1967 solar storm nearly took US to brink of nuclear war
https://news.agu.org/press-release/1967-solar-storm-nearly-took-us-to-brink-of-war/
A solar storm that jammed radar and radio communications at the height of the Cold War could have led to a disastrous
military conflict if not for the U.S. Air Force’s budding efforts to monitor the sun’s activity, a new study finds.

Large aeolian ripples on Mars | Planetary Geomorphology Image of the Month
https://planetarygeomorphology.wordpress.com/2016/07/30/dune-ripples-on-earth-and-mars/
Ripples cover the surfaces of sand dunes on Earth and Mars. On Earth, ripples formed in typical aeolian sand (e.g., 0.1 and 0.3 mm)
range in wavelength between 10 and 15 cm and display a highly straight, two-dimensional crestline geometry. Ripples are thought to
develop through a process dominated by the ballistic impacts of saltating sand grains in which wavelength selection occurs through
the interplay of grain size, wind speed, the saltation trajectories of the sand grains, and ripple topography.

Rocks in Chile Help Scientists Hunt for Life on Mars - Eos
https://eos.org/research-spotlights/rocks-in-chile-help-scientists-hunt-for-life-on-mars
Robots like Viking, Phoenix, and Curiosity have found indirect evidence of oxalate minerals on Mars. New techniques
tested in the Chile’s Atacama Desert could help future Mars rovers analyze these minerals for possible by-products of life.

Organic oxalates tie up carbon, creating carbon sinks that are extremely resistant to most physical and chemical weathering.
On Earth, oxalates are primarily broken down by biological weathering; fungus and bacteria consume oxalate, recycling carbon
back into the environment. But Mars’s carbon cycle is not as well understood. Developing better techniques to identify trace
concentrations of oxalates may provide insights into the processes at play on the Red Planet.

VIRGO: hmm :) tak to mám foto teda pěkně mimo :D
VIRGO: nádhernej snímek!

VIRGO: Pořád doufám, že pro změnu bude oblačnost mizivá :)

[1608.02013v1] The Thirteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-IV Survey MApping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory
http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.02013v1

Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to Measure Light from 35M Cosmic Objects in Effort to Understand Expansion of the Universe
DOE Approves Construction of 3-D Galaxy-mapping Project ‘DESI’ | SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/...-09-doe-approves-construction-3-d-galaxy-mapping-project-desi.aspx
A 3-D sky-mapping project that will measure the light of 35 million cosmic objects has received formal approval from the Department of Energy
to move forward with construction. Installation of the project, called Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), is set to begin next year
at the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, with observations starting up in January 2019.

Looking down on the prime focus & primary mirror of the 200" Hale Telescope.

Ultimate Gravitational Waves Demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw7U3BYMs4U

Asteroid Update - Jill Tarter from SETI Institute - August 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QKBg9qLCco


http://asteroidday.org/update/

Comet Swift-Tuttle: The Icy Parent of the Perseid Meteor Shower
http://www.space.com/33677-comet-swift-tuttle-perseid-meteor-shower-source.html
The spectacular Perseid meteor shower, peaking Thursday night (Aug. 11–12), lights up Earth's sky every summer as
Earth passes through the trail left by Comet Swift-Tuttle, a miles-wide behemoth that swings by Earth every 133 years.

Swift-Tuttle, whose nucleus is 16 miles (26 kilometers) wide, is the largest solar system object to pass close to Earth
repeatedly, NASA has said, and researchers once thought it was likely to hit Earth in 2126 — but the last time it passed
Earth, in 1992, astronomers took more precise measurements and calculated that its next pass wouldn't be so dangerous
after all.

The Kepler K2 Campaign 10 has suffered a couple of unexpected reductions to the intended science.
Break in science collection during K2 Campaign 10 - Kepler & K2
http://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov/break-in-science-collection-during-k2-campaign-10.html

The Wow! Signal Podcast: 3 Episode 8 - Ben Montet Makes a Star Weirder
http://www.wowsignalpodcast.com/2016/08/3-episode-8-ben-montet-makes-star.html
Host Paul Carr talks to astronomer Ben Montet,who has, with his colleague Joshua Simon,
just published the result that Tabby's Star (KIC 8462852) dimmed considerably over the four
year course of the Kepler Space Telescope prime mission.

New Technique Searches for Exomoons by the Light of Their Planets
http://www.space.com/33658-exomoons-illuminated-by-planetary-light-new-technique.html
Bright, young planets that are still hot from their formation could shine some light on their moons,
making the dim satellites easier for astronomers to spot using a newly developed technique.

The new method suggests using the polarization of the light from the planet to find these small moons.
Polarization light refers to light waves that are oriented in the same direction. For example, when
sunlight reflects off the surface of the ocean, it tends to become polarized.