NASA has decided to give Pluto another chance to receive a visitor from Earth. NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science Ed Weiler sat down with reporters this week to discuss a new round of proposals NASA is soliciting for the exploration of Pluto. Earlier this year Weiler put a stop work order in place on the Pluto-Kuiper Express mission when the projected costs for both this mission and the Europa Orbiter mission got out of hand. The planetary science community wasn't at all happy with this decision. Now, Weiler is looking for newer, cheaper ways to reach Pluto.

Results of a National wide survey, released today, show that the U. S. public supports the exploration of two fascinating bodies in the outer solar system. According to Sky & Telescope magazine, which sponsored the poll, 64% ofAmericans want NASA to send a spacecraft to Europa, an enigmatic satellite of the planet Jupiter. Moreover, 58% approve sending a probe to Pluto, the only major planet not yet seen at close range. The exploration of Mars also continues to receive strong support, as 70% of people would like to see samples of the Red Planet returned to Earth for analysis. "

Thousands of years ago, on a small rocky planet orbiting a modest star in an ordinary spiral galaxy, our remote ancestors looked up and wondered about their place between Earth and sky. On the threshold of the 21st century, we ask the same profound questions:

• How did the universe begin and evolve?
  
• How did we get here?
  
• Where are we going?
  
• Are we alone?

Planets like the Earth cannot form unless elements heavier than helium are available. These heavy elements, or 'metals', were not produced in the big bang. They result from fusion inside stars and have been gradually building up over the lifetime of the Universe. Recent observations indicate that the presence of giant extrasolar planets at small distances from their host stars, is strongly correlated with high metallicity of the host stars. The presence of these close-orbiting giants is incompatible with the existence of earth-like planets. Thus, there may be a Goldilocks selection effect: with too little metallicity, earths are unable to form for lack of material, with too much metallicity giant planets destroy earths.

According to NASA JPL: "A thick layer of melted, salty water somewhere beneath Ganymede's icy crust would be the best way to explain some of the magnetic readings taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft during close approaches to Ganymede in May 2000 and earlier. In addition, the types of minerals on parts of Ganymede's surface suggest that, in the past, salty water may have emerged from below or melted at the surface, according to a study of infrared reflectance measured by Galileo."

"Microscopic plant and animal life is providing scientists clues about the climate system that existed as long as 10,000 years ago, David M. Anderson of NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center told attendees of the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco today."

"Even during an extraordinarily violent era in Earth's early history, when our young planet was being whacked by asteroids and comets so frequently that scientists refer to it as "Late Heavy Bombardment," conditions most of the time at the Earth's surface were quite hospitable for the microbes that lived here, according to research being presented Friday, Dec. 15, at an invited talk at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. The work has also been accepted by the Journal of Geophysical Research. "

"A team of scientists reports it has isolated crystals of magnetite, an iron oxide, from the meteorite and examined the crystals with electron microscopy. Among the crystals are some ranging in size from 10 to 200 nanometers across that have an unusual shape. The scientists determined that these magnetite crystals from the meteorite resemble magnetite crystals produced on Earth by biological processes. "

"In a paper to be published Dec. 14 in the journal Nature, Northwestern University geologist Craig R. Bina reports that, in a novel twist on current thinking, water may be transported into the interior of planets as a high-pressure form of ice, rather than simply being transported while trapped within hydrous minerals or escaping as a fluid. Bina and co-author Alexandra Navrotsky, a chemist and materials scientist from the University of California, Davis, suggest that this process should become more important as planets cool, for example on a future Earth or on Mars. "

"A new scientific report offers compelling evidence that primitive life existed on Mars. Tiny magnetite crystals, identical to those used by aqueous bacteria on Earth as compasses to find food and energy, have been found in the Martian meteorite ALH84001. The report on the finding is in the December issue of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Written by a group of scientists led by Kathie Thomas-Keprta of Lockheed Martin at Johnson Space Center and funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the report strongly supports the primitive life on Mars hypothesis of David McKay and coauthors in 1996."

"An Iowa State University professor is part of a research team that has found compelling evidence that Mars once supported primitive life. The researchers discovered evidence of bacteria in a Martian meteorite. Tiny magnetite crystals -- so called magnetofossils -- embedded in the meteorite were confirmed to be the type produced only by a biological process unique to magnetotactic bacteria. "

"Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we have analyzed magnetite (Fe3O4) crystals acid-extracted from carbonate globules in Martian meteorite ALH84001. As a possible terrestrial analog for the ALH84001 elongated prisms, we compared these magnetites with those produced by the terrestrial magnetotactic bacteria strain MV-1. Of the ALH84001 magnetites that we have examined, the elongated prismatic magnetite particles (~27% of the total) are indistinguishable from the MV-1 magnetites in five of these six characteristics observed for biogenically controlled mineralization of magnetite crystals. "

"A new hydrothermal vent field, which scientists have dubbed "The Lost City," was discovered December 5th on an undersea mountain in the Atlantic Ocean. "These structures, which tower 180 feet above the seafloor, are the largest hydrothermal chimneys of their kind ever observed," said Deborah Kelley, a University of Washington geologist and co-principal investigator on the cruise. "

On 12 December 2000 Dr. Timothy Hammond from the Tulane University Medical Center will present a seminar titled: "Latest Findings: Genomics and Proteomics of Kidney Cells in Space". Hammond and his co-workers have sought to identify which genes are activated and deactivated during spaceflight - specifically, which genes operate during exposure to microgravity - and what aspects of metabolism they control. The research findings to be discussed are the result of experiments flown on Neurolab (STS-90) in 1998 and STS-106 in 2000. Hammond's work takes advantage of cutting edge genomics tools such as gene arrays (so called "gene chips") which are used in, among other places, understanding the structure and function of the human genome.

"Layered and massive outcrops on Mars, some as thick as 4 kilometers, display the geomorphic attributes and stratigraphic relations of sedimentary rock. Repeated beds in some locations imply a dynamic depositional environment during early martian history. Subaerial (such as eolian, impact, and volcaniclastic) and subaqueous processes may have contributed to the formation of the layers. Affinity for impact craters suggests dominance of lacustrine deposition; alternatively, the materials were deposited in a dry, subaerial setting in which atmospheric density, and variations thereof mimic a subaqueous depositional environment. The source regions and transport paths for the materials are not preserved."

