The Sky Tonight

December 09, 2015

New US space mining law to spark interplanetary gold rush
New York (AFP) Dec 8, 2015
Flashing some interplanetary gold bling and sipping "space water" might sound far-fetched, but both could soon be reality, thanks to a new US law that legalizes cosmic mining. In a first, President Barack Obama signed legislation at the end of November that allows commercial extraction of minerals and other materials, including water, from asteroids and the moon. That could kick off an extraterrestrial gold rush, backed by a private aeronautics industry that is growing quickly and cutting the pr ... read more

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Twin civilisations? How life on an exoplanet could spread to its neighbour Imagine two nearby exoplanets orbiting the same sun, each with its own indigenous civilisation. They're going through history either as companionable neighbours or deadly rivals. This is a familiar ... more		Study: Sun capable of destructive superflare Researchers at University of Warwick located a solar superflare among stellar data collected by NASA's Kepler space telescope. The massive burst featured wave patterns similar to flares emitted by our own sun. ... more		Scientists explain origin of heavy elements in the Universe In a letter published in the prestigious journal Nature Physics, a team of scientists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggests a solution to the Galactic radioactive plutonium puzzle. All th ... more
				Prometheus up close about Saturn NASA's Cassini spacecraft spied details on the pockmarked surface of Saturn's moon Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across) during a moderately close flyby on Dec. 6, 2015. This is one of Cass ... more		Alternative stellar lifestyle: Common, curious, solved at last Starting around 1950, a series of advances formed a clear and accepted picture of how individual stars are born, evolve and die. As they age, the changing patterns of color, light output, size and l ... more

Robot arm simulates close approach of ESA's asteroid mission The final approach to an asteroid has been practised for ESA's proposed Asteroid Impact Mission using a real spacecraft camera mounted on a robot arm. The 2020 AIM mission would find its way a ... more		Minutest absolute magnetic field measurement Every measurement is potentially prone to systematic error. The more sensitive the measurement method, the more important it is to make sure it is also accurate. This is key for example in measuring ... 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		Peering Through Titan's Haze This composite image shows an infrared view of Saturn's moon Titan from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, acquired during the mission's "T-114" flyby on Nov. 13, 2015. The spacecraft's visual and infrared ... more
				Texas Astronomer Solves Mystery of 'Born Again' Stars University of Texas astronomer Natalie Gosnell has used Hubble Space Telescope to better understand why some stars aren't evolving as predicted. These so-called "blue stragglers" look hotter and blu ... more		Russia's Kanopus-ST Research Satellite Deorbited, Heading to Earth The deorbiting of the Russian Kanopus-ST remote sensing satellite for ocean and weather research is currently underway, a space industries source said Monday. The source said that the Kanopus- ... more

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Radio Shadow Reveals Tenuous Cosmic Gas Cloud Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered the most tenuous molecular gas ever observed. They detected the absorption of radio waves by gas clouds in f ... more		To Jupiter with JunoCam When NASA's Juno mission arrives at Jupiter on July 4, 2016, new views of the giant planet's swirling clouds will be sent back to Earth, courtesy of its color camera, called JunoCam. But unlik ... 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 technique to gauge the distant Universe Scientists have developed a technique to use quasars - powerful sources driven by supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies - to study the Universe's history and composition. To demonstrate ... more
ALMA spots monstrous baby galaxies cradled in dark matter Astronomers discovered a nest of monstrous baby galaxies 11.5 billion light-years away using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The young galaxies seem to reside at the junctio ... more		Student discovers stellar chamaeleon had astronomers fooled for years Astronomers have been mistakenly interpreting the dust in the environment of a famous star. A graduate student has discovered that astronomers have for years been mistakenly interpreting the d ... more		Dawn spiraling in towards Ceres An intrepid interplanetary explorer is now powering its way down through the gravity field of a distant alien world. Soaring on a blue-green beam of high-velocity xenon ions, Dawn is making excellen ... more		Shedding light on particle acceleration in solar flares For scientists studying the impacts of space weather, one of the central mysteries of solar flares - the colossal release of magnetic energy in the Sun's atmosphere that erupts with the force of mil ... more

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

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China steps into spotlight at UN climate talks

Space Debris - A Growth Industry?		Event Horizon Telescope reveals magnetic fields in central black hole		Magnified image of faintest galaxy from early universe		Earth-sized telescope finds clue to black hole growth		What kinds of stars form rocky planets
Fermi-type acceleration of interstellar ions driven by high-energy lepton plasma flows		Japan asteroid probe conducts 'Earth swing-by' in space quest		Half of Kepler's giant exoplanet candidates are false positives		Researchers question results from the study of pulsating stars		LISA Pathfinder launch timeline

'Fast radio burst' sheds new light on origin of these extreme events

LISA Pathfinder en route to gravitational wave demonstration

CERN collides heavy nuclei at new record high energy

What is the universe made of

New law establishes ownership rights for space minerals

Cosmic filaments exposed near huge cluster

New insights into the creation of heavy elements

A Look Back at NASA Solar Missions

SOHO Celebrates 20 Years of Space-based Science

Looking back 3.8 billion years into the root of the 'Tree of Life'

Jupiter's whirlwinds: Turning the other way

Simulation shows key to building powerful magnetic fields

LISA Pathfinder - the countdown is running

Exiled exoplanet likely kicked out of star's neighborhood

Many Worlds, Subterranean Edition

Collapsing super stars Hypernova or Gamma-Ray Bursts

What Powers the Explosion of Stars

Using light-force to study single molecules

Who owns space

The hottest white dwarf in the Galaxy

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