SCIENCE IN THE NEWS WEEKLY
A Bit of Mars Falls in Africa
Fifteen pounds of rock collected recently in Morocco fell to Earth from Mars during a meteorite shower last July, scientists confirmed last week. No NASA or Russian spacecraft has returned bits of Mars, so the only samples scientists can examine are those that come here in a meteorite shower.
In other space news, Europe's Herschel space telescope has produced a majestic new version of a classic celestial target--the Eagle Nebula. This dense region of gas and dust 6,500 light-years from Earth hosts copious numbers of bright new stars.
A failed Russian Mars probe plunged into the Pacific Ocean on January 15, according to Russian news reports. The 14.5-ton Phobos-Grunt spacecraft slammed into the atmosphere over an empty stretch of ocean.
Three new planets found outside our solar system are the smallest exoplanets yet discovered. Each is smaller than Earth, astronomers announced. The tiny worlds are clustered around a red M-dwarf star called KOI-961, which is just a sixth as wide as our sun, or about 70 percent bigger than Jupiter.
Volunteers are being sought to join the hunt for nearby planets that could support life. The Planethunters website offers time-lapsed images of 150,000 stars, taken by the Kepler space telescope. Participants will be advised on the signs that indicate the presence of a planet and how to alert experts if they spot one.
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