Science, Space, GIS News: 10/16/16

Sunday 16 October 2016

US Air Force's Space Plane Has Been in Orbit for 500 Days, But Why?

US Air Force's Space Plane Has Been in Orbit for 500 Days, But Why?

Moscow (Sputnik) Oct 13, 2016 - The US Air Force's unmanned X-37B space plane has now spent more than 500 days orbiting the Earth, without statement or explanation.The 29-foot unmanned plane is part of the Air Force's orbital program. Launched May 20, 2015, it is the program's fourth flight (hence its other name, OTV-4 for Orbital Test Vehicle-4). The first OTV took flight in 2010 and spent 224 days in orbit; two others brough ... more

Who stole all the stars

Who stole all the stars

Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Oct 14, 2016 - Investigating the millions of missing stars from the centres - or cores - of two big galaxies, astronomers at Swinburne University of Technology say they may have solved this cosmic whodunit, and the main culprits are not the usual suspects. While the scientists confirm that one of the depleted cores is the largest ever detected, they report that it may not have formed in the manner previo ... more

Who stole all the stars

Who stole all the stars

US Air Force's Space Plane Has Been in Orbit for 500 Days, But Why?

+ IS drone kills Kurdish fighters, hurts French troops
+ Russia tests ballistic missiles amid tensions with West
+ Arizona aerospace company wins $19M Navy satellite contract
+ Study suggests comet strike's link to age-old warming event
+ Recharging on stable, amorphous silicon
+ Synchronizing optical clocks to one quadrillionth of a second
+ Filming light and electrons coupled together as they travel under cover
+ Atomic sandwiches could make computers 100X greener
+ Stable molecular state of photons and artificial atom discovered
+ Novel 3-in-1 'Rheo-Raman' microscope enables interconnected studies of soft materials
+ China to launch world's first X-ray pulsar navigation satellite
+ Airbus DS in partnership with Orbital ATK to build EUTELSAT 5 West B
+ How Mars' moon Phobos came to look like the Death Star
+ A facelift for the Moon every 81,000 years
+ UC physicists join collaborative efforts in search for new ghost neutrinos
+ TES team evaluates new data collection method after age-related issue
+ The Milky Way's Ancient Heart
+ Stars with Three Planet-Forming Discs of Gas
+ VISTA finds ancient star cluster in Milky Way center
+ China getting ready for Shenzhou 11 launch

DREAMS of Mars: Europe's ExoMars Mission Arrives in the Middle of Dust Season

DREAMS of Mars: Europe's ExoMars Mission Arrives in the Middle of Dust Season

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 14, 2016 - The joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 mission is knocking on Martian door to answer important astrobiological questions. While the mission's Schiaparelli module will focus on testing landing technologies, one of its scientific instruments will be just in the right place at the right time to investigate the planet's intense dust storms. The ExoMars 2016 mission consists of two spacecraft: th ... more

Small Impacts Are Reworking Lunar Soil Faster Than Scientists Thought

Small Impacts Are Reworking Lunar Soil Faster Than Scientists Thought

Tempe AZ (SPX) Oct 14, 2016 - 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 even younger than assumed. It also means that any structures placed on the Moon as part of human expeditions will need better protection. This new discovery comes from more than seven years of hi ... more

Ariane 5 ready for first Galileo payload

Ariane 5 ready for first Galileo payload

Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Oct 14, 2016 - The first Ariane 5 launcher to orbit Galileo navigation satellites has completed its initial build-up in French Guiana, continuing preparations for Arianespace's November 17 mission from the Spaceport to deploy four more of the European-developed global positioning spacecraft. During activity in the Spaceport's Launcher Integration Building, this heavy-lift vehicle for Arianespace Flight V ... more

Massive Cloud on Collision Course with the Milky Way

Massive Cloud on Collision Course with the Milky Way

Huntsville AL (SPX) Oct 14, 2016 - In 1963, an astronomy student named Gail Smith working at an observatory in the Netherlands discovered something odd-a massive cloud of gas orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. Smith's cloud contained enough gas to make 2 million stars the size of our sun, and it was moving through space at 700,000 mph. For the next 40+ years the cloud remained a curiosity, one of a growing number of so-called h ... more

