The Sky Tonight

November 15, 2015

Cassini Finds Monstrous Ice Cloud in Titan's South Polar Region
Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 15, 2015
New observations made near the south pole of Titan by NASA's Cassini spacecraft add to the evidence that winter comes in like a lion on this moon of Saturn. Scientists have detected a monstrous new cloud of frozen compounds in the moon's low- to mid-stratosphere - a stable atmospheric region above the troposphere, or active weather layer. Cassini's camera had already imaged an impressive cloud hovering over Titan's south pole at an altitude of about 186 miles (300 kilometers). However, that cloud, ... read more

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Astronomers eager to get a whiff of newfound Venus-like planet The collection of rocky planets orbiting distant stars has just grown by one, and the latest discovery is the most intriguing one to date. The newfound world, although hot as an oven, is cool enough ... more		Oldest stars found near Milky Way center Astronomers have discovered the oldest known stars, dating from before the Milky Way Galaxy formed, when the Universe was just 300 million years old. The stars, found near the centre of the Milky Wa ... more		Machine learning could solve riddles of galaxy formation A new machine-learning simulation system developed at the University of Illinois promises cosmologists an expanded suite of galaxy models - a necessary first step to developing more accurate and rel ... more
				The glowing halo of a zombie star Led by Christopher Manser, a PhD student at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, the team used data from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and other observatories to study the shattered r ... more		Asteroid ripped apart to form star's glowing ring system The sight of an asteroid being ripped apart by a dead star and forming a glowing debris ring has been captured in an image for the first time. Comprised of dust particles and debris, the rings are f ... more

Solar systems for home and business installations

The solution to faster computing? Sing to your data Nothing is more frustrating that watching that circle spinning in the centre of your screen, while you wait for your computer to load a programme or access the data you need. Now a team from the Uni ... more		Measurement of Hubble constant questioned by Nobel laureate Riess' team In 1920's Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer, showed that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from the earth, known as Hubble's law. Hubble's law is taken as the first ... more		US lawmaker warns of military 'misunderstanding' risk with China Spain approves 'total' arms embargo against Israel Khamenei says Iran 'won't yield' to pressure to abandon uranium enrichment		UCLA professor proposes simpler way to define what makes a planet Since the late 1980s, scientists have discovered nearly 5,000 planetary bodies orbiting stars other than the sun. But astronomers are still working on what exactly we should call them. At an America ... more
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Nuclear Operations and Maintenance Efficiency Summit USA 2015

Close-up view of galaxies prompts re-think on star formation Astronomers have identified for the first time one of the key components of many stars, a study suggests. A type of gas found in the voids between galaxies - known as atomic gas - appears to be part ... more		NASA's Beach Ball Coronagraph What's better at blocking sunlight: a traditional flat occulter disk or a beach ball? NASA scientist Phillip Chamberlin is putting his money on the latter. He and his team at NASA's Goddard Space Fl ... more		Typhoon Ragasa hits south China after killing 15 in Taiwan Toxic homes a lasting legacy of Los Angeles fires Climate change causing havoc with global water cycle: UN		A new explanation for the explosive nature of magnetic reconnection Magnetic reconnection, which occurs when magnetic lines of force break apart and reconnect with a violent burst of energy, gives rise to many beautiful and powerful phenomena in the natural world. T ... more
Mercury Gets a Meteoroid Shower from Comet Encke The planet Mercury is being pelted regularly by bits of dust from an ancient comet, a new study has concluded. This has a discernible effect in the planet's tenuous atmosphere and may lead to a new ... more		New Results from GPI Exoplanet Survey The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) is an ambitious three-year study dedicated to imaging young Jupiters and debris disks around nearby stars using the GPI instrument installed on the ... more		Early Earth's Haze May Give Clue to Habitability Elsewhere An atmospheric haze around a faraway planet - like the one which probably shrouded and cooled the young Earth - could show that the world is potentially habitable, or even be a sign of life itself. ... more		Antimatter not so different after all Due to the diligence of a Rice University student and his calculations, humanity now knows a little more about the universe. Kefeng Xin, a graduate student at Rice, is one of a handful of primary au ... more

	Space rains junk on Spain It's raining space junk in Spain. ... more		Experiment records extreme quantum weirdness An experiment in Singapore has pushed quantum weirdness close to its absolute limit. Researchers from the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore and the Univer ... more

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China steps into spotlight at UN climate talks

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UMD discovery could enable portable particle accelerators		The fading cinders of some of our galaxy's earliest homesteaders		ALCF helps tackle the Large Hadron Collider's big data challenge		SwRI scientists explain why moon rocks contain fewer volatiles than Earth's		Deserts and dunes: Earth as an analogue for Titan

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Gaia's sensors scan a lunar transit

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One year after comet touchdown, what's next for Philae?

Looking For Deliberate Radio Signals From KIC 8462852

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Hunting for Meteorites in Antarctica

Europe comes together for space weather

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Radar Images Provide New Details on Halloween Asteroid

Distant world's weather is mixed bag of hot dust and molten rain

Have scientists found evidence of a parallel universe?

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Space Junk

US Prepares for Extreme Space Weather

Northern Light secrets uncovered thanks to social networking tools

The Taurids: Your best chance to see a fireball!

Disk gaps don't always signal planets

China to start work on turbo-charged super-collider by 2020: report

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