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
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...
From ACM TechNews
Nasa Tests Software That May Help Increase Flight Efficiency, Decrease Aircraft Noise
NASA has developed air traffic management software that could make flights more efficient. The software assists pilots with precise spacing of planes by delivering...
From ACM News
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,...
From ACM News
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...
From ACM News
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.
From ACM News
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.
From ACM News
On Pluto’s Doorstep, NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Awakens for Encounter
After a voyage of nearly nine years and three billion miles—the farthest any space mission has ever traveled to reach its primary target—NASA's New Horizons spacecraft...
From ACM News
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...
From ACM News
Nasa Issues 'remastered' View of Jupiter's Moon Europa
Scientists have produced a new version of what is perhaps NASA's best view of Jupiter's ice-covered moon, Europa.
From ACM News
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.
From ACM News
Newest Nasa Mars Orbiter Demonstrates Relay Prowess
The newest node in NASA's Mars telecommunications network—a radio aboard the MAVEN orbiter custom-designed for data links with robots on the surface of Mars—handled...
From ACM News
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...
From ACM News
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.
From ACM News
Rosetta's Comet Scrambling Its Jets
This image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken by Rosetta's Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS) on Sept. 20, from a distance...
From ACM News
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...
From ACM News
All Three NASA Mars Orbiters Healthy After Comet Flyby
All three NASA orbiters around Mars confirmed their healthy status Sunday after each took shelter behind Mars during a period of risk from dust released by a passing...
From ACM News
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...
From ACM News
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...
From ACM News