Today's Reuters Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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Mars rover Curiosity sends home first color photo
Tue,7 Aug 2012 05:25 PM PDT
Reuters -  PASADENA, California (Reuters) - NASA's newly landed Mars science rover Curiosity snapped the first color image of its surroundings while an orbiting sister probe photographed litter left behind during the rover's daring do-or-die descent to the surface, scientists said Tuesday. Curiosity's color image, taken with a dust cover still on the camera lens, shows the north wall and rim of Gale Crater, a vast basin where the nuclear-powered, six-wheeled rover touched down Sunday night after flying through space for more than eight months. ...
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Testers fear reality of genetically modified Olympians
Tue,7 Aug 2012 11:48 AM PDT
Reuters -  LONDON (Reuters) - There have been "marathon mice", "Schwarzenegger mice" and dogs whose wasted muscles were repaired with injected substances that switch off key genes. It may not be long before we get the first genetically modified athlete. Some fear the use of gene therapy to improve athleticism is already a reality. But since sports authorities' drug testing methods still lack the sophistication needed to pick up gene doping, its status remains unclear. ...
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Botched Russian launch junks two telecom satellites
Tue,7 Aug 2012 08:32 AM PDT
Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia failed to launch two multimillion-dollar satellites that were to have provided Indonesia and Russia with telecom services, casting new doubt on a once-pioneering space industry. Russia's space agency said the failure of the upper stage of the launch atop its workhorse Proton rocket led to the loss of Indonesia's Telkom-3 and Russia's Express MD2 satellites. The error happened after takeoff from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan late on Monday. ... Full Story | Top |
Mars rover landing "miracle of engineering," scientists say
Tue,7 Aug 2012 07:32 AM PDT
Reuters -  PASADENA, California (Reuters) - NASA scientists hailed the Mars rover Curiosity's flawless descent and landing as a "miracle of engineering" on Monday as they scanned early images of an ancient crater that may hold clues about whether life took hold on Earth's planetary cousin. The one-ton, six-wheeled laboratory nailed an intricate and risky touchdown late on Sunday, much to the relief and joy of scientists and engineers eager to conduct NASA's first astrobiology mission since the 1970s Viking probes. ...
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Genetic study offers clues to history of North Africa's Jews
Mon,6 Aug 2012 02:12 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new genetic analysis has reconstructed the history of North Africa's Jews, showing that these populations date to biblical-era Israel and are not largely the descendants of natives who converted to Judaism, scientists reported on Monday. The study also shows that these Jews form two distinct groups, one of which is more closely related than the other to their European counterparts, reflecting historical migrations. ... Full Story | Top |
Mars rover Curiosity pierces planet's atmosphere to begin descent
Sun,5 Aug 2012 10:31 PM PDT
Reuters - PASADENA, California (Reuters) - The Mars science rover Curiosity streaked into the planet's thin atmosphere on Sunday night and began its descent to the surface in a make-or-break landing attempt that was expected to put the probe on the surface within seven minutes, NASA said. Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles said they hoped to have confirmation shortly after 10:30 p.m. Pacific time Sunday (1:30 a.m. EDT Monday/0530 GMT) that the car-sized rover had landed as planned inside a vast, ancient crater. ... Full Story | Top |
Mars rover Curiosity nears make-or-break landing attempt
Sun,5 Aug 2012 01:27 PM PDT
Reuters -  PASADENA, California (Reuters) - The Mars rover Curiosity, on a quest for signs the Red Planet once hosted ingredients for life, streaked into the home stretch of its eight-month voyage on Sunday nearing a make-or-break landing attempt that NASA calls one of its toughest feats of robotic exploration. Curiosity, the first full-fledged mobile science laboratory sent to a distant world, was scheduled to touch down inside a vast, ancient impact crater on Sunday at 10:31 p.m. Pacific time (1:31 a.m. EDT on Monday). ...
