The future of planetary defense
By Amy Mainzer

The future of planetary defense - Mainzer - 2017 - Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets - Wiley Online Library
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017JE005318/full

Tune in to 2 days of discussions on "newly discovered Earth-like 'exoplanets' in the Alpha
Centauri and TRAPPIST-1 planetary systems" and what these discoveries mean for the search for life.

Breakthrough Initiatives to Webcast Search for Life Conference on Newfound Exoplanets
Breakthrough Initiatives
https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/Events/DiscussConference

You can watch it via FB: https://www.facebook.com/BreakthroughPrize

The event will take place April 20 and 21, and will feature presentations and panel discussions that focus on two recent discoveries of
potentially habitable planets orbiting stars relatively close to Earth's solar system, according to a statement from the organization.

The entire conference will be webcast to the public via Facebook Live. The complete a list of speakers and the conference schedule can be
found on the Breakthrough Initiatives website. The program begins at 9 a.m. PDT (12 p.m. EDT/1600GMT) each day, and runs until 5:50 p.m.
PDT on April 20 and until 4:30 p.m. PDT on April 21.

VIRGO:
First detection of equatorial dark dust lane in a protostellar disk at submillimeter wavelength
https://vimeo.com/213738858

First clear image made of accretion disk surrounding young star
https://phys.org/news/2017-04-image-accretion-disk-young-star.html

A team of researchers from the U.S. and Taiwan has captured the first clear image of a young star surrounded by an accretion disk.
In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team describes how the image was captured and details of their find.

Throughout its 27-year history, Hubble has seen enough of the Universe to fill 100 episodes of the Hubblecast — 10 hours worth!
These episodes have captured the science, culture, trials, and successes of Hubble, ranging from its spectacular images to its
cutting-edge discoveries to its impact on society. This special 100th Hubblecast reflects on the past 99 episodes, and includes
the smartest, funniest, weirdest and most creative moments.

Hubblecast 100: Best of Hubblecast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLsY71VU4h0


Happy Birthday Hubble Space Telescope! Today the space telescope turns 27, celebrating years of discoveries and exploration
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/2017/highlights-of-hubble-s-exploration-of-the-universe

Rare Supernova Discovery Ushers in New Era for Cosmology | Berkeley Lab
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/04/20/rare-gravitational-lensing-supernova/

Berkeley Lab astrophysicists develop novel method for finding gravitationally lensed Type 1a supernovae

With the help of an automated supernova-hunting pipeline and a galaxy sitting 2 billion light years away from Earth
that’s acting as a “magnifying glass,’’ astronomers have captured multiple images of a Type Ia supernova—the brilliant
explosion of a star—appearing in four different locations on the sky. So far this is the only Type Ia discovered that
has exhibited this effect.

http://www.sciencemag.org/...et-may-have-trapped-antihelium-raising-idea-lingering-pools-antimatter

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is finally delivering on the promise of its original name, when "AM" stood for "antimatter."

So far, the AMS has measured the masses and electric charges of some 90 billion particles that have passed through the magnet's maw.
Nearly all of those are protons and helium nuclei, along with a smattering of electrons and nuclei of carbon, oxygen, and iron. A precious
few are antiprotons and positrons: the antimatter counterparts of protons and electrons. To Ting, those antiparticles may be clues to the unseen
"dark matter" that weighs down galaxies with extra gravity, although many astrophysicists regard them as the byproduct of humdrum galactic events.

Can we see a singularity, the most extreme object in the universe?
https://phys.org/news/2017-04-singularity-extreme-universe.html

A team of scientists at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India,
have found new ways to detect a bare or naked singularity, the most extreme object in the universe.

The recurrent rubber duck shape of minor planetary bodies
https://medium.com/...ker1973/the-recurrent-rubber-duck-shape-of-minor-planetary-bodies-5cf6f0b0aadd

Probably the most interesting aspect resulting from the observation, is that asteroid 2014 JO25 is a contact binary, and about twice the size
we though it was. The shape is clearly composed by two lobes (and the observations could infer that one lobe is around 620 meters in diameter).

Many small planetary bodies in our Solar System have been found with this particular shapes, very often nicknamed “rubber duck shape” due to
the neck-like region that recalls a rubber toy.

Asteroids suspected of being contact binaries include the unusually elongated 624 Hektor and the bilobated 216 Kleopatra and 4769 Castalia.
25143 Itokawa, which was photographed by the Hayabusa probe, also appears to be a contact binary which has resulted in an elongated, bent body.
About 10–15% of near-Earth asteroids larger than 200 meters are expected to be contact binaries with two lobes in mutual contact.

A New Angle on Two Spiral Galaxies for Hubble's 27th Birthday
https://www.nasa.gov/...re/goddard/2017/a-new-angle-on-two-spiral-galaxies-for-hubbles-27th-birthday

In celebration of the 27th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990, astronomers used the legendary telescope to take
a portrait of a stunning pair of spiral galaxies. This starry pair offers a glimpse of what our Milky Way galaxy would look like to an outside observer.

Oceans galore: new study suggests most habitable planets may lack dry land
http://www.ras.org.uk/...6-oceans-galore-new-study-suggests-most-habitable-planets-may-lack-dry-land

When it comes to exploring exoplanets, it may be wise to take a snorkel along. A new study, published in a paper
in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, has used a statistical model to predict that most
habitable planets may be dominated by oceans spanning over 90% of their surface area.

The author of the study, Dr Fergus Simpson of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences at the University of Barcelona, has
constructed a statistical model – based on Bayesian probability – to predict the division between land and water
on habitable exoplanets.

NASA’s Vantage Point Over Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWKZ0_1f6hw

How Would NASA Search for Extraterrestrial Life on Enceladus?
http://www.space.com/36515-how-would-nasa-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-on-enceladus.html

Saturn’s moon Enceladus could house alien life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1FAFIc-YnY

VIRGO:
NGC 4696
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5H_N4SIoTc


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HUBBLE : A Look at ARP 273 - The Rose Galaxies Hubble Space Telescope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMEi_qTkMU8

Geomagnetic storms reaching G1 level expected
https://watchers.news/2017/04/19/geomagnetic-storms-reaching-g1-level-expected/
Earth is under the influence of a recurrent, positive polarity coronal hole high speed stream
(CH HSS). A G1 - Minor geomagnetic storm began at 05:59 UTC today.