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February 06, 2013

Asteroid 2012 DA14 - Earth Flyby Reality Check
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 06, 2013
Small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to Earth on February 15, so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth. Nevertheless, the flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a nea ... read more

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Hubble Catches the Moment the Lights Went Out The further away you look, the further back in time you see. Astronomers use this fact to study the evolution of the Universe by looking at nearby and more distant galaxies and comparing their featu ... more		Are Super-Earths Actually Mini-Neptunes? In the last two decades astronomers have found hundreds of planets in orbit around other stars. One type of these so-called 'exoplanets' is the super-Earths that are thought to have a high proportio ... more		Cassini Sees Titan Cooking up Smog A paper published this week using data from NASA's Cassini mission describes in more detail than ever before how aerosols in the highest part of the atmosphere are kick-started at Saturn's moon Tita ... more
				BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter Proto-Flight Mechanical and Propulsion Bus undergoes bake-out The BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter Mechanical and Propulsion Bus Proto-Flight Model (the structure with integrated heat pipes and chemical propulsion subsystem) has been baked out in the Phen ... more		Massive stellar winds are made of tiny pieces ESA's XMM-Newton space observatory has completed the most detailed study ever of the fierce wind from a giant star, showing for the first time that it is not a uniform breeze but is fragmented into ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Seeing the Aurora in a New Light On a cold February night in Poker Flat, Alaska, a team of scientists will wait patiently for the exotic red and green glow of an aurora to illuminate the sky. Instead of simply admiring the vi ... more		Small Asteroid to Whiz Past Earth Safely The small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to Earth on February 15, so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites. NASA's ... more		US missile defense still plagued by technical doubts Northrop Grumman, US Navy Complete Triton Unmanned Aircraft's First Flight Lockheed Martin Completes Milestone for Training Element of United States Ballistic Missile Defense System General Dynamics to Deliver U.S. Army's Newest Tactical Ground Station Intelligence System Lockheed Martin Conducts First EMD Flight Test of New GMLRS Warhead Defense Acquisition Board approves Standard Missile-6 full-rate production DARPA Seeks Technology to Radically Improve Dismounted Squad Situational Awareness, Communication Effectiveness		Building a lunar base with 3D printing Setting up a lunar base could be made much simpler by using a 3D printer to build it from local materials. Industrial partners including renowned architects Foster + Partners have joined with ESA to ... more
				Dawn Look Backs Its long and daring interplanetary journey continuing smoothly, Dawn is making good progress in gradually reshaping its orbit around the sun. Its uniquely efficient ion propulsion system is gently b ... more		Where are all the dwarfs? Astronomers of the international CLUES collaboration have identified "Cosmic Web Stripping" as a new way of explaining the famous missing dwarf problem: the lack of observed dwarf galaxies compared ... more

Solar systems for home and business installations

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Herschel Finds Past-Prime Star May Be Making Planets A star thought to have passed the age at which it can form planets may, in fact, be creating new worlds. The disk of material surrounding the surprising star called TW Hydrae may be massive enough t ... more		International Team Observe 'Hungry Twin' Stars Gobbling Their First Meals Just-forming stars, like growing babies, are always hungry and must "feed" on huge amounts of gas and dust from dense envelopes surrounding them at birth. Now a team of astronomers including Robert ... more		Volcanoes Cause Climate Gas Concentrations to Vary Allosaurus fed more like a falcon than a crocodile Study reveals how fishing gear can cause slow death of whales Research offers promising new approach to treatment of lung cancer A Local Footprint's Global Footprint A Roadmap for the Future of Astrobiology Small but speedy: Short plants live in the evolutionary fast lane		Researchers develop model for identifying habitable zones around star Researchers searching the galaxy for planets that could pass the litmus test of sustaining water-based life must find whether those planets fall in a habitable zone, where they could be capable of h ... more
				Stars can be late parents Using the unique capabilities of ESA's Herschel space observatory, astronomers have accurately 'weighed' a star's disc, finding it still has enough mass to spawn 50 Jupiter-sized planets, several mi ... more		Prehistoric humans not wiped out by comet Comet explosions did not end the prehistoric human culture, known as Clovis, in North America 13,000 years ago, according to research published in the journal Geophysical Monograph Series. Res ... more

The PI's Perspective: The Seven-Year Itch

New Horizons Gets a New Year's Workout

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

Wood on the seafloor - an oasis for deep-sea life

Exploring the Seafloors of Earth and Europa in search of exo lifeforms

Synchrotron infrared unveils a mysterious microbial community

Herschel Finds Past-Prime Star May Be Making Planets

Stars can be late parents

Researchers develop model for identifying habitable zones around star

Mapping Mars

Sampling Several Rock Targets

Weekend Test on Mars Was Preparation to Drill a Rock

	Gas promises bumper black hole weigh-in A new way of measuring the mass of supermassive black holes could revolutionise our understanding of how they form and help to shape galaxies. The technique, developed by a team including Oxfo ... more		Mercury's crust likely made of magnesium-rich basalt With both x-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging probe (MESSENGER), which entered orbit around Mercury in 2011, is well equipped for carr ... more		New method of measuring the mass of supermassive black holes In a letter to Nature, an international team of astronomers, including Marc Sarzi from the University of Hertfordshire, report the exciting discovery of a new way to measure the mass of supermassive ... more		NASA's SDO Provides First Sightings of How a CME Forms On July 18, 2012, a fairly small explosion of light burst off the lower right limb of the sun. Such flares often come with an associated eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection ... more

Solar Industry Capital Spending Hits Seven-Year Low in 2013

Innovation could bring flexible solar cells, transistors, displays

More emphasis needed on recycling and reuse of Li-ion batteries

Israel eyes Syrian missile threat to gas fields

Sempra U.S. Gas and Power, Consolidated Edison Development announce solar partnership

Areva, world's 2nd uranium company heavily present in Niger

Magnetic fingerprints of superfluid helium-3

TW Hydrae: There's more to astronomers' favorite planetary nursery than previously thought		NASA's Cassini Watches Storm Choke on Its Own Tail		Cool, New Views of Andromeda Galaxy		Solar Variability and Terrestrial Climate		Superbubble DEM L50
Computer Models Explain How Galaxies Formed and Evolved		Record Setting Asteroid Flyby		NYU physicists shine a light on particle assembly		Sounding Rocket Mission Offers Roadmap To Future Solar Missions		Stanford Researchers Break Million-core Supercomputer Barrier

Celestial Sleuths Track Historic Meteor Procession To South Atlantic

Betelgeuse braces for a collision

Hubble Finds Appearances can be Deceptive

Wood on the seafloor - an oasis for deep-sea life

Dung beetles follow the Milky Way

Exploring the Seafloors of Earth and Europa in search of exo lifeforms

The Origin And Maintenance Of A Retrograde Exoplanet

More than one brain behind E=mc2

Red Explosions - Secret Life of Binary Stars Revealed

Supercomputer sets computing record

Chameleon Star Baffles Astronomers

Hi-C Mission Sees Energy in the Sun's Corona

Astronomer Creates Computer Models That Help Explain How Galaxies Formed And Evolved

The 3D fireworks of a star

Sun-Gazing Sorce Satellite, Designed To Last 5 Years, Turns 10

Commercial Asteroid Hunters Announce Plans For New Robotic Exploration Fleet

Baffling pulsar leaves astronomers in the dark

Synchrotron infrared unveils a mysterious microbial community

NASA Officially Joins ESA's 'Dark Universe' Mission

Shedding Light on the Power of M 82's Superwinds

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