Baby universe picture brought closer to theory
Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
Last year, the Planck Telescope revealed the most detailed picture of the cosmic microwave background, the relic radiation from the Big Bang. But this map contains features that challenge the standard model of cosmology, the theory that describes our entire Universe from early on.
Who is right, the map or the theory? Scientists from EPFL (Switzerland) and CEA (France) have shown that sever ...
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Russia To Construct Landing Pad For ExoMars Mission
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 07, 2014 -
Russia will create a landing deck and provide a range of unique scientific equipment for a new Russian-European Mars mission known as ExoMars, Daniel Rodionov, a Russian scientific supervisor for the project, said at the COSPAR international scientific assembly in Moscow.
Rodionov added that in addition to launch vehicles and scientific gear, Russia will also produce a landing deck for the ...
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NASA Announces Next Opportunity for CubeSat Space Missions
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
NASA is opening the next round of its CubeSat Launch Initiative, part of the White House Maker Initiative, in an effort to engage the growing community of space enthusiasts that can contribute to NASA's space exploration goals.
The CubeSat Launch Initiative gives students, teachers and faculty a chance to get hands-on flight hardware development experience in the process of designing, buil ...
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NASA Engineer Set to Complete First 3-D Printed Space Cameras
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
By the end of September, NASA aerospace engineer Jason Budinoff is expected to complete the first imaging telescopes ever assembled almost exclusively from 3-D-manufactured components. "As far as I know, we are the first to attempt to build an entire instrument with 3-D printing," said Budinoff, who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Under his multi-pronged ...
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Planet-like object may have spent its youth as hot as a star
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
Astronomers have discovered an extremely cool object that could have a particularly diverse history-although it is now as cool as a planet, it may have spent much of its youth as hot as a star.
The current temperature of the object is 200 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit (100 to 150 degrees Celsius), which is intermediate between that of the Earth and of Venus. However, the object shows evidence ...
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Study of Aerosols Stands to Improve Climate Models
Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
Of all the factors that influence Earth's changing climate, the effect that tiny particles in Earth's atmosphere called aerosols have on clouds is the least well understood. Aerosols scatter and absorb incoming sunlight and affect the formation and properties of clouds.
Among all cloud types, low-level clouds over the ocean, which cover about one-third of the ocean's surface, have the bigg ...
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Orbiter Completes Maneuver to Prepare for Comet Flyby
Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted the timing of its orbit around Mars as a defensive precaution for a comet's close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, 2014.
The orbiter fired thrusters for five and a half seconds on Tuesday, Aug. 5. The maneuver was calculated to place the orbiter behind Mars during the half hour on the flyby date when dust particles released from comet C/201 ...
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MESSENGER Team Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Launch
Baltimore MD (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
Ten years ago, on August 3, 2004, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a risky mission that would take the small satellite dangerously close to Mercury's surface, paving the way for an ambitious study of the planet closest to the Sun.
The spacecraft traveled 4.9 billion miles (7.9 billion kilometers) - a journey that included 15 trips around the Sun an ...
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Russian Space Scientists Hope Sanctions Don't Impede Projects
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 07, 2014 -
Russian scientists hope that the western sanctions, imposed on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine, will not impede the implementation of space projects, according to the director of the Lebedev Physical Institute Astro Space Center, Nikolai Kardashev.
The scientist specifically hopes the sanctions will not affect the Millimetron space observatory mission - a high-sensitivity astrophysics st ...
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NASA Selects Innovative Advanced Concepts For More Study
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
Looking ahead to an exciting future, NASA is continuing to invest in concepts that may one day revolutionize how we live and work in space with the selection of five technology proposals for continued study under the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program.
NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, located at the agency's headquarters in Washington, based the NIAC Phase II sele ...
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NASA Mars Curiosity Rover: Two Years and Counting on Red Planet
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 07, 2014 -
NASA's most advanced roving laboratory on Mars celebrates its second anniversary since landing inside the Red Planet's Gale Crater on Aug. 5, 2012, PDT (Aug. 6, 2012, EDT).
During its first year of operations, the Curiosity rover fulfilled its major science goal of determining whether Mars ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.
Clay-bearing sedimentary ro ...
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Robotic Rock Climbers Could Uncover Clues to Mars' Past
Moffet Field CA (NASA) Aug 07, 2014 -
A robot that can scale the faces of steep cliffs might one day help explore Mars and find signs of life. The latest experiments with this "Cliffbot" showed it could help examine places otherwise difficult or impossible for astronauts to safely reach, although further improvements are needed for it to overcome obstacles, according to findings detailed in the journal Astrobiology.
Gullies an ...
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US EVAa Delayed; Crew Preps For Russian EVA, Robonaut Upgrades
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
The six-person Expedition 40 crew of the orbiting International Space Station spent Wednesday conducting medical research, gearing up for a Russian spacewalk and preparing the station's robotic crew member for a mobility upgrade. The crew also stowed spacewalk tools and equipment following the postponement of two additional spacewalks that were planned for later in August.
International Sp ...
