Mystery surrounds a 13-pound unidentified flying object which fell from the skies in northern Namibia. Despite efforts by researchers to identify its composition and origins, nobody has been able to establish where the metal sphere came from. The ball, weighing 13 pounds (5.9 kilograms) and measuring 14 inches (35 centimeters) in diameter hit the ground next to the Namibian village of Omanatunga in the Omunsati region in the north of the country. Locals reported hearing a series of loud explosions before the sphere was found by a farmer sometime between November 15 and November 20. The metal ball was found some 60 feet (18.3 meters) away from a small crater it is assumed to have created when it fell.   Ever since, local officials and researchers have been kept busy investigating the...

If, billions of years from now, extraterrestrials were to come across one of our far-flung interstellar space probes, what could they learn of us? In the 1970s, as NASA prepared to send its first probes beyond the distant reaches of the solar system, this was the question that worried renowned scientist and author Carl Sagan. Sagan, who died 15 years ago on this day, was enormously influential in a number of ways—he was a prolific researcher and publisher of articles on planetary science, and his books and popular PBS series Cosmos inspired a generation with the remarkable discoveries of astronomy and astrophysics. But his most long-lasting and significant impact might indeed be the time capsule he placed on the NASA probes: a gold-plated record titled “The Sounds of...

CARNARVON, South Africa (Reuters) - The occasional sheep seeks respite from a sun that has scorched rocks black in this semi-desert region that South Africa hopes will host the world's most powerful radio telescope. Chosen because of its remoteness, with hills providing an extra shield against radio interference, the Carnarvon area could emerge as the African base for a telescope 50 times more sensitive and 10,000 times faster than any in existence. Africa is competing against Australia for the right to host the 2 billion euro ($2.62 billion) Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, and its antennas and other receptors will extend in a pin-wheel design for 3,000 square kms (1,200 square miles). Its centre must be in as remote a place as possible, free from electronic signals, and that...

By Sharon Ann Holgate January 06, 2012 “What sets her apart is she wants what she tells people to benefit them.” -- Averil Macdonald As a child growing up in the city of Cotonou in Benin, West Africa, Aude Alapini-Odunlade “used to look at the night sky all the time” from her bedroom window, she recalls. She says she was fascinated by “the vastness of the universe, the flickering lights from the stars, the silver shine of the moon, and the exotic nature of space,”. When she was 10, she asked for a science encyclopedia for Christmas so she could learn about astronomy. By 11, she had decided to become an astronaut. When, a year later, she learned that her eyesight wasn't good enough to become a space shuttle pilot, she decided to pursue astrophysics. A love of...

South Africa’s knowledge economy has already received a huge boost and will continue to grow as the Meerkat project is being completed So often with large science projects politicians and some sectors of the general public will criticise the investment. Their argument is that the money should be used to build more houses or to improve the lot of the poor. When South Africa launched the pathfinder satellite SumbandilaSat, the Minister of Science and Technology was taken to task in an article in one of the Sunday papers accusing the DST of wasting money. At another media briefing the minster was asked why the government did not rather spend the money to fix potholes. Not short of words the Minister replied “without my satellite how will they find all the potholes!” The...