"The latest images from the Red Planet are suggesting that water ponded across its equatorial region eons ago, just when life might have been emerging. Although the authors offer more than one interpretation, the one they prefer has the sediments laid down beneath broad lakes and shallow seas at a relatively clement time in the planet's history. The geologic implications of the pictures plus supportive signs from earlier missions mean that these possible lake sediments will be prime candidates for NASA missions seeking signs of past life on Mars."

"It has long been conjectured that the canonical genetic code evolved from a simpler primordial form that encoded fewer amino acids. The most influential form of this idea, "code coevolution", proposes that the genetic code coevolved with the invention of biosynthetic pathways for new amino acids. It further proposes that a comparison of modern codon assignments with the conserved metabolic pathways of amino acid biosynthesis can inform us about this history of code expansion. Here we re-examine the biochemical basis of this theory to test the validity of its statistical support ... we conclude that coevolution theory cannot adequately explain the structure of the genetic code. "

"Layered geologic outcrops on Mars, described in today's issue of the journal Science--may be composed of sedimentary rock that dates from the earliest span of martian history, between 4.3. and 3.5 billion years ago. Images of these sedimentary rock exposures, captured by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), suggest that parts of ancient Mars may have resembled a land of lakes, and that the geology of early Mars was much more dynamic than previously suspected."

"NASA scientists have discovered ancient sea or lake beds on the surface of Mars that could once have harboured life, writes Jonathan Leake. The discovery is among the most significant concerning Mars so far, because such places are the most likely locations for fossils or other signs of past life. Nasa will announce the discovery in this week's edition of Science with the suggestion that the next generation of Mars landings should be sent to such areas. "

"Imaging scientists Dr. Michael Malin and Dr. Ken Edgett from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft will present what they describe as their most significant discovery yet at a Space Science Update at 2:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 7. Their findings are being published in the December 8 issue of Science Magazine."

Editor's note: Among the presenters is Dr. Ken Nealson, director of the Center for Life Detection at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

"High-precision magnesium isotope measurements of whole chondrules from the Allende carbonaceous chondrite meteorite show that some aluminum-rich Allende chondrules formed at or near the time of formation of calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions and that some others formed later and incorporated precursors previously enriched in magnesium-26. Chondrule magnesium-25/magnesium-24 correlates with [magnesium]/[aluminum] and size, the aluminum-rich, smaller chondrules being the most enriched in the heavy isotopes of magnesium. These relations imply that high gas pressures prevailed during chondrule formation in the solar nebula."

"Within the lunar meteorite breccias MAC 88105, QUE 93069, DaG 262, and DaG 400, seven to nine different impact events are represented with 40Ar-39Ar ages between 2.76 and 3.92 billion years ago (Ga). The lack of impact melt older than 3.92 Ga supports the concept of a short, intense period of bombardment in the Earth-moon system at ~3.9 Ga. This was an anomalous spike of impact activity on the otherwise declining impact- frequency curve. "

" ..early analyses of lunar rocks returned by Apollo astronauts hinted at a sudden violent episode 600 million years after Earth's birth. Seemingly out of nowhere, a hail of objects pummeled Earth, the moon, and perhaps the entire inner solar system. Now this "late heavy bombardment" is getting strong support from analyses of rocks the astronauts never saw: meteorites that fell to Earth from the moon's back side."

"[Leon Alkalai, director of JPL's Center for Integrated Space Microsystems] hopes to fly technology demonstration experiments by 2006. By 2012, he expects to see spacecraft powered and managed by CISM-designed chips exploring the moons of Jupiter or Saturn, or fetching material from a comet back to Earth. And in the longer term, he plans to explore revolutionary computing strategies to create "a thinking spacecraft", able to integrate the information from multiple sensors, recognize patterns, adapt to rapidly changing environments, and deal with faults or external emergencies."

"Michael Drake, who chairs the solar system exploration subcommittee of NASA's Space Science Advisory Committee, says he is "sympathetic to NASA on this because fiscal discipline must be maintained". The space agency has been plagued by unrealistically low bids from contractors, says Drake. But Mark Sykes, chairman of the DPS, says Weiler's hardline approach risks "throwing the baby out with the bathwater". He fears that the Europa orbiter - a mission to explore one of Jupiter's moons for signs of life - could be next for the chop."

"Microorganisms have flourished in the oceans since at least 3.8 billion years (3.8 Gyr) ago, but it is not at present clear when they first colonized the land. Unusually carbonaceous ancient soils - palaeosols - have been found in the Mpumalanga Province (Eastern Transvaal) of South Africa. Here we report the occurrences, elemental ratios (C, H, N, P) and isotopic compositions of this organic matter and its host rocks. These data show that the organic matter very probably represents remnants of microbial mats that developed on the soil surface between 2.6 and 2.7 Gyr ago. This places the development of terrestrial biomass more than 1.4 billion years earlier than previously reported."

Evidence of life on Earth has been found as far back as 3.8 billion years. Until recently, the most ancient evidence pointing to life on solid ground came from 1.2 billion year old microfossils found in Arizona. A paper in the 30 November 2000 issue of Nature magazine reports evidence of land-based life 2.6 to 2.7 billion years ago. Not only does this push back the origin of land life by more than a 1.5 billion years, it also suggests that we may find it easier to detect life on planets circling other stars by virtue of what life does to the atmosphere of the planet it lives on.

"Soffen will be buried in Hampton, VA. A grave-side ceremony will be held Sunday, Nov. 26 at 1:00 p.m. at the Park Lawn Memorial Park in Hampton. Immediately after the service, a reception will be held at the Virginia Air and Space Center located at Settler's Landing Road in Hampton."

Editor's note: I was saddened to learn that Jerry died suddenly last night. I had frequent contact with Jerry over the past years as NASA's Astrobiology program got off the ground. Jerry's passion for the exploration of space was matched only by his passion for educating tomrrow's space explorers. He was a true believer - and will be greatly missed.

"This series of cancellations is unprecedented in the history of NASA's Space Science program," the Division of Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society said in a recent news release. This, plus the loss of three Mars missions, it added, "gives rise to serious concern for the future of the U.S. planetary exploration program."

"Researchers said that in the filter of a high-flying balloon operated by the Indian Space Research Organization, they found a strain of bacteria unlike anything on Earth. The bacteria were found at an altitude of 10 miles and scientists from the ISRO, Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine said it may have come from a comet on a close approach to earth, according to the Daily Mail."

