THINKING BIG
Astronomers across Europe have agreed to join forces to design a new generation of 鈥淓xtremely Large Telescopes鈥�. They could be 10 times as big as the largest telescopes built so far, with mirrors up to 100 metres across. They might be able to spot Earth-like planets circling nearby stars outside the Solar System, and maybe even find out what their atmospheres are made of.
MARS WATER
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The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has found signs of frozen surface water near the Martian south pole. Exposed ice had previously been detected only near the north pole.
BUDGET TROUBLE
NASA isn鈥檛 the only space agency in financial trouble. Sheila Fraser, Auditor General of Canada, said last week that she doubts the Canadian Space Agency can afford to carry out the activities it is committed to.
MARTIAN MISSIONS
NASA has shortlisted four candidate probes for a 鈥渟cout鈥� mission to Mars in 2007. Three of the four candidates will focus mainly on the Red Planet鈥檚 atmospheric chemistry. The other aims to study sites where large concentrations of water lie in the Martian soil.
FEATHERWEIGHT MOON
NASA鈥檚 Galileo spacecraft has shown that Jupiter鈥檚 potato-shaped moon Amalthea has a surprisingly low density. The observations suggest it鈥檚 a pile of rocky and icy rubble full of holes. It may have formed as a solid chunk, but has since been shattered to pieces by collisions with other debris.
SATELLITE DITCHED
The world鈥檚 largest communications satellite pluged into the Pacific Ocean this week. Mission controllers ditched the ill-fated Astra 1K satellite, which weighed nearly 6 tonnes, after its Russian Proton launcher went wrong two weeks ago and it ended up in the wrong orbit. The satellite鈥檚 owners gave up hope of rescuing it for relaying radio, TV and communications signals.