The Sky Tonight

March 18, 2015

Milky Way may host billions of planets in 'habitable' zones: study
Paris (AFP) March 18, 2015
The Milky Way galaxy may be home to billions of planets orbiting their host stars in a "habitable zone" where life could theoretically exist, researchers said Wednesday. NASA's Kepler space telescope, launched in 2009 to search for so-called "exoplanets" outside our own solar system, has already found thousands - many of them in systems like our own with multiple planets orbiting a star. Using this data, researchers from the Australian National University and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenha ... read more

Previous Issues

Mar 17

Mar 16

Mar 13

Mar 12

Mar 11

Severe solar storm may disrupt power, satellites A pair of solar eruptions over the weekend have unleashed a severe geomagnetic storm that could disrupt power and communications on Earth, US officials said Tuesday. ... more		How to watch total solar eclipse on Friday Though not as rare as they're made out to be, total solar eclipses don't come around all that often - only once every 18 months or so. So it's only natural to want to capture the astronomical phenomenon for posterity's sake, whether with a photograph or a mental image. ... more		Moon crater named for aviator Amelia Earhart One of the largest craters on the moon was only recently discovered, thanks to the hard work of scientists at Purdue University. The crater's discovery was announced on Monday at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas. ... more
				Desktop App has potential to increase asteroid detection A software application based on an algorithm created by a NASA challenge has the potential to increase the number of new asteroid discoveries by amateur astronomers. Analysis of images taken of our ... more		Astronomers to shed light on space discoveries to mark solar eclipse Space scientists at the University of Leicester will be taking part in a spectacular event to mark a rare astronomical phenomenon by demonstrating some of their out-of-this-world research - includin ... more

Human 2 Mars Conference Mat 5-7 2015 - Washington DC

Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe May 2015

Second natural quasicrystal found in ancient meteorite A team from Princeton University and the University of Florence in Italy has discovered a quasicrystal - so named because of its unorthodox arrangement of atoms - in a 4.5-billion-year-old meteori ... more		Iron-oxidizing bacteria found along Mid-Atlantic Ridge Bacteria that live on iron were found for the first time at three well-known vent sites along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, one of the longest undersea mountain ranges in the world. Scientists repor ... 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		Colorful life-form catalog will help discern if we're alone While looking for life on planets beyond our own solar system, a group of international scientists has created a colorful catalog containing reflection signatures of Earth life forms that might be f ... more
				A second minor planet may possess Saturn-like rings There are only five bodies in our solar system that are known to bear rings. The most obvious is the planet Saturn; to a lesser extent, rings of gas and dust also encircle Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptu ... more		Spacetime Foam Not Slowing Down Photons From Gamma Ray Burst One hundred years after Albert Einstein formulated the general theory of relativity, an international team has proposed another experimental proof. In a paper published in Nature Physics, researcher ... more

New Mercury surface composition maps illuminate the planet's history Two new papers from members of the MESSENGER Science Team provide global-scale maps of Mercury's surface chemistry that reveal previously unrecognized geochemical terranes - large regions that have ... more		ESA minisatellites to follow Europe's solar eclipse On Friday morning, 20 March, Europe will experience a partial solar eclipse. Only a partial solar eclipse will be visible from continental Europe, but the Agency's Sun-watching Proba-2 minisatellite ... 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		New clues from the dawn of the solar system A research group in the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory has found evidence in meteorites that hint at the discovery of a previously unknown region within the swirling disk of dust and gas known as ... more
Rosetta: OSIRIS detects hints of ice in the comet's neck The Hapi region on the neck of Rosetta's comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko reflects red light less effectively than most other regions on the comet. It thus appears slightly blueish. The Hapi region i ... more		Frozen highly charged ions for highest precision spectroscopy A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig and the University of Aarhus in Denmark demonstrated ... more		Some habitable exoplanets could experience wildly unpredictable climates As telescopes of ever-greater power scan the cosmos looking for life, knowing where to look - and where not to waste time looking - will be of great value. New research by University of Washin ... more		UK physicists getting closer to reading the inside of stars UK nuclear physicists are one step closer to being able to read the inside of stars and discover new elements that exist for only a trillionth of a trillionth of a second inside exploding supernovae ... more

	Researchers study methane-rich plumes from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus NASA's Cassini spacecraft has measured a curious abundance of methane spewing into the atmosphere of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. A team of American and French scientists published findings in Geoph ... more		Hubble observations suggest underground ocean on Jupiter's largest moon NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. The subterranean ocean is thought to have more water than all the wate ... 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 Grand Extravaganza of New Stars		On Pi Day, How Scientists Use This Number		Russia Plans to Start Moon Exploration Jointly With Partners		A new way to control information by mixing light and sound		Russia Plans to Adapt New Angara-5 Rocket for Flights to the Moon
Researchers develop 'visual Turing test'		Physicists propose new classification of charge density waves		UK skies set to dim in decade's deepest solar eclipse		Particle jets reveal the secrets of the most exotic state of matter		A grand extravaganza of new stars

Mysterious Phenomena in a Gigantic Galaxy-Cluster Collision

Exploring the Depths of Titan's Seas

Saturn moon's ocean may have hydrothermal activity

Solving the riddle of neutron stars

Rare split images of supernova put Johns Hopkins astronomer in the spotlight

Hot water activity on icy moon's seafloor

Queen's astronomers discover fastest ever unbound star in our galaxy

New preschool lesson teaches programming theories

Comet mission in bid to contact dormant Philae probe

Rare dwarf galaxy candidates found in Dark Energy Survey data

Wake up Philae! The world awaits news

Rocky grains stir theories of life on Saturn moon

New dwarf galaxies discovered in orbit around the Milky Way

Billionaire Teams Up with NASA to Mine the Moon

Scientists Will Try to Contact the Comet Lander on March 12

Gamma rays from dwarf galaxy may point to dark matter

Milky Way isn't a flat disk, it's corrugated

Cosmic dust discs withstand hellfire

Latest MESSENGER data includes new targeted mosaics of Mercury

Scientists: Nearby Earth-like planet isn't just 'noise'

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.