"Seafloor hydrothermal vents support ecosystems with enormous biomass and productivity compared with that observed elsewhere in the deep oceans. What is the energy source that fuels these oases of life, and what adaptations allow them to exist in these extreme environments?"

"The Leonids meteor shower of November 1998 has shown a double activity. An unexpected shower of fireballs occurred about 16 hours before the expected maximum of the meteor activity. The activity profile of the fireball shower revealed also a fine structure. The hypotesis of tidal origin of such sub-structures is discussed. The close encounter of the meteoroid stream with the Earth in 1366 and the encounters with Saturn (in 1630) and Jupiter (in 1732), are identified as the cause of the main features of the structure. Such analysis can be applied to the incoming 2000 Leonids' display. "

"What was the genetic material of the earliest life forms on Earth if it was not RNA? As Leslie Orgel explains in his Perspective, the answer may be simpler nucleic acid polymers perhaps like the RNA analogs called (L)-a-threofuranosyl oligonucleotides or TNAs (Schöning et al.). These molecules have threose rather than ribose in their sugar-phosphate backbones and yet retain many of the properties of RNA including the ability to pair up in double helices. "

"An unusual coalition of scientists, activists, and politicians is pressuring NASA to rethink a September decision to put a 2004 mission to Pluto on hold because of budget constraints. The growing clamor is shaking up the planetary science community, which is also preparing for a mission at mid-decade to Europa, a moon of Jupiter. The biggest impact may be felt at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which could face serious competition for the first time in decades on contracts to build planetary missions."

"Carbon on the surface of an ultradense star detonated in a 3-hour thermonuclear explosion, according to a report at a meeting here last week of the American Astronomical Society's High Energy Astrophysics Division. If confirmed, the burst would be the first known cosmic explosion fueled solely by carbon rather than hydrogen or helium and could verify or revise models of carbon combustion. "

"With calls to tie the European Space Agency (ESA) more closely to the business and security sectors , space scientists hope David Southwood, who will take over next May as ESA's science director, can nurture the agency's research with the skill he showed transforming its earth sciences division. Experts say he's up to the task."

"Space is too important to Europe to be left to scientists alone, according to a report on the future of the European Space Agency (ESA) released last week. "We see the need to integrate space efforts, or space activities, with European political and other activities much more clearly than has been the case in the past," says former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who led the study."

"The Ames Research Center hosts a program that is another excellent example of amateurs, in this case, students, helping professionals with research. NASA funds a collaborative project between Ames and the nonprofit Marine Sciences Institute, a science education organization that runs educational cruises for teachers and students in the San Francisco Bay area. [Marine Science Institute] The program's director, Lynn Rothschild, has utilized the samples and physical data (temperature, UV radiation, water clarity, etc.) collected by students on the cruise to help her identify UV-absorbing pigments in plankton and to measure DNA damage experienced by plankton in the Bay at different times of the year. Students are being immersed in research and given part-ownership in scientific data. This program not only nurtures the next generation of scientists but has allowed Ames to provide useful data that would otherwise have an economically prohibitive price tag. We need federal funding to support more programs like this one."

According to the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine: "Computer simulations have revealed that a vast region of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, may have behaved like a fluid during the formation of the Chicxulub impact crater. The Chicxulub crater is thought to have resulted from an impact with an asteroid or comet 65 million years ago. Many scientists believe that there is a link between the impact and the environmental change and mass extinction, including perhaps that of the dinosaurs, at the end of the Cretaceous period. "

Comets have been found to contain a wide collection of organic materials as well as water. Given the intense bombardment of the inner solar system shortly after Earth and Mars formed it is thought that many volatile components - and perhaps organic compounds - may have arrived via impacts by cometary bodies. As such, the characterization of comets - or in this case, pieces of comets - is crucial in developing an understanding of the role of comets in seeding planets with the raw materials from which life might arise. The annual Leonids meteor shower is a perfect opportunity to understand the composition of comets. The Leonids result when the Earth passes through a trail of debris left by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle as it orbits the sun.

According to the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) "If you are within a 65-mile (104-km)-wide band crossing the Midwest and western Canada, you can see the naked-eye star Tejat wink out for about 10 seconds as it is covered by the asteroid Sulamitis shortly before sunrise Monday morning, November 20.  Millions of early risers in Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia; Dayton, Ohio; Muncie and Gary, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois; Madison and Eau Claire, Wisconsin; St. Paul, Minnesota; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Brandon, Manitoba; and many other smaller towns in the path have a chance to see this event, the eclipse of the brightest star predicted to be eclipsed by an asteroid as seen from the U.S.A. since such predictions have been computed starting in 1975."

According to Johns Hokpins University "NEAR Shoemaker captured a movie of 433 Eros on Oct. 26, 2000, as it swooped from within 8 to 5 miles (13 to 8 kilometers) of the asteroid's surface. Rocks of all shapes and sizes cover the landscape. The smallest visible rocks are about 1.4 meters (5 feet) across. NEAR Shoemaker's low-altitude flyover on Oct. 25-26 brought it about 3 miles (5.3 kilometers) from Eros' surface, the closest any spacecraft has ever come to planetary body without landing on it."

"The formation of life is an automatic stage in the consolidation of rocky or "terrestrial" planets. The organic (=carbonaceous) matter, light elements, gases, and water must "float" toward the surface and the heavier metals must sink toward the center. Random processes in the molecular soup that fills microfractures in unmelted crust eventually produce self-replicating microtubules. In an appendix I suggest that some primordial crust remains because there is not enough consolidation energy to melt the whole planet. Energy is lost when iron planetesimals first partially melt and then coalesce to form the molten iron planetary core. Stony planetesimals accrete onto the surface of an already consolidated core."

"Scientists who have in the past been sceptical about space-based research should recognize and applaud the changes under way at NASA. The station has never been exclusively a science project, and should not be judged as such. It is most impressive as a feat of off-planet engineering, and it exists primarily because the United States and its partners want to establish a continuous human presence in space. For scientists, however, Alpha offers a real chance, at last, to find out whether there are substantive research questions worth pursuing on the high frontier."

"Under the leadership of chief scientist Kathie Olsen, the agency has already reorganized its Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications, and given it a new name, the Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR). More importantly, the office has been made an 'enterprise', on a par with human spaceflight and space science. The move reflects the importance that administrator Daniel Goldin has attached to beefing up his agency's capability in the biological sciences."

