http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0421/p02s01-usgn.

html

Planet hunters bay at another clue: a belt of cosmic dust

Infrared data show debris that could be distant asteroids - a 'look
here' flag in the search for Earth-like planets.
By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Astronomers have long reasoned that if solar systems anchored by

sunlike stars are anything like ours, they'll have comets and
asteroids, as well as planets.

Now, researchers appear to be confirming that hunch. A team of

scientists announced Wednesday that it has uncovered the first
evidence outside our solar system for an asteroid belt around a
sunlike star.

In addition, a second team reported earlier this month that it had

discovered signs of Kuiper Belt-like structures around six stars
with planets. In our solar system, the Kuiper Belt is the cache for
comets that swing past the sun every 20 to 200 years.

Together the finds represent the first discoveries of debris disks

around mature planetary systems beyond ours. Like the sun's asteroid
and Kuiper belts, these disks are thought to be the jumbled
leftovers from planet formation. They also could serve as "look
here" flags for planet hunters.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/21/MNGBCCCDD21.DTL

Rare bacteria clusters

Yellowstone find could unlock clues to early Mars life

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

Thursday, April 21, 2005

A bizarre community of microbes has been discovered inside rocks in

Yellowstone National Park, thriving in pores filled with water so
acidic it can dissolve steel nails.

The clusters, interwoven with flourishing green algae, comprise at

least 40 different new species of bacteria, according to Jeffrey
Walker, a University of Colorado microbiologist -- and he and his
colleagues say the microbes' fossil forms could provide powerful
clues to the nature of early life on Earth and life that may have
existed billions of years ago on Mars.

Walker is a graduate student in the laboratory of Norman Pace, a

leader in the emerging field of "astrobiology," whose scientists are
seeking the most promising earthly models for life on other planets.
Walker, Pace and John Spear, another scientist in Pace's laboratory,
are reporting on the new microbes today in the journal Nature.

Also see:
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2005/183.html

Yellowstone Discovery Bodes Well For Detecting Evidence Of Life on

Mars, Says CU-Boulder Study
April 20, 2005
 University of Colorado at Boulder researchers say a bizarre group of
microbes found living inside rocks in an inhospitable geothermal
environment at Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park could provide
tantalizing clues about ancient life on Earth and help steer the
hunt for evidence of life on Mars.

The CU-Boulder research team reported the microbes were discovered

in the pores of rocks in a highly acidic environment with high
concentrations of metals and silicates at roughly 95 degrees F in
Yellowstone's Norris Geyser Basin. The new study shows the microbe
communities are subject to fossilization and have the potential to
become preserved in the geologic record.

Scientists believe similar kinds of geothermal environments may once

have existed on Mars, where astrobiologists have intensified the
search for past and present life forms in recent years.

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/050420_last_missions.html

Executioner's Song: Deciding Which Space Missions Live or Die

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 20 April 2005
3:15 pm ET

There has been a scientific and public backlash at the thought of

shutting down spacecraft, like the vintage Voyager missions, all for
the want of a few millions dollars.

But Voyager is likely to be an early signal from a growing dilemma

of finding cash to keep NASA spacecraft functioning beyond their
initial work period.

There are plenty of examples, like the still-going strong Mars

Exploration Rovers. Also count on keeping the Hubble Space Telescope
alive. Toss in an extended Cassini mission at Saturn too. Also,
there?s early talk about the Deep Impact flyby spacecraft possibly
using its telescopic gear to scout about after it completes its main
choir of hurling an impactor at comet Tempel 1 and monitoring the
upshot this coming July.

But now there is growing talk of setting up something analogous to a

"hit squad" at NASA that impartially agrees what projects should be
ended, when, and under what rules.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBMTUK1M7E.html

A Century Later, Einstein's Legacy, Like the Universe, Keeps on Expanding

By Joseph B. Verrengia The Associated Press

Published: Apr 16, 2005

He stopped traffic on Fifth Avenue like the Beatles or Marilyn

Monroe. He could've been president of Israel or played violin at
Carnegie Hall, but he was too busy thinking. His musings on God,
love and the meaning of life grace our greeting cards and
day-timers. Fifty years after his death, his shock of white hair and
droopy mustache still symbolize genius.

Who else could it be but Albert Einstein?

Einstein remains the foremost scientist of the modern era. Looking

back 2,400 years, only Newton, Galileo and Aristotle were his
equals.

Around the world, universities and academies are celebrating the

100th anniversary of Einstein's "miracle year" when he published
five scientific papers in 1905 that fundamentally changed our grasp
of space, time, light and matter. Only he could top himself about a
decade later with his theory of general relativity.

Born in the era of horse-drawn carriages, his ideas launched a

dazzling technological revolution that has generated more change in
a century than in the previous two millennia.

Computers, satellites, telecommunication, lasers, television and

nuclear power all owe their invention to ways in which Einstein
peeled back the veneer of the observable world to expose a stranger
and more complicated reality underneath.