The Sky Tonight

January 16, 2015

Europe comet mission deserves Nobel: space chief
Paris (AFP) Jan 16, 2015
A European mission that made the first landing on a comet deserves the Nobel prize, the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Friday. "I hope there will be Nobel prizewinners coming along thanks to Philae and Rosetta," said ESA chief Jean-Jacques Dordain, referring to the robot lab that made the historic landing, and its mother ship. The mission "is a love story," Dordain told journalists in Paris. "We will be amassing an amount of data... that in my opinion will keep scientists bu ... read more

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NASA's New Horizons probe begins Pluto observations It's been nine years since the New Horizons probe left Earth, and now the craft is gearing up for its encounter with Pluto in July - the first-ever flyby of the icy cold dwarf planet. ... more		Meteorites weren't exactly the building blocks of young planets That meteorites and their collisions with early planetary masses played a predominant role in the formation of the early universe is a narrative popular among astronomers and the average high school science class. ... more		Race of the electrons It is easy to measure electric current. But it is extremely hard to watch the individual electrons which make up this current. Electrons race through the metal with a speed of several million meters ... more
				Rapid journey through a crystal lattice The time frames, in which electrons travel within atoms, are unfathomably short. For example, electrons excited by light change their quantum-mechanical location within mere attoseconds - an attosec ... more		A year on-station for Gaia Time flies when you're mapping a billion stars! One year ago, Gaia performed its last major orbit insertion burn and was stable at 'L2' ... more

Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe May 2015

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Meteorite material born in molten spray as embryo planets collided Asteroids may be a byproduct of planet formation rather than planetary building blocks, according to a recent paper in Nature. Research done at Purdue University suggests collisions of planetary emb ... more		NASA and ESA Celebrate 10 Years Since Titan Landing Ten years ago, an explorer from Earth parachuted into the haze of an alien moon toward an uncertain fate. After a gentle descent lasting more than two hours, it landed with a thud on a frigid floodp ... 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		Decoding the gravitational evolution of dark matter halos Researchers at Kavli IPMU and their collaborators have revealed that considering environmental effects such as a gravitational tidal force spread over a scale much larger than a galaxy cluster is in ... more
				Asteroid to Fly By Earth Safely on January 26 An asteroid, designated 2004 BL86, will safely pass about three times the distance of Earth to the moon on January 26. From its reflected brightness, astronomers estimate that the asteroid is about ... more		Ground-breaking research to discover new planets Scientists from Queen's University Belfast have partnered with leading astrophysicists across Europe for a ground-breaking space research project that will form a crucial step in the quest to study ... more

Scientists say a meteorite could be responsible for Antarctic crater Researchers in Antarctica have discovered what they believe is the remnants of a meteorite impact site. ... more		NASA releases retro-styled travel posters for newly discovered planets As a unique way to draw attention to the increasing number of exoplanets discovered by the repaired and reinvigorated Kepler, NASA published three throwback travel posters showcasing alien worlds Kepler-16b, Kepler-186f and HD 40307g. ... 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		Service module of China's lunar orbiter enters 127-minute orbit The service module of China's unmanned test lunar orbiter entered a 127-minute orbit on Tuesday after three orbital transfers since Sunday. To decelerate the craft enough for it enter its targ ... more
A twist on planetary origins Meteors that have crashed to Earth have long been regarded as relics of the early solar system. These craggy chunks of metal and rock are studded with chondrules - tiny, glassy, spherical grains th ... more		AI helps physicists predict dangerous solar flares Though scientists do not completely understand what triggers solar flares, Stanford solar physicists Monica Bobra and Sebastien Couvidat have automated the analysis of those gigantic explosions. The ... more		NameExoWorlds contest opens The first ever contest allowing members of the public to name ExoWorlds begins its first round today, offering the registered clubs and non-profit organisations the chance to nominate their favourit ... more		Last Chance: Mercury Crater-Naming Contest Ends January 15 The MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Team is reminding interested parties that the competition to name five impact craters on Mercury closes on January 15, 2015. The contest, open to ev ... more

	Service Module of Chinese Probe Enters Lunar Orbit The service module of China's unmanned test lunar spacecraft successfully entered orbit in Sunday after slowing down, the Beijing Aerospace Control Center reported. According to instruction, t ... more		Unusual Light Signal Yields Clues About Elusive Black Hole Merger The central regions of many glittering galaxies, our own Milky Way included, harbor cores of impenetrable darkness-black holes with masses equivalent to millions, or even billions, of suns. What is ... more

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