Heavens

The Northwestern Pacific Ocean is active with two tropical cyclones today, Tropical Storm Meari near the Philippines, and Tropical Depression Haima moving over China and now toward Vietnam. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the region on June 22 and captured an infrared image of both storms in one image.

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, June 23, 2011—Two papers in this week's issue of Science report the first oxygen and nitrogen isotopic measurements of the Sun, demonstrating that they are verydifferent from the same elements on Earth. These results were the top two priorities of NASA's Genesis mission, which was the first spacecraft to return from beyond the Moon, crashing in the Utah desert in 2004 after its parachute failed to deploy during re-entry.

Small heads, large bodies, and a slow metabolism -- these are the characteristics that make us think of dinosaurs as dull, lethargic and cold-blooded giants. However, this image seems to be deceiving. These giant saurians that have been extinct for 65 million years may have been high-performance models of evolution. In cooperation with colleagues from the US, researchers from the University of Bonn have just determined that the body temperature of some large herbivorous dinosaurs was between 36 and 38 degrees Celsius.

Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation of Orion, is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It is also one of the biggest, being almost the size of the orbit of Jupiter — about four and half times the diameter of the Earth's orbit. The VLT image shows the surrounding nebula, which is much bigger than the supergiant itself, stretching 60 billion kilometres away from the star's surface — about 400 times the distance of the Earth from the Sun.

The brilliant colors of birds have inspired poets and nature lovers, but researchers at Yale University and the University of Cambridge say these existing hues represent only a fraction of what birds are capable of seeing.

The findings based on study of the avian visual system, reported in the June 23 issue of the journal Behavioral Ecology, show that over millions of years of evolution plumage colors went from dull to bright as birds gradually acquired the ability to create newer pigments and structural colors.

Contrary to our human perception of bird coloration as extraordinarily diverse, a new study reports that bird plumages exhibit only a small fraction (less than a third) of the possible colours birds can observe.

Early lineages of living birds probably produced an even smaller range of colours, but the evolution of innovative pigments and structural (or optical) colours has allowed many birds to create more diverse and colourful plumages over time.

At 5 p.m. EDT on June 21, Beatriz had maximum sustained winds near 60 mph, and as Beatriz interacted with the mountainous terrain of Mexico its strength waned quickly.

By 11 p.m. EDT the center of circulation was no longer well-defined and maximum sustained winds dropped to 30 mph. It was a quick drop in strength over six hours and transformed Beatriz from a strong tropical storm to a weak tropical depression. At that time her center was located near 19.0 North latitude and 107.0 West longitude and moving westward near 10 mph (17 kmh).

A team of scientists studying the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora's Cluster, have pieced together the cluster's complex and violent history using telescopes in space and on the ground, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, the Japanese Subaru telescope, and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The giant galaxy cluster appears to be the result of a simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate, smaller galaxy clusters. The crash took place over a span of 350 million years.

Tropical Depression Haima, formerly known as 06W continues moving toward Hong Kong and NASA infrared satellite imagery shows strong rain-making thunderstorms in the southern quadrant of the storm. Rainfall is something that a rain-weary China doesn't need, so preparations are being made now.

The AIRS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the western North Pacific's seventh tropical depression become massive Tropical Storm Meari overnight. Meari is so large that it takes up almost the entire Philippine Sea and it's on track toward southeastern Taiwan.

Samples of icy spray shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus collected during Cassini spacecraft flybys show the strongest evidence yet for the existence of a large-scale, subterranean saltwater ocean, says a new international study led by the University of Heidelberg and involving the University of Colorado Boulder.

LOGAN, UT—In response to increased awareness generated by the expanding local foods movement, demand for fresh strawberries has increased throughout the United States. The fresh market strawberry industry in the U.S. flourishes in California and Florida—states with ideal weather conditions and long growing seasons. Even with challenging growing conditions, small-scale strawberry production operations succeed in other areas of the country, particularly near urban areas where local produce commands premium prices at market.

EAST LANSING, MI—The practice of "topdressing" athletic fields with sand has been used by turfgrass professionals for years. Topdressing is essential to maintaining safe and healthy turf, and using porous sand allows the turfgrass system to retain the necessary pore space for adequate drainage, even in heavy foot traffic.

When huge clusters of galaxies crash together, the resulting mess is a treasure trove of information for astronomers. By investigating one of the most complex and unusual colliding clusters in the sky, an international team of astronomers has pieced together the history of a cosmic crash that took place over a period of 350 million years.

When huge clusters of galaxies crash together, the resulting mess is a treasure trove of information for astronomers. By investigating one of the most complex and unusual colliding clusters in the sky, an international team of astronomers has pieced together the history of a cosmic crash that took place over a period of 350 million years.