The Sky Tonight

August 23, 2016

Space tourists eye $150mln Soyuz lunar flyby
Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 23, 2016
Russia's S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia is preparing a Moon expedition on board an upgraded Soyuz spacecraft with eight space tourists interested in a trip, Energia's General Director Vladimir Solntsev said Friday. Energia has been cooperating with the US-based Space Adventures space tourism company to find potential tourists wishing to fly around the Moon. "We have a preliminary design for upgrading the Soyuz spacecraft, which was conceived with the possibility of o ... read more

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Proba-3: seeing through shadow to view Sun's corona Every 18 months or so, scientists and sensation-seekers gather at set points on Earth's surface, to await awe-inspiring solar eclipses. The Moon briefly blocks the Sun, revealing its mysterious oute ... more		Gaia's second anniversary marked by successes and challenges Operating in the depths of space, far beyond the Moon's orbit, ESA's Gaia spacecraft has now completed two years of a planned five-year survey of the sky. Despite a series of unexpected technical ch ... more		NASA Establishes Contact With STEREO Mission On Aug. 21, 2016, contact was reestablished with one of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories, known as the STEREO-B spacecraft, after communications were lost on Oct. 1, 2014. Over ... more
				Cameras Capture Perseid Meteors from Florida Tech, Global Locations Time-lapse images captured during the peak of this summer's Perseid meteor shower have been released by the SkySentinel project, in which students at Florida Institute of Technology monitor the nigh ... more		Air Force successfully launches GSSAP 3/4 - AFSPC-6 from Cape Canaveral AFS The U.S. Air Force and its mission partners successfully launched the third and fourth Orbital ATK built Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites aboard a United Launch ... more

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

A new Goldilocks for habitable planets The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second "Goldilocks," according to a Yale University researcher. For decades, it has been thought that the key factor in determin ... more		From Solo Cup to an asteroid: NASA's newest space mission The idea for a device that could unveil the origins of life in our solar system began with a Solo cup. ... more		Sidekick autonomy software guides YFQ-42A test mission for CCA program Infleqtion lists shares on NYSE as neutral atom quantum firm Top Chinese gaming companies continue to challenge		Venus-like Exoplanet Might Have Oxygen Atmosphere, but Not Life 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 ... more
				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

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

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		Solar-driven ionosphere charges may nudge stressed faults toward rupture Stable black carbon in mangrove soils boosts coastal climate role Low crystallinity iron minerals show promise for chromium cleanup and carbon storage		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
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		Bacteria could aid search for creatures on other planets Could there be a way to find bacterial structures on another planet? And if so, how important might these bacteria be in making a planet life-friendly? These are some of the questions that could be ... more		Light and matter merge in quantum coupling Where light and matter intersect, the world illuminates. Where light and matter interact so strongly that they become one, they illuminate a world of new physics, according to Rice University scient ... 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		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

AALTO plans Zephyr stratospheric hub in northern Australia and seeks local payload partners

Ancient guano drove Chincha coastal power

UAH lands first DARPA award for biological sciences department

New material discovery allows study of elusive Weyl fermion		UCI physicists confirm possible discovery of fifth force of nature		Scientists take big step toward recreating primordial 'RNA world'		Cosmology: Lore of lonely regions		"Kitchen Smoke" in nebula offer clues to the building blocks of life
Observatory Measures Oxygen in Galaxy 12 Billion Years Ago		Brown dwarfs reveal exoplanets' secrets		Bringing Home NASA's First Asteroid Samples		Computer programming made easier		NASA to map Asteroid Bennu from the ground up

Scientists to unveil new Earth-like planet: report

Methane-Filled Canyons Line Titan's Surface

Neutrinos, ever bizarre, enjoy the spotlight

New study confirms possibility of fifth force of nature

Discovery of a time-resolved supernova signal in Earth's microfossils

NASA's Fermi Mission Expands its Search for Dark Matter

Much ado about nothing: Astronomers use empty space to study the universe

NASA's Hubble Spots a Lopsided Lynx

Researchers find most volcanic activity on Mercury stopped over 3 billion years ago

A Black Hole Story Told by a Cosmic Blob and Bubble

DDO 68: Among Galaxies, A Flea, But A Voracious One

Hubble spots pair of wild galaxies joining cosmic civilization

Rhea Shines Brightly About Saturn

1967 solar storm nearly took US to brink of war

Perseid meteors could see 'surge in activity' on Aug. 11-12

IceCube search for the 'sterile neutrino' draws a blank

Perseid meteor shower 'surge in activity' Thursday, Friday

Lockheed Martin, NASA Ink Deal for SkyFire Infrared Lunar Discovery Satellite

The long hunted sterile neutrino cannot be traced

IRIS Spots Plasma Rain on Sun's Surface

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