Finding Earth-like planet 'a near certainty,' claims scientist

If you have wondered whether there is another planet similar to Earth out there in space, the answer is absolutely yes.According to Sara Seager, a professor of physics and planetary science at MIT, there are hundreds of billions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy and upward of 100 billion galaxies in our universe. 

“So the existence of a planet similar to Earth somewhere, is, in my mind a certainty,” she told CNN Light Years.

“Less certain is if such a planet is near enough to us that we can find and identify it sometime in the future,” she said. 

Earth seen from Space

When as how soon can we find another Earth, she said it depends on how we identify Earth. 

If we want a true Earth twin, that is a planet with a thin nitrogen atmosphere, a planet with oceans and continents and orbiting a sun-like star, it will be well over a decade before we have the sophisticated space telescope tools to find and identify one, she said.

“Our best bet is to expand our definition of Earth to big Earth's orbiting small stars. We can use the future James Webb Space Telescope to search for signs (of) habitability and signs of life in the planet atmosphere.

“If we would be satisfied to just find an Earth-size or Earth-mass planet, that has already been done.

“But I caution that Venus and Earth appear the same size and mass, yet Venus is inhospitable to life due to a massive greenhouse atmosphere that creates surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead, while Earth has a surface oasis in comparison,” she added.

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An Asteroid may hit earth is 2068 A.D. Claimed NASA

The 325-metre asteroid99942 Apophis, that will safely fly by the Earth in 2029 and 2036,may strike the planet in 2068, says an article published on the NASA website.
The chances of it striking Earth are slim, however, with impact odds being about 2.3 in a million. The asteroid has been the focus of considerable attention after it was discovered in December 2004 to have a significant probability of Earth impact in April 2029.

While the 2029 potential impact was ruled out through the measurement of archival telescope images, the possibility of a potential impact in the years after 2029 continues to prove difficult to rule out. Based on optical and radar position measurements made in 2004-2012, the asteroid will pass the Earth in 2029 at an altitude of 31900, give or take 750 km.The altitude is close enough for the Earth's gravity to deflect
Such impact trajectories require Apophis to pass the Earth at a precise altitude, known as a keyhole, in 2029 en route to a subsequent impact.

"The new report, which does not make use of the 2013 radar measurements, identifies over a dozen keyholes that fall within the range of possible 2029 encounter distances," said the article prepared by a group of scientists led by Davide Farnocchia.

The uncertainty in predicting the asteroid's position in 2029 is completely dominated by the so-called Yarkovsky effect, a subtle non-gravitational perturbation due to thermal re-radiation of solar energy absorbed by the asteroid.

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UFO over Yemen authentic: astronomer

A Yemeni photographer captured what he believes was an unidentified flying object (UFO) over the mountains in northern Yemen and a picture he published showed a strange white triangular object streaming through the clouds.

Aseel Badiyan said he was using his camera to take shots of the mountains, nearly 90 km from the capital Sanaa, when the object shot across his lens.

Commenting on the photograph, a well-known Saudi astronomer said he had checked the picture and found that it was authentic.

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Solar Eclipse in Picture That wasn't Visible in Nepal (with pictures)

It was the ones in a life time View when moon comes in between the sun and the earth causing the solar Eclipse. Though Nepalese didn’t have luck to watch this event Skywatchers from Mount Fuji to the Grand Canyon enjoyed a treat: the moon nearly blotting out the sun to create a dramatic 'ring of fire' over a narrow strip of eastern Asia and the western United States.

The annular eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun leaving only a golden ring around its edges, was visible in Asia early Monday and  It then moved across the Pacific - and the international dateline - and was seen in parts of the western United StatesSunday afternoon.

In Japan, 'eclipse tours' were arranged at schools and parks, on pleasure boats and even private airplanes. Similar events were held in Chinaand Taiwanas well, with skywatchers warned to protect their eyes.

Series of Solar Eclipse Seen From Tokyo

In the U.S., viewing parties were held at observatories in Reno, Nevada, and Oakland, California, and elsewhere. In some areas, special camera filters for taking photographs have been sold out for weeks in anticipation of the big event.

Eventually, the moon centered and covered about 96 percent of the sun.

