Heavens

Planetary instruments from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., hit the trifecta on Dec. 4, running three experiments of the same kind at different places in space.

The instruments, all flying on NASA missions, are mass spectrometers, designed to take in atmospheric, rock or soil samples and identify particular molecules in them. The investigations lined up because of the operating schedules for the three, which must take turns with other instruments on their respective spacecraft.

New York (December 5, 2013)—Seven cities can boast of world-class bike-share systems, according to a new publication by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) that identifies the best practices embraced by these cities. An estimated 400 cities on five continents have implemented bike share, according to ITDP, because it addresses pressing urban mobility issues that include traffic, air pollution, transit finance, and the "last mile" problem of getting commuters to and from rail and bus stops.

System 90L has developed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean today and NASA's Aqua satellite took an infrared look at the low pressure area to see if it had development potential. System 90L was located near 31.8 north and 28.1 west, about 450 miles south of the Azores Islands.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the low pressure area on Dec. 5 and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument captured infrared data on the clouds, revealing the strongest thunderstorms northeast of the center. The low is non-tropical and is generating tropical-storm-force winds near 60 mph.

The Northern Indian Ocean typhoon season usually lasts until the end of December, but it's not going out without a fight this year. Infrared satellite data from NASA's Aqua satellite showed bands of thunderstorms wrapping around low pressure System 92B's center. If this system develops it would become Tropical Depression 06B.

An international team of astronomers, led by a University of Arizona graduate student, has discovered the most distantly orbiting planet found to date around a single, sun-like star. It is the first exoplanet – a planet outside of our solar system – discovered at the UA.

Weighing in at 11 times Jupiter's mass and orbiting its star at 650 times the average Earth-Sun distance, planet HD 106906 b is unlike anything in our own Solar System and throws a wrench in planet formation theories.

Quantum entanglement is one of the more bizarre theories to come out of the study of quantum mechanics — so strange, in fact, that Albert Einstein famously referred to it as "spooky action at a distance."

Newly released research in Nature Communications from the University of Alberta has identified the existence of a giant cosmic accelerator above the Earth.

By analyzing data from NASA's Van Allen probes, U of A physicist Ian Mann, together with his colleagues at NASA and other institutes, have been able to measure and identify the "smoking gun" of a planetary scale process that accelerates particles to speeds close to the speed of light within the Van Allen radiation belt.

Reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the planet's surface by geoengineering may not undo climate change after all. Two German researchers used a simple energy balance analysis to explain how the Earth's water cycle responds differently to heating by sunlight than it does to warming due to a stronger atmospheric greenhouse effect. Further, they show that this difference implies that reflecting sunlight to reduce temperatures may have unwanted effects on the Earth's rainfall patterns.

In 1958, scientists discovered two gigantic belts of radiation around Earth that have provided tantalizing mysteries to researchers ever since. One unsolved mystery: What accelerates particles in the belts to almost the speed of light? The best answer is that some kind of electromagnetic wave coursing through the belts pushes the particles along, not unlike a wave in the ocean providing a ride for a surfer.

A new study using observations from a novel instrument provides the best look to date at magnetic fields at the heart of gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic explosions in the universe. An international team of astronomers from Britain, Slovenia and Italy has glimpsed the infrastructure of a burst's high-speed jet.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A low level of daily exposure to a common component of sunlight can cause skin damage at the molecular level after just a few days, new University of Michigan Medical School research shows.

The findings highlight the need for better sunscreens to protect against these damaging rays, and prevent the process that can cause skin to look old, wrinkled and sagging prematurely.

NASA's TRMM satellite noticed that rainfall became scarce in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean's thirty-third tropical depression in its second day of life. Tropical Depression 33W or TD 33W had weakened and TRMM showed only two isolated areas of heavy rainfall in the fragmented system.

MADISON – With the help of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Australia Telescope Compact Array, an international team of astronomers has identified the glowing wreck of a star that exploded a mere 2,500 years ago — the blink of an eye in astronomical terms.

Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed faint remnants of a supernova explosion and helped researchers determine Circinus X-1 -- an X-ray binary -- is the youngest of this class of astronomical objects found to date.

X-ray binaries are star systems made up of two parts: a compact stellar remnant -- either a neutron star or a black hole; and a companion star -- a normal star like our Sun. The new discovery, made in parallel with a radio telescope in Australia, provides scientists with unique insight into the formation of neutron stars and supernovas, and the effect of the supernova's explosion on a nearby companion star.