Heavens

A new study of high school activities bears this message for incoming high school students: Play what the smart kids play.

Joining an extra-curricular team or club with members that get good grades can double a high school student's odds of going to college.

And Brigham Young University sociologist and study co-author Lance Erickson knows how to sell the study to teens.

In cosmology, cold dark matter is a form of matter the particles of which move slowly in comparison with light, and interact weakly with electromagnetic radiation. It is estimated that only a minute fraction of the matter in the Universe is baryonic matter, which forms stars, planets and living organisms. The rest, comprising over 80%, is dark matter and energy.

Smoke from the fires in the Selway Complex is wafting into the Selway River valley in this image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on September 15, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. All the fires began between August 10 and August 25, 2014 by lightning strikes. The following fires are part of the Selway Complex: Raven Creek, Elevator Mountain, Eagle Creek, Vance Mountain, Nick Wynn, and Jerusalem fires.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — After decades of decline, grasses have returned to some once-denuded patches of Cape Cod's saltmarshes. To the eye, the marsh in those places seems healthy again, but a new study makes clear that a key service of the marsh – coastal protection – remains diminished.

An international research group led by Junko Ueda, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science postdoctoral fellow, has made surprising observations that most galaxy collisions in the nearby Universe — within 40 million light-years from Earth — result in so-called disc galaxies.

Manufactures of turbine engines for airplanes, automobiles and electric generation plants could expedite the development of more durable, energy-efficient turbine blades thanks to a partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, the German Aerospace Center and the universities of Central Florida and Cleveland State.

The fire season in California has been anything but cooperative this year. Hot conditions combined with a state-wide drought and dry lightning makes for unpleasant conditions and leads to an abundance of forest fires.

In 2007, when talk began of using Global Hawks for Earth science, CPL was among the first sensors considered; its size is perfect for the instrument compartment. Worries about the untested Global Hawk led to a second nearly identical instrument being built for use on the unmanned aircraft. It flew on NASA's maiden Global Hawk Pacific campaign in 2009. Since then, the Global Hawk CPL has flown in two multi-year campaigns, alternating between the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) and HS3.

NASA's Global Hawk 872 aircraft flew over Hurricane Cristobal on August 28 and 29 and gathered data on the storm as it was becoming extra-tropical.

The 36 Pit Fire began on September 13, 2014. The fire is human-caused and is still under investigation. It is currently over 2,300 acres in size and is mostly being fueled by grass and timber. The 36 Pit Fire was calm Monday night due to higher humidity. Yesterday (8/15), firefighters made progress in establishing an anchor point and beginning to construct a fireline on the West and North sides of the fire.

The following resources are working on the fire:

The AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite uses infrared light to read cloud top temperatures in tropical cyclones. When Aqua passed over newborn Tropical Storm Polo off of Mexico's southwestern coast it got a "cold reception" when infrared data saw some very cold cloud top temperatures and strong storms within that hint at intensification.

Malvern, Pennsylvania, September 16, 2014 – Neuronetics, Inc., today announced that results of a study designed to assess the long-term effectiveness of NeuroStar TMS Therapy in adult patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) who have failed to benefit from prior treatment with antidepressant medications, were published online in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

NASA's Aqua satellite saw Typhoon Kalmaegi's center near northern Hainan Island, China when it passed overhead on September 16 at 06:00 UTC (2 a.m. EDT). Hours later, the storm crossed the Gulf of Tonkin, the body of water that separates Hainan Island from Vietnam, and was making landfall there at 11:30 a.m. EDT.

Building on previous research that twisted light to send data at unheard-of speeds, scientists at USC have developed a similar technique with radiowaves, reaching high speeds without some of the hassles that can go with optical systems.

The researchers, led by electrical engineering professor Alan Willner of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, reached data transmission rates of 32 gigabits per second across 2.5 meters of free space in a basement lab at USC.

The unmanned Global Hawk aircraft that's part of NASA's airborne Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel, or HS3 mission was winging its way to Hurricane Edouard on September 16. In addition to the Global Hawk, various NASA satellites are continually providing data on the Atlantic hurricane.