Solar Eclipse(pic shows how it emerge and come to and End 

'That's got to be the prettiest thing I've ever seen, Said Veltri of Salida, in Colorado to Daily Mail.

The eclipse was broadcast live on TV in Tokyo, where such an eclipse hasn't been visible since 1839. Japanese TV crews watched from the top of Mount Fuji and even staked out a zoo south of Tokyo to capture the reaction of the chimpanzees - who didn't seem to notice.

A light rain fell on Tokyo as the eclipse began, but the clouds thinned as it reached its peak, providing near perfect conditions.

Ring Of Fire Seen from New Mexico USA

'It was a very mysterious sight,' said Kaori Sasaki, who joined a crowd in downtown Tokyo to watch event. 'I've never seen anything like it.'

At the TaipeiAstronomical Museumin Taiwan, the spectacle emerged from dark clouds for only about 30 seconds. But the view was nearly perfect against Manila's orange skies.

'It's amazing. We do this for the awe [and] it has not disappointed. I am awed, literally floored,' said astronomical hobbyist Garry Andreassen, whose long camera lenses were lined up with those of about 10 other gazers in a downtown Manila park.

Hong Kong skywatchers weren't so lucky.

'Ring of Fire' eclipses are not as dramatic as a total eclipse, when the disc of the sun is entirely blocked by the moon. The moon is too far from Earth and appears too small in the sky to blot out the sun completely.
Doctors and education officials have warned of eye injuries from improper viewing. 

Before the event started, Japan's Education Minister Hirofumi Hirano demonstrated how to use eclipse glasses in a televised news conference.

Police also cautioned against traffic accidents - warning drivers to keep their eyes on the road.

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Astronauts to land on 'planet killer' asteroid

NASA is training a team of astronauts to land on asteroids, which are three million miles from the Earth.

The mission, planned for the next decade, would land on an asteroid travelling at more than 50,000 miles an hour.

The astronauts will drive vehicles on the surface - and pick up skills necessary to destroy ‘planet killer’ asteroids that may approach our planet in future.

The journey to the asteroid and back could take up to a year, according to the Daily Mail.

Major Tim Peake, a former British Army helicopter pilot, and the first official British astronaut with the European Space Agency revealed details of the mission.

Peake and five other astronauts will prepare for the low-gravity environment of the asteroid by spending 12 days in an underwater base off the coast of Florida, 65 feet beneath the Atlantic.

They will live in a capsule 43 feet long by 20 feet wide to simulate the cramped conditions on an asteroid.

asteroid

“With the technology we have available and are developing today, an asteroid mission of up to a year is definitely achievable,” Major Peake said in an interview in the Telegraph.

“These objects are also coming extremely close to Earth all the time, but we rarely hear about it. In the last year we had an asteroid come within Earth’s geostationary orbit, which is closer than some satellites.

“With enough warning we would probably send a robotic mission to deflect an asteroid, but if something is spotted late and is big enough we might come into Armageddon type scenarios where we may have to look at manned missions to deflect it,” he stated.

Peak added, “I would love to go on an asteroid mission. There is a possibility that if things continue at a good pace an asteroid mission could happen within the 2020s and that is within the operational time frame of myself and the other ESA astronauts.” 

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'Ring of fire' eclipse visible in US this Sunday!! Don't forget to have Life time Experience!!

On Sunday, millions of people around the world will be watching to an amazing sight: an annular solar eclipse in which the moon will cover as much as 94 percent of the sun, leaving a glowing ring of fire. In the US, the eclipse will begin around 5:30 pm PDT and last around two hours. The greatest coverage will be at around 6:30 pm PDT. The last such eclipse to be seen in the UStook place in 1994, and the next will be in 2023 so you can say it a Life Time Experience.

Because some of the sun is always exposed during the eclipse, the amount of daylight falls dramatically - but looking at the ground beneath leafy trees will reveal crescent-shaped sunbeams and rings of light.

Ring of Fire seen due toTotal Solar Eclipse

The 'path of annularity' where the ring of fire can be seen is only about 200 miles wide, covers a swathe of the southern US - southwest Oregon, Northern California, central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona, New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. The effect should last for around four and a half minutes.

