766.story
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12.
Travel to Mars – on a one-way ticket?
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:50 am (PDT)
Travel to Mars – on a one-way ticket?Some experts believe it's the only way to explore the red planet and save NASABy ERIC BERGERHOUSTON CHRONICLEOct. 19, 2009, 8:21AMA blue-ribbon panel on human spaceflight recently declared Mars to be NASA's ultimate objective, but admitted humans aren't going there any time soon.In fact, the Augustine panel appointed by President Barack Obama said that without a substantial infusion of cash, NASA couldn't even send humans back to the moon in the next few decades.Depressing news, indeed, for the city that trains and houses astronauts.But what if NASA could land astronauts on Mars in a decade, for not ridiculously more money than the $10 billion the agency spends annually on human spaceflight? It's possible, say some space buffs, although there's a catch.More at:http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6673981.html
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13.
John Kelly: Stakes high for NASA's moon program
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:52 am (PDT)
John Kelly: Stakes high for NASA's moon programSPACE COLUMNIST JOHN KELLY • OCTOBER 19, 2009The stakes could not be higher for NASA's embattled moon program.This week, at Kennedy Space Center, space workers plan to make history again by moving the towering Ares I-X rocket out to its waterfront launch pad.Next week, NASA aims to ignite the sleek new moon rocket on a test flight that is the last best chance to save the launcher that is supposed to replace the shuttles.All launches are risky. On every shuttle launch, we risk the lives of some of our best and brightest people. On many rocket launches, we risk losing military and spy satellites that help protect us from bad guys around the world.On the line with this Ares I-X launch, however, is the future of the United States' civilian space exploration program.More at:http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20091019/NEWS02/910190309/1006/NEWS01/Kelly++Stakes+high+for+moon+program
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14.
NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 15-18 October 2009
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:56 am (PDT)
NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 15-18 October 2009NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 18 October 2009NASA HQ - October 17, 2009Posted on: 10/18/2009 4:06:17 PM PSThttp://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32614NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 17 October 2009NASA HQ - October 17, 2009Posted on: 10/18/2009 4:05:38 PM PSThttp://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32613NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 16 October 2009NASA HQ - October 16, 2009Posted on: 10/18/2009 4:04:48 PM PSThttp://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32612NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 15 October 2009- October 15, 2009Posted on: 10/15/2009 2:45:50 PM PSThttp://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32602
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15.
Ares 1-X team continues to target Tuesday rollout
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:59 am (PDT)
Ares 1-X team continues to target Tuesday rolloutThe Ares 1-X test rocket is scheduled to make an overnight journey from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to launch pad 39B. The trip will begin at midnight EDT and take 8 to 10 hours to complete.Mission Status CenterBy Stephen ClarkWelcome to Spaceflight Now's live coverage of the Ares 1-X rocket test flight. Text updates will appear automatically; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2009The Ares 1-X test rocket is still scheduled to move to launch pad 39B Tuesday morning after engineers replaced a leaky part inside the first stage's steering system.Jon Cowart, the mission's deputy project manager, said the only hurdle standing in the way of rollout on Tuesday is the availability of a crawler-transporter to carry the rocket and its launch platform from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the seaside pad."We've had a bit of an issue with our crawler-transporters. Both of them have experienced failures in the last couple of days, so we're working very hard on Crawler-Transporter 2. There's a bearing that they're having to look at and I think they're going to get past this issue," Cowart told Spaceflight Now on Saturday night."If they do, and we have every expectation right now they they will, it looks like we will roll out Monday night," Cowart said.More at:http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ares1x/status.html
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16.
Nearly 3 Dozen Planets Found
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:00 am (PDT)
Nearly 3 Dozen Planets Found By Andrea ThompsonSenior Writerposted: 19 October 200909:05 am ETAstronomers announced today the discovery of 32 extrasolar planets, some just five times the mass of Earth and others five times heftier than giant Jupiter.The findings significantly boost the number of planets closer to Earth in size and help astronomers better understand what types of stars birth what kinds of planets.The new alien planets, which bring the known count beyond 400, were found with the HARPS spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-m telescope in La Silla, Chile. The HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) program surveyed about 2,000 stars over five years, with the particular aim of looking at solar-type stars for low-mass planets.Most of the known exoplanets found previously are very large — typically many times the size of Jupiter — so the newfound smaller planets bolster the known population of lower mass planets by 30 percent, said study team member Xavier Bonfils of LAOG in Grenoble, France.More at:http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091019-exoplanet-harps.html
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17.
New Mars Pyramid Found
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:03 am (PDT)
New Mars Pyramid FoundPosted by: Heene // Aug 24, 2008 // viewed 4,485 times // shared 8 times Fort Collins, Colorado // embed media A new Mars Pyramid has been found in a European Space Agency Photo by Richard Heene, Science Detective.To find the photo, go to:http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html . Click Mars Facts and Images, click Mars Express images, go to page 27, click "Crater Hale in perspective, looking west".The European Space Agency has leaked evidence clearly showing civilization on planet Mars.This video will show you the evidence,as well as how you can download it and judge for yourself.Also this Video shows a new Head Monument that has been recently identified on the Maritian surface.This is not a hoax. [Yeah, right. :-/ -Ed]More at:http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-65430
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18.
