Arizona-based Astronomers Characterize One of the Smallest Known Asteroids - Lowell Observatory
https://lowell.edu/arizona-based-astronomers-characterize-smallest-known-asteroid/

A team of astronomers have obtained observations of the smallest asteroid –with a diameter of only two meters —
ever characterized in detail. The asteroid, named 2015 TC25, is also one of the brightest near-Earth asteroids
ever discovered, reflecting 60 percent of the sunlight that falls on it.

Smallest known asteroid characterized using Earth-based telescopes
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-smallest-asteroid-characterized-earth-based-telescopes.html

The Missing Universe: CERN Has Started Searching for "Dark Photons"
https://futurism.com/the-missing-universe-cern-has-started-searching-for-dark-photons/
Dark matter seems to outweigh visible matter roughly six to one, making up about 27% of the universe. Physicists from CERN now believe
there's a fifth universal force that rules the behavior of dark matter, and is transmitted by a particle called the dark photon.

Hunting the mysterious dark photon: the NA64 experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT2BqfI-vNY

What Happens if We Detect Extraterrestrial Intelligence? - Science Friday
http://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/what-happens-if-we-detect-extraterrestrial-intelligence/
Finding communicative aliens is a long shot, but if we do, here are a few next steps to consider.

How an Earth-sized telescope will 'see' a supermassive black | Cosmos
https://cosmosmagazine.com/...nology/how-an-earth-sized-telescope-will-see-a-supermassive-black-hole
Jake Port explains how a global network of radio telescopes will image, for the first time, the event horizon of a black hole.

ALMA Joins in the Hunt to Image the Edge of a Black Hole
https://vimeo.com/84147491

Data from ISS Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer suggests possibility of unknown source of positrons
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-iss-alpha-magnetic-spectrometer-possibility.html

A team of researchers known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) Collaboration has found evidence of a possible unknown source of positrons
making their way through the universe to Earth. In their paper published in Physical Review Letters, the team offers a report on cosmic ray strikes
that have been reported by the AMS aboard the International Space Station and why they believe the data suggests that some of the recorded strikes
could not be attributed to primary cosmic rays colliding with gas atoms in space.

ESOcast 89: Chile Chill 8 – “A Bird’s Eye View of ESO Observatories”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnlkWrvBXP0&feature=youtu.be

Astronomers discover a dense 'hot Jupiter' exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-astronomers-dense-hot-jupiter-exoplanet.html

Astronomers have detected a so-called "hot Jupiter" exoplanet transiting a distant sun-like star located some 1,800 light years from the Earth.
The newly discovered planet, designated EPIC 220504338b, was found using NASA's prolonged Kepler mission known as K2. The findings are presented
in a paper published Nov. 23 on arXiv.org.

EPIC 220504338b was first spotted by K2 as a planetary candidate during the spacecraft's Campaign 8 in mid-2016. To confirm it as a planet, a team
of researchers led by Nestor Espinoza of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile conducted follow-up observations using ESO's Fibre-fed, Extended
Range, Échelle Spectrograph (FEROS) at La Silla Observatory in Chile. FEROS observational campaign was carried out in August and November 2016.

First views of Mars show potential for ESA’s new orbiter / ExoMars / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA
http://www.esa.int/...Space_Science/ExoMars/First_views_of_Mars_show_potential_for_ESA_s_new_orbiter

Space in Images - 2016 - 11 - Mars close-up
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/11/Mars_close-up

Mystery of ultra-diffuse faint galaxies solved – Niels Bohr Institute - University of Copenhagen
http://www.nbi.ku.dk/english/news/news16/mystery-of-ultra-diffuse-faint-galaxies-solved/

Over the last year, researchers have observed some very faint, diffuse galaxies. The galaxies are as faint as dwarf galaxies, but are distributed over an area
just as large as the Milky Way. It has been a mystery, how galaxies so faint - containing up to 1000 times fewer stars than the Milky Way could still be just
as large. Now new research from the Niels Bohr Institute shows that if a lot of supernovae explode during the star formation process, it can result in both the
stars and the dark matter being pushed outwards, causing the galaxy to expand. The results are published in the scientific journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, Oxford University Press.

