Physics+in+the+news

=Physics Now!=

Links to what is going on in (or near) the world now:

**1 September 2013**
(from NASA news release 13-267) **NASA-Funded Scientists Detect Water on Moon's Surface that Hints at Water Below**   NASA-funded lunar research has yielded evidence of water locked in mineral grains on the surface of the moon from an unknown source deep beneath the surface.

Using data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists remotely detected magmatic water, or water that originates from deep within the moon's interior, on the surface of the moon.

The findings, published Aug. 25 in Nature Geoscience, represent the first detection of this form of water from lunar orbit. Earlier studies had shown the existence of magmatic water in lunar samples returned during the Apollo program. However, for many years, researchers believed that the rocks from the moon were bone-dry and any water detected in the Apollo samples had to be contamination from Earth.

"Now that we have detected water that is likely from the interior of the moon, we can start to compare this water with other characteristics of the lunar surface," said Klima. "This internal magmatic water also provides clues about the moon's volcanic processes and internal composition, which helps us address questions about how the moon formed, and how magmatic processes changed as it cooled."

11 October 2012 - Dragon docks again
This time carrying a full load of cargo for the ISS.

18 July 2012 - Dragon video
Not really news, but a great video showing the first private company mission to the international space station.

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 * 4 July 2012 - Higgs like particle discovered!**

Today CERN announced that it was basically 99.9999% sure that they have discovered a new particle and that it is consistent with it being the Higgs particle (the particle manifestation of the Higgs field that gives particles mass). What does that mean for physics and the world at large - well it is too early to tell. Like the discovery of many new things, it will be some time before we understand what it is we have found, and whether there are practical uses and implications. Perhaps Professor Higgs, along with the other scientists (Francois Englert and Tom Kibble) who predicted such a particle at about the same time, will now be able to get a Nobel prize?


 * 24 June 2012 - To Boldly Go**

In the news: A US engineer has suggested that we need to set our sites higher - the new space project should be building the Enterprise!

[|Building an Enterprise] - Institute of Physics commentary [|Build the Enterprise - website] - The official website


 * 31 May 2012 - Dragon is go!**

The private company SpaceX has passed a significant milestone for space exploration in being the first non-governmental organisation to successfully launch a rocket carrying a capsule to supply the international space station and for the capsule to return successfully to Earth. From SpaceX.com


 * This morning, at approximately 8:42 AM Pacific/11:42 AM Eastern, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) completed its historic mission when the Dragon spacecraft splashed down safely in the Pacific. The vehicle will now be recovered by boats and start the trip back to land.
 * At 11:00 AM Pacific/2:00 PM Eastern, SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk will join NASA Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini and NASA COTS Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer for a press conference to discuss today’s exciting events.
 * Last week, SpaceX made history when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle in history to successfully attach to the International Space Station. Previously only four governments – the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency – had achieved this challenging technical feat. Dragon departed the space station this morning.
 * This is SpaceX's second demonstration flight under a 2006 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with NASA to develop the capability to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station.

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 * 3 March 2012 - Rest easy Einstein (for now)**

Last September the OPERA collaboration at CERN announced they had measured neutrino's travelling faster than light - flying in the face of the accepted wisdom that nothing can break the "cosmic speed limit" (a fundamental result of special relativity). However the team of scientists have now confirmed that it is likely that their results were likely caused by nothing more than faulty equipment.

[] (NB to read full article requires New Scientist subscription).


 * 2 January 2012 - Happy New Year for NASA**

NASA's GRAIL spacecraft have successfully completed their insertion into lunar orbit, one behind the other. The two spacecraft will detect the tiny changes in their orbits caused by variations in the gravity field around the moon which are themselves caused by variations in the composition of the interior of the moon. The main phase of the mission will last until June 2012.

Check out the simulation of the Grail mission and current position here: [|Nasa Eyes on the solar system]


 * 13 December 2011 - First sight of the Higgs boson**

The LHC has reported inital findings which might be the first sight of the Higgs boson (aka god particle). Although the significance of the result is very low (more experiments will be required to confirm that the findings are not a statistical fluke) both teh Atlas and CMS detectors at the LHC reported particle scattering consistent with the existence of a Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is predicted by the standard model of physics and is the only particle from that model which has not yet been seen. If it exists then the Higgs boson is the particle which gives the other particles in the standard model their mass.

5 December 2011 - A new Earth?
The Kepler space telescope is designed to view a large area of space (roughly the area of sky that your outstretched hand would cover) continuously throughout its life in order to pick out the transit of planets across stars. The have now confirmed that one of the earliest planet candidates spotted by the telescope is indeed a planet which is just over twice the diameter of Earth and orbits its star in what is knows as the "habitable zone". Planets in this zone have the possibility of liquid water being present on the surface, and therefore are perhaps the best candidates for alien life to have developed.

//Food for thought//: if a planet is twice the diameter of Earth and of a similar consistency, how much stronger would its gravity be? (Estimate in italics below)

//(Twice the diameter, so twice the radius; Twice the radius so (2 3 ) 8 times the volume; 8 times the volume so (as made of a similar consistency) 8 times the mass. The force of gravity is proportional to the mass, and inversely proportional to r 2 . So the gravity would be 8 times greater due to the increased mass, and 4 times less (at the surface) due to the increased radius, so overall, approximately twice that of Earth.)//

Note that the Kepler scientists have yet to confirm whether this planet is a primarily a rocky planet (like Earth, and the inner planets of our solar system), a gaseous planet (like Jupiter, and the outer planet of our solar system), or perhaps a (mostly) liquid planet, of which there are none in our solar system.

11 November 2011 - Mars moon mission in trouble
Russia's planned mission to Phobos, Mars' only moon, has run into trouble after a successful launch. This mission was intended to bring rock samples back from Phobos, hopefully to provide more information about Mars' past. Unfortunately the boosters have failed to file leaving the mission stuck in low Earth orbit, and likely to burn up on re-entry some time early in the New Year.

4 November 2011 - Mars 500 comes to a successful conclusion
A fascinating experiment to find out how people would survive being crammed into a spaceship for the 500+ days it would take to get to Mars. However, rather than being interested in the physical problems (of low gravity and cosmic radiation) this experiment focussed on the mental challenges, such as boredom, claustrophobia, isolation and social issues. As a result the experiment took place at a facility on the ground in Russia, rather than in space:

http://www.iop.org/resources/topic/index.html

29 September 2011 - Elon Musk on the future of human space exploration (CEO of SpaceX)

Elon explains why multi-planetary expansion is the vital next stage of the evolution of life, and outlines his plans to develop a reusable launch system. His modest ambition is to have 10,000+ people on Mars by 2031 in a self-sustaining civilisation.