The Sky Tonight

November 28, 2012

The Diner at the Center of the Galaxy
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 28, 2012
Deep in the heart of the spiral Milky Way galaxy, a hot vortex of matter swirls around a black hole more than a million times as massive as the sun. Many galaxies, perhaps all, contain such a "monster in the middle." These supermassive black holes sustain themselves by swallowing stars, planets, asteroids, comets and clouds of gas that wander by the crowded galactic core. NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft recently caught the Milky Way's central black hole in the act of having a snack. "We got l ... read more

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Life on Mars: NASA says 'hold on a minute!' When a NASA official said last week data from an instrument on the Mars Curiosity rover suggested something "for the history books," many people thought an announcement was imminent of the possible discovery of life on the Red Planet - until the space agency began to seriously backpedal on the story. ... more		Solar Minimum; Solar Maximum The sun goes through a natural solar cycle approximately every 11 years. The cycle is marked by the increase and decrease of sunspots - visible as dark blemishes on the sun's surface, or photosphere ... more		Cassini Finds a Video Gamers' Paradise at Saturn You could call this "Pac-Man, the Sequel." Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have spotted a second feature shaped like the 1980s video game icon in the Saturn system, this time on the moon Teth ... more
				Astronauts bring back new life It is not every day that astronauts can claim to return to Earth with a new species of life. But when the astronauts on ESA's CAVES underground training course returned to the surface they were carr ... more		Magnesium oxide: From Earth to super-Earth The mantles of Earth and other rocky planets are rich in magnesium and oxygen. Due to its simplicity, the mineral magnesium oxide is a good model for studying the nature of planetary interiors. New ... more

Model sheds light on the chemistry that sparked the origin of life The question of how life began on a molecular level has been a longstanding problem in science. However, recent mathematical research sheds light on a possible mechanism by which life may have gotte ... more		Scientists from Bangalore and Mainz develop new methods for cooling of ions Among the most important techniques developed in atomic physics over the past few years are methods that enable the storage and cooling of atoms and ions at temperatures just above absolute zero. Sc ... more		Iran supends cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog Rocket Lab clears key design milestone for SDA low Earth orbit constellation US halting some shipments of military aid to Ukraine		Curious About Life: Interview with Roger Summons The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover has 10 science instruments, and each will be used in the coming weeks and months to help characterize the environment of Mars and determine if the planet ... more
				The Surprising Appeal of a Cloudy Eclipse Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 25, 2012 Astrophysicist and legendary eclipse chaser Fred Espenak has a rating scheme for natural wonders. "On a scale of 1 to 10," he says, "total eclipses are a million." ... more		Failed explosions explain most peculiar supernovae Supercomputer simulations have revealed that a type of oddly dim, exploding star is probably a class of duds-one that could nonetheless throw new light on the mysterious nature of dark energy. Most ... more

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Can life emerge on planets around cooling stars? Astronomers find planets in strange places and wonder if they might support life. One such place would be in orbit around a white or brown dwarf. While neither is a star like the sun, both glow and ... more		Spanish Scientists Design a Revolutionary Data Storage Device University of Granada researchers have developed a revolutionary data storage device in collaboration with the CEA-LETI lab at Grenoble (France), an institution of the Campus of International Excell ... more		Relief coming for Europe after brutal heatwave Japan updates 'megaquake' preparedness plan Fiji says would not welcome China military presence in Pacific		Putting more cores to work in server farms Streaming data, social networks, online games and services, databases - the number of interactions we have with the Internet is continually increasing. Every time we click on a link, we trigger an a ... more
				University of Glasgow and Clyde Space set to put brakes on space junk problem Engineers at the University of Glasgow and Clyde Space Ltd have developed a practical solution to the increasing problem of space debris. Millions of pieces of 'space junk' are orbiting the Earth as ... more		Planck discovers filament of hot gas linking two galaxy clusters Scanning the sky at microwave and sub-millimetre wavelengths with Planck, astronomers have unambiguously detected a 'bridge' of hot gas connecting two galaxy clusters, Abell 399 and Abell 401. ... more

Dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere

Keck Observations Bring Weather Of Uranus Into Sharp Focus

At Pluto, Moons and Debris May Be Hazardous to New Horizons Spacecraft During Flyby

Life on Mars: NASA says 'hold on a minute!'

Curious About Life: Interview with Roger Summons

Can life emerge on planets around cooling stars?

Magnesium oxide: From Earth to super-Earth

Rare image of Super-Jupiter sheds light on planet formation

Astronomers Directly Image Massive Star's 'Super-Jupiter'

NASA monitors massive dust storm on Mars

Fostering Curiosity: Mars Express relays rocky images

Intrigue from Mars, or Grotzinger's silence

	LLNL scientists assist in building detector to search for elusive dark matter material Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers are making key contributions to a physics experiment that will look for one of nature's most elusive particles, "dark matter," using a tank nearly ... more		Lifting The Ceiling On Terran Lifeforms The parachuting thrill-seeker Felix Baumgartner is not the only living thing to plunge through the jet stream. Recent studies have confirmed that microbes exist in the stratosphere, the atmosp ... more		Born-again star foreshadows fate of Solar System Astronomers have found evidence for a dying Sun-like star coming briefly back to life after casting its gassy shells out into space, mimicking the possible fate our own Solar System faces in a few b ... more		NASA Innovator of Year Hunts for Extraterrestrial Amino Acids The hunt for the organic molecules that create proteins and enzymes critical for life here on Earth has largely happened in sophisticated terrestrial laboratories equipped with high-tech gadgetry ne ... more

A New Alloy is Enabling Ultra-Stable Structures Needed for Exoplanet Discovery

GE Vernova and Fortum take steps toward Nordic deployment of BWRX-300 SMRs

Asian markets mixed as trade deal cut-off looms

MESSENGER Finds Unusual Groups of Ridges and Troughs on Mercury		NASA's Kepler Wraps Prime Mission, Begins Extension		Lockheed Martin Expands Range Of Cloud Computing Services for UK Government		Satellite brought closer to Earth to work		Rare image of Super-Jupiter sheds light on planet formation
Astronomers Directly Image Massive Star's 'Super-Jupiter'		Leonid meteor shower comes around		Bug repellent for supercomputers proves effective		Keeneland Project Deploys New GPU Supercomputing System for the National Science Foundation		Hubble Traps Galactic Fireflies

SETI Institute Major Donation From Qualcomm Chief Scientist Franklin Antonio

Black Holes and How to Use Them

Rare meteorites created in violent celestial collision

Titan is also a green powerhouse

Instrument Will Observe Spiral Galaxy Near Big Dipper's Handle

A Reborn Planetary Nebula

BOSS Quasars Unveil a New Era in the Expansion History of the Universe

Lowell astronomer, collaborators point the way for exoplanet search

The curious shape of a supernova remnant in a star-forming cloud

DARPA's Advanced Space Surveillance Telescope Could Be Looking Up From Down Under

Combined Power Of Space Telescopes Finds Candidate For Most Distant Object Yet

Raytheon submits Space Fence proposal to the USAF

Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Saturday, November 17, 2012

Lockheed Martin Submits Space Fence Radar Proposal to USAF to Detect and Track Orbital Objects

Proba-2 soaks up three solar eclipses

Lonely planet: Orphan world spotted in deep space

US to station powerful radar, space telescope in Australia

Sky-gazers in awe of total eclipse

Lost in Space: Rogue Planet Spotted?

Astronomers Measure The Universe's Deceleration Before Dark Energy Took Over

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