Outside this band, other areas will see a partial eclipse.

"The ring of sunlight during annularity is blindingly bright," cautions NASA's leading eclipse expert Fred Espenak of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

"Even though most of the sun's disk will be covered, you still need to use a solar filter or some type of projection technique. A #14 welder's glass is a good choice. There are also many commercially-available solar filters."

#14 Welder's Glass Best for viewing Solar Eclipse

If you buy one, you'll get another chance to use it two weeks later when Venus makes a transit of the sun. Anyway If you are in Souther US don’t forget to watch the worth Sight of the Solar Eclipse.

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Biggest full moon of the year is due tonight as 'supermoon' set to fill sky today

The moon is set to get a lot bigger tonight - at least from our perspective on Earth. And the 'Supermoon' - the nickname for a perigee full moon, closer to the Earth than usual - could cause tides to rise around the world as the moon's close 'fly past' exerts 42 per cent more tidal force.

The moon will appear bigger and brighter - sky-watchers promise this 'supermoon' will be 16 per cent brighter than most when it begins today at 3.35pm GMT, 11.35am EDT.

At 11.34pm, the moon will be about 221,802 miles from Earth - about 15,300 miles closer than average.

Super Moon Seen Earlier 

Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee).

Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon's orbit.

A perigee full Moon brings with it extra-high ‘perigean tides,’  but this is nothing to worry about, according to America's NOAA space-weather predicting agency.

In most places, lunar gravity at perigee pulls tide waters only a few centimeters (an inch or so) higher than usual.  'To view this weekend's supermoon to best effect, look for it just after it rises or before it sets, when it is close to the horizon. There, you can catch a view of the moon behind buildings or trees, an effect which produces an optical illusion, making the moon seem even larger than it really is,' said Space.com, which reported the phenomenon

The best time to look is when the Moon is near the horizon. That is when illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view.

For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects.

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Sun like star may be home to 9 alien planets!!

A sun-like star, which is already known to host five alien planets, may actually have nine full-fledged worlds, according to a new study. If the planetary arrangement is confirmed, it would outnumber our own solar system and set a new record for the most populated system of extrasolar planets yet found.

The sun-like star, named HD 10180, is situated nearly 127 light-years away from Earth. In an earlier study that was published in August 2010, astronomers discovered five confirmed alien worlds and two planetary candidates. Now a new study confirms both previous candidates in the HD 10180 system, and also indicates that two more planets could be orbiting the star.

This could bring the tally up to nine planets, asserted lead author Mikko Tuomi, an astronomer at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK.

"The data indicates that there are not only seven but likely as many as nine planets in the system," Tuomi said.

"The two new planets appear to have orbital periods of roughly 10 and 68 days and masses of 1.9 and 5.1 times that of Earth, which enables the classification of them as hot super-Earths, i.e. planets with likely scorchingly hot rocky surfaces."

Tuomi re-analyzed observations collected between November 2003 and June 2010 by the planet-hunting HARPS spectrograph instrument, which is mounted on a 3.6-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile, Fox News reported.

Since the newly detected candidates are still unproven, more research is required to determine if they are bonafide planets, and not erroneous signals.

"While the existence of the larger of these two is well supported by the data, the signal corresponding to the smaller one exceeds the detection threshold only barely, which gives it a very small but non-eligible probability of being a false positive," Tuomi added.

The study has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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NASA calls for ideas from around the world for future Mars missions

NASA's Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) is starting to research in its next Mars mission and is looking for help from scientists and engineers worldwide. The aim is to find a relatively low-cost way of sending a robotic mission to Mars in 2018 or 2020. It should help pave the way for sending humans to Mars in the 2030s. However, the effort will be hampered by the 21 percent budget cut to planetary science included in President Obama's 2013 budget.

"We're moving quickly to develop options for future Mars exploration missions and pathways," says John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

"As part of this process, community involvement, including international, is essential for charting the new agency-wide strategy for our future Mars exploration efforts."

Scientists and technicians are being asked to submit ideas and abstracts online, wit the most promising to be presented during a workshop in June hosted by the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

"Receiving input from our community is vital to energize the planning process," says Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program.