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Nereus Crater on Mars
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:07 am (PDT)
Astronomy Picture of the DayDiscover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.2009 October 19 Nereus Crater on Mars Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, JPL, NASA; Image Processing: Kenneth KremerExplanation: It was along the way. The robotic rover Opportunity currently rolling across the Meridiani Plain on Mars has a destination of Endeavour Crater, a large crater over 20 kilometers across which may yield additional clues about the cryptic past of ancient Mars. Besides passing open fields of dark soil and light rock, Opportunity has chanced upon several interesting features. One such feature, pictured above in a digitally stitched and horizontally compressed panorama, is Nereus Crater, a small crater about 10 meters across that is surrounded by jagged rock. Besides Nereus, Opportunity recently also happened upon another unusual rock -- one that appears to be the third large meteorite found on Mars and the second for Opportunity during only this trip. Opportunity has been traveling toward Endeavour Crater for over a year now, and if it can avoid ridged rocks and soft sand along the way, it may reach Endeavour sometime next year.More at:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091019.html
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19.
Opportunity Discovers Still Another Meteorite! Find It on Google Mar
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:08 am (PDT)
Opportunity Discovers Still Another Meteorite! Find It on Google MarsWritten by Nancy AtkinsonOpportunity must be driving down Meteorite Alley on Mars. The rover has come across still another meteorite, the third space rock it has found the past few months, and fourth overall since 2005. This one is called Mackinac, which continues the "island" theme by which the science team has dubbed the meteorites. Block Island was found in July 2009, and Opportunity came upon Shelter Island the end of September (around sol 2020 for the rover). Mackinac was found on sol 2034 (Oct 13), and it looks very similar in composition to the two earlier meteorites. Opportunity analyzed the Block Island and found it was made of iron and nickel.The image above was color calibrated by Stu Atkinson, who hangs out at UnmannedSpaceflight.com. You can find all the raw images Opportunity has sent back to Earth here, and raw images from Spirit here. But you can also follow Opportunity in other ways….You can keep track of Opportunity's travels through Meridiani Planum on its way to Endeavour Crater at one of Stu's blogs, Road to Endeavour. But — and this is very fun — you can also follow Oppy on Google Mars, and see where it has found the meteorites. Tesheiner on UMSF regularly updates a route map, pinpointing the spots where the rover stops. Just go to Google Mars (download Google Earth and Mars here if you don't have it yet), open up Google Mars, then click on this link, download and open, and you'll be transported to Opportunity's location on Mars. Extreme, extreme cool.Now, you'll notice that region of Google Mars doesn't have high-resolution imagery yet. They're working on it. In the meantime, though, if you want to see a great mosaic of the terrain that Opportunity is traveling through, check out this image below created by Ken Kremer, also of UMSF. This is from Sol 2010 showing Nereus Crater and dunes on the Road to Endeavour, where Oppy was just prior to discovering Shelter Island. The crater is about 10 meters across. Ken created this mosaic from raw images from the Cornell Pancam raw images, stitching multiple images together and calibrating the color. Beautiful! Click the image for a larger version over at Spaceflightnow.com. This image is also the Oct. 19 Astronomy Picture of the Day.More at:http://www.universetoday.com/2009/10/18/opportunity-discovers-still-another-meteorite-findit-on-google-mar/
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20.
Where Could Humans Survive in our Solar System?
Posted by: "Gerry" FILMIST@Mac.com filmist
Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:12 am (PDT)
Where Could Humans Survive in our Solar System?Written by Nancy AtkinsonIf humans were forced to vacate Earth, where is the next best place in our solar system for us to live? A study by the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo has provided a quantitative evaluation of habitability to identify the potential habitats in our solar system. Professor Abel Mendez, who produced the study also looked at how the habitability of Earth has changed in the past, finding that some periods were even better than today.Mendez developed a Quantitative Habitability Theory to assess the current state of terrestrial habitability and to establish a baseline for relevant comparisons with past or future climate scenarios and other planetary bodies including extrasolar planets."It is surprising that there is no agreement on a quantitative definition of habitability," said Mendez, a biophysicist. "There are well-established measures of habitability in ecology since the 1970s, but only a few recent studies have proposed better alternatives for the astrobiology field, which is more oriented to microbial life. However, none of the existing alternatives from the fields of ecology to astrobiology has demonstrated a practical approach at planetary scales."His theory is based on two biophysical parameters: the habitability (H), as a relative measure of the potential for life of an environment, or habitat quality, and the habitation (M), as a relative measure of biodensity, or occupancy. Within the parameters are physiological and environmental variables which can be used to make predictions about the distribution, and abundance of potential food (both plant and microbial life), environment and weather.More at:http://www.universetoday.com/2009/10/16/where-could-humans-survive-in-our-solar-system/
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