The Sky Tonight

November 29, 2012

Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts?
London, UK (SPX) Nov 29, 2012
Using ESA's Herschel space observatory, astronomers have discovered vast belts of comets surrounding two nearby planetary systems known to host nothing larger than Earth-to-Neptune-mass worlds. The comet reservoirs could have delivered life-giving oceans to the innermost planets. The scientists publish their work in papers in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and Astronomy and Astrophysics. Last year, Herschel found that the dusty belt surrounding the nearby star Fomalhaut must be ... read more

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Nine Radar Images of Asteroid 2007 PA8 A collage shows nine radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2007 PA8 that were obtained between Oct. 31 and Nov. 13, 2012, with data collected by NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network ante ... more		Dust Grains Highlight the Path to Planet Formation An international team of researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and the Japanese universities of Kobe, Hyogo, and Saitama used the Subaru Telescope to capture a clear ... more		NASA Technologists Test 'Game-Changing' Data-Processing Technology It's a digital world. Or is it? NASA technologist Jonathan Pellish isn't convinced. In fact, he believes a computing technology of yesteryear could potentially revolutionize everything from autonomo ... more
				Low-mass planets make good neighbours for debris discs Astronomers using ESA's Herschel Space Observatory have detected massive debris discs around 61 Virginis and Gliese 581, two nearby stars that are known to host super-Earth planets. The study ... more		Galaxy-squatting black hole set for the record books Astronomers on Wednesday said they had found possibly the biggest black hole ever observed, a leviathan with a mass 17 billion times that of the Sun, brooding at the heart of a distant galaxy. ... more

The Diner at the Center of the Galaxy 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 "monst ... more		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		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		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

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Solar systems for home and business

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

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		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
				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		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

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!'

Astronauts bring back new life

Model sheds light on the chemistry that sparked the origin of life

Low-mass planets make good neighbours for debris discs

Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts?

Dust Grains Highlight the Path to Planet Formation

Regional Dust Storm Dissipating

Fostering Curiosity: Mars Express relays rocky images

Matijevic Hill Survey Complete And Rover Passes 22 Miles Of Driving!

	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		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

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

University of Glasgow and Clyde Space set to put brakes on space junk problem		Planck discovers filament of hot gas linking two galaxy clusters		LLNL scientists assist in building detector to search for elusive dark matter material		Lifting The Ceiling On Terran Lifeforms		Born-again star foreshadows fate of Solar System
NASA Innovator of Year Hunts for Extraterrestrial Amino Acids		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

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