The Sky Tonight

March 08, 2016

Dawn's First Year at Ceres: A Mountain Emerges
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 08, 2016
One year ago, on March 6, 2015, NASA's Dawn spacecraft slid gently into orbit around Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Since then, the spacecraft has delivered a wealth of images and other data that open an exciting new window to the previously unexplored dwarf planet. "Ceres has defied our expectations and surprised us in many ways, thanks to a year's worth of data from Dawn. We are hard at work on the mysteries the spacecraft has presented to us," said Carol ... read more

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Mar 07

Mar 05

Mar 04

Mar 03

Mar 02

Scientists explain why Mercury's surface is so dark Astronomers have long struggled to explain Mercury's darkness, but new research suggests carbon is responsible for the planet's limited reflectivity. ... more		TX68: Trash or Treasure? As asteroid TX68 nears its close approach on March 8, Dr. John Lewis, chief scientist at Deep Space Industries, discusses whether or not it's a good mining prospect. A small asteroid called 20 ... more		Close Encounter with Jupiter "413 million miles" sounds like a looong way. Something you can see in March might change your mind. On March 8th, 2016 Earth and Jupiter will have a close encounter-at only 413 million miles apart. ... more
				Evidence found for unstable heavy element at solar system formation University of Chicago scientists have discovered evidence in a meteorite that a rare element, curium, was present during the formation of the solar system. This finding ends a 35-year-old debate on ... more		Star Trek's vision becomes reality in teleportation first 'Beam me up, Scotty' - even if Captain Kirk supposedly never said this exact phrase, it remains a popular catch-phrase to this day. Whenever the chief commander of the television series starship USS ... more

FSU student researcher cracks origin story of meteorite A Florida State University student has cracked the code to reveal the deep and interesting history of an ancient meteorite that likely formed at the time our planets were just developing. Jona ... more		Hubble team breaks cosmic distance record By pushing NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to its limits, an international team of astronomers has shattered the cosmic distance record by measuring the farthest galaxy ever seen in the universe. This ... more		Russia offers to extend nuclear arms limits with US Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact Brazil, Chile sign defense agreement		Shattering the Cosmic Distance Record, Once Again Yale astronomers have found the farthest known galaxy in the universe - again. Less than a year after aiding in the measurement of a galaxy 13.1 billion light years into the past, Yale researchers l ... more
				NASA's science during the March 2016 total solar eclipse As the moon slowly covers the face of the sun on the morning of March 9, 2016, in Indonesia, a team of NASA scientists will be anxiously awaiting the start of totality - because at that moment, thei ... more		China to use data relay satellite to explore dark side of moon China will launch a data relay satellite to ensure communication between Earth and the lunar probe during an expedition to the far side of the moon, Ye Peijian, chief scientist with China's lunar ex ... more

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

Military Network Modernization 2016 - Washington DC - April 25-27

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

ALMA Spots Baby Star's Growing Blanket A research team, led by Yusuke Aso (a graduate student at the University of Tokyo) and Nagayoshi Ohashi (a professor at the Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) observed the ... more		New photos show 'magic island' on Saturn's moon New images captured by the Cassini probe showcase the shifting shape of a geological feature on Saturn's moon known informally as "magic island." ... 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		What if extraterrestrial observers called, but nobody heard As scientists step up their search for other life in the universe, two astrophysicists are proposing a way to make sure we don't miss the signal if extraterrestrial observers try to contact us first ... more
Searching for Extraterrestrials Who Might Have Found Us First Are we alone in the universe? To answer this question, astronomers have been using a variety of methods in the past decades to search for habitable planets and for the signals from extraterrestrial ... more		Celestial bodies born like cracking paint A Duke theorist says there's a very good reason why objects in the universe come in a wide variety of sizes, from the largest stars to the smallest dust motes - and it has a lot to do with how paint ... more		Why celestial bodies come in different sizes Our solar system contains one massive object - the sun - and many smaller planets and asteroids. Now researchers from Duke University in Durham, N.C. have proposed a new explanation for the size div ... more		German scientists successfully teleport classical information Using a series of laser beams, a pair of German scientists successfully teleported classical information without the transfer or matter or energy. ... more

	Three 'twisted' photons in 3 dimensions Researchers at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, the University of Vienna, and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have achieved a new milestone in quantum physics: they wer ... more		The realm of buried giants RCW 106 is a sprawling cloud of gas and dust located about 12 000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Norma (The Carpenter's Square). The region gets its name from being the 106th entr ... 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'

Mysterious cosmic radio bursts found to repeat		Explosive start not needed for fast radio bursts		Coronal mass ejection simulations to boost space weather forecasting		Smoking Gun Uncovering Secret of Cosmic Bullets		Don't Panic: asteroid won't hit Earth but will get close
New fast radio burst discovery finds 'missing matter' in the universe		Tethys, Janus pose with Saturn's rings in new NASA photo		Is it life, or merely the illusion of life		Hitching a Ride on SLS to Study Solar Particles		NASA's IBEX observations pin down interstellar magnetic field

NASA Tests Life-Detection Drill in Earth's Driest Place

Hubble's Blue Bubble

Sun's Magnetic Fields Best at Forecasting Solar Cycle Peaks

Black holes banish matter into cosmic voids

NASA May Return to Moon, But Only After Cutting Off ISS

Small Asteroid to Pass Close to Earth March 8

Controlling ultrafast electrons in motion

Object located around a black hole 5 billion light-years from Earth has been measured

Imaging Technique May Help Discover Earth-Like Planets Around Other Stars

Researchers demonstrate 'quantum surrealism'

ATLASGAL survey of Milky Way completed

Lunar love: When science meets artistry

LIGO's twin black holes might have been born inside a single star

See the cosmos with X-ray vision

The Prolonged Death of Light from Type Ia Supernovae

Solved! First distance to a 'fast radio burst'

Subaru-HiCIAO Spots Young Stars Surreptitiously Gluttonizing Their Birth Clouds

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

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