The Sky Tonight

October 25, 2016

The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate or is it
Oxford, UK (SPX) Oct 25, 2016
Five years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three astronomers for their discovery, in the late 1990s, that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace. Their conclusions were based on analysis of Type Ia supernovae - the spectacular thermonuclear explosion of dying stars - picked up by the Hubble space telescope and large ground-based telescopes. It led to the widespread acceptance of the idea that the universe is dominated by a mysterious substance named 'dark energy' that dri ... read more

Previous Issues

Oct 24

Oct 23

Oct 22

Oct 21

Oct 20

Astronomers Predict Birthplace of Rosetta's Comet When the Rosetta spacecraft successfully touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 30, 2016, the news was shared globally via Twitter in dozens of languages. Citizens the world ov ... more		Tracking waves from sunspots gives new solar insight While it often seems unvarying from our viewpoint on Earth, the sun is constantly changing. Material courses through not only the star itself, but throughout its expansive atmosphere. Understanding ... more		Oldest known planet-forming disk found A group of citizen scientists and professional astronomers, including Carnegie's Jonathan Gagne, joined forces to discover an unusual hunting ground for exoplanets. They found a star surrounded by t ... more
				Mysterious cosmic objects erupting in x-rays discovered Astronomers have found a pair of extraordinary cosmic objects that dramatically burst in X-rays. This discovery, obtained with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton observatory, may ... more		Mission Prepares for Next Jupiter Pass Mission managers for NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter have decided to postpone the upcoming burn of its main rocket motor originally scheduled for Oct. 19. This burn, called the period reduction maneu ... 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		Small impacts are reworking the moon's soil faster than scientists thoug The Moon's surface is being "gardened" - churned by small impacts - more than 100 times faster than scientists previously thought. This means that surface features believed to be young are perhaps e ... 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		Cosmological Mystery Solved by Map of Voids and Superclusters A team of astrophysicists at the University of Portsmouth have created the largest ever map of voids and superclusters in the universe, which helps solve a long-standing cosmological mystery. The ma ... more
				2016 Ends with Three Supermoons Step outside on October 16, and take a look at the moon. Not only will the moon be full, but on that day, the moon will be at it's closest point to our planet as it orbits Earth. This makes the Octo ... more		Long-term, hi-res tracking of eruptions on Jovian moon Io Jupiter's moon Io continues to be the most volcanically active body in the solar system, as documented by the longest series of frequent, high-resolution observations of the moon's thermal emission ... 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

Astronomers find oldest known planetary disk At 45 million years old, a newly discovered primordial ring of gas and dust is the oldest known planet-forming disk in the universe. The record-breaking circumstellar disk surrounds a red dwarf in the Carina stellar association. ... more		Going Out in a Blaze of Glory: Cassini's Grand Finale 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 de ... 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		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		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		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

	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		New bacteria groups, and stunning diversity, discovered underground One of the most detailed genomic studies of any ecosystem to date has revealed an underground world of stunning microbial diversity, and added dozens of new branches to the tree of life. The b ... 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

New species of extremely leggy millipede discovered in a cave in California		Argonne researchers posit way to locally circumvent Second Law of Thermodynamics		Big-data algorithms could cut analysis times from months to days		When quantum scale affects the way atoms emit and absorb particles of light		The 1950s: The decade in which gravity physics became experimental
Phonon and magnon are a couple		Two-dimensional spin-orbit coupling for Bose-Einstein condensates realized		ALMA spots possible formation site of icy giant planet		Building Blocks of Life's Building Blocks Come From Starlight		Glitch, safe mode as Juno space probe orbits Jupiter

The Sun's coronal tail wags its photospheric dog

Wayward Field Lines Challenge Solar Radiation Models

Massive Cloud on Collision Course with the Milky Way

How Deadly Would A Nearby Gamma Ray Burst Be?

Hunter's Supermoon to light up Saturday night sky

Spectacular Lunar Grazing Occultation of Bright Star on Oct. 18

The Milky Way's ancient heart

Dense molecular gas disks drive the growth of supermassive black holes

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

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.