The Sky Tonight

March 07, 2013

Evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth
Berkeley CA (SPX) Mar 07, 2013
It's among the most ancient of questions: What are the origins of life on Earth? A new experiment simulating conditions in deep space reveals that the complex building blocks of life could have been created on icy interplanetary dust and then carried to Earth, jump-starting life. Chemists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Hawaii, Manoa, showed that conditions in space are capable of creating complex dipeptides - linked pairs of amino acids - that are essential bui ... read more

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Modeling Jupiter and Saturn's possible origins New theoretical modeling by Carnegie's Alan Boss provides clues to how the gas giant planets in our solar system-Jupiter and Saturn-might have formed and evolved. His work was published recently by ... more		Gravitational Lens Creates Cartoon of Space Invader The gravitational field surrounding this massive cluster of galaxies, Abell 68, acts as a natural lens in space to brighten and magnify the light coming from very distant background galaxies. ... more		Goddard Lab Works at Extreme Edge of Cosmic Ice Behind locked doors, in a lab built like a bomb shelter, Perry Gerakines makes something ordinary yet truly alien: ice. This isn't the ice of snowflakes or ice cubes. No, this ice needs such intense ... more
				A Window into Europa's Ocean Right at the Surface If you could lick the surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa, you would actually be sampling a bit of the ocean beneath. A new paper by Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technol ... more		Comet to Make Close Flyby of Red Planet in October 2014 Comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will make a very close approach to Mars in October 2014. The latest trajectory of comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) generated by the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NAS ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Scientists at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Discover 18kg Antarctic Meteorite A team of scientists working at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica have recently discovered a meteorite weighing 18kg embedded in the East Antarctic ice sheet, the largest such meteorite found in the reg ... more		Discoveries Suggest Icy Cosmic Start for Amino Acids and DNA Ingredients Using new technology at the telescope and in laboratories, researchers have discovered an important pair of prebiotic molecules in interstellar space. The discoveries indicate that some basic chemic ... more		Revolutionising the Skies: How Helsing's CA-1 Europa Drone Could Transform Autonomous Warfare Lockheed Martin Sikorsky unveils scalable Nomad drone family for autonomous long-range missions Firefly Aerospace to Acquire SciTec in $855M Deal Expanding National Security Portfolio		The Birth of a Giant Planet? Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have obtained what is likely the first direct observation of a forming planet still embedded in a thick disc of gas and dust. If confirmed, this discover ... more
				Dawn forging through the main asteroid belt The indefatigable Dawn spacecraft is continuing to forge through the main asteroid belt, gently thrusting with its ion propulsion system. As it gradually changes its orbit around the sun, the distan ... more		Connecting the (quantum) dots Recent research offers a new spin on using nanoscale semiconductor structures to build faster computers and electronics. Literally. University of Pittsburgh and Delft University of Technology resear ... more

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CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Playing quantum tricks with measurements A team of physicists at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, performed an experiment that seems to contradict the foundations of quantum theory - at first glance. The team led by Rainer Blatt ... more		Light particles illuminate the vacuum In an article published in the PNAS scientific journal, researchers from Aalto University and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland showed experimentally that vacuum has properties not previo ... more		Deep-sea mining poses new threat to sharks, rays and ghost sharks Hydropower emerges as Southeast Asia's hidden force in driving down carbon emissions An Aussie tycoon bets billions on cleaning up iron ore giant		China to use modified rocket for moon landing mission A rocket expert said Friday that China has developed a modified model of the Long March-3B carrier rocket for an upcoming moon landing mission to be completed by the Chang'e-3 moon orbiter. Th ... more
				How did early primordial cells evolve Four billion years ago, soon after the planet cooled enough for life to begin, primordial cells may have replicated and divided without protein machinery or cell walls, relying instead on just a fli ... more		Toxic oceans may have delayed spread of complex life A new model suggests that inhospitable hydrodgen-sulphide rich waters could have delayed the spread of complex life forms in ancient oceans. The research, published online this week in the journal N ... more

'Vulcan' wins Pluto moon name vote

Public to vote on names for Pluto moons

The PI's Perspective: The Seven-Year Itch

Discoveries Suggest Icy Cosmic Start for Amino Acids and DNA Ingredients

Evidence that comets could have seeded life on Earth

How did early primordial cells evolve

The Birth of a Giant Planet?

Scientists spot birth of giant planet

NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Tiny Planet System

NASA's Curiosity rover to be back online next week

Curiosity Rover's Recovery on Track

Short Bump Gets Robotic Arm Closer to Rock Target

	Vortex loops could untie knotty physics problems University of Chicago physicists have succeeded in creating a vortex knot-a feat akin to tying a smoke ring into a knot. Linked and knotted vortex loops have existed in theory for more than a centur ... more		Additional Details on the Large Fireball Event over Russia on Feb. 15, 2013 The large fireball (technically, a "superbolide") observed on the morning of February 15, 2013 in the skies near Chelyabinsk, Russia, was caused by a relatively small asteroid approximately 17 to 20 ... more		Low Stray Light Ellipsoidal Mirror Helps Push the Boundaries of Solar Research Optical Surfaces Ltd. has supplied a 350mm diameter on-axis ellipsoidal mirror to the Kiepenheuer-Institut fur Sonnenphysik (KIS) in Freiberg, Germany. The Kiepenheuer-Institut fur Sonnenphysi ... more		Comet may give Mars a close shave in 2014 A newly discovered comet is heading for Mars and should give the red planet a close fly-by in October 2014, Australian astronomers say. ... more

Renewables overtake coal but growth slows: reports

OpenAI's Fidji Simo says AI investment frenzy 'new normal,' not bubble

Tokyo stocks hit new record as markets extend global rally

Russian meteor misidentified by most		White dwarf supernova spotted in Virgo Cluster		Stott Space Aims to Mine Asteroids this Decade		NuSTAR helps solve riddle of black hole spin		Building blocks of life may be in space
Search for 'unparticles' focuses on Earth's crust		Meteorite's Powerful Blast Due to Space Collisions		What Exploded over Russia?		Supermassive black hole spins super-fast		Black hole found spinning near the relativistic limit

New Ellipsoidal Mirror Pushes Boundaries Of Solar Research

Fermi's Motion Produces a Study in Spirograph

Asteroid impact mission targets Didymos

NASA Deciphering the Mysterious Math of the Solar Wind

Van Allen belt study reveals surprises

Origin of Russian meteor identified

Scientists spot birth of giant planet

Detecting Life on Planets that Orbit White Dwarf Stars

NRL Scientists Produce Densest Artificial Ionospheric Plasma Clouds Using HAARP

Stellar Motions in Outer Halo Shed New Light on Milky Way Evolution

Mercury may have harbored an ancient magma ocean

China overtakes Japan on IT spending: German trade body

SwRI ultraviolet payload selected for mission to Jovian ice moons

Hubble Sees a Glowing Jet From A Young Star

NASA Selects Science Instrument and Hardware for European Mission to Jupiter

India rocket launches asteroid-spotting satellite

Asteroid impact mission targets Didymos

Apophis Risk Assessment Updated

Future Evidence for Extraterrestrial Life Might Come from Dying Stars

Discovering the birth of an asteroid trail

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