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| Titan's tides point to hidden ocean |
| Nothing like it has been seen before beyond our own planet: large tides have been found on Saturn's moon Titan that point to a liquid ocean - most likely water - swirling around below the surface. |
| Date: 28 Jun 2012 |
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| Dramatic change spotted on a faraway planet [heic1209] |
| Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have seen dramatic changes in the upper atmosphere of a faraway planet. Just after a violent flare on its parent star bathed it in intense X-ray radiation, the planet's atmosphere gave off a powerful burst of evaporation. The observations give a tantalising glimpse of the changing climates and weather on planets outside our Solar System. |
| Date: 28 Jun 2012 |
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| Craters expose action of groundwater beneath Martian highlands |
| A new study of the ancient, cratered highlands of Mars has detected numerous exposures of minerals that were altered by underground water during the planet's early history. The data indicate that subsurface water persisted for prolonged periods of time during the first billion years of the planet's existence. |
| Date: 27 Jun 2012 |
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| Announcement of Opportunity for the JUICE Payload |
| Through this Announcement of Opportunity the European Space Agency (ESA) solicits proposals for the provision of the scientific payload on board the JUICE spacecraft. The deadline for submission of proposals is 15 October 2012, 12:00 CEST (noon). |
| Date: 26 Jun 2012 |
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| European Hubble archive moves to Spain |
| The European science archive for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been transferred to ESA's European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Villanueva de la Cañada near Madrid, Spain. This guarantees a permanent home for Hubble science data following the closure of the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF), located at the headquarters of the European Southern Observatory near Munich, Germany. |
| Date: 22 Jun 2012 |
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| Dark Universe mission blueprint complete |
| ESA's Euclid mission to explore the hidden side of the Universe - dark energy and dark matter - reached an important milestone today that will see it head towards full construction. |
| Date: 20 Jun 2012 |
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| A trick of perspective - chance alignment mimics a cosmic collision [heic1208] |
| The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a highly detailed image of a pair of overlapping galaxies called NGC 3314. While the two galaxies look as if they are in the midst of a collision, this is in fact a trick of perspective: the two just happen to appear in the same direction from our vantage point. |
| Date: 14 Jun 2012 |
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| Origin of particle acceleration in cusps of Earth's magnetosphere uncovered |
| While flying through one of the cusps in Earth's magnetic field, the four spacecraft of ESA's Cluster mission have sampled the population of highly energetic particles that often fill these 'cavities'. A study of the data shows that particles are accelerated locally, within the cusps, as they cross regions characterised by different electric potential - a configuration that results from magnetic reconnection events. This is an important contribution to the long-standing debate concerning how and where these particles are accelerated. |
| Date: 05 Jun 2012 |
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