Jun

20

Ivuna Meteorite could hold Solar System clues

Filed Under Space | Posted By Jennifer Sullivan | Leave a Comment

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Ivuna meteorite, a unique kind of meteorite which could hold hints to the birth of Solar System .It has been bought by London’s Natural History Museum from a US private collection which has the same chemical make-up from which the Solar System formed 4.5 billion years ago. It used to found in Tanzania in 1938 as one 705g stone, since split into samples.

Ivuna’s chemical structure matches the Sun and extremely rare - just 0.03% hasve this solar composition of the 35,000 meteorites. It is said that these types of meteorite are very important as it fell relatively currently and has been kept under nitrogen in a covered environment for the last two or three decades.

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Feb

29

Property prices fall in February

Filed Under General, World News | Posted By Jennifer Sullivan | Leave a Comment

House prices fell in February by 0.5%, says the latest survey from Nationwide. The fourth consecutive monthly fall in property prices puts the cost of the average UK home at £179,358.

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The annual rate of house price inflation fell from 4.2% in January to 2.7% in February, the lowest since November 2005.

But the building society warned against gloomy predictions for the housing market, claiming that recession was “a remote risk for the UK economy”.

Trend continues

Various surveys have charted a decline in the housing market since last summer, with the Land Registry the latest to show a slowing in the annual rate of house price inflation.

Nationwide said the trend was of weakening prices but the drop in the annual rate of increase overstated the overall situation. This was because house price growth was particularly strong in January and February last year.

Higher energy bills and food costs have put more pressure on household finances.for sale

Meanwhile lenders have become more fussy about who they lend to because of the crisis in the banking industry.

No more so-called 125% mortgages are available and the 100% mortgage market has shrunk significantly in recent months.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee cut interest rates from 5.5% to 5.25% in February.

‘Uncertain market’

Aggressive rate cuts in the coming months were unlikely, according to Nationwide’s chief economist Fionnuala Earley, but the economy was much weaker than it was a year ago.

“It should not be surprising that we are entering a slower phase,” she said.

“It is encouraging that the outlook is one of just that, slower economic growth rather than recession.”

She added that the reluctance of buyers given the current uncertainty in the market was not a surprise, but conditions for the UK housing market were “perhaps less gloomy than some would have us believe.”

Source: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7269894.stm



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