The Sky Tonight

May 14, 2013

Sifting Through the Atmosphere's of Far-Off Worlds
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 14, 2013
Gone are the days of being able to count the number of known planets on your fingers. Today, there are more than 800 confirmed exoplanets - planets that orbit stars beyond our Sun - and more than 2,700 other candidates. What are these exotic planets made of? Unfortunately, you cannot stack them in a jar like marbles and take a closer look. Instead, researchers are coming up with advanced techniques for probing the planets' makeup. One breakthrough to come in recent years is direct imaging of exo ... read more

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Water on moon, Earth have a common source Water inside the Moon's mantle came from primitive meteorites, new research finds, the same source thought to have supplied most of the water on Earth. The findings raise new questions about the pro ... more		NASA: Solar flare was first of most intense class observed this year NASA says a solar flare emitted by the sun late Sunday was an "X-class" event - the most intense flares - and the first such "X" flare of the year. ... more		Where on Earth did the moon's water come from Water is perhaps the most important molecule in our solar system. Figuring out where it came from and how it was distributed within and among the planets can help scientists understand how planets f ... more
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				Cloud computing is silver lining for Russian firms Russian police marched into a small company's office in Moscow and told everyone to sit down and wait to be interviewed. They left hours later with all the computers. ... more		Australian sky-gazers witness 'ring of fire' eclipse Sky-gazers were treated to an annular solar eclipse in remote areas of Australia on Friday, with the Moon crossing in front of the Sun to leave a "ring of fire" around its silhouette. ... more

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Space Warps Project Needs Your Help Astronomers are asking volunteers to help them search for "space warps." More commonly known as "gravitational lenses," these are rare systems with very massive galaxies or clusters of galaxies that ... more		Herschel finds hot gas on the menu for Milky Way's black hole ESA's Herschel space observatory has made detailed observations of surprisingly hot molecular gas that may be orbiting or falling towards the supermassive black hole lurking at the centre of our Mil ... more		Vast reserves, but little to drink: Tajikistan's water struggles Year after northern Nigeria floods, survivors left high and dry Africa's path to low-carbon food security		Exotic atoms hold clues to unsolved physics puzzle at the dawn of the universe An international team of physicists has found the first direct evidence of pear shaped nuclei in exotic atoms. The findings could advance the search for a new fundamental force in nature that could ... more
				Scientists demonstrate pear shaped atomic nuclei Scientists at the University of Liverpool have shown that some atomic nuclei can assume the shape of a pear which contributes to our understanding of nuclear structure and the underlying fundamental ... more		Astronomers discover surprising clutch of hydrogen clouds lurking among our galactic neighbors In a dark, starless patch of intergalactic space, astronomers have discovered a never-before-seen cluster of hydrogen clouds strewn between two nearby galaxies, Andromeda (M31) and Triangulum (M33). ... more

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Sifting Through the Atmosphere's of Far-Off Worlds

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Quest for Dark Matter Begins With a Few Tiny Bubbles		Black holes may 'announce' their birth with a flash of cosmic light		Satellite instrument package to assess space weather ready for delivery by CU-Boulder		An Anarchic Region of Star Formation		A Better View into the Heart of a Globular Cluster

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'Tis the Season -- for Plasma Changes at Saturn

Scientists say stones are linked to 1908 cosmic blast over Siberia

New dark matter detector begins search for invisible particles

Nine-Year-Old Names Target of UA-led NASA Mission

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