"There will certainly be some interesting science [on the space station]," says Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, "but probably not $90 billion worth. The only way that you can really justify this project is if you want Star Trek to come true."

"Life exists even at the South Pole, one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. Microbiologist Ed Carpenter of the State University of New York in Stony Brook and his colleagues have found between 200 and 5000 bacteria per millilitre of melted snow from the pole. To their surprise, biochemical tests and electron microscope images show that the organisms can grow and divide even at -17 degrees C-the coldest condition the team tested. "Probably they could live at even lower temperatures," says Carpenter."

"Large populations (200 to 5,000 cells ml^-1 in snowmelt) of bacteria were present in surface snow and firn from the south pole sampled in January 1999 and 2000. DNA isolated from this snow yielded ribosomal DNA sequences similar to those of several psychrophilic bacteria and a bacterium which aligns closely with members of the genus Deinococcus, an ionizing-radiation- and desiccation-resistant genus. We also obtained evidence of low rates of bacterial DNA and protein synthesis which indicates that the organisms were metabolizing at ambient subzero temperatures - 12 to -17°C)."

"The first known extrasolar planet in orbit around a Sun-like star was discovered in 1995. This object, as well as over two dozen subsequently detected extrasolar planets, were all identified by observing periodic variations of the Doppler shift of light emitted by the stars to which they are bound. All of these extrasolar planets are more massive than Saturn is, and most are more massive than Jupiter. All orbit closer to their stars than do the giant planets in our Solar System, and most of those that do not orbit closer to their star than Mercury is to the Sun travel on highly elliptical paths. Prevailing theories of star and planet formation, which are based on observations of the Solar System and of young stars and their environments, predict that planets should form in orbit about most single stars. However, these models require some modifications to explain the properties of the observed extrasolar planetary systems. "

"Cardiff is to become home to the UK's first Centre for Astrobiology ­ providing the UK with a facility to contribute to space missions probing for life on solar system bodies. The Centre, a joint initiative between Cardiff University and the University of Wales College of Medicine, forges a connection between astronomy and biology. It is led by two UK leaders in these fields: Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and Professor Anthony Campbell. "

"In the wake of last month's announcement that scientists have found what they believe to be a living microbe that pre-dates Tyrannosaurus rex, Dr. Melanie Mormile is keeping one eye on salt crystals that contain ancient earth-bound bacteria and another on Mars. Mormile, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri-Rolla and an expert on microscopic organisms, thinks living bacteria might be trapped in the sulphate and chloride salts of Mars. Her work is partially funded by NASA, which announced Oct. 26 that it has officially scheduled six robotic missions over the next ten years to hunt for signs of life on the red planet."

A Soyuz rocket left Baikonur Cosmodrome today carrying the first crew to live aboard the International Space Station. Upon arrival at the space station this crew will inaugurate an unparalleled chapter in human history: hence forth, humans will no longer be limited to living on planet Earth.

We no longer just visit space. We live there.

° Space Station Users Guide

"This week an international team of astronomers announced the discovery of four new moons of Saturn, restoring the ringed planet to its status as commander of the largest retinue of satellites in the solar system. Their appearance should help researchers understand not just how the new moons were formed but also how the giant planets themselves came to be."

"For several years, ever-improving telescope technology has allowed astronomers to peer farther and farther beyond Neptune to discover a rapidly increasing number of bodies littering the outer reaches of the solar system. Now many researchers agree that an end is in sight, although some remain skeptical. "

"The ejection of material from Mars is thought to be caused by large impacts that would heat much of the ejecta to high temperatures. Images of the magnetic field of martian meteorite ALH84001 reveal a spatially heterogeneous pattern of magnetization associated with fractures and rock fragments. Heating the meteorite to 40°C reduces the intensity of some magnetic features, indicating that the interior of the rock has not been above this temperature since before its ejection from the surface of Mars. Because this temperature cannot sterilize most bacteria or eukarya, these data support the hypothesis that meteorites could transfer life between planets in the solar system. "

"A collaboration between Joseph L. Kirschvink, a professor of geobiology at the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues and Vanderbilt scientists has resulted in an article that appears in the Oct. 27 issue of the journal Science. In the article, the scientists do not claim that microbial life actually traveled from Mars to Earth aboard the meteorite, but they do conclude that the famous meteorite's interior remained cool enough to allow such a thing to happen. "

"Here we report that all nine of the Kuiper-belt objects (KBOs) in our survey on near-circular (low-eccentricity) orbits with perihelion distances larger than 40 AU have extremely red surfaces, thereby connecting an observable property with a dynamical class. Of the objects with orbital eccentricities greater than 0.1, about half are also very red, while the rest have colours similar to the Sun, meaning that reflected sunlight is not strongly modified by the objects' surface properties."

"An international team of eight "satellite hunters," astronomers who pluck tiny specks of light out of the distant solar system, has discovered four new outer moons of Saturn orbiting at least 15 million kilometers (more than 9 million miles) from the surface of the giant planet. "

"Shadowy asteroids and comets sharing Pluto's frigid part of the solar system mysteriously come in two colors, red and gray. Arizona and Oklahoma astronomers say they've made a step toward solving what's behind the coloring with the discovery that each color group has a unique orbit around the sun. "

"Astronomers observing with the adaptive optics instrument on the Keck II Telescope have obtained the best pictures yet of the planet Neptune, showing an upper atmosphere rich with moving features such as vortices, waves and narrowly spaced bands of clouds similar to those present around Jupiter. "

"A spectacular new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the group of galaxies called Stephan's Quintet provides a detailed view of one of the most exciting star forming regions in the local Universe. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a close-up view of the central part of Stephan's Quintet, giving a magnificent view of a gigantic cosmic collision."

"When scientists from NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission took their first close-up look at 433 Eros on Feb. 14, they had more questions than facts on their target asteroid. Now, after eight months of examining Eros with the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft's array of instruments and sensors, NEAR team members say they have solid data on the history, makeup and topography of the complex, oddly shaped space rock. "

"Two NASA spacecraft are teaming up to scrutinize Jupiter during the next few months to gain a better understanding of the planet's stormy atmosphere, diverse moons, faint rings and vast bubble of electrically charged gas. The joint studies of the solar system's largest planet by the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft will also resemble the passing of a baton from the durable veteran to the promising rookie, say mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA."

"A Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher said today (Oct. 24) that the number of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) may be higher than recent estimates. Research presented by MIT graduate student Scott Stuart at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Science showed that because the inclinations -- angles of orbit in relation to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun -- of known NEAs are not representative of the entire population, there may be more undetected NEAs out there."

