* * *
Same old Martians
(Above) Despite the tabloid excitement, one in three people in Britain thought
this year鈥檚 鈥淟ife on Mars鈥� story 鈥渂oring, predictable or irrelevant鈥�, according
to a Gallup poll. NASA, which funded two missions to Mars this year, didn鈥檛 agree
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* * *
Death on the rocks
(Right) Thousands of seabirds died in February when the tanker Sea Empress
ran aground on the coast near Milford Haven in Wales. The cleanup bill ran to
millions of pounds
* * *
Flight fright
August saw the end of NASA鈥檚 reusable rocket, the Clipper Graham鈥攆ormerly
known as the Delta Clipper or DC-X鈥攚hich wasv designed for vertical take-off
and landing. A failure in its undercarriage ended a run of eight successful
flights鈥攁 better record than Ariane 5 which blew up a month earlier shortly
after take-off on its first flight. Meanwhile, a Chinese Long March 3B rocket crashed
into a residential area shortly after take-off killing six people
* * *
Double trouble
The race for the land speed record slowed to a crawl after both teams ran
into trouble. A flooded desert in Jordan delayed Britain鈥檚 Thrust SSC (left),
while in Nevada, 鈥淪pirit of America鈥� made the fastest U-turn ever, recorded at a
speed of more than 1100 kilometres per hour. The driver escaped unhurt
* * *
Big bangs
Life hotted up in Iceland during October when a volcanic eruption began
to melt the Vatnaj枚kull glacier and threaten widespread flooding. And in
July, skiing was disrupted in New Zealand when Mount Ruapehu erupted, sprinkling
ash over the ski slopes of the North Island and shutting the country鈥檚 main
airport
* * *
Happy returns
Celebrating its sixth birthday, the Hubble Space Telescope continued to
produce fantastic images. This is MyCn18, a young planetary nebula 8000 light
years from Earth. The circles are 鈥渟moke rings鈥� of ionised hydrogen, nitrogen
and oxygen
* * *
Outbreak
Thousands contracted dengue fever in India and Malaysia. More than 175 people
died in New Delhi. Food poisoning was also prevalent, with multiple outbreaks in
Japan, Britain and in Hungary, where more than 4000 became sick after eating
cold strawberry soup