The Sky Tonight

February 29, 2016

Is it life, or merely the illusion of life
Seattle WA (SPX) Mar 01, 2016
Research from the University of Washington-based Virtual Planetary Laboratory published Feb. 26 in Astrophysical Journal Letters will help astronomers better identify - and thus rule out - "false positives" in the search for life beyond Earth. Powerful devices such as the James Webb Space Telescope, set for launch in 2018, may help astronomers look for life on a handful of faraway worlds by searching for, among other things, evidence of oxygen - a "biosignature" - in their atmospheres. This is don ... read more

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Hubble's Blue Bubble Sparkling at the center of this beautiful NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a Wolf-Rayet star known as WR 31a, located about 30,000 light-years away in the constellation of Carina (The Keel). ... more		Sun's Magnetic Fields Best at Forecasting Solar Cycle Peaks Models based on the Sun's polar magnetic fields performed best in simulating the solar cycle and predicting solar behavior. Solar activity level rises and falls every 11 years. The most recent maxim ... more		Black holes banish matter into cosmic voids We live in a universe dominated by unseen matter, and on the largest scales, galaxies and everything they contain are concentrated into filaments that stretch around the edge of enormous voids. Thou ... more
				NASA Tests Life-Detection Drill in Earth's Driest Place In a harsh environment with very little water and intense ultraviolet radiation, most life in the extreme Atacama Desert in Chile exists as microbial colonies underground or inside rocks. Researcher ... more		NASA May Return to Moon, But Only After Cutting Off ISS In responding to criticism that NASA has lost its direction under the Obama administration, space policy expert John Logson still believes that while mistake were made, a mission to Mars during the ... more

Hitching a Ride on SLS to Study Solar Particles A miniature research spacecraft called the CubeSat to study Solar Particles (CuSP) is one of the lucky projects that will have the opportunity to hitch a ride on a historic first flight of NASA's Sp ... more		NASA's IBEX observations pin down interstellar magnetic field Immediately after its 2008 launch, NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spotted a curiosity in a thin slice of space: More particles streamed in through a long, skinny swath in the sky th ... more		Europe commercial satellite life extension mission set for 2027 Atlas 5 rocket launches U.S. communications satellite USS Ford in Caribbean; Maduro blasts US-T&T drills		Small Asteroid to Pass Close to Earth March 8 Additional observations of asteroid 2013 TX68 have been obtained, refining its orbital path and moving the date of the asteroid's Earth flyby from March 5 to March 8. The observations, from ar ... more
				Object located around a black hole 5 billion light-years from Earth has been measured A team of Spanish researchers, with the participation of the University of Granada (UGR), has accurately detected a structure in the innermost region of a quasar (small, very far objects that emit h ... more		Lunar love: When science meets artistry ASU professor hopes Smithsonian exhibition of LROC team's striking images gets people excited about returning to the moon. Sometimes you get the party started by accidentally crashing someone else's ... 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

See the cosmos with X-ray vision In June 1962, an Aerobee 150 sounding-rocket blasted above the Earth's atmosphere from the White Sands Missile Range in the United States of America. During its five-minute flight, the small researc ... more		The Prolonged Death of Light from Type Ia Supernovae Three years after its explosion, a type Ia supernova continues to shine brighter than expected, new research finds. The observations, made with the Hubble Space Telescope and published in The Astrop ... more		Iran begins cloud seeding operations as people pray for rain in Tehran Brazil Sees Massive Climate Protests as COP30 Hits Halfway Mark Death toll from Indonesia landslide rises to 11; Flood kills two in storm-hit Portugal		Solved! First distance to a 'fast radio burst' For the first time a team of scientists has tracked down the location of a fast radio burst (FRB), confirming that these short but spectacular flashes of radio waves originate in the distant univers ... more
Subaru-HiCIAO Spots Young Stars Surreptitiously Gluttonizing Their Birth Clouds An international team led by researchers at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) has used a new infrared imaging technique to reveal dramatic moments in star and plane ... more		Controlling ultrafast electrons in motion An international team has used the light produced by the Free Electron Laser FERMI at the research Centre Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste in the AREA Science Park to control the ultrafast movement of el ... more		Imaging Technique May Help Discover Earth-Like Planets Around Other Stars 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		ATLASGAL survey of Milky Way completed APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment telescope, is located at 5100 metres above sea level on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile's Atacama region. The ATLASGAL survey took advantage of the unique cha ... more

	LIGO's twin black holes might have been born inside a single star On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes 29 and 36 times the mass of the Sun. Such an eve ... more		Chinese firm abandons acquisition over US scrutiny A Chinese tech firm has abandoned a multi-billion dollar investment in an American hard-disk manufacturer, state media reported Thursday, after the plan came under scrutiny from US lawmakers. ... more

Mechanical power by linking Earth's warmth to space

AI energy demand in US proves minor climate impact

COP30 climate pledges favour land-based carbon removal over emission cuts

Researchers demonstrate 'quantum surrealism'		New Lunar Exhibit Features NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Imagery		SAMSI Poised to Help Hone Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Astronomers' New Sense		Newly discovered planet in the Hyades cluster could shed light on planetary evolution		Pulsar Web Could Detect Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves
The prolonged death of light from type Ia supernovae		Freefall achieved on LISA Pathfinder		RIT researchers study implications of gravitational waves		Should we work together in the race to mine the solar system		Imaging technique may help discover Earth-like planets

SETI Camera Array Spots Surprise Meteor Shower

Quantum processes control accurately to several attoseconds

A quantum device based on geometry

Quantum experiments designed by machines

Eternal 5D data storage could record the history of humankind

NASA releases strange 'music' heard by 1969 astronauts

On the Hunt for X-ray Signals from the Extragalactic Universe

Titan Temperature Lag Maps and Animation

Eying exomoons in the search for E.T.

Galaxy trailed by stunning plume of gas

NASA Invites Public to Send Artwork to an Asteroid

Puzzling asteroid observations explained by destruction of asteroids close to Sun

Longest-Lasting Stellar Eclipse Discovered

Astronomer detects new source of intense gamma-radiation in the sky

NASA Report Details Expert Team Investigation of Asteroid Redirect Mission

Astronomers take images of an exoplanet changing over time

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

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