NASA's Spitzer Telescope Celebrates 10 Years in Space

Ten years after a Delta II rocket launched NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, lighting up the night sky over Cape Canaveral, Fla., the fourth of the agency's four Great Observatories continues to illuminate the dark side of the cosmos with its infrared eyes.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/august/nasas-spitzer-telescope-celebrates-10-years-in-space

A fluffy disk around a baby star

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Astronomers have observed a disk around the young star RY Tau (Tauri). The team's analysis of the disk shows that a "fluffy" layer above it is responsible for the scattered light observed in the infrared image. Detailed comparisons with computer simulations of scattered light from the disk reveal that this layer appears to be a remnant of material from an earlier phase of stellar and disk development, when dust and gas were falling onto the disk.

via Science Daily

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NASA prepares for first Virginia coast launch to moon

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In an attempt to answer prevailing questions about our moon, NASA is making final preparations to launch a probe at 11:27 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 6, from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.

via Science Daily

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NASA partner Sierra Nevada Corporation completes second Dream Chaser captive-carry test

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NASA partner Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) of Louisville, Colo., successfully completed a captive-carry test of the Dream Chaser spacecraft Thursday, Aug. 22, at the agency's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.

via Science Daily

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Researchers examine dynamics of liquid metal particles at nanoscale

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Two NJIT researchers have demonstrated that using a continuum-based approach, they can explain the dynamics of liquid metal particles on a substrate of a nanoscale. "Numerical simulation of ejected molten metal nanoparticles liquified by laser irradiation: Interplay of geometry and dewetting," appeared in Physical Review Letters (July 16, 2013).



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Plastic products could easily become electronic with first moldable all-carbon circuits

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(Phys.org) —There has been a great deal of research lately on flexible electronics, but so far these devices (which are mostly made of carbon) still use metal electrodes and oxide insulators, and these rigid materials limit device flexibility. Some polymers and ionic liquids have been introduced as flexible alternatives, but have poor performance in terms of high operating voltages and low operating speeds, respectively.



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Gaia has arrived in French Guiana

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ESA’s billion-star surveyor, Gaia, departed yesterday evening from Toulouse and arrived early this morning in French Guiana. Gaia will be launched later this year from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou on a five-year mission to map the stars of the Milky Way with unprecedented precision.

via ESA Space Science

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/Gaia_has_arrived_in_French_Guiana

A fluffy disk around a baby star

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An international team of astronomers that are members of the Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru Telescope (SEEDS) Project has used Subaru Telescope's High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics (HiCIAO) to observe a disk around the young star RY Tau (Tauri). The team's analysis of the disk shows that a "fluffy" layer above it is responsible for the scattered light observed in the infrared image. Detailed comparisons with computer simulations of scattered light from the disk reveal that this layer appears to be a remnant of material from an earlier phase of stellar and disk development, when dust and gas were falling onto the disk.



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