Heavens

Tropical Storm Danielle formed on June 20 and by June 21 the storm had dissipated over eastern Mexico. NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM mission core satellite analyzed its rainfall rates, while NASA's Aqua satellite measured cloud top temperatures to locate strongest storms.

The development of food allergies in mice can be linked to what their gut bacteria are being fed, reports a study published June 21 in Cell Reports. Rodents that received a diet with average calories, sugar, and fiber content from birth were shown to have more severe peanut allergies than those that received a high-fiber diet. The researchers show that gut bacteria release a specific fatty acid in response to fiber intake, which eventually impacts allergic responses via changes to the immune system.

Eating a diet rich in fibre can actually shape the immune system to reduce allergies to substances such as peanuts, new research shows.

The study, led by Australian scientists, suggests that a simple bowl of bran and some dried apricots in the morning could prevent allergies. It also reveals how the immune system works with the good bacteria in the gut to help protect against life threatening allergic responses.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- When the NASA's New Horizons spacecraft buzzed by Pluto last year, it revealed tantalizing clues that the dwarf planet might have -- or had at one time -- a liquid ocean sloshing around under its icy crust. According to a new analysis led by a Brown University Ph.D. student, such an ocean likely still exists today.

Astronomers have discovered a vast cloud of high-energy particles called a wind nebula around a rare ultra-magnetic neutron star, or magnetar, for the first time. The find offers a unique window into the properties, environment and outburst history of magnetars, which are the strongest magnets in the universe.

A Franco-Japanese research group at the University of Tokyo has developed a new "brute force" technique to test thousands of biochemical reactions at once and quickly home in on the range of conditions where they work best. Until now, optimizing such biomolecular systems, which can be applied for example to diagnostics, would have required months or years of trial and error experiments, but with this new technique that could be shortened to days.

A team of international researchers have discovered the youngest fully-formed exoplanet ever detected, orbiting a young star 500 light years from Earth.

The newfound planet, known as K2-33b, most closely resembles Neptune in size when compared to planets in our own solar system, and orbits its star once every five days.

Venus has an 'electric wind' strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping the planet of its oceans, according to a new study by NASA and UCL researchers.

Planet formation is a complex and tumultuous process that remains shrouded in mystery. Astronomers have discovered more than 3,000 exoplanets--planets orbiting stars other than our Sun--however, nearly all are middle-aged, with ages of a billion years or more. For astronomers, attempting to understand the life cycles of planetary systems using existing examples is like trying to learn how people grow from babies to children to teenagers, by only studying adults. Now, a team of Caltech-led researchers have discovered the youngest fully-formed exoplanet ever detected.

The Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer is the first system in the world that has a peak performance of over 100 PFlops. It is a complete homegrown supercomputer, and is operated by the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi (NSCC-Wuxi). As the world's fastest supercomputer, it contributes largely to research fields such as earth system modeling, ocean surface wave modeling, atomistic simulation, and phase-field simulation.

Greenland's glaciers are melting. Recent work by researchers at the University of Bristol found a 50 per cent increase in the freshwater flux since 1990. Due to both enhanced summer melt and calving of outlet glaciers more than 5000 cubic kilometers of extra meltwater have been flowing into the sea, equivalent to a quarter of the volume of the Baltic Sea. The fate of this freshwater is of great importance for the system of ocean currents in the North Atlantic, which is governed by the density of the waters surrounding Greenland.

Earth's magnetosphere, the region of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field, protects our planet from the harsh battering of the solar wind. Like a protective shield, the magnetosphere absorbs and deflects plasma from the solar wind which originates from the Sun. When conditions are right, beautiful dancing auroral displays are generated. But when the solar wind is most violent, extreme space weather storms can create intense radiation in the Van Allen belts and drive electrical currents which can damage terrestrial electrical power grids.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Venus has an "electric wind" strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping Earth's twin planet of its oceans, according to new results from the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission by NASA-funded researchers.

Venus has an "electric wind" strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping Earth's twin planet of its oceans, according to new results from ESA's (European Space Agency) Venus Express mission by NASA-funded researchers.

NASA and NOAA satellites saw the tropical low pressure area formerly known as System 94L develop into tropical depression 4 then become the fourth named tropical cyclone of the North Atlantic Hurricane Season on June 20.