ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Astronomers find elusive planets in decade-old Hubble data
• Ionic liquid catalyst helps turn emissions into fuel
• Crab pulsar beams most energetic gamma rays ever detected from a pulsar
• Supersaturated water vapor in Martian atmosphere
• Venus has an ozone layer too, space probe discovers
• Series of bumps sent Uranus into its sideways spin, new research suggests
• Krypton Hall effect thruster for spacecraft propulsion

Astronomers find elusive planets in decade-old Hubble data Posted: 06 Oct 2011 02:36 PM PDT In a painstaking re-analysis of Hubble Space Telescope images from 1998, astronomers have found visual evidence for two extrasolar planets that went undetected back then. Finding these hidden gems in the Hubble archive gives astronomers an invaluable time machine for comparing much earlier planet orbital motion data to more recent observations. It also demonstrates a novel approach for planet hunting in archival Hubble data.

Ionic liquid catalyst helps turn emissions into fuel Posted: 06 Oct 2011 01:25 PM PDT Scientists have overcome one major obstacle to artificial photosynthesis, a promising technology that simultaneously reduces atmospheric carbon dioxide and produces fuel. They have now used an ionic liquid to catalyze the conversion of CO2 to CO, the first step in making fuel, greatly reducing the energy required to drive the process.

Crab pulsar beams most energetic gamma rays ever detected from a pulsar Posted: 06 Oct 2011 11:13 AM PDT Astrophysicists have detected pulsed gamma-ray emission from the Crab pulsar at energies far beyond what current theoretical models of pulsars can explain. With energies exceeding 100 billion electron-volts (100 GeV), the surprising gamma-ray pulses were detected by the VERITAS telescope array.

Supersaturated water vapor in Martian atmosphere Posted: 06 Oct 2011 08:34 AM PDT Analysis of data collected by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft leaves no room for doubt: the Martian atmosphere of contains water vapor in a supersaturated state. This surprising finding will enable scientists to better understand the water cycle on Mars, as well as the evolution of its atmosphere.

Venus has an ozone layer too, space probe discovers Posted: 06 Oct 2011 05:53 AM PDT The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft has discovered an ozone layer high in the atmosphere of Venus. Comparing its properties with those of the equivalent layers on Earth and Mars will help astronomers refine their searches for life on other planets.

Series of bumps sent Uranus into its sideways spin, new research suggests Posted: 06 Oct 2011 05:42 AM PDT Uranus' highly tilted axis makes it something of an oddball in our solar system. The accepted wisdom is that Uranus was knocked on its side by a single large impact, but new research rewrites our theories of how Uranus became so tilted and also solves fresh mysteries about the position and orbits of its moons.

Krypton Hall effect thruster for spacecraft propulsion Posted: 06 Oct 2011 05:40 AM PDT Electric propulsion (EP) is the future of astronautics. It can already compete successfully with chemical thrusters, especially for attitude control, orbit transfer and/or orbital station-keeping as well as for the main propulsion system for deep space missions. However, xenon, the propellant of choice in most EP devices, has a substantial drawback: its cost is very high. On the basis of the experience with plasma jet accelerators, a team of scientists and engineers from Poland has designed the Hall effect thruster optimised to work with krypton, a much more affordable noble gas.

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