The Sky Tonight

January 14, 2016

Exposed ice on Rosetta's comet confirmed as water
Paris (ESA) Jan 14, 2016
Observations made shortly after Rosetta's arrival at its target comet in 2014 have provided definitive confirmation of the presence of water ice. Although water vapour is the main gas seen flowing from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the great majority of ice is believed to come from under the comet's crust, and very few examples of exposed water ice have been found on the surface. However, a detailed analysis by Rosetta's VIRTIS infrared instrument reveals the composition of the comet's topmost ... read more

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Nitrogen May Be A Sign of Habitability We might commonly think of Earth as having an oxygen-dominated atmosphere, but in reality the molecule makes up only a fifth of our air. Most of what surrounds us is nitrogen, at 78 percent. Astrobi ... more		First light for future black hole probe Zooming in on black holes is the main mission for the newly installed instrument GRAVITY at ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile. During its first observations, GRAVITY successfully combined starligh ... more		Green pea galaxy provides insights to early universe evolution Newly formed dwarf galaxies were likely the reason that the universe heated up about 13 billion years ago, according to new work by an international team of scientists that included a University of ... more
				Gravitational wave rumors ripple through science world Rumors are rippling through the science world that physicists may have detected gravitational waves, a key element of Einstein's theory which if confirmed would be one of the biggest discoveries of our time. ... more		Time running out for comet probe Philae Scientists will send a few final prods to robot lab Philae, incommunicado on the surface of a comet hurtling through space, but hopes for a reply are running out, they said Tuesday. ... more

New Details on Ceres Seen in Dawn Images Features on dwarf planet Ceres that piqued the interest of scientists throughout 2015 stand out in exquisite detail in the latest images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which recently reached its lowes ... more		The most energetic light ever observed from a few kilometers large star Scientists working with the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) observatory have reported the discovery of the most energetic pulsed emission radiation ever detected from the neutr ... 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		Runaway stars leave infrared waves In the last year, astronomers from the University of Wyoming have discovered roughly 100 of the fastest-moving stars in the Milky Way galaxy with the aid of images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescop ... more
				Space Protection - A Financial Primer Last week, Space News aired a timely and important article by Mike Gruss on "Satellites in the Crosshairs." We rarely hear details about the highly classified arena of activities known as Space Prot ... more		Saturn the Mighty Washington DC (SPX) Jan 12, 2016 It is easy to forget just how large Saturn is, at around 10 times the diameter of Earth. And with a diameter of about 72,400 miles (116,500 kilometers), the planet ... more

Military Radar Summit 2016 - Washington DC - February 29

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Lunar mission moves a step closer China has developed the manufacturing techniques for a key part to be used on its super-heavy rocket that will fulfill the nation's manned missions to the moon. The China Academy of Launch Veh ... more		A New Way to Explore Dark Matter Ripples in gas at the outer disk of our galaxy have puzzled astronomers since they were first revealed by radio observations a decade ago. Now, astronomers believe they have found the culprit - a dw ... 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		First global age map of the Milky Way Using completely new ways of deducing the ages of so-called red giant stars from observational data, astronomers have created the first large-scale map that shows stellar ages in the Milky Way. ... more
Vietnam army probes mysterious 'space balls' Vietnam's military is investigating the appearance of three mysterious metal balls - believed to be debris from space - which landed in the country's remote north, a senior army official said Friday. ... more		Novel metasurface revolutionizes ubiquitous scientific tool What do astrophysics, telecommunications and pharmacology have in common? Each of these fields relies on polarimeters - instruments that detect the direction of the oscillation of electromagnetic wa ... more		NASA Office to Coordinate Asteroid Detection, Hazard Mitigation NASA has formalized its ongoing program for detecting and tracking near-Earth objects (NEOs) as the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). The office remains within NASA's Planetary Science D ... more		Dawn imaging in close Ceres orbit Dawn is now performing the final act of its remarkable celestial choreography, held close in Ceres' firm gravitational embrace. The distant explorer is developing humankind's most intimate portrait ... more

	Hubble Sees a Supermassive and Super-hungry Galaxy This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 4845, located over 65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). The galaxy's orientation clear ... more		Quiet quasar has apparently eaten its fill Astronomers with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) announced that a distant quasar ran out of gas. Their conclusions, reported Jan. 8 at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Kissimmee, Flo ... more

Tariff uncertainty delays World Cup orders for China's merch makers

EU business lobby head says China rare earths snag persists

IEA feels the heat as Washington pushes pro-oil agenda

Student-Built Experiment Integrated onto NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission		Most distant massive galaxy cluster identified		Ancient Gas Cloud May Be Relic from First Stars		Galaxy Quakes Could Improve Hunt for Dark Matter		Black hole affecting galactic climate
Last-chance bid to contact space robot Philae		Can we use magnetic fields to make and manipulate gravity?		Former COD Student Working in Antarctica on IceCube Neutrino Project		Getting Down to Earth with Space Hazards		Momentum builds for creation of 'moon villages'

Lab discovery gives glimpse of conditions found on other planets

Physicists offer theories to explain mysterious collision at Large Hadron Collider

NASA's Chandra Finds Supermassive Black Hole Burping Nearby

Galactic merger reveals an unusual black hole that has shed its stars

AAVSO observers contribute to understanding the black hole binary V404 Cygni

'Seeing' black holes with the naked eye

NASA Telescopes Find 'Twins' of Superstar Eta Carinae

VLA Reveals New Evidence About Star, Planet Formation

Bacteria, electrons spin in similar patterns

40-Year-Old Mystery on Size of Shadowy Galaxies Solved

Chang'e-3 landing site named "Guang Han Gong"

Globular clusters could host interstellar civilizations

It's official! Element 113 was discovered at RIKEN

Runaway Stars Leave Infrared Waves in Space

Russian scientists to develop dark matter detection model

Strong magnetic fields in the cores of many stars

Strong magnetic fields discovered in majority of stars

Aging stars stop slowing down

A Triple Play Out Saturn Way

Rotational clock for stars needs recalibration

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