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December 21, 2015

Martian gullies likely contain 'no water': study
Paris (AFP) Dec 21, 2015
Months after scientists announced "the strongest evidence yet" of liquid water on Mars, a study Monday said there was none at least in the valleys carved into numerous Red Planet slopes. Rather than water flows like those on Earth, these Martian gullies were likely created by dry ice defrosting, a duo of French scientists wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience. "The role of liquid water in gully formation should... be reconsidered, raising the question of the importance of its occurrence in Mars ... read more

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Rare full moon on Christmas Day Not since 1977 has a full moon dawned in the skies on Christmas. But this year, a bright full moon will be an added gift for the holidays. December's full moon, the last of the year, is called ... more		Insight shipped to California for March launch to Mars NASA's next Mars spacecraft has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for final preparations before a launch scheduled in March 2016 and a landing on Mars six months later. Lockhee ... more		LADEE Mission Shows Force of Meteoroid Strikes on Lunar Exosphere NASA scientists have released new findings about the Moon's tenuous exosphere - the thin layer of gas surrounding the Moon that is one 25-trillionth the density of Earth's atmosphere. The data revea ... more
				New Horizons team releases detailed slice of Pluto Five months after NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto to take the first images and measurements of this icy world and its system of satellites, knowledge about this distant system continu ... more		Nearby star hosts closest alien planet in the 'habitable zone' UNSW Australia astronomers have discovered the closest potentially habitable planet found outside our solar system so far, orbiting a star just 14 light years away. The planet, more than four times ... more

Cassini Closes in on Enceladus, One Last Time A thrilling chapter in the exploration of the solar system will soon conclude, as NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft makes its final close flyby of the ocean-bearing moon Enceladus. Cassini i ... more		Asteroid WT24 looks even better second time around Asteroid 1998 WT24 safely flew past Earth on Dec. 11 at a distance of about 2.6 million miles (4.2 million kilometers, 11 lunar distances). During its flyby, NASA scientists used the 230-foot (70-me ... more		U.S. defense in free fall U.S. and Saudis conduct Middle East's largest counter-drone exercise Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact		ALMA reveals planetary construction sites Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found the clearest indications yet that planets with masses several times that of Jupiter have recently formed in the d ... more
				Rocks Rich in Silica Present Puzzles for Mars Rover Team In detective stories, as the plot thickens, an unexpected clue often delivers more questions than answers. In this case, the scene is a mountain on Mars. The clue: the chemical compound silica. Lots ... more		New Mars rover findings revealed at American Geophysical Union Conference New findings by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover are the focus of a press conference this morning at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco, Calif. A group of scientists, including ... more

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Opportunity performs a week of robotic arm at Marathon Valley Opportunity is inside "Marathon Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is positioned on a steep slope with an approximately 19-degree northerly tilt for improved solar array en ... more		Monster planet is 'dancing with the stars' A team made up almost entirely of current and former Carnegie scientists has discovered a highly unusual planetary system comprised of a Sun-like star, a dwarf star, and an enormous planet sandwiche ... more		Fossil fuels harm health from 'cradle to grave': report Trash, mulch and security: All jobs for troops in Washington Rising oceans to threaten 1.5 million Australians by 2050: report		Israel's Amos-5 Satellite Failure Caused by Power Supply Malfunction Israel's AMOS-5 satellite failed as a result of a problem either with the power supply or an onboard cable network due to the external impact of high-energy cosmic particles, the manufacture of the ... more
Agreement with Chinese Space Tech Lab Will Advance Exploration Goals The Planetary Science Institute signed a cooperation agreement with Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology (Qian Xuesen Lab) to advance their mutual interests in facilitating the open-ended expa ... more		Scientists teach machines to learn like humans A team of scientists has developed an algorithm that captures our learning abilities, enabling computers to recognize and draw simple visual concepts that are mostly indistinguishable from those cre ... more		SSL selected for NASA project to develop robotic on-orbit satellite assembly Space Systems Loral has been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for a multi-million dollar contract to develop on-orbit robotic satellite assembly technology. ... more		Time-resolved measurement of the anomalous velocity The movement of charge carriers perpendicular to an electric driving field - even without a magnetic field - constitutes one of the most intriguing properties of carriers in solids. This anoma ... more

	Cassini gets bull's eye view of Enceladus and Tethys Like a cosmic bull's-eye, Enceladus and Tethys line up almost perfectly for Cassini's cameras. Since the two moons are not only aligned, but also at relatively similar distances from Cassini, the ap ... more		Twin civilisations? How life on an exoplanet could spread to its neighbour Imagine two nearby exoplanets orbiting the same sun, each with its own indigenous civilisation. They're going through history either as companionable neighbours or deadly rivals. This is a familiar ... more

EU to fast-track review of 2035 combustion-engine ban

Norway sovereign wealth fund drops French miner over environmental fears

EU split on 2040 climate goal ahead of UN summit

NASA: Asteroid to pass by Earth on Christmas Eve		Exoplanets Water Mystery Solved		Satellite's Last Days Improve Orbital Decay Predictions		Huge organs defy austerity for tiny cave snails in the subterranean realm		Mystery of missing exoplanet water solved
Hubble reveals diversity of exoplanet atmosphere		Study finds evidence for more recent clay formation on Mars		Hayabusa2 Earth Swing-by Result		Digital Globe to use Raytheon's Constellation Scheduling System		Tech titans pledge $1 bn for artificial intelligence research

Curiosity reaches sand dunes

Opportunity on west rim of Endeavour Crater within Marathon Valley

Japan asteroid probe enters 'target orbit' in space quest

Computing with time travel

No extraterrestrial laser pulses detected from KIC 8462852

Pluto's close-up, now in color

NASA's Curiosity rover reaches Martian sand dunes

Zooming in on Pluto's Pattern of Pits

Dwarf planet Ceres: water vapor in Occator crater

German physicists see landmark in nuclear fusion quest

China launches new communication satellite

XPRIZE verifies moon express launch contract, kicking off new space race

Student helps discover new planet, calculates frequency of Jupiter-like planets

Robot adds new twist to NIST antenna measurements and calibrations

New Horizons' catches a wandering Kuiper Belt Object not far off

New clues to Ceres' bright spots and origins

Prometheus up close about Saturn

Robot arm simulates close approach of ESA's asteroid mission

New Visualization of Space Environment at Pluto

UW roboticists learn to teach robots from babies

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