The Sky Tonight

December 09, 2013

Silent Orbit for China's Moon Lander
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 09, 2013
China's first Moon lander is in a stable orbit around that world, awaiting the command to lower its orbit and eventually descend to the surface. Judging by what little we know, the Chang'e-3 spacecraft seems to be in a good state of health. It has successfully navigated its way from low Earth orbit though cislunar space and fired its main engine to brake into lunar orbit. These are major hurdles for the mission, and Chang'e-3 has passed them well. Given the apparent success of the mission, i ... read more

Previous Issues

Dec 06

Dec 05

Dec 04

Dec 03

Dec 02

SST Australia: Signed, Sealed and Ready for Delivery As satellites become more common, they face growing risk of colliding with space debris and even each other. The U.S. Department of Defense has thus made space situational awareness a top priority t ... more		Hot Jupiters Highlight Challenges in the Search for Life Beyond Earth This week, the Goddard Center for Astrobiology celebrated the confirmation of atmospheric water on five exoplanets. This discovery heralds a new era in planet hunting at the same time as it acknowle ... more		Subaru Telescope's Image Captures the Intricacy of Comet Lovejoy's Tail A team of astronomers from Stony Brook University (the State University of New York at Stony Brook), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), and others used Suprime-Cam, Subaru Telesc ... more
				The Sun's Magnetic Field is about to Flip Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip. "It looks like we're no more than thre ... more		Explosive growth of young star A star is formed when a large cloud of gas and dust condenses and eventually becomes so dense that it collapses into a ball of gas, where the pressure heats the matter, creating a glowing gas ball - ... more

Supernova Blast Provides Clues to Age of Binary Star System Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed faint remnants of a supernova explosion and helped researchers determine Circinus X-1 - an X-ray binary - is the youngest of this class of a ... more		Fledgling supernova remnant reveals neutron star's secrets With the help of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Australia Telescope Compact Array, an international team of astronomers has identified the glowing wreck of a star that exploded a mere 2,50 ... 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?		New comet gets astronomers' attention with intricate tail structure A telescope in Hawaii has captured images of the intricate tail of a comet named Lovejoy as it moves toward its closest approach to the sun, astronomers say. ... more
				A Whirling Dervish puts physicists in a spin A force that intricately links the rotation of the Earth with the direction of weather patterns in the atmosphere has been shown to play a crucial role in the creation of the hypnotic patterns creat ... more		Astronomers find strange planet orbiting where there shouldn't be one 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. ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

International Conference on Protection of Materials and Structures From Space Environment

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

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		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		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		Quantum effects help cells capture light, but the details are obscure Sophisticated recent experiments with ultrashort laser pulses support the idea that intuition-defying quantum interactions between molecules help plants, algae, and some bacteria efficiently gather ... 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

Hot Jupiters Highlight Challenges in the Search for Life Beyond Earth

Hubble Traces Subtle Signals of Water on Hazy Worlds

Martian Laser Surpasses 100,000 Zaps

Mangalyaan Reaches First Distance Milestone On Route To Mars

NASA poised to launch Mars atmosphere probe

	Cloud firm Box raises $100 mn Cloud storage startup Box, launched from a college dorm in 2005, has raised $100 million in new capital to help fund a global expansion. ... more		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		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		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

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

'Spooky action' builds a wormhole between 'entangled' particles		China's most moon-like place		NASA's Dawn Fills out its Ceres Dance Card		LADEE Instruments Healthy and Ready for Science		December Expedition to Explore Life in Hydrothermal Vent
Hubble Traces Subtle Signals of Water on Hazy Worlds		A Blast from Its Past Dates the Youngest Neutron-Star Binary		Model Suggests Ocean Currents Shape Europa's Icy Shell in Ways Critical for Potential Habitats		Comet ISON is confirmed dead after brush with Sun		The Bright Vortex Off Saturn Way

Telescope to track space junk using youth radio station

No qualms about quantum theory

A fiery drama of star birth and death

The mystery of neutron stars heats up

Zero Gravity Corporation Completes Microgravity Research Mission

Fast, Furious, Refined: Smaller Black Holes Can Eat Plenty

Uncovering hidden structures in massive data collections

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

The State of Super Earths

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

Free Newsletters - Space - Defense - Environment - Energy

Buy Advertising

Media Advertising Kit

Editorial & Other Enquiries

Privacy statement

The contents herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy statement