The Sky Tonight

December 16, 2015

NASA: Asteroid to pass by Earth on Christmas Eve
Washington (UPI) Dec 15, 2015
That's not Rudolph's nose, it's just a giant rock hurtling through space. NASA scientists calculate that asteroid 163899, also known as 2003 SD220, will make its closest approach to Earth on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2015. The asteroid is rather large, thought to measure between 0.5 and 1.5 miles wide. Contrary to reports that it will graze Earth or trigger earthquakes, the asteroid won't actually come all that close. The space rock will remain at a safe distance of 6,787,600 miles, mo ... read more

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Exoplanets Water Mystery Solved A survey of 10 hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets conducted with NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has led a team to solve a long-standing mystery - why some of these worlds seem to have less wa ... more		XXL hunt for galaxy clusters Galaxy clusters are massive congregations of galaxies that host huge reservoirs of hot gas - the temperatures are so high that X-rays are produced. These structures are useful to astronomers because ... more		Quantum physics problem proved unsolvable A mathematical problem underlying fundamental questions in particle and quantum physics is provably unsolvable, according to scientists at UCL, Universidad Complutense de Madrid - ICMAT and Technica ... more
				Mystery of missing exoplanet water solved Astronomers from the University of Exeter have helped shed light on the atmospheres of a group of planets which orbit stars outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. Exeter academics led ... more		Japan asteroid probe enters 'target orbit' in space quest A Japanese space probe successfully entered "target orbit" and is on its way to rendezvousing with a far away asteroid, in a quest to study the origin of the solar system, authorities said Monday. ... more

New Results from the LUX Dark Matter Detector The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment, which operates nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has already ... more		Hubble reveals diversity of exoplanet atmosphere Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope to study the atmospheres of ten hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets in detail, the largest number of such pla ... more		HawkEye 360 expands signals intelligence network with operational deployment of Cluster 12 York confirms successful deployment and health of 21 satellites for SDA Tranche 1 mission Spain faces uphill battle to cut Israel military ties: experts		Hayabusa2 Earth Swing-by Result The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed that the Asteroid Explorer "Hayabusa2" is cruising on its target orbit after measuring and calc ... more
				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		Ride along with Rosetta through the eyes of OSIRIS Rosetta's OSIRIS camera team has launched a new website to showcase their recent images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The high-resolution images, taken either with the narrow- or wide-angle s ... more

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Saving NASA's STEREO-B On Oct. 1, 2014, NASA mission operations lost communication with one of the two spacecraft of the Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, mission, just as the spacecraft was about to ... more		No extraterrestrial laser pulses detected from KIC 8462852 The anomalous star KIC 8462852 has baffled astronomers with its erratic dimming, causing some to speculate that it's orbited by a massive structure built by an extraterrestrial civilization. To help ... more		Climate change causing havoc with global water cycle: UN Schools shut, flights cancelled as Typhoon Ragasa nears Hong Kong Over 60,000 Europeans died from heat during 2024 summer: study		Huge organs defy austerity for tiny cave snails in the subterranean realm While most of the knowledge about tiny snails comes from studying empty shells sifted out from piles of dust and sand, the present research is the first contemporary microscopic exploration of organ ... more
Planetary Science Institute receives Data Archiving Services The Planetary Science Institute received a $4 million, five year cooperative agreement from NASA to manage the Planetary Data System's Asteroid and Dust Subnode. The Subnode is part of the Small Bod ... more		Astronomers recall discovery of source of Geminids The beautiful Geminids meteor shower is due to light up the heavens this weekend, but the source of the enigmatic cosmic display had eluded stargazers for more than 120 years. Although the pop ... more		'Quasiparticles' reveal incredibly minute distortions in light waves Optics researchers have discovered a new way to measure incredibly small distortions in light waves by indirectly studying the behavior of curious 'quasiparticles' - ripples in the electric field th ... more		What spawned the Jellyfish Nebula? The Jellyfish Nebula, also known by its official name IC 443, is the remnant of a supernova lying 5,000 light years from Earth. New Chandra observations show that the explosion that created the Jell ... more

	Dwarf planet Ceres: water vapor in Occator crater When the Sun shines into the Occator crater on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres, a kind of thin haze appears above its brightest spot. This can be seen in images taken by the camera system aboa ... more		A 'ghost from the past' recalls the infancy of the Milky Way When our galaxy was born, around 13,000 million years ago, a plethora of clusters containing millions of stars emerged. But over time, they have been disappearing. However, hidden behind younger sta ... more

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NASA telescopes detect Jupiter-like storm on small star		XPRIZE verifies moon express launch contract, kicking off new space race		Airbus signs contract to develop and build JUICE spacecraft		Student helps discover new planet, calculates frequency of Jupiter-like planets		VLT revisits a curious cosmic collision
New clues to Ceres' bright spots and origins		Titan helps researchers explore explosive star scenarios		Geminid meteors will dazzle on December 13th and 14th		Study: Sun capable of destructive superflare		Scientists explain origin of heavy elements in the Universe

Prometheus up close about Saturn

Alternative stellar lifestyle: Common, curious, solved at last

Robot arm simulates close approach of ESA's asteroid mission

Minutest absolute magnetic field measurement

Peering Through Titan's Haze

Texas Astronomer Solves Mystery of 'Born Again' Stars

Russia's Kanopus-ST Research Satellite Deorbited, Heading to Earth

Radio Shadow Reveals Tenuous Cosmic Gas Cloud

To Jupiter with JunoCam

New US space mining law to spark interplanetary gold rush

Space Debris - A Growth Industry?

A new technique to gauge the distant Universe

ALMA spots monstrous baby galaxies cradled in dark matter

Student discovers stellar chamaeleon had astronomers fooled for years

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

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