The Sky Tonight

May 14, 2015

Europa's Mystery Dark Material Could Be Sea Salt
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 13, 2015
NASA laboratory experiments suggest the dark material coating some geological features of Jupiter's moon Europa is likely sea salt from a subsurface ocean, discolored by exposure to radiation. The presence of sea salt on Europa's surface suggests the ocean is interacting with its rocky seafloor - an important consideration in determining whether the icy moon could support life. The study is accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and is available online. "We have ... read more

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MESSENGER reveals Mercury's magnetic field secrets New data from MESSENGER, the spacecraft that orbited Mercury for four years before crashing into the planet a week ago, reveals Mercury's magnetic field is almost four billion years old. The discove ... more		Weather forecasts for planets beyond our solar system "Cloudy for the morning, turning to clear with scorching heat in the afternoon." While this might describe a typical late-summer day in many places on Earth, it may also apply to planets outside our ... more		Milky Way may have four spiral arms Evidence suggests the Milky Way galaxy has an additional two spiral arms. That makes four. ... more
				DARPA developing zoom lens to spot distant space objects more clearly Imaging of Earth from satellites in space has vastly improved in recent years. But the opposite challenge-using Earth-based systems to find, track and provide detailed characterization of satellites ... more		Galactic Gold Rush: Asteroid Mining to Start This Summer Asteroid mining may not be the stuff of sci-fi flicks for long, as one company prepares to launch its first exploratory satellite from the International Space Station in July. Planetary Resources is ... 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

Next Generation Integrated ISR 2015 - Washington DC - July 27-29

Ceres Animation Showcases Bright Spots The mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres are better resolved in a new sequence of images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 3 and 4, 2015. The images were taken from a distance of 8 ... more		Getting Down to Science at Ceres Dawn's assignment when it embarked on its extraordinary extraterrestrial expedition in 2007 can be described quite simply: explore the two most massive uncharted worlds in the inner solar system. It ... 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		Space debris from satellite explosion increases collision risk for space craft Debris from the US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 satellite, which recently exploded in orbit, could pose a threat to other spacecraft and missions according to new research fro ... more
				NSF and CERN sign new partnership for finding particles A new agreement between the United States and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will pave the way for renewed collaboration in particle physics, promising to yield new insights i ... more		Quantum-mechanical monopoles discovered Researchers at Aalto University (Finland) and Amherst College (USA) have observed a point-like monopole in a quantum field itself for the first time. This discovery connects to important characteris ... more

Army Network Modernization 2015 - Washington DC June 23-25

Zooming in on an individual orbiting electron The microwave oven has been around for almost 80 years. When it heats food or liquid, the frequency of electrons increases but their energy slows down due to their own microwave emissions. Until now ... more		AKARI far-infrared all-sky data released The AKARI space telescope's far-infrared all-sky image data are now available to researchers everywhere. The new all-sky maps have four to five times better spatial resolution than conventional far- ... 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		Bringing high-energy particle detection in from the cold Radiation detectors, which monitor high-energy particles such as those produced by nuclear decay and cosmic radiation, are being used increasingly in medical imaging, petroleum well logging, astrono ... more
Attosecond physics: A new gateway to the microcosmos Ludwig Maximilians Universitaet (LMU) in Munich physicists at the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics have developed a new laser-light source that will lead to significant advances in research on fund ... more		Quantum mechanical helium trio In 1970, Vitaly Efimov analysed a three-body quantum system in which the attraction between two bodies reduced such that they become unbound. His prediction was that instead of breaking up, the mole ... more		NASA's LRO Moves Closer to the Lunar Surface NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has completed a maneuver that lowered the spacecraft's orbit to within 20 kilometers (12 miles) above areas near the lunar South Pole, the closest the space ... more		New bid to contact Europe's comet probe Europe will launch a new bid Friday to communicate with its comet lander Philae, hurtling towards the Sun some 360 million kilometres (224 million miles) from Earth, ground operators said. ... more

	Meteors from Halley's Comet As May of 2015 unfolds, Halley's Comet is more than 5 billion kilometers from Earth, receding into the inky blackness of the outer solar system, where its looping orbit takes it every 76 years. Dim ... more		Astronomers detect drastic atmospheric change in super Earth Researchers have detected the first major atmospheric shift outside our solar system. Over the course of two years, scientists have observed a three-fold temperature shift in the atmosphere of a super Earth called 55 Cancri e. ... 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

Saturn Moon's Activity Could Be 'Curtain Eruptions'		Astrophysicists offer proof that famous image shows forming planets		Star Explosion is Lopsided, Finds NASA's NuSTAR		A hot start to the origin of life		Astronomers unveil the farthest galaxy
Geochemical process on Saturn's moon linked to life's origin		European Space Agency Director Wants to Set Up a Moon Base		Hubble finds massive halo around the Andromeda Galaxy		Ancient Star Raises Prospects of Intelligent Life		Astrobiology Students Use Art to Develop Critical Thinking Skills

Proto super star cluster - a cosmic 'dinosaur egg' about to hatch

Sounding rocket unveils makeup of a supernova remnant

Dark-Matter Labs Become Subterranean Centers for Science

Eta Aquarid meteor shower to hit its peak, debris from Halley's Comet viewable worldwide

Game theory elucidates the collective behavior of bosons

PSI Researchers Look Back at Mercury MESSENGER Accomplishments

Cyclotron radiation from single electrons measured directly for first time

Towards the realization of a global neutrino infrastructure

The Dark Matter 'conspiracy'

NASA's Chandra Suggests Black Holes Gorging at Excessive Rates

UH-led team observes the solar eclipse over the Arctic

NASA completes MESSENGER mission with surface impact

New exoplanet too big for its star

Pulsar with widest orbit ever detected

Gravity data show that Antarctic ice sheet is melting increasingly faster

Fire and Ice: A MESSENGER Recap

Multifractals suggests existence of unknown physical mechanism on the Sun

New Solar Telescope Unveils Complex Dynamics of Sunspots' Dark Cores

Ultra-sensitive sensor detects individual electrons

Strong Evidence for Coronal Heating by Nanoflares

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