New Worlds Discovered

European astronomers have found a trio of "super-Earths" circling a star 42 light years away. This is the first time three planets close to Earth's size have been found orbiting a single star, although they appear to be too hot to support life.
Using a relatively new tool, the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) instrument at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile, the Swiss-French team examined over 100 stars previously thought to lack orbiting planets and found that around 30 percent had super-Earths. Past experiments had shown that only about 7 percent of stars had planets circling them. This new discovery strengthens the idea that planets are a common feature of star systems, raising the chances that scientists will one day find a truly Earth-like world.
The National Academies have done several reports that examine current and planned scientific efforts to explore the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe. One such report, Life in the Universe: An Assessment of U.S. and International Programs in Astrobiology, assesses NASA's astrobiology program and makes recommendations to improve it.
Another report, The Astrophysical Context of Life, continues the assessment and examines how to better integrate various scientific research disciplines in order to focus NASA's astrobiology program. Also, The Limits of Organic Life of Planetary Systems considers the possibility of alternative or nonstandard chemistries for the existence of life in our solar system and beyond, and offers a guide to agencies and organizations that decide to fund such research.

Earth Day 2008

April 22 marks the 38th anniversary of Earth Day, a day of celebration and activism intended to raise awareness of environmental issues. In 1970 a nationwide "Environmental Teach-In," led by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes, helped organize around 20 million demonstrators to show support for a policy agenda focused on these concerns.
Many laws to protect the environment, including the Clean Air Act, were enacted by Congress after the first Earth Day. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was created to protect the environment and public health.
Over the past year, several National Academies projects have looked at how science and technology can be harnessed to protect the Earth and sustain the diversity and well-being of the life it supports.
In September 2007, the National Academy of Sciences unveiled Safe Drinking Water Is Essential, a Web site that examines the state of the world’s water supply and what can be done to improve it. Currently more than one is six people lack reliable access to safe drinking water, and the problem is especially acute in the developing world.
On the issue of global warming and climate change, the National Research Council recently released the 2008 edition of "Understanding and Responding to Climate Change," an easy-to-read booklet with information extracted from the Academies' expert reports on climate change. The booklet offers what is currently known and understood about climate change and provides helpful analysis and direction to policymakers and stakeholders.
And last February, the National Academy of Engineering announced the grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century. A diverse committee of experts from around the world, convened at the request of the U.S. National Science Foundation, revealed 14 technological challenges that, if met, would improve quality of life worldwide in the near future. The challenges include a number of environmental issues -- developing methods for carbon sequestration, managing the planet's nitrogen cycle, providing access to clean water, and making energy economically available through fusion and solar power.

Globular Clusters May Have a Long Way to Go

Once thought to be approaching their twilight years, new research at NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggests that many globular star clusters may be earlier in their development than previously thought.
Globular clusters are spherical concentrations of stars that orbit a galactic core, and they are believed to contain some of the first stars produced in a galaxy. The relative maturity of these objects is estimated based on the radiation emitted from their dense centers. When stars interact in close proximity, they sometimes form binary stars, two stars orbiting each other that emit X-ray radiation. The number of X-ray sources in a globular cluster's center corresponds to the center's density, which can be applied to current models to estimate its stage in life.
The recent observations at Chandra suggest that clusters previously thought to be reaching old age are actually earlier along in their evolutionary life cycle. This result would agree with recent theoretical work that suggests that the time it takes for globular clusters to reach maturity is longer than the current age of the universe.
These discoveries were made using high-resolution X-ray observation, which the recent National Research Council report NASA's Beyond Einstein Program: An Architecture for Implementation identifies as an area that is ripe for further exploration. Another report, Portals to the Universe: The NASA Astronomy Science Centers, concludes that the current set of centers -- including the Chandra Observatory Center -- have sufficient scientific and programmatic expertise to manage NASA’s astronomy center responsibilities at present, but it stresses the importance of attracting and retaining individuals with the right mix of research and engineering skills necessary to maintain continuity of service.

'Dead Zones' Expand in the World's Oceans

The number of coastal areas known as dead zones is on the rise. A new study published in Science counted more than 400 dead zones globally, including 166 in U.S. waters, covering 245,000 square kilometers. Once filled with fish and many other organisms, these ocean waters are no longer habitable.
Dead zones are areas where marine life can not be supported due to depleted oxygen levels. A major cause of the increase in hypoxic zones is agriculture, specifically fertilizer. Fertilizer that runs off fields enters rivers and then flows out to sea. After the fertilizer reaches the ocean, algae and vegetation are fed by the nutrients and multiply. When they eventually die, the decomposition process robs the water of its oxygen. Very few organisms can tolerate the lack of oxygen and either suffocate or abandon the zone.
The National Research Council report Mississippi River Water Quality and the Clean Water Act: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities offers recommendations for how the Environmental Protection Agency and the Mississippi river states can work together to diminish nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River and the Northern Gulf of Mexico.
Another National Research Council report Clean Coastal Waters: Understanding and Reducing the Effects of Nutrient Pollution proposes immediate local action by coastal managers and a longer-term national strategy to curb the problems of nutrient over-enrichment in coastal waters.

NASA — 50 Years in Space and Beyond

On July 29, 1958, nine months after the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellite sparked concern that the U.S. was falling behind in technology, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. The act authorized the creation and funding of a civilian agency that would direct and conduct civil aeronautics and space research and programs. Three months later on October 1, NASA opened its doors.
NASA's aeronautics research program – the first A in NASA – builds on research dating back to 1915 when the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) was created by President Woodrow Wilson in an effort to organize American aeronautical research and raise it to the level of European aviation. Until forming a core component of NASA, NACA provided advice and carried out much of the cutting-edge research in aeronautics in the United States.
NASA has recorded a long history of achievements in space exploration since its 1958 inception. There have been more than 150 successful U.S. human space flights, including the Apollo moon landings, the launch of the United States' first space station, Skylab, and more than 120 flights of the space shuttle. Today, the shuttle's primary purpose is construction of the International Space Station, an endeavor involving 14 other countries including Russia, Japan, Canada, and several European nations.
NASA craft have visited every planet in the solar system, and one is en route to Pluto. Today, two rovers plus the new Phoenix lander are on the surface of Mars at the same time as two NASA spacecraft orbit the red planet, the Cassini spacecraft is investigating Saturn and its moons (including Titan where the presence of liquid was recently confirmed), and the Messenger spacecraft is studying Mercury. Other space-based instruments, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal the mysteries of the universe, while still others observe the interaction between the sun and Earth and monitor changes in Earth's climate.

World Water Day Emphasizes Sanitation

Today 2.6 billion people, including almost 1 billion children, live without basic sanitation. Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation, leading to 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.
The theme of this year's World Water Day is sanitation. Organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, activities will take place around the world to raise awareness and accelerate progress toward reducing the number of people without sanitation by half over the next seven years.
The United Nations estimates it will cost $10 billion annually to halve the proportion of people without basic sanitation by 2015. If sustained, the same investment could achieve basic sanitation for the entire world within one or two decades.
The National Academy of Sciences has worked with science, medical, and engineering academies worldwide on water issues. In 2007, NAS launched "Safe Drinking Water Is Essential," a Web resource to provide decision makers with peer-reviewed scientific and technical information about drinking water distribution and treatment options. Access to clean water also was the focus of last year's African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) conference in Dakar, Senegal.
Another useful online resource, created by the National Research Council's Water Science and Technology Board, is the Water Information Center. The site provides free access to several hundred reports on water-related issues.