"We'll integrate inputs to ensure the next steps for the Mars Exploration Program will support science, as well as longer-term human exploration and technology goals."

Several Mars missions are already in place. In August, the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, will land on the planet's surface with the aim of discovering whether Mars has ever been able to support life - and whether there may be life present even now.

In 2013, NASA will launch the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN)orbiter, the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. After the 12th grade student from Nepal Police school gave his ides to create city in space called gagan pur and was selected second among all the contestants. Can any Nepalese this time will send his abstract as NASA is asking. Don’t miss the Chance.

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Global warming: Scientists discover glaciers in Asian mountain range are actually getting bigger

Photos taken by a French satellite show glaciers in a mountain range west of the Himalayashave grown during the last decade.

The growing glaciers were found in the Karakoram range, which spans the borders between Pakistan, Indiaand China and is home to the world's second highest peak, K2.

The startling find has baffled scientists and comes at a time when glaciers in other parts of the region, and across the world, are shrinking.

French scientists from the National Centre for Scientific Research and the Universityof Grenoble, were forced to rely on satellite images, to study the region - because much of the Karakoram range is inaccessible.

They compared observations made in 1999 and 2008 and found a marginal mass increase.

They estimated the glaciers had gained between 0.11 and 0.22 metres of ice each year.

The researchers are unsure why the region bucks the global trend - but they know from other studies in other parts of the world that in very cold regions, like the Karakoram range, climate change can cause extra precipitation, which then freezes and adds to ice mass.

Lead reseacher Julie Gardelle told BBC News: 'We don't really know the reason. Right now we believe that it could be due to a very specific regional climate over Karakoram because there have been meteorological measurements showing increased winter precipitation; but that's just a guess at this stage.'

Stephan Harrison, associate professor in quaternary science at the UK's University of Exeter, said the new research had showed there is 'considerable variability' in the global climate and in how glaciers respond to it.

Area of Glaceries are increasing in Karakoram range

Harrison said much of their mass gain also comes from avalanches from the high mountains surrounding them.

'Overall, the impact of melting glaciers such as these on sea level rise is known to be negligible, but it does mean that there is much more to be learnt about exactly how the world's glaciers will respond to continued global warming.'

The findings provide welcome respite at a time when glaciers across the globe are shrinking at a rapid rate.

A study of the neighbouring Himalayas in 2011 found the rate of ice loss in glaciers - which provide fresh water for around 1.3 billion people - has doubled since the 1980s

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Life on Mars found but destroyed by mistake

Bungling NASA scientists are believed to have found tiny live microbes on Mars - but mistakenly killed them by boiling them alive, a media report said Saturday.

Two spacecraft that landed on the Red Planet in 1976 are now thought to have detected microbes in Martian soil. But scientists at the time failed to spot the signs of life - and cooked the bugs at 160 degrees Centigrade during experiments, The Sun reported.

Now an international team has used modern techniques to re-examine data collected by the two unmanned Viking probes.

Biologist Joseph Miller, of the University of Southern California, said: "I'm 99 percent sure there's life there. To paraphrase an old saying, if it looks like a microbe and acts like a microbe - then it probably is a microbe."

During the 1976 mission, nutrients were added to the Martian soil. It would have a similar effect to putting plant food on a garden. The soil gave off a gas, believed to be mainly carbon dioxide.

Experts dismissed the possibility that the gas came from bugs. But new tests indicate it did. Unfortunately, the soil was heated in the original tests, killing any microbes, the newspaper added.

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Mars to glow at its ‘brightest’ tomorrow

Red planet Mars will be brightest and closest “it can get” to earth tomorrow 5th of march 2012, giving sky gazers an opportunity to see it with naked eyes.

“On March 3, Mars was at opposition to sun because of which it would be brightest and closest it can get to earth on March 5,” General Secretary of Planetary Society of India N Raghunandan said.

Brightest mars seen in 2012

In positional astronomy, opposition defines the position of a celestial object when it is on the opposite side of the sun in the sky, Director of NGO Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) C B Devgun said.

The planet will be shining at -1.23 magnitude and can be seen between east and northeast direction. It will be 100.78 million km away from earth, he said.

