The latest from the depths of space: the DAWN probe is on an expedition past Mars. For a year DAWN has studied the Vesta asteroid - and scientists are astounded at the results.
While a robot explores the earth’s neighboring planet Mars, the unmanned Dawn mission has set out for even more distant destinations. The NASA spacecraft, which is equipped with German-made cameras, spent a year exploring the asteroid Vesta, sending stunning images back to earth.
Along with hundreds of thousands of smaller asteroids, Vesta - which is approximately 500 kilometers in diameter - is part of the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Tomorrow Today takes an up-close look at the results of Dawn’s year-long encounter with the asteroid.
Ulrich Köhler is an expert from the German Aerospace Center's Institute of Planetary Research. He is speaking with us about how planetary research is changing our understanding of our own planet - and ourselves.
Javad Hekayati from Shiraz, Iran wants to know: what is geothermal energy?
Researchers from the Institute of Virology in Bonn have tested thousands of bats from all over the world in search of viruses. They found that the flying mammals play host to familiar pathogens such as the mumps virus, but also discovered 66 new virus species.
The scientists believe this could make eradicating many dangerous diseases more difficult than previously believed, because even if vaccination campaigns eradicate certain viral diseases in humans, bats may be a reservoir from which the viruses could return.
Neuroscientists at the University of Zurich are working on a new therapy for people who have been partially paralyzed as a result of brain injury, for example due to accident or stroke. They hope their therapy may encourage other regions of the brain to take over the function of the injured one.
They are using magnetic resonance imaging and other techniques to investigate how quickly this process takes place. One day, the researchers hope, patients may be able to take advantage of brain plasticity to recover movement of their paralyzed limbs.