Heavens

On July 1, 2013, at 6:09 p.m. EDT, the sun erupted with a coronal mass ejection, or CME, a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space that can affect electronic systems in satellites. Experimental NASA research models based on NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory show that the CME was not Earth-directed and it left the sun at around 570 miles per second.

This July Fourth the solar system is showing off some fireworks of its own. Superficially resembling a skyrocket, comet ISON is hurtling toward the sun presently at a whopping 48,000 mph.

Its swift motion is captured in this time-lapse movie made from a sequence of pictures taken May 8, 2013, by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. At the time the images were taken, the comet was 403 million miles from Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

The hiss of air escaping from a leaky car tire is no one's favorite sound.

Even less pleasant? Hearing that hiss of escaping air 250 miles above Earth's surface while inside the pressurized confines of the International Space Station.

Typhoon Rumbia had weakened to a tropical storm and moved over southern China when NASA's TRMM satellite flew above on July 2, 2013 at 0316 UTC and measured its rainfall rates.

An analysis of rainfall from TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation (PR) data shows that Rumbia was dropping rain at a rate of over 92mm/hour (~3.6 inches) in areas of southern China near the Gulf of Tonkin. An intense but narrow feeder band near Hong Kong is shown streaming heavy rainfall into China from the South China Sea.

NOAA's GOES-15 satellite captured an infrared image of the Eastern Pacific Ocean during the pre-dawn hours on July 2 and noticed Tropical Storm Dalila weakening near the southwestern Mexico coast, while further southwest a new tropical low pressure area called System 97E, had formed.

This June 29, 2013 image from the OMI, or Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA's Aura satellite shows nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in Arizona pertaining to three large fires. The highest levels of NO2, which is produced by combustion, were from the Yarnell Hill fire (dark red and brown). NO2 concentration is given as the number of molecules in a cubic centimeter. The highest NO2 concentration values (8-9 x 10^15) indicated that this strong fire was burning a large amount of combustible material and thus generating a large amount of NO2 in a small area.

A new study provides the first conclusive proof of the existence of a space wind first proposed theoretically over 20 years ago. By analysing data from the European Space Agency's Cluster spacecraft, researcher Iannis Dandouras detected this plasmaspheric wind, so-called because it contributes to the loss of material from the plasmasphere, a donut-shaped region extending above the Earth's atmosphere. The results are published today in Annales Geophysicae, a journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

NASA successfully completed two pre-vibration solar array deployment tests of the Global Precipitation Measurement satellite on June 6 and June 15, 2013.

"Cross your fingers. Cross your toes," said Art Azarbarzin, GPM project manager, as he watched engineers take their places around the GPM Core satellite, set up on its end in the middle of the clean room.

Washington, D.C.—Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity—maintain a flow of electrons—without any resistance. This phenomenon can only be found in certain materials under specific low-temperature and high-pressure conditions. Research to create superconductors at higher temperatures has been ongoing for two decades with the promise of significant impact on electrical transmission.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Hovering about 70 light-years from Earth –– that's "next door" by astronomical standards –– is a star astronomers call HD 97658, which is almost bright enough to see with the naked eye. But the real "star" is the planet HD 97658b, not much more than twice the Earth's diameter and a little less than eight times its mass. HD 97658b is a super-Earth, a class of planet for which there is no example in our home solar system.

The Silver Fire in southern New Mexico continues to generate a lot of smoke, as seen recently on imagery from NASA's Terra satellite.

The Silver Fire is burning in the Gila National Forest. As of July 1, the fire had consumed 133,625 acres. It began on June 7 from a lightning strike near Kingston, New Mexico. According to the multi-agency Incident Information System called Inciweb, the fire was 50 percent contained on July 1.

Typhoon Rumbia developed from a low pressure area east of the Philippines and crossed the country from east to west before moving into the South China Sea. NASA's TRMM satellite flew over Rumbia as it nears southeastern China and identified areas of heavy rainfall in the southern quadrant of the storm.

System 96E became a tropical depression and quickly grew into Tropical Storm Dalila on June 30. Dalila has been hugging the coast of southwestern Mexico practically since it formed, and continues to do so on satellite imagery taken on July 1.Because of its close proximity to the coast, there's a tropical storm warning in effect for the southwestern coast of Mexico from Punta San Telmo to La Fortuna, and a Tropical Storm Watch from north of La Fortuna.

There are currently 27 fires in the northeast section of Manitoba. These fires have burned over 126,000 hectares (over 311,000 acres). Showers have lowered wildfire danger levels in most areas of the province with the exception of northeastern Manitoba where conditions continue to remain dry. The hot temperatures forecasted through this coming weekend will dry forested areas and increase these danger levels. The fire weather forecast for this area is for fast-spreading, high-intensity crown fire that is very difficult to control.

WASHINGTON, DC, July 1, 2013 — For the first time, a study has suggested that the position of grandparents in the British class system has a direct effect on which class their grandchildren belong to. It has long been accepted that parents' social standing has a strong influence on children's education, job prospects, and earning power.