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December 06, 2013

Astronomers find strange planet orbiting where there shouldn't be one
Phoenix (UPI) Dec 5, 2013
A team of astronomers led by a U.S. graduate student has discovered a planet that shouldn't be where it is, raising questions about how planetary systems form. The giant planet orbiting its star at 650 times the average Earth-sun distance if the most distantly orbiting planet found to date around a single, sun-like star, a University of Arizona release said Thursday. More than 10 times the mass of Jupiter, the planet HD 106906 b is unlike anything in our own Solar System and throws a wre ... read more

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Odds of alien life 'very high,' House panel hears The likelihood of life on other planets is "very high," a planetary scientist told a House committee in a hearing some Democrats chided as evading U.S. issues. ... more		Controllers prepare for spacecraft's rendezvous with protoplanet Ceres NASA scientists say they've finalized flight plans for the Dawn spacecraft when it arrives at the dwarf planet Ceres in late March 2015. ... more		Earth's gravity scarred by earthquake ESA's GOCE satellite has revealed that the devastating Japanese earthquake of 2011 left its mark in Earth's gravity - yet another example of this extraordinary mission surpassing its original scope. ... more
				Cassini Spacecraft Obtains Best Views of Saturn Hexagon NASA's Cassini spacecraft has obtained the highest-resolution movie yet of a unique six-sided jet stream, known as the hexagon, around Saturn's north pole. This is the first hexagon movie of i ... more		Quietly Cruising Through The Asteroid Belt Gliding smoothly through the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Dawn continues to make good progress on its ambitious mission of exploration. It is patiently but persistently pursuing Cere ... more

'Spooky action' builds a wormhole between 'entangled' particles Quantum entanglement, a perplexing phenomenon of quantum mechanics that Albert Einstein once referred to as "spooky action at a distance," could be even spookier than Einstein perceived. Physicists ... more		China's most moon-like place The desert of fine, soft sand ripples with low dunes and not a plant is in sight. Simmering under a ceaseless noonday sun, the Kumtag desert descends through chill to extreme frigidity as night fall ... 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?		NASA's Dawn Fills out its Ceres Dance Card It's going to be a ball when NASA's Dawn spacecraft finally arrives at the dwarf planet Ceres, and mission managers have now inked in the schedule on Dawn's dance card. Dawn has been cruising toward ... more
				LADEE Instruments Healthy and Ready for Science Now in orbit around the moon, NASA's newest lunar mission has completed the commissioning phase, and its science instruments have passed their preliminary checks. The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust ... more		Hubble Traces Subtle Signals of Water on Hazy Worlds Using the powerful� eye of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, two teams of scientists have found faint signatures of water in the atmospheres of five distant planets. The presence of atmospheric water w ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

International Conference on Protection of Materials and Structures From Space Environment

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

A Blast from Its Past Dates the Youngest Neutron-Star Binary X-rays streaming toward Earth from the region near a neutron star that is cannibalizing its companion star have revealed the pair to be the youngest "X-ray binary" yet known. The discovery by a team ... more		Model Suggests Ocean Currents Shape Europa's Icy Shell in Ways Critical for Potential Habitats In a finding of relevance to the search for life in our solar system, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Max Pl ... 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		Astronomers detect water in atmosphere of distant exoplanets Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope say they've found faint signatures of water in the atmospheres of five distant planets. ... more
				Comet ISON is confirmed dead after brush with Sun A comet that grabbed attention worldwide for being likened to a massive snowball in space did not survive its brush with the Sun last week, NASA confirmed on Tuesday. ... more		The Bright Vortex Off Saturn Way The sunlit edge of Titan's south polar vortex stands out distinctly against the darkness of the moon's unilluminated hazy atmosphere. The Cassini spacecraft images of the vortex led scientists to co ... 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

Odds of alien life 'very high,' House panel hears

December Expedition to Explore Life in Hydrothermal Vent

Glassy Coating Keeps Viruses Happy In Harsh Environments

Astronomers find strange planet orbiting where there shouldn't be one

Hubble Traces Subtle Signals of Water on Hazy Worlds

The State of Super Earths

MAVEN Performs First Trajectory Correction Maneuver

Opportunity Rover Robotic Arm Within Reach of Rock Outcrop

Deep Space Perils For Indian Spacecraft

	Telescope to track space junk using youth radio station A combination of pop songs, talkback radio and cutting-edge science has enabled Australian astronomers to identify a way to prevent catastrophic, multi-billion dollar space junk collisions, a new st ... more		A fiery drama of star birth and death Located only about 160 000 light-years from us in the constellation of Dorado (The Swordfish), the Large Magellanic Cloud is one of our closest galactic neighbours. It is actively forming new stars ... more		The mystery of neutron stars heats up Until now, scientists were pretty sure they knew how the surface of a neutron star - a super dense star that forms when a large star explodes and its core collapses into itself - can heat itself up. ... more		Zero Gravity Corporation Completes Microgravity Research Mission Zero Gravity Corporationhas successfully completed the latest ZERO-G Weightless Lab microgravity research flight. On November 17, ZERO-G clients tested equipment for future suborbital missions, stud ... 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

Fast, Furious, Refined: Smaller Black Holes Can Eat Plenty		The State of Super Earths		Uncovering hidden structures in massive data collections		Image of sun shows two areas of sunspots, one arriving and one leaving		December Expedition to Explore Life in Hydrothermal Vent
No qualms about quantum theory		China launches first moon rover mission		NASA Investigating the Life of Comet ISON		Physicists find a way to study coldest objects in the universe		Figures of Eight and Peanut Shells at the Galactic Center

Flashes of brilliance

Google steps up its battle for Internet 'cloud'

Comet ISON probably did not survive Sun skirmish

Helping China To The Moon

Rock Comet Sprouts a Tail

Japanese firm describes proposed 'power belt' for the moon

Comet ISON vanishes as it circles the sun

Countdown to the galactic census

Mach 1000 shock wave lights supernova remnant

Our Galaxy takes its food in pills

Comet ISON vs. the Solar Storm

Amidst and Beyond the Rings

Black hole jets pack a powerful punch

Calm solar cycle prompts questions about impact on Earth

Smartphone app can help track, identify meteors falling to Earth

Search for habitable planets should be more conservative

Spotlight on China's Moon Rover

Will comet ISON survive its near brush with the Sun?

Do Black Holes Come in Size Medium?

Scientists Seek Other Scientists for Cosmology Problem

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