The Sky Tonight

May 17, 2016

Manchester astronomers detect helium-3 4000 light years away
Manchester, UK (SPX) May 17, 2016
A team of astronomers from The University of Manchester, together with collaborators from the Centro de Astrobiologia and the Deep Space Network, Spain and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, have detected a rare gas 4000 light years away from Earth. The discovery, made using the largest antenna of NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex (70 metres in diameter), could help scientists to understand more about the history of this important element. Helium-3 is a gas that has th ... read more

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NASA directly observes fundamental process of nature for 1st time Like sending sensors up into a hurricane, NASA has flown four spacecraft through an invisible maelstrom in space, called magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection is one of the prime drivers of s ... more		Simons observatory will investigate the early universe Princeton University researchers will have an integral role in the Simons Observatory, a new astronomy facility in South America recently established with a $38.4 million grant from the Simons Found ... more		Hubble spies a spiral snowflake Together with irregular galaxies, spiral galaxies make up approximately 60 percent of the galaxies in the local universe. However, despite their prevalence, each spiral galaxy is unique - like snowf ... more
				Chandra movie captures expanding debris from stellar explosion When the star that created this supernova remnant exploded in 1572, it was so bright that it was visible during the day. And though he wasn't the first or only person to observe this stellar spectac ... more		Amateurs prepare big-picture perspective to support Juno Some of the world's leading amateur and professional astronomers are meeting on 12-13 May to prepare for a campaign of ground-based global observations in support of NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter. ... more

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

Small blue galaxy could shed new light on Big Bang, IU astronomers say A faint blue galaxy about 30 million light-years from Earth and located in the constellation Leo Minor could shed new light on conditions at the birth of the universe. Astronomers at Indiana Univers ... more		Exoplanets' Orbits Point to Planetary Migration The four planets of the Kepler-223 star system seem to have little in common with the planets of Earth's own solar system. And yet a new study shows that the Kepler-223 system is trapped in an orbit ... more		U.S. defense in free fall Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact Brazil, Chile sign defense agreement		MMS Puts Magnetic Reconnection Under the Microscope A team led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has made the first direct detection of the source of magnetic reconnection. Analyzing data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, scie ... more
				Close-up Hubble images show new details of comet Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured images of Comet 252P/LINEAR just after a close encounter with Earth on March 21. The close proximity to the comet offered scientists new insi ... more		How light is detected affects the atom that emits it Flick a switch on a dark winter day and your office is flooded with bright light, one of many everyday miracles to which we are all usually oblivious. A physicist would probably describe what is hap ... more

Human 2 Mars Conference May 17-19 2016 - Washington DC

Transition from Operations to Decommissioning by Preparing a Safe, Cost-Effective Shut Down and Waste Management Strategy

The World's Largest Commercial Drone Conference and Expo - Sept 7-9 - Las Vegas

Directed Energy And Next Generation Munitions - 20-22 June - Washington DC

Dartmouth announces new way to explore mathematical universe An international group of mathematicians at Dartmouth College and other institutions have released a new online resource that provides detailed maps of previously uncharted mathematical terrain. ... more		Nuclear physics' interdisciplinary progress The theoretical view of the structure of the atom nucleus is not carved in stone. Particularly, nuclear physics research could benefit from approaches found in other fields of physics. Reflections o ... more		GUARDIAN Tsunami Detection Tech Catches Wave in Real Time Galileo daughter mission named Celeste to strengthen navigation resilience How quantum computers can be validated when solving unsolvable problems		Star Has Four Mini-Neptunes Orbiting in Lock Step A four-planet system observed several years ago by the Kepler spacecraft is actually a rarity: Its planets, all miniature Neptunes nestled close to the star, are orbiting in a unique resonance that ... more
Did Star Formation Regulation Change as the Universe Evolved An international team led by scientists at the Subaru Telescope and Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich in Switzerland used the W. M. Keck Observatory to study the role of star formati ... more		Metal Content in Early Galaxies Challenges Star Forming Theory An International team led by scientists at ETH Zurich in Switzerland used the W. M. Keck Observatory to study the role of star formation rates in metal contents of distant galaxies. What they discov ... more		Spacecraft fly through magnetic phenomenon to understand space weather For the first time, spacecraft have flown through the heart of a magnetic process that controls Earth's space weather and geomagnetic storms. The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic bubble, called the ... more		Physicists measure van der Waals forces of individual atoms for the first time Physicists at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the University of Basel have succeeded in measuring the very weak van der Waals forces between individual atoms for the first time. To do this, they ... more

	A quasiparticle collider In the early 1900s, Ernest Rutherford shot alpha particles onto gold foils and concluded from their scattering properties that atoms contain their mass in a very small nucleus. A hundred years later ... more		Atomic force microscope reveals molecular ghosts To the surprise of chemists, a new technique for taking snapshots of molecules with atomic precision is turning up chemicals they shouldn't be able to see. Chemical reactions take place so rap ... more

Ohio State scientists advance focus on nuclear propulsion

Mixing neutrinos of colliding neutron stars changes how merger unfolds

China launches experimental satellites to enhance mobile space internet

Exploring the mathematical universe		Asteroid Mining - What the Heck		Synchronized planets reveal clues to planet formation		Kepler space telescope finds another 1284 exo planets		Building compact particle accelerators
Intense wind found in neighborhood of a black hole		The hard knock life of Saturn's Epimetheus		Observing how microbes adapt in a spaceflight environment		When neutron stars emit gravitational waves		Comet craters - literal melting pots for life on Earth

Swept Up in the Solar Wind

Natural Causes, Not Aliens, Explain Mystery Star's Behavior

Sun's magnetic field during the grand minimum is in fact at its maximum

NASA says 1,284 new planets found by Kepler telescope

Enceladus jets: surprises in starlight

Silicate stardust traces histories of dust in the galaxy

Airbus Defence and Space to lead TeSeR, next EU project to clean up space

First global topographic model of Mercury

'Starspot' images give insights into early sun

Accelerating complex computer simulations: thinking beyond ones and zeros

Stochastic resonance, chaos transfer shown in microresonator

NASA sounding-rocket missions will explore coronal nanoflares

Three potentially habitable worlds found around nearby ultracool dwarf star

NMSU investigates phenomenon crucial for solar flare production

The 2016 Transit of Mercury

Scientists discover potentially habitable planets

Measuring a black hole 660 million times as massive as our sun

MIT compiles list of potential gases to guide search for life on exoplanets

Marshall simulates the solar and space environment to further exploration

UCI astronomers determine precise mass of a giant black hole

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