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April 14, 2015

'Dwarf planet' Ceres spawns giant mystery
Vienna (AFP) April 13, 2015
First classified a planet, then an asteroid and then a "dwarf planet" with some traits of a moon - the more scientists learn about Ceres, the weirder it becomes. And new observations of the sphere of rock and ice circling our Sun between Mars and Jupiter have added to the mystery, researchers said Monday. Astrophysicists have been looking to a $473-million (446-million-euro) mission to test theories that Ceres is a water-rich planetary "embryo" - a relic from the birth of the Solar System some ... read more

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Examining Rock Outcrop at 'The Spirit of St. Louis' Crater Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater near the entrance of "Marathon Valley," a putative location for abundant clay minerals. The rover is positioned on a light-toned outcrop next ... more		Correction Maneuver Puts MESSENGER Right on Course The MESSENGER team is pulling out all the stops to give the spacecraft life far beyond its original design. On April 8, mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory ( ... more		Unravelling relativistic effects in the heaviest actinide element 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 ... more
				Saucers, totes, cans, passion and dedication shape local students at JSC 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 ... more		ALMA captures Juno traveling through space 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 aste ... more

Space Tech Expo - Design - Build - Test - Long Beach CA - May 19-21, 2015

Human 2 Mars Conference Mat 5-7 2015 - Washington DC

Aliens Are Probably Huge 650-Pound Creatures 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 ... more		Comms system critical to delaying MESSENGER's Mercury impact 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 r ... more		U.S. defense in free fall Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact Brazil, Chile sign defense agreement		Mars has belts of glaciers consisting of frozen water 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 appea ... more
				A new view of the moon's formation 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 ... more		Small solar eruptions can have profound effects on unprotected planets 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 prov ... more

Army Network Modernization 2015 - Washington DC June 23-25

The Solar System and Beyond is Awash in Water As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, they are finding water in surprising places. Water is but one piece of our search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth, ye ... more		Mars' dust-covered glacial belts may contain tons of water New research shows Mars' buried glaciers contain enough ice to cover the entire planet with a coat three feet thick. The evidence also proves the dust-covered glacial belts to contain frozen water, not carbon dioxide. ... more		GUARDIAN Tsunami Detection Tech Catches Wave in Real Time Galileo daughter mission named Celeste to strengthen navigation resilience How quantum computers can be validated when solving unsolvable problems		Home Away From Home: NASA Spider-Droids to Build in Space A company called Tethers Unlimited is developing a futuristic "Arachnid-like" droid system, funded by the North American Space Agency, that hopes to help humanity's journey into - and settlement in ... more
NASA Extends Campaign for Public to Name Features on Pluto The public has until Friday, April 24 to help name new features on Pluto and its orbiting satellites as they are discovered by NASA's New Horizons mission. Announced in March, the agency wants to gi ... more		Dawn in Excellent Shape One Month After Ceres Arrival Since its capture by the gravity of dwarf planet Ceres on March 6, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has performed flawlessly, continuing to thrust with its ion engine as planned. The thrust, combined with Cer ... more		Moon formed when young Earth and little sister collided It's long been believed that Earth's moon was formed by a significant planetary collision with a Mars-like protoplanet called Theia. Now, a new study suggests the primordial protoplanet that crashed into a young Earth was quite similar in size and composition. ... more		DARPA Seeks to Create Software Systems That Could Last 100 Years 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 co ... more

	Soyuz Installed at Baikonur, Expected to Launch Wednesday The Soyuz-2.1A carrier rocket has been successfully installed at the launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is scheduled for launch on October 29, the press service of the Russian ... more		Team Returning Orbiter to Duty After Computer Swap NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, at Mars since 2006, made an unplanned switch on Wednesday from one main computer to a redundant one onboard, triggering a hiatus in planned activities. Sens ... more

Ohio State scientists advance focus on nuclear propulsion

Mixing neutrinos of colliding neutron stars changes how merger unfolds

China launches experimental satellites to enhance mobile space internet

Dawn orbiting high over the night side of Ceres		More evidence for groundwater on Mars		Ultra-realistic robot proves there's more than one way to scare a fish		Scars on Mars from 2012 Rover Landing Fade - Usually		Life Needs An Atmosphere, But How Much Is Too Much
Planned Maneuver Further Extends MESSENGER Orbital Operations		First ASU-built space instrument ready for final lab tests		Europa's Elusive Water Plume Paints Grim Picture For Life		NASA Releases Tool Enabling Citizen Scientists to Examine Asteroid Vesta		Modular brains help organisms learn new skills without forgetting old skills

Bill Nye and others discussing taking humans to Mars by 2033

Will the moon's first inhabitants live in giant lava tubes?

New explanation for Mercury's dark surface

Soft Landing on the Moon an Extraordinary Challenge

OSIRIS-REx Mission Passes Critical Milestone

Researchers build brain-machine interface to control prosthetic hand

Soft, energy-efficient robotic wings

Computer sharing of personality in sight: inventor

Curiosity Sniffs Out History of Martian Atmosphere

Warm or cold? Mars' history takes a watery new twist

Curiosity Eyes Prominent Mineral Veins on Mars

Media Spun Up on NASA Cutting-edge Mars Landing Technology

Saturn Spacecraft Returns to the Realm of Icy Moons

Artificial hand able to respond sensitively using smart metal wires

Flash Reformatted and Marathon Completed

Comet dust: Planet Mercury's 'invisible paint'

Stop blaming the moon

Goddard releases open source core flight software suite to public

Earthlike 'Star Wars' Tatooines may be common

Rover Amnesia Event Follows Latest Memory Reformatting

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