The Plasma Magnet Drive: A Simple, Cheap Drive for the Solar System and Beyond
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=39048

Astronomers Shed Light on Formation of Black Holes and Galaxies W. M. Keck Observatory
http://www.keckobservatory.org/recent/entry/quasar_galaxy

Stars forming in galaxies appear to be influenced by the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy,
but the mechanism of how that happens has not been clear to astronomers until now.

In a study published today in The Astrophysical Journal, Wright, graduate student Andrey Vayner, and their colleagues
examined the energetics surrounding the powerful winds generated by the bright, vigorous supermassive black hole
(known as a “quasar”) at the center of the 3C 298 host galaxy, located approximately 9.3 billion light years away.

https://www.nasa.gov/...e/goddard/2017/new-study-finds-winking-star-may-be-devouring-wrecked-planets

A team of U.S. astronomers studying the star RZ Piscium has found evidence suggesting its strange, unpredictable
dimming episodes may be caused by vast orbiting clouds of gas and dust, the remains of one or more destroyed planets.

"Our observations show there are massive blobs of dust and gas that occasionally block the star's light and are probably
spiraling into it," said Kristina Punzi, a doctoral student at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York
and lead author of a paper describing the findings. "Although there could be other explanations, we suggest this material
may have been produced by the break-up of massive orbiting bodies near the star."

‘Winking’ Star May Be Devouring Wrecked Planets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf2oc6nMsn4

Mars: Not as dry as it seems | University of Oxford
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-12-20-mars-not-dry-it-seems

Two new Oxford University papers have shed light on why there is no life on Mars.

When searching for life, scientists first look for an element key to sustaining it: fresh water.

Although today’s Martian surface is barren, frozen and inhabitable, a trail of evidence points to a once warmer, wetter planet, where water flowed freely.
The conundrum of what happened to this water is long standing and unsolved. However, new research published in Nature suggests that this water is now locked
in the Martian rocks.

Scientists at Oxford’s Department of Earth Sciences, propose that the Martian surface reacted with the water and then absorbed it, increasing the rocks
oxidation in the process, making the planet uninhabitable.

Previous research has suggested that the majority of the water was lost to space as a result of the collapse of the planet’s magnetic field, when it was
either swept away by high intensity solar winds or locked up as sub-surface ice. However, these theories do not explain where all of the water has gone.

Convinced that the planet’s minerology held the answer to this puzzling question, a team led by Dr Jon Wade, NERC Research Fellow in Oxford’s Department
of Earth Sciences, applied modelling methods used to understand the composition of Earth rocks to calculate how much water could be removed from the Martian
surface through reactions with rock. The team assessed the role that rock temperature, sub-surface pressure and general Martian make-up, have on the planetary
surfaces. The results revealed that the basalt rocks on Mars can hold approximately 25 per cent more water than those on Earth, and as a result drew the water
from the Martian surface into its interior.

Powerful New Tool for Looking for Life Beyond Earth | News Releases | The Optical Society
https://www.osa.org/...wsroom/news_releases/2017/powerful_new_tool_for_looking_for_life_beyond_eart/

NASA has developed an innovative new spectroscopy instrument to aid the search for extraterrestrial life. The new instrument is designed to detect compounds and
minerals associated with biological activity more quickly and with greater sensitivity than previous instruments. Although no evidence of life outside of Earth
has yet been found, looking for evidence of present or past life on other planets continues to be an important part of the NASA Planetary Exploration Program.

Researchers at NASA Langley Research Center and the University of Hawaii developed the new instrument, which improves on an analytical technique known as micro
Raman spectroscopy. This technique uses the interaction between laser light and a sample to provide chemical composition information on a microscopic scale. It
can detect organic compounds such as the amino acids found in living things and identify minerals formed by biochemical processes on Earth that might indicate
life on other planets.

‘Cosmic lantern’ could help us further understand the fate of the Universe | UoP News
http://uopnews.port.ac.uk/...smic-lantern-could-help-us-further-understand-the-fate-of-the-universe/

New research has provided a deeper insight into emission line galaxies, used in several ongoing and upcoming surveys,
to help us further understand the composition and fate of the Universe.

A New Twist in the Dark Matter Tale | NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/a-new-twist-in-the-dark-matter-tale.html

An innovative interpretation of X-ray data from a cluster of galaxies could help scientists fulfill a quest they have been on for decades: determining the nature of dark matter.

The finding involves a new explanation for a set of results made with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton and Hitomi, a Japanese-led X-ray telescope. If confirmed
with future observations, this may represent a major step forward in understanding the nature of the mysterious, invisible substance that makes up about 85% of matter in the universe.

The story of this work started in 2014 when a team of astronomers led by Esra Bulbul (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.) found a spike of intensity
at a very specific energy in Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of the hot gas in the Perseus galaxy cluster.

This spike, or emission line, is at an energy of 3.5 kiloelectron volts (keV). The intensity of the 3.5 keV emission line is very difficult if not impossible to explain in terms
of previously observed or predicted features from astronomical objects, and therefore a dark matter origin was suggested. Bulbul and colleagues also reported the existence of the
3.5 keV line in a study of 73 other galaxy clusters using XMM-Newton.

The plot of this dark matter tale thickened when only a week after Bulbul’s team submitted their paper a different group, led by Alexey Boyarsky of Leiden University in the Netherlands,
reported evidence for an emission line at 3.5 keV in XMM-Newton observations of the galaxy M31 and the outskirts of the Perseus cluster, confirming the Bulbul et al. result.