The Sky Tonight

December 31, 2012

The toughest animal on Earth...and in space!
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Dec 31, 2012
An animal that can live without water, resist extreme temperatures and strong radiation, and has survived the vacuum of space; that is a basic description of a Tardigrade. More commonly called the 'water bear', this tiny creature opens up fascinating new perspectives on the process of dehydration, which could be used to preserve food, but also vaccines and blood. Discovered two centuries ago, the first to describe the Tardigrade was German zoologist, Johann August Ephraim Goeze, who observed in 17 ... read more

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A stray planet Some time ago, scientists discovered that there are planets that do not rotate around any star, like the Earth rotates around the Sun, but "travel" in the universe all alone. Till now, scientists ha ... more		Hubble Eyes a Wanderer Dancing the Dance of Stars and Space The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides us this week with a spectacular image of the bright star-forming ring that surrounds the heart of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097. In this image, the l ... more		Chinese scientists find evidence for speed of gravity Chinese scientists revealed Wednesday that they have found evidence supporting the hypothesis that gravity travels at the speed of light based on data gleaned from observing Earth tides. Scien ... more
				Sun online Russian scientists have gained access to the data of the SDO solar observatory (NASA). The SDO Data Center is created in the Lebedev Physical Institute of the RAS. After the untimely breakdown of th ... more		Hubble Eyes the Needle Galaxy Like finding a silver needle in the haystack of space, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the spiral galaxy IC 2233, one of the flattest galaxies known. T ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

All Systems Go for Highest Altitude Supercomputer One of the most powerful supercomputers in the world has now been fully installed and tested at its remote, high altitude site in the Andes of northern Chile. This marks one of the major remaining m ... more		US probes HP's Autonomy fraud allegations US authorities are probing allegations by Hewlett-Packard that a British software firm it bought out had fraudulent accounts, the US tech giant said in its annual report released Thursday. ... 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?		Russia designs manned lunar spacecraft Russian space company Energia has completed the technical design of a manned spacecraft whose flight tests would be initiated in 2017, company officials say. ... more
				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

Solar systems for home and business

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Entering a new phase Condensed matter physics - the branch of physics responsible for discovering and describing most of these phases - has traditionally classified phases by the way their fundamental building blocks - ... more		May the force be with the atomic probe Theoretical physicist Elad Eizner from Ben Gurion University, Israel, and colleagues created models to study the attractive forces affecting atoms located at a wide range of distances from a surface ... 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		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
				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		Science's Breakthrough of the Year: Discovery of the Higgs boson The observation of an elusive sub-atomic particle, known as the Higgs boson, has been heralded by the journal Science as the most important scientific discovery of 2012. This particle, which was fir ... more

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

Dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere

Keck Observations Bring Weather Of Uranus Into Sharp Focus

The toughest animal on Earth...and in space!

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

Origin of life emerged from cell membrane bioenergetics

A stray planet

Spiral Structure of Disk May Reveal Planets

Closest sun-like star may have planets

Russia May Join ExoMars Project in Q1 2013

ARCA will test the parachutes for the ExoMars spacecraft

Working Through the Holidays

	Space Fence program moving forward 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, th ... 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		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		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

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

Quadrantids Create Year's First Meteor Shower		"All-Clear" Asteroid Will Miss Earth in 2040		New meteorite suggests that asteroid surfaces more complex than previously thought		All Systems Go for Highest Altitude Supercomputer		MIT researchers discover a new kind of magnetism
Origin of life emerged from cell membrane bioenergetics		Swansong Biospheres: The last refuges for life on the far-future Earth		The paths of photons are random - but coordinated		Meteor shower to peak early Saturday		Nearby star is good candidate for Earth-like planets

Shot Away from its Companion, Giant Star Makes Waves

How white dwarfs mimic black holes

Southampton researchers find a glitch' in pulsar 'glitch' theory

Monster Black Holes

Turbulent eddies may warm the solar wind

Astronomers identify the stellar patrons of the Milky Way bar

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

From Cassini for the Holidays: A Splendor Seldom Seen

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

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