"On Oct. 26, after more than eight months in orbit around asteroid Eros, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft will swoop to within three miles (5.3 kilometers) of the asteroid, taking images and collecting data from a distance closer than any spacecraft has ever come to an asteroid."

According to Arizona State University, "a remarkable set of hot springs in the Mexican desert may hold the key to understanding one of the greatest mysteries in evolutionary biology: Why did Earth's biosphere suddenly erupt into a profusion of more complex forms at the "Cambrian Transition"?" Research being carried out by astrobiologist Jack Farmer and biologist James Elser is aimed at studying "the ecology of a set of remarkable desert springs located near Cuatro Cienegas, Coahuila, Mexico which may give scientists a modern "analogue" for conditions during the transition from Earth's ancient bacteria-based biosphere to the present, more complex one."

"We have discovered frequent variations in the near-infrared spectrum of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, which are indicative of the daily presence of sparse clouds covering less than 1% of the area of the satellite. We propose that Titan's atmosphere resembles Earth's, with clouds, rain, and an active weather cycle, driven by latent heat release from the primary condensible species."

"According to a paper published in the 19 October 2000 issue of the journal Nature, scientists claim to have coaxed bacteria to grow from spores found within salt crystals. If these bacteria were trapped (as spores) when the salt crystals formed, they are 250 million years old. The implications of this discovery are rather profound - both for the prospects of life upon other worlds - but also for the possibility of life being swapped between worlds."

"US researchers claim to have revived bacteria that have spent the last 250 million years in suspended animation. If true, the bugs smash the accepted record for the oldest living creatures ever discovered, previously held by bacteria a mere 25-40 million years old. "

"Here we report the isolation and growth of a previously unrecognized spore-forming bacterium (Bacillus species, designated 2-9-3) from a brine inclusion within a 250 million-year-old salt crystal from the Permian Salado Formation. Complete gene sequences of the 16S ribosomal DNA show that the organism is part of the lineage of Bacillus marismortui and Virgibacillus pantothenticus."

"The potential implications are profound. For instance, can spores effectively be immortal? What is the biochemistry that allows them to survive for so long? Where else on Earth, and to what depths, might ancient bacterial life be lurking? And, given this startling example of apparent bacterial durability, do spores in rocks even provide a mechanism for life to be transported between planets by 'panspermia', as has been proposed?"

"In what sounds like something out of "Jurassic Park,'' bacteria that lived before the dinosaurs and survived Earth's biggest mass extinction have been reawakened after a 250-million-year sleep in a salt crystal, scientists say."

"Magnetic field perturbations measured during Galileo flybys of Europa and Callisto are consistent with dipole fields induced by the temporal variations of the ambient jovian magnetospheric field. These fields are close to those expected for perfectly conducting moons. We investigate the implications of these observations for the electrical structure of the moon's interiors using a simple shell model. It is found that Europa and Callisto must possess regions where the conductivity exceeds 0.06 and 0.02 S/m at a depth of less than 200 and 300 km below the surface, respectively. Global Earth-like oceans under the surface of both moons could account for the observations provided they are at least a few kilometers thick. "

"The paper deals with a coupled model of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Titan. "

"We present two photoclinometric profiles across a trough in the martian northern polar layered terrain. Complications caused by albedo variations were avoided by using an early springtime Viking image with a thin cover of seasonal CO2 frost. The topographic profiles were constrained with stereogrammetric elevations derived from summertime Viking images of the same region. We find that the photoclinometric profiles are consistent with a nearby MOLA (Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter) track crossing the same polar trough. "

"Imaging spectrometer data from the ISM instrument on Phobos 2 were used to characterize spatial variations in near-infrared spectral properties of the martian surface, to determine the correspondence between near-infrared and visible-wavelength spectral variations, and to assess lithologic variations in the surface materials. "

"It is suggested that methane was the dominant carbon-bearing component of the primary atmosphere of Mars. In this atmosphere CO₂, being a minor component, became enriched in ¹³C due to isotopic exchange with methane. In the presence of water CO₂ was deposited as carbonate. Subsequently the methane atmosphere was lost to outer space possibly due to impact erosion. Eventually, ¹³C-enriched carbonates became a source of atmospheric CO₂."

"An alternative explanation is proposed for the hydrogen excess observed by the Lunar Prospector neutron spectrometer: solar wind protons trapped on radiation defects in regolith particles and effectively retained at the temperature of the lunar poles can be misinterpreted as water. Protons from the Earth's magnetotail plasma can be a source of hydrogen atoms in the regolith of permanently shadowed areas of the lunar surface. "

"We investigate the evolution of a circumterrestrial disk of debris generated by a giant impact on Earth and the dynamical characteristics of the moon accreted from the disk by using high-resolution N-body simulation. We find that in most cases the disk evolution results in the formation of a single large moon on a nearly circular orbit close to the equatorial plane of the initial disk just outside the Roche limit, which is consistent with the previous work by S. Ida et al. (1997, Nature 389, 353-357)."

"NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin named Dr. Baruch Blumberg, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute and winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, as senior advisor to the Administrator, effective today. As senior advisor, Blumberg will provide guidance for NASA's newly created enterprise, the Office of Biological and Physical Research in its efforts to develop an interdisciplinary research program focused on biology, bringing together physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. Blumberg also will continue in his role as director of the Astrobiology Institute."

"The preatmospheric mass of the Tagish Lake meteoroid was about 200,000 kilograms. Its calculated orbit indicates affinity to the Apollo asteroids with a semimajor axis in the middle of the asteroid belt, consistent with a linkage to low-albedo C, D, and P type asteroids. The mineralogy, oxygen isotope, and bulk chemical composition of recovered samples of the Tagish Lake meteorite are intermediate between CM and CI meteorites. These data suggest that the Tagish Lake meteorite may be one of the most primitive solar system materials yet studied."

"Primitive meteorites provide a glimpse into the early history of our solar system, but some of the most primitive meteorites are also rarely found on Earth. Well-preserved organic matter in the Tagish Lake meteorite provides a unique opportunity to study the nature and origin of organic matter that may have accreted on early Earth and played a role in the origin of life."

