Wed Science News
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on May 24, 2006 at 1:59:06 PM
Retinal projection helps blind people see.
Galactic lens shows its matter composition.
NASA's Deep Space Network needs an overhaul.
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The RIMVS is based on a diagnostic tool that dates back to the 1980s called a Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope. This instrument projects a laser onto the back of the eyeball to test whether any light-sensitive retinal cells may still work. When Goldring's optometrist used one to probe her eyes, she realised the potential of the device for people with vision loss. The RIMVS is similar but is less complicated and uses an LED instead of a laser. This has brought the cost down from $100,000 to $4000.
Galactic lens shows its matter composition.
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Quasars can also vary in brightness. And such fluctuations can appear in different lensed images at different times because light from the quasar takes such different paths through the gravitational lens to produce each lensed image. "Suppose one image brightens for three days," says Keeton. "That same event might happen a month later in one of the other images, but the time delay can be years or even decades," depending on the mass contained by different parts of the lens.
NASA's Deep Space Network needs an overhaul.
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Some routine operations have already been affected by ageing of the network. For example, corrosion on a sub reflector of the 70-metre dish in Madrid led to a communications outage during a key phase of the comet-crashing Deep Impact mission in July 2005. Programme managers shifted to back-up ground stations, but that resulted in other missions being sidelined at that time.