Heavens

Gravity remains the dominant force on large astronomical scales, but when it comes to stars in young star clusters the dynamics in these crowded environments cannot be simply explained by the pull of gravity.

NASA's TRMM satellite flew above intensifying tropical storm Haruna on February 20, 2013 at 0717 UTC (2:17 a.m. EST). A rainfall analysis was created using data from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) instruments overlaid on a combination visible/infrared image from the Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS). The analysis showed that Haruna had become much better organized since Feb. 19 and developed intense bands of rainfall circling the cyclone's center.

As magnetic fields on the sun rearrange and realign, dark spots known as sunspots can appear on its surface. Over the course of Feb. 19-20, 2013, scientists watched a giant sunspot form in under 48 hours. It has grown to over six Earth diameters across but its full extent is hard to judge since the spot lies on a sphere not a flat disk.

Eruptive events on the sun can be wildly different. Some come just with a solar flare, some with an additional ejection of solar material called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and some with complex moving structures in association with changes in magnetic field lines that loop up into the sun's atmosphere, the corona.

AMES, Iowa – An international team of astronomers has used nearly three years of high precision data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft to make the first observations of a planet outside our solar system that's smaller than Mercury, the smallest planet orbiting our sun.

The planet is about the size of the Earth's moon. It is one of three planets orbiting a star designated Kepler-37 in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way.

By studying the origins of different isotope ratios among the elements that make up today's smorgasbord of planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and interplanetary ice and dust, Mark Thiemens and his colleagues hope to learn how our solar system evolved. Thiemens, Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, has worked on this problem for over three decades.

Scientists are reporting development of what they describe as the first self-healing protective coating for cracks in concrete, the world's most widely used building material. Their study on the material — which is inexpensive and environmentally friendly — appears in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Located around 8000 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion), NGC 6357 -- sometimes nicknamed the Lobster Nebula [1] due to its appearance in visible-light images -- is a region filled with vast clouds of gas and tendrils of dark dust. These clouds are forming stars, including massive hot stars which glow a brilliant blue-white in visible light.

A novel global trading system based on the cost effectiveness of health interventions, similar to the market on carbon permits to help control climate change, could provide the extra funding needed to reach the health targets in the Millennium Development Goals, argue experts writing in this week's PLOS Medicine.

The authors, led by Luis Carrasco from the National University of Singapore, propose an innovative global credit market based on a global cost-effectiveness criterion to run a cap and trade system where DALY credits (Disability Adjusted Life Years) are exchanged.

Tropical Storm Haruna came together on Feb. 19 in the Southern Indian Ocean and two NASA satellites provided visible and infrared imagery that helped forecasters see the system's organization.

A low pressure area called System 94S developed on Friday, Feb. 15 in the northern Mozambique Channel. Over the course of four days System 94S became more organized and by Feb. 19 it became Tropical Storm Haruna.

In an analysis of studies that examined critically ill patients requiring an increase in blood fluid volume, intravenous use of the fluid hydroxyethyl starch, compared with other resuscitation solutions, was not associated with decreased mortality, according to an article appearing in the February 20 issue of JAMA.

WASHINGTON--U.S. Naval Research Laboratory radio astronomer, Joseph Helmboldt, Ph.D., and researchers at Ohio State University Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering analyzed radio telescope interferometry and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) data recorded of the ionosphere during one of the last underground nuclear explosions (UNEs) in the U.S., codenamed Hunters Trophy.

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (February 19, 2013) – Say au revoir to the concierge.

The proliferation of technology focused on finding the best tickets, the hottest restaurants or the next flight out of town may mean it's time to bid adieu to the concierge and other traditional service information gatekeepers, according to new research.

Looking at pictures of the Moon, even from the historic "giant leap" photograph, it is easy to understand why scientists used to think of it as a big dust ball. However, "conventional wisdom" has been changing over the years.

With both x-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging probe (MESSENGER), which entered orbit around Mercury in 2011, is well equipped for carrying out a detailed compositional analysis of Mercury's crust, the understanding of which could help determine the nature of the planet's formation, and of its volcanic past.