The Sky Tonight

February 17, 2015

Close Encounters of a Scholz Kind
Rochester NY (SPX) Feb 17, 2015
group of astronomers from the US, Europe, Chile and South Africa have determined that 70,000 years ago a recently discovered dim star is likely to have passed through the solar system's distant cloud of comets, the Oort Cloud. No other star is known to have ever approached our solar system this close - five times closer than the current closest star, Proxima Centauri. In a paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, lead author Eric Mamajek from the University of Rochester and his collaborat ... read more

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NASA wants to send a submarine to Saturn's moon Titan The seas of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, are no place for astronauts. The frigid bodies of liquified natural gas are a study in inhabitability. But scientists suggest its possible some strange forms of life exist under the of icy surface of Kraken Mare, Titan's largest sea. ... more		Cesium atoms shaken, not stirred, to create elusive excitation in superfluid Scientists discovered in 1937 that liquid helium-4, when chilled to extremely low temperatures, became a superfluid that could leak through glass, overflow its containers, or eternally gush like a f ... more		Team makes stride in explaining 30-year-old 'hidden order' physics mystery A new explanation for a type of order, or symmetry, in an exotic material made with uranium may lead to enhanced computer displays and data storage systems, and more powerful superconducting magnets ... more
				Switching superconductivity by light A research team led by Prof. Hiroshi M. Yamamoto of the Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences has developed a novel superconducting transistor which can be switche ... more		Scientists get first glimpse of a chemical bond being born Scientists have used an X-ray laser at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to get the first glimpse of the transition state where two atoms begin to form a weak bond on t ... more

Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe May 2015

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Exploded Star Blooms Like a Cosmic Flower Because the debris fields of exploded stars, known as supernova remnants, are very hot, energetic, and glow brightly in X-ray light, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has proven to be a valuable tool ... more		A New Way to View Titan: 'Despeckle' It During 10 years of discovery, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has pulled back the smoggy veil that obscures the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Cassini's radar instrument has mapped almost half o ... 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		Mismatched twin stars spotted in the delivery room The majority of stars in our galaxy come in pairs. In particular, the most massive stars usually have a companion. These fraternal twins tend to be somewhat equal partners when it comes to mass - bu ... more
				Application of laser microprobe technology to Apollo samples refines lunar impact history It's been more than 40 years since astronauts returned the last Apollo samples from the moon, and since then those samples have undergone some of the most extensive and comprehensive analysis of any ... more		Birth of a star quartet An international team of astrophysicists has witnessed a unique event: for the first time, researchers have discovered the formation of a quadruple star system from widely separated fragments of a f ... more

VLA finds unexpected 'storm' at galaxy's core Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) found surprisingly energetic activity in what they otherwise considered a "boring" galaxy, and their discovery provides imp ... more		In a first, astronomers catch a multiple star system in the process of forming This week an international team of astronomers reports the first multiple-star system to be observed during the earliest stage of formation. This finding supports model predictions about how two- an ... 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		Correlations of quantum particles help in distinguishing physical processes Communication security and metrology could be enhanced through a study of the role of quantum correlations in the distinguishability of physical processes, by researchers at the Universities of Stra ... more
Worms in space: Exploring health effects of microgravity Humans may inevitably explore other planets, moons, and asteroids within our solar system. And although life on Earth has adapted to our planet's gravitational field, this looming possibility begs t ... more		Let's Send a Private Mission to Europa, Expert Says Jupiter's icy moon Europa puzzles astrobiologists and sparks the imagination of extraterrestrial life seekers. It is believed that the moon has a subsurface ocean of liquid water, where life could p ... more		Stellar partnership doomed to end in catastrophe A team of astronomers, led by Miguel Santander-Garcia, have discovered a close pair of white dwarf stars - tiny, extremely dense stellar remnants - that have a total mass of about 1.8 times that of ... more		Why Comets Are Like Deep Fried Ice Cream Astronomers tinkering with ice and organics in the lab may have discovered why comets are encased in a hard, outer crust. Using an icebox-like instrument nicknamed Himalaya, the researchers show tha ... more

	Lifting the veil on a dark galaxy A cluster of young, pulsating stars discovered in the far side of the Milky Way may mark the location of a previously unseen dark-matter dominated dwarf galaxy hidden behind clouds of dust. A ... more		Rosetta photos: Comet's material becoming more volatile as it nears sun As the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko nears the sun, its jets are heating up - spewing noxious gases and water vapor into space as it speeds along at roughly 84,000 mph. ... 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

The Sun's activity in the 18th century was similar to that now		Number of Known Accessible Near-Earth Asteroids Doubles Since 2010		On quantum scales, there are many second laws of thermodynamics		Dark matter at the heart of our galaxy		US Issuing Licenses for Mineral Mining on Moon
Stars are younger		CWRU astronomers find new details in first known spiral galaxy		NASA releases video of the far side of the Moon		The earliest stages of star formation in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud		Planck Mission Explores the History of Our Universe

Cosmology: Late news from the Big Bang

Scientists predict earth-like planets around most stars

Hubble Captures Rare Triple-Moon Conjunction

Dawn Gets Closer Views of Ceres

CWRU astronomers find new details in first known spiral galaxy

NASA Plans Mission to Look for Alien Life on Jupiter's Moon Europa

Rosetta swoops in for a close encounter

LRO finds lunar hydrogen more abundant on Moon's pole-facing slopes

VISTA stares right through the Milky Way

Physicists observe motion of skyrmions

Evidence mounts for quantum criticality theory

"Vulcan Planets" - Inside-Out Formation of Super-Earths

Gravitational Waves from Early Universe Remain Elusive

'Live fast, die young' galaxies lose the gas that keeps them alive

NASA planning Europa mission, Jupiter's potentially life-hosting moon

Still doubts on gravitational waves

The tell-tale signs of a galactic merger

Could a new proposed particle help to detect dark matter?

CAT scan of nearby supernova remnant reveals frothy interior

Scientists: Evidence of Big Bang theory fails to space dust

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