“Mars will be brightest till end of April 2012. It will be visible in the night sky until February 2013 with decreasing brightness as it gets far from us as days pass by,” he said.

The next Mars opposition will occur on April 8, 2014, whereas next closest approach is on April 14, 2014. The last time it was at opposition was on January 30, 2010.

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Oxygen detected in Saturn's moon Dione

A NASA spacecraft circling Saturn has discovered a wispy oxygen atmosphere on the ringed planet's icy moon, Dione The discovery - made using the Cassini spacecraft, which flew by Dione nearly two years ago - supports a theory that suggests all of the moons near Saturn and Jupiter might have oxygen around them.

According to co-author Andrew Coates of University College London, Dione has no liquid water and so does not have the conditions to support life. But it is possible that other moons of Jupiter and Saturn do.

Saturna moon Dione

"Some of the other moons have liquid oceans and so it is worth looking more closely at them for signs of life," Prof Coates told BBC News.

It is thought the oxygen is being produced via interactions between Saturn's powerful radiation belts and Dione's water ice. The radiation breaks the water molecules down, liberating oxygen into the moon's exosphere.

Saturn

This most recent discovery will no doubt give a boost to scientists lobbying for sending missions to the gas giant's satellites to search for alien life as, like the presence of liquid water, the presence oxygen could support microscopic lifeforms on other, more habitable moons.

The Cassini research has been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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Virgin Galactic's first commercial spaceship to test-fly this year

Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, is planning to test-fly its first spaceship beyond the Earth's atmosphere this year, with commercial suborbital passenger service to follow in 2013 or 2014, company officials have announced.

Nearly 500 customers have signed up for rides on SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spaceship being built and tested by Scaled Composites, an aerospace company founded by aircraft designer Burt Rutan and now owned by Northrop Grumman.

The suborbital flights, which cost 200,000 dollars per person, are designed to reach an altitude of about 68 miles, giving fliers a few minutes to experience zero gravity and glimpse Earth set against the blackness of space.

"In the suborbital area, there are a lot of things to be done. This is an area that has been essentially absent for about four decades," the Telegraph quoted Neil Armstrong, who was a test pilot for the 1960s-era X-15 research plane before becoming a U.S. astronaut and commander of the first mission to land on the moon, as saying.

"There's a lot of opportunities," Armstrong told about 400 people attending the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Palo Alto, California.

"I certainly hope that some of the new approaches will prove to be profitable and useful," he said.

Virgin Galactic is the most visible of a handful of companies developing spaceships for tourism, research, educational and business purposes.

SpaceShipTwo, the first of Virgin's planned five-ship fleet, has completed 31 atmospheric test flights – 15 attached to its carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo, and 16 glide tests, William Pomerantz, Virgin Galactic's vice president of special projects, said in a speech to the conference.

Preparations for the ship's first rocket-powered flights are under way at Scaled Composites' Mojave, Calif., plant and expected to take place this year.

"We hope to have the rocket motor in the spaceship later this year and start powered flight testing," Virgin Galactic chief test pilot David Mackay told the conference.

"We would like to be the first to do this, but we're not in a race with anyone. This is not a Cold War-era space race," he added.

Pomerantz told reporters later "We flow pretty quickly from first powered flight to first flight to space and then it's not terribly long from there until we have our first commercial flight to space."

He said passenger service could begin in 2013 or 2014, depending on the results of the test flights and other factors, such as pilot training.

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Don't panic - asteroid highly unlikely to hit

An asteroid discovered last year could hit the Earth on 5 February 2040, says NASA - but really probably won't.

Asteroid 2011 AG5 - nicknamed Apophis -registers as 1 on the Torinoscale, meaning it 'merits careful monitoring'. It's 460 feet across, and is much smaller than the asteroid believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs, but could still make quite a mess if it hit.

However, scientists say there's very little chance of an impact - and the odds are likely to improve as more data's gathered on its orbit.
Because of its current location in the daytime sky, Earth-based telescopes haven't yet been able to determine its orbit accurately. 

However, 2011 AG5 will be close enough for a better look well before 2040.

It'll next be near Earth in February of 2023, when it will pass no closer than about 1.2 million miles. It'll be back again in 2028, but a lot further away, at around 12.8 million miles. 