"Researchers at The University of Western Ontario (Western) and the University of Calgary -- working with colleagues from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom -- have found that meteorites recovered in northern British Columbia may be one of the most primitive solar system materials ever examined. "We can now say that this may be the 'crown jewel' of meteorite finds," says Peter Brown, a professor in Western's Department of Physics and Astronomy. "This discovery will aid scientists in the reconstruction of the early solar system."

"We investigate the low-mass population of the young cluster IC 348 down to the deuterium-burning limit, a fiducial boundary between brown dwarf and planetary mass objects, using a new and innovative method for the spectral classification of late-type objects. "

"In a young star cluster perched near Orion's belt, a team at the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands has spotted nearly a score of what appear to be balls of gas several times as massive as the planet Jupiter. Unlike planets, the objects are celestial free agents, drifting through the cluster rather than orbiting stars."

"We present the discovery by optical and near-infrared imaging of an extremely red, low-luminosity population of isolated objects in the young, nearby stellar cluster around the multiple, massive star Orionis. Like the planets of the solar system, these objects are unable to sustain stable nuclear burning in their interiors, but in contrast they are not bound to stars. This new kind of isolated giant planet, which apparently forms on time scales of less than a few million years, offers a challenge to our understanding of the formation processes of planetary mass objects."

"Scientists have discovered 18 planet-like objects, drifting free of any central star, in a region of the Orion constellation. If the young, cool bodies are in fact planets, these free floaters may pose a considerable challenge to current theories about how planets form. Planets are generally thought to form over tens of millions of years, as gas and dust in the disk swirling around a star condenses and clumps together. The objects discovered by the Science researchers seem to have quite a different origin and evolutionary history. They lack a central star like our sun, and they are part of a star cluster, sigma Orionis, that is no more than five million years old. (Our sun is billions of years old.) "

"The results to be released today by Science show, for the very first time, images and spectra of bodies showing planetary masses which oddly enough are not linked to any of the surrounding stars. These so-called superjupiters float freely within a star cluster, but at distances sufficiently large to allow them to avoid the gravitational attraction of other stars. Of the eighteen candidates detected so far, three have been scrutinised using spectroscopic techniques and have been confirmed as gaseous objects with surface temperatures in the range 1,500 degrees Celsius, as expected for planets slightly less massive than Jupiter undergoing very early evolutionary phases."

"Here we report the discovery in Pavilion Lake, British Columbia, Canada, of a distinctive assemblage of freshwater calcite microbialites. The morphologies of the modern microbialites vary with depth, and dendritic microstructures of the deep water (>30 m) mounds indicate that they may be modern analogues for the ancient calcareous structures. These microbialites thus provide an opportunity to study the biogeochemical interactions that produce fabrics similar to those of some enigmatic Early Cambrian reef structures. "

"A team of interdisciplinary astrobiologists from NASA and other agencies is homing in on recognizing the microbial biosignatures for life, making it easier someday to identify life on other planets. A scientific paper analyzing the team's research results, titled "Modern Freshwater Microbialite Analogues for Ancient Dendritic Reef Structures," will be published in the magazine Nature on Oct. 5. The paper focuses on the study of mounded microbialite deposits - layers of living and non-living organisms - found at Pavilion Lake in Canada. Microbialites are organic sedimentary mineral deposits covered by a thin layer of microbes that become entombed in the mounds as they grow outward. "

"A renowned cadre of researchers from diverse scientific disciplines will present the latest findings in terraforming Mars at a 2-day conference at NASA's Ames Research Center. The conference, "The Physics and Biology of Making Mars Habitable," will focus on restoring Mars' environment so it can support life, including possibly human life."

"A team of scientists at the University of Massachusetts led by microbial genetics professor Shiladitya DasSarma, in collaboration with noted molecular biotechnologist Leroy Hood of the Institute of Systems Biology (ISB), Seattle, Wash., has completed the genome sequence of Halobacterium species NRC-1, an "extremophilic" microorganism that grows best in an environment 10 times saltier than sea water. The achievement will be published in the Oct. 3 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "

Editor's note: this draft presentation contains proposed org charts for the new Office of Biological and Physical Research at NASA HQ.

"The following discussion of division structure and organization reflects the philosophy and strategic plan recommended by the Chief Scientist and the Administrator. This is only a preliminary organizational structure and it will be fine-tuned over the next six to twelve months by the selected Associate Administrator and Division Directors using advice obtained from the Life and Microgravity Advisory Committee and the Space Studies Board."

"A 16-month sequence of radio images of the active galaxy 3C120 with the Very Long Baseline Array reveals a region in the relativistic jet where superluminal components flash on and off over time scales of months, while the polarization angle rotates. The cloud, which rotates the polarization direction and possibly eclipses a section of the jet, represents a "missing link" between the ultradense broad-emission-line clouds closer to the center and the lower density narrow-emission-line clouds seen on kiloparsec scales. "

"Cepheid variables are giant yellow stars that grow dimmer and brighter over periods of days or weeks. Astronomers have caught Zeta Geminorum in the act of swelling and shrinking, making it the first Cepheid that astronomers have actually seen change its size."

"We determined the mass of asteroid 433 Eros, its lower order gravitational harmonics, and rotation state, using ground-based Doppler and range tracking of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker spacecraft and images of the asteroid's surface landmarks. The mass of Eros is (6.687 ± 0.003) ? 10¹⁸ grams,which, coupled with our volume estimate, implies a bulk density of 2.67 ± 0.03 grams per cubic centimeter. The asteroid appears to have a uniform density distribution. The dynamical environment of Eros suggests that it is covered with regolith and that one might expect material transport toward the deepest potential wells in the saddle and 5.5-kilometer crater regions."

"Eros is a very elongated (34 kilometers by 11 kilometers by 11 kilometers) asteroid, most of the surface of which is saturated with craters smaller than 1 kilometer in diameter. The largest crater is 5.5 kilometers across, but there is a 10-kilometer saddle-like depression with attributes of a large degraded crater. Spectra (800 to 2500 nanometers) are consistent with an ordinary chondrite composition for which the measured mean density of 2.67 ± 0.1 grams per cubic centimeter implies internal porosities ranging from about 10 to 30 percent."

"Measurements from the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker Laser Rangefinder (NLR) indicate that asteroid 433 Eros is a consolidated body with a complex shape dominated by collisions. Impact crater morphology is influenced by both gravity and structural control. Small-scale topography reveals ridges and grooves that may be generated by impact-related fracturing. "

"Low aluminum abundances for all regions argue against global differentiation of Eros. Magnesium/silicon, aluminum/silicon, calcium/silicon, and iron/silicon ratios are best interpreted as a relatively primitive, chondritic composition. Marked depletions in sulfur and possible aluminum and calcium depletions, relative to ordinary chondrites, may represent signatures of limited partial melting or impact volatilization."

