UN highlights everyday benefits from space science and technology

UN highlights everyday benefits from space science and technology

Mazlan Othman, Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs
4 October 2011 – Understanding more about space science and that benefits that such technology has brought to everyday life is essential to helping the world address its most urgent problems, the United Nations said today as the Organization kicked off World Space Week.
Mazlan Othman, the Director for the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), used her message to mark the Week – which began today and runs until 10 October – to outline some of the improvements that space science has produced and the ways in which it might contribute in the future to tackling key global challenges.

“Coupled with advances made in other fields of science and technology, [space science] offers a wide range of specific tools and solutions that are transforming weather forecasting, environmental protection, humanitarian assistance, disaster management and more,” she said.
“Outer space is one of the most exciting and challenging topics, and perhaps of all the important topics on the agenda of the UN, none quite captures our imagination like outer space.”

Education is a particular focus of the Week this year, with UNOOSA seeking to improve the ways in which space science is taught and incorporated to schools’ curricula.

As part of the celebrations, UNOOSA and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in cooperation with the Bangladesh Astronomical Society, will be organizing a three-day workshop for teachers in Bangladesh to enhance their capacity to teach basic and modern astronomy in secondary schools.

The workshop, which will be held in the village of Enayetpur – also known as the Space Village for its year-round astronomy-related events – will allow participants to use state-of-the-art astronomical equipment, and observe objects over their laptop computer screens live from robotic telescopes situated in Hawaii and Australia.

Beyond education, Ms. Othman also remarked that the Week serves to reflect on the importance of international cooperation on space exploration for the benefit of all humanity.

In an interview with the UN News Centre, she reflected on the more than 50 years since the creation of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which reviews international cooperation, encourages continuous research and the dissemination of information, and studies legal problems arising from the exploration of outer space.

“The last 50 years have enabled an environment where we are talking to each other, and that is the best role the UN can play… through the committee, we have come up with the outer space treaties and conventions; how to register satellites; what to do if you find an object from outer space that is not yours; what are the liabilities apart from the duties and conventions.
“There are principles: principles of remote sensing, of telecommunications, guidelines on space debris, safety frameworks for using nuclear power sources in space.”

Ms. Othman said one of the committee’s biggest subjects in the years ahead will be the long-term sustainability of space activities to ensure that future generations can continue exploring space.

As part of the celebrations for the Week, a statue of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, given to UNOOSA by the Russian Government, will be unveiled on Friday in Vienna, to mark this year’s theme ‘50 Years of Human Spaceflight.’

The theme commemorates Mr. Gagarin’s flight on 12 April 1961, when he became the first human to journey into space by making one orbit around the Earth aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.

’We are alone’ in the universe: astronomer

A leading astronomer has said that we are utterly alone in the universe.

The claim that there is no other form of life in the universe is likely to upset pro-alien theorists and those who dream of an encounter with an intelligent being from another planet.

“We have found that most other planets and solar systems are wildly different from our own,” Dr. Howard Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard University, said in an interview with The Daily Mail, a British newspaper.

Astronomers have so far found a total of 500 planets in distant solar systems and believe billions of others exist.

However, Smith said that many of these planets are either too close to their sun or too far away, which means their surface temperatures would not support life. He further noted that other planets have unusual orbits that cause vast temperature variations making it impossible for water to exist as a liquid.

“There are very few solar systems or planets like ours. It means it is highly unlikely there are any planets with intelligent life close enough for us to make contact,” said Smith.

Stephen Hawking, however, has previously said the fact there are billions of galaxies out there makes it perfectly rational to assume there are other life forms in the universe. And researchers from the University of London recently suggested that aliens could be living on as many as 40,000 other planets.

By Moon Ye-bin (yebinm@heraldm.com)
Intern reporter

Edited by John Power

외계인 발견?…"골디락스 행성에 생명체 100%"

Scientists Report Most Earth-like Planet Ever, Gliese 581g



[지디넷코리아]20광년 떨어진 우주에서 지구와 같은 자연조건을 가진 행성이 발견됐다. 천문학계는 외계 생명체의 존재 가능성이 100%라며 흥분했다.

30일(현지시간) CNN, BBC 등 외신은 미국 캘리포니아 대학의 스티븐 보그트 교수는 “최근 발견된 골디락스의 행성 '글리제 581g'에서 생명체가 살고 있을 확률이 100％”라고 주장했다고 보도했다.

글리제 581g는 지구로부터 약 20광년 떨어진 천칭자리의 적색왜성 글리제 581 주위에서 발견된 행성이다. 지구와 마찬가지로 태양과 적당한 거리를 두고 공전하며, 물이 액체상태로 존재 가능한 것으로 알려졌다.

보그트 교수는 외신과 인터뷰에서 “잠재적으로 사람이 살 수 있는 행성의 유력한 사례”라며 “이렇게 빨리, 이렇게 가까운 곳에서 발견할 수 있었다는 점은 이런 행성이 매우 흔하다는 것을 의미한다”고 밝혔다.

영국 그리니치 왕립 천문대의 천문학자인 엘리자베스 커닝햄도 “글리제 581g 표면에 물이 있을 것”이라며 “생명체 발견을 위한 첫 단계”라고 말했다.

CNN은 “이 행성의 기후와 중력도 지구와 비슷하다”라며 “지구의 극지방에 사는 사람이라면 이 행성에서도 편안함을 느낄 것이”라고 전했다.