Japan’s sixth HTV cargo mission slated for Sept. 30 launch – Spaceflight Now
http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/07/27/japans-sixth-htv-cargo-mission-slated-for-sept-30-launch/
Japan’s space agency has set Sept. 30 as the target launch date for the country’s sixth resupply mission to the International Space
Station, carrying cargo, experiments and six lithium-ion batteries to kick off a major upgrade of the lab’s electrical system.

The cylinder-shaped cargo craft is set for liftoff at 1716 GMT (1:16 p.m. EDT) Sept. 30 from the Tanegashima Space Center, a facility
nestled on the southern coast of Tanegashima Island in southern Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced Tuesday.

The launch of the sixth H-2 Transfer Vehicle will occur in the predawn hours Oct. 1, Japanese time.

Relation between Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets
http://arxiv.org/abs/1607.07922
One of the most debated subjects in Astronomy since the discovery of exoplanets is how can we distinguish the most massive
of such objects from very-low mass stars like Brown Dwarfs (BDs)? We have been looking for evidences of a difference in physical
characteristics that could be related to different formation processes. Using a new diagnostic diagram that compares the baryonic
gravitational potential (BGP) with the distances from their host stars, we have classified a sample of 355 well-studied exoplanets
according to their possible structures.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/tiny-microchips-enable-extreme-science
As NASA spacecraft explore deeper into space, onboard computer electronics must not only be smaller and faster, but also be prepared
for extreme conditions. A prime example is shown in these images: a family of Application Specific Integrated Circuits, or ASICs, microchips
specifically designed to measure the particles in space – the very stuff that can create radiation hazards for satellite computers.

These tiny, radiation-resistant chips play a crucial role in one of the instruments nestled inside the radiation-shielded electronics vault
on NASA’s Juno spacecraft – which entered Jupiter’s orbit on July 4. The microchips aboard Juno are part of the Jupiter Energetic Particle
Detector Instrument, or JEDI, a cutting-edge instrument that will measure the composition of the immense magnetic system surrounding
the planet, called a magnetosphere.

Chandra:
Astronomers Gain New Insight into Magnetic Field Of Sun and Its Kin | NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/...dra/astronomers-gain-new-insight-into-magnetic-field-of-sun-and-its-kin.html
Astronomers have used data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to make a discovery that may have profound implications
for understanding how the magnetic field in the Sun and stars like it are generated.

Researchers have discovered that four old red dwarf stars with masses less than half that of the Sun are emitting X-rays
at a much lower rate than expected.

X-ray emission is an excellent indicator of a star’s magnetic field strength so this discovery suggests that these stars
have much weaker magnetic fields than previously thought.

TESS:
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasas-tess-the-next-exoplanet-explorer
As the search for life on distant planets heats up, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is bringing this hunt closer to home.
Launching in 2017-2018, TESS will identify planets orbiting the brightest stars just outside our solar system using what’s known as the transit method.

When a planet passes in front of, or transits, its parent star, it blocks some of the star's light. TESS searches for these telltale dips in brightness,
which can reveal the planet's presence and provide additional information about it.

TESS will be able to learn the sizes of the planets it sees and how long it takes them to complete an orbit. These two pieces of information are critical
to understanding whether a planet is capable of supporting life. Nearly all other planet classifications will come from follow up observations, by both
TESS team ground telescopes as well as ground- and space-based observations, including NASA's James Webb Space Telescope launching in 2018.

Spotlight Live: TESS & the Search for Exoplanets | The Kavli Foundation
http://www.kavlifoundation.org/...ence-spotlights/spotlight-live-tess-search-exoplanets#.V5kcb7t95hF

Spotlight Live: TESS & the Search for Exoplanets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sr59Oxa_4U

White Dwarf Lashes Red Dwarf with Mystery Ray
http://www.deepstuff.org/white-dwarf-lashes-red-dwarf-mystery-ray/
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, along with other telescopes on the ground and in space,
have discovered a new type of exotic binary star: in the system AR Scorpii a rapidly spinning white dwarf star
is powering electrons up to almost the speed of light. These high energy particles release blasts of radiation
that lash the companion red dwarf star, and cause the entire system to pulse dramatically every 1.97 minutes
with radiation ranging from the ultraviolet to radio.

