Scientists return this week to the world’s deepest known sinkhole, Cenote Zacatn in Mexico, to resume tests of a NASA-funded robot called DEPTHX, designed to survey and explore for life in one of Earth’s most extreme regions and potentially in outer space.
If all goes well with this second round of testing and exploration, the team will return in May for a full-scale exploration of the Zacatn system.
Sinking more than 1,000 feet, Zacatn has only been partially mapped and its true depth remains unknown.
Cenote Zacaton
During eight years of research, doctoral student Marcus Gary and hydrogeology professor Jack Sharp from The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, discovered the system’s unusual hydrothermal nature is analogous to liquid oceans under the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Technology developed to explore the sinkholes could be applied to future space probes of Europa, where scientists believe that deep cracks and holes in the ice offer a chance of finding extraterrestrial life.
The technology could also be used to explore Earth’s ice-bound polar lakes, which hold clues to the origins of life on Earth.
Microbes which appear to be new to science have been discovered floating in deep water and lining rocks in Zacatn. Far below sunlight’s ability to penetrate, they may get their energy from nutrients welling up from hot springs. Gary and others speculate that previously undocumented life may await discovery in the murky depths.
So NASA hasn’t surprised us with evidence of monuments or alien artefacts on Mars, but it does believe it has evidence of ‘recent’ flowing liquid water on its surface. See our earlier story NASA to Announce Significant Find on Mars!
In a press conference this afternoon, NASA spokesmen told journalists that they believed light coloured streaks on the surface of Mars is water rising from below the surface and spilling down the slopes of craters and valleys to form gullies.
NASA believes the water flows in a similar way to that of a mudslides here on earth. Then as the water evaporates away from the sediment, it freezes on the top to form a kind of frost, giving it its lighter colour.
At 1pm (EST) (6pm GMT), NASA plans to announce some Significant news regarding Mars!
Speculation on just what this news is or will be is rife, and a quick search on the internet reveals all manor of theories - Life, Alien Artifacts, Monuments and believe it or not ‘Elvis’ to name but a few!
But the most talked about and probably most plausible is the discovery of free-flowing water on or just underneath the surface.
The significance of such a find would open up all manor of possibilities for the existence of (primitive?) life on Mars, either in the red planets distant past or more excitingly - now!
We will let you know just what NASA has to say, when they say!
This story is nothing new, but although NASA and the NSA have strongly denied retouching any of their images, there are still plenty of people who believe!
The following movie is interesting, but unfortunately there is still no real evidence, such as before and after pictures that would support such clams. Perhaps one day someone will smuggle out some proof?
The Atlantis crew have said their farewells to the International Space Station (ISS) crew, and started their journey home.
The 11-day mission was a success, seeing the six-member crew fitting a new truss and solar array, in effect doubling the stations energy-generating capacity.
Atlantis is scheduled to touch down at 5:59 a.m. EDT Wednesday at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Landing will bring to an end STS-115’s successful mission to the International Space Station.
Space shuttle Atlantis has docked with the International Space Station (ISS).
Atlantis made a slow docking at 10.48 GMT (06:48 EDT), and the crew recived a warm welcome from everybody onboard the ISS after first performing a back-flip to let the ISS crew check the underside for damage.
NASA said that some debris from the fuel tank did hit the orbiter during its launch, but no damage was detected.
A 11-day mission now awaits the Atlantis crew as they aim to double the station’s energy-generating capacity by fitting a new solar array.
[singlepic=33,200,,,right]There is news that there has been some ‘armed’ searches in Chile and Argentina for a hominoid creature said to be responsible for a spate of animal killings and attacks on humans.
The alleged creature, more commonly know as the Chupacabra is believed to be responsible for more than 200 animal mutilations, including some rather bizarre cases where chickens have had all of their blood sucked out of their bodies!
The Miami UFO Center learned of the searches by farmers in Chile, and by police near the city of Rosario in Argentina. last week, but they had not heard if there has been any searches since.
The Space Shuttle Mission Management Team decided to postpone the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis for at least 24 hours following the lightning strike to the lightning protection system on Friday.
The delay will give Nasa and the Mission Management Team time to asses whether anything was damaged as a result of the lightning strike.
The Mission Management Team are due to reconvene on Sunday, to review the data and decide if everything is A-OK for a Monday launch
The Space Shuttle Atlantis is all set, and ready for a launch on Sunday 28th August.
The main goal of this mission is to add a new Solar Array to the International Space Station (ISS).
When fitted, the new solar array will double the amount of electricity currently being generated on the ISS, allowing for three new science laboratories and two new living chambers.
Atlantis is only the 3rd shuttle to have taken off since the loss of Columbia and her crew in 2003, and although Discovery had a very successful mission in July, Atlantis will still have to go through the same vigorous safety checks.
Astronomers meeting in the Czech capital have voted to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.
2,500 odd scientists meet in Prague for the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) general assembly, and rejected a proposal that would have seen Pluto retain its status as a proper planet.
Instead, Pluto has now been re-classed as one of the smaller ‘Dwarf Planets’. Which mean it will probably have to be removed from all those nice wall charts in the school class rooms around the world!
But why has it been demoted?
Even though Pluto was smaller than some of the moons in the Solar System, it was still the biggest known object in the Kuiper Belt, which allowed it the status of planet.
