clicca qui per leggere lo speciale - Asi

NewsNASA’s LRO revealsrecent geological activityon the MoonProject NEOShield: Asteroid defence systemsOver the next three and a halfyears, researchers at the GermanAerospace Center will be headingthe NEOShield (Near Earth ObjectShield) international collaboration,established in January 2012. Intotal, 13 partners from researchinstitutions and industry will jointlyinvestigate the prevention of impactsby asteroids and comets.The investigations will include theimpact of a space probe with theasteroids to deflect them from theirthreatening courses. The EuropeanUnion is supporting the projectwith four million Euros. The partnersare contributing another 1.8million Euros.German Aerospace CenterArtist’s impression of an asteroid4Moon surfaceNew images from NASA’s LunarReconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)spacecraft show the moon’s crustis being stretched, forming minutevalleys in a few small areas on thelunar surface. Scientists proposethis geologic activity occurred lessthan 50 million years ago, which isconsidered recent compared to themoon’s age of more than 4.5 billionyears.These linear valleys, knownas graben, form when the moon’scrust stretches, breaks and dropsdown along two bounding faults.A handful of these graben systemshave been found across the lunarsurface.Funding granted forUK space technologyindustryAs part of the UK Space Agency’sNational Space Technology Programme(NSTP), twenty-nineprojects are receiving grant fundingto develop commercial productsand services using space technologyor space-derived data. These‘fast-track projects’ applied as partof the ‘Space for Growth’ competition,and each will last between 6and 9 months. The projects will carryout research and development in:Satellite Telecommunications; Sensing;Position, Navigation & Timing;Robotics & Exploration and Accessto Space.National Aeronauticsand Space AdministrationUK Space AgencySatellite image of Great BritainPlanck steps closerto the cosmic blueprintESA’s Planck mission has revealed that our Galaxy containspreviously undiscovered islands of cold gas and a mysterioushaze of microwaves. These results give scientistsnew treasure to mine and take them closer to revealing theblueprint of cosmic structure.The new results are being presented at an international conferencein Bologna, Italy, where astronomers from aroundthe world are discussing the mission’s intermediate resultsArtist’s impression of PlanckEuropean Space AgencySPACEMAGNumero 1 2012