Heavens

DALLAS, March 16, 2014 — Sunlight plus a common titanium pigment might be the secret recipe for ridding pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other potentially harmful pollutants from drinking water. Scientists combined several high-tech components to make an easy-to-use water purifier that couldwork with the world's most basic form of energy, sunlight, in a boon for water purification in rural areas or developing countries.

DALLAS, March 16, 2014 — Adjusting the calcium level and acidity could be the key to developing new better-tasting, more eye-appealing and creamier reduced-fat sauces, desserts and salad dressings that could be on the market soon, researchers reported here today.

New evidence gathered by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury indicates the planet closest to the sun has shrunk up to 7 kilometers in radius over the past 4 billion years, much more than earlier estimates.

The new finding, published in the journal Nature Geoscience Sunday, March 16, solves an apparent enigma about Mercury's evolution.

Older images of surface features indicated that, despite cooling over its lifetime, the rocky planet had barely shrunk at all. But modeling of the planet's formation and aging could not explain that finding.

Computer models indicate that Ex-Tropical Cyclone Gillian will re-intensify to at least 35 knots/40 mph/62 kph over the next 24 to 36 hours. Maximum sustained surface winds are estimated at 25 to 30 knots/ 28.7 to 34.5 mph/46.3 to 55.5 kph. Minimum sea level pressure is estimated to be near 1001 millibars.

NASA's Aqua satellite caught an infrared picture of Tropical Cyclone Lusi after it transitioned into an extra-tropical storm, north of New Zealand. Gale Warnings are in effect in Northern New Zealand.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Lusi on March 13 at 13:41 UTC/9:41 a.m. EDT and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument captured infrared data on the storm that revealed it had become a cold-core system. When a storm becomes extra-tropical and its core changes from warm to cold, the strongest winds spread out and the storm expands.

According to the Southern Area Coordination Center, which monitors and coordinates response to incidents throughout the Southeast, there are currently seven large fires burning in this area of the country. Six of them are located in the state of Oklahoma and the seventh is in the Gulf area of Louisiana. These fires currently have burned over 7,600 acres. The majority of the fires on this image, though, are not wildfires, but are prescribed fires.

Water, salts and gases dissolved in the huge ocean that scientists believe could exist below Europa´s icy crust can rise to the surface generating the enigmatic geological formations associated to red-tinged materials that can be seen on this Jupiter's satellite. This is confirmed by the experiment carried out in the laboratory with water, carbon dioxide and magnesium sulfate by researchers at Centro de Astrobiología (CAB, Spain).

If Galileo was still alive and kicking, he might want to take a selfie with some of the thousands of citizen scientists all around the world for their surprisingly accurate work of counting craters on the pock-marked moon.

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 6:34 p.m. EDT on March 12, 2014, and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, captured an image of it. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

Tropical Cyclone Lusi is battling vertical wind shear that has been pushing the bulk of precipitation away from its center. NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of the storm that showed the strongest thunderstorms were being pushed away from the center.

On March 12 at 22:25 UTC/6:25 p.m. EDT, The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Lusi in the South Pacific Ocean. The image showed a concentration of thunderstorms just south of the center of circulation.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Gillian weakened to a remnant low pressure area after making landfall in the Western Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia then returned into the Gulf of Carpentaria. NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the tropical low as it struggled to re-intensify.

Tropical Cyclone Hadi is now a remnant low pressure area in the Southern Pacific Ocean. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the storm and captured a visible image of it on March 12.

When NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Hadi's remnants, the MODIS instrument aboard captured a visible image that showed the strongest thunderstorms associated with the low appeared south of the center of circulation. The center was located near 15.1 south and 156.1 east, about 585 nautical miles/673.2 miles/ 1,083 km west of Vanuatu.

LOS ANGELES (March 12, 2014) – Researchers at the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have found that emotional stressors – such as those provoking anger – may cause changes in the nervous system that controls heart rate and trigger a type of coronary artery dysfunction that occurs more frequently in women than men.

They will describe their findings at the American Psychosomatic Society's annual meeting on March 13 in San Francisco.

Tropical Cyclone Lusi reached hurricane force as NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead early on March 12.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Lusi that showed the storm's western quadrant affecting Vanuatu on March 12 at 02:05 UTC. In the MODIS image, Lusi had the distinct comma shape of a mature tropical cyclone, however no eye was visible. However, animated multispectral satellite imagery does show a ragged eye with tightly curved bands of thunderstorms wrapping into it.

Tropical Cyclone Hadi is now a remnant low pressure area in the Southern Pacific Ocean. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the storm and captured a visible image of it on March 12.

When NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Hadi's remnants, the MODIS instrument aboard captured a visible image that showed the strongest thunderstorms associated with the low appeared south of the center of circulation. The center was located near 15.1 south and 156.1 east, about 585 nautical miles/673.2 miles/ 1,083 km west of Vanuatu.