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December 23, 2016
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MARSDAILY
Small Troughs Growing on Mars May Become 'Spiders'



Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 22, 2016
Erosion-carved troughs that grow and branch during multiple Martian years may be infant versions of larger features known as Martian "spiders," which are radially patterned channels found only in the south polar region of Mars. Researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) report the first detection of cumulative growth, from one Martian spring to another, of channels resulting from the same thawing-carbon-dioxide process believed to form the spider-like features. The spiders ra ... read more

MARSDAILY
Full go-ahead for building ExoMars 2020
The first ExoMars mission arrived at the Red Planet in October and now the second mission has been confirmed to complete its construction for a 2020 launch. ESA and Thales Alenia Space signed ... more
MARSDAILY
Opportunity performs several drives to ancient gully
Opportunity is making progress towards the next science objective of the extended mission. The rover is headed toward an ancient water-carved gully about a kilometer south of the rover's current loc ... more
MARSDAILY
All eyes on Trump over Mars
The year 2016 has seen a rekindling of the human desire to conquer Mars, with public and private interests openly vying to take the first step on the Red Planet, possibly with a stopover on the Moon. ... more
MARSDAILY
Skimming an alien atmosphere
After the smooth arrival of ESA's latest Mars orbiter, mission controllers are now preparing it for the ultimate challenge: dipping into the Red Planet's atmosphere to reach its final orbit. T ... more
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IRON AND ICE
Ceres: Water ice in eternal polar night
The American Dawn space probe has been orbiting the asteroid Ceres between Mars and Jupiter since March 2015. Thanks to the two identical onboard cameras from the Max Planck Institute for Solar Syst ... more
MARSDAILY
Bremen robot team successfully simulates Mars mission in Utah
A major challenge in the exploration of Mars by robots is its uneven surface, which is marked by trenches and craters. Whether the systems can withstand the rough terrain on the Red Planet, they hav ... more
MARSDAILY
A Promising Spot for Life on Mars
As NASA's Curiosity rover makes its way up the central peak of Gale Crater, it has been gathering evidence from ancient lake beds and long ago groundwater environments that are promising to life. ... more
EPIDEMICS
Paris seeks high ground in fight to keep rats underground
Gazing upward to take in the majesty of the Eiffel Tower, visitors to Paris may be astonished to learn that a vicious war, pitting Man against Rat, is unfolding at their feet. ... more
MARSDAILY
How on Earth does NASA choose a landing site on Mars?
Getting to the surface of Mars takes years of planning, engineering and science work, a successful launch, and a months-long journey of millions of miles. You only get one opportunity to touch down ... more


Mars Rock-Ingredient Stew Seen as Plus for Habitability

MARSDAILY
First detection of boron on the surface of Mars
Boron has been identified for the first time on the surface of Mars, indicating the potential for long-term habitable groundwater in the ancient past. This finding and others from NASA's Curiosity r ... more
MARSDAILY
ExoMars orbiter images Phobos
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has imaged the martian moon Phobos as part of a second set of test science measurements made since it arrived at the Red Planet on 19 October. The Trace Gas Orbit ... more


Lunar sonic booms
The sonic boom created by an airplane comes from the craft's large, speeding body crashing into molecules in the air. But if you shrank the plane to the size of a molecule, would it still generate a shock wave? Scientists such as University of Iowa physicist Jasper Halekas hope to answer that question by studying miniature shock waves on the moon. These sonic boomlets, physicists believe, ... more
India Inc joins hands to bid for moon mission

TeamIndus signs contract with ISRO for lunar mission

Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin stable after South Pole health scare

Chinese missile giant seeks 20% of a satellite market
China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the largest missile maker in the country, is taking aim at 20 percent or more of the small-satellite launch contracts in the world by 2020, company executives said. "We estimate that from 2017 to 2020, we will send aloft at least 10 solid-fuel carrier rockets each year, to send about 50 small satellites into orbit," said Guo Yong, president of the ... more
China-made satellites in high demand

Space exploration plans unveiled

China launches 4th data relay satellite

Station crew get special delivery from Virginia
This week, astronauts are unloading more than 5,000 pounds of cargo and crew supplies from the Cygnus spacecraft to support dozens of science and research investigations. However, this shipment has special significance. This shipment arrived via an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's pad 0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. Rocket launches to the International Space ... more
Orbital cargo ship arrives at space station

New Instrument on ISS to Study Ultra-Cold Quantum Gases

Two Russians, one American blast off to ISS

Juno Captures Jupiter 'Pearl'
This image, taken by the JunoCam imager on NASA's Juno spacecraft, highlights the seventh of eight features forming a 'string of pearls on Jupiter - massive counterclockwise rotating storms that appear as white ovals in the gas giant's southern hemisphere. Since 1986, these white ovals have varied in number from six to nine. There are currently eight white ovals visible. The image was ta ... more
Juno Mission Prepares for December 11 Jupiter Flyby

Research Offers Clues About the Timing of Jupiter's Formation

New Perspective on How Pluto's "Icy Heart" Came to Be



Cassini offers a crash course in ring world orbital mechanics
It may look as though Saturn's moon Mimas is crashing through the rings in this image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, but Mimas is actually 28,000 miles (45,000 kilometers) away from the rings. There is a strong connection between the icy moon and Saturn's rings, though. Gravity links them together and shapes the way they both move. The gravitational pull of Mimas (246 miles or 396 kil ... more
Saturn's bulging core implies moons younger than thought

