Communications of the ACM
An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM News
Nasa Mars Rover Opportunity Climbs to High Point on Rim
After completing two drives this week, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has paused to photograph the panoramic vista from the highest point the rover has...
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Scientists Pinpoint Saturn With Exquisite Accuracy
Scientists have paired NASA's Cassini spacecraft with the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system to pinpoint the position...
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Sun Sizzles in High-Energy X-Rays
For the first time, a mission designed to set its eyes on black holes and other objects far from our solar system has turned its gaze back closer to home, capturing...
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Rosetta Orbiter to Swoop Down On Comet in February
The European Space Agency's orbiting Rosetta spacecraft is expected to come within four miles (six kilometers) of the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko...
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NASA Voyager: 'Tsunami Wave' Still Flies Through Interstellar Space
The Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced three shock waves. The most recent shock wave, first observed in February 2014, still appears to be going on. One wave,...
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Signs of Ancient Mars Lakes and Quakes Seen in New Map
Long ago, in the largest canyon system in our solar system, vibrations from "marsquakes" shook soft sediments that had accumulated in Martian lakes.
From ACM News
Opals: Light Beams Let Data Rates Soar
You may know opals as fiery gemstones, but something special called OPALS is floating above us in space. On the International Space Station, the Optical Payload...
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Saturn's Moons: What a Difference a Decade Makes
Almost immediately after NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft made their brief visits to Saturn in the early 1980s, scientists were hungry for more.
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Nasa's Curiosity Rover Finds Clues to How Water Helped Shape Martian Landscape
Observations by NASA's Curiosity Rover indicate Mars' Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years.
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Dawn Snaps Its Best-Yet Image of Dwarf Planet Ceres
The Dawn spacecraft has delivered a glimpse of Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt, in a new image taken 740,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from...
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Researchers Advance 'quantum Teleportation'
The world at the quantum level, at the scale of particles too small for the eye to see, is very strange.
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Nasa's Curiosity Mars Rover Finds Mineral Match
Reddish rock powder from the first hole drilled into a Martian mountain by NASA's Curiosity rover has yielded the mission's first confirmation of a mineral mapped...
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Cassini Sees Sunny Seas on Titan
As it soared past Saturn's large moon Titan recently, NASA's Cassini spacecraft caught a glimpse of bright sunlight reflecting off hydrocarbon seas.
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Galactic Wheel of Life Shines in Infrared
It might look like a spoked wheel or even a "Chakram" weapon wielded by warriors like "Xena," from the fictional TV show, but this ringed galaxy is actually a vast...
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Cassini Caught in Hyperion's Particle Beam
Static electricity is known to play an important role on Earth's airless, dusty moon, but evidence of static charge building up on other objects in the solar system...
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Nasa Mission Provides Its First Look at Martian Upper Atmosphere
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has provided scientists their first look at a storm of energetic solar particles at Mars, produced...
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Tiny U.s. Region Is Methane 'hot Spot,' Nasa Finds
One small "hot spot" in the U.S. Southwest is responsible for producing the largest concentration of the greenhouse gas methane seen over the United States—more...
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Nasa's Nustar Telescope Discovers Shockingly Bright Dead Star
Astronomers have found a pulsating, dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. This is the brightest pulsar—a dense stellar remnant left over from...
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Striking View of Saturn's Polar 'Hexagon'
Nature is often more complex and wonderful than it first appears. For example, although it looks like a simple hexagon, this feature surrounding Saturn's north...
From ACM News