According to NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, it's possible that when these flybys take place, the Earth's gravitational influence could put it on an impact course for February 2040. It's highly unlikely, though, with odds of just one in 625 - and falling.

"In September 2013, we have the opportunity to make additional observations of 2011 AG5 when it comes within 91 million miles of Earth," says Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"It will be an opportunity to observe this space rock and further refine its orbit. Because of the extreme rarity of an impact by a near-Earth asteroid of this size, I fully expect we will be able to significantly reduce or rule out entirely any impact probability for the foreseeable future."

2011 AG5 is one of 8,744 near-Earth objects to have been found, and was discovered on January 8, 2011, by astronomers using a 60-inch Cassegrain reflector telescope at the summit of Mount Lemmonin Arizona.

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New asteroid could hit earth in 2040: NASA

A new asteroid, identified by NASA, could potentially hit the earth on February 5, 2040, even though it is much smaller than the one - nine miles across - which wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The UN Action Team on near-Earth objects, which has taken note of the 460-ft asteroid, placed the odds of its hitting the earth at one-in-625, though that could change nearer the time.

Scientists have not yet been able to work out much more about it than its size as they have only been able to observe it for half its orbit. But between 2013 and 2016 they will be able to monitor from the ground and will make a more detailed assessment.

In 2023 the rock will make a 'keyhole pass' of Earth, which is an area it passes through on the orbit before it would hit Earth. This will be within a mere 0.02 astronomical units of our planet, or 1.86 million miles, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

NASA's infrared sky-scans track space objects such as asteroids. A recent scan with the NeoWISE instruments found that there were 19,000 'mid-sized' asteroids within 120 million miles of Earth, the Daily Mail reports.

According to NASA, among the ways of deflecting it are putting a probe onto the rock and using the extra gravity the craft generates to steer the asteroid away over millions of light years. Another option would be sending a probe into it so that the impact has the same effect.

Nuclear weapons have also been discussed, but this would create a shower of rocks instead of just one.

Mid-sized refers to asteroids in a size range between 330 and 3,300 feet wide, which could destroy a city-sized area were they to hit Earth.

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Life spotted on Venus: Russian scientist

Several objects resembling living beings were detected on photographs taken by a Russian landing probe in 1982 during a Venus mission, says an article published in the Solar System Research magazine.Leonid Ksanfomaliti of the Space Research Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences published a research that analysed the photographs from the Venus mission made by a Soviet landing probe, Venus-13, in 1982.The photographs feature several objects, which Ksanfomaliti said, resembled a "disk", a "black flap" and a "scorpion".

Picture of venus released By NASA

All of them "emerge, fluctuate and disappear", the scientist said, referring to their changing location on different photographs and traces on the ground.

"What if we forget about the current theories about the non-existence of life on Venus, let's boldly suggest that the objects' morphological features would allow us to say that they are living," the magazine quoted Ksanfomaliti as saying.

No data proving the existence of life on Venus, where the ground temperature is 464 degrees Celsius, has ever been found.

Small Created spotted in Venus 

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Radio telescopes to try taking first photo of black hole

A radio telescope project that would connect up to 50 telescopes scattered around the globe could help photograph a black hole for the first time, scientists have said.

The radio telescopes would include those on the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii and also a dish at the South Pole, the Daily Mail reported.

The project, called the Event Horizon Telescope, could capture the first images of the huge black hole --four million times the mass of the sun -- at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.

Artist Imagination of Black Hole

Event horizon refers to the boundary at the edge of a black hole beyond which the laws of physics cannot describe what happens. It is a point of no return, from which no light or radiation can escape. Because of it, black holes are invisible from Earth, the report said.

The idea of black holes was first raised by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity, and has been confirmed by decades of measurements and observations of space.

"Nobody has ever taken a picture of a black hole. We are going to do just that," said Dimitrios Psaltis, an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory.

Array of Umbrella to create powerful Radio Telescope

"Even five years ago, such a proposal would not have seemed credible. Now we have the technological means to take a stab at it," said Sheperd Doeleman, assistant professor at MIT and principal investigator of the project.

