The Sky Tonight

February 18, 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

Previous Issues

Feb 17

Feb 16

Feb 15

Feb 13

Feb 12

Dawn Captures Sharper Images of Ceres Craters and mysterious bright spots are beginning to pop out in the latest images of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. These images, taken Feb. 12 at a distance of 52,000 miles (83,000 kilometers) ... more		Be My Valentine: Rosetta Spacecraft Makes Close Pass by Comet 67P The probe passed mere 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the surface of the ice ball in a unique display of affection on the Valentine's Day. The Rosetta spacecraft has just scored another historic first ... more		Interstellar technology throws light on spinning black holes The team responsible for the Oscar-nominated visual effects at the centre of Christopher Nolan's epic, Interstellar, have turned science fiction into science fact by providing new insights into the ... more
				Life on other planets: Alternative chemistries of life Ideas about directing evolution of life forms on Earth and finding life on other planets are rapidly morphing from science-fiction fantasy into mainstream science, says David Lynn, a chemist at Emor ... more		Rosetta probe gets best comet closeup pics yet Rosetta, the space probe currently orbiting 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, came within 3.7 miles of the comet over the weekend, the closest it's been since the craft first met up with the massive hunk of space ice last year. ... more

Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe May 2015

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

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		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		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		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
				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		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		A new spin on spintronics A team of researchers from the University of Michigan and Western Michigan University is exploring new materials that could yield higher computational speeds and lower power consumption, even in har ... more
In the quantum world, the future affects the past We're so used murder mysteries that we don't even notice how mystery authors play with time. Typically the murder occurs well before the midpoint of the book, but there is an information blackout at ... 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		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

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

Worms in space: Exploring health effects of microgravity		Let's Send a Private Mission to Europa, Expert Says		Stellar partnership doomed to end in catastrophe		Why Comets Are Like Deep Fried Ice Cream		Lifting the veil on a dark galaxy
Rosetta photos: Comet's material becoming more volatile as it nears sun		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

Free Newsletters - Space News - Defense Alert - Environment Report - Energy Monitor

Buy Advertising

Media Advertising Kit

Editorial & Other Enquiries

Privacy statement

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.