The Sky Tonight

October 26, 2016

Titan experiences dramatic seasonal changes
Meudon, France (SPX) Oct 26, 2016
As Titan approaches its northern summer solstice, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed dramatic seasonal changes in the atmospheric temperature and composition of Saturn's largest moon. Winter is taking a grip on the southern hemisphere and a strong vortex, enriched in trace gases, has developed in the upper atmosphere over the south pole. These observations show a polar reversal in Titan's atmosphere since Cassini arrived at Saturn in 2004, when similar features were seen in the northern hemisp ... read more

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Tatooine worlds orbiting 2 suns often survive violent escapades of aging stars Planets that revolve around two suns may surprisingly survive the violent late stages of the stars' lives, according to new research out of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre and York University. ... more		Russia plans to revive lunar rover moon exploration program The Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Council has plans to revive a moon exploration program using lunar rovers, Russian media reported, citing a laboratory head from the academy's Space Research I ... 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
				When quantum scale affects the way atoms emit and absorb particles of light In 1937, US physicist Isidor Rabi introduced a simple model to describe how atoms emit and absorb particles of light. Until now, this model had still not been completely explained. In a recent ... 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

The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate or is it 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 bas ... more		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		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		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

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

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

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		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		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		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		Deep down fracking wells, microbial communities thrive Microbes have a remarkable ability to adapt to the extreme conditions in fracking wells, according to a study published in the October issue of Nature Microbiology. Scientists led by researche ... more		How often do quantum systems violate the second law of thermodynamics? The likelihood of seeing quantum systems violating the second law of thermodynamics has been calculated by UCL scientists. In two papers, published in this week's issue of Physical Review X and fund ... more

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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

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Avalanches, Not Internal Pressure, Cause Comet Outbursts		Scientists create most detailed map of the Milky Way		Did LIGO detect black holes or gravastars		Astronomers to explore mysteries of star formation with new camera		Scientists intrigued by data from first Juno flyby

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

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