Astronomers discover two new inflated 'hot Jupiters'
http://phys.org/news/2016-09-astronomers-inflated-hot-jupiters.html

An international team of astronomers led by Joel Hartman of Princeton University has detected two new "hot Jupiter" exoplanets, less massive than our
solar system's biggest planet, but with a radius larger than they should have. The findings are reported in a paper published Sept. 9 on arXiv.org.

The newly found exoworlds, designated HAT-P-65b and HAT-P-66b, were classified as "hot Jupiters" as they are gas giant planets similar in characteristics
to Jupiter, with orbital periods of less than 10 days. They have high surface temperatures as they orbit their host stars very closely. However, the new
alien worlds are much larger in diameter than expected, which led astronomers to conclude that these planets must have undergone an inflation process.

HAT-P-65b and HAT-P-66b were detected by the Hungarian-made Automated Telescope Network (HATNet). The team also conducted follow-up spectrographic and
photometric observations to determine physical characteristics of these planets.

Nearby Exo-Earth Family Withstands Extreme Scrutiny | Gemini Observatory
http://www.gemini.edu/node/12567
The discovery of three Earth-sized planets likely orbiting a low-mass star is looking like the real thing.

Astronomers combined the power of the 8-meter Gemini South telescope in Chile with an extremely high-resolution camera to scrutinize the star TRAPPIST-1.
Previous observations of the star, which is only about 8% the mass of our Sun, revealed dips in the star’s light output that would be expected if several
Earth-sized planets orbited the star. However, the situation would be greatly complicated if, upon closer examination, the star was found to have
a yet-unseen stellar companion.

No such companion was found with Gemini, which essentially seals the case for multiple Earth-sized planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1.

Explaining why the universe can be transparent
http://phys.org/news/2016-09-universe-transparent.html

Two papers published by an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside
and several collaborators explain why the universe has enough energy to become transparent.

The study led by Naveen Reddy, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UC Riverside,
marks the first quantitative study of how the gas content within galaxies scales with the amount of interstellar dust.

This analysis shows that the gas in galaxies is like a "picket fence," where some parts of the galaxy have little gas
and are directly visible, whereas other parts have lots of gas and are effectively opaque to ionizing radiation.
The findings were just published in The Astrophysical Journal.

http://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/boost-astrobiology-germany-180960375/
Several European countries already have societies dedicated to the rapidly growing field of astrobiology. Now Germany is getting one, too.
The German Astrobiology Society held its first meeting last week in Berlin to discuss administrative details for the new organization and
talk science at the same time. The DAbG, as it’s called, will be the newest member of the European Astrobiology Network Association, EANA.

The meeting’s scientific program included discussions of organic compounds in space, the origin and evolution of life, the habitability of
planets, and life detection. The first day’s keynote lecture, by Pascale Ehrenfreund, the new director of the German AeroSpace Center, was
on the search for life in the universe.

Deep-sea drilling expedition to look for life's limits in scalding environments | Science | AAAS
http://www.sciencemag.org/...09/deep-sea-drilling-expedition-look-lifes-limits-scalding-environments
A new ocean drilling expedition will try to settle the question by drilling into crust where high temperatures are found unusually close to the sea floor,
bringing life’s thermal limit within reach. On 13 September, the research vessel Chikyu will set sail from Shimizu, Japan, and sink its bits into a patch
of ocean floor where the sediments should reach 130°C at the maximum drill depth of 1260 meters. Somewhere along the way, the team expects, life should
succumb to rising temperatures.

Missing Galaxies Near Milky Way Destroyed From Within, Simulations Suggest | Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7KuwjGGxBw

Come see where space starts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTnF7cgHaeA

Cassini's camera views of Titan's polar lakes in summer, processed into pseudocolor | The Planetary Society
http://www.planetary.org/...gs/emily-lakdawalla/2016/09121142-cassinis-camera-views-titan-lakes.html

OSIRIS-REx says hello to the ATA! | SETI Institute
http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/osiris-rex-says-hi-to-ata
The ATA uses 42 radio dishes to search for radio transmissions from ET. How do we know the system is working?
To answer that we point the dishes in the direction of a spacecraft we know is transmitting radio signals back
to Earth. If our software detects a radio transmission at the exact frequency as the spacecraft's transmission
we know things are working as they should. On September 11, 2016 we tested the ATA by pointing at the newly
launched NASA Osiris-REx spacecraft.

Statistical properties of star formation in molecular clouds
http://phys.org/news/2016-09-statistical-properties-star-formation-molecular.html

Stars form within the dense regions of diffuse molecular clouds, but the physical processes that determine the locations, rate, and efficiency of star formation
are poorly understood. Recent thinking envisions an approximately two-step process: first, a network of dense filaments form due to large-scale turbulence and
then fragmentation into cores occurs as gravity starts to dominate. In the dense gas the structure formation is affected by motions induced primarily by three
processes: supersonic turbulence, self-gravity, and magnetic fields, although the role of each process is still debated.
Recent research suggests that the statistical properties of the column density (for example, the numbers of cores denser than a fixed value) offer a key to
unraveling structure formation mechanisms. Computer simulations of star formation show that if the number of dense cores having any particular density value
is random, then turbulence is probably dominant, but if denser cores tend to cluster non-randomly, then gravity is probably dominant.

Space in Images - 2016 - 09 - ESA’s Star Mapper visualisation
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/09/ESA_s_Star_Mapper_visualisation

In 1989, ESA launched the first space mission dedicated to astrometry – the science of charting the sky. The satellite was named Hipparcos,
echoing the name of ancient Greek astronomer, Hipparchus, who compiled the oldest known stellar catalogue in the second century BC.

Hipparcos operated for over three years and a catalogue based on its data, released in 1997, had a major impact on many areas of astronomy research.

This catalogue listed 117 955 stars, reporting their positions with unprecedented accuracy, alongside estimates of their distance from us and motions
through the Galaxy. It was a huge advance on the best catalogues compiled from ground-based observations, which contained information for just over
8000 stars.

VIRGO:
Watch Gaia first data release media briefing / Gaia / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/Watch_Gaia_first_data_release_media_briefing

Press Conference: First Data Release from ESA's Gaia Mission
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pAjvQ5uu7I

What is the biggest black hole as seen from Earth?
And what are our prospects for observing its event horizon?
What is the biggest black hole as seen from Earth? – Starts With A Bang! – Medium
https://medium.com/...bang/what-is-the-biggest-black-hole-as-seen-from-earth-423db2c9c866#.y9pye7t6d

Animation of the Stellar Orbits around the Galactic Center
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZhUQl-wmq0

What Will It Take for Humans to Colonize the Milky Way? - Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-will-it-take-for-humans-to-colonize-the-milky-way1/
It's a common theme in science fiction, but migrating to planets beyond our solar system
will be a lot more complicated and difficult than you might imagine

VIRGO: zvláštní - ten tvar do šestiúhelníku...