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April 09, 2013

The Space Cowboys are Back
Bethesda MD (SPX) Apr 09, 2013
You can't make this stuff up! The latest idea from NASA sounds like a "space western." In this case one cowboy, played by a robotic spacecraft, is sent to lasso a small asteroid and bring it back to a spot near the moon. Once parked by the moon other cowboys, played by astronauts, would explore the space rock. This sounds like a great subject for a film, but the plot seems a bit weak. Just last Friday, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida endorsed the plan and said it would speed up existing NASA plans ... read more

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The Great Exoplanet Debate At the 2012 Astrobiology Science Conference, Astrobiology Magazine hosted a plenary session titled: "Expanding the Habitable Zone: The Hunt for Exoplanets Now and Into the Future." Originally formul ... more		More Treasures from Asteroids The recent announcement of a potential NASA plan to robotically capture an asteroid, transport it to lunar orbit and use it as a target for a human expedition is amazing. Admittedly, it sounds ... more		Russia rekindles Moon exploration program, intends setting up first human outposts there Having on hand an impressive record of successful moon missions performed when it was the Soviet Union, Russia has set to revive a robotic moon exploration program. The country's serious intentions ... more
				NASA Taps the Power of Zombie Stars in Two-in-One Instrument Neutron stars have been called the zombies of the cosmos. They shine even though they're technically dead, occasionally feeding on neighboring stars if they venture too close. Interestingly, these u ... more		Observationally Confirmed Supernova Explosion of a Yellow Supergiant Star Observational results of the Hubble Space Telescope announced in March 2013 confirmed the theoretical prediction by the Bersten team at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Uni ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

A meteorite mystery from Mercury? Early in 2012, someone in Southern Morocco picked up 35 greenish stones, including the one shown above. Purchased by a dealer in Erfoud, Morocco, it was then resold to Stefan Ralew, a meteorite coll ... more		NASA wants to tow an asteroid to the moon: senator NASA wants to grab a small asteroid and tow it into orbit around the moon, as part of a long-range plan towards establishing permanent manned outposts in space, according to a US senator. ... 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		NASA Selects Explorer Investigations for Formulation NASA's Astrophysics Explorer Program has selected two missions for launch in 2017: a planet-hunting satellite and an International Space Station instrument to observe X-rays from stars. The Tr ... more
				On wings of light LMU physicists have, for the first time, successfully transmitted a secure quantum code through the atmosphere from an aircraft to a ground station. Can worldwide communication ever be fully s ... more		Quantum tricks drive magnetic switching into the fast lane Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, and the University of Crete in Greece have found a new way to switch magnetism that is at least 1000 times fast ... more

Solar systems for home and business installations

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Scientists propose revolutionary laser system to produce the next LHC An international team of physicists has proposed a revolutionary laser system, inspired by the telecommunications technology, to produce the next generation of particle accelerators, such as the Lar ... more		Power behind primordial soup discovered Researchers at the University of Leeds may have solved a key puzzle about how objects from space could have kindled life on Earth. While it is generally accepted that some important ingredients for ... 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		Mapping the Chemistry Needed for Life at Europa A new paper led by a NASA researcher shows that hydrogen peroxide is abundant across much of the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. The authors argue that if the peroxide on the surface of Europa mix ... more
				Scientists to Io: Your Volcanoes Are in the Wrong Place Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, with hundreds of volcanoes, some erupting lava fountains up to 250 miles high. However, concentrations of volcanic activi ... more		Gravity-Bending Find Leads to Kepler Meeting Einstein NASA's Kepler space telescope has witnessed the effects of a dead star bending the light of its companion star. The findings are among the first detections of this phenomenon - a result of Einstein ... more

'Vulcan' wins Pluto moon name vote

Public to vote on names for Pluto moons

The PI's Perspective: The Seven-Year Itch

Power behind primordial soup discovered

University of Tennessee professor discovers how microbes survive at bare minimum

Where Life Could Thrive: Interview With John Grotzinger

NASA Selects Explorer Investigations for Formulation

The Great Exoplanet Debate

The Great Exoplanet Debate Part Four

Registration Opens for NASA Night Rover Energy Challenge

Shaking ExoMars

Remaining Martian Atmosphere Still Dynamic

	Stars in NGC 602a The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbors. Even though it is a small, or so-called dwarf galaxy, the SMC is so bright that it is visible to the unaided ey ... more		Collision Course? A Comet Heads for Mars Over the years, the spacefaring nations of Earth have sent dozens of probes and rovers to explore Mars. Today there are three active satellites circling the red planet while two rovers, Opportunity ... more		Shining light on elusive dark matter The antimatter hunter AMS-02 on the International Space Station is searching for the missing pieces of our Universe. The project's first results published are hinting at a new phenomenon and reveali ... more		SDSC's Gordon Supercomputer Assists in Crunching Large Hadron Collider Data Gordon, the unique supercomputer launched last year by the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, recently completed its most data-intensive task so far: r ... 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

Hubble breaks record for furthest supernova		ALMA Detects Signs of Star Formation Surprisingly Close to Galaxy's Supermassive Black Hole		The Great Exoplanet Debate Part Four		What Is Behind Einstein's Turbulences?		NASA Team Investigates Complex Chemistry At Titan
Astronomers Anticipate 100 Billion Earth-Like Planets		Green Pea galaxies could help astronomers understand early universe		Astrophysicists to probe dark matter in sunny California		Shape from sound - new methods to probe the universe		Europe readies for solar storm risks

LHC upgrade could yield dark matter

Swirling Secrets

Supernova remnant 1987A continues to reveal its secrets

New Insights on How Spiral Galaxies Get Their Arms

Pre-existing mineralogy may survive lunar impacts

NOAO: Star Birth in Cepheus

Black hole wakes up and has a light snack

Hungry black hole wakes up for a planet-sized snack

'Metascreen' forms ultra-thin invisibility cloak

Lensing in the Peculiar "Magatama" Galaxy

Hubble Sees J 900 Masquerading as a Double Star

Hubble observes the hidden depths of Messier 77

NASA's Swift Sizes Up Comet ISON

Dawn remains in silent pursuit of dwarf planet Ceres

Physics of fluids explained 100 years after original discovery

University of Tennessee professor discovers how microbes survive at bare minimum

Lunar cycle determines hunting behaviour of nocturnal gulls

Young, hot and blue

Hunting high-mass stars with Herschel

Astronomers discover new kind of supernova

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