Heavens

New research from North Carolina State University shows that a wind-driven "tumbleweed" Mars rover would be capable of moving across rocky Martian terrain – findings that could also help the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) design the best possible vehicle.

Criminal cases can often only be solved using forensics to piece together physical evidence and reconstruct what happened. Prof. Dr. Helmut Schmitz from the Institute of Zoology at the University of Bonn and Dr. Herbert Bousack from the Peter Grünberg Institut at the Forschungzentrum Jülich went through the same experience. Prof. Schmitz has been researching fire beetles of the genus Melanophila and their sophisticated IR sensors, which these pyrophilous insects use to detect forest fires, for many years. This is a very special ecological niche.

The universe is a marvelously complex place, filled with galaxies and larger-scale structures that have evolved over its 13.7-billion-year history. Those began as small perturbations of matter that grew over time, like ripples in a pond, as the universe expanded. By observing the large-scale cosmic wrinkles now, we can learn about the initial conditions of the universe. But is now really the best time to look, or would we get better information billions of years into the future - or the past?

On May 21, NASA satellites were monitoring Tropical Depression 02E in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and 24 hours later it strengthened into the second tropical storm of the season. Tropical Storm Bud was captured by NOAA's GOES-13 satellite on May 22, and appears to be well-formed.

Tropical Storm Bud isn't going to stop there, however. According to the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center, Bud is expected to become a hurricane because of light to moderate wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures.

Tropical Depression 03W in the western North Pacific did exactly what forecasters expected over the last twenty-four hours: it became a tropical storm named Sanvu and passed west of Guam on a northwesterly track.

Infrared satellite imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite revealed Alberto weakened from a tropical storm to a tropical depression as it appears more disorganized. At 10:30 a.m. EDT on May 21, Tropical Storm Alberto weakened to a tropical depression, and has maintained that status today, May 22.

WASHINGTON — May 22, 2012 — Earth observations, science, and services (Earth OSS) inform and guide the activities of virtually all economic sectors and innumerable institutions underlying modern civilization, according to a new study by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Policy Program. The report also found that Earth OSS in the United States face considerable challenges because economic downturns and Federal budget deficits put efforts to build and maintain Earth OSS capabilities at serious risk.

The first tropical storm of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season formed off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 5 p.m. EDT, and NASA satellites were immediately keeping track of it. NASA's TRMM and Aqua satellites have provided a visible look at the compact storm and its rainfall rates.

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite has caught two tropical cyclones with "hot towers" this week, and that's a hallmark that they'll intensify. Tropical Depression 03W is approaching Guam and is expected to strengthen.

"Hot Tower" rain clouds within a tropical cyclone indicate that the storm is going to intensify, and that's what NASA's TRMM satellite spotted in newborn Tropical Depression 2E in the eastern Pacific Ocean and now in Tropical Depression 03W (TD03W) in the western North Pacific Ocean.

"Hot Tower" rain clouds within a tropical cyclone indicate that the storm is going to intensify, and that's what NASA's TRMM satellite spotted in newborn Tropical Depression 2E (TD2E) in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Amid growing concerns about the spread of harmful mercury in plants and animals, a new study by researchers from The Johns Hopkins University and The National Aquarium has compared levels of the chemical in captive dolphins with dolphins found in the wild. The captive animals were fed a controlled diet, while the wild mammals dined on marine life that may carry more of the toxic metal.

WASHINGTON, May 21—Blood tests convey vital medical information, but the sight of a needle often causes anxiety and results take time. A new device developed by a team of researchers in Israel, however, can reveal much the same information as a traditional blood test in real-time, simply by shining a light through the skin. This optical instrument, no bigger than a breadbox, is able to provide high-resolution images of blood coursing through our veins without the need for harsh and short-lived fluorescent dyes.

Cambridge, Mass. - May 21, 2012 - Environmental scientists at Harvard have discovered that the Arctic accumulation of mercury, a toxic element, is caused by both atmospheric forces and the flow of circumpolar rivers that carry the element north into the Arctic Ocean.

While the atmospheric source was previously recognized, it now appears that twice as much mercury actually comes from the rivers.

RICHLAND, Wash. -- Pollution is warming the atmosphere through summer thunderstorm clouds, according to a computational study published May 10 in Geophysical Research Letters. How much the warming effect of these clouds offsets the cooling that other clouds provide is not yet clear. To find out, researchers need to incorporate this new-found warming into global climate models.

RENO, Nev. – University of Nevada, Reno computer science engineering team Kostas Bekris and Eelke Folmer presented their indoor navigation system for people with visual impairments at two national conferences in the past two weeks. The researchers explained how a combination of human-computer interaction and motion-planning research was used to build a low-cost accessible navigation system, called Navatar, which can run on a standard smartphone.