Astronews Daily 2455531

Top Stories NASA sets news conference on astrobiology finding related to extraterrestrial life - NASA will hold a news conference at 19 UT on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe. -NASA Russia Wants to Build "Sweeper" to Clean up Space Debris - Russia is looking to build a 2 billion orbital "pod" that would sweep up satellite debris from space around the Earth. According to a post on the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos' Facebook site, (which seems to confirm an earlier article by the Interfax news agency) the cleaning satellite would work on nuclear power and be operational for about 15 years. The Russian rocket company, Energia proposes that they would complete the cleaning satellite assembly by 2020 and test the device no later than in 2023. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today Observations of Jupiter reveal rare signatures of weather - One of Jupiter's dark brown stripes that faded out last spring is regaining its color, providing an unprecedented opportunity for astronomers to observe a rare and mysterious phenomenon caused by the planet's winds and cloud chemistry. -Keck Observatory [more stories] Videos