The Sky Tonight

December 25, 2012

Space Fence program moving forward
Hanscom AFB MA (SPX) Dec 24, 2012
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center here recently put out a request for proposal to move the Space Fence program forward. Space Fence will be a system of up to two land-based radars, the first site located at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, to track objects entering Earth's orbit. According to program officials, it will form the foundation of improved space situational awareness by expanding the ability to detect, track, identify and characterize orbiting objects such as comm ... read more

Previous Issues

Dec 24

Dec 21

Dec 20

Dec 19

Dec 18

Christmas Sky Show Just when you thought Christmas was over: At the end of the day on Dec. 25th, a pair of holiday lights will pop out of the deepening twilight. Jupiter and the Moon are having a Christmas conjunction ... more		Quadrantids Create Year's First Meteor Shower A little-known meteor shower named after an extinct constellation, the Quadrantids will present an excellent chance for hardy souls to start the year off with some late-night meteor watching. ... more		"All-Clear" Asteroid Will Miss Earth in 2040 Using the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have confirmed that the chance of asteroid 2011 AG5 impacti ... more
				Closest sun-like star may have planets An international team of scientists, including Carnegie's Paul Butler, has discovered that Tau Ceti, one of the closest and most Sun-like stars, may have five planets. Their work is published by Ast ... more		New meteorite suggests that asteroid surfaces more complex than previously thought Meteorites that had fallen from an asteroid impact that lit up the skies over California and Nevada in April are showing scientists just how complex an asteroid surface can be. A new study published ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Spiral Structure of Disk May Reveal Planets An international team of astronomers has used HiCIAO (High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Optics) (Note 1) to observe a disk around the young star SAO 206462. They succeeded in c ... more		NASA's Hubble Provides First Census of Galaxies Near Cosmic Dawn Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was less than ... more		EU 'must respond' to Russia's 'hybrid warfare': von der Leyen Russia says missile strike kills three in Belgorod region: governor Trump unlikely to win Nobel Peace Prize, but who will?		Cassini Instrument Learns New Tricks For seven years, a mini-fridge-sized instrument aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft reliably investigated weather patterns swirling around Saturn; the hydrocarbon composition of the surface of Saturn's ... more
				How to look young when you're not - Stars reveal the secret of aging well Some people are in great shape at the age of 90, while others are decrepit before they're 50. We know that how fast people age is only loosely linked to how old they actually are - and may have more ... more		The paths of photons are random - but coordinated Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute have demonstrated that photons (light particles) emitted from light sources embedded in a complex and disordered structure are able to mutually coordinate the ... more

Solar systems for home and business

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Meteor shower to peak early Saturday An annual December meteor show known as the Ursid shower will reach its peak in the early morning hours Saturday, astronomers say. ... more		Meteorite triggered scientific gold rush A meteorite that exploded as a fireball over California's Sierra foothills this past spring was among the fastest, rarest meteorites known to have hit the Earth, and it traveled a highly eccentric o ... more		No peace: Trump's smoldering Nobel obsession Virtual Jesus? People of faith divided as AI enters religion New species of poisonous frog discovered in Amazon; Snakebite surge as Bangladesh hit by floods		Origin of life emerged from cell membrane bioenergetics A coherent pathway which starts from no more than rocks, water and carbon dioxide and leads to the emergence of the strange bio-energetic properties of living cells, has been traced for the first ti ... more
				MIT researchers discover a new kind of magnetism Following up on earlier theoretical predictions, MIT researchers have now demonstrated experimentally the existence of a fundamentally new kind of magnetic behavior, adding to the two previously kno ... more		Swansong Biospheres: The last refuges for life on the far-future Earth Billions of years from now, life on Earth will be extinguished when the dying Sun scorches the surface of our planet. New research has aimed to determine what the last life forms on Earth will be, a ... more

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

Dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere

Keck Observations Bring Weather Of Uranus Into Sharp Focus

Swansong Biospheres: The last refuges for life on the far-future Earth

Origin of life emerged from cell membrane bioenergetics

Search for life extends to the stars

Spiral Structure of Disk May Reveal Planets

Closest sun-like star may have planets

Nearby star is good candidate for Earth-like planets

Opportunity For Some Shoulder Workout At Copper Cliff

Clays on Mars: More Plentiful Than Expected

Curiosity Rover Explores 'Yellowknife Bay'

	Shot Away from its Companion, Giant Star Makes Waves Like a ship plowing through still waters, the giant star Zeta Ophiuchi is speeding through space, making waves in the dust ahead. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured a dramatic, infrared por ... more		How white dwarfs mimic black holes A remarkable observation by astronomers from the University of Southampton has been published in one of the world's foremost astrophysics research journals. The research by Professor Phil Char ... more		Southampton researchers find a glitch' in pulsar 'glitch' theory Researchers from the University of Southampton have called in to question a 40 year-old theory explaining the periodic speeding up or 'glitching' of pulsars. A pulsar is a highly magnetised ro ... more		Monster Black Holes The black hole at the center of this galaxy is part of a survey of 18 of the biggest black holes in the universe. This large elliptical galaxy is in the center of the galaxy cluster PKS 0745-19, whi ... more

Gold tops $4,000 for first time as traders pile into safe haven

Tesla shares fall on doubts that latest autos will boost sales

In Simandou mountains, Guinea prepares to cash in on iron ore

Turbulent eddies may warm the solar wind		Astronomers identify the stellar patrons of the Milky Way bar		From Cassini for the Holidays: A Splendor Seldom Seen		Science's Breakthrough of the Year: Discovery of the Higgs boson		All Systems Go for Highest Altitude Supercomputer
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

Nearby star is good candidate for Earth-like planets

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

Experiment Examining a SLICE of the Interstellar Medium

Penn Metamaterials Experts Show a Way to Reduce Electrons' Effective Mass to Nearly Zero

Math formula gives new glimpse into the magical mind of Ramanujan

BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module Mass Properties Measurement

UI-led team confirms 'gusty winds' in space turbulence

Exploding star missing from formation of solar system

NASA probes crash into the moon

GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride

Extending Einstein

Microquasar found in neighbor galaxy, tantalizing scientists

NASA's EUNIS Mission: Six Minutes in the Life of the Sun

Study Reveals a Remarkable Symmetry in Black Hole Jets

China Makes First Asteroid Fly By

Rocket Burn Sets Stage for Dynamic Moon Duos' Lunar Impact

No plans of sending an Indian on moon

Free Newsletters - Space - Defense - Environment - Energy

Buy Advertising

Media Advertising Kit

Editorial & Other Enquiries

Privacy statement

The contents herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2013 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy statement