Project to map the history of the Milky Way
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-history-milky.html

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains at least 100 billion stars. Over the centuries, astronomers have scoured the skies, developing
a thorough understanding of the lives of those stars, from their formation in vast nebulae to their fiery and spectacular deaths.

But how has our galaxy changed over time? Where did the stars we see today form, and which of them are siblings, formed together
from the same cloud of material?

To answer these questions we need to perform Galactic archaeology. To do this, an ambitious Australian-led observing survey, called
Galah, is undertaking the immense task of capturing millions of rainbows to disentangle our galaxy's story.

Next Big Future: Near Term Planet photographing exoplanet telescopes
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/11/near-term-planet-photographing.html

Exoplanets are detected—by measuring the wobble their gravity causes in their host stars, or by noting the slight decline in a star’s brightness
as a planet passes in front of it—yield little detail. Using them, astronomers can infer such basics as a planet’s size, mass and orbit. Occasionally,
they can interrogate starlight that has traversed a planet’s atmosphere about the chemistry of its air.

Timing the Shadow of a Potentially Habitable Extrasolar Planet Paves the Way to Search for Alien Life | NAOJ: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan - English
http://www.nao.ac.jp/en/news/science/2016/20161128-oao.html

A group of researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the University of Tokyo, and the Astrobiology Center
among others has observed the transit of a potentially Earth-like extrasolar planet known as K2-3d using the MuSCAT instrument on the Okayama
Astrophysical Observatory 188-cm telescope. A transit is a phenomenon in which a planet passes in front of its parent star, blocking a small
amount of light from the star, like a shadow of the planet. While transits have previously been observed for thousands of other extrasolar
planets, K2-3d is important because there is a possibility that it might harbor extraterrestrial life.

By observing its transit precisely using the next generation of telescopes, such as TMT, scientists expect to be able to search the atmosphere
of the planet for molecules related to life, such as oxygen.

How we study space | Playlist | TED.com
http://www.ted.com/playlists/336/how_we_study_space

Theory that challenges Einstein's physics could soon be put to the test
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-theory-einstein-physics.html
Scientists behind a theory that the speed of light is variable - and not constant as Einstein suggested - have made a prediction that could be tested.

Einstein observed that the speed of light remains the same in any situation, and this meant that space and time could be different in different situations.

The assumption that the speed of light is constant, and always has been, underpins many theories in physics, such as Einstein's theory of general relativity.
In particular, it plays a role in models of what happened in the very early universe, seconds after the Big Bang.

But some researchers have suggested that the speed of light could have been much higher in this early universe. Now, one of this theory's originators,
Professor João Magueijo from Imperial College London, working with Dr Niayesh Afshordi at the Perimeter Institute in Canada, has made a prediction that
could be used to test the theory's validity.

Hubble rounds up the first worlds we’ll check for alien life | New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/...2113843-hubble-rounds-up-the-first-worlds-well-check-for-alien-life/

The search for alien life is taking a shortcut. The Hubble Space Telescope is set to spend hundreds of hours
over the next year running reconnaissance on a shortlist of worlds to identify those we should scour for life first.

This latest effort aims to take advantage of Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope. Set to launch in 2018,
JWST will have unprecedented power to detect the atmospheres of faraway planets for biosignature gases that would suggest
they host living, breathing organisms.

Did comets kick-start life on Earth? (video) | EurekAlert! Science News
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-11/acs-dck112316.php

The origins of life on Earth are still shrouded in mystery. One compelling possibility is
that comets delivered the building blocks for life eons ago. This week, Speaking of Chemistry
explains the chemistry behind how these icy, lumpy space rocks might have seeded life on Earth.

Did Comets Kickstart Life on Earth? — Speaking of Chemistry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnuldVd99x8