Heavens

The most distant galaxy cluster yet has been discovered by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical and infrared telescopes. The cluster is located about 10.2 billion light years away, and is observed as it was when the Universe was only about a quarter of its present age.

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a special issue this week dedicated to the early results of the CoRoT space mission [1]. The CoRoT (Convection, Rotation & planetary Transits) satellite is a 30 centimeter space telescope, launched on 27 December 2006 from Baikonour. Since then, CoRoT has been orbiting at about 900 km from the Earth, monitoring the changes in brightness of a huge amount of stars with unprecedented accuracy. This aims at both detecting exoplanets by the transit method and studying seismology of a wide variety of stars.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) released a new study on the installed costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the U.S., showing that the average cost of these systems declined by more than 30 percent from 1998 to 2008. Within the last year of this period, costs fell by more than 4 percent.

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM satellite has been flying over Tropical Storm Neki in the Central Pacific Ocean and providing scientists with an idea of how much rainfall Johnston Island can expect from it.

A Hurricane Watch is already in effect for Johnston Island. That means hurricane conditions are possible within the next 48 hours. A Hurricane Warning may be issued later today, meaning hurricane conditions are happening.

Typhoon Lupit is closing in on northern Luzon, the Philippines, and is expected to make a brief landfall (of about 24 hours) there October 22 before heading into the South China Sea.

Forecasters at the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted "As the system moves away from the cooler dry air into a warmer pool of water, it is expected to intensify slightly before making landfall into Luzon." Landfall for the storm's eye is forecast around 8 p.m. local (Asia/Manila) time on October 22, which would be around 8 a.m. EDT.

ESA's Rosetta comet chaser will swing by Earth on 13 November to pick up orbital energy and begin the final leg of its 10-year journey to the outer Solar System. Several observations of the Earth–Moon system are planned before the spacecraft heads out to study comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Tropical Storm Neki formed today about 830 miles southeast of Johnston Island in the Central Pacific Ocean. NASA's QuikScat and Aqua satellites quickly captured and analyzed winds and temperatures in Neki, enabling forecasters to see the storm strengthening.

NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites flew over Hurricane Rick this weekend, and watched the storm strengthen into a major hurricane.

Rick was a tropical storm during the early morning hours on Friday, October 16, and strengthened into a hurricane late in the day. Over the weekend, Rick became a major hurricane. On Saturday, October 17 Rick reached a Category Five hurricane status with maximum sustained winds reaching 180 mph, becoming the second most powerful hurricane in the Eastern Pacific on record, only behind Hurricane Linda of 1997.

In a large population-based study published online today, researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute report that after adjusting for a number of factors, typically developing children and children with autism have similar levels of mercury in their blood streams. Mercury is a heavy metal found in other studies to adversely affect the developing nervous system.

Lupit has joined the ranks of super typhoons in the Western Pacific Ocean, and is currently packing maximum sustained winds near 132 mph, down from a previous peak near 149 mph, but still a Category Four strength typhoon.

Washington, DC – A study published in The Cochrane Review this month concludes that pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV), already known to prevent invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and x-ray defined pneumonia, was also effective against child deaths. The findings were based on a systematic review of the results of 6 randomized and controlled trials conducted in the US, Africa, Philippines, and Finland. Eighty percent of children were less likely to develop vaccine-type IPD, 58% all-serotype IPD, and 27% x-ray defined pneumonia than children who did not receive the vaccine.

George Boyne, Professor of Public Sector Management at Cardiff University, who conducted the research along with Oliver James, Peter John and Nicolai Petrovsky said: "This is a good news story for local government. It shows that local democracy works, with poor performance leading to change in political leadership and management. That's what is supposed to happen."

The researchers measured election results and managerial change in upper-tier councils over a six-year-period (2001-7) against their ratings under the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).

The first solar system energetic particle maps show an unexpected landmark occurring at the outer edge of the solar wind bubble surrounding the solar system. Scientists published these maps, based mostly on data collected from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer satellite, in the Oct. 15 issue of Science Express, the advance online version of the journal Science.

Three instruments on NASA's Aqua satellite captured views of Typhoon Lupit on its western track toward the Philippines and are helping forecasters get an idea of its strength and behavior. Lupit strengthened quickly in 24 hours from a tropical depression to a typhoon, between October 15 and 16.

(Boston) - The first all-sky maps developed by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, the initial mission to examine the global interactions occurring at the edge of the solar system, suggest that the galactic magnetic fields had a far greater impact on Earth's history than previously conceived, and the future of our planet and others may depend, in part, on how the galactic magnetic fields change with time.