Artist’s impression video of the exotic binary star system AR Scorpii
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdFi2qX9Hek

When life appear in the Universe? More frequently in the future...
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1606.08448.pdf
Relative Likelihood for Life as a Function of Cosmic Time
Abraham Loeb,a Rafael A. Batista,b David Sloanb

Isolated Young Star Seen by Spitzer and WISE - SpaceRef
http://spaceref.com/astronomy/isolated-young-star-seen-by-spitzer-and-wise.html
The unusual object, called CX330, was first detected as a source of X-ray light in 2009 by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory
while it was surveying the bulge in the central region of the Milky Way. Further observations indicated that this object was
emitting optical light as well. With only these clues, scientists had no idea what this object was.

But when Chris Britt, postdoctoral researcher at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and colleagues were examining infrared
images of the same area taken with NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), they realized this object has a lot
of warm dust around it, which must have been heated by an outburst.

Comparing WISE data from 2010 with Spitzer Space Telescope data from 2007, researchers determined that CX330 is likely a young
star that had been outbursting for several years. In fact, in that three-year period its brightness had increased by a few hundred times.

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia20700/the-loneliest-young-star

Melting of center mirror for the Giant Magellon Telescope at the Richard Caris Mirror Lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkYBy5THPm4

What does the solar system sound like?
https://theconversation.com/what-does-the-solar-system-sound-like-63014

NASA Space Sounds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MmWeZHsQzs

Old planets always get too hot or cold for life in the end | New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/.../2099139-old-planets-always-get-too-hot-or-cold-for-life-in-the-end/
Age matters. Searching for alien life on planets orbiting older stars may be fruitless because they always become prohibitively hot or cold.

The search for life on other worlds has focused on planets in what’s known as the habitable zone – the ring around stars where it’s the right
temperature for liquid water. That has led some to target planets orbiting red dwarf stars, as their smaller size and cooler temperatures mean
planets in the habitable zone are closer in, and so easier to spot. But we should also look for planets whose stars are the right age,
regardless of their size, say Shintaro Kadoya and Eiichi Tajika at the University of Tokyo, Japan.

First images from Adaptive Optics Lucky Imager (AOLI)
http://phys.org/news/2016-07-images-optics-lucky-imager-aoli.html
The Adaptive Optics Lucky Imager (AOLI) on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) has obtained its first adaptive-optics closed-loop results,
an important milestone in the development of this state-of-the-art instrument that aims at combining adaptive optics (AO) and lucky imaging
(LI) to obtain the highest-ever resolution images at visible wavelengths from the ground.

Astrobiologists debate which chemical signatures would hint at life on other worlds.
Planet hunters seek new ways to detect alien life : Nature News & Comment
http://www.nature.com/news/planet-hunters-seek-new-ways-to-detect-alien-life-1.20327
In the search for life beyond Earth, false alarms abound. Researchers have generally considered, and rejected,
claims ranging from a 1970s report of life on Mars to the 1990s ‘discovery’ of fossilized space microbes in a meteorite.

Now, inspired by the detection of thousands of planets beyond the Solar System, NASA has started a fresh effort to learn
how to recognize extraterrestrial life. The goal is to understand what gases alien life might produce — and how Earth-bound
astronomers might detect such ‘biosignatures’ in light passing through the atmospheres of planets trillions of kilometres
away (see ‘Searching for alien life’).

How the face of a distant star reveals our place in the cosmos | Aeon Ideas
https://aeon.co/ideas/how-the-face-of-a-distant-star-reveals-our-place-in-the-cosmos
Mount Wilson boasts the world’s longest optical interferometer: the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array.
The CHARA Array is resolving the surfaces of nearby stars, providing unprecedented glimpses of the Sun’s neighbours.

How the face of a distant star reveals our place in the cosmos | Aeon Ideas
https://aeon.co/ideas/how-the-face-of-a-distant-star-reveals-our-place-in-the-cosmos

ChemCam Update - Manganese Oxides on Mars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oayVInNUq8w