Astronomy/Science News and Pictures:
Daily:
Science news from Scientific American
NEAR Image of the day (NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft is orbiting an asteroid)
Recent News Items of interest:
11 new planets discovered; one in 'life zone'
Sun lets loose monumental flare (4/3/01)
NASA returning to Mars (4/3/01)
Mars microphone to fly again (4/3/01)
UK
mulls mission to collect Mars rocks (3/37/01)
New
Findings Energize Case for Life on Mars (2/27/01)
Permian-Triassic
Mass Extinction (2/27./01)
Reading
the Book of Life (An excellent article on the current status
of the Human Genome Project)(2/12/01)
Landmark
gene studies released (CNN 02/12/01)
Plans
hatched to move Earth's orbit from warming sun (CNN 02/06/01)
First
genetically modified primate (news from 01/12/01)
Self-made
cells show life could originate in space (01/31/01)
NEAR sites:
http://near-mirror.boulder.swri.edu/
(provides mirror-sites)
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/near/live_qt.htmlhttp://www.spaceflightnow.com/near/status.html
(regular updates)
Optional:
Internet Resources:
History
of the Universe Timeline : An interactive timeline from the
Big
Bang to the present.
Cosmic Calender by Carl Sagan. A nice way to illustrate the time between important events since the Big Bang.
Another site using the Cosmic Calender: Human existence in the perspective of time
Expansion of the Universe:
Here's a nice description of the expanding
universe
Another site about the expanding
universe
A simple and nice animation
showing the expansion of the universe
If you are interested in finding more about the
nature
of our universe then read these two excellent Scientific American
article
on the expansion
of the universe and evolution
of the universe
For the current state of modern cosmology, check out this Jan 2001 article from Scientific American: Making sense of Modern Cosmology
Required:
Goldsmith & Owen: Ch 5 & 6
Life
and Death of Stars
A good introduction to Stellar
Evolution
Optional:
Check out the Periodical
Table of Elements.Click on elements to get their individual
properties.
A visual treat: HST pictures of various stages of birth of stars and various supernovae . For more information, read the press release associated with each image. Another site: Stellar evolution with the Hubble Space Telescope
A nice summary of the life of a star .
A great site to learn about Black Holes
And here's some information about Death Star
Internet Resources
Formation
of the Solar System
A
possible Sequence of Events for the Formation of the Solar System
Optional:
The
Origin of Life : The astronomical, chemical, and
biological
aspects
Life,
Life Everywhere: A scientific American article on the origin
of life
About DNA:
Introduction
to DNA Structure
The
Structure of the DNA molecule
A nice site explaining the structure
of DNA
Figure showing DNA
structure
About the Human Genome Project:
Student
Guide to the Human Genome Project
An
Express
Route to the Genome? (Scientific American)
How
Cancer Arises (Scientific American)
The
Bioinformatics Gold Rush (Scientific American)
Landmark
gene studies released (CNN 02/12/01)
Reading
the Book of Life (An excellent article on the current status
of the Human Genome Project)
About Human Cloning:
If you are interested in learning more about the
ethical
issues regarding human cloning and cloning , in general, then
definitely
check out Ethical
aspects of human cloning
Baby,
it's You! And You, And You... (From this week's TIME Magazine)
I,
Clone (From Scientific American)
Optional:
Charles Darwin's Origin of Species
Some Evolution websites:
Introduction
to Evolutionary Biology
Read why Evolution
is a Fact and a Theory
A nice site that lists both evolution and creation
websites: The
Talk.Origins Archive
Cosmic Rays and Mutations:
Here is a good description of how mutations
actually happen
I should caution here that NOT ALL mutations are
caused
by cosmic rays. But cosmic rays are responsible for MOST of the
mutations.
Here is a definition of cosmic
rays from the Columbia Encyclopedia
Here is an explanation of why
should we care about exploding stars (especially read para.
11)
Human Evolution:
A very nice overview
of Human Origins and related Hominid
Species Timeline
Here is short description of different members of
hominid
species
Another site with a nice summary of hominid
species and related links
Darwin Awards:
Darwin awards are posthumously granted to those
individuals
who take themselves out of the gene pool in the most spectacular and
stupid
fashion. Here are some of the sites:
Official
Darwin Awards
Darwin
Awards from the Harris Creative Group
More
Darwin Awards
Chapter 13 and 14 (Goldsmith & Owen)
These are some Mars links that will prove useful:
Mars Global Surveyor:
(Very
cool images!)
Possible recent sources of liquid
water on Mars (Check out these images)
Evidence for Mars
Early Sedimentary Rocks (Due to water?)
Some Water Features: Nanedi
Vallis and East
Gorgonum Crater
Volcanoes
on Mars
Mars Dust
Storms
Link to Mars
Global Surveyor mission.
Required:
Giant
Planets Orbiting Faraway Stars
Optional:
These are some links to sites that discuss
possibilities
for life elsewhere in the solar system:
The Galileo mission to Jupiter found evidence for a possible liquid ocean under Europa's icy crust. NASA is planning a mission to Europa, one of Jupiter's larger moons, to try and learn more about the icy crust and what lays beneath it. Here is some general information about Europa.
The Galileo mission also found evidence for the same possibility on Callisto, another large moon of Jupiter. Here is the NASA press release. General information about Callisto can be found here.
There is a study of Life in Extreme Environments (for example, at the mouths of deep-ocean hydrothermal vents) that may eventually tell us about how organisms could survive in extreme environments such as these planetary moons. Recent results include the discovery of microbes under the Antarctic ice and the survival of bugs near volcanoes.
Saturn's moon Titan is also thought to have organics that could be precursors for life on its surface. Here is some general information about Titan. The Cassini mission to Saturn is going to drop a probe onto Titan to learn more about its atmosphere and surface (any organic molecules?). Here is a description of the science goals for the Cassini mission's Huygens Probe at Titan.
Finally, water was recently discovered on the Moon! Here is the official NASA press release. This discovery was made by the Lunar Prospector mission.
Check out this very cool site: Extrasolar Visions .You can check out the location and position of each planet that has been discovered...plus lots more.
Check out this space art . This is how some of the planets may look like (p.s. you may also get some good ideas for your Term Paper).
The discovery of three Jupiter-size planets orbiting Upsilon Andromedae.
Check out the list of all extrasolar planets discovered so far . There is a also list of popular articles on the subject at this web-site.
11 new planets discovered; one in 'life zone'
Chapter 16, 17 , 18 (Glodsmith and Owen)
The
Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Carl Sagan)
Optional:
This is the web site for the Drake
Equation . You can input your own values for the parameters in the
equation and it will calculate the number of alien
civilizations capable of contacting us.
This is the SETI
Institute . Here you can learn about one of the largest
searches
for extraterrestrial
intelligence, as well as how realistic
the movie Contact was .
This is the web site for Project BAMBI , an amateur search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
The
Search for Extraterrestrial Life" by Carl Sagan.
Optional:
Excellent collection of articles skeptical
of UFOs and alien abductions.
What
Really Happened at Roswell
Eyewitness
Testimony and the Paranormal
A good article on how to think critically: A
Field Guide to Critical Thinking
And here's some fun stuff:
Scientific community schocked over revelations
that
Carl Sagan's DNA was
cloned
and shipped to Mars!
Star
Wars Astrology
A collection of paranormal stories at alt.thinking.hurts
Instead of reading it in the grocery
store,
you can now read Weekly
World
News on line.
UFO
Myth Timetable
And check this one out: More
Faked Moon Landings.