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Ernesto spins west over open sea, seen soaking Jamaica
Sun,5 Aug 2012 05:51 AM PDT
Reuters - MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Ernesto kept on a westerly course in the Caribbean Sea on Sunday, and was expected to strengthen slowly over the next 48 hours, soaking Jamaica as it passes the island on its way to the Yucatan, U.S. forecasters said. Tropical storm conditions were expected to reach Jamaica by Sunday afternoon, and tropical storm conditions were possible along the coast of Honduras by late Monday, the National Hurricane Center said. ... Full Story | Top |
Space weather and the coming storm
Sun,5 Aug 2012 02:39 AM PDT
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - The delicate threads that hold modern life together are dramatically cut by an unexpected threat from outer space, with disastrous effects. It's the stuff of science fiction usually associated with tales of rogue asteroids on a collision course with earth. But over the next two years, as the sun reaches a peak in its 10-year activity cycle, scientists say there is a heightened risk that a whopping solar storm could knock out the power grids, satellites and communications on which we all rely. ... Full Story | Top |
Mars rover Curiosity on target for "eye of the needle" landing
Sat,4 Aug 2012 03:58 PM PDT
Reuters - PASADENA, California (Reuters) - The Mars rover Curiosity, the most sophisticated mobile science lab ever sent to another world, hurtled closer to the Red Planet on Saturday, on track "to fly through the eye of the needle" for a precise, safe landing on Sunday night, NASA officials said. Mission control engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles acknowledge that delivering the one-ton, six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover in one piece is a highly risky proposition under the best of circumstances. ... Full Story | Top |
Rover to probe whether Mars was life-friendly in the past
Sat,4 Aug 2012 01:19 PM PDT
Reuters -  PASADENA, California (Reuters) - NASA plans to follow up a decade-long search for Mars' lost water with a mission to learn whether the Red Planet once harbored other ingredients necessary for life. The astrobiological hunt begins once the $2.5 billion Mars Science Lab rover Curiosity lands itself beside a towering mountain that rises from the floor of a vast, ancient impact basin called Gale Crater. Touchdown, monitored from mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, is scheduled for 10:31 p.m. Sunday Pacific time (1:31 a.m. EDT on Monday). "It's a big science goal. ...
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Three firms share $1.1 billion of NASA space taxi work
Fri,3 Aug 2012 05:04 PM PDT
Reuters -  PASADENA, California (Reuters) - PASADENA, Calif. Aug 3 (Reuters) - NASA will pay more than $1 billion over the next 21 months to three companies to develop commercial spaceships capable of flying astronauts to the International Space Station, the agency said Friday. The lion's share of the $1.1 billion allotted for the next phase of NASA's so-called ""Commercial Crew" program will be split between Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies, a privately held firm run by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk. ...
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Mars probe heads for complex, self-guided descent to planet surface
Fri,3 Aug 2012 01:50 PM PDT
Reuters -  PASADENA, California (Reuters) - By the time the robotic Mars laboratory dubbed Curiosity streaks into the thin Martian atmosphere at hypersonic speed on Sunday night, the spacecraft will be in charge of its own seven-minute final approach to the surface of the Red Planet. With a 14-minute delay in the time it takes for radio waves from Earth to reach Mars 154 million miles (248 million km) away, NASA engineers will already have given Curiosity the last commands of its eight-month voyage through space. ...
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Bat virus offers insight into deadly Nipah, Hendra
Fri,3 Aug 2012 09:18 AM PDT
Reuters -  HONG KONG (Reuters) - A virus that is very similar to the deadly Nipah and Hendra viruses has been discovered in fruit bats in Australia and researchers are hoping it can help them find ways to fight those highly dangerous cousins. The Nipah virus kills 40-75 percent of the people it infects while the Hendra virus, which normally affects horses, kills more than 50 percent of the people it infects. ...
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India plans space mission to send a satellite to Mars
Fri,3 Aug 2012 06:29 AM PDT
Reuters - NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India plans to send a satellite via an unmanned spacecraft to orbit Mars next year, joining a small group of nations already exploring the red planet, a government scientist said on Friday. A rocket will blast off from the southeastern coast of India, dropping the satellite into deep space, which will then travel onto Mars to achieve orbit, the senior scientist said, asking not to be named because the project is awaiting final approval. ... Full Story | Top |
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