The Sky Tonight

August 19, 2016

Venus-like Exoplanet Might Have Oxygen Atmosphere, but Not Life
Boston MA (SPX) Aug 19, 2016
The distant planet GJ 1132b intrigued astronomers when it was discovered last year. Located just 39 light-years from Earth, it might have an atmosphere despite being baked to a temperature of around 450 degrees Fahrenheit. But would that atmosphere be thick and soupy or thin and wispy? New research suggests the latter is much more likely. Harvard astronomer Laura Schaefer (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, or CfA) and her colleagues examined the question of what would happen to GJ 1132b ... read more

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A star's birth holds early clues to life-potential Our solar system began as a cloud of gas and dust. Over time, gravity slowly pulled these bits together into the Sun and planets we recognize today. While not every system is friendly to life, astro ... more		The outer edge of a star's habitable zone a hard place for life Earth is situated right in the middle of our Sun's habitable zone and it's a comfortable place for life. We enjoy a relatively stable climate and the right amount of warmth to allow liquid water. ... more		Roscosmos to spend $7.5Mln studying issues of manned lunar missions The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos will spend 478 million rubles ($7.5 million) on studying issues of manned flights to the moon, data published on the Russian public procurement web port ... more
				NASA prepares to launch first US asteroid sample return mission NASA is preparing to launch its first mission to return a sample of an asteroid to Earth. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our u ... more		How we escaped from the Big Bang Associate Professor Dr Joan Vaccaro, of Griffith's Centre for Quantum Dynamics, has solved an anomaly of conventional physics and shown that a mysterious effect called 'T violation' could be the ori ... more

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Time-lapse images reveal Perseid meteors around the globe New imagery reveals what the Perseids looked like from all over the world. Student scientists created a composite of streaking meteors, building a global map of the meteor shower. ... more		NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission Completes Design Milestone Following a key program review, NASA approved the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to proceed to the next phase of design and development for the mission's robotic segment. ARM is a two-part mission ... more		'The war of tomorrow will begin in space': Macron UN watchdog calls on Iran to urgently allow 'long overdue' uranium stockpile verification How drones are altering contemporary warfare		Observatory Measures Oxygen in Galaxy 12 Billion Years Ago UCLA astronomers have used the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii, to make the first accurate measurement of the abundance of oxygen in a distant galaxy. Oxygen, the third-most abundant chem ... more
				Brown dwarfs reveal exoplanets' secrets Brown dwarfs are smaller than stars, but more massive than giant planets. As such, they provide a natural link between astronomy and planetary science. However, they also show incredible variation w ... more		Cosmology: Lore of lonely regions A research group led by Ludwig-Maximilians-Unversitaet (LMU) in Munich physicist Nico Hamaus is calculating the dynamics of cosmic voids and deriving new insights into our entire universe. Muc ... more

2nd Integrated Air and Missile Defense - Securing the Complex Air Domain: Requirements for Sustainable, Global, and Reliable Solutions to Next Generation Air & Missile Threats - 28-30 September, 2016 | Washington D.C.

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

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Scientists take big step toward recreating primordial 'RNA world' Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have taken a big step toward the laboratory re-creation of the "RNA world," which is generally believed to have preceded modern life forms based o ... more		Nuclear puzzle may be clue to fifth force In a new paper, University of California, Riverside theoretical physicist Flip Tanedo and his collaborators have made new progress towards unravelling a mystery in the beryllium nucleus that may be ... more		A neuron's hardy bunch Neuroscientists have long known that brain cells communicate with each other through the release of tiny bubbles packed with neurotransmitters--a fleet of vessels docked along neuronal ends ready to ... more		New material discovery allows study of elusive Weyl fermion Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have discovered a new type of Weyl semimetal, a material that opens the way for further study of Weyl fermions, a type of massless elem ... more

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