The Sky Tonight

May 09, 2014

Why a bacterium got its curve
Princeton NJ (SPX) May 09, 2014
Drawing from his engineering background, Princeton University researcher Alexandre Persat had a notion as to why the bacteria Caulobacter crescentus are curved - a hunch that now could lead to a new way of studying the evolution of bacteria, according to research published in the journal Nature Communications. Commonly used in labs to study cell division, C. crescentus naturally take on a banana-like curve, but they also can undergo a mutation in which they grow to be perfectly straight. The probl ... read more

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Oxygen In Exoplanet Atmospheres Could Fool Search For Life Oxygen is a signal of life on our own planet, but that's not necessarily the case elsewhere. Particularly when it comes to young planets, signs of oxygen do not necessarily indicate the presence of ... more		NASA Telescopes Coordinate Best-Ever Flare Observations On March 29, 2014, an X-class flare erupted from the right side of the sun... and vaulted into history as the best-observed flare of all time. The flare was witnessed by four different NASA spacecra ... more		NASA Simulator Recreates Space Dust A team of scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., has successfully reproduced, right here on Earth, the processes that occur in the atmosphere of a red giant star and lea ... more
				Astronomers Create First Realistic Virtual Universe Move over, Matrix - astronomers have done you one better. They have created the first realistic virtual universe using a computer simulation called "Illustris." Illustris can recreate 13 billion yea ... more		A stellar explosion on the outer reaches of the Universe provides clues about black hole formation On 24 October 2012 observatories across the world were alerted about a huge stellar explosion, the GRB121024A, which had been located just hours before in the Eridanus constellation by NASA's Swift ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Nearest bright 'hypervelocity star' found A University of Utah-led team discovered a "hypervelocity star" that is the closest, second-brightest and among the largest of 20 found so far. Speeding at more than 1 million mph, the star may prov ... more		Hubble astronomers check the prescription of a cosmic lens Two teams of astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered three distant exploding stars that have been magnified by the immense gravity of foreground galaxy clusters, which ... more		EU leaders plot defence boost in shadow of Denmark drones Germany wants to allow military to shoot down drones Leaked info: China's Taiwan invasion plans get help from Russia		A New Meteor Shower in May? The head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, Dr. Bill Cooke, often lets cameras do his sky watching for him. He and his colleagues operate a nationwide network of automated fireball observatorie ... more
				Neutron star magnetic fields: not so turbulent Neutron stars, the extraordinarily dense stellar bodies created when massive stars collapse, are known to host the strongest magnetic fields in the universe - as much as a billion times more powerf ... more		Planck Takes Magnetic Fingerprint of Our Galaxy A new image from the Planck space telescope reveals the magnetic field lines of our Milky Way galaxy. The fingerprint-like map allows astronomers to study the structure of the magnetic field and bet ... more

UAV Payloads 2014, 24 - 25 June - London, UK

International Conference on Protection of Materials and Structures From Space Environment

Startup in the Land of the Rising Sun; A Japanese Solar Venture - by Bradley L. Bartz

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Galaxy's biggest telescope used to make precise measurement of spinning star An international team of astronomers has made a measurement of a distant neutron star that is one million times more precise than the previous world's best. The researchers were able to use th ... more		Saturn returns to evening sky this weekend This weekend, Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, will be the closest it will be to Earth this year as it goes into opposition with the sun. Opposition occurs when the sun, Earth and Saturn are directly aligned, with Earth in the middle. ... more		Philippines quake kills dozens as injured overwhelm hospitals Typhoon Bualoi inflicts death, lasting floods on Vietnam Moldova backs EU in elections marred by Russian interference		Approaching the island of stability: Observation of the superheavy element 117 The periodic table of the elements is to get crowded towards its heaviest members. Evidence for the artificial creation of element 117 has recently been obtained at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heav ... more
				Undersea warfare: Viruses hijack deep-sea bacteria at hydrothermal vents More than a mile beneath the ocean's surface, as dark clouds of mineral-rich water billow from seafloor hot springs called hydrothermal vents, unseen armies of viruses and bacteria wage war. L ... more		HP steps up in cloud with $1 bn investment US computer giant Hewlett Packard unveiled an expanded offering of Internet "cloud" services on Wednesday, pledging to invest $1 billion over the next two years. ... more

Dwarf planet 'Biden' identified in an unlikely region of our solar system

Planet X myth debunked

WISE Finds Thousands Of New Stars But No Planet X

Oxygen In Exoplanet Atmospheres Could Fool Search For Life

Why a bacterium got its curve

Undersea warfare: Viruses hijack deep-sea bacteria at hydrothermal vents

Length of Exoplanet Day Measured for First Time

Spitzer and WISE Telescopes Find Close, Cold Neighbor of Sun

Alien planet's rotation speed clocked for first time

Reset and Recovery for Opportunity

NASA's Curiosity Rover Drills Sandstone Slab on Mars

Mars mission scientist Colin Pillinger dies

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Worlds most powerful centrifuge begins operations in China

Physicists tighten the net on elusive dark matter

SATNUS completes third NGWS flight campaign with autonomous systems integration

Carrington-class CME Narrowly Misses Earth		NASA Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket successfully launched		Say hello to our new close - but cold - neighbour in space		Astrobotic Partners With NASA To Develop Robotic Lunar Landing Capability		Physicist demonstrates dictionary definition was dodgy
A new key to unlocking the mysteries of physics? Quantum turbulence		Economics = MC2 A portrait of the modern physics startup		Less than a year from its Ceres rendezvous		Halley's Comet-linked meteor shower to peak Tuesday morning		Big data poses great challenges and opportunities for databases

A 'wimpy' dwarf fossil galaxy reveals new facts about early universe

Hubble astronomers check the prescription of a cosmic lens

Entire Star Cluster Thrown Out of its Galaxy

Shockwave findings set to rewrite scientific theories

Length of Exoplanet Day Measured for First Time

Ganymede May Harbor 'Club Sandwich' of Oceans and Ice

Astronomers observe corkscrew nature of light from a distant black hole

Ship of Dreams

Search for life on exoplanets more difficult than thought

Coming soon: a brain implant to restore memory

Well-behaved, Young Galaxy Surprises Astronomers

Spitzer and WISE Telescopes Find Close, Cold Neighbor of Sun

Proving uncertainty: New insight into old problem

NASA Seeks External Concepts for Mission to Oceanic Jovian Moon

Alien planet's rotation speed clocked for first time

Star Is Discovered To Be a Close Neighbor of the Sun and the Coldest of Its Kind

Space terrorism, floating debris pose threats to US

Astronomical Forensics Uncover Planetary Disks in NASA's Hubble Archive

Asteroids as Seen From Mars; A Curiosity Rover First

Seven Samples from the Solar System's Birth

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