Weekly Space Hangout - Dec. 19, 2014: Methane on Mars!

Host:

Fraser Cain (

@fcain

)

Guests:

Morgan Rehnberg (

cosmicchatter.org

/

@cosmic_chatter

) Ramin Skibba (

@raminskibba

) Alessondra Springmann (

@sondy

)

This Week's Stories:

TESS on SpaceX/AGU

Death of Venus Express

NASA budget win

NASA builds a useless tower it doesn't want

Distant Massive Galaxy Cluster

Quenching Star Formation around Black Hole

NASA & NSF budgets

Life's Building Blocks from Hell on Earth

Wallops Island to Receive $20M from Federal Budget to Repair Damaged MARS Pad 0A

Atlas V Launches NROL-35 out of Vandenberg

New RL10C Engine Debuts on Classified NROL-35 Launch

Spending Boost as UK Seeks a Bigger Role in Space Activities

"There's Something We Just don't Understand About the Internal Structure of the Universe"

India to Launch Astronaut Capsule, Big Rocket

Airborne Observatory SOFIA Returns to California

"NASA's 2015 Budget Increase is All but Confirmed

NASA Budget Boon in Late-Night Appropriation Bill"

NASA, JAXA Reach Asteroid Sample-Sharing Agreement

NASA's Morpheus Completes Successful Final Test at KSC

Photos: Soyuz Booster Rolls Out to French Guiana Launch Pad

NASA's CATS Instrument Ready to Study Effects of Clouds and Aerosols on Earth

Russia Considers Building its Own Space Station

NASA Rover Finds Active and Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars

Early Results from NASA's MAVEN Mars Orbiter Provide Clues Pointing to Atmospheric Loss

3D Printed Rocket Propulsion System for Satellites Successfully Test-Fired

NASA's MESSENGER Team Offers Chance to Name Craters on Mercury

European Comet Lander May Wake Up from Space Slumber

"Perfect Storm" Quenching Star Formation Around a Supermassive Black Hole

Compact Galaxy Groups Reveal Details of Close Encounters

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Google+, Universe Today, or the

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.

You can join in the discussion between episodes over at our

Weekly Space Hangout Crew group

in G+, and suggest your ideas for stories we can discuss each week!

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today, founding the website in March 1999. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast.