The Sky Tonight

December 16, 2013

Think you know what alien life may look like? Be careful!
Washington DC (UPI) Dec 16, 2013
The search for planets outside our solar system has been much in the news for the past couple of years, with most of the attention, and questions, focused on "habitable" planets - do they exist, and if so are at least some in fact harboring life? And the biggest question of all: What might that life look like? While scientists might argue over what would make a distant exoplanet habitable - and they do - one inviolate requirement on which most have agreed is the necessity of liquid wa ... read more

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Mining the moon is pie in the sky for China: experts China's moon rover will survey for minerals on a dusty, barren crater named the Bay of Rainbows, but experts say there may be no pot of gold on the Earth's natural satellite. ... more		Rare meteorite sat unnoticed in private Dutch collection for 140 years A rare meteorite formed soon after the origin of the solar system has sat unnoticed for more than a century in a private Dutch collection, scientists say. ... more		Collapse of the universe is closer than ever before Maybe it happens tomorrow. Maybe in a billion years. Physicists have long predicted that the universe may one day collapse, and that everything in it will be compressed to a small hard ball. New cal ... more
				Chinese flyby of asteroid shows space rock is "rubble" China's first flyby of an asteroid shows that a gigantic space rock which once triggered a doomsday scare is essentially rubble, scientists reported on Thursday. ... more		Hubble discovers water vapour venting from Jupiter's moon Europa The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has discovered water vapour erupting from the frigid surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, in one or more localised plumes near its south pole. Europa is alread ... more

Facebook seeks to get smarter with big data Facebook is working to become your new best friend, getting to know you better by infusing the billion-member social network's software with artificial intelligence. ... more		Google opens first data centres in Asia US search engine giant Google Wednesday opened its first data centres in Asia to cater for soaring demand, and said it would double its planned investment in the Taiwan facility to $600 million. ... 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?		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
				MESSENGER Celebrates 1,000 Earth Days in Orbit around Mercury Later today, the MESSENGER spacecraft will have completed 1,000 Earth days of flight operations in orbit around Mercury. "This milestone is a testament to the outstanding work of those who designed, ... more		Countdown Begins for NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Mission NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission began its countdown on December 9, at 7:43 PM EST, with 999 days remaining until the opening of the mission's launch window in September 2016. ... more

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CU-Boulder scientist: 2012 solar storm points up need for society to prepare A massive ejection of material from the sun initially traveling at over 7 million miles per hour that narrowly missed Earth last year is an event solar scientists hope will open the eyes of policyma ... more		Noble gas molecule discovered in space A molecule containing a noble gas has been discovered in space by a team including astronomers from Cardiff University. The find was made using a Cardiff-led instrument aboard Europe's Hersche ... 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		Hard rock life Scientists are digging deep into the Earth's surface collecting census data on the microbial denizens of the hardened rocks. What they're finding is that, even miles deep and halfway across the glob ... more
				Fire vs. Ice: The Science of ISON at Perihelion After a year of observations, scientists waited with bated breath on Nov. 28, 2013, as Comet ISON made its closest approach to the sun, known as perihelion. Would the comet disintegrate in the fierc ... more		Scientist: Near-miss solar storm should be a wake-up call A massive solar storm that narrowly missed Earth last year should open the eyes of policymakers to the threat of severe space weather, a U.S. scientist says. ... more

The Sounds of New Horizons

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

Think you know what alien life may look like? Be careful!

Hard rock life

'Goldilocks' clue to habitable planets

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Astronomers discover planet that shouldn't be there

Hot Jupiters Highlight Challenges in the Search for Life Beyond Earth

NASA poised to launch Mars atmosphere probe

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Mars One Selects Lockheed Martin to Study First Private Unmanned Mission to Mars

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India plans mega-dam to counter China water fears

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Minerals in giant impact crater may be clues to moon's makeup, origin		Meteor rattles houses, brightens sky over Tucson		'Wake up' competition for Europe's sleepy comet-chaser		'Goldilocks' clue to habitable planets		Wake up, Rosetta!
Astronomers discover planet that shouldn't be there		You can't get entangled without a wormhole		Neutron Stars' X-ray Superbursts Mystify, Inspire Los Alamos Scientists		Explosive growth of young star		Supernova Blast Provides Clues to Age of Binary Star System

Quantum effects help cells capture light, but the details are obscure

SST Australia: Signed, Sealed and Ready for Delivery

Silent Orbit for China's Moon Lander

Hot Jupiters Highlight Challenges in the Search for Life Beyond Earth

Fledgling supernova remnant reveals neutron star's secrets

Subaru Telescope's Image Captures the Intricacy of Comet Lovejoy's Tail

The Sun's Magnetic Field is about to Flip

New comet gets astronomers' attention with intricate tail structure

Early Universe less dusty than thought

A Whirling Dervish puts physicists in a spin

Quietly Cruising Through The Asteroid Belt

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

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

Controllers prepare for spacecraft's rendezvous with protoplanet Ceres

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Cassini Spacecraft Obtains Best Views of Saturn Hexagon

Cloud firm Box raises $100 mn

Astronomers detect water in atmosphere of distant exoplanets

'Spooky action' builds a wormhole between 'entangled' particles

China's most moon-like place

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