The Sky Tonight

October 12, 2014

NASA Prepares its Science Fleet for Oct. 19 Mars Comet Encounter
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 11, 2014
NASA's extensive fleet of science assets, particularly those orbiting and roving Mars, have front row seats to image and study a once-in-a-lifetime comet flyby on Sunday, Oct. 19. Comet C/2013 A1, also known as comet Siding Spring, will pass within about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet - less than half the distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth. Siding Spring's nucleus will come closest to Mars around 11:27 a. ... read more

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Dead star shines on A supernova is the cataclysmic death of a star, but it seems its remnants shine on. Astronomers have found a pulsating, dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. This is the bright ... more		NuSTAR Telescope Discovers Shockingly Bright Dead Star Astronomers have found a pulsating, dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. This is the brightest pulsar - a dense stellar remnant left over from a supernova explosion - ever rec ... more		First space weather forecast center opens in Britain The first space weather forecast center opened Wednesday in Exeter, southwestern England. With a funding of 4.6 million pounds (7.4 million U.S. dollars) from the British government, the Met Office ... more
				NASA's Hubble Maps the Temperature and Water Vapor on an Extreme Exoplanet A team of scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made the most detailed global map yet of the glow from a turbulent planet outside our solar system, revealing its secrets of air temperat ... more		Failing was fun: Japan Nobel winner The hundreds of experimental failures that paved the road to winning the Nobel Prize for physics was fun, rather than frustration, one of this year's three Japanese-born laureates said Friday. ... more

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Hubble project maps temperature, water vapor on wild exoplanet A team of scientists including a University of Colorado Boulder professor used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to make the most detailed global map yet of the glow from a giant, oddball planet orbitin ... more		Lutetia's dark side hosts hidden crater Grooves found on Lutetia, an asteroid encountered by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, point to the existence of a large impact crater on the unseen side of the rocky world. Rosetta flew past Lutetia at a d ... more		India signs $7 bn deal for 97 domestically made fighter jets France doubles down on threat to build future fighter jet alone US approves $1.2 bn missile sale to Germany		UA Planetary Scientists, Japanese to Trade Hard-Rock Stories In the fall of 2016, an Atlas-V rocket will pierce through the atmosphere and leave Earth's gravity behind. After the engine has burned up its fuel, the nose faring will open to release its payload, ... more
				CU-Boulder-led team study origins and evolution of life in universe NASA has awarded a team led by the University of Colorado Boulder more than $7 million to study aspects of the origins, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe. The team, led by C ... more		Hungry black hole eats faster than thought possible Astronomers have discovered a black hole that is consuming gas from a nearby star 10 times faster than previously thought possible. The black hole-known as P13-lies on the outskirts of the galaxy NG ... more

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

Dark matter half what we thought A new measurement of dark matter in the Milky Way has revealed there is half as much of the mysterious substance as previously thought. Australian astronomers used a method developed almost 100 year ... more		Arctic Bacteria Show Long Evolution in Toxic Mercury Resistance With Mars and Europa out of reach, many scientists have turned to studying some of the Arctic and Antarctic microbes that have adapted to similarly harsh conditions on Earth. One recent study has tr ... more		Simulations of Exoplanet Formation May Help Inform Search for Extraterrestrial Life Ancient hot springs reveal how microbes thrived before Earth gained oxygen Framework proposed to study planetary scale impact of life		New subatomic particle sheds light on fundamental force of nature The discovery of a new particle will "transform our understanding" of the fundamental force of nature that binds the nuclei of atoms, researchers argue. Led by scientists from the University of Warw ... more
New frontier in error-correcting codes Error-correcting codes are one of the glories of the information age: They're what guarantee the flawless transmission of digital information over the airwaves or through copper wire, even in the pr ... more		A Warm Dark Matter Search Using XMASS The XMASS collaboration, led by Yoichiro Suzuki at the Kavli IPMU, has reported its latest results on the search for warm dark matter. Their results rule out the possibility that super-weakly intera ... more		Zeroing in on a source of gamma rays Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of radioactive waves known in the universe. However, how they're made and where they come from have been a bit of a mystery. But now a team of researcher ... more		'Blood moon' to awe sky watchers in Americas, Asia Stargazers in the Americas and Asia will be treated to a lunar eclipse Wednesday, a celestial show that will bathe the moon in red to create a "blood moon." ... more

	Swarm of Tiny Spacecraft to Explore Europa's Surface with Rapid Response A small spacecraft carrying a swarm of "chipsats" the size of postage stamps could someday explore Jupiter's icy moon, Europa. NASA has funded early development of the unusual mission idea as it loo ... more		NASA Selects New Science Teams for Astrobiology Research NASA has awarded five-year grants totaling almost $50 million to seven research teams nationwide to study the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. "With the Cu ... more

Uranium enrichment: Why Iran refuses to step back

Redwire to Deliver Solar Array Wings for Axiom Station's First Module

Germany's Merz rejects claims he is slowing green shift

Fundamentals of physics confirmed		'Blood moon' awes sky watchers in Americas and Asia		A Quick Look at Electron-Boson Coupling		Light Scattering on Dust Holds Clues to Habitability		NASA's Swift Mission Observes Mega Flares from a Mini Star
Titan's Swirling Polar Cloud Is Cold And Toxic		Solving the mystery of the 'man in the moon'		Space debris expert warns of increasing CubeSat collision risk		Scientists Resurrect Ancient Proteins to Learn about Primordial Life on Earth		Novel approach to magnetic measurements atom-by-atom

Platinum meets its match in quantum dots from coal

Origin of moon's 'ocean of storms' revealed

Winter is coming ... to Titan's south pole

Wild ducks take flight in open cluster

Coppery reds of upcoming lunar eclipse may be accented with turquoise

'Man in the Moon' was born from lava - scientists

NASA's Swift satellite sees small star ejecting 'super flares'

Cyanide fog marks winter's onset on Saturn moon Titan

Nitrogen fingerprint in biomolecules could be from early sun

Simulations Reveal An Unusual Death for Ancient Stars

First dark matter results from underground China lab hosting PandaX-I

Cassini Watches Mysterious Feature Evolve in Titan Sea

GOCE reveals gravity dip from ice loss

Living on the Edge: Rosetta's Lander Philae Is Set to Take the Plunge

Microsoft to tap $2-trillion Indian cloud market

Planets with Oddball Orbits Like Mercury Could Host Life

Violent Origins of Disc Galaxies Probed by ALMA

Turning the Moon into a cosmic ray detector

Space agency sets Nov 12 date for comet landing

Male-led teams more likely to get Hubble Telescope time

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