FEATURED TOPIC: SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS OF 2009

FEATURED TOPIC: SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS OF 2009

1. Methane found on Mars
   1. Large quantities of methane gas have been detected on Mars (Jan 2009)
   2. The methane is said to be forming continuously in the Martian atmosphere
   3. The production of methane on Mars is postulated to be due to geological or biological activity
   4. Geological activity includes active volcanoes, and biological activity could be microbes that have survived in the permafrost layer on Mars’ surface
   5. NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, due to launch in 2011, will have the ability to distinguish gases produced by geological activity from biological activity
2. Satellites collide in space
   1. US and Russian communications satellites collided in space, the biggest such incident to have occurred to date (Feb 2009)
   2. The US communications satellite Iridium collided with a defunct Russian satellite Cosmos about 800 km above the earth’s surface
   3. The risk to the ISS is said to be minimal. The debris is expected to fall to Earth and burn up
   4. Since the launch of the Sputnik by the USSR in 1957, around 6000 satellites have been put in orbit. About 3000 of these remain in operation
      
   5. It is estimated that are about 17,000 man-made pieces of debris orbiting the Earth, including parts of old satellites that have broken up
   6. Debris in space is monitored and tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network. The Network detects, identifies and tracks man-made objects orbiting the Earth and provides information to space shuttles and the ISS to avoid these debris
      
3. Most distant object ever detected
   1. The cataclysmic explosion of a giant star early in the history of the universe has become the most distant object ever detected (April 2009)
   2. The colossal blast was picked up NASA’s Swift space telescope, tuned to detect high-energy gamma rays emitted by extreme events
   3. The Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) detected is said to be more than 13 billion light years away
   4. The star was likely one of the earliest constituents of the universe after the Big Bang
   5. The explosion currently detected is said to have happened when the universe was only 630 million years old. The current age of the universe is 13.7 billion years
   6. The Swift satellite was launched in 2004 to investigate energetic flashes that characterise some of the Universe’s most violent happenings
4. Lightest planet detected
   1. A planet orbiting the star Gliese 581 has become the lightest planet ever detected outside the solar system (Apr 2009)
   2. Situated in the constellation Libra, the planet Gliese 581 e is only about twice as big as the Earth
5. Stunning fossil find unveiled (May 2009)
   
   1. The beautifully preserved remains of a 47 million year old lemur-like creature have been unveiled in the US
   2. The preservation is so good that it is possible to see outlines of its fur as well as pieces of its last meal
   3. The fossil, nicknamed Ida, is claimed to be a missing link between today’s higher primates (like monkeys, humans) and more distant relatives
   4. The creature has been classified as belonging to a new species Darwinius masillae
6. Herschel and Planck telescopes launched by ESA(May 2009)
   
   1. The Herschel and Planck telescopes have been launched into space by the European Space Agency (ESA)
   2. The telescopes were launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou in French Guiana
   3. The Herschel is the largest telescope launched into space. It will study the birth of stars and galaxies and how they evolve over time
   4. Planck will measure Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the oldest light in the Universe
7. New element to Periodic Table (June 2009)
   1. A new element called Copernicium (Cp) has been added to the Periodic Table
   2. The new element will have atomic number 112
   3. The “super-heavy” element was discovered by scientists at the Centre for Heavy Ion Research, Darmstadt, Germany
8. Human-like fossil may reveal direct ancestor(Oct 2009)
   
   1. A 4.4 million year old animal called Ardipithecus ramidus is postulated to be a direct ancestor of humans
   2. The fossils of a female of the species called Ardi was found in 1992 in Ethiopia. The fossils come from the Afar Rift region of Ethiopia
   3. The 4-foot tall Ardi was good at climbing trees and walked on two feet
   4. The research related to Ardi has been named the Science Breakthrough of the Year 2009 by the journal Science
9. Water found on moon (Nov 2009)
   
   1. NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) space probe detects significant presence of water on the moon
   2. The water was found in the Cabeus crater near the south pole of the moon
   3. This followed ISRO’s detection of water near the Shackleton crater in Sep 2009. The water was found by NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper probe carried onboard ISRO’s Chandrayaan I spacecraft
   4. For details see earlier post here
10. Large Hadron Collider (LHC) restarted(Nov 2009)
    
    1. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva was restarted on 21 Nov 2009 after a gap of one year
    2. It is now the largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world.
    3. The Collider was launched in July 2008, but suffered an electrical failure only nine days later
    4. The Collider was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) with the intention of testing high-energy physics
    5. For details see earlier post here

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RECENT NOTEWORTHY DEVELOPMENTS

INTERNATIONAL

1. Serbia applies to join the EU
   1. Serbia has applied to join the EU
   2. The membership of the EU currently stands at 27
   3. The Republic of Serbia is a part of the former Yugoslavia. Following the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, Serbia and Montenegro formed the “State Union of Serbia and Montenegro”. Serbia and Montenegro then became separate nations in 2006, following a public referendum
   4. Serbia had been under EU sanctions due to its military involvement in conflict in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and most recently in Kosovo
   5. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2006. Its independence has been recognized by the US and most EU countries, but not by Russia, China or India
   6. Serbia still needs to capture war criminals including Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic wanted for war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia
   7. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is based in The Hague
   8. Slovenia is the only former Yugoslav republic to have joined the EU so far (2004). Croatia is on track to be the next to join in 2011-2012
2. European Parliament adopts Budget for 2010
   1. The European Parliament has adopted a EUR 122 billion Budget for 2010
   2. The European Parliament is the directly-elected parliamentary institution of the European Union
   3. The European Parliament is the lower House of the EU legislature. The upper House is the Council of the European Union
   4. The European legislature is considered to be one of the most powerful legislatures in the world
   5. The European Parliament was established in 1979
   6. This is the last year that the Budget has been negotiated under the Nice Treaty rules. From 2011, the Budget will be established under the Lisbon Treaty.
   7. The European Parliament, consisting of 736 MEPs representing 375 million people, serves the second largest democratic electorate in world (after India)
   8. The Secretariat of the European Parliament is in Luxembourg. It has its official seat in Strasbourg (France) and a supplementary seat in Brussels
3. UN sanctions imposed on Eritrea
   1. The UN has imposed sanctions on Eritrea for supporting Islamic militants in Somalia
   2. The sanctions include arms embargo, travel bans and asset freezes
   3. Eritrea has become the first country to be subject to UN sanctions since Iran in 2006
   4. Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 following a UN-supervised referendum
   5. The President of Eritrea is Isaias Afewerki
   6. The capital Eritrea is Asmara
4. Effort to save Northern White rhinos
   1. Four rare Northern White rhinos have been flown from a zoo in the Czech Republic to Kenya in a desperate attempt to save the species from extinction
   2. Only eight Northern White rhinos are known to survive worldwide, all of them in captivity: six in the Czech Republic and two in the US
   3. The four rhinos from the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic are being flown to the Ol Pejeta Reserve in Kenya as part of the “Last Chance to Survive” project
   4. It is hoped that the rhinos will breed in their natural habitat in Africa
   5. The Northern White rhinos are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List Threatened Species