Heavens

Satellite Earth science missions don't start at the launch pad or even in orbit. They start years before when scientists test their new ideas for instruments that promise to expand our view and understanding of the planet. NASA scientists and engineers are working now to lay the groundwork for the Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystem (ACE) mission, a satellite that "will dramatically change what we can do from space to learn about clouds and aerosols," said ACE science lead David Starr of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Tropical Storm Emang continues to move through open waters in the Southern Indian Ocean and NASA's TRMM satellite noticed one area of heavy rainfall near the center.

On Jan. 16 at 0702 UTC (2:02 a.m. EST) NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Emang, and captured rainfall rates. TRMM identified that moderate rain was falling throughout most of the tropical cyclone, and heavy rainfall was occurring near the storm's center. TRMM estimated the heavy rain falling at a rate of 2 inches (50 mm) per hour.

GREENBELT, Md. -- Engineers working on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope met another milestone recently with they completed performance testing on the observatory's aft-optics subsystem at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp's facilities in Boulder, Colo. Ball is the principal subcontractor to Northrop Grumman for the optical technology and lightweight mirror system.

On the left of this new image there is a dark column resembling a cloud of smoke. To the right shines a small group of brilliant stars. At first glance these two features could not be more different, but they are in fact closely linked. The cloud contains huge amounts of cool cosmic dust and is a nursery where new stars are being born. It is likely that the Sun formed in a similar star formation region more than four billion years ago.

NASA's TRMM and Aqua satellites showed how Tropical Cyclone Narelle has fallen far from being a powerful cyclone in the Southern Indian Ocean. A time series of infrared images from an Aqua satellite instrument provides a clear picture of Narelle's former power and its recent demise, while TRMM 3-D data showed falling cloud heights and weaker rainfall.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument that flies on NASA's Aqua satellite provides valuable data to tropical cyclone forecasters, and revealed sinking air, a small area of powerful thunderstorms, and a slightly elongated Tropical Storm Emang.

CHICAGO – In a study that included nearly 1.3 million Medicare beneficiaries who were either first-time enrollees or enrollees switching plans, researchers found a positive association between enrollment and publicly reported Medicare Advantage star ratings reflecting plan quality, according to a study appearing in the January 16 issue of JAMA.

An international team of nuclear astrophysicists has shed new light on the explosive stellar events known as novae.

These dramatic explosions are driven by nuclear processes and make previously unseen stars visible for a short time. The team of scientists measured the nuclear structure of the radioactive neon produced through this process in unprecedented detail.

AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a menu of 61 new strains of genetically engineered bacteria that may improve the efficacy of vaccines for diseases such as flu, pertussis, cholera and HPV.

The strains of E. coli, which were described in a paper published this month in the journal PNAS, are part of a new class of biological "adjuvants" that is poised to transform vaccine design. Adjuvants are substances added to vaccines to boost the human immune response.

A new way of studying and visualizing Earth science data from a NASA and U.S. Geological Survey satellite program is resulting in, for the first time, the ability to tease out the small events that can cause big changes in an ecosystem.

Called LandTrendr, this computer program is able to find patterns previously buried within vast amounts of scientific data. Still in development, it's already led to seeing for the first time in satellite imagery an obscured, slow-moving decline and recovery of trees in Pacific Northwest forests.

Tropical Storm Narelle is growing weaker as it continues to track in a southerly direction parallel to the coast of Western Australia. NASA's Aqua and TRMM satellites captured visible data and rainfall rates on Narelle and noticed the storm was less intense than it was, however, warnings are still up as Narelle continues moving down the coast.

On Jan. 13, 2013, at 2:24 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME. Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and reach Earth one to three days later.

Tropical Cyclone Emang developed in the Southern Indian Ocean on Sunday, Jan. 13 about 525 nautical miles east-southeast of Diego Garcia. At that time, infrared satellite imagery revealed that the low level circulation center was partially exposed to outer winds, and there was a burst of thunderstorm development over the northwestern quadrant.

Salmon runs are notoriously variable: strong one year, and weak the next. New research shows that the same may be true from one century to the next.

Scientists in the past 20 years have recognized that salmon stocks vary not only year to year, but also on decades-long time cycles. One example is the 30-year to 80-year booms and busts in salmon runs in Alaska and on the West Coast driven by the climate pattern known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

Writing in Nature Materials, the scientists, working with colleagues from Aix-Marseille University, have created a device which potentially can see one molecule though a simple optical system and can analyse its components within minutes. This uses plasmonics – the study of vibrations of electrons in different materials.

The breakthrough could allow for rapid and more accurate drug testing for professional athletes as it could detect the presence of even trace amounts of a substance.