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  Paris (ESA) Dec 19, 2018 On Monday this week, BepiColombo began its very first routine electric propulsion firing. After meticulous testing of the spacecraft's four high-tech ion thrusters, the mission team have now fired up the spacecraft for its first thruster burn 'arc'. Travelling nine billion kilometers in total, BepiColombo will make nine flybys at Earth, Venus and Mercury, looping around the Sun 18 times. To do this, the ESA/JAXA mission will be steered by 22 thruster burn arcs, each providing the same ... read more |
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Israeli spacecraft gets special passenger before moon journeyYehud, Israel (AFP) Dec 17, 2018 Israeli scientists making final preparations to launch the country's first spacecraft to the moon added a special passenger on Monday that will accompany the journey. ... more  
Space telescope detects water in a number of asteroidsKobe, Japan (SPX) Dec 19, 2018 Using the infrared satellite AKARI, a Japanese research team has detected the existence of water in the form of hydrated minerals in a number of asteroids for the first time. This discovery will con ... more  
Mystery of coronae around supermassive black holes deepensTokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 19, 2018 Researchers from RIKEN and JAXA have used observations from the ALMA radio observatory located in northern Chile and managed by an international consortium including the National Astronomical Observ ... more 
Fossil Gas Cloud from the Big Bang Discovered with Keck ObservatoryKamuela HI (SPX) Dec 19, 2018 A relic cloud of gas, orphaned after the Big Bang, has been discovered in the distant universe by astronomers using the world's most powerful optical telescope, the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunake ... more |
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| Previous Issues | Dec 18 | Dec 17 | Dec 14 | Dec 13 | Dec 12 |
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Narrowing the universe in the search for lifeColumbus OH (SPX) Dec 18, 2018 Humankind's exploration of space has for years pondered one central question: Is there another world somewhere in the universe where human beings could survive? And as astrophysicists and astr ... more  
NASA Research Reveals Saturn is Losing Its Rings at "Worst-Case-Scenario" RateGreenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 18, 2018 New NASA research confirms that Saturn is losing its iconic rings at the maximum rate estimated from Voyager 1 and 2 observations made decades ago. The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity ... more 
Mystery of Black Hole Coronae DeepensSaitami, Japan (SPX) Dec 18, 2018 Researchers from RIKEN and JAXA have used observations from the ALMA radio observatory located in northern Chile and managed by an international consortium including the National Astronomical Observ ... more  
Massive New Dark Matter Detector Gets Its 'Eyes'Providence, RI (SPX) Dec 18, 2018 The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter detector, which will soon start its search for the elusive particles thought to account for a majority of matter in the universe, had its first set of "eyes" delivere ... more 
Fragmenting disk gives birth to binary star 'odd couple'Charlottesville VA (SPX) Dec 17, 2018 Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that two young stars forming from the same swirling protoplanetary disk may be twins - in the sense that the ... more |
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 Hubble goes deep 
Where did the hot Neptunes goGeneva, Switzerland (SPX) Dec 17, 2018 "But where did the hot Neptunes go?" This is the question astronomers have been asking for a long time, faced with the mysterious absence of planets the size of Neptunes very close to their star. A ... more  |
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Tangled magnetic fields power cosmic particle acceleratorsMenlo Park CA (SPX) Dec 17, 2018 Magnetic field lines tangled like spaghetti in a bowl might be behind the most powerful particle accelerators in the universe. That's the result of a new computational study by researchers from the ... more 
In search of missing worlds, Hubble finds a fast-evaporating exoplanetBaltimore MD (SPX) Dec 17, 2018 Fishermen would be puzzled if they netted only big and little fish, but few medium-sized fish. Astronomers likewise have been perplexed in conducting a census of star-hugging extrasolar planets. The ... more 
Dancing with the enemyMunich, Germany (SPX) Dec 17, 2018 While testing a new subsystem on the SPHERE planet-hunting instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers were able to capture dramatic details of the turbulent stellar relationship in the bi ... more 
Cosmic fountain powered by giant black holeHuntsville AL (SPX) Dec 17, 2018 Before electrical power became available, water fountains worked by relying on gravity to channel water from a higher elevation to a lower one. This water could then be redirected to shoot out of th ... more  
Preparing for discovery with NASA's Parker Solar ProbeGreenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 13, 2018 Weeks after Parker Solar Probe made the closest-ever approach to a star, the science data from the first solar encounter is just making its way into the hands of the mission's scientists. It's a mom ... more |
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 Washington DC (SPX) Dec 18, 2018 
A team of astronomers has discovered the most distant body ever observed in our solar system. It is the first known solar system object that has been detected at a distance that is more than 100 times farther than Earth is from the Sun.
The new object was announced on Monday, December 17, 2018, by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center [https://www.minorplanetcenter.net ... more |
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 Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Dec 17, 2018 
"But where did the hot Neptunes go?" This is the question astronomers have been asking for a long time, faced with the mysterious absence of planets the size of Neptunes very close to their star. A team of researchers, led by astronomers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has just discovered that one of these planets is losing its atmosphere at a frantic pace.
