Heavens

On Nov. 4, 2010, NASA's EPOXI spacecraft came within 450 miles of Comet Hartley 2, a small comet not even a mile in diameter, which takes about six and a half years to orbit the sun. Designated officially as 103P/Hartley 2, the comet thus became the fifth for which scientists have collected close-up images.

As of July 28, a tropical storm watch is in effect for Texas coast from the mouth of the Rio Grande northward to west of San Luis Pass and those conditions are possible by late Friday.

Forty years ago, Americans could expect to live slightly longer than Europeans. This has since reversed: in spite of similar levels of economic development, Americans now live about a year-and-a-half less, on average, than their Western European counterparts, and also less than people in most other developed nations. How did Americans fall behind?

Like giant strands of seaweed some 32,000 miles high, material shooting up from the sun sways back and forth with the atmosphere. In the ocean, it's moving water that pulls the seaweed along for a ride; in the sun's corona, magnetic field ripples called Alfvén waves cause the swaying.

A NASA satellite has observed Tropical Depression 11W become more organized on infrared imagery. Fortunately, it is moving away from land areas for the next couple of days.

Yap and Guam are both experiencing the tail end of gusty winds and rains as Tropical Depression 11W moves between the two islands in the western North Pacific today.

NASA satellite data has shown that Tropical Storm Nock-ten has been a big rainmaker across the Philippines for the last two days and is now tracking into the South China Sea.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite data was used to create a 3-D image of Tropical Storm Nock-ten's rainfall and cloud heights as it passed overhead on July 25. Nock-ten had towering convective storms near their centers of circulation that extended to heights above 15km (~9.3 miles) with heavy rainfall, falling at 2 inches (50 mm) per hour.

BOULDER—A new study sheds light on why the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is more than 20 times hotter than its surface. The research, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), may bring scientists a step closer to understanding the solar cycle and the Sun's impacts on Earth.

Tropical Storm Nock-ten, formerly tropical depression 10W continues raining on the Philippines, and a NASA satellite image shows the extent of the storm's clouds.

Tropical Depression 11W appears as a huge and very cold area of clouds on infrared imagery from NASA. Infrared imagery basically provides temperature data of factors such as clouds and sea surface and there's quite a contrast between the two around Tropical Depression 11W.

Water expelled from the moon Enceladus forms a giant torus of water vapor around Saturn, a discovery solves a 14-year mystery by identifying the source of the water in Saturn's upper atmosphere.

That means that Enceladus is the only moon in the Solar System known to influence the chemical composition of its parent planet.

Enceladus expels around 250 kg of water vapor every second, through a collection of jets from the south polar region known as the Tiger Stripes because of their distinctive surface markings.

A PhD student from The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth has produced one of the most accurate measurements ever made of how fast the Universe is expanding.

Florian Beutler, a PhD candidate with ICRAR at the University of Western Australia, has calculated how fast the Universe is growing by measuring the Hubble constant.

"The Hubble constant is a key number in astronomy because it's used to calculate the size and age of the Universe," said Mr Beutler.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Nine engineers from Sandia National Laboratories helped ensure Atlantis' safety from Mission Control at Johnson Space Center as the shuttle made its final flight, marking the end of NASA's 30-year space shuttle program. For the past 22 missions — every one since NASA's 2005 return to space — Sandia Labs' engineers have worked tirelessly to protect the astronauts with ingenious, space-based inspections of the orbiter's thermal protection system.

Troy, N.Y. –Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. The scientists, who are members of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC) at Rensselaer, used computational and analytical methods to discover the tipping point where a minority belief becomes the majority opinion.

The tenth tropical depression formed in the western North Pacific Ocean this past weekend, and brought rains to the central Philippines as seen on infrared imagery from a NASA satellite.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Americans are used to drinking from the kitchen tap without fear of harm, even though water utilities might be vulnerable to terrorist attacks or natural contaminants.

Now, thanks to CANARY Event Detection Software — an open-source software developed by Sandia National Laboratories in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — public water systems can be protected through enhanced detection of such threats.