The Sky Tonight

June 07, 2013

2011 Draconid meteor shower deposited a ton of meteoritic material on Earth
Madrid, Spain (SPX) Jun 07, 2013
Every 6.6 years, the comet Giacobini-Zinner circulates through the inner solar system and passes through the perihelion, the closest point to the Sun of its orbit. Then, the comet sublimates the ices and ejects a large number of particles that are distributed in filaments. The oldest of these particles have formed a swarm that the Earth passes trough every year in early October. The result is a Draconid meteor shower -meteors from this comet come from the northern constellation Draco-, which hits the Ea ... read more

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Stars Don't Obliterate Their Planets (Very Often) Stars have an alluring pull on planets, especially those in a class called hot Jupiters, which are gas giants that form farther from their stars before migrating inward and heating up. Now, a ... more		Infrared Photosynthesis: A Potential Power Source for Alien Life in Sunless Places Photosynthesis-the harvesting of sunlight to produce energy-is the ultimate driver of virtually all life on the surface of our planet. Most photosynthetic creatures rely on optical light, the kind w ... more		ALMA discovers comet factory Astronomers now know that planets around other stars are plentiful. But they do not fully understand how they form and there are many aspects of the formation of comets, planets and other rocky bodi ... more
				Spitzer Sees Milky Way's Blooming Countryside New views from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show blooming stars in our Milky Way galaxy's more barren territories, far from its crowded core. The images are part of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mi ... more		Black Holes Abundant Among The Earliest Stars By comparing infrared and X-ray background signals across the same stretch of sky, an international team of astronomers has discovered evidence of a significant number of black holes that accompanie ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Kepler Stars and Planets are Bigger than Previously Thought In a new study using the NOAO Kitt Peak National Observatory Mayall 4-meter telescope, observations of a large sample of stars with candidate planets identified by the NASA Kepler Mission have revea ... more		Radar Movies Highlight Asteroid 1998 QE2 and Its Moon Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have released a second, longer, more refined movie clip of asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon. Th ... more		Maintaining US space dominance requires rapid and reliable delivery of new systems Shield or Spark? The U.S. Golden Dome and the New Missile Arms Race Starcloud partners with Mission Space to protect orbital datacenters with real time space weather intelligence		Solving a 3.5 Billion-Year-Old Mystery Scientists may not know for certain whether life exists in outer space, but new research from a team of scientists led by a University of South Florida astrobiologist now shows that one key element ... more
				Astronomers gear up to discover Earth-like planets If one looks only for the shiniest pennies in the fountain, chances are one misses most of the coins because they shimmer less brightly. This, in a nutshell, is the conundrum astronomers face when s ... more		'Dust trap' around distant star may solve planet formation mystery Based on a treasure trove of recent discoveries, astronomers now know that planets are remarkably plentiful in our galaxy and may be common throughout the Universe. Though planets appear to form rea ... more

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Stellar Winds May Electrify Exoplanets The strangest class of exoplanets found to date might be even stranger than astronomers have thought. A new model suggests that they are partially heated by electric currents linked to their host st ... more		NASA's IRIS Mission to Launch in June Lying just above the sun's surface is an enigmatic region of the solar atmosphere called the interface region. A relatively thin region, just 3,000 to 6,000 miles thick, it pulses with movement: Zon ... 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		Heart of LISA Pathfinder Mission Tested The optical bench of the LISA Pathfinder (LPF) mission passed with flying colors extensive testing at the Institute for Gravitational Research (IGR) at the University of Glasgow. IGR scientists assu ... more
				Penn State controlled satellite captures best ultraviolet maps of two galaxies The most detailed ultraviolet light surveys ever made of the two major galaxies that are closest to our own Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, have been created by astronomers at NASA ... more		Little Scope Discovers Metal-Poor Cousin of Famous Planet A scientific team led by University of Louisville doctoral student Karen Collins has discovered a hot Saturn-like planet in another solar system 700 light-years away. Collins announced the discovery ... more

Planning Accelerates For Pluto Encounter

'Vulcan' wins Pluto moon name vote

Public to vote on names for Pluto moons

Solving a 3.5 Billion-Year-Old Mystery

Infrared Photosynthesis: A Potential Power Source for Alien Life in Sunless Places

Cassini sees precursors to aerosol 'snow' on Titan

Kepler Stars and Planets are Bigger than Previously Thought

Stellar Winds May Electrify Exoplanets

Little Scope Discovers Metal-Poor Cousin of Famous Planet

Curiosity Mars Rover Nears Turning Point

Driving to 'Solander Point'

The floodwaters of Mars

	Life on Earth shockingly comes from out of this world Early Earth was not very hospitable when it came to jump starting life. In fact, new research shows that life on Earth may have come from out of this world. Lawrence Livermore scientist Nir Go ... more		Cassini sees precursors to aerosol 'snow' on Titan Scientists have confirmed the presence of PAHs - Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons - in the upper atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The study, based on data from the VIMS instrument on the ... more		Hubble Maps 3-D Structure Of Ejected Material Around Erupting Star A flash of light from a stellar outburst has provided a rare look at the 3-D structure of material ejected by an erupting nova. Astronomers used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to observe the light em ... more		Hubble telescope spots bizarre asteroid sporting comet-like tail The Hubble space telescope has revealed a bizarre asteroid, U.S. astronomers say - one trailing a tail of dust more than 600,000 miles long. ... more

China sends 11th group of internet satellites into orbit for global constellation

NASA ISRO radar satellite beams first Earth images from space

NRL coronagraph on NOAA SWFO L1 will enhance space weather forecasts

Scientists capture first images of molecules before and after reaction		Earth's Milky Way neighborhood gets more respect		Rare Stellar Alignment Offers Opportunity To Hunt For Planets		Sunrise 2: A Journey To The Active Sun		New Camera At WIYN Images An Asteroid With A Long Tail
2,500-year-old tombs in China suggest sun-worshiping culture		Magnetic monopoles erase data		Leicester Astronomers Help in Discovery of Neutron Star Slowdown		"Population Census" of Galaxies Buried in Dust		Origin of the S-Star Cluster at the Galactic Center

In feat, telescope directly spots lightweight exoplanet

Music of the Spheres: Star Songs

NASA IRIS: Improving Our View Of the Sun

Scouting for Not-So-Distant Worlds

Exploring How Black Holes Become Supermassive

Kepler Provides Insights Into Unusual Dwarf Star

Galactic Knee and Extragalactic Ankle

Lightest exoplanet imaged so far?

Galaxy In Its Death Throes May Hold Clues To Birth Of Some Dwarfs

Astronomers call our location in Milky Way an 'upscale' neighborhood

A 2015 Rendezvous With Dwarf Planet Ceres

Large asteroid completes Earth flyby

When Young White Dwarfs Do Not Fit The Mold

NASA's Swift Reveals New Phenomenon in a Neutron Star

Hubble reveals the Ring Nebula's true shape

Low-sodium 'diet' key to a stellar old age

New mathematical model links space-time theories

Super-dense star is first ever found suddenly slowing its spin

Ancient Egyptians accessorized with meteorites

A Hidden Population of Exotic Neutron Stars

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