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January 26, 2015

Scientists befuddled by mysterious white spot on Ceres
Pasadena, Calif. (UPI) Jan 26, 2015
Everyday, NASA's Dawn probe gets a bit closer to the dwarf planet Ceres. They're hoping this history-making flyby can answer questions and offer scientists a new and improved understanding of the glorified asteroid. But so far, Ceres is all mystery. Scientists on the Dawn mission are especially puzzled by a strange shiny white spot seen on the surface of the mini planet. Last week, as Dawn prepared to encroach upon Ceres - it's expected to reach its closest point to the dwarf planet in ... read more

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More Astronauts for China The next Chinese crewed space mission won't fly until 2016. China is expected to send a crew of three astronauts to the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, which is expected to launch in the same year. ... more		New research re-creates planet formation in the lab New laser-driven compression experiments reproduce the conditions deep inside exotic super-Earths and giant planet cores, and the conditions during the violent birth of Earth-like planets, documenti ... more		Planetary Society announces test flight for LightSail The Planetary Society today announced the first of its LightSail spacecraft will embark on a May 2015 test flight. Funded entirely by private citizens, the solar sail satellite will hitch a ride to ... more
				NASA craft set to beam home close-ups of Pluto Nine years after leaving Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft is at last drawing close to Pluto and on Sunday was expected to start shooting photographs of the dwarf planet. ... more		Scientists slow down light particles The speed of light is a limit, not a constant - that's what researchers in Glasgow, Scotland, say. A group of them just proved that light can be slowed down, permanently. ... more

Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe May 2015

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				Updated Charts for Asteroid 2004 BL86 Earth Flyby on Jan 26, 2015 This diagram shows the close passage of 2004 BL86 on January 26, 2015. The view is nearly edge-on to the Earth's orbit; the Moon's nearly circular orbit is highly foreshortened from this viewp ... more		Gullies on Vesta Suggest Past Water-Mobilized Flows Protoplanet Vesta, visited by NASA's Dawn spacecraft from 2011 to 2013, was once thought to be completely dry, incapable of retaining water because of the low temperatures and pressures at its surfa ... more

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Death of a dynamo -- A hard drive from space The dying moments of an asteroid's magnetic field have been successfully captured by researchers, in a study that offers a tantalising glimpse of what may happen to the Earth's magnetic core billion ... more		Planetary building blocks evolved from porous to hard objects Australian Research Council, UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, Royal Society, UK Natural Environment Research Council, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Thinking small has e ... more		Telescope To Seek Dust Where Other Earths May Lie The NASA-funded Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, or LBTI, has completed its first study of dust in the "habitable zone" around a star, opening a new door to finding planets like Earth. Dust ... more		Students to Send Life to Mars Onboard Mars One Lander in 2018 The first step to establish a permanent colony on Mars could be taken in 2018 when a group of European students will send its project to the Red Planet. The team composed of students from Portugal, ... more

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Russia-EU Mars Research Program to Be Completed

Asteroid to Fly By Earth Safely on January 26

Ground-breaking research to discover new planets

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