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    Category Astronomy/Space

    New Telescope Attachment allows Ground-based Observations of New Worlds

    October 10, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Toward Space-like Photometric Precision from the Ground with Beam-shaping Diffusers. The Astrophysical Journal, 2017; 848 (1): 9 DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa88aa

    Observations from telescopes on Earth rival those from telescopes in space. A new, low-cost attachment to telescopes allows previously unachievable precision in ground-based observations of exoplanets – planets beyond our solar system. With the new attachment, ground-based telescopes can produce measurements of light intensity that rival the highest quality photometric observations from space. Penn State astronomers, in close collaboration with the nanofabrication labs at RPC Photonics in Rochester, New York, created custom “beam-shaping” diffusers – carefully structured micro-optic devices that spread incoming light across an image – that are capable of minimizing distortions from the Earth’s atmosphere that can reduce the precision of ground-based observations.

    “This inexpensive technol...

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    Monitoring Microbes to Keep Marsonauts Healthy

    October 8, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Biology/Biotechnology

    Timeline of the Mars500 experiment from the beginning (3rd of June, 2010) until the end (5th of November, 2011). The schematic drawing also indicates important steps and events during the confinement (above timeline) including the two off-nominal situations (critical situation simulations) and sampling dates from 18 sampling events. Red area/font denotes the stay of three marsonauts in the simulated Martian surface complex, whereas light blue area represents the timeframe where the facility was untenanted. One reference sampling was performed 6 months after confinement. Crosses represent samples that were used for PhyloChip analyses or NGS, respectively. Samples from each sampling were subjected to cultivation experiments. Red: medical module EU-100; green: habitable module EU-150; blue: utility module EU-250. Yellow stars indicate changing of NANO-filters and cleaning events of the primary filters on day 162 (11th of November, 2010) and 243 (2nd of February, 2011) of isolation

    Timeline of the Mars500 experiment from the beginning (3rd of June, 2010) until the end (5th of November, 2011). The schematic drawing also indicates important steps and events during the confinement (above timeline) including the two off-nominal situations (critical situation simulations) and sampling dates from 18 sampling events. Red area/font denotes the stay of three marsonauts in the simulated Martian surface complex, whereas light blue area represents the timeframe where the facility was untenanted. One reference sampling was performed 6 months after confinement. Crosses represent samples that were used for PhyloChip analyses or NGS, respectively. Samples from each sampling were subjected to cultivation experiments...

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    Farthest Active Inbound Comet yet seen NASA’s Hubble

    October 2, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This illustration shows the orbit of comet C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS (K2) on its maiden voyage into the solar system. The Hubble Space Telescope observed K2 when it was 1.5 billion miles from the Sun, halfway between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus. The farthest object from the Sun depicted here is the dwarf planet Pluto, which resides in the Kuiper Belt, a vast rim of primordial debris encircling our solar system. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

    This illustration shows the orbit of comet C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS (K2) on its maiden voyage into the solar system. The Hubble Space Telescope observed K2 when it was 1.5 billion miles from the Sun, halfway between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus. The farthest object from the Sun depicted here is the dwarf planet Pluto, which resides in the Kuiper Belt, a vast rim of primordial debris encircling our solar system. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

    Space Telescope has photographed the farthest active inbound comet ever seen, at a whopping distance of 1.5 billion miles from the Sun (beyond Saturn’s orbit). Slightly warmed by the remote Sun, it has already begun to develop an 80,000-mile-wide fuzzy cloud of dust, called a coma, enveloping a tiny, solid nucleus of frozen gas and dust...

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    A Fresh Look at Older Data yields a surprise near the Martian Equator

    October 1, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A new paper suggests hydrogen—possibly water ice—in the Medusa Fossae area of Mars, which is in an equatorial region of the planet to the lower left in this view. Credit: Steve Lee (University of Colorado), Jim Bell (Cornell University), Mike Wolff (Space Science Institute), and NASA

    A new paper suggests hydrogen—possibly water ice—in the Medusa Fossae area of Mars, which is in an equatorial region of the planet to the lower left in this view. Credit: Steve Lee (University of Colorado), Jim Bell (Cornell University), Mike Wolff (Space Science Institute), and NASA

    Scientists taking a new look at older data from NASA’s longest-operating Mars orbiter have discovered evidence of significant hydration near the Martian equator – a mysterious signature in a region of the Red Planet where planetary scientists figure ice shouldn’t exist...

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