(BBC)
The
US space agency is to send its Mars rover Opportunity on
a two-year trek to try to reach a crater called
Endeavour.
The robot will have to move about 11km to get to its new
target - a distance that would double what it has
already achieved on the planet. Endeavour is much bigger
than anything investigated to date, and will allow a
broader range of rocks to be studied. Opportunity
arrived on Mars in January 2004 on a mission scheduled
initially to last just three months.
The performance of the rover - like that of
its twin, Spirit - has greatly exceeded what anyone had
dared hope. The US space agency (Nasa) concedes,
however, that the Endeavour assignment will be an
extremely tough one. "We may not get there, but it is
scientifically the right direction to go anyway," said
Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal
investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity
and Spirit. "This crater is staggeringly large compared
to anything we've seen before."
(BBC)
An extinct Galapagos tortoise species could walk again,
scientists believe.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, researchers report finding relatives of
Geochelone elephantopus alive and well.
Cross-breeding these living tortoises might re-create
the extinct species - though it could take a century.
The distribution of related tortoises between the
islands was one of the pieces of evidence Charles Darwin
used in formulating his theory of evolution.
But of 15 known Galapagos species, four
have since gone extinct - elephantopus less than
two decades after Darwin visited the island.
(BBC)
Archaeologists have pinpointed the construction of
Stonehenge to 2300BC - a key step to discovering how and
why the mysterious edifice was built. The radiocarbon
date is said to be the most accurate yet and means the
ring's original bluestones were put up 300 years later
than previously thought. The dating is the major finding
from an excavation inside the henge by Profs Tim Darvill
and Geoff Wainwright. The duo found evidence suggesting
Stonehenge was a centre of healing.
Others have argued that the monument was a
shrine to worship ancestors, or a calendar to mark the
solstices. A documentary following the progress of the
recent dig has been recorded by the BBC Timewatch
series. It will be broadcast on Saturday 27 September.
(BBC)
(BBC)
An extinct Galapagos tortoise species could walk again,
scientists believe.
(BBC)
Archaeologists have pinpointed the construction of
Stonehenge to 2300BC - a key step to discovering how and
why the mysterious edifice was built. The radiocarbon
date is said to be the most accurate yet and means the
ring's original bluestones were put up 300 years later
than previously thought. The dating is the major finding
from an excavation inside the henge by Profs Tim Darvill
and Geoff Wainwright. The duo found evidence suggesting
Stonehenge was a centre of healing.
Others have argued that the monument was a
shrine to worship ancestors, or a calendar to mark the
solstices. A documentary following the progress of the
recent dig has been recorded by the BBC Timewatch
series. It will be broadcast on Saturday 27 September.
