Climate cycles may explain how running water carved Mars' surface features
http://phys.org/news/2016-12-climate-mars-surface-features.html

Dramatic climate cycles on early Mars, triggered by buildup of greenhouse gases, may be the key to understanding
how liquid water left its mark on the planet's surface, according to a team of planetary scientists.
Scientists have long debated how deep canyons and extensive valley networks—like the kinds carved by running water
over millions of years on Earth—could form on Mars some 3.8 billion years ago, a time many believe the planet was frozen.
The researchers suggest a glacier-covered early Mars could have experienced long warm periods, lasting up to 10 million
years at a time, caused by a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
The team, which published its findings today (Dec. 1) in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, found
the warming cycles would have lasted long enough, and produced enough water, to create the features.

Embryonic Cluster Galaxy Immersed in Giant Cloud of Cold Gas - NRAO: Revealing the Hidden Universe
https://public.nrao.edu/news/pressreleases/galaxy-cluster-gas

Astronomers studying a cluster of still-forming protogalaxies seen as they were more than 10 billion years ago
have found that a giant galaxy in the center of the cluster is forming from a surprisingly-dense soup of molecular gas.

"This is different from what we see in the nearby Universe, where galaxies in clusters grow by cannibalizing other galaxies.
In this cluster, a giant galaxy is growing by feeding on the soup of cold gas in which it is submerged," said Bjorn Emonts
of the Center for Astrobiology in Spain, who led an international research team.

A direct communication proposal to test the Zoo Hypothesis
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265964616300285

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.