Small solar eruptions can have profound effects on unprotected planets
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
While no one yet knows what's needed to build a habitable planet, it's clear that the interplay between the sun and Earth is crucial for making our planet livable - a balance between a sun that provides energy and a planet that can protect itself from the harshest solar emissions. Our sun steadily emits light, energy and a constant flow of particles called the solar wind that bathes the planets ...
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A new view of the moon's formation
College Park, MD (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
Within the first 150 million years after our solar system formed, a giant body roughly the size of Mars struck and merged with Earth, blasting a huge cloud of rock and debris into space. This cloud would eventually coalesce and form the moon.
For almost 30 years, planetary scientists have been quite happy with this explanation--with one major exception. Although this scenario makes sense w ...
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Mars has belts of glaciers consisting of frozen water
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
Mars has distinct polar ice caps, but Mars also has belts of glaciers at its central latitudes in both the southern and northern hemispheres. A thick layer of dust covers the glaciers, so they appear as surface of the ground, but radar measurements show that underneath the dust there are glaciers composed of frozen water.
New studies have now calculated the size of the glaciers and thus th ...
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Comms system critical to delaying MESSENGER's Mercury impact
Laurel MD (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
MESSENGER's orbit-correction maneuver on April 6 was a nail biter. It was the 15th such maneuver since the spacecraft entered orbit about Mercury in 2011, and the third in a series of increasingly risky "burns" designed to delay MESSENGER's inevitable impact onto Mercury's surface. Each maneuver illustrates the critical role that the spacecraft's radio frequency (RF) telecommunications system pl ...
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Our Sun came late to the Milky Way's star-birth party
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
In one of the most comprehensive multi-observatory galaxy surveys yet, astronomers find that galaxies like our Milky Way underwent a stellar "baby boom," churning out stars at a prodigious rate, about 30 times faster than today.
Our sun, however, is a late "boomer." The Milky Way's star-birthing frenzy peaked 10 billion years ago, but our sun was late for the party, not forming until rough ...
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Aliens Are Probably Huge 650-Pound Creatures
Barcelona, Spain (Sputnik) Apr 10, 2015 -
New research proposes that if intelligent life outside Earth's atmosphere exists, chances are it's enormous.
The findings from University of Barcelona cosmologist Dr. Fergus Simpson are based on a mathematical algorithm that assumes all theoretical life in the universe follows the same laws of conservation of energy seen on Earth: the bigger the animal, the more resources it needs to survi ...
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France, India to Boost Space Cooperation, Other Joint Projects
New Delhi (Sputnik) Apr 10, 2015 -
In June 2014, an Indian rocket put into orbit five foreign satellites, including one built by France.
"We will further our cooperation in the field of space. We will sign more joint cooperation programs. We will further our cooperation in joint launching of satellites," Richier told journalists.
The diplomat spoke ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi's trip to France scheduled ...
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New DARPA Programs Simultaneously Test Limits of Technology, Credulity
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
Less than one week after releasing Breakthrough Technologies for National Security, DARPA's latest summary of the Agency's mission, accomplishments and funding priorities for extending its legacy of technological disruption, the Agency has announced four major new programs-evidence of DARPA's commitment to pursuing high-risk/high-reward research and making the impossible possible.
The prog ...
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May I go to space once more asks Brian Duffy
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2015 -
Space is always on the mind of a veteran NASA astronaut Brian Duffy. The key figure in an aerospace company Orbital ATK and a Space Shuttle commander is extremely keen on flying to space again. The enthusiasm emanating from him for the future journeys beyond Earth, which we all patiently wait for, is heartily thrilling. In an interview with astrowatch.net, Duffy talks his successful astronaut ca ...
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ALMA captures Juno traveling through space
Charlottesville NC (SPX) Apr 10, 2015 -
A series of images made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) provides an unprecedented view of the surface of Juno, one of the largest members of our solar system's main asteroid belt. Linked together into a brief animation, these high-resolution images show the asteroid rotating through space as it shines in millimeter-wavelength light.
"In contrast to optical tele ...
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Romania 'Agression Platform' Against Russia With US Missile Defense Systems
Moscow (Sputnik) Apr 12, 2015 -
Alexander Mosesov - The planned deployment of the shore-based Aegis command and control component of the US Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system in Romania is turning the country into a platform for aggression against Russia, leader of the National-European Communitarian Party (NCP) told Sputnik on Tuesday.
According to the US Missile Defense Agency, the United States will install an Aeg ...
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Saucers, totes, cans, passion and dedication shape local students at JSC
Houston TX (SPX) Apr 10, 2015 -
Flying saucers have landed at Johnson Space Center-and they are taking over the minds of our youth. OK, so they are not really flying saucers. Those landed a few years back. Actually, this year they are totes and cans. Last year they were exercise balls.
But they definitely are shaping young minds, helping to create students who eventually become brilliant new engineers both at JSC and thr ...
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Unravelling relativistic effects in the heaviest actinide element
Mainz, Germany (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
An international collaboration led by the research group of superheavy elements at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Tokai, Japan has achieved the ionization potential measurement of lawrencium (element 103) with a novel-type technique at the JAEA tandem accelerator.
Based on the empirically developed "actinide concept", and in agreement with theoretical calculations, in today's Perio ...
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Seasonal, year-long cycles seen on the sun
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
Our sun is constantly changing. It goes through cycles of activity - swinging between times of relative calm and times when frequent explosions on its surface can fling light, particles and energy out into space. This activity cycle peaks approximately every 11 years. New research shows evidence of a shorter time cycle as well, with activity waxing and waning over the course of about 330 days. ...
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DARPA Seeks to Create Software Systems That Could Last 100 Years
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
As modern software systems continue inexorably to increase in complexity and capability, users have become accustomed to periodic cycles of updating and upgrading to avoid obsolescence-if at some cost in terms of frustration. In the case of the U.S. military, having access to well-functioning software systems and underlying content is critical to national security, but updates are no less proble ...
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NASA selects proposals for ultra-lightweight material development
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 12, 2015 -
NASA has selected three proposals to develop and manufacture ultra-lightweight (ULW) materials for future aerospace vehicles and structures. The proposals will mature advanced technologies that will enable NASA to reduce the mass of spacecraft by 40 percent for deep space exploration.
"Lightweight and multifunctional materials and structures are one of NASA's top focus areas capable of hav ...
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Guardians of the Galaxy: Russia Creates International Space Patrol
Moscow (Sputnik) Apr 12, 2015 -
Russia's Ministry of Defense on April 1 established the Aerospace Monitoring Forces (AMF) tasked with providing security to spacecraft and the International Space Station (ISS) and enforcing international rules of space conduct.
The military corps, dubbed the Space Patrol by the Russian media, will carry out joint missions in cooperation with similar forces under development in other count ...
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