The Sky Tonight

October 06, 2016

Bern-made laser altimeter taking off to Mercury
Bern, Switzerland (SPX) Oct 06, 2016
University of Bern's Laser Altimeter BELA has been successfully tested during the last weeks and the last components will be delivered to ESA on 5 October. The first laser altimeter for inter-planetary flight to be built in Europe is part of the ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury. Starting in 2024, it will provide data about the planet's surface. BELA (BepiColombo Laser Altimeter) has been developed by a Swiss-German-Spanish team led by the University of Bern. The instrument is designed to measure ... read more

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Are planets setting the sun's pace? The Sun's activity is determined by the Sun's magnetic field. Two combined effects are responsible for the latter: The omega and the alpha effect. Exactly where and how the alpha effect originates i ... more		The death of a planet nursery? The dusty disk surrounding the star TW Hydrae exhibits circular features that may signal the formation of protoplanets. LMU astrophysicist Barbara Ercolano argues, however, that the innermost actual ... more		DarkLight enables visible light communication in the dark With the rise in wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers that rely on smart sensors, and the continued popularity of smartphones, smart devices are taking our country by storm. Wireless ... more
				Wandering black hole spotted by pair of X-ray telescopes The vast majority of black holes, whether supermassive or intermediate, are found at the centers of galaxies, but occasionally, a few are caught wandering. ... more		Cassini data reveal subsurface ocean on Saturn's moon Dione Subsurface oceans are all the rage. Titan and Enceladus have one. Europa and Pluto probably have one. Ceres might have one. Now, Saturn's moon Dione is getting in on the action. ... more

Argonne ahead of the 'curve' in magnetic study When a baseball pitcher uncorks a nasty curveball, the spinning motion of the ball forces air to flow around it at different speeds, causing the ball to "break" in one direction. The physics behind ... more		Milkway's most-mysterious star is even stranger than astronomers thought A star known by the unassuming name of KIC 8462852 in the constellation Cygnus has been raising eyebrows both in and outside of the scientific community for the past year. In 2015 a team of astronom ... 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		A Second Look at Plumes and the Search for life on Europa Once can be a coincidence. Twice can be luck. Seeing a hundred-mile-high column of water spew out of Jupiter's icy moon Europa three times in a row has been cited as a good reason to get excited. ... more
				Science at cusp of 'transformational' grasp of life via cell modeling A paper recently published in the Journal of Molecular Biology shows how advances in molecular biology and computer science around the world soon may lead to a three-dimensional computer model of a ... more		Large volumes of data from ITER transferred to Japan at unprecedented speeds The National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST), as the implementing agency of the BA activities, in collaboration with the National Institutes of Natural Sciences ... more

6th Annual Modular Construction Summit for Oil and Gas Agenda - December 7-9 - Houston

Nuclear Plant Digitalization Conference - Nov 15-16 - Charlotte NC USA

New oscillating material may tap unused electromagnetic spectrum The terahertz gap is an unused portion of the electromagnetic spectrum comprising frequencies between radio waves and infrared radiation. No technologies currently utilize terahertz signals. ... more		Turning to the brain to reboot computing Computation is stuck in a rut. The integrated circuits that powered the past 50 years of technological revolution are reaching their physical limits. This predicament has computer scientists scrambl ... more		Fossil fuels harm health from 'cradle to grave': report Trash, mulch and security: All jobs for troops in Washington Rising oceans to threaten 1.5 million Australians by 2050: report		Rosetta's comet adventure in numbers Europe's ground-breaking quest to unravel the Solar System's mysteries concludes Friday with the Rosetta comet chaser crashlanding onto the cosmic wanderer's rocky surface. ... more
Astronomers discover dizzying spin of the Milky Way Halo Astronomers at the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) discovered for the first time that the hot gas in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy is spinning in the s ... more		Protoplanetary Disk Around a Young Star Exhibits Spiral Structure Astronomers have found a distinct structure involving spiral arms in the reservoir of gas and dust disk surrounding the young star Elias 2-27. While spiral features have been observed on the surface ... more		Regional Forecasts of Solar Storms Set to Begin Oct. 1 For the first time beginning next month, forecasts of the regional effects of solar storms will help protect the power grid and communications satellites, thanks to a new tool developed by researche ... more		Spiral Arms Embrace Young Star Swirling around the young star Elias 2-27 is a stunning spiral-shape pinwheel of dust. This striking feature, seen with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), is the product of den ... more

	NASA's Fermi Finds Record-Breaking Binary in Galaxy Next Door Using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and other facilities, an international team of scientists has found the first gamma-ray binary in another galaxy and the most luminous one ever ... more		ALMA catches stellar cocoon with curious chemistry A hot and dense mass of complex molecules, cocooning a newborn star, has been discovered by a Japanese team of astronomers using ALMA. This unique hot molecular core is the first of its kind to have ... more

EU to fast-track review of 2035 combustion-engine ban

Norway sovereign wealth fund drops French miner over environmental fears

EU split on 2040 climate goal ahead of UN summit

Where Primordial Galaxies Lurk		Rosetta: The end of a fairytale		Rosetta measures production of water at comet over two years		Alice Ultraviolet Spectrograph Completes Rosetta Mission to Comet 67P		Farewell Rosetta: ESA Mission to Conclude on Comet's Surface
Rosetta spacecraft headed for comet suicide crash		How to Merge Two Black Holes in a Simple Way		Moon and Mars on a plane		NASA's Asteroid-Bound Spacecraft Aces Instrument Check		New Low-Mass Objects Could Help Refine Planetary Evolution

Planet Mercury Found to Be Tectonically Active

Cosmic Dust Demystified by British Researchers

Hubble spots possible water plumes erupting on Jupiter's Moon Europa

Rosetta: The end of a space odyssey

Rosetta: How to end the fairytale

Discovery of an Extragalactic Hot Molecular Core

NASA-Funded Sounding Rocket Solves One Cosmic Mystery, Reveals Another

Construction of Most Sensitive Dark Matter Detector Moves Forward

Universe is without direction, astronomers say

New research undermines 'RNA world' of early evolution

Galactic Fireworks Illuminate Monster Hydrogen Blob

Hubble Finds Planet Orbiting Pair of Stars

Summer fireworks on Rosetta's comet

Messenger probe images fault scarps on Mercury's surface

Cosmology Safe as Universe Has No Sense of Direction

Yoyager's Golden Record not just for aliens anymore

ALMA uncovers "golden age" of galaxy formation in new Deep Field

NASA scientists find 'impossible' cloud on Titan

NASA to reveal 'surprising' activity on Jupiter's moon

Stellar activity can mimic misaligned exoplanets

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