Simulations hint at new asteroid belt
Astronomers have known about an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter for nearly 200 years but it has only been in the past ten years that two other belts have been discovered. The Kuiper belt, a gro...
Europe losing space race
ESA’s ruling body – the council of ministers – will meet later this month to discuss the agency’s budget for the next four years. Antonio Rodotà, ESA’s director gene...
World’s most expensive sundial
The aluminium sundial features rings representing the orbits of Mars and Earth, and red and blue dots showing the position of the two planets at the time of the landing. Once safely installed on Mars,...
Read article: World’s most expensive sundial
Telescopes on the cheap?
This is not the first time that astronomers have considered using rotating platters of liquid – usually mercury – for a central mirror. For example, a mercury-based telescope would cost on...
Physics misses out in US budget
At the DOE, the budget for basic energy science is set to rise by 11%, with two-thirds of this going to meet construction costs for the Spallation Neutron Source being built at Oak Ridge. Fusion resea...
New leaders for SLAC and ESO
Dorfan was born in South Africa and received his first degree from the University of Cape Town, and his doctorate from the University of California at Irvine in 1976. He has spent most of his career a...
UK schools to get robotic telescope
Faulkes was educated at Hinckley Grammar School and at an early age specialised in science. He obtained a degree from Hull University and then went to London University to do a PhD in general relativi...
First module of international space station launched
The 24 ton Zarya (meaning “daybreak”) module is based on the long experience the Russian Space Agency has had with the Mir space station. Unlike the US space station Skylab, which was unti...