This observa ... more |
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 Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 17, 2018 
Mars atmospheric opacity (tau) over the rover site remains at a storm-free range around 1.0.
No signal from Opportunity has been heard since Sol 5111 (June 10, 2018). Opportunity likely experienced a low-power fault, a mission clock fault and an up-loss timer fault. Since the loss of signal, the team has been listening for the rover over a broad range of times, frequencies and polarization ... more |
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 Yehud, Israel (AFP) Dec 17, 2018 
Israeli scientists making final preparations to launch the country's first spacecraft to the moon added a special passenger on Monday that will accompany the journey.
A time capsule of three digital discs containing thousands of files was ceremoniously placed within the space pod by organisers wearing white dust coats at the plant where it is being constructed and tested.
They included d ... more |
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 Providence, RI (SPX) Dec 18, 2018 
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter detector, which will soon start its search for the elusive particles thought to account for a majority of matter in the universe, had its first set of "eyes" delivered Thursday.
The first of two large arrays of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) - powerful light sensors that can detect the faintest of flashes - completed a 2,000-mile journey by truck from Rhode Is ... more |
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 Sao Jose Dos Campos, Brazil (AFP) Dec 13, 2018 
The vast Amazon forest may be hard to penetrate, posing a problem for authorities trying to stop illegal logging - but there are still eyes in the sky keeping track of the destruction.
For three decades, a group of researchers have been monitoring forest clearing, agriculture and land use thanks to satellites orbiting the Earth and beaming images to Brazil's National Institute for Space Res ... more |
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 Kobe, Japan (SPX) Dec 19, 2018 
Using the infrared satellite AKARI, a Japanese research team has detected the existence of water in the form of hydrated minerals in a number of asteroids for the first time. This discovery will contribute to our understanding of the distribution of water in our solar system, the evolution of asteroids, and the origin of water on Earth.
The findings were made by the team led by the Project ... more |
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 Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 13, 2018 
Weeks after Parker Solar Probe made the closest-ever approach to a star, the science data from the first solar encounter is just making its way into the hands of the mission's scientists. It's a moment many in the field have been anticipating for years, thinking about what they'll do with such never-before-seen data, which has the potential to shed new light on the physics of our star, the Sun. ... more |
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 Beijing (XNA) Dec 13, 2018 
China's Chang'e-4 probe decelerated and entered the lunar orbit Wednesday, completing a vital step on its way to make the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced.
After flying about 110 hours from earth, an engine on the probe was ignited when it was 129 km above the surface of the moon, in line with instructions sent fr ... more |
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Providence, RI (SPX) Dec 18, 2018
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter detector, which will soon start its search for the elusive particles thought to account for a majority of matter in the universe, had its first set of "eyes" delivered Thursday.
The first of two large arrays of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) - powerful light sensors that can detect the faintest of flashes - completed a 2,000-mile journey by truck from Rhode Is ... more |
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 Johannesburg, South Africa (SPX) Dec 19, 2018 
First ever endocast reconstruction of the nearly complete brain of the hominin known as Little Foot reveals a small brain combining ape-like and human-like features.
MicroCT scans of the Australopithecus fossil known as Little Foot shows that the brain of this ancient human relative was small and shows features that are similar to our own brain and others that are closer to our ancestor sh ... more |
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 Moscow (Sputnik) Dec 17, 2018 
The Russian Progress MS-11 cargo spacecraft will for the second time fly to the International Space Station (ISS) under the three-hour scheme, circling Earth twice, in March 2019, a source in the aerospace industry told Sputnik.
"The launch of the freighter is scheduled for March 28. It will have to orbit Earth twice and dock to the ISS three hours after the lift-off. However, this will be ... more |
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 Moscow (AFP) Dec 18, 2018 
Russia will build up its military presence in the Arctic over the next year, the defence minister said Tuesday, as Moscow seeks to assert its influence in the strategic region.
The announcement comes after years of increased activity in the Arctic, which Moscow has declared a top priority due to its mineral riches and military importance.
"We'll finish building infrastructure in 2019 to ... more |
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 Exeter UK (SPX) Dec 19, 2018 
A "gold rush" of seabed mining could lead to unprecedented damage to fragile deep-sea ecosystems, researchers have warned.
With major decisions on the future of seabed mining expected in 2019-20, scientists and policy experts from the University of Exeter and Greenpeace have recommended a range of measures to prevent environmental damage.
They say deep-sea ecosystems currently need m ... more |
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 Hannover, Germany (SPX) Dec 17, 2018 
The detection of Einstein's gravitational waves relies on highly precise laser measurements of small length changes. The kilometer-size detectors of the international network (GEO600, LIGO, Virgo) are so sensitive that they are fundamentally limited by tiny quantum mechanical effects.
These cause a background noise which overlaps with gravitational-wave signals. This noise is always presen ... more |
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