http://greenbankobservatory.org/hydrogen-clouds-from-galaxy-center/

A team of astronomers has discovered what appears to be a grand exodus of more than 100 hydrogen clouds streaming away from the center of the Milky Way
and heading into intergalactic space. This observation, made with the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT), may give astronomers
a clearer picture of the so-called Fermi Bubbles, giant balloons of superheated gas billowing out above and below the disk of our galaxy.

https://www.forbes.com/...atter-physics-could-solve-the-expanding-universe-controversy/#23685d407a8c

There's an enormous controversy in astrophysics today over how quickly the Universe is expanding. One camp of scientists, the same camp that won
the Nobel Prize for discovering dark energy, measured the expansion rate to be 73 km/s/Mpc, with an uncertainty of only 2.4%. But a second method,
based on the leftover relics from the Big Bang, reveals an answer that's incompatibly lower at 67 km/s/Mpc, with an uncertainty of only 1%. It's
possible that one of the teams has an unidentified error that's causing this discrepancy, but independent checks have failed to show any cracks in
either analysis. Instead, new physics might be the culprit. If so, we just might have our first real clue to how dark matter might be detected.

Animation of cosmic distance ladder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQbtjUgIVhg

A Quick Look at the Galactic Center
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiidT4DH1Es

Dark Energy Survey publicly releases first three years of data | News
http://news.fnal.gov/2018/01/dark-energy-survey-publicly-releases-first-three-years-of-data/

At a special session held during the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C., scientists on the Dark Energy Survey (DES)
announced today the public release of their first three years of data. This first major release of data from the Survey includes information
on about 400 million astronomical objects, including distant galaxies billions of light-years away as well as stars in our own galaxy.

Ingredients for Life Revealed in Meteorites That Fell to Earth
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2018/01/10/organic-meteorites/

Study, based in part at Berkeley Lab, also suggests dwarf planet in asteroid belt may be a source of rich organic matter

Winds of change: Supermassive black holes can overpower even the smallest galaxies | SDSS | Press Releases
http://www.sdss.org/press-releases/winds-of-change/

Today, astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey report a surprising new answer to that important question:
feedback from supermassive black holes blocks star formation, even in some of the smallest galaxies.

The results, being presented at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in National Harbor, Maryland on
Thursday and soon to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, represent a major
step forward in our understanding of how dwarf galaxies — some of the smallest in our Universe — are prevented
from forming stars.

Meteorites reveal story of Martian climate | Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
https://www.llnl.gov/news/meteorites-reveal-story-martian-climate

Liquid water is not stable on Mars’ surface because the planet’s atmosphere is too thin and temperatures are too cold. However,
at one time Mars hosted a warm and wet surface environment that may have been conducive to life. A significant unanswered question
in planetary science is when Mars underwent this dramatic change in climate conditions.

New research by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) cosmochemist Bill Cassata shows that, by looking at trapped gasses
in ancient Martian meteorites, the timing and effectiveness of atmospheric escape processes that have shaped Mars’ climate can be
pinned down. The research appears in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Cassata analyzed the Martian atmospheric gas xenon (Xe, in two ancient Martian meteorites, ALH 84001 and NWA 7034. The data indicate
that early in Martian history there was a sufficient concentration of atmospheric hydrogen to mass fractionated Xe (selectively removed
light isotopes) through a process known as hydrodynamic escape. However, the measurements suggest this process culminated within a few
hundred million years of planetary formation (more than 4 billion years ago), and little change to the atmospheric Xe isotopic
composition has occurred since this time.

Aerospace engineers developing drone for NASA concept mission to Titan | Penn State University
http://news.psu.edu/...1/09/research/aerospace-engineers-developing-drone-nasa-concept-mission-titan

Researchers from the Penn State Department of Aerospace Engineering are part of a team led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
(APL) whose proposal for a revolutionary rotorcraft to investigate Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has been selected by NASA as one of two
finalists for the agency’s next New Frontiers mission.

Dragonfly, a drone-like multi-rotor lander, would take advantage of Titan’s dense atmosphere (four times denser than Earth’s atmosphere)
and low gravity (one-seventh of Earth's) to fly between widely-spaced landing sites on Titan’s surface. At each landing site, Dragonfly
would employ a suite of science instruments to investigate Titan’s organic chemistry and habitability; monitor atmospheric and surface
conditions; image landforms to investigate geological processes; and perform seismic studies.

Sun like it hot | Horizon: the EU Research & Innovation magazine | European Commission
https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/sun-it-hot_en.html

Few would be surprised to learn that the sun is very, very hot. At its surface, the temperature is several thousand degrees Celsius.

But you might think that, like a fire, the temperature drops as you move away from the surface. In fact, way out in the sun’s corona
(the outermost part of its atmosphere) the temperature rises swiftly – to several million degrees.

The reason is a mystery, but now some scientists believe they’re on the verge of finding out.

How massive is Supermassive? Astronomers measure more black holes, farther away | SDSS | Press Releases
http://www.sdss.org/press-releases/how-massive/

Today, astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) announced new measurements
of the masses of a large sample of supermassive black holes far beyond the local Universe.

The results, being presented at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in National Harbor,
Maryland and published in the Astrophysical Journal, represent a major step forward in our ability
to measure supermassive black hole masses in large numbers of distant quasars and galaxies.

VIRGO: Heino Falcke:
It could well take a few more years to get a really „nice“ image of a black hoke. In any case it will be
exciting to finally touch first real imaging EHT data next year - irrespective of how good or bad it may be.