The Sky Tonight

January 26, 2015

Cosmic puzzle settled: Comets give us shooting stars
Paris (AFP) Jan 26, 2015
Suspicions that shooting stars come from comet dust, transformed into fiery streaks as they hit Earth's atmosphere, have been bolstered by Europe's Rosetta space mission, scientists reported Monday. Comets and asteroids have both been eyed as possible progenitors of meteors, also known as shooting or falling stars - and now particles spewed from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko have provided proof of paternity. "This paper shows for the first time that the fluffy, dry dust particles of a comet ... read more

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Scientists befuddled by mysterious white spot on Ceres Everyday, NASA's Dawn probe gets a bit closer to the dwarf planet Ceres. They're hoping this history-making flyby can answer questions and offer scientists a new and improved understanding of the glorified asteroid. But so far, Ceres is all mystery. ... more		New research re-creates planet formation in the lab New laser-driven compression experiments reproduce the conditions deep inside exotic super-Earths and giant planet cores, and the conditions during the violent birth of Earth-like planets, documenti ... more		Stardust shows gold and uranium alchemy in stars less than expected Researchers combing the ocean depths have made a surprising discovery about the frequency with which stars beyond our solar system produce special heavy elements such as gold and uranium. Stel ... more
				Rare view of three moons casting shadows on Jupiter The shadows of three moons orbiting Jupiter were viewable on Friday night. ... more		Scientists slow down light particles The speed of light is a limit, not a constant - that's what researchers in Glasgow, Scotland, say. A group of them just proved that light can be slowed down, permanently. ... more

Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe May 2015

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Black hole on a diet creates a 'changing look' quasar Yale University astronomers have identified the first "changing look" quasar, a gleaming object in deep space that appears to have its own dimmer switch. The discovery may offer a glimpse into the l ... more		Getting to know Rosetta's comet Rosetta is revealing its host comet as having a remarkable array of surface features and with many processes contributing to its activity, painting a complex picture of its evolution. In a special e ... 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		Rosetta Comet 'Pouring' More Water Into Space There has been a significant increase in the amount of water "pouring" out of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the comet on which the Rosetta mission's Philae lander touched down in November 2014. ... more
				Updated Charts for Asteroid 2004 BL86 Earth Flyby on Jan 26, 2015 This diagram shows the close passage of 2004 BL86 on January 26, 2015. The view is nearly edge-on to the Earth's orbit; the Moon's nearly circular orbit is highly foreshortened from this viewp ... more		Gullies on Vesta Suggest Past Water-Mobilized Flows Protoplanet Vesta, visited by NASA's Dawn spacecraft from 2011 to 2013, was once thought to be completely dry, incapable of retaining water because of the low temperatures and pressures at its surfa ... more

Maneuver Delays Messenger's Impact, Extends Orbital Operations MESSENGER mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., successfully conducted a maneuver today designed to raise the spacecraft's minimum alti ... more		Only the lonely...(reveal the secrets of atomic nuclei) Individual protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei turn out not to behave according to the predictions made by existing theoretical models. This surprising conclusion, reached by an international team ... 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		Death of a dynamo -- A hard drive from space The dying moments of an asteroid's magnetic field have been successfully captured by researchers, in a study that offers a tantalising glimpse of what may happen to the Earth's magnetic core billion ... more
Messages from space -- hidden magnetic messages uncovered Geologists from the University of Cambridge uncover hidden magnetic messages from the early solar system in meteorites measured at BESSY II. A team of scientists led by Dr. Richard Harrison from the ... more		Rejigging the Cluster quartet Aiming to study Earth's 'bow shock' in the solar wind, the constellation of Cluster satellites is being rejigged to bring two of the four to within almost touching distance. ESA's Cluster quartet, i ... more		Planetary building blocks evolved from porous to hard objects Australian Research Council, UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, Royal Society, UK Natural Environment Research Council, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Thinking small has e ... more		Snapshot of cosmic burst of radio waves A strange phenomenon has been observed by astronomers right as it was happening - a 'fast radio burst'. The eruption is described as an extremely short, sharp flash of radio waves from an unknown so ... more

	Telescope To Seek Dust Where Other Earths May Lie The NASA-funded Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, or LBTI, has completed its first study of dust in the "habitable zone" around a star, opening a new door to finding planets like Earth. Dust ... more		Ocean floor dust gives new insight into supernovae Scientists plumbing the depths of the ocean have made a surprise finding that could change the way we understand supernovae, exploding stars way beyond our solar system. They have analysed extraterr ... 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

Dawn Delivers New Image of Ceres		Report says no technological replacement exists for bulk data collection		NEOWISE: A Yearlong Look at the Sky		Scientists set quantum speed limit		Exotic, gigantic molecules fit inside each other like Russian nesting dolls
Two or one splashing... It's different		Atoms can be in 2 places at the same time		New Horizons ready for planet's beyond beyond		Planets outside our solar system more hospitable to life than thought		SDO collects its 100-millionth image of Sun

Three nearly Earth-size planets found orbiting nearby star

Unexplained cosmic radio burst captured in real-time

Three-Planet System Holds Clues to Atmospheres of Earth-size Worlds

New data that fundamental physics constants underlie life-enabling universe

Galactic 'hailstorm' in the early universe

Meteorites weren't exactly the building blocks of young planets

NASA's New Horizons probe begins Pluto observations

Europe comet mission deserves Nobel: space chief

NameExoWorlds contest opens

Race of the electrons

Rapid journey through a crystal lattice

A year on-station for Gaia

Meteorite material born in molten spray as embryo planets collided

NASA and ESA Celebrate 10 Years Since Titan Landing

AI helps physicists predict dangerous solar flares

A twist on planetary origins

Last Chance: Mercury Crater-Naming Contest Ends January 15

Service Module of Chinese Probe Enters Lunar Orbit

Unusual Light Signal Yields Clues About Elusive Black Hole Merger

Decoding the gravitational evolution of dark matter halos

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