The Sky Tonight

July 21, 2014

NASA Mission To Reap Bonanza of Earth-sized Planets
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jul 21, 2014
Set to launch in 2017, NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will monitor more than half a million stars over its two-year mission, with a focus on the smallest, brightest stellar objects. During its observations, TESS is expected to find more than 3,000 new planets outside of our solar system, most of which will be possible for ground-based telescopes to observe."Bright host stars are the best ones for follow-up studies of their exoplanets to pin down planet masses, and to character ... read more

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Manned mission to Moon scheduled by Roscosmos for 2020-2031 Russia is planning a manned mission to the Moon in 2030-2031, Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) First Deputy Head Alexander Ivanov said on Monday, July 14, reports TASS. "In our program this (m ... more		NASA Seeks Proposals for Europa Mission Science Instruments NASA has issued an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for proposals about science instruments that could be carried aboard a future mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. Selected instruments could address ... more		Looking Back at the Jupiter Crash 20 Years Later Twenty years ago, human and robotic eyes observed the first recorded impact between cosmic bodies in the solar system, as fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into the atmosphere of Jupiter. ... more
				Space Systems/Loral conducting technology studies for NASA Space Systems/Loral reports it has been chosen by NASA to study system concepts and technologies for the NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission. ... more		Brown Dwarfs May Wreak Havoc on Orbits of Nearby Planets Planets that move around their stars in circular orbits are a better bet for life than those in elongated orbits when it comes to creating habitable climate conditions, according to a new study.That ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

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Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Dash cam captures meteor streaking across North Carolina sky A barrage of meteors splashed across the night sky late Thursday along the Eastern Seaboard, and one meteor burned particularly bright as it disintegrated in the Earth's atmosphere. ... more		Computing Paths to Asteroids Helps Find Future Exploration Opportunities As left over building blocks of the solar system's formation, asteroids are of significant interest to scientists. Resources, especially water, embedded within asteroids could be of use to astronaut ... more		Sierra Space clears design milestone for missile tracking satellites in SDA Tranche 2 State Department sanctions North Koreans for role in arms sales Seoul official hints at US-North Korea meeting this year		Asteroid Vesta to reshape theories of planet formation EPFL researchers have a better understanding of the asteroid Vesta and its internal structure, thanks to numerical simulations and data from the space mission Dawn. Their findings, published in Natu ... more
				Probe is headed for duck-shaped comet, images show New images reveal that the deep-space comet on which mankind plans to land a probe later this year, has an "extraordinarily irregular", duck-like shape, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Thursday. ... more		Twin comets discovered by ESA space probe Rosetta The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe has been gearing up to attempt a comet landing. Recently, the craft discovered something surprising about its intended target, Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ... more

Diving for pearls with the Hubble Space Telescope Stars forming like a string of blue pearls along two elliptical galaxies could be the result of a galactic merger, according to an international team of astronomers. The structure could reveal rare ... more		Small, faint but plentiful galaxies illuminated the early universe Light from tiny galaxies over 13 billion years ago played a larger role than previously thought in creating the conditions in the universe as we know it today, a new study has found. Ultraviolet (UV ... more		The first animals on Earth may have been sea sponges, study suggests Swiss glaciers shrank by a quarter in past decade: study South Asia monsoon: climate change's dangerous impact on lifeline rains		Sun-like Stars Reveal Their Ages Defining what makes a star "Sun-like" is as difficult as defining what makes a planet "Earth-like." A solar twin should have a temperature, mass, and spectral type similar to our Sun. We also would ... more
It's go time for LUX-Zeplin dark matter experiment From the physics labs at Yale University to the bottom of a played-out gold mine in South Dakota, a new generation of dark matter experiments is ready to commence. The U.S. Department of Energ ... more		No-wait data centers Big websites usually maintain their own "data centers," banks of tens or even hundreds of thousands of servers, all passing data back and forth to field users' requests. Like any big, decentralized ... more		Friction from Tides Could Help Distant Earths Survive, and Thrive As anybody who has started a campfire by rubbing sticks knows, friction generates heat. Now, computer modeling by NASA scientists shows that friction could be the key to survival for some distant Ea ... more		NASA says it's close to finding alien life, Earth's twin At a panel discussion on the search for alien life, held this week at NASA's headquarters in Washington, the agency's top scientists said they're getting close. ... more

	Sky-gazers can expect one 'Supermoon' per month for the next three months Weather permitting, watchers of the night sky will be set aglow by a Supermoon this evening. A Supermoon is the same, regular moon, only it appears up to three-times bigger than normal. ... more		Out of An Hours-long Explosion, A Stand-In For The First Stars Astronomers analyzing a long-lasting blast of high-energy light observed in 2013 report finding features strikingly similar to those expected from an explosion from the universe's earliest stars. If ... more

Worlds most powerful centrifuge begins operations in China

Breakthrough in UAV swarm intelligence as SRI redefines topology mapping

China factory activity shrinks in September for sixth straight month

Landsat Looks to the Moon		Hubble Spots Spiral Bridge of Young Stars Linking Two Ancient Galaxies		Merging galaxies and droplets of starbirth		Ferromagnetism at 230 K found in diluted magnetic semiconductor		Astronomers Bring The Third Dimension To A Doomed Star's Outburst
Newfound Frozen World Orbits in Binary Star System		Cosmic grains of dust formed in supernova explosion		Supermassive black hole blows molecular gas out of galaxy		VLT clears up dusty mystery		Perspective of the PandaX dark matter experiment

Carbon monoxide predicts 'red and dead' future of gas guzzler galaxy

Messenger and Stereo Open New Window Into Solar Processes

Speeding up data storage by a thousand times with 'spin current'

Models suggest stretching forces shaped Ganymede's surface

When Life Went Global

Sun Sends More 'Tsunami Waves' to Voyager 1

A hotspot for powerful cosmic rays

Burning down to Rosetta comet rendezvous

Deep in the main asteroid belt

Cosmic accounting reveals missing light crisis

Planet Mercury a result of early hit-and-run collisions

Reigning in chaos in particle colliders yields big results

Reinterpreting dark matter

Athena to study the hot and energetic Universe

Puffing Sun Gives Birth To Reluctant Eruption

Ultra-cold atom transport made simple

The quantum dance of oxygen

NASA's IRIS Solar Observatory After 1 Year in Space

A young star's age can be gleamed from nothing but sound waves

Young sun's violent history solves meteorite mystery

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