Results from the NEAR Shoemaker mission to asteroid 433 Eros show that the asteroid is very ancient. So ancient, in fact, that it may have witnessed the earliest days of our solar system's history. Dr. Andrew F. Cheng of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., which manages the NEAR mission said "we can now say that Eros is an undifferentiated asteroid with homogeneous structure, that never separated into a distinct crust, mantle and core. We have definitive mass and density measurements plus spectacular images and movies showing ridges, pits, troughs and grooves that provide fascinating clues about its history."

"Sherry L. Cady, Ph.D. Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology of Portland State University, Portland, Ore., has accepted the post of Editor-in-Chief of an innovative new peer-reviewed journal, ASTROBIOLOGY, which will be published in 2001 by Mary Ann Liebert Inc. "Astrobiology, in its broadest sense, is developing as an area of distinct academic endeavor,'' said Mary Ann Liebert. "This Journal will provide a home for multidisciplinary studies and play an important role in the growth of the field. It will be published both in print and online."

According to the Executive Summary of a report from the UK Task Force on Near Earth Objects "The threat from Near Earth Objects raises major issues, among them the inadequacy of current knowledge, confirmation of hazard after initial observation, disaster management (if the worst came to the worst), methods of mitigation including deflection, and reliable communication with the public. The Task Force believes that steps should be taken at government level to set in place appropriate bodies - international, European including national - where these issues can be discussed and decisions taken. The United Kingdom is well placed to make a significant contribution to what should be a global effort."

"The Viking Landers were unable to detect evidence of life on Mars but, instead, found a chemically reactive soil capable of decomposing organic molecules. This reactivity was attributed to the presence of one or more as-yet-unidentified inorganic superoxides or peroxides in the martian soil. Using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, we show that superoxide radical ions (O2-) form directly on Mars-analog mineral surfaces exposed to ultraviolet radiation under a simulated martian atmosphere. These oxygen radicals can explain the reactive nature of the soil and the apparent absence of organic material at the martian surface. "

"Fungi have been implicated in the early colonization of land by plants. The discovery of a fossil fungus provides strong support for this hypothesis. The important role of symbiotic associations of fungi with plants and animals is increasingly being recognized, as is the fact that some of these associations date back to the origin of terrestrial life on Earth."

"Earlier this summer, two dozen scientists gathered to take another crack at the question of viral origins and evolution. Fresh evidence that viruses have existed for billions of years suggests that they were on hand when the first cells arose. That has scientists wondering what role these stripped-down microbes played in the evolution of life. "

"A million years ago, in the constellation Scorpius, one of a pair of binary stars erupted into a supernova. Its nonexploding partner shot off into space and is now Zeta Ophiuchi, a bright, giant "runaway star" racing through the neighboring constellation Ophiuchus. The supernova has been harder to trace. Astrophysicists know it must have collapsed into a neutron star, but where it wound up has been anyone's guess. Now, however, astronomers are fingering two candidates, one of which is the closest known neutron star to Earth. "

"Recent results on Polaris and other Cepheids, variable stars used as a yardstick for astronomical distances, illustrate some of the new capabilities we have for studying this important class of stars."

Excerpt from Conference Report (H. Rept.106-843) to authorize appropriations for NASA for FY 2000, 2001, and 2002:

SEC. 314. LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE.

(a) Review: The Administrator shall enter into appropriate arrangements with the National Academy of Sciences for the conduct of a review of--

(1) international efforts to determine the extent of life in the universe; and

(2) enhancements that can be made to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's efforts to determine the extent of life in the universe.

(1) an assessment of the direction of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's astrobiology initiatives within the Origins program;

(2) an assessment of the direction of other initiatives carried out by entities other than the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to determine the extent of life in the universe, including other Federal agencies, foreign space agencies, and private groups such as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute;

(3) recommendations about scientific and technological enhancements that could be made to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's astrobiology initiatives to effectively utilize the initiatives of the scientific and technical communities; and

(4) recommendations for possible coordination or integration of National Aeronautics and Space Administration initiatives with initiatives of other entities described in paragraph (2).

According to A UC Irvine press release: " a new NASA project to grow protein crystals on the International Space Station takes off tomorrow when the Space Shuttle Atlantis travels to the unique orbiting laboratory. In addition, as part of a NASA pilot education program, middle and high school students from Alabama, California, Florida and Tennessee gave NASA a helping hand.

"Large-scale nonlinear simulations of Jupiter's 5-micron hot spots produce long-lived coherent structures that cause subsidence in local regions, explaining the low cloudiness and the dryness measured by the Galileo probe inside a hot spot."

"Waves of up-and-down winds that span great ranges in air pressure may explain the surprisingly clear, dry areas near Jupiter's equator, new research based on data from NASA's Galileo entry probe indicates."

"The Permian-Triassic transition in the Karoo Basin of South Africa was characterized by a rapid and apparently basin-wide change from meandering to braided river systems, as evidenced by preserved sedimentary facies. This radical changeover in river morphology is consistent with geomorphic consequences stemming from a rapid and major die-off of rooted plant life in the basin."

"Two hundred and fifty million years ago, at the end of the Permian period and the opening of the Triassic, 85% of the species in the sea vanished in a geologic moment of less than half a million years. Now from South Africa comes evidence that the Permian-Triassic extinction of land plants was equally brutal and swift. In a paper in Science, researchers report that rocks that started as sediments laid down in South Africa's Karoo Basin 250 million years ago tell of an abrupt switch in style of sedimentation, as if the land had been permanently stripped of the rooted plants that held it in place."

