The aliens are silent because they're dead

more »
The universe is probably filled with habitable planets, so many scientists think it should be teeming with aliens. But life on other planets would likely be brief and become extinct very quickly, say astrobiologists. In research aiming to understand how life might develop, the scientists realized new life would commonly die out due to runaway heating or cooling on their fledgling planets.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

International Space Station Transits Saturn

more »
From low Earth orbit to the outer Solar System, this remarkable video frame composite follows the International Space Station's transit of Saturn. On January 15, the well-timed capture from a site near Dulmen, Germany required telescope and camera to be positioned along the predicted transit centerline, a path only 40 meters wide. That put the camera about 1,140 kilometers away from the space station during the transit and 1,600,000,000 kilometers away from Saturn. A video rate of 42 frames per second follows the orbital outpost moving quickly from lower right to upper left. The transit itself lasted about 0.02 seconds, with one frame showing the station directly in front of the ringed gas giant. Of course, you could also try to capture the International Space Station as it transits Jupiter.

Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Microcosm: the story of CERN

Glass-based ultraviolet absorbers act as 'biological shields'

more »
Researchers have developed a glass-based material that can block out UV-light and protect living cells. The material could be used in several applications, including as a protective shield for electronic instruments in space.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Nano-photonics meets nano-mechanics

more »
Researchers have developed a novel type of hybrid system, consisting of an on-chip graphene NEMS suspended a few tens of nanometres above nitrogen-vacancy centres (NVCs), which are stable single-photon emitters embedded in nanodiamonds.
via Science Daily