The Sky Tonight

April 20, 2015

NASA spacecraft set for death plunge into Mercury
Miami (AFP) April 16, 2015
A NASA probe that has circled Mercury for the past four years will make a dramatic death plunge into the planet's surface in late April when it runs out of fuel. The MESSENGER spacecraft - which stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging - will end its run, as planned, on or around April 30, the US space agency said. Its mission was initially only supposed to last one year, but since it was operating well and returning interesting data and discoveries, scientists ... read more

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Search for advanced civilizations finds nothing obvious in 100,000 galaxies After searching 100,000 galaxies for signs of highly advanced extraterrestrial life, a team of scientists using observations from NASA's WISE orbiting observatory has found no evidence of advanced c ... more		Violent methane storms on Titan may solve dune direction mystery With its thick, hazy atmosphere and surface rivers, mountains, lakes and dunes, Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is one of the most Earthlike places in the solar system. As the Cassini-Huygens spacecra ... more		An exoplanet with an infernal atmosphere As part of the PlanetS National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR), astronomers from the Universities of Geneva (UNIGE) and Bern, Switzerland, have come to measure the temperature of the atmosp ... more
				Yutu finds Moon still active in old age Findings from China's first moon rover Yutu, or Jade Rabbit which is the only scientific probe to land on the Moon in almost 40 years, are rewriting lunar history. Analyzing data sent back fro ... more		Combined effort for structural determination Combining powder diffraction data with electron crystallography can give us a clearer view of modulated structures. Electron crystallography has begun to be used routinely for solving otherwise intr ... more

Space Tech Expo - Design - Build - Test - Long Beach CA - May 19-21, 2015

The World's Largest Commercial Drone Conference and Expo - Sept 9 - Las Vegas

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

Researchers design first all-photonic repeaters Imagine having your MRI results sent directly to your phone, with no concern over the security of your private health data. Or knowing your financial information was safe on a server halfway around ... more		Light in a spin Light must travel in a straight line and at a constant speed, or so the laws of nature suggest. Now, researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg have demonstrated that laser l ... 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		Quantum physics - hot and cold at the same time Temperature is a very useful physical quantity. It allows us to make a simple statistical statement about the energy of particles swirling around on complicated paths without having to know the spec ... more
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Army Network Modernization 2015 - Washington DC June 23-25

Dawn's Ceres Color Map Reveals Surface Diversity A new color map of dwarf planet Ceres, which NASA's Dawn spacecraft has been orbiting since March, reveals the diversity of the surface of this planetary body. Differences in morphology and color ac ... more		Manned Moon Flight Planned For 2030 The lunar flight program for 2028-2029 will be unmanned, but putting a man on the moon is scheduled for 2029-2030, the head of Russia's space agency said Tuesday. "We need to begin working now ... 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		NASA Chief Scientist: We'll Find Proof of Alien Life by 2025 While scientists have long suspected that we may not be alone in the universe, they've never had concrete evidence. But top NASA officials say that may not be the case much longer. In less than a de ... more
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Cosmic debris: Study looks inside the universe's most powerful explosions		Accelerating universe? Not so fast		New clue sheds some light on mysterious 'dark matter'		Correction Maneuver Puts MESSENGER Right on Course		NASA Experiments With 'Building Blocks' of Life in Lab

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Aliens Are Probably Huge 650-Pound Creatures

Intel lifted by data centers, as PC market flounders

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Seasonal, year-long cycles seen on the sun

ALMA captures Juno traveling through space

Our Sun came late to the Milky Way's star-birth party

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A new view of the moon's formation

Small solar eruptions can have profound effects on unprotected planets

Hubble finds phantom objects near dead quasars

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ALMA Sees Einstein Ring in Stunning Image of Lensed Galaxy

The Solar System and Beyond is Awash in Water

Sun experiences seasonal changes, new research finds

Herschel and Planck find missing clue to galaxy cluster formation

Dusty substructure in a galaxy far far away

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