A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
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| water flowing in moon |
The Nasa craft swept just 50km above the moon's surface in a final attempt to "taste" the chemistry of water jets spewing from its south pole. Enceladus has produced a series of major discoveries that mean it is now considered one of the most promising places to find life beyond Earth. Scientists say it has an ocean beneath its icy crust. What is more, the conditions in this global body of liquid water could be benign enough to support microbial organisms. "Enceladus is not just an ocean world - it's a world that might provide a habitable environment for life as we know it," said Cassini program scientist Curt Niebur, in a media briefing on Monday.
"On Wednesday we'll plunge deeper into that magnificent plume coming from the South Pole than ever before. And we will collect the best sample ever from an ocean beyond earth."Cassini will attempt to detect molecular hydrogen during Wednesday's encounter.
This would be a strong signal that hot vents exist on the rocky ocean floor. If that is the case, it would be another plus-point in the moon's habitability potential. Such vent systems are known on Earth to provide the fundamental energy and nutrient requirements for some deep-sea ecosystems. At these locations, water is drawn into the rock bed, heated and saturated with minerals, before then being ejected back upwards. Bacteria thrive in this environment, establishing a food web that supports a chain to more complex organisms.
Whether any of this is going on inside Enceladus is just speculation for now. "The amount of hydrogen emission will reveal for us how much hydrothermal activity is actually occurring on that seafloor - with implications for the amount of energy available," said Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker, from Nasa's Jet Propulstion Laboratory in California. The flyby took place at about 10:00 Pacific time (17:00 GMT) on Wednesday - but the anticipated scientific insights may be days or weeks away.
"We will have a first chance to have a look at the gas and particle data within about a week of the flyby - a first, quick look. Then over the coming weeks we'll do a more detailed analysis, to really help us understand what's going on in that tantalising ocean on Enceladus," Dr Spilker said.
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