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February 07, 2013

NASA's Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes Comet ISON
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 07, 2013
NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has acquired its first images of comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). The images were taken by the spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Imager over a 36-hour period on Jan. 17 and 18, 2013, from a distance of 493 million miles (793 million kilometers). Many scientists anticipate a bright future for comet ISON; the spaceborne conglomeration of dust and ice may put on quite a show as it passes through the inner solar system this fall. "This is the fourth comet on which we have perfo ... read more

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New "retention model" explains enigmatic ribbon at edge of solar system Since its October 2008 launch, NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has provided images of the invisible interactions between our home in the galaxy and interstellar space. Particles emanati ... more		A spiral galaxy with a secret The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope - with a little help from an amateur astronomer - has produced one of the best views yet of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 106. Located a little over 20 million lig ... more		Enigmatic "Ribbon" Of Energy Discovered by NASA Satellite Explained After three years of puzzling over a striking "ribbon" of energy and particles discovered by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) at the edge of our solar system, scientists may be on the ve ... more
				Earth-like planets may be closer than thought: study Scientists looking for habitable planets may not have to stray far from our galactic neighborhood, said a new study Wednesday, which calculated an Earth-size planet could be orbiting a red dwarf as near as 13 light years away. ... more		Largest prime number to date found Thousands of volunteers, and their computers, have determined the largest prime number found to date - a 17 million digit number - a U.S. researcher says. ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Asteroid 2012 DA14 - Earth Flyby Reality Check 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 Nea ... more		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		US Navy And Lockheed Martin Deliver Secure Communications Satellite For Mobile Users Second Generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System Intercepts Ballistic Missile Target Northrop Grumman Proves Concept for New B-2 Satellite Communication System Making frequency-hopping radios practical F-35A Completes High Angle Of Attack Testing Carrier-based unmanned jet launch set to open new markets Gunmen kill two NATO drivers in Pakistan: officials		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

Solar systems for home and business installations

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

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		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		Research into carbon storage in Arctic tundra reveals unexpected insight into ecosystem resiliency World's melting glaciers making large contribution to sea rise H1N1 discovered in marine mammals TD Alvin Marks Starts Of US Hurricane Season Sea level: One-third of its rise comes from melting mountain glaciers Corals turn to algae for stored food when times get tough Tropical air circulation drives fall warming on Antarctic Peninsula		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
				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

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

Earth-like planets may be closer than thought: study

Are Super-Earths Actually Mini-Neptunes?

Mapping Mars

Sampling Several Rock Targets

Weekend Test on Mars Was Preparation to Drill a Rock

	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		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		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

New insights into how materials transfer heat could lead to improved electronics

Groundwater unaffected by shale gas production in Arkansas

Stacking 2-D materials produces surprising results

Artificial Forest for Solar Water-Splitting

Moth-Inspired Nanostructures Take the Color Out of Thin Films

Stanford Engineers' New Metamaterial Doubles Up on Invisibility

NIST demonstrates significant improvement in the performance of solar-powered hydrogen generation

Stars can be late parents		Prehistoric humans not wiped out by comet		Gas promises bumper black hole weigh-in		Mercury's crust likely made of magnesium-rich basalt		New method of measuring the mass of supermassive black holes
NASA's SDO Provides First Sightings of How a CME Forms		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

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