More commercial spaceports going ahead

More commercial spaceports going ahead

Bethesda MD (SPX) Oct 14, 2016 - Just last year, the FAA gave Houston the "go-ahead" to build America's 10th commercial spaceport. Yes, the US already had nine spaceports designated for commercial operations. One must ask, "Why do we need 10 spaceports for so little commercial space activities?" This represents a great deal of investment and ongoing expense for an industry still in its infancy. The reason for all this exc ... more

Proxima Centauri might be more sunlike than we thought

Proxima Centauri might be more sunlike than we thought

Boston MA (SPX) Oct 14, 2016 - In August astronomers announced that the nearby star Proxima Centauri hosts an Earth-sized planet (called Proxima b) in its habitable zone. At first glance, Proxima Centauri seems nothing like our Sun. It's a small, cool, red dwarf star only one-tenth as massive and one-thousandth as luminous as the Sun. However, new research shows that it is sunlike in one surprising way: it has a regular cycle ... more

Teleporting toward a quantum Internet

Teleporting toward a quantum Internet

Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 14, 2016 - Quantum physics is a field that appears to give scientists superpowers. Those who understand the world of extremely small or cold particles can perform amazing feats with them - including teleportation - that appear to bend reality. The science behind these feats is complicated, and until recently, didn't exist outside of lab settings. But that's changing: researchers have begun to impleme ... more

Europe heads for Mars in search of life

Europe heads for Mars in search of life

Paris (AFP) Oct 14, 2016 - Thirteen years after its first, failed attempt to place a rover on Mars, Europe reaches a crucial stage Sunday in a fresh quest to scour the Red Planet for signs of life, this time with Russia. Mission controllers will instruct a spacecraft about 175 million kilometres (109 million miles) from Earth to release and steer a paddling pool-sized lander towards the Red Planet's cold, dry surface. ... more

Russia offers to secure rebel evacuation from Syria's Aleppo

Russia offers to secure rebel evacuation from Syria's Aleppo

Aleppo, Syria (AFP) Oct 13, 2016 - Russia said Thursday it was prepared to secure safe passage for rebels to quit Syria's Aleppo but kept up air strikes on the battleground city as world powers readied new truce talks. Syria has been plunged into some of the worst violence of its five-year war since the collapse last month of a truce brokered by Washington and Moscow. The ensuing surge in fighting has accompanied a large- ... more

Airbus Defence and Space-built PeruSAT-1 delivers first images

Airbus Defence and Space-built PeruSAT-1 delivers first images

Paris, France (SPX) Oct 12, 2016 - The PeruSAT-1 satellite, designed and built by Airbus Defence and Space, the world's second largest space company, has delivered its first images after its successful launch on 16 September from Kourou. "We constructed PeruSAT-1 in a record time of less than 24 months and now, after having completed the orbital maneuvers to reach its operational orbit at an altitude of 695 km, it has deliv ... more

Airbus Defence and Space-built PeruSAT-1 delivers first images

Airbus Defence and Space-built PeruSAT-1 delivers first images

Russia offers to secure rebel evacuation from Syria's Aleppo

+ USS Nimitz completes sea trials
+ Tributes for Thai king as concern swirls over nation's future
+ China vows better veterans treatment after rare protest
+ Peru receives Russian radios as part of helicopter deal
+ Dire conditions for children fleeing jihadist-held Iraq area: NGO
+ Tech giants race for edge in artificial intelligence
+ Australia's ASC being split in three; Brazilian Navy orders new ships
+ N. Korea purges vice foreign minister: report
+ L-3 unit begins KC-10 tanker support
+ Poland plans new tender for helicopters after Airbus row
+ Philippines' Duterte to visit China
+ Airbus protests furiously over Poland's handling of chopper deal
+ Turkish officers cry foul over failed asylum bids in Greece
+ China raps US interventions in Asia at regional forum
+ Russia to hold military drills in Egypt in October
+ S. Korea vows armed crackdown on Chinese fishing ships
+ GenDyn unit to support U.S. Special Operations
+ China, Russia blast US missile defence at regional forum
+ Austal upgrading Australian Navy patrol boats
+ Hundreds of troops deployed in Afghan city after attack

