Heavens

Old textbook knowledge reconfirmed: Decay rates of radioactive substances are constant

This news release is available in German.

NASA sees birth of Atlantic's subtropical depression seven: Bermuda on watch

The seventh depression of the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Season was born on Oct. 10, but it's subtropical. NASA's Aqua satellite looked at the developing depression in infrared light and saw strong thunderstorms within.

NASA gathering data on Super Typhoon Vongfong as Japan prepares

Super Typhoon Vongfong continued on its trek north through the Philippine Sea while slightly weakening on Oct. 10. NASA's TRMM and Aqua satellites provided forecasters with cloud extent, rainfall rates and distribution and more.

NASA sees intensifying Tropical Cyclone Hudhud headed for landfall in India

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Hudhud on Oct. 10 as it reached hurricane-force.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite read temperatures of thunderstorm cloudtops that make up Tropical Cyclone Hudhud when it passed overhead on Oct. 9 at 19:53 UTC (3:53 p.m. EDT). The data showed the coldest cloud top temperatures were in thunderstorms circling a developing eye. Cloud top temperatures were as cold as -63F/-53C, which have the potential for dropping heavy rainfall.

Interactive history beats interactive chat for website engagement

Small cues that display a user's transaction history may help a website feel almost as interactive as chatting with an online customer service agent, paving the way for more cost-effective websites, according to researchers.

NASA's Hubble maps the temperature and water vapor on an extreme exoplanet

A team of scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made the most detailed global map yet of the glow from a turbulent planet outside our solar system, revealing its secrets of air temperatures and water vapor.

Hubble observations show the exoplanet, called WASP-43b, is no place to call home. It is a world of extremes, where seething winds howl at the speed of sound from a 3,000-degree-Fahrenheit "day" side, hot enough to melt steel, to a pitch-black "night" side with plunging temperatures below 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hubble reveals most detailed exoplanet weather map ever

A team of scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have made the most detailed map ever of the temperature of an exoplanet's atmosphere, and traced the amount of water it contains. The planet targeted for both of the investigations was the hot-Jupiter exoplanet WASP-43b.

Hubble project involving CU-Boulder maps temperature, water vapor on wild exoplanet

A team of scientists including a University of Colorado Boulder professor used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to make the most detailed global map yet of the glow from a giant, oddball planet orbiting another star, an object twice as massive as Jupiter and hot enough to melt steel.

Dead star shines on

A supernova is the cataclysmic death of a star, but it seems its remnants shine on. 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 leftover from a supernova -- ever recorded, and was seen using NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR.

Lawrence Livermore LLNL researchers were involved in the design and testing of the NuSTAR X-ray optics.

NASA's Aqua Satellite tracking Super Typhoon Vongfong in the Philippine Sea

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Super Typhoon Vongfong as it tracked through the Philippine Sea on Oct. 9. Instrument aboard Aqua captured visible and infrared images of the now Category 4 Super Typhoon.

NASA eyes Tropical Cyclone Hudhud as Warnings posted for East-Central India

NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Tropical Cyclone Hudhud on Oct. 9 and took a picture of the storm that showed it was still somewhat elongated, but more organized than the previous day. Another NASA satellite provided the hint of a developing eye. Warnings for winds, rain and surf are already in effect for the northern Andhra Pradesh coast and south Odisha coastline of eastern India as Hudhud approaches.

Tropical Cyclone Hudhud formed on Oct. 8 and began moving from east to west across the Bay of Bengal, Northern Indian Ocean.

Eleanor Roosevelt, a radio pioneer, perceived as both 'ordinary' and 'expert'

Following her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in April 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt was freed from the constraints of the White House and eagerly expanded her career. She used radio to communicate on a wide variety of issues and became a radio pioneer, broadcasting from the 1920s, starting with her own radio show in 1932. She spoke on US domestic radio, the BBC, Voice of America, on French radio (in French) and Italian radio (in Italian). She was also interviewed in Spanish and German. In 1948 she hosted a twice weekly radio program with her daughter Anna on ABC.

'Data smashing' could unshackle automated discovery

ITHACA, N.Y. – A little known secret in data mining is that simply feeding raw data into a data analysis algorithm is unlikely to produce meaningful results, say the authors of a new Cornell University study.

Timing of epidural is up to the mother

When a woman is in labour, the appropriate time to give an epidural during childbirth is when she asks for it, a new study suggests. Published in The Cochrane Library, the systematic review compared early and late epidurals during labour and found that they had very similar effects.

NASA's GPM satellite's find before Hurricane Simon was caught rapidly intensifying

Hurricane Simon appeared to be keeping a secret before it rapidly intensified on Oct. 4, but the Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM satellite was able uncover it.

On Oct. 4 at 0940 UTC (5:40 a.m. EDT) observations by the Ku-band radar on the GPM satellite suggested that the Eastern Pacific Ocean's Hurricane Simon was hiding a very compact eyewall hours before the National Hurricane Center detected rapid intensification of Simon's surface winds. The GPM satellite was launched in February of this year and is managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.