Analysis reveals dozens of unknown gamma-ray sources in the universe
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-analysis-reveals-dozens-unknown-gamma-ray.html

Researchers at DESY have compiled an extensive catalogue of variable sources of cosmic gamma radiation. For his doctoral thesis, Matteo Giomi,
working at DESY in Zeuthen, analysed almost 7.5 years of observational data from NASA's "Fermi" space telescope. Over that period, the "Large Area
Telescope" (LAT) on board the satellite registered a total of 4547 bursts of gamma radiation, known as flares. Thanks to improved analytical methods,
Giomi was able to assign these flares to 518 variable sources. The "Fermi All-Sky Variability Analysis" (FAVA) also lists 77 unknown sources, whose
identity has not yet been determined. The "Fermi" scientists are presenting their catalogue in the Astrophysical Journal.

Fermi All-Sky Variability Analysis (FAVA)
https://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/access/lat/FAVA/

How a Black Widow Consumes Its Companion
http://aasnova.org/2017/09/01/how-a-black-widow-consumes-its-companion/

Hanging out in a binary system with a hot millisecond pulsar can be hazardous to your health!
A new study has examined how these perilous objects can heat and evaporate away their companions.

Astronomy and Space News - Astro Watch: FINESSE Mission to Investigate Atmospheres of Hundreds of Alien Worlds
http://www.astrowatch.net/2017/09/finesse-mission-to-investigate.html

One of NASA’s proposed missions, known as the Fast INfrared Exoplanet Spectroscopy Survey Explorer (FINESSE) could greatly improve
our understanding of extrasolar worlds. If selected for development, the spacecraft will investigate at least 500 exoplanet atmospheres,
providing detailed information about climate processes on distant alien planets.

FINESSE has been recently chosen by NASA for concept studies and evaluations. It is one of the agency’s six astrophysics Explorers Program
proposals that could be selected by 2019 to proceed with construction and launch.

The mission’s main objective is to study the processes that govern planet formation and global climate. It will investigate the mechanisms
that establish atmospheric chemical composition and shape atmospheric evolution.

Space in Images - 2017 - 08 - Gaia sky mapper image near the Galactic centre
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2017/08/Gaia_sky_mapper_image_near_the_Galactic_centre

Gaia, ESA’s billion-star surveyor, is detecting stars and measuring their properties in order to build up the most precise 3D map
of the Milky Way. By accurately measuring the motion of each star, astronomers will be able to peer back in time to understand
the Milky Way’s history, its evolution and its destiny.

In general, as Gaia registers stars, only data covering the object of interest are transmitted to the ground. However, in the densest
regions on the sky there are more stars close to each other than the detection and processing system of Gaia can cope with, which
could result in a less complete census in these crowded areas.

To help mitigate this, a scientific selection of high-density regions is made to cover them in a special imaging mode, as illustrated
here. These types of observations are carried out routinely every time Gaia scans over these regions.

VIRGO:
Three crewmembers will depart the International Space Station on Saturday (Sept. 2) and return to Earth. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will return
from her record-smashing mission along with her Expedition 52 crewmates, NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.
Watch the crew take off in their Soyuz spacecraft and land in Kazakhstan live here at Space.com, or tune in live to NASA TV.

At 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Saturday (Sept. 2), NASA TV will kick off their coverage of the return by broadcasting live coverage of the Soyuz MS-04
crew saying farewell to their Expedition 52/53 crewmates at the space station before they enter the space capsule and close the hatch. At 2:40 p.m.
EDT (1840 GMT), they'll close the hatch and begin preparing for departure. [Space Station Photos: Expedition 52 Crew in Orbit]

The Soyuz will undock from the space station at 5:58 p.m. EDT (1758 GMT), and the crew will start their 3.5-hour descent to Earth. At 8:29 p.m. EDT
(0029 GMT on Sept. 3), when the Soyuz is approximately 12 miles away from the space station, its engines will fire for a short deorbit burn. About
half an hour later, the crew will enter the atmosphere and the Soyuz will deploy parachutes, which will allow the crew to gently float down to Earth.
At 9:22 p.m. EDT (0122 GMT on Sept. 3), they'll touch down in Kazakhstan.

SVS: Voyager 1 Trajectory through the Solar System
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4139

Voyager 1 Trajectory through the Solar System
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYNIsgDrIRE

NASA’s Asteroid-Bound Spacecraft to Slingshot Past Earth
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/asteroid-bound-spacecraft-to-slingshot-past-earth

NASA’s asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security -
Regolith Explorer), will pass about 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) above Earth just before 12:52 p.m. EDT on Friday, Sept. 22.
Using Earth as a slingshot, the spacecraft will receive an assist to complete its journey to the asteroid Bennu.

OSIRIS-REx is undertaking a challenging mission to visit the near-Earth asteroid, survey the surface, collect samples and deliver
them safely back to Earth. This is the first NASA mission to attempt such an undertaking. The spacecraft is halfway through its
two-year outbound journey, and now OSIRIS-REx needs an extra boost to successfully rendezvous with Bennu.

Moon’s tidal stress likely responsible for causing deep moonquakes, new study confirms - GeoSpace - AGU Blogosphere
http://blogs.agu.org/...-tidal-stress-likely-responsible-causing-deep-moonquakes-new-study-confirms/

The same gravitational force responsible for creating tides on Earth could be causing deep quakes on the moon, a new study confirms.

A new analysis of data gathered by the Apollo missions confirms that tidal stress – the gravitational pull of the moon on the Earth
and of the Earth on the moon – is responsible for causing deep moonquakes, the lunar equivalent of earthquakes.

Close encounters of the stellar kind / Gaia / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/Close_encounters_of_the_stellar_kind

The movements of more than 300 000 stars surveyed by ESA’s Gaia satellite reveal that rare close encounters with our Sun
might disturb the cloud of comets at the far reaches of our Solar System, sending some towards Earth in the distant future.

As the Solar System moves through the Galaxy, and as other stars move on their own paths, close encounters are inevitable –
though ‘close’ still means many trillions of kilometres.

A star, depending on its mass and speed, would need to get within about 60 trillion kilometres before it starts to have an
effect on the Solar System’s distant reservoir of comets, the Oort Cloud, which is thought to extend out to 15 trillion
kilometres from the Sun, 100 000 times the Sun–Earth distance.

For comparison, the outermost planet Neptune orbits at an average distance of about 4.5 billion kilometres, or 30 Sun–Earth
distances. The gravitational influence of stars that pass near the Oort Cloud could perturb the paths of comets residing there,
jolting them onto orbits that bring them in to the inner Solar System.

While this is thought to be responsible for some of the comets that appear in our skies every hundred to thousand years,
it also has the potential to put comets on a collision course with Earth or other planets.

Tracking stellar motions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCEr8PqeLWI