Rocket scientists reach for the sky

Rocket scientists reach for the sky

Beijing (XNA) Oct 13, 2016 - Deng Xinyu, 32, has lived in Beijing since 2002 when he left his hometown of Huaihua in Hunan province, and moved to the capital to enter university. In common with most of the capital's residents, he talks about the soaring cost of property, traffic and good restaurants. He likes movies and reading books on history. But his main focus is out of this world, literally. Most of his energy an ... more

Terra Bella and Spaceflight Industries to launch small imaging satellites

Terra Bella and Spaceflight Industries to launch small imaging satellites

Seattle WA (SPX) Oct 13, 2016 - Spaceflight Industries reports that Terra Bella has signed an agreement with its launch services entity, Spaceflight, for a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of Terra Bella SkySats. Terra Bella will be the co-lead on Spaceflight's SSO-A dedicated rideshare mission scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in late 2017. The SSO-A mission will transport both government and commer ... more

Robot customs officers debut in South China ports

Robot customs officers debut in South China ports

Guangzhou (XNA) Oct 13, 2016 - Ten intelligent robots have started to work as customs officers at three ports in the cities of Zhuhai and Zhongshan, Southern China's Guangdong province on Saturday, according to the local customs office. They are the first batch of intelligent robots, to be used by Chinese customs at the ports of Gongbei, Hengqin and Zhongshan. The robots, named Xiao Hai, have state-of-the-art perception ... more

Cambodia embraces China's President Xi on state visit

Cambodia embraces China's President Xi on state visit

Phnom Penh (AFP) Oct 13, 2016 - China's President Xi Jinping promised Cambodia hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and loans on Thursday during a state visit to the nation, which is one Beijing's staunchest regional allies. Hundreds of students waving Cambodian and Chinese flags greeted Xi alongside officials at the airport before his motorcade sped into town for an audience with the royal family and later Prime Ministe ... more

Yemen rebels deny targeting US warship

Yemen rebels deny targeting US warship

Sanaa (AFP) Oct 13, 2016 - Yemeni rebels on Thursday denied US accusations they had targeted a US destroyer in the Red Sea which prompted cruise missile strikes on three radar sites under their control. "Those claims are baseless," the rebel-controlled Saba news agency quoted a military official allied with the rebels as saying. "The (rebel-allied) army and the Popular Committees (militia) have nothing to do wit ... more

US hits radar sites in first strikes on Yemen rebels

US hits radar sites in first strikes on Yemen rebels

Dubai (AFP) Oct 13, 2016 - The US military directly targeted Yemen's Huthi rebels for the first time on Thursday, hitting radar sites controlled by the insurgents after US warships came under missile attacks twice in four days. Defence officials in Washington said five Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed three mobile radar sites in Huthi-held territory on Yemen's Red Sea coast and that the Pentagon was preparing for po ... more

Russia says to sign S-400 air defence deal with India

Russia says to sign S-400 air defence deal with India

Moscow (AFP) Oct 13, 2016 - Russian President Vladimir Putin will seal a deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an upcoming visit to deliver Moscow's most advanced air defence system, the Kremlin said Thursday. "An agreement on the delivery of S-400 'Triumph' anti-missile defence systems and other deals will be signed as a result of the talks," Russian news agencies quoted Putin aide Yuri Ushakov as sayi ... more

Philippines' Duterte seeks money, respect in China

Philippines' Duterte seeks money, respect in China

Manila (AFP) Oct 13, 2016 - Firebrand Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte heads to China next week seeking billions of dollars in investments and buckets of respect, as he pivots angrily away from traditional ally the United States. Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to give the mercurial leader a warm welcome, after Duterte threatened to end a decades-long alliance with the United States and gave Beijing a timely bo ... more

Xi, Modi hold talks amid India frustrations

Xi, Modi hold talks amid India frustrations

Benaulim, India (AFP) Oct 15, 2016 - Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed during talks late Saturday to work to resolve recent frustrations between the regional rivals, an official said. Meeting on the eve of a BRICS summit of leading emerging nations, Modi and Xi agreed to further cooperate to combat "terrorism" and to work to reduce India's gaping trade deficit with China. But Indian ... more