Heavens

The song "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" from the famous film "The Sound of Music" comes to mind when looking at NASA satellite imagery of Tropical Storm Maria churning in the western North Pacific Ocean. The answer lies in increased wind shear and cool ocean temperatures – two factors that can weaken the storm, but won't be present over the next day or two.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured a stunning image of Hurricane Paul in the eastern Pacific Ocean that revealed Mexico's Socorro Island was just outside of Paul's eye. Now, Paul is expected to track along the Baja California coast, triggering more warnings.

Hurricane Paul is stirring up rough seas in the eastern Pacific Ocean and warnings are posted along Baja California.

Satellite imagery from NASA's TRMM satellite showed that wind shear is pushing the bulk of rainfall away from the center of Tropical Storm Anais.

Tropical Storm Prapiroon is still meandering in the western north Pacific Ocean, and NASA's TRMM satellite noticed that dry air and wind shear are adversely affecting rainfall north of the storm's center.

NASA's Operation IceBridge got the 2012 Antarctic campaign off to a productive start with a land ice survey of Thwaites Glacier and a sea ice flight over parts of the Bellingshausen Sea.

During the first few weeks of a campaign, IceBridge typically concentrates on sea ice before it begins to melt as spring temperatures rise, but as often happens in the field, the weather had other ideas.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is now almost seven years into its 9.5-year journey across the solar system to explore Pluto and its system of moons. Just over two years from now, in January 2015, New Horizons will begin encounter operations, which will culminate in a close approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, and the first-ever exploration of a planet in the Kuiper Belt.

CHICAGO --- A team of Northwestern University scientists will meet with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrators in Washington D.C. Oct. 18 to advocate for important changes in the agency's guidelines for reproductive health research.

The United States may lose its leadership role in space to other countries unless it makes research and development funding and processes -- especially in nanotechnology -- a renewed and urgent priority, according to a new paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Arlington, Va. — A novel drug that mimics a naturally occurring molecule found in coffee and blueberries has been developed to treat radiation exposure. Charles R. Yates, Pharm.D., Ph.D., and colleagues Duane Miller, Ph.D., and Waleed Gaber, Ph.D., from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Baylor College of Medicine, show that application of this drug, starting 24 hours after radiation exposure, increases survival in animal models by three-fold compared to placebo.

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have studied a giant filament of dark matter in 3D for the first time. Extending 60 million light-years from one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, the filament is part of the cosmic web that constitutes the large-scale structure of the Universe, and is a leftover of the very first moments after the Big Bang. If the high mass measured for the filament is representative of the rest of the Universe, then these structures may contain more than half of all the mass in the Universe.

Tropical Storm Maria was born in the western North Pacific Ocean and has a large area of moderate rainfall, as NASA's TRMM satellite revealed today, Oct. 15. NASA's TRMM satellite noticed that most of Maria's rainfall was occurring northeast of the storm's center. Maria is the twenty-third tropical cyclone of the western North Pacific season.

Tropical cyclones seem to love forming over weekends, Rafael formed over the weekend in the Atlantic, Anais in the Southern Indian Ocean and Hurricane Paul in the eastern Pacific Ocean. NASA's Terra satellite kept on top of Paul, however, and provided forecasters with a visible look at the newborn storm.

Paul formed on Oct. 13 at 5 p.m. EDT about 660 miles (1,065 km) south-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, near 14.0 North and 113.6 West.

While the Leeward Islands continue to get battered by Tropical Storm Rafael, a Tropical Storm Watch is posted for Bermuda as Rafael continues to move through the eastern Atlantic Ocean. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Rafael on Oct. 14 and noticed the bulk of showers and thunderstorms were being pushed north and east of the storm's center.

Tropical Cyclone Anais, the first tropical cyclone of the Southern Indian Ocean's tropical cyclone season, has strengthened over the weekend of Oct. 13 and 14 and by Oct. 15, the storm was packing sustained winds near 100 knots (115 mph/185 kph).

Typhoon Prapiroon has been meandering in the western North Pacific Ocean over the weekend of Oct. 13 and 14, and NASA's TRMM satellite was able to identify where the strongest rainfall was occurring in the storm.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed directly above weakening Typhoon Prapiroon in the western Pacific Ocean on October 12, 2012 at 0741 UTC (3:41 a.m. EDT). At that time, Typhoon Prapiroon was a powerful category two typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson scale with winds slightly less than 95 knots (~109 mph).