The Sky Tonight

July 29, 2014

Alien Atmospheres - Methane, CFCs and other signs of smart ETs
Moffet Field CA (NASA) Jul 29, 2014
Sometimes we get lucky: an exoplanet many light-years away passes in front of its star at the perfect angle. This transit allows us to read certain features of that planet's atmosphere. The resulting spectra - lines made by molecules like oxygen and methane - allow us a peek into that planet's chemical anatomy. Certain features of those atmospheres make it more likely that something, or someone, inside is breathing. In the last few months, we've found even better ways of looking for these signs of ... read more

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Bepicolombo Integration Testing Completed At Thales Integration and functional testing activities for the protoflight models of the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter, Mercury Transfer Module, and Magnetospheric Orbiter Sunshield and Interface Str ... more		Hubble Finds Three Surprisingly Dry Exoplanets Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the sun - and have come up nearly dry. The thre ... more		Mysterious black holes may be exploding into 'white holes' A new scientific theory suggests that when black holes reach the end of their lifespan, they explode into "white holes" and release all of their matter into space. If true, the theory could help put ... more
				Measuring Gravitational Waves with eLISA Puffs of smoke waft from a circuit board as interns solder tiny circuits for the Evolved Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. "We're looking for evidence of black holes," Robert Buttles said. " ... more		A New Approach to SETI: Targeting Alien Polluters Humanity is on the threshold of being able to detect signs of alien life on other worlds. By studying exoplanet atmospheres, we can look for gases like oxygen and methane that only coexist if replen ... more

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Biomarkers of the Deep Tucked away in the southwest corner of Spain is a unique geological site that has fascinated astrobiologists for decades. The Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) in Spain's Rio Tinto area is the largest known ... more		New mass map of a distant galaxy cluster is the most precise yet Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have mapped the mass within a galaxy cluster more precisely than ever before. Created using observations from Hubble's Frontier Fields observing ... more		Sidekick autonomy software guides YFQ-42A test mission for CCA program Infleqtion lists shares on NYSE as neutral atom quantum firm Top Chinese gaming companies continue to challenge		Astronomers come up dry in search for water on exoplanets A team of astronomers has made the most precise measurements yet of water vapour in the atmospheres of Jupiter-like planets beyond our Solar System and found them to be much drier worlds than expect ... more
				Hubble Finds Three Surprisingly Dry Exoplanets Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the sun - and have come up nearly dry. The thre ... more		Surface impressions of Rosetta's comet Surface structures are becoming visible in new images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken by the scientific imaging system OSIRIS onboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft. The res ... more

Boosting the Force of Empty Space Vacuum fluctuations may be among the most counter-intuitive phenomena of quantum physics. Theorists from the Weizmann Institute (Rehovot, Israel) and the Vienna University of Technology propose a wa ... more		The Most Precise Measurement of an Alien World's Size Thanks to NASA's Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes, scientists have made the most precise measurement ever of the radius of a planet outside our solar system. The size of the exoplanet, dubbed Kep ... more		Solar-driven ionosphere charges may nudge stressed faults toward rupture Stable black carbon in mangrove soils boosts coastal climate role Low crystallinity iron minerals show promise for chromium cleanup and carbon storage		Australian researchers pioneer a Google street view of galaxies A new home-grown instrument based on bundles of optical fibres is giving Australian astronomers the first 'Google street view' of the cosmos - incredibly detailed views of huge numbers of galaxies. ... more
Lives and Deaths of Sibling Stars In this striking new image from ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile young stars huddle together against a backdrop of clouds of glowing gas and lanes of dust. The star cluster, known as NGC 3293, wo ... more		MIPT-based researcher models Titan's atmosphere A researcher from MIPT, Prof. Vladimir Krasnopolsky, who heads the Laboratory of High Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy of Planetary Atmospheres, has published the results of the comparison of his mo ... more		Mysterious dance of dwarfs may force a cosmic rethink The discovery that many small galaxies throughout the universe do not 'swarm' around larger ones like bees do but 'dance' in orderly disc-shaped orbits is a challenge to our understanding of how the ... more		Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012 If an asteroid big enough to knock modern civilization back to the 18th century appeared out of deep space and buzzed the Earth-Moon system, the near-miss would be instant worldwide Near Miss: The S ... more

	NEOWISE Spots a Comet That Looked Like an Asteroid Comet C/2013 UQ4 (Catalina) has been observed by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft just one day after passing through its closest approach to the sun. ... more		Measuring the Smallest Magnets Imagine trying to measure a tennis ball that bounces wildly, every time to a distance a million times its own size. The bouncing obviously creates enormous "background noise" that interferes with th ... more

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