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Ukrainians flee besieged Donetsk as fighting closes in
Donetsk, Ukraine (AFP) Aug 05, 2014 -
The once-bustling leafy boulevards of central Donetsk are now deserted but one place where there is almost certain to be a crowd is the rebel-held city's ornate Stalin-era railway station.
As the boom of mortar fire rocks the mining hub of one million daily, ever more residents are packing up and fleeing a tightening government blockade.
"They are bombing - that's why we are getting fa ...
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Japan defence paper warns over China's 'dangerous acts' in sea, air
Tokyo (AFP) Aug 05, 2014 -
Japan warned Tuesday that China's "dangerous acts" over territorial claims in the East China Sea could lead to "unintended consequences" in the region, as fears grow of a potential military clash.
The comments appeared in an annual defence white paper approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet, with the report heaping criticism on Beijing's unilateral declaration of an Air Defence Ident ...
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Work on defueling nuclear carrier being prepared
Newport News, Va. (UPI) Aug 4, 2013 -
Newport News Shipbuilding is planning its work on defueling the aircraft carrier USS George Washington under a $49.6 million military contract.
The USS George Washington (CVN 73) is the sixth Nimitz-class carrier built by Newport News Shipbuilding and if approved could undergo a Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH).
"We are pleased to be able to begin planning for the defueling ...
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Boeing GPS IIF satellite launched by Air Force
Los Angeles (UPI) Aug 5, 2013 -
An improved Global Positioning System IIF satellite from Boeing has been launched into orbit by the U.S. Air Force, the service reported.
The launch was conducted late last week from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida as part of an Air Force program to modernize its GPS satellite system.
"Today we launched the third GPS IIF satellite in 2014, and we have one more satelli ...
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Lockheed touts performance of its enhanced bomb guidance kit
Archbald, Pa. (UPI) Aug 4, 2013 -
Bombs with Lockheed's enhanced Dual Mode Laser Guided Bombs kit successfully demonstrated their capability in various targeting modes for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Lockheed said that during recent USMC weapons and tactics instructor training in Arizona, 19 GBU-12F/B DMLGB weapons were dropped from Harrier jets against fixed targets in tactically representative engagements and performed suc ...
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UN chemical weapons team to return to Syria: envoy
United Nations, United States (AFP) Aug 05, 2014 -
A team of chemical weapons experts will travel to Syria next month to follow up on Damascus' pledge to hand over its arsenal, the British UN envoy said Tuesday.
A joint mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations is overseeing the destruction of the stockpile, but questions remain over whether the regime made a full disclosure.
The ...
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Appeals mount to save Iraq's Yazidis from extinction
Dohuk, Iraq (AFP) Aug 05, 2014 -
Iraqi helicopters dropped supplies Tuesday to thousands of people hiding from jihadists in desolate mountains, many of them from the Yazidi minority which officials warned risked being massacred or starved into extinction.
A Yazidi lawmaker broke down in tears during a parliament session as she urged the government and the international community to save her community from Islamic State mili ...
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China probes Canadian Christian couple for alleged spying
Beijing (AFP) Aug 05, 2014 -
China is investigating a Canadian Christian couple for alleged espionage, state media and their son said Tuesday, a week after Ottawa accused Beijing of cyber-spying.
Kevin Garratt and Julia Dawn Garratt "are under investigation for suspected theft of state secrets about China's military and national defence research," the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The couple first came to C ...
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Iraq chaos catches up with Kurdistan
Baghdad (AFP) Aug 04, 2014 -
It was nearly the perfect heist. In June, Iraq's Kurds snuck in behind retreating government troops to grab long-coveted land and watched from their new borders as Baghdad and jihadists fought over the rump state.
But the move dragged Kurdistan's celebrated peshmerga out of their comfort zone and the cash-strapped force is now taking heavy losses along its extended front.
"They've bitten ...
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PKK urges Kurdish groups to unite against Iraq militants
Ankara (AFP) Aug 05, 2014 -
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which for years waged a deadly insurgency against Turkish authorities, called on all Kurdish armed groups Tuesday to unite against radical Islamist militants who have seized swathes of northern Iraq.
"Our efforts alone are not enough. There must be a joint (effort)" against the Islamic State (IS), the PKK's military leader Murat Karayilan said in ...
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Lebanon army urges France to speed up weapons delivery
Beirut (AFP) Aug 05, 2014 -
Lebanon's army chief General Jean Kahwaji urged France on Tuesday to speed up the delivery of weapons under a Saudi-financed deal, as his troops battle jihadists on the Syrian border.
"This battle requires equipment, materiel and technology that the army doesn't have," Kahwaji told AFP.
"That's why we need to speed up the delivery of the necessary military aid by finalising the list of w ...
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Army eyes lighter weight combat vehicles
Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md. (UPI) Aug 5, 2013 -
The U.S. Army is looking to reduce the weight of its armored vehicles by 40 percent in years ahead and has reached out to industry and academia for help.
According to the Science and Technology Division at the Army Capabilities Integration Center, the weight equation translates to slower deployment times.
"The problem is the ability to deploy rapidly to turn the tide, to transiti ...
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