The Sky Tonight

January 17, 2014

Comet-chasing probe to be roused from sleep
Paris (AFP) Jan 16, 2014
One of the most ambitious missions in the history of space goes into high-risk mode on Monday when Europe rouses a comet-chasing probe from years of hibernation. "The most important alarm clock in the Solar System" will end the scout Rosetta's long slumber, gearing it for a historic rendezvous in deep space, the European Space Agency says. Launched almost a decade ago, Rosetta is a billion-dollar bet to prise open the secrets of comets. Clusters of ice and dust - which explains their nickna ... read more

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Boeing Space Surveillance System Reduces Risk of Satellite Loss by 66 Percent Boeing Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) system has helped the U.S. Air Force cut the danger of satellites being lost by two-thirds in the past year by detecting potential threats more quickly a ... more		Searching for life in strange places Last year schoolchildren were invited to dig up some earth in search of creepy-crawlies and underground life. Astronauts taking part in ESA's underground training course CAVES joined the worldwide e ... more		The Star That Should Not Exist A team of European astronomers has used ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to track down a star in the Milky Way that many thought was impossible. They discovered that this star is composed almost ent ... more
				Japan scientists test tether to clear up space junk Japanese space scientists are set to trial a tether they hope will help pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up tonnes of planetary clutter, they said Thursday. ... more		Weighing particles at the attogram scale MIT engineers have devised a way to measure the mass of particles with a resolution better than an attogram - one millionth of a trillionth of a gram. Weighing these tiny particles, including both s ... more

Viewing macro behaviors of ultra-cold quantum gases through the micro-world Understanding collective behavior of ultra-cold quantum gases is of great interest since it is intimately related to many encountered systems in nature such as human behavior, swarms of birds, traff ... more		Penn research helps lay out theory for metamaterials that act as an analog computer The field of metamaterials has produced structures with unprecedented abilities, including flat lenses, invisibility cloaks and even optical "metatronic" devices that can manipulate light in the way ... 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?		Big data: A method for obtaining large, phylogenomic data sets Traditional molecular systematic studies have progressed by sequencing genes one by one, a time- and cost-intensive task that has limited the amount of data a researcher could feasibly obtain. With ... more
				NASA warns of 'potentially hazardous' asteroid A new, "potentially hazardous" asteroid has been discovered by one of NASA's recently reactivated spacecraft - and it's headed in Earth's direction. The new asteroid, called 2013 YP139, was spotted ... more		ISEF-riding an asteroid to the future On Thursday, Washington, D.C. hosted the first ever ministerial-level meeting of space-faring countries. High-ranking officials from more than thirty nations came to the U.S. capital to attend ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

International Conference on Protection of Materials and Structures From Space Environment

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Field Museum in Chicago unveils 'oddball' green meteorite The Field Museum in Chicago has unveiled an "oddball" cosmic find - a green meteorite it says was discovered in southern Morocco two years ago. ... more		Quantum physics could make secure, single-use computer memories possible Computer security systems may one day get a boost from quantum physics, as a result of recent research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Computer scientist Yi-Kai Liu h ... 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		Potential Future Data Storage at Domain Boundaries Storing more and more in an ever-smaller space - what sounds impossible is in fact just part of the daily routine in information technology, where for decades, increasing amounts of data have been s ... more
				Internet Radio Provides Musical Space-Weather Reports from NASA's LRO Mission The latest tool for checking space weather is an internet radio station fed by data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. The radio station essentially operates in real time, receiving m ... more		Moon rover, lander wake after lunar night China's moon rover "Yutu" (Jade Rabbit) and the Chang'e-3 lander have just "woken up" after a period of dormancy that lasted two weeks, or one lunar night, in a move designed to ride out harsh clima ... more

Countdown to Pluto

A Busy Year Begins for New Horizons

The Sounds of New Horizons

Searching for life in strange places

Does a Planet Need Life to Create Continents?

Oil and metal munching microbes dominate deep sandstone formations

NASA's Kepler Provides Insights on Enigmatic Planets

Powerful Planet Finder Turns Its Eye to the Sky

New kind of planet or failed star? Astrophysicists discover category-defying celestial object

Ten-Years Roving About On Mars

Mars Orbiter Images Rover and Tracks in Gale Crater

Who Wants to Go to Mars - One Way?

	Hubble Views Stellar Genesis in the Southern Pinwheel A photogenic and favorite target for amateur astronomers, the full beauty of nearby barred spiral galaxy M83 is unveiled in all of its glory in this Hubble Space Telescope mosaic image. The vibrant ... more		Hubble Probes Interior of Tarantula Nebula Like lifting a giant veil, the near-infrared vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope uncovers a dazzling new view deep inside the Tarantula Nebula. Hubble reveals a glittering treasure trove of more ... more		Death By Black Hole In Small Galaxy? A bright, long duration flare may be the first recorded event of a black hole destroying a star in a dwarf galaxy. The evidence comes from two independent studies using data from NASA's Chandra X-ra ... more		NASA's Swift Catches X-ray Action at Milky Way's Center Recent observations by NASA's Swift spacecraft have provided scientists a unique glimpse into the activity at the center of our galaxy and led to the discovery of a rare celestial entity that may he ... 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

NASA's Spitzer Probes Weather on Brown Dwarfs		India to launch second mission to moon by 2017		Hubble Sees a Star Set to Explode		With instruments in space and on earth, NJIT solar experts monitor the massive solar storm		Quasars illuminate swiftly swirling clouds around galaxies
Hubble Images Become Tactile 3D Experience for the Blind		Dead Star and Distant Black Holes Dazzle in X-Rays		Powerful Planet Finder Turns Its Eye to the Sky		SF State astronomers discover new planet in Pisces constellation		NASA's SDO Sees Giant January Sunspots

Recently Reactivated NASA Spacecraft Spots Its First New Asteroid

Surprising new class of 'hypervelocity stars' discovered escaping the galaxy

New kind of planet or failed star? Astrophysicists discover category-defying celestial object

NASA's Kepler Provides Insights on Enigmatic Planets

Habitable zones around stars ten times wider than we thought

U of Maryland undergraduates discover rare eclipsing double asteroid

Research: Smaller exoplanets found to be covered in gas

Newly discovered three-star system to challenge Einstein's theory of General Relativity

ALMA Spots Supernova Dust Factory

NASA: Planet-size storms may be roiling surface of brown dwarf stars

U.S. undergraduates impress astronomers with asteroid discovery

Planet-hunting telescope camera returns first images of exoplanets

Supernova's super dust factory imaged with ALMA

NASA Kepler Provides Insight About Enigmatic But Ubiquitous Planets, Five New Rocky Planets

Wake Up Yutu

Supernova remnant yields evidence of source of dusty galaxies

Earth appears to be an oddity, astronomers say

Does a Planet Need Life to Create Continents?

NASA's Fermi Makes First Gamma-ray Study of a Gravitational Lens

Newfound planet is Earth-mass but gassy

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