The Sky Tonight

October 21, 2016

Going Out in a Blaze of Glory: Cassini's Grand Finale
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 21, 2016
With the conclusion of the international Cassini mission set for September 15, 2017, the spacecraft is poised to soon begin a thrilling two-part endgame. Cassini will enter the first part of this denouement on November 30, 2016, when the spacecraft begins a series of 20 passes just beyond the outer edge of the main rings. These weekly loops around Saturn are called the F ring orbits, and they send the spacecraft high above and below the planet's poles. During these orbits, Cassini will approach to ... read more

Previous Issues

Oct 20

Oct 19

Oct 18

Oct 17

Oct 14

Unexpected discoveries on a metal world Astronomers have discovered possible evidence for water on the surface of the largest metallic asteroid in the solar system. Named 16 Psyche, the object is one of the most massive in the asteroid be ... more		Avalanches, Not Internal Pressure, Cause Comet Outbursts Outbursts of comet nuclei are likely caused by surface avalanches rather than geyser-like eruptions from within, research by the Planetary Science Institute's Jordan Steckloff shows. Rapid asy ... more		Scientists create most detailed map of the Milky Way Australian scientists have worked with researchers in Germany to create the most detailed map of the Milky Way, using the world's largest radio telescopes. The HI4PI project, which is a combin ... more
				Scientists intrigued by data from first Juno flyby NASA's Juno spacecraft entered safe mode Tuesday, Oct. 18 at about 10:47 p.m. PDT (Oct. 19 at 1:47 a.m. EDT). Early indications are a software performance monitor induced a reboot of the spacecraft' ... more		Astronomers to explore mysteries of star formation with new camera How do stars form deep inside clouds of molecular gas? What's the history of star formation throughout cosmic time? When did the first stars form? And how did they produce the materials necessary fo ... more

Did LIGO detect black holes or gravastars After the first direct detection of gravitational waves that was announced last February by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and made news all over the world, Luciano Rezzolla (Goethe University Fr ... more		ALMA spots possible formation site of icy giant planet A number of extrasolar planets have been found in the past two decades and now researchers agree that planets can have a wide variety of characteristics. However, it is still unclear how this divers ... more		U.S. defense in free fall U.S. and Saudis conduct Middle East's largest counter-drone exercise Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact		Building Blocks of Life's Building Blocks Come From Starlight Life exists in a myriad of wondrous forms, but if you break any organism down to its most basic parts, it's all the same stuff: carbon atoms connected to hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other element ... more
				Glitch, safe mode as Juno space probe orbits Jupiter Officials in charge of NASA's Juno space probe orbiting Jupiter last weekend delayed a crucial maneuver due to a main engine malfunction, they said Wednesday. ... more		The Sun's coronal tail wags its photospheric dog Solar physicists have long viewed the rotation of sunspots as a primary generator of solar flares - the sudden, powerful blasts of electromagnetic radiation and charged particles that burst into spa ... 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

Wayward Field Lines Challenge Solar Radiation Models In addition to the constant emission of warmth and light, our sun sends out occasional bursts of solar radiation that propel high-energy particles toward Earth. These solar energetic particles, or S ... more		How Deadly Would A Nearby Gamma Ray Burst Be? Despite the obvious doom and gloom associated with mass extinctions, they have a tendency to capture our imagination. After all, the sudden demise of the dinosaurs, presumably due to an asteroid str ... 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		Spectacular Lunar Grazing Occultation of Bright Star on Oct. 18 As seen from a path about a mile wide extending from Los Angeles, Calif., to Denver, and on to Minnesota south of Minneapolis (and further east, to Lake Superior and Labrador), the bright star Aldeb ... more
The Milky Way's ancient heart A team led by Dante Minniti (Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile) and Rodrigo Contreras Ramos (Instituto Milenio de Astrofisica, Santiago, Chile) used observations from the VISTA infrared surv ... more		Dense molecular gas disks drive the growth of supermassive black holes Supermassive black holes more than a million times the mass of our sun exist at the centers of many galaxies, but how they came to be is unclear. Meanwhile, a correlation between the rate at which s ... more		China to Collaborate on Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe The National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) is joining forces with the Breakthrough Initiatives to launch a coordinated search for evidence of intell ... more		Waterloo-led experiment achieves the strongest coupling between light and matter Researchers at the University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) recorded an interaction between light and matter 10 times larger than previously seen. The strength of the interacti ... more

	Finding the lightest superdeformed triaxial atomic nucleus The nuclei of atoms of heavy elements do not necessarily take a spherical shape: they may be variously extended or flattened along one, two or even three axes. An international team of physicists, l ... more		Short mid-infrared pulses offer new tool for peering inside atoms and solids A newly developed laser pulse synthesizer that generates femtosecond pulses at mid-infrared (IR) wavelengths promises to provide scientists with a better view of the inner workings of atoms, molecul ... 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

Compact graphene-based plasmon generator developed by physicists from MIPT		The 1950s: The decade in which gravity physics became experimental		Two-dimensional spin-orbit coupling for Bose-Einstein condensates realized		Massive Cloud on Collision Course with the Milky Way		Hunter's Supermoon to light up Saturday night sky
Lights, action, electrons!		Small Impacts Are Reworking Lunar Soil Faster Than Scientists Thought		Who stole all the stars		Teleporting toward a quantum Internet		Proxima Centauri might be more sunlike than we thought

'Weighing' atoms with electrons

Stars with Three Planet-Forming Discs of Gas

Study suggests comet strike's link to age-old warming event

Filming light and electrons coupled together as they travel under cover

A facelift for the Moon every 81,000 years

UC physicists join collaborative efforts in search for new ghost neutrinos

Stable molecular state of photons and artificial atom discovered

The Milky Way's Ancient Heart

VISTA finds ancient star cluster in Milky Way center

Hubble detects giant 'cannonballs' shooting from star

Detonating white dwarfs as supernovae

Using oxygen as a tracer of galactic evolution

Stellar ages in seconds

Discovery of an extragalactic hot molecular core

Discovery: A new form of light

The death of a planet nursery?

Kepler Gets the 'Big Picture' of Comet 67P

Researchers discover effect of rare solar wind on Earth's radiation belts

Bern-made laser altimeter taking off to Mercury

TESS will provide exoplanet targets for years to come

Buy Advertising

Media Advertising Kit

Editorial & Other Enquiries

Privacy statement

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.