Bethlehem Star may not be a star after all // News // Notre Dame News // University of Notre Dame
http://news.nd.edu/news/bethlehem-star-may-not-be-a-star-after-all/

“Astronomers, historians and theologians have pondered the question of the ‘Christmas Star’ for many years,” said Mathews.
“Where and when did it appear? What did it look like? Of the billions of stars out there, which among them shone bright on
that day so long ago? Modern astrophysics is how we attempt to explain one of history’s greatest astronomical events.”

Spoiler alert: It may not have been a star at all.

Srovnání pevné a tekuté složky na Zemi a Plutu



https://www.nasa.gov/feature/scientists-probe-mystery-of-pluto-s-icy-heart

Modeling offers new perspective on how Pluto's 'icy heart' came to be
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-perspective-pluto-icy-heart.html

The Stellar Side of The Exoplanet Story – Many Worlds
http://www.manyworlds.space/index.php/2016/12/01/the-stellar-side-of-the-exoplanet-story/

When it comes to the study of exoplanets, it’s common knowledge that the host stars don’t get much respect.

Yes, everyone knows that there wouldn’t be exoplanets without stars, and that they serve as the essential background for exoplanet
transit observations and as the wobbling object that allows for radial velocity measurements that lead to new exoplanets discoveries.

But stars in general have been seen and studied for ever, while the first exoplanet was identified only 20-plus years ago.
So it’s inevitable that host stars have generally take a back seat to the compelling newly-found exoplanets that orbit them.

As the field of exoplanet studies moves forward, however, and tries to answer questions about the characteristics of the planets
and their odds of being habitable, the perceived importance of the host stars is on the rise.

The logic: Stars control space weather, and those conditions produce a space climate that is conducive or not so conducive
to habitability and life.

UCLA astronomers watch star clusters spewing out dust | UCLA
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-astronomers-watch-star-clusters-spewing-out-dust
New observations confirm long-standing theory that stars are copious producers of heavy elements

Galaxies are often thought of as sparkling with stars, but they also contain gas and dust. Now, a team led by UCLA astronomers
has used new data to show that stars are responsible for producing dust on galactic scales, a finding consistent with long-standing
theory. Dust is important because it is a key component of rocky planets such as Earth.

Jean Turner, a UCLA professor in the department of astronomy and physics, her graduate student S. Michelle Consiglio, and two other
collaborators observed a galaxy roughly 33 million light-years away. The researchers focused on this galaxy, called “II Zw 40,”
because it is vigorously forming stars and therefore useful for testing theories of star formation. “This galaxy has one of
the largest star-forming regions in the local universe,” Turner said.

Tangled threads weave through cosmic oddity | ESA/Hubble
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1621/

New observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have revealed the intricate structure of the galaxy NGC 4696 in greater detail than
ever before. The elliptical galaxy is a beautiful cosmic oddity with a bright core wrapped in system of dark, swirling, thread-like filaments.

NGC 4696 is a member of the Centaurus galaxy cluster, a swarm of hundreds of galaxies all sitting together, bound together by gravity, about
150 million light-years from Earth and located in the constellation of Centaurus.

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