Space telescopes capture a cosmic jellyfish



Space is always eventful. Explore it with our weekend reminiscence. To satisfy their impertinent minds, the scientists are always up with their gloves exploring the outer world with new probes and discoveries. Here are some of the latest findings surprising and keeping the astronomers busy.



Mars Mice

A group of mice-astronauts this year will orbit Earth inside a spinning spacecraft. Their mission will be to learn what its like to live on Mars. People respond to 0-g — but how? We gathered this knowledge from long experience on the space shuttle and various space stations on how people respond to 0-g. But, what will happen to humans on Mars where the surface gravity is 0.38-g? Is that enough to keep human explorers functioning properly? And, importantly, how easily will they readapt to 1-g, once they return to Earth?



To explore these questions, a team of scientists and students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Washington, and the University of Queensland, in Australia, is going to launch mice into orbit.



Fast-spinning neutron star smashes speed limit

It is discovered in a crowded star cluster near the centre of the Milky Way. It is the fastest-spinning neutron star ever found a new study reveals. The star rotates 716 times per second - faster than some theories predict is possible. It therefore, may force researchers to revise their models.



Space telescopes capture a cosmic jellyfish

Compiled from images taken by four space telescopes, a cosmic jellyfish appears to pulse with light in this multi-wavelength image of the Cartwheel galaxy. Collided with it head-on 100 million years ago, the galaxy probably came by its distinctive shape when a small galaxy collided with it head-on 100 million years ago. Leading to concentric rings of star birth, the crash set off ripples in the large galaxy’s gas.



Stardust Space Capsule to Touch Down Sunday in Utah

Carrying a cargo of comet and interstellar dust particles, Stardust will cut through Earth’s atmosphere Sunday, to the Utah desert. If all goes according to plan, the cargo may reveal answers to fundamental questions about comets, the origins of the solar system, and the building blocks of life.



Meteorite Impact Reformulated Earth’s Crust, Study Shows

A meteorite or comet the size of Mount Everest slammed into what is now Canada about 1.8 billion years ago. Till date scant evidence is found that a meteorite could pierce through Earth’s upper crust and alter its compositional makeup. David Kring, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson said, an emerging theory in the field of impact crater research is that the largest of these impact events early in Earth’s history may have created the conditions needed for the evolution of life.



Mini-galaxies may reveal dark matter stream

‘Most of the small satellite galaxies around the Milky Way’s near-twin, Andromeda, are lined up in a single plane that slices through Andromeda’s spiral disc’, a new study reveals. Either the satellites are floating on a river of dark matter or the remains are of a larger galaxy Andromeda that has already cannibalized, the alignment suggests.