NASA's Gravity Probe B is set for launch from Vandenberg AFB, California, on April 17. First proposed in 1959, the satellite will carry the four most perfectly spherical quartz balls ever made into orbit, chilled close to absolute zero in the largest vacuum flask ever flown in space, in an experiment to verify frame dragging.
Speaking of frame dragging, new observations of Sagittarius A* from the Very Long Baseline Array have given the clearest look yet at the supermassive black hole at the core of our galaxy. 26,000 light years from Earth, the black hole masses around 4 million suns and spins every 11 hours, which would mean a point at the equator of its event horizon is moving at about 0.3 C. Researchers say that the new techniques place us within reach of being able to image the shadow of the black hole's event horizon.
At the same time, new observations from the Very Large Telescope in Chile have confirmed that the fine structure constant really is a constant, as far as we can tell. Analyses of VLT data by the Astrophysical Institute of Paris show that throughout the lifetime of the universe, the fine structure constant has changed by at most 0.6 parts per million, the resolution limit of the VLT data.
Closer to home, the Cassini spacecraft now approaching Saturn has taken the sharpest color images yet of Saturn and its rings. Launched in 1997, Cassini is scheduled to arrive at Saturn on July 1. (Additional photos at the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations)
Back on Earth, superconducting diamond has reportedly been created by Russian Academy of Sciences. Made by doping carbon with boron at 2500 Kelvin under 8 gigapascals of pressure, new material exhibits bulk superconductivity when cooled to 4 Kelvin, conducts heat well, and does not quench in magnetic fields of over 3.5 Tesla.
Meanwhile in Japan, a "smell cannon" has been developed that can target a single person with a tempting or evocative scent while leaving the next person completely unaware of it.