The Sky Tonight

September 14, 2016

Gaia's billion-star map hints at treasures to come
Paris (ESA) Sep 14, 2016
The first catalogue of more than a billion stars from ESA's Gaia satellite was published today - the largest all-sky survey of celestial objects to date. On its way to assembling the most detailed 3D map ever made of our Milky Way galaxy, Gaia has pinned down the precise position on the sky and the brightness of 1142 million stars. As a taster of the richer catalogue to come in the near future, today's release also features the distances and the motions across the sky for more than two milli ... read more

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Discovery nearly doubles known quasars from the ancient universe Quasars are supermassive black holes that sit at the center of enormous galaxies, accreting matter. They shine so brightly that they are often referred to as beacons and are among the most-distant o ... more		Astronomers discover 63 new quasars in early universe Astronomers have identified 63 new quasars - the largest number reported in a single scientific study. ... more		Rosetta's descent towards region of active pits Squeezing out unique scientific observations until the very end, Rosetta's thrilling mission will culminate with a descent on 30 September towards a region of active pits on the comet's 'head'. ... more
				Star system hosts hundreds of black holes New research by the University of Surrey published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society has shone light on a globular cluster of stars that could host several hundred bla ... more		Avoiding 'traffic jam' creates impossibly bright 'lighthouse' ULXs, which are remarkably bright X-ray sources, were thought to be powered by black holes. But in 2014, the X-ray space telescope "NuSTAR" detected unexpected periodic pulsed emissions in a ULX nam ... more

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

Rosetta catches dusty organics Rosetta's dust-analysing COSIMA (COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser) instrument has made the first unambiguous detection of solid organic matter in the dust particles ejected by Comet 67P/Churyumo ... more		NASA launches first asteroid dust-retrieval mission The US space agency Thursday launched its first mission to collect dust from an asteroid, the kind of cosmic body that may have delivered life-giving materials to Earth billions of years ago. ... more		Russia launches dozens of drones as Ukraine claims 'important success' Russian jets violate Estonian air space in 'brazen intrusion' U.S. defense in free fall		Reconciling dwarf galaxies with dark matter Dwarf galaxies are enigmas wrapped in riddles. Although they are the smallest galaxies, they represent some of the biggest mysteries about our universe. While many dwarf galaxies surround our own Mi ... more
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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.

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T2K CP Violation Results Help Explain Workings of Universe		New knowledge about the building blocks of life		One Trace of Dark Matter Vanishes		OSIRIS-REx Prepared for Mapping, Sampling Mission to Asteroid Bennu		Detailed Age Map Shows How Milky Way Came Together

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Asteroid named for Freddie Mercury on 70th birthday

New light on the complex nature of 'hot Jupiter' atmospheres

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The supernova that wasn't: A tale of 3 cosmic eruptions

Dell finalizes huge EMC deal to become tech titan

Wits University scientists predict the existence of a new boson

Space Plasma Hurricanes Suggest New Sources of Energy

Plastic crystals could improve fabrication of memory devices

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The Genesis Project: New life on exoplanets

Jupiter's North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

Dawn spacecraft at Ceres: Craters, cracks, and cryovolcanos

Images from Sun's edge reveal origins of solar wind

NASA's SDO witnesses a double eclipse

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Ceres: The tiny world where volcanoes erupt ice

Discovery one-ups Tatooine, finds twin stars hosting three giant exoplanets

Planck: First Stars Formed Later Than We Thought

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