“Supergiant” asteroid shut down magnetic field of Mars

October 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have put a certain controversy to rest, by ascertaining that in ancient times, the Earth's magnetic field was structured like the two-pole model of today, which suggests that the methods geoscientists use to reconstruct the geography of early land masses on the globe are accurate. The findings may lead to a better understanding of historical continental movement, which relates to changes in climate.

September 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a very rare finding, scientists have discovered an unusual kind of meteorite in the Western Australian desert and have uncovered that it came from the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Meteorites are the only surviving physical record of the formation of our Solar System.

September 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have found that auroral bright spots on the planet Jupiter are caused by the magnetosphere of its innermost moon - Ganymede. As Ganymede and Io orbit Jupiter, they interact with regions of plasma and generate electromagnetic waves that are projected along Jupiter's magnetic field lines towards Jupiter's poles where they cause auroral bright spots.

September 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, a team of scientists has for the first time observed magnetic monopoles and how they emerge in a real material. The research was done by scientists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fur Materialien und Energie, Germany, in cooperation with colleagues from Dresden, St.

July 15th, 2009 Space invaders: Asteroid belt has rocks from afarWASHINGTON — A new astronomy theory says the solar system's main asteroid belt is littered with icy invaders from far away. The so-called invaders are asteroids that seem more like primitive frozen comets than the baked rocks that make up the overwhelming majority of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.

July 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) have come up with a device called a dc metamaterial, which makes objects invisible under certain light. The device does so, according to the researchers, under very low frequency electromagnetic waves by making the inside of the magnetic field zero, but not altering the exterior field.

July 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have performed numerical calculations that show how convective mixing flows in the Earth's liquid outer core can cause the geomagnetic dipole to collapse. For the past 160 years, the Earth's magnetic dipole has been weakening at a rate of nearly six percent per century.

June 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of Boulder (US) scientists and engineers has tested a new instrument prototype that might be used to detect groundwater deep inside Mars. Known as the Mars Time Domain Electromagnetic Sounder (MTDEM), the instrument uses induction to generate electrical currents in the ground, whose secondary magnetic fields are in turn detected at the planetary surface.

June 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research by scientists in the US has linked variations in the Earth's magnetic field with the ebb and flow of the world's oceans. The origin and mechanism of the Earth's magnetic field are amongst the biggest unsolved questions in the earth sciences.

May 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has suggested that the Sun is slowly stealing Earth's atmosphere, with our planet's main solar defense acting as a double agent, aiding and abetting the thievery. According to a report in National Geographic News, typically hailed as a protective buffer from the sun's brute power, Earth's magnetosphere is actually helping the sun's energized particles strip away a tiny fraction of Earth's atmosphere.

May 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The world's largest solar telescope, which can capture the Sun's magnetic field better than other telescopes, is now operational. The new 1.6-meter clear aperture solar telescope, the largest of its kind in the world, is housed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey, US.

May 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has brought environmentally friendly 'magnetic' refrigerators and air conditioning systems a closer to reality. Magnetic refrigeration technology could provide a 'green' alternative to traditional energy-guzzling gas-compression fridges and air conditioners.

April 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A scientist in the US has found an effective way to deflect an Earth-threatening asteroid, by attaching a long tether and ballast to the incoming object. The theory has been put forward by David French, a doctoral candidate in aerospace engineering at North Carolina (NC) State University, US.

March 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has confirmed the origin of supernovae as being produced from dying red supergiant stars. The scientists are from the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen and from Queens University, Belfast.

March 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An asteroid as big as a 10-storeyed building flew past Earth Tuesday, the US space website has said. The space rock was perhaps a bit larger than one thought to have created a colossal explosion in the air above Siberia in 1908 that flattened 500,000 acres (2,000 square km) of forest.