The Sky Tonight

February 24, 2016

Should we work together in the race to mine the solar system
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 24, 2016
With interest in the prospect of mining the moon and asteroids gaining pace, it's time to take a hard look at what's really at stake. From the time of the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, space has been regarded as the common heritage of humanity. This is reflected in the landmark United Nations Outer Space Treaty (OST) of 1967. Among other things, it affirms that all have a right to access space for peaceful and scientific purposes, and prohibits the sovereign appropriation of outer space. The ... read more

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Imaging technique may help discover Earth-like planets One of the biggest quests in astrophysics is to find Earth-like planets around other stars - places where life may exist. Regular telescopes are not good at directly imaging such small objects becau ... more		SETI Camera Array Spots Surprise Meteor Shower A new network of video surveillance cameras in New Zealand has detected a surprise meteor shower on New Year's Eve. The shower is called the Volantids, named after the constellation Volans, the flyi ... more		A quantum device based on geometry While a classical bit found in conventional electronics exists only in binary 1 or 0 states, the more resourceful quantum bit, or 'qubit' is represented by a vector, pointing to a simultaneous combi ... more
				On the Hunt for X-ray Signals from the Extragalactic Universe Hunting X-ray signals from the distant universe requires years of strenuous work, a lot of dedicated scientists and an experienced leader to head the scientific efforts. Astrophysicist Niel Brandt o ... more		Eying exomoons in the search for E.T. When I was young, the only planets we knew about were the ones in our own solar system. Astronomers presumed that many of the other stars in the night sky had planets too, but this was sheer specula ... more

NASA releases strange 'music' heard by 1969 astronauts NASA has made public a recording of strange "music" that astronauts reported hearing in 1969 while on the far side of the Moon, out of radio contact with the Earth. ... more		Titan Temperature Lag Maps and Animation This sequence of maps shows varying surface temperatures on Saturn's moon Titan at two-year intervals, from 2004 to 2016. The measurements were made by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) ins ... more		Russia offers to extend nuclear arms limits with US Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact Brazil, Chile sign defense agreement		Galaxy trailed by stunning plume of gas Astronomers have discovered a spectacular tail of gas more than 300,000 light years across coming from a nearby galaxy. The plume is made up of hydrogen gas--the material new stars are made of ... more
				RIT researchers study implications of gravitational waves Rochester Institute of Technology researchers continue exploring gravitational waves in a series of upcoming papers. Their reports follow the first direct detection of these waves, predicted by Albe ... more		Eternal 5D data storage could record the history of humankind Scientists at the University of Southampton have made a major step forward in the development of digital data storage that is capable of surviving for billions of years. Using nanostructured glass, ... more

Space Tech Expo - Design - Build - Test - Pasadena CA - May 24-26, 2016

Military Radar Summit 2016 - Washington DC - February 29

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

NASA Invites Public to Send Artwork to an Asteroid NASA is calling all space enthusiasts to send their artistic endeavors on a journey aboard NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) s ... more		Puzzling asteroid observations explained by destruction of asteroids close to Sun An international team composed of researchers from Finland, France, the United States and the Czech Republic originally set out to construct a state-of-the-art model of the NEO population that is ne ... more		Ex-US climate envoy: Trump threatening 'consensus science' worldwide How did an Indian zoo get the world's most endangered great ape? Australian scientists grapple with 'despicable' butterfly heist		Longest-Lasting Stellar Eclipse Discovered Imagine living on a world where, every 69 years, the sun disappears in a near-total eclipse that lasts for three and a half years. That is just what happens in an unnamed binary star system ne ... more
Astronomer detects new source of intense gamma-radiation in the sky Analyzing the data collected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Maxim Pshirkov (The Sternberg Astronomical Institute, MSU) discovered a new source that confirmed the fact that binary systems wit ... more		NASA Report Details Expert Team Investigation of Asteroid Redirect Mission A new report chartered by NASA provides input to important areas of robotic mission requirements development and explores the science benefits and potential knowledge gain from the agency's Asteroid ... more		US, Spain to Jointly Monitor Outer Space Traffic The United States and Spain have signed a memorandum agreeing to monitor space by sharing situational data, the US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) said in a press release on Tuesday. "Our space s ... more		Quantum processes control accurately to several attoseconds A team of physicists including Russian researchers succeeded in conducting an experiment in which, for the first time in history, control over ultrafast motion of electrons down to three attoseconds ... more

	Quantum experiments designed by machines Quantum physicist Mario Krenn and his colleagues in the group of Anton Zeilinger from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have developed an algori ... more		Astronomers take images of an exoplanet changing over time Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers at the University of Arizona have taken the first direct, time-resolved images of an exoplanet. Their results were published in The Astrophysical Jou ... more

What to look for in China and Europe's climate plans

Chinese firms pay price of jihadist strikes against Mali junta

EU states agree broad UN emissions target avoiding 'embarrassment'

Ultrafast microscope used to make slow-motion electron movie		Five-dimensional black hole could 'break' general relativity		New clues in the hunt for the sources of cosmic neutrinos		Canonical transformation provides insights into many-particle physics		LIGO-India Gets Green Light
Test cubes floating freely inside LISA Pathfinder		Hubble Directly Measures Rotation of Cloudy 'Super-Jupiter'		Japan launches satellite to study black holes		China Relocates 10,000 for Giant Telescope to Search for Alien Life		NASA Helps Power Grids Weather Geomagnetic Storms

Glow from the Big Bang Allows Discovery of Distant Black Hole Jet

Dynamical systems theory enhances knowledge of Jupiter's atmosphere

Reproducing the large-scale Universe

NASA chooses ASU to design and operate special satellite

Chinese scientists invent leak detection system for moon exploration

First detection of super-earth atmosphere

China's space telescope to displace humans in search for aliens

Exploiting high speed light for super slow science

The mystery about the Chelyabinsk superbolide continues three years later

Proto-planet has 2 masters

Dark matter scientists on brink of discovering elusive particles

Volcanoes Light Up Atmospheres of Small Exoplanets

Planet formation around binary star

Russian Scientists Against Using Nuclear Weapons to Clear Space Debris

Rosetta's lander faces eternal hibernation

Astronomers use Hubble to find rare supernova 'impostor' in a nearby galaxy

Slime can see

Two new zoantharian species found on eunicid worms in the dark in the Indo-Pacific ocean

Stanford technological advances helped made gravitational wave detection possible

Farewell Philae: Earth says goodbye to comet probe

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