On The Radar

News from the world of science

Messenger to Mercury

Messenger is set to become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury later tonight through a 15-minute insertion manouevre, starting at 8:45pm EDT and 12:45am UTC.

The planet is the Sun’s nearest neighbour and conditions can be harsh. The plan is to turn instruments on next week and start collecting data in early April.

“The durable spacecraft – carrying seven science instruments and fortified against the blistering environs near the sun – will be the first to orbit the innermost planet,” states NASA’s website.

A live webcast of the insertion is at: messenger.jhuapl. edu/mer_orbit.html

No spark for early Europe? 

A paper out this week challenges assumptions that our ancestors moved into Europe after they had discovered how to tame fire.

"Our review of the European evidence suggests that early hominins moved into northern latitudes without the habitual use of fire," says the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."It was only much later, from 300,000 to 400,000 [years] ago onward, that fire became a significant part of the hominin technological repertoire."

"The traditional view is that the Romans came over to Britain, built the roads and civilised the people. But we have found that this road was built before the Romans invaded."

- Tim Malim, director of a team that found a constructed road in Shropshire from around 100BC, quoted in The Guardian