The Sky Tonight

November 23, 2015

Composite images compare sunlit faces of Pluto
Pasadena, Calif. (UPI) Nov 20, 2015
New composite images released by NASA show Pluto and Charon lit up by the sun. The images were taken by New Horizons' cameras as the probe approached the dwarf planet and its moon. The fully illuminated portraits are arranged like the face of a clock, each of them revealing different portions rotating in front of the sun's rays. A full rotation is achieved as the eyes follow the changing faces around the clock. Each portrait is a composite image, combining the sharpest versions of each h ... read more

Previous Issues

Nov 22

Nov 21

Nov 20

Nov 19

Nov 18

Forming planet observed for first time An international team of scientists in Australia and the United States has captured the first-ever images of a planet in the making. The accumulation of dust and gas particles onto a new planet - th ... more		VISTA pinpoints earliest giant galaxies Just counting the number of galaxies in a patch of sky provides a way to test astronomers' theories of galaxy formation and evolution. However, such a simple task becomes increasingly hard as astron ... more		Radiation blasts leave most Earth-like planet uninhabitable, new research suggests The most Earth-like planet could have been made uninhabitable by vast quantities of radiation, new research led by the University of Warwick research has found. The atmosphere of the planet, K ... more
				Ultra-short X-ray pulses could shed new light on the fastest events in physics Ultra-short x-ray pulses could shed new light on the fastest events in physics. If you've ever been captivated by slow-motion footage on a wildlife documentary, or you've shuddered when similar tech ... more		Gravity, who needs it What happens to your body in space? NASA's Human Research Program has been unfolding answers for over a decade. Space is a dangerous, unfriendly place. Isolated from family and friends, exposed to r ... more

UA researchers capture first photo of planet in making There are 450 light-years between Earth and LkCa15, a young star with a transition disk around it, a cosmic whirling dervish, a birthplace for planets. Despite the disk's considerable distance from ... more		Stormy space weather puts equatorial regions' power at risk Dr Brett Carter of the RMIT SPACE Research Centre and his team from RMIT, Boston College and Dartmouth College, found that these equatorial electrical disruptions threaten power grids in Southeast A ... 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		NIST team proves 'spooky action at a distance' is really real Einstein was wrong about at least one thing: There are, in fact, "spooky actions at a distance," as now proven by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Eins ... more
				Forged in the hearts of stars Apart from hydrogen, as many have heard from the Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson "Cosmos" series, every ingredient in the human body is made from elements forged by stars. The calcium in our bone ... more		Two Moons About Saturn Although Dione (near) and Enceladus (far) are composed of nearly the same materials, Enceladus has a considerably higher reflectivity than Dione. As a result, it appears brighter against the dark ni ... more

Solar systems for home and business installations

'Chemical Laptop' Could Search for Signs of Life Outside Earth If you were looking for the signatures of life on another world, you would want to take something small and portable with you. That's the philosophy behind the "Chemical Laptop" being developed at N ... more		Black holes don't need to spin to spit out jets Jet streams emanating or pulsing outward from stellar objects are often the result of rotational forces. Spinning has long been the explanation for the jets of black holes. ... 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		Simple errors limit scientific scrutiny Researchers have found more than half of the public datasets provided with scientific papers are incomplete, which prevents reproducibility tests and follow-up studies. However, slight improvements ... more
Astronomers discover a distant galaxy with a pulse Astronomers at Yale and Harvard have found a galaxy with a heartbeat - and they've taken its pulse. It is the first time scientists have measured the effect that pulsating, older red stars have on t ... more		Hubble Views a Lonely Galaxy Only three local stars appear in this image, quartered by right-angled diffraction spikes. Everything besides them is a galaxy; floating like a swarm of microbes in a drop of water, and brought into ... more		Queen's University Belfast lead research milestone in predicting solar flares An international team of researchers, led by Queen's University Belfast, has devised a high-precision method of examining magnetic fields in the Sun's atmosphere, representing a significant leap for ... more		Gaia consortium meets ahead of first data catalogue release next year From 16 to 20 November 2015, about two hundred members of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) are meeting in Leiden, The Netherlands, to review the current status of preparations ... more

	3D visualisation redefines Milky Way's local architecture Astronomers have used modern techniques to visualise data from ESA's Hipparcos space astrometry mission in three dimensions. The treatment of the data has offered insights into the distribution of n ... more		Discovery of classic pi formula a 'cunning piece of magic' While most people associate the mathematical constant p (pi) with arcs and circles, mathematicians are accustomed to seeing it in a variety of fields. But two University of Rochester scientists were ... more

China's Alibaba teams up with Nvidia on AI robot tech

In just one year, Google turns AI setbacks into dominance

China steps into spotlight at UN climate talks

Experiment records extreme quantum weirdness		Rocket Scientists to Launch Planet-Finding Telescope		Discovery measures 'heartbeats' of distant galaxy's stars		5400mph winds discovered hurtling around planet outside solar system		New exoplanet in our neighborhood
The colors of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko		More Than Meets the Eye - Delta Orionis in Orion's Belt		Ancient stars at the center of the galaxy contain 'fingerprints' from the early universe		Cassini Finds Monstrous Ice Cloud in Titan's South Polar Region		Astronomers eager to get a whiff of newfound Venus-like planet

Secondhand Spacecraft Has Firsthand Asteroid Experience

Rosetta and Philae: one year since landing on a comet

Oldest stars found near Milky Way center

Machine learning could solve riddles of galaxy formation

Fermi Satellite Detects First Gamma-Ray Pulsar in Another Galaxy

The glowing halo of a zombie star

Asteroid ripped apart to form star's glowing ring system

Recreating a heavenly chorus of plasma waves on Earth

A new explanation for the explosive nature of magnetic reconnection

Mercury Gets a Meteoroid Shower from Comet Encke

New Results from GPI Exoplanet Survey

Early Earth's Haze May Give Clue to Habitability Elsewhere

Measurement of Hubble constant questioned by Nobel laureate Riess' team

UCLA professor proposes simpler way to define what makes a planet

Early Earth's haze may give clue to habitability elsewhere in space

Newfound Earth-size exoplanet may be an important milestone in search for alien life

Close-up view of galaxies prompts re-think on star formation

NASA's Beach Ball Coronagraph

Europe comes together for space weather

The solution to faster computing? Sing to your data

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.