Heavens

A third and fourth flare have erupted from sunspot 1283. The third came on September 7 at 6:36 PM ET, and was categorized as an X1.8 by the GOES spacecraft, making it the second X-class flare within 24 hours.

There was a coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with all three of the recent flares, but none of them are expected to travel directly toward Earth, and the first two were unlikely to cause aurora.

NASA computer models suggest that the latest CME may give a glancing blow to Earth on the morning of September 11, and might create some aurora.

NASA's Aqua and TRMM satellites were on guard when Tropical Storm Nate developed late in the day yesterday, Sept. 7 in the Bay of Campeche near the east coast of Mexico. The satellites measured cloud height, temperature and rainfall rates and found the heaviest rainfall on the southern side of the tropical storm.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has spotted a planet that alternately runs late and early in its orbit because a second, "invisible" world is tugging on it. This is the first definite detection of a previously unknown planet using this method. No other technique could have found the unseen companion.

"This invisible planet makes itself known by its influence on the planet we can see," said astronomer Sarah Ballard of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Ballard is lead author on the study, which has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

The sun's surface dances. Giant loops of magnetized solar material burst up, twist, and fall back down. Some erupt, shooting radiation flares and particles out into space. Forced to observe this dance from afar, scientists use all the tools at their disposal to look for patterns and connections to discover what causes these great explosions. Mapping these patterns could help scientists predict the onset of space weather that bursts toward Earth from the sun, interfering with communications and Global Positioning System (GPS) signals.

Landfalling tropical cyclones can bring a lot of rain, but after Lee made landfall and merged with a stalled frontal system over the eastern U.S. the rain keeps coming. Lee's clouds, however, continue to remain painfully out of reach of Texas, that needs the rain to battle several wildfires. One NASA satellite image showed how close but how far that needed rain was from the Lone Star State, while another showed the extent of Lee's cloud cover merged with a front.

Observers often overlook NGC 2100 because of its close proximity to the impressive Tarantula Nebula (eso0650) and the super star cluster RMC 136 (eso1030). The glowing gas of the Tarantula Nebula even tries to steal the limelight in this image -- the bright colours here are the nebula's outskirts. This new picture was created from exposures through several different colour filters using the EMMI instrument [1] on the New Technology Telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Wiring systems powered by highly-efficient superconductors have long been a dream of science, but researchers have faced such practical challenges such as finding pliable and cost-effective materials. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University have found a way to make an old idea new with the next generation of superconductors.

There is growing use of financial incentives in many countries to reward primary care practitioners who improve the quality of their services. After reviewing all available data in a Cochrane Systematic Review, a team of researchers found insufficient evidence to either support or refute the practice. They conclude that policymakers need to proceed with caution before setting up an incentive scheme and think carefully about the way it is designed.

In the Hollywood blockbuster "Speed," a bomb on a bus is rigged to blow up if the bus slows down below 50 miles per hour. The premise - slow down and you explode - makes for a great action movie plot, and also happens to have a cosmic equivalent.

New research shows that some old stars might be held up by their rapid spins, and when they slow down, they explode as supernovae. Thousands of these "time bombs" could be scattered throughout our Galaxy.

TEMPE, Ariz. – The imaging system on board NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has given us the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 sites, more clearly showing the paths made when the astronauts explored these areas.

Despite the potentially devastating financial consequences of illness, most health systems fail to offer adequate financial protection to citizens but should.

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Rodrigo Moreno-Serra from Imperial College London, UK and colleagues argue that new, broader measures are needed to better inform policy development on financial protection, including new indicators that identify citizens who cannot afford to use health services and may have very low or no health spending.

Major Hurricane Katia continues to approach the U.S. East coast and stir up rough surf. Meanwhile two NASA satellites have provided a look at the changes in organization and cloud patterns over the last several days.

One NASA instrument that flies aboard two different NASA satellites has been providing very clear pictures of Hurricane Katia's transition over the last couple of days. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument flies on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.

RUSTON, La. – Researchers from Louisiana Tech University will be floating high above the Gulf of Mexico this month to conduct zero-gravity testing of an experimental DNA analysis instrument developed at Tech that could benefit future NASA astronauts.

Dr. Niel Crews, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Collin Tranter, a graduate student with Louisiana Tech's Institute for Micromanufacturing (IfM) say the instrument could be used to monitor the health of astronauts exposed to cosmic radiation beyond Earth's protective atmosphere.

ESA's Mars Express has spotted a rare case of a crater once filled by a lake, revealed by the presence of a delta. The delta is an ancient fan-shaped deposit of dark sediments, laid down in water. It is a reminder of Mars' past, wetter climate.

The delta is in the Eberswalde crater, in the southern highlands of Mars. The 65 km-diameter crater is visible as a semi-circle on the right of the image and was formed more than 3.7 billion years ago when an asteroid hit the planet.

The second Atlantic Ocean Hurricane was born today, Sept. 1 as Katia strengthened from a tropical storm in the central Atlantic. NASA's TRMM satellite noticed towering thunderstorms within Katia yesterday which clued forecasters that she would become a hurricane today. NASA's Aqua satellite showed strong thunderstorms around Katia's center today as the hurricane continues to strengthen.