Heavens

The watery environment of early comets, together with the vast quantity of organics already discovered in comets, would have provided ideal conditions for primitive bacteria to grow and multiply. Argues Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleagues at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology in a paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

A new study investigated the effectiveness of S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) in the prevention and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or primary liver cancer. SAMe, a widely available nutritional supplement, with little known side effects, was found to be effective in preventing the formation of HCC in rats. However, high enough levels of SAMe were not attainable to successfully treat established HCC.

A study published this week in the journal Nature offers an explanation for the origin of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. The research may settle an outstanding puzzle in understanding galaxy formation.

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are small and very faint, containing few stars relative to their total mass. They appear to be made mostly of dark matter - a mysterious substance detectable only by its gravitational influence, which outweighs normal matter by a factor of five to one in the universe as a whole.

The masterpieces that spring from the talents of Rembrandt, Van Gogh and other artists often begin with the creation of a gradient of colors on a palette. In a similar manner, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created an innovative device called the "microfluidic palette" to produce multiple, steady-state chemical gradients—gradual changes in concentration across an area—in a miniature chamber about the diameter of a pinhead.

Betelgeuse — the second brightest star in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) — is a red supergiant, one of the biggest stars known, and almost 1000 times larger than our Sun [1]. It is also one of the most luminous stars known, emitting more light than 100 000 Suns. Such extreme properties foretell the demise of a short-lived stellar king. With an age of only a few million years, Betelgeuse is already nearing the end of its life and is soon doomed to explode as a supernova. When it does, the supernova should be seen easily from Earth, even in broad daylight.

Using the Large Area Telescope aboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope scientists are making some exciting discoveries about cosmic rays. Scientists in the Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL's) Space Science Division were instrumental in the design and development of the Large Area Telescope (LAT).

Cosmic rays are electrons, positrons, and atomic nuclei that move at nearly the speed of light. Astronomers believe that the high-energy cosmic rays originate from exotic places in the galaxy, such as the debris of exploded stars.

Golden, CO (July 28, 2009) – The HealthGrades Fourth Annual Bariatric Surgery Trends in American Hospitals Study released today identifies 88 hospitals as "best" performers (five-star rated), with mortality rates, complication rates and patient lengths of stay that are dramatically lower than poorly rated hospitals.

New Haven, Conn.—A team of astronomers has discovered a group of rare galaxies called the "Green Peas" with the help of citizen scientists working through an online project called Galaxy Zoo. The finding could lend unique insights into how galaxies form stars in the early universe.

The Galaxy Zoo users, who volunteer their spare time to help classify galaxies in an online image bank, came across a number of objects that stuck out because of their small size and bright green color. They dubbed them the Green Peas.

For the past several days the world's largest telescopes have been trained on a recent Jupiter impact and its unfolding drama 580 million kilometres away. Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, allocated discretionary time to a team of astronomers led by Heidi Hammel of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado to keep up with the recent events.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of Chandra, three new versions of classic Chandra images will be released during the next three months. These images, the first of which is available Thursday, provide new data and a more complete view of objects that Chandra observed in earlier stages of its mission. The image being released today is of E0102-72, the spectacular remains of an exploded star.

When the Apollo 11 crew first got back from the moon, they showed no ill effects from seven days spent in weightlessness. But as American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts began conducting longer-duration space flights, scientists noticed a disturbing trend: the longer humans stay in zero gravity, the more muscle they lose. Space travelers exposed to weightlessness for a year or more — such as those on a mission to Mars, for example — could wind up crippled on their return to Earth, unable to walk or even sit up.

Jupiter is boasting a dark bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean, something first noticed by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley on Sunday, July 19.

In visible light, the bruise appears dark against the bright surface of Jupiter. The near infrared image showed a bright spot in Jupiter's southern hemisphere, where an object's impact had propelled reflective particles high into the relatively clear stratosphere

Life on Earth came from other planets. So concludes a new study which will appear in the inaugural issue of the online science journal, Cosmology.com

For thousands of years scientists and theologians have debated the origins of life. So far, the consensus is that abiogenesis, a theory which stipulates that inanimate matter gave rise to the first living organisms, best explains life’s origins.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A star does not die without getting noticed and may even leave the universe with "fireworks." At the end of its life cycle, a star begins to collapse in the middle and throws new material into space. The new material eventually becomes incorporated into new planets and life. Now, a University of Missouri professor identified new features in the material that is being ejected from the dying star Helix Nebula.