The Sky Tonight

January 12, 2015

Dawn of a strange new world
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 12, 2015
NASA's Dawn mission is closing in on a mysterious, unknown world in the asteroid belt. The dwarf planet Ceres named after the Roman goddess of agriculture awaits to unlock its secrets. So far, we've only had a glimpse of this enigmatic orb using the Hubble Space Telescope, so it's more than intriguing what we will find there after Dawn's arrival. Marc Rayman, the Mission Director and Chief Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, can't hide his contagious excitement: "Everyone should be excit ... read more

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Jan 11

Jan 10

Jan 09

Jan 08

Jan 07

Photonic booms may help illuminate astronomical secrets If you sweep a laser pointer across the Moon fast enough, you can create spots that actually move faster than light. Anyone can do it. At a meeting, this past week, of the American Astronomica ... more		Hubble Gazes at R Sculptoris and its Hidden Companion This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the region around a star known as R Sculptoris, a red giant located 1,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sculptor. Recent obser ... more		Map of mysterious molecules sheds light on old puzzle By analyzing the light of hundreds of thousands of celestial objects, Johns Hopkins astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have created a unique map of enigmatic molecules in our galax ... more
				Space Debris Expert Warns About Dangers of Orbital Junk The emerging problem of floating space junk becomes more and more evident and bothersome. Spacecraft and satellites are currently subject to high-speed impacts by more than 19,000 trackable objects, ... more		Amateur astronomers capture comet Lovejoy on camera Comet Lovejoy was at its brightest on January 7 and 8, but it will remain visible to the naked eye - provided the weather cooperates - through the weekend. ... more

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

See comet Lovejoy with the naked eye this weekend Comet Lovejoy - or more officially, C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy - is named for the Australian amateur astronomer who spotted the glowing green ball just last year. Terry Lovejoy spied the comet through his eight-inch telescope in his backyard. ... more		Machines Teach Astronomers About Stars Astronomers are enlisting the help of machines to sort through thousands of stars in our galaxy and learn their sizes, compositions and other basic traits. The research is part of the growing field ... more		EU states to hold talks on 'drone wall' to protect bloc Denmark military intel fails to identify source of drone flights Lithuania eases rules on shooting down drones		Map of Mysterious Molecules Sheds New Light on Century-old Puzzle By analyzing the light of hundreds of thousands of celestial objects, astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have created a unique map of enigmatic molecules in our galaxy that are res ... more
				Novel vision of the death of massive stars An international consortium, in which the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Ikerbasque and CSIC are participating, has published in a single article a compendium of data obtained after the ... more		Juno on its way to unveil Jupiter's mysteries The gas giant Jupiter safeguards many secrets crucial to our understanding of the evolution of our solar system. It could also provide insights on how giant planets form and the role these titans pl ... more

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

Where Did All The Stars Go Some of the stars appear to be missing in this intriguing new ESO image. But the black gap in this glitteringly beautiful star field is not really a gap, but rather a region of space clogged with ga ... more		"Assassin" Targets Supernovae in Our Neighborhood While many astronomical collaborations use powerful telescopes to target individual objects in the distant universe, a new project at The Ohio State University is doing something radically different ... more		NASA ISRO radar satellite beams first Earth images from space Morocco High Atlas whistle language strives for survival China warns Papua New Guinea over Australian defence deal		Andromeda Hints at More Violent History than Milky Way A detailed study of the motions of different stellar populations in the disk of the Andromeda galaxy has found striking differences from our own Milky Way, suggesting a more violent history of merge ... more
Disappearance of a Cosmic Spinning Top Scientists measured the space-time warp in the gravity of a binary star and determined the mass of a neutron star - just before it disappeared. "Our result is important because weighing stars ... more		New light shed on electron spin flips Researchers from Berlin Joint EPR Lab at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and University of Washington derived a new set of equations that allows for calculating electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) transi ... more		Scientists Pinpoint Saturn With Exquisite Accuracy Scientists have paired NASA's Cassini spacecraft with the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system to pinpoint the position of Saturn and its family of mo ... more		Will the Real Monster Black Hole Please Stand Up? A new high-energy X-ray image from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has pinpointed the true monster of a galactic mashup. The image shows two colliding galaxies, collectively ... more

	Flashes from faster-than-light spots unveil astronomical secrets If you sweep a laser pointer across the Moon fast enough, you can create spots that actually move faster than light. Anyone can do it. At a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, R ... more		More accurate Saturn positioning helps improve astro navigation Scientists have used the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system and NASA's Cassini spacecraft to measure the position of Saturn and its family of moons ... more

JUNO begins decade-long mission to probe neutrino mysteries

SFL Missions to Deliver Spacecraft Buses for HawkEye 360 RF Signal Detection Expansion

Voyager debuts first space based multi cloud region to advance orbital data processing

A New, Public View of the Sky		SDSS: Sloan Survey Opens New Public View of the Sky		New technology enables ultra-fast steering and shaping of light beams		Comet probe in race against time to crown stellar feat		Philae probing comet with hours left on battery
Rosetta in 2015		CfA: Eight New Planets Found in "Goldilocks" Zone		Comet Lovejoy Glows Brightest During Mid-January		Planet-hunting satellite observes supermassive black hole		Unusual Light Signal Hints at Distant Black Hole Merger

Andromeda On Screen In HD

Kepler Marks 1,000th Exoplanet Discovery

'Iron Sun' is not a rock band, but a key to how stars transmit energy

Gemini Planet Imager produces stunning observations in its first year

Volunteer 'Disk Detectives' Classify Possible Planetary Habitats

Astronomer Detects Record-Breaking Black Hole Outburst

NASA closer than ever to finding Earth's 'twin'

Eight new planets found in 'Goldilocks' zone

Chinese spacecraft to return to moon's orbit

Chandra Detects Record-Breaking Outburst From Milky Way's Black Hole

Hubble Discovers That Milky Way Core Drives Wind At 2 Million Miles Per Hour

Philae lander still missing on comet

Galactic Herding: New Image Brings Galaxy Diversity To Life

Hubble Goes High Def To Revisit The Iconic Pillars Of Creation

Smashing Results About Our Nearby Galactic Neighbors

Acoustic levitation made simple

Neutrinos can deliver not only full-on hits but also 'glancing blows'

New Instrument Reveals Recipe For Other Earths

Comet probe 'may revive in March': French space chief

South Korean Satellite Faces Collision With Space Junk: Reports

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