Black holes pull in light and all other energy and no radiation reaches Earth. They appear as blank space to telescopes. But a glow round the outside could let scientists see the outline.

By imaging the glow of matter swirling around the black hole before it goes over the edge of the point of no return, scientists can see the outline of the black hole, also called its shadow.

Black holes remain among the least understood phenomena in the universe.

Most if not all, galaxies are believed to harbour a supermassive black hole at their centre, and smaller ones scattered throughout.

The Milky Way is known to be home to about 25 small black holes ranging from five to 10 times the sun's mass. 

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Wants to work with Stephen Hawking? Read this Article

British physicist Stephen Hawking is looking for an assistant to travel the globe with him and help him communicate. In a week or two's time, an official ad will appear inviting applications. In the meantime, there's a heads-up that the post is soon to become available here.

"It is not a PhD or Post-Doc position for academics looking to study physics, but a purely technical post to allow Prof. Hawking to function within the physics community and as a public speaker," the page explains.

The job will start in February, it says, and will involve around three months' travel a year. Indeed, organizing that travel for Hawking and his care team is a large part of the job.

Stephen hawking

The other main function is to help develop and maintain the professor's speech and communication systems - highly complicated, as the communication system connects to the internet via a cellphone connection, as well as hooking up to Hawking's home automation system.

Other responsibilities involve the maintenance of Hawking's wheelchairs and accessible van. There's even a bit of public relations work thrown in.

The job will pay £25,000 a year, funded by the University of Cambridge as a research post. It's nominally a 12-month contract, although previous post-holders have stayed for years.

The money may be on the low side for a position demanding technical, organisational and communication skills, but we suspect there'll be no shortage of applicants.

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Great space ball mystery SOLVED: Metal sphere that crashed to Earth in Namibian desert is a fuel tank from an unmanned rocket

Fewdays back it was a mystery for everyone but now it is solved as  the mysterious metal sphere fell to the ground in a remote area of northern Namibia has now been identified as a hydrazine tank from an unknown  rocket, commonly used in satellite launches. 

When the 13lbs, 14 inch ball smashed to earth in mid- November it sparked a national security issue with the Namibian authorities asking NASA for help in identifying it.

Adrian Chen of Gawker reported that it was most likely a fuel tank for storing hydrazine on unmanned rockets. He said this after a commentator wrote on his blog: 'For anyone wondering what it actually is, it's likely a 39-litre hydrazine bladder tank.

39 Litre Hydrazine propellant tank for spacecraft, looks identical to the one found in the desert

'They're used on unmanned rockets for satellite launches, which would explain why they're falling down in such a specific geographic footprint.'

When the ball fell it caused a crater 12 inches deep and 13ft wide, although it was found some 60ft away.

Locals claimed to have heard several explosions in the days before it was discovered by a farmer on his land.

Some claimed that it could be an escaped particle from the Large Hadron Collider, reindeer droppings or a Quaffle from the Harry Potter films.

Police forensics director Paul Ludik said that the ball was discovered a month ago but was only made public this week. Whilst it was made of a ‘sophisticated material’, it was something that was known to mankind.

He explained that the explosion heard by locals could have been the sonic boom when it broke the sound barrier coming down to Earth, or by the impact on the ground.

The compound appeared to be a ‘metallic compound normally used in space vehicles,’ although he would not be surprised it it was actually from a normal aircraft.

Police deputy inspector general Vilho Hifindaka added that the sphere, which landed 480 miles from the Namibian capital Windhoek, did not pose any danger.

He said: ‘It is not an explosive device, but rather hollow, but we had to investigate all this first’.

The find sparked speculation on the internet that it could finally be proof of extra terrestrial life, even though it bore a passing resemblance to the head of a character from the children’s series Teletubbies.

Earlier this year Britainand the rest of the world was put on alert when one of NASA’s satellites broke up and crashed to Earth.

Huge chunks of titanium up to 350lbs from car-sized Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite tore through the atmosphere at 1,800mph but the best NASA could guess was that they landed somewhere south of Inverness on the equator.

To try and reassure the public it also revealed that the odds of being hit were miniscule.

Weeks later Germany’s Roentgen satellite crashed to Earth and split up into 30 huge chunks including one which weighed 880lbs.

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