The Sky Tonight

December 18, 2012

Venus transit and lunar mirror could help astronomers find worlds around other stars
London, UK (SPX) Dec 19, 2012
On 6 June 2012 Venus passed directly between the Earth and the Sun, in a so-called transit where the planet appears as a silhouette against the solar disk, something that will not happen again until 5 December 2117. A team of Italian astronomers led by Paolo Molaro of the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica at the University of Trieste used the opportunity to perform an unusual and challenging experiment, looking at the sunlight reflected off the Moon ('moonlight') to see how it changed during the ... read more

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Experiment Examining a SLICE of the Interstellar Medium When you look up at the stars at night, the space between stars looks empty. But, yes there is something there. It's called the interstellar medium. An experiment from the University of Colorado wil ... more		Math formula gives new glimpse into the magical mind of Ramanujan December 22 marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician renowned for somehow intuiting extraordinary numerical patterns and connections without the use o ... more		NASA probes crash into the moon Two NASA probes crashed into the moon on Monday after spending months gathering data by orbiting miles above the lunar surface, the US space agency said. ... more
				Extending Einstein Physicists at the University of Calgary and at the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo have published new research in Nature Physics which builds on the original ideas of Einstein and adds a ... more		Exploding star missing from formation of solar system A new study published by University of Chicago researchers challenges the notion that the force of an exploding star forced the formation of the solar system. In this study, published online last mo ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

UI-led team confirms 'gusty winds' in space turbulence Imagine riding in an airplane as the plane is jolted back and forth by gusts of wind that you can't prove exist but are there nonetheless. Similar turbulence exists in space, and a research team led ... more		GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride NASA has named the site where twin agency spacecraft impacted the moon Monday in honor of the late astronaut Sally K. Ride, who was America's first woman in space and a member of the probes' mission ... more		North Korea to soon unveil 'next-stage' nuclear plans, Kim says Greenland dispute is 'wake-up call' for Europe: Macron Trump warns US to end support for Iraq if Maliki returns		BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module Mass Properties Measurement The mass properties of the BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module Structural and Thermal Model have been measured. The transfer module's primary task is to provide solar-electric propulsion during the ... more
				China Makes First Asteroid Fly By China's space probe Chang'e-2 has successfully conducted a maneuver in which it flew by the asteroid Toutatis, about seven million km away from the Earth. Travelling in deep space, Chang'e-2 m ... more		Rocket Burn Sets Stage for Dynamic Moon Duos' Lunar Impact The lunar twins of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission have each completed a rocket burn that has sealed their fate. The burns modified the orbit of the formation-flying ... more

Solar systems for home and business

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

No plans of sending an Indian on moon India has no plans to put an astronaut on the moon, as of now. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday said this. The minister also said ... more		Asteroid Toutatis Slowly Tumbles by Earth Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have generated a series of radar data images of a three-mile-long (4.8-kilometer) asteroid th ... more		NASA advances space based tracking of marine debris Trump-era trade stress leads Western powers to China Trump troop deployments in US cities cost nearly $500 mn in 2025		Microquasar found in neighbor galaxy, tantalizing scientists For the first time, astronomers have found a microquasar - a black hole devouring material from a companion star - in a galaxy beyond our own Milky Way. The object, pumping out X-rays and bright bur ... more
				NASA's EUNIS Mission: Six Minutes in the Life of the Sun In December, a NASA mission to study the sun will make its third launch into space for a six-minute flight to gather information about the way material roils through the sun's atmosphere, sometimes ... more		Study Reveals a Remarkable Symmetry in Black Hole Jets Black holes range from modest objects formed when individual stars end their lives to behemoths billions of times more massive that rule the centers of galaxies. A new study using data from NASA's S ... more

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

Dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere

Keck Observations Bring Weather Of Uranus Into Sharp Focus

ASU researchers propose new way to look at the dawn of life

Search for life extends to the stars

Mining ancient ores for clues to early life

Venus transit and lunar mirror could help astronomers find worlds around other stars

Astronomers discover and 'weigh' infant solar system

Search for Life Suggests Solar Systems More Habitable than Ours

Opportunity Checking Out Some Rocks At Matijevic Hill

Enabling ChemCam to Measure Key Isotopic Ratios on Mars and Other Planets

Curious About Life: Interview with Darby Dyer

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Gold soars towards $5,600 as Trump rattles sabre over Iran

Online platforms offer filtering to fight AI slop; EU lawmakers want AI to pay for using copyrighted work

Electron ordering mapped in quantum material with cryogenic 4D-STEM

24-armed Giant to Probe Early Lives of Galaxies		NASA's Hubble Provides First Census of Galaxies Near Cosmic Dawn		NASA Gravity Probes Prepare to Hit the Moon		Hubble plumbs the universe, yields images of early galaxies		Student Team Provides Real-Time Video of Asteroid Toutatis
Cassini Spots Mini Nile River on Saturn Moon		New knowledge about the remarkable properties of black holes		Big Asteroid Tumbles Harmlessly Past Earth		Greedy black hole discovered in Andromeda		An Older Vega: New Insights About The Star All Others Are Measured By

UCSB physicists make strides in understanding quantum entanglement

Unvieling diffuse x-ray emission from nearby galaxies

Do we live in a computer simulation? UW researchers say idea can be tested

NASA Astrobiology Institute Shows How Wide Binary Stars Form

Nearby star much older than thought

Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored

Point of Light

Rock Comet Meteor Shower

Search for life extends to the stars

Geminid Meteor Shower Coming on December 13-14

British astronomer Patrick Moore dead aged 89

Mining ancient ores for clues to early life

Hubble's Glitter galaxy: The ESO 318-13 galaxy

Fermi Improves its Vision for Thunderstorm Gamma-Ray Flashes

To the moon and back for less than 2 billion dollars

The Bubble Nebula, observed with the new One Degree Imager Camera

Wide Binary Stars: Long-Distance Stellar Relationships

What is Creating Gullies on Vesta?

Secrets of universe revealed thanks to AF research complex

X-ray vision can reveal the moment of birth of violent supernovae

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