Stars reveal carbon 'spaceballs' 22 July 2010Last updated at 19:14 By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News The football-shaped molecules are the largest molecules ever found in space Scientists have detected the largest molecules ever seen in space, in a cloud of cosmic dust surrounding a distant star. The football-shaped carbon molecules are known as buckyballs, and were only discovered on Earth 25 years ago when they were made in a laboratory. These molecules are the "third type of carbon" - with the first two types being graphite and diamond. The researchers report their findings in the journal Science. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote This provides convincing evidence that the buckyball has... existed since time immemorial in the dark recesses of our galaxy” End QuoteHarry KrotoChemistry Nobel laureate Buckyballs consist of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a sphere. The research group, led by Jan Cami from the University of Western Ontario in Canada, made its discovery using Nasa's Spitzer infrared telescope.
Moon Men to Obama: Your NASA Plans Suck Asteroids. Not everyone's pleased with NASA's future, as defined by the Obama-led new fiscal plans for the space agency...and three particularly significant chaps would just assume tell him to shove it up Uranus. They're names are Armstrong, Lovell, and Cernan. Ring any bells? Yup, that'll be Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Eugene Cernan. In order they're the first man on the Moon in 1969, the first American to fly to space four times (twice to the Moon) and the last man to leave the Moon, in 1972. They are three of the most memorable names in space exploration history, of any nation, let alone the U.S. and they're not pleased. Not pleased at all. They've written an open letter to the President to explain why.
Space shots fired! The three do admit that the new plans have some potential for moving humans beyond their current low-earth orbit exploration boundaries, and that Mars is an exciting goal to aim at, though they note that it'll take a long time to get there. TWAN project official website. Astronomers detect 'monster star' By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News They are among the true monsters of space - colossal stars whose size and brightness go well beyond what many scientists thought was even possible. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote Planets take longer to form than these stars take to live and die” End QuoteProf Paul CrowtherSheffield University, UK One of the objects, known simply as R136a1, is the most massive ever found.
The star is seen to have a mass about 265 times that of our own Sun; but the latest modelling work suggests at birth it could have been bigger, still. Perhaps as much as 320 times that of the Sun, says Professor Paul Crowther from Sheffield University, UK. "If it replaced the Sun in our Solar System, it would outshine [it] by as much as the Sun currently outshines the full Moon," the astronomer told BBC News. R136, a cluster of young, massive and hot stars (ESO). NGC 3603 is relatively close in cosmic terms - just 22,000 light-years distant. Warp Speed Will Kill You. Captain Kirk might want to avoid taking the starship Enterprise to warp speed, unless he's ready to shrug off interstellar hydrogen atoms that would deliver a lethal radiation blast to both ship and crew.
There are just two hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeter on average in space, which poses no threat to spaceships traveling at low speeds. But those same lone atoms would transform into deadly galactic space mines for a spaceship that runs into them at near-light speed, according to calculations based on Einstein's special theory of relativity. The original crew of "Star Trek" featured as unfortunate examples at a presentation by William Edelstein, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University, at the American Physical Society conference in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 13. The physicist showed a video clip of Kirk telling engineer Scotty to go to warp speed.
"Well, they're all dead," Edelstein recalled saying. Solid shields seem even more hopeless. Video - Star Trek's Warp Drive: Are We There Yet?