Heavens

NASA satellite imagery revealed a cloud-filled eye in a weaker Hurricane Darby. Although obscured by clouds in previous days, the eye was apparent in wind data from NASA's RapidScat instrument.

On July 16, NASA's RapidScat instrument measured the surface winds around Hurricane Darby and found the strongest winds all around the storm with the exception of the southwestern quadrant. Sustained winds were greater than 30 meters per second (67 mph/108 kph).

NASA satellite imagery shows that Tropical Cyclone Abela's center has become tightly wrapped.

On July 16 the first Tropical Cyclone of the year formed in the Southern Indian Ocean. Tropical cyclone 01S, now known as Abela, developed about 320 nautical miles west-southwest of Diego Garcia.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., July 18, 2016 - Environmental scientists can more efficiently detect genes required to convert mercury in the environment into more toxic methylmercury with molecular probes developed by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The Suomi NPP satellite passed over Hurricane Darby and saw clouds in its eye as the storm continued tracking west in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

On July 14 at 21:05 UTC (5:05 p.m. EDT the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard the NASA-NOAA-DOD Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible light image of Hurricane Darby in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The VIIRS image revealed an eye with bands of powerful thunderstorms wrapping into the low level center of circulation.

Tropical Storm Celia has crossed 140 degrees west longitude line, which means the storm has moved from the Eastern into the Central Pacific Ocean. Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed Celia had lost most of its punch.

Enhanced infrared imagery from the MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite on July 14 at 22:15 UTC (6:15 p.m. EDT) and microwave imagery showed all that remains of Celia's thunderstorms was a fragmented curved band storms about 60 nautical miles north-northeast of the exposed circulation center.

Astronomers announced this week the sharpest results yet on the properties of dark energy. Hundreds of scientists, among them Marcos Pellejero Ibañez and Jose Alberto Rubiño from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and other Spanish institutions as the Instituto de Ciencias del Cosmos from the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Instituto de Física Teórica (UAM-CSIC) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), collaborated to make the largest-ever, three-dimensional map of distant galaxies.

A team of hundreds of physicists and astronomers have announced results from the largest-ever, three-dimensional map of distant galaxies. The team constructed this map to make one of the most precise measurements yet of the dark energy currently driving the accelerated expansion of the Universe.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Fathers play a surprisingly large role in their children's development, from language and cognitive growth in toddlerhood to social skills in fifth grade, according to new findings from Michigan State University scholars.

TORONTO [For immediate release] After analyzing four years of Kepler space telescope observations, astronomers from the University of Toronto have given us our clearest understanding yet of a class of exoplanets called "Warm Jupiters", showing that many have unexpected planetary companions.

The team's analysis, published July 10th in the Astrophysical Journal, provides strong evidence of the existence of two distinct types of Warm Jupiters, each with their own formation and dynamical history.

Tropical Storm Celia continues to weaken in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and NASA data showed that the strongest winds and storms were pushed north of the center of the storm.

NASA found the strongest winds in Hurricane Darby were occurring on its eastern side before northeasterly wind shear started affecting the storm.

NASA's RapidScat instrument measured the surface winds around Hurricane Darby on July 14 between 0731 to 0904 UTC (3:31 to 5:04 a.m. EDT) and found the strongest winds east of the center of circulation near 30 meters per second (67 mph/108 kph). Hurricane-force winds were found to extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles (150 km).

Scientists at the John Innes Centre have discovered a key "twist" in a Rubik's cube-like plant puzzle, which could pave the way to new, or more effective pharmaceuticals.

Researchers for the first time have found a quantum-confined bandgap narrowing mechanism where UV absorption of the grapheme quantum dots and TiO2 nanoparticles can easily be extended into the visible light range.

Such a mechanism may allow the design of a new class of composite materials for light harvesting and optoelectronics.

Dr Qin Li, Associate Professor in the Environmental Engineering & Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, says real life application of this would be high efficiency paintable solar cells and water purification using sun light.

As if it were one of the known Russian dolls, a group of astronomers, led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, (IAC) has found the first known case of three supernova remnants one inside the other. Using the programme BUBBLY, a method developed within the group for detecting huge expanding bubbles of gas in interstellar space, they were observing the galaxy M33 in our Local Group of galaxies and found example of a triple-bubble.

A violent outburst by the young star V883 Orionis has given astronomers their first view of a water "snowline" in a protoplanetary disk - the transition point around the star where the temperature and pressure are low enough for water ice to form.