"Phylogenetic analyses of multiple magnesium-tetrapyrrole biosynthesis genes using a combination of distance, maximum parsimony, and maximum likelihood methods indicate that heliobacteria are closest to the last common ancestor of all oxygenic photosynthetic lineages and that green sulfur bacteria and green nonsulfur bacteria are each other's closest relatives. These results challenge previous conclusions based on 16S ribosomal RNA and Hsp60/Hsp70 analyses that green nonsulfur bacteria or heliobacteria are the earliest phototrophs. The overall consensus of our phylogenetic analysis, that bacteriochlorophyll biosynthesis evolved before chlorophyll biosynthesis, also argues against the long-held Granick hypothesis. "

"The Bauer group's work also reinforces recent fundamental changes in molecular genetics that show bacteria evolved in a complex manner that resembles a tangled briar patch, with branches going every which way from a number of stems, instead of a traditional evolutionary tree that shows all species neatly branching out from a single stem that represents their common ancestor, usually regarded as the universal ancestral cell. This change in perspective is necessary because gene-swapping was common among ancient bacteria early in evolution. "

"The next milestone in telescope size is likely to be one with a primary mirror 30 meters in diameter, which would provide ten times the light-gathering area of each of the Kecks. The University of California and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have teamed up to design and build a 30-meter telescope, dubbed the California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT). The project is still in the early planning stages, but researchers led by UC Santa Cruz astronomers are making steady progress on the conceptual design for CELT. "

"Broccoli is just the thing to keep astronauts' bones healthy. If people are ever to reach Mars or other planets, they had better take some broccoli plants with them. French researchers have found that a deficiency of vitamin K-which is particularly abundant in broccoli-may contribute to bone loss in astronauts."

On the morning of 18 January 2000, a small asteroid slammed into the Earth's atmosphere over northwestern North America. As the object approached the Earth's surface the shock of entering the atmosphere caused it to shatter into many pieces. A sizeable portion of the meteorite's fragments landed on an ice-covered lake in British Columbia - Lake Tagish - and were quickly encased in ice. A dedicated amateur had the foresight to exercise extreme care in collecting the meteorite samples - including keeping them encased in the ice within which they had come to rest. His actions were to allow others to open a door into an early portion of our solar system's history.

"Biological life is in control of its own means of reproduction, which generally involves complex, autocatalysing chemical reactions. But this autonomy of design and manufacture has not yet been realized artificially. Robots are still laboriously designed and constructed by teams of human engineers, usually at considerable expense. Here we report the results of a combined computational and experimental approach in which simple electromechanical systems are evolved through simulations from basic building blocks ... We thus achieve autonomy of design and construction using evolution in a 'limited universe' physical simulation coupled to automatic fabrication."

"One of the greatest challenges in robotics is to create machines that are able to interact with unpredictable environments in real time. A possible solution may be to use swarms of robots behaving in a self-organized manner, similar to workers in an ant colony."

"For three billion years, before the Cambrian diversification of life, laminated carbonate build-ups called stromatolites were widespread in shallow marine seas. These ancient structures are generally thought to be microbial in origin and potentially preserve evidence of the Earth's earliest biosphere. Despite their evolutionary significance, little is known about stromatolite formation, especially the relative roles of microbial and environmental factors in stromatolite accretion."

"The recent news that two high-tech titans have donated $12.5 million to energize the hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence invites cynicism. To the world at large, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and former Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold might appear to be two men gripped by midlife crises of the billionaire kind. "

"An amateur astronomer has discovered a new comet - using not a back garden telescope but a multi-million pound satellite. "

"When they first set out to create an entry for the international website design competition, Thinkquest, the three students from the United Kingdom and Canada had no idea how far their entry would go. Adrian Hon from England, and David Sewell and Katherine Harris from Canada spent the last year constructing one of the most comprehensive educational websites on the Internet - and all of this was done while they were still at school. The website, Astrobiology: The Living Universe, covers every aspect of the young science of astrobiology that includes exobiology, humans in space, planetary biology and the origins of life."

Editor's note: This site is well worth an extended visit.

"At a ceremony last Friday (Aug. 25) in which the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) was formally dedicated, U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd (D - WV) announced that the gigantic telescope had successfully opened its two-acre 'eye' on the Universe earlier that week. The telescope was christened the "Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope" at the ceremony, which was held at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) site in Green Bank, West Virginia. The event also featured remarks from Dr. Rita R Colwell, Director of the National Science Foundation. "

"Last week, the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shattered its own record for comet discoveries when astronomers announced that the orbiting spacecraft had recorded its 200th sungrazing comet. Michael Oates, an amateur astronomer in Britain, spotted SOHO-200 in an online image captured by one of SOHO's coronagraphs. The picture showed the comet evaporating as it plunged through the superheated solar corona."

"Scientists claim to have recreated one of the vital steps in the origin of life on Earth. Their experiments show that a chemical vital to all living creatures can be synthesised from organic and metallic compounds. "

"Experiments exploring the potential catalytic role of iron sulfide at 250°C and elevated pressures revealed a facile, pressure-enhanced synthesis of organometallic phases formed through the reaction of alkyl thiols and carbon monoxide with iron sulfide. The natural synthesis of such compounds is anticipated in present-day and ancient environments wherever reduced hydrothermal fluids pass through iron sulfide-containing crust. Here, pyruvic acid was synthesized in the presence of such organometallic phases. These compounds could have provided the prebiotic Earth with critical biochemical functionality. "

According to NASA "researchers have the strongest evidence yet that one of Jupiter's most mysterious moons hides a fermenting ocean of water underneath its icy coat. This evidence comes from magnetic readings by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, reported in the Friday, Aug. 25, edition of the journal Science. "The direction that a magnetic compass on Europa would point to flips around in a way that's best explained by the presence of a layer of electrically conducting liquid, such as saltwater, beneath the ice," explained Dr. Margaret Kivelson, one of five co- authors at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)."

"On 3 January 2000, the Galileo spacecraft passed close to Europa when it was located far south of Jupiter's magnetic equator in a region where the radial component of the magnetospheric magnetic field points inward toward Jupiter. The Galileo magnetometer measured changes in the magnetic field predicted if a current-carrying outer shell, such as a planet-scale liquid ocean, is present beneath the icy surface. The evidence that Europa's field varies temporally strengthens the argument that a liquid ocean exists beneath the present-day surface. "

"The possibility of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa has been suggested on the basis of theoretical, geological, and spectroscopic arguments. But, as Stevenson explains in his Perspective, none of these arguments were compelling. In contrast, the magnetic field data obtained by the Galileo spacecraft and presented in the report by Kivelson et al., provide persuasive evidence for a conducting layer--most likely a global water ocean--near Europa's surface. "

"There are two main groups of theories for the origin of life on Earth, the prebiotic broth theories and the hydrothermal theories, exemplified by the iron-sulfur world theory. In his Perspective, Wächtershäuser discusses the report by Cody et al., which provides key support for the latter proposal. "