Cassini Makes First Ring-Grazing Plunge

Cassini Beams Back First Images from New Orbit

Airbus DS ships payload module for MetOp-C for final assembly
Airbus Defence and Space, the world's second largest space company, has sent the MetOp-C payload module, the 'brain' for Europe's next polar-orbiting weather satellite, on its first journey. The module, which weighs around 2.1 tonnes, contains ten measuring instruments together with their control systems. These comprise systems for issuing commands and monitoring instruments, formatting data, en ... more
NOAA's GOES-S Satellite Undergoing Environmental Testing

There's a jet stream in our core

Space-based lidar shines new light on plankton



India achieves advances multiple space systems in 2016
The year 2016 was a bag of mixed fortunes for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with successes on the technological front and setbacks on the legal front. On the technological side, apart from simultaneously launching 20 satellites, the year also saw ISRO activating its own NavIC satellite navigation system, and testing a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) and a scramjet engine. ... more
'Passengers' and the real-life science of deep space travel

NASA Readies for Major Orion Milestones in 2017

Spacewalk for Thomas Pesquet at ISS

Astronomers discover dark past of planet-eating 'Death Star'
An international team of scientists, including researchers from the University of Chicago, has made the rare discovery of a planetary system with a host star similar to Earth's sun. Especially intriguing is the star's unusual composition, which indicates it ingested some of its planets. "It doesn't mean that the sun will 'eat' the Earth any time soon," said Jacob Bean, assistant professor ... more
Microlensing Study Suggests Most Common Outer Planets Likely Neptune-mass

Searching a sea of 'noise' to find exoplanets - using only data as a guide

Are planets like those in 'Star Wars



Britain, France continue drone development project
Britain and France are continuing cooperation on the development of two separate unmanned combat air system prototype demonstrators. The two demonstrators, due in 2025, will be used for operational test and evaluation work over the following five to 10 years and could serve as the basis for a future operational capability beyond 2030. "This innovative project further strengthens ... more
Ford studies using drones to guide self-driving cars

Bird-like drone uses feathers for a more precise flight path

QinetiQ acquires Meggitt Target Systems

Moore Foundation provides libraries with a millione solar-eclipse viewers
The Space Science Institute was awarded a grant from the Moore Foundation that will provide 1.26 million solar viewing glasses and other resources for 1,500 public libraries across the nation. They will serve as centers for eclipse education and viewing for their communities. The libraries will be selected through a registration process managed by the STAR Library Education Network (STAR_N ... more
Preparing for the August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse

Giving the Sun a brake

Perspectives on magnetic reconnection



United Launch Alliance launches EchoStar XIX satellite
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the EchoStar XIX satellite lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 Dec. 18 at 2:13 p.m. EST. EchoStar XIX will dramatically increase capacity for HughesNet high-speed satellite Internet service to homes and businesses in North America. Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services procured the Atlas V for this mission. This is ULA's 12th ... more
Preparing to Plug Into NASA SLS Fuel Tank

Ultra-Cold Storage - Liquid Hydrogen may be Fuel of the Future

NASA Engineers Test Combustion Chamber to Advance 3-D Printed Rocket Engine Design

It's a cosmic winter wonderland at NGC 6357
Although there are no seasons in space, this cosmic vista invokes thoughts of a frosty winter landscape. It is, in fact, a region called NGC 6357 where radiation from hot, young stars is energizing the cooler gas in the cloud that surrounds them. This composite image contains X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the ROSAT telescope (purple), infrared data from NASA's Spitze ... more
Pan-STARRS releases catalogue of 3 billion astronomical sources

Festive nebulae light up Milky Way Galaxy satellite

Texas A and M-Led Study Helps Prove Galaxy Evolution Theory



A population of neutron stars can generate gravitational waves continuously
Professor Sudip Bhattacharyya of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India, and Professor Deepto Chakrabarty (MIT, USA), an adjunct visiting professor at the same institute, have shown that a population of neutron stars should spin around their axes much faster than the highest observed spin rate of any neutron star. They pointed out that the observed lower spin rate ... more
LISA Pathfinder's pioneering mission continues

Magnetic mirror could shed new light on gravitational waves

Verlindes new theory of gravity passes first test

ALPHA observes light spectrum of antimatter for first time
In a paper published in the journal Nature, the ALPHA collaboration reports the first ever measurement on the optical spectrum of an antimatter atom. This achievement features technological developments that open up a completely new era in high-precision antimatter research. It is the result of over 20 years of work by the CERN antimatter community. "Using a laser to observe a transition i ... more
Number of known black holes expected to double in two years with new detection method

New antimatter breakthrough to help illuminate mysteries of the Big Bang

New theoretical framework for improved particle accelerators

Daily Newsletters - Space - Military - Environment - Energy

NIST device for detecting subatomic-scale motion may aid robotics, homeland security
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new device that measures the motion of super-tiny particles traversing distances almost unimaginably small - shorter than the diameter of a hydrogen atom, or less than one-millionth the width of a human hair. Not only can the handheld device sense the atomic-scale motion of its tiny parts with unpreced ... more
A hardware-based approach for real world collaborative multi-robots

Mimicking biological movements with soft robots

Zuckerberg builds software butler for his home

Chinese missile giant seeks 20% of a satellite market
China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the largest missile maker in the country, is taking aim at 20 percent or more of the small-satellite launch contracts in the world by 2020, company executives said. "We estimate that from 2017 to 2020, we will send aloft at least 10 solid-fuel carrier rockets each year, to send about 50 small satellites into orbit," said Guo Yong, president of the ... more
China-made satellites in high demand

Space exploration plans unveiled

China launches 4th data relay satellite



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