Heavens

For the first time astronomers were able to analyse the atmosphere of an exoplanet in the class known as super-Earths. Using data gathered with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and new analysis techniques, the exoplanet 55 Cancri e is revealed to have a dry atmosphere without any indications of water vapour. The results, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, indicate that the atmosphere consists mainly of hydrogen and helium.

NASA satellites have been providing data on Tropical Cyclone Winston in the Southwestern Pacific, and watched the storm over the past couple of days as it weakened to a tropical storm. Today, Feb. 16, Winston regained hurricane-force and threatens Tonga and American Samoa.

On Feb.16 a gale warning was in effect for Niue. In Tonga, a storm warning was in effect for Vavau and a gale warning was in effect for Ha'apai, Niuafo'ou and Niuatoputapu.

Lymphatic vessels can be considered the pneumatic tubes of our immune system; the lymph nodes its control centres. Antibodies and killer cells, which are able to fight against pathogens invading our bodies, mature in these centres. It is through lymphatic vessels that information about these pathogens reaches the lymph nodes. An armada of sentinel cells, called dendritic cells, are decentrally positioned in tissues to take up pathogens. After uptake of the pathogen, the dendritic cells move into the lymphatic vessels and eventually trigger an alarm in the draining lymph node.

Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts the emission of gravitational waves by massive celestial bodies moving though space-time. For the past century gravitational waves have eluded a direct detection, but now the LIGO Virgo Collaboration has announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, emitted by a merging pair of black holes. Catastrophic mergers of binary systems can also produce brilliant and explosive fireworks of light, so a team of astronomers, including at Harvard, sought evidence of such an visible afterglow.

Cloud top temperatures in storms within Tropical Cyclone Uriah grew colder over the last couple of days, according to infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite. That's an indication of stronger uplift in a tropical cyclone and a stronger storm. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite saw the storm when it was struggling against wind shear, and two days later NASA's Aqua satellite saw Uriah reach hurricane-strength after the shear weakened.

ITHACA, N.Y. - Two new Cornell University studies show how diverse marine organisms are susceptible to diseases made worse by warming oceans.

How should cost factor into the protection of human health and the environment? That was the central question in a Supreme Court case last summer that pitted the coal industry and 20 U.S. states against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The court ruled that the EPA did not properly take into account what it would cost power plants to comply with new regulations to reduce the emission of mercury, a powerful neurotoxin. Now the EPA has until the self-imposed deadline of April 16 to come up with a cost consideration plan.

The first successful detection of gases in the atmosphere of a super-Earth reveals the presence of hydrogen and helium, but no water vapour, according to UCL researchers. The exotic exoplanet, 55 Cancri e, is over eight times the mass of Earth and has previously been dubbed the 'diamond planet' because models based on its mass and radius have led some astronomers to speculate that its interior is carbon-rich.

The type of family system during pregnancy and the baby's first year predicts the way the child processes emotional information. The results of a ten-year longitudinal study conducted at the University of Tampere highlight the importance of the whole family system in children's emotional development in addition to the early mother-child relationship.

For the first time astronomers were able to analyse the atmosphere of an exoplanet in the class known as super-Earths. Using data gathered with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and new analysis techniques, the exoplanet 55 Cancri e is revealed to have a dry atmosphere without any indications of water vapour. The results, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, indicate that the atmosphere consists mainly of hydrogen and helium.

A Sino-Australian forum is the theme of the new issue of Family Medicine and Community Health (FMCH), an international medical journal with editorial offices in China and the U.S. The Winter 2015 issue includes three original research articles, one systematic review on models of oral healthcare, three commentaries and two papers focusing specifically on health care in China.

When doctors diagnose a torn ligament, it's usually because they can see ruptures in the ligament's collagen fibers, visible on a variety of different scans. However, they also often