The Sky Tonight

December 20, 2013

Will the Moon be carved-up?
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Dec 20, 2013
Experts forecast that the Moon will become sort of the seventh continent of Earth by the middle of the 21st century. People will reclaim the polar regions and build residential areas there. In this context it may happen that many countries' interests will clash on the Moon. Part of the scientific community draws a parallel between the Arctic shelf and the Moon, believing that competitive struggle is likely to start in both places. Many countries will be eager to get hold of the polar regions of th ... read more

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Liftoff for ESA's billion-star surveyor ESA's Gaia mission blasted off this morning on a Soyuz rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its exciting mission to study a billion suns. Gaia is destined to create the ... more		NASA's Asteroid Hunter Spacecraft Returns First Images after Reactivation NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), a spacecraft that made the most comprehensive survey to date of asteroids and comets, has returned its first set of test image ... more		Most Chang'e-3 science tools activated Six out of the eight pieces of scientific equipment deployed to the moon with the Chang'e-3 lunar mission have been activated by scientists and are functioning properly, according to scientists work ... more
				Dawn Creates Guide to Vesta's Hidden Attractions Some beauty is revealed only at a second glance. When viewed with the human eye, the giant asteroid Vesta, which was the object of scrutiny by the Dawn spacecraft from 2011 to 2012, is quite unspect ... more		Leaner Fourier transforms The fast Fourier transform, one of the most important algorithms of the 20th century, revolutionized signal processing. The algorithm allowed computers to quickly perform Fourier transforms - fundam ... more

What happens to ISON's remains? Apologies for going quiet on this site - it takes a while to recover from events like this! I have actually started several blog posts and then never gotten chance to finish them. That will happen e ... more		Gaia Mission Could Help Map Exoplanets The Kepler mission from NASA has discovered more than 3,600 possible worlds, a haul greater than any mission before it. Now researchers suggest the Gaia spacecraft, scheduled for launch on December ... 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?		First detection of a predicted unseen exoplanet A team of European astronomers, including EXOEarths member Alexandre Santerne (Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto - CAUP), used the SOPHIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Prove ... more
				Oil and metal munching microbes dominate deep sandstone formations Halomonas are a hardy breed of bacteria. They can withstand heat, high salinity, low oxygen, utter darkness and pressures that would kill most other organisms. These traits enable these microbes to ... more		NASA creates 'rainbow' movie of the sun based on temperature NASA says a movie of the sun based on data from its Solar Dynamics Observatory shows its wide range of wavelengths invisible to the naked eye. ... more

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International Conference on Protection of Materials and Structures From Space Environment

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Supernovae hundreds of times brighter than normal observed U.S. astronomers say they've discovered two supernovas 10 billion light-years from Earth that are 100 times more luminous than a normal supernova. ... more		SMA Reveals Giant Star Cluster in the Making W49A might be one of the best-kept secrets in our galaxy. This star-forming region shines 100 times brighter than the Orion nebula, but is so obscured by dust that very little visible or infrared li ... 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		Astrium has finalised preparation of Gaia, the star mapper of the Milky Way Astrium, the world's second largest space company, has finalised its preparation of Gaia in Kourou, French Guiana. Europe's most advanced space telescope is scheduled for launch on 19 December aboar ... more
				Swift satellite catches 100,000 new cosmic X-ray sources An international team led from the University of Leicester has published a major list of celestial X-ray sources in the Astrophysical Journal. The result of many years work, this list of over 150,00 ... more		Ultrafast heating of water - This pot boils faster than you can watch it Scientists from the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science have devised a novel way to boil water in less than a trillionth of a second. The theoretical concept, which has not yet been demon ... 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

Oil and metal munching microbes dominate deep sandstone formations

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

Hard rock life

Gaia Mission Could Help Map Exoplanets

First detection of a predicted unseen exoplanet

Astronomers solve temperature mystery of planetary atmospheres

Opportunity Communications Remain Slow Due To Odyssey Issues

New Views of Mars from Sediment Mineralogy

NASA poised to launch Mars atmosphere probe

	Study: 'Missing' arms of our Milky Way galaxy are actually there A study of massive stars confirms our galaxy has four spiral arms, ending debate sparked by telescope images suggesting only two arms, British astronomers say. ... more		'Approximate' computers could do tasks not requiring exact answers Computers doing "approximate computing" for tasks not requiring perfect accuracy could double efficiency and reduce energy consumption, U.S. scientists say. ... more		Organics Preserved in Ancient Meteorite-Formed Glass Scientists have found organics from Earth's swamp trapped inside of glass created by a meteor impact almost a million years ago. The tiny pockets, only micrometers across, contain material such as c ... more		Swirls in remnants of Big Bang may hold clues to universe's infancy South Pole Telescope scientists have detected for the first time a subtle distortion in the oldest light in the universe, which may help reveal secrets about the earliest moments in the universe's f ... 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

Nearby failed stars may harbor planet		Juno slingshots past Earth on its way to Jupiter		Astronomers solve temperature mystery of planetary atmospheres		Fast Radio Bursts Might Come From Nearby Stars		Clay-Like Minerals Found on Icy Crust of Europa
Astronomers discover first noble gas molecules in space		Recipe for a Universe		China plans to launch Chang'e-5 in 2017		Innovative instrument probes close binary stars, may soon image exoplanets		China's Lunar Lander May Provide Additional Science for NASA Spacecraft

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

Mining the moon is pie in the sky for China: experts

Rare meteorite sat unnoticed in private Dutch collection for 140 years

Facebook seeks to get smarter with big data

Image of sun shows two areas of sunspots, one arriving and one leaving

MESSENGER Celebrates 1,000 Earth Days in Orbit around Mercury

Countdown Begins for NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Mission

CU-Boulder scientist: 2012 solar storm points up need for society to prepare

Noble gas molecule discovered in space

Hard rock life

Fire vs. Ice: The Science of ISON at Perihelion

Scientist: Near-miss solar storm should be a wake-up call

Feature of Earth's atmosphere may help in search for habitable planets

Collapse of the universe is closer than ever before

IRIS Provides Unprecedented Images of Sun

Hidden Details Revealed in Nearby Starburst Galaxy: Green Bank Telescope's new vision debuts

Chinese flyby of asteroid shows space rock is "rubble"

Hubble discovers water vapour venting from Jupiter's moon Europa

Ancient crater could hold clues about moon's mantle

Minerals in giant impact crater may be clues to moon's makeup, origin

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