Heavens

A new survey of hot, X-ray-emitting gas in the Virgo galaxy cluster shows that the elements needed to make stars, planets and people were evenly distributed across millions of light-years early in cosmic history, more than 10 billion years ago.

The Virgo cluster, located about 54 million light-years away, is the nearest galaxy cluster and the second brightest in X-rays. The cluster is home to more than 2,000 galaxies, and the space between them is filled with a diffuse gas so hot it glows in X-rays.

As the remnants of Hurricane Patricia continue to generate flooding rainfall as it moved through the Gulf Coast states on October 26, NASA and NOAA satellites provided data on the storm.

Tropical Storm Olaf is leaving the Central Pacific Ocean and is headed "home" - that is, back to the Eastern Pacific Ocean where it developed 12 days ago. NASA's RapidScat satellite observed the winds in Olaf as it was headed toward the 140 degree latitude line that separates the two ocean basins.

Olaf was born on October 14 in the Eastern Pacific, moved west and crossed into the Central Pacific Ocean on October 20. Now, Olaf is moving to the northeast, and is expected to cross back into the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

WASHINGTON -- A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers NASA a framework for prioritizing satellite observations and measurements of Earth based on their scientific value.

Boston, MA -- Unless there is a major shift in the way the world fights tuberculosis--from a reliance on biomedical solutions to an approach that combines biomedical interventions with social actions--the epidemic and drug resistance will worsen, say researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In a new study, they call for a "biosocial" approach that incorporates interventions in areas such as nutrition, urban planning, occupational health, addiction recovery, and mental health services.

Comet Lovejoy lived up to its name by releasing large amounts of alcohol as well as a type of sugar into space, according to new observations by an international team. The discovery marks the first time ethyl alcohol, the same type in alcoholic beverages, has been observed in a comet. The finding adds to the evidence that comets could have been a source of the complex organic molecules necessary for the emergence of life.

Typhoon Champi appeared to be the victim of vertical wind shear in infrared imagery from NASA's Terra satellite. Champi has become elongated while moving through the western North Pacific Ocean and is expected to become extra-tropical by October 24.

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 23 -- Researchers at the Université du Québec have recently conducted a survey of four Canadian cities to determine the economic feasibility of installing geothermal heating systems in homes in Montreal, Halifax, Vancouver and Toronto.

Tropical Depression 26W was spinning down and speeding up as it was becoming an extra-tropical storm. In fact, its sustained winds were weaker than its forward speed as it moved through the western North Pacific Ocean.

On October 22 at 2100 UTC (5 p.m. EDT), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued its final bulletin on Tropical Depression 26. At that time it was becoming an extra-tropical cyclone.

NASA's Aqua satellite saw Central Pacific Ocean Hurricane Olaf maintained its eye and remained a major hurricane on October 23.

At 23:10 UTC (7:10 p.m. EDT) the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured this visible image of Hurricane Olaf in the central Pacific Ocean. Bands of thunderstorms circled the center and fed into the low-level center from the southeast and north of center.

Studying starlight from red giants has provided insights into the makeup of a star's internal magnetic field - a region that has been notoriously hard to study. The technique applied here could be used to probe the internal magnetic fields in certain star types, providing a clearer picture of the influence of stellar magnetism on a star's evolution. While magnetic fields on the surfaces of stars can be observed, those within the star have so far remained out of reach.

Astronomers have for the first time probed the magnetic fields in the mysterious inner regions of stars, finding they are strongly magnetized.

Using a technique called asteroseismology, the scientists were able to calculate the magnetic field strengths in the fusion-powered hearts of dozens of red giants, stars that are evolved versions of our sun.

Observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken advantage of gravitational lensing to reveal the largest sample of the faintest and earliest known galaxies in the Universe. Some of these galaxies formed just 600 million years after the Big Bang and are fainter than any other galaxy yet uncovered by Hubble. The team has determined, for the first time with some confidence, that these small galaxies were vital to creating the Universe that we see today.

Before light travelled across it, the universe was a dark place. For about a billion years after the Big Bang, the cosmos was cloaked in a thick fog of hydrogen gas that kept light trapped. But as early stars began to form, hydrogen began to clear through a process called "reionization", leting light escape in all directions and turning the universe transparent. This event played a central role in the formation of the universe as we know it.

NASA's GPM satellite saw that the western side of Tropical Storm Patricia was packing most of the storm's moderate and heavy rainfall when it passed overhead in space. Patricia was close to the coast of western Mexico, and triggered warnings and watches. Patricia intensified into a hurricane on Oct. 22.

Tropical Depression Twenty-E (TD20E) formed on Oct. 20, 2015 off the Mexican coast southeast of Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Later that evening TD20E was upgraded to tropical Storm Patricia.

GPM Sees Lopsided Rainfall