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March 20, 2013

Goldstone Radar Snags Images of Asteroid 2013 ET
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 20, 2013
A sequence of radar images of asteroid 2013 ET was obtained on March 10, 2013, by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., when the asteroid was about 693,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) from Earth, which is 2.9 lunar distances. The radar imagery suggests the irregularly shaped object is at least 130 feet (40 meters) wide. The 18 radar images were taken over a span of 1.3 hours. During that interval, the asteroid completed only a fraction of ... read more

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Leaping Lunar Dust Electrically charged lunar dust near shadowed craters can get lofted above the surface and jump over the shadowed region, bouncing back and forth between sunlit areas on opposite sides, according to ... more		Hubble Gazes on One Ring to Rule Them All Galaxies can take many forms - elliptical blobs, swirling spiral arms, bulges, and disks are all known components of the wide range of galaxies we have observed using telescopes like the NASA/ESA Hu ... more		MESSENGER Completes Its First Extended Mission at Mercury On March 17, 2013, MESSENGER successfully completed its year-long first extended mission in orbit about Mercury, building on the groundbreaking scientific results from its earlier primary mission. ... more
				Astronomers Detect Water in Atmosphere of Distant Planet A team of international scientists using the W. M. Keck Observatory has made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size planet beyond our Solar System. According to ... more		Witnessing starbursts in young galaxies On March 13, it was announced the most vigorous bursts of star birth in the cosmos took place much earlier than previously thought - results now published in a set of papers in Nature and the Astrop ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Building the Massive Simulation Sets Essential to Planck Results To make the most precise measurement yet of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) - the remnant radiation from the big bang - the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Planck satellite mission has been co ... more		Mission to Ganymede more tricky than expected Russia's proposed landing mission to Ganymede was discussed extensively last week at an international meeting hosted by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The mission t ... more		Leonardo DRS infrared payloads selected for SDA Tracking Layer Tranche 3 Balerion backs Northwood to tackle ground bottlenecks in expanding space economy China prepares offshore test base for reusable liquid rocket launches		'Hot Spots' Ride a Merry-Go-Round on Jupiter In the swirling canopy of Jupiter's atmosphere, cloudless patches are so exceptional that the big ones get the special name "hot spots." Exactly how these clearings form and why they're only found n ... more
				Earth will drown in garbage Man-made garbage cluttering from near space is a very intensive process. Therefore, it may happen that within the coming 20 years safe near-Earth orbits which it would be possible to use will become ... more		Water signature in distant planet shows clues to its formation A team of international scientists including a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory astrophysicist has made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size like planet beyond ... more

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'Vulcan' wins Pluto moon name vote

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Distant planetary system is a super-sized solar system

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NASA's next Mars mission invites public to come aboard

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Gold supraballs boost broadband solar absorption

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Earth-sized planets in habitable zones are more common than previously thought		Astronomers Observe Planets Around Another Star Like Never Before		ALMA rewrites history of Universe's stellar baby boom		'Nuisance' data lead to surprising star-birth discovery		The Great Exoplanet Debate

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project Seeks Public Support To Retrieve Apollo Era Moon Images

Herschel gets to the bottom of black hole jets

ALMA finds 'monster' starburst galaxies in the early universe

Southampton scientist investigates Russian meteor

Soccer Balls in Interstellar Space

Early Universe bred 'starburst' mega-galaxies: study

Long Awaited, Comet PanSTARRS Now Glows in the Twilight

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Lunar impacts created seas of molten rock

The mercury rises for BepiColombo

Dispute over Antarctic 'unidentified' life

Astronomers Conduct First Remote Reconnaissance of Another Solar System

Distance to nearest galaxy measured

Planetary Data System Releases MESSENGER Data from Third Mercury Solar Day

Comet PANSTARRS Rises to the Occasion Mid-March

Rhea Rev 183 Raw Preview

Solar Wind Energy Source Discovered

Russian satellite hit by remnants of destroyed Chinese spacecraft

How quantum physics democratised music

Measuring the universe more accurately than ever before

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