The Sky Tonight

November 28, 2013

Calm solar cycle prompts questions about impact on Earth
Washington (AFP) Nov 28, 2013
The surface of the sun has been surprisingly calm of late - with fewer sunspots than anytime in in the last century - prompting curious scientists to wonder just what it might mean here on Earth. Sunspots have been observed for millennia - first by Chinese astronomers and then, for the first time with a telescope, by Galileo in 1610. The sunspots appear in roughly 11-year cycles - increasing to a daily flurry and then subsiding drastically, before amping up again. But this cycle - dub ... read more

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Smartphone app can help track, identify meteors falling to Earth A smartphone app can track meteors as they enter the Earth's atmosphere, sending information back to users about their sightings, its Australian developers say. ... more		Will comet ISON survive its near brush with the Sun? US astrophysicists are split over what will happen when the comet ISON passes near the sun Thursday, but a majority think it will break apart. ... more		Search for habitable planets should be more conservative Scientists should take the conservative approach when searching for habitable zones where life-sustaining planets might exist, according to James Kasting, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Penn ... more
				Spotlight on China's Moon Rover The upcoming launch of China's Chang'e-3 Moon lander and rover follows a busy year for the Chinese space program. Awareness of China's growing strength in spaceflight is rising throughout the world. ... more		Do Black Holes Come in Size Medium? Black holes can be petite, with masses only about 10 times that of our sun - or monstrous, boasting the equivalent in mass up to 10 billion suns. Do black holes also come in size medium? NASA's Nuc ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Scientists Seek Other Scientists for Cosmology Problem How do you measure something that is invisible? It's a challenging task, but astronomers have made progress on one front: the study of dark matter and dark energy, two of the most mysterious substan ... more		IceCube provides proof of neutrinos from the cosmos The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole was the first to discover ultrahigh-energy neutrinos which most likely were the result of cosmic acceleration in outer space. "After more than a de ... more		Denmark closes airspace to civilian drones amid rise in sightings Top diplomats of North Korea, China agree to oppose 'hegemonism' What is the high seas treaty?		Evidence of jet of high-energy particles from Milky Way's black hole For decades, astronomers have sought strong evidence that the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy is producing a jet of high-energy particles. Based on new results from NAS ... more
				We're Going to the Moon! In 2015, Penn State's Lunar Lion team plans to put an unmanned spacecraft on the moon. In 2013, the ambitious project is putting cutting edge NASA equipment in students' hands. Through a recen ... more		NASA's Solar Observing Fleet to Watch Comet ISON's Journey around the Sun It began in the Oort cloud, almost a light year away. It has traveled for over a million years. It has almost reached the star that has pulled it steadily forward for so long. On Thanksgiving ... more

International Conference on Protection of Materials and Structures From Space Environment

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

No qualms about quantum theory A colloquium paper published in EPJ D looks into the alleged issues associated with quantum theory. Berthold-Georg Englert from the National University of Singapore reviews a selection of the potent ... more		Flashes of brilliance Spontaneous bursts of light from a solid block illuminate the unusual way interacting quantum particles behave when they are driven far from equilibrium. The discovery by Rice University scientists ... more		The first animals on Earth may have been sea sponges, study suggests Wildfire-induced thunderstorms recreated in Earth system models for first time Fengyun satellite strengthens China global weather forecasting capacity		Image of sun shows two areas of sunspots, one arriving and one leaving NASA has released an image of the sun showing two sunspots - one "coming" and one "going" - both the size of Jupiter, astronomers say. ... more
				Physicist's journey reveals smaller asteroids could cause bigger problems Once in a lifetime, a physicist may get a chance to test his theories and simulations in a real-life event that changes the course of his scientific life. But rarely does that opportunity literally ... more		Searching for Cosmic Accelerators Via IceCube In our universe there are particle accelerators 40 million times more powerful than the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Scientists don't know what these cosmic accelerators are or where they ar ... more

The Sounds of New Horizons

On the Path to Pluto, 5 AU and Closing

SwRI study finds that Pluto satellites' orbital ballet may hint of long-ago collisions

Glassy Coating Keeps Viruses Happy In Harsh Environments

No peak in sight for evolving bacteria

Theory of Earth's special place in the universe proven unfounded

Search for habitable planets should be more conservative

NASA Kepler Results Usher in a New Era of Astronomy

Astronomers answer key question: How common are habitable planets?

Curiosity Resumes Science After Analysis of Voltage Issue

NASA poised to launch Mars atmosphere probe

Winter Means Less Power for Solar Panels

	Chandra Helps Confirm Evidence of Jet in Milky Way's Black Hole Astronomers have long sought strong evidence that Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is producing a jet of high-energy particles. Finally they have ... more		IceCube pushes neutrinos to the forefront of astronomy The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a particle detector buried in the Antarctic ice, is a demonstration of the power of the human passion for discovery, where scientific ingenuity meets technological ... more		NASA, Planetary Resources Sign Agreement to Crowdsource Asteroid Detection NASA and Planetary Resources Inc., of Bellevue, Wash., are partnering to develop crowd-sourced software solutions to enhance detection of near-Earth objects using agency-funded data. The agreement i ... more		NASA Spacecraft Begins Collecting Lunar Atmosphere Data NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is ready to begin collecting science data about the moon. On Nov. 20, the spacecraft successfully entered its planned orbit around the m ... more

NASA ISRO radar satellite beams first Earth images from space

India plans mega-dam to counter China water fears

Breakthrough in UAV swarm intelligence as SRI redefines topology mapping

Infant Galaxies Merging Near 'Cosmic Dawn'		Monster gamma-ray burst in our cosmic neighborhood		HZDR researchers simulate electrons in astrophysical plasma jets		Whither the teakettle whistle		Revisiting quantum effects in MEMS
Sunspots: Coming and Going		Asteroids should be colonized or used as transport to planets		Comet ISON, hype aside, is an intriguing cosmic visitor		Scientists find that Mars, not Earth, shakes up some near-Earth asteroids		Research uncovers secrets of Mars' birth from unique meteorite

Rediscovered Apollo data gives first measure of how fast Moon dust piles up

Big Boost for China's Moon Lander

Stunning meteorite sheds light on infant Mars

NASA Sees 'Watershed' Cosmic Blast in Unique Detail

Black hole birth captured by cosmic voyeurs

Debris from stellar explosions in the Galaxy's fast lane

MicroObservatory Catches Comet ISON

Quantum state world record smashed

High-energy physicists predict new family of four-quark objects

Comet ISON: What's Next?

Glassy Coating Keeps Viruses Happy In Harsh Environments

No peak in sight for evolving bacteria

MESSENGER Detects Comets ISON and Encke, Prepares For Closer Encounters

WISE Catalog Just Got Wiser

A question for Jupiter

Young stars paint spectacular stellar landscape

Astronomers reveal contents of mysterious black hole jets

Surprising Image Provides New Tool for Studying a Galaxy

Hubble views an old and mysterious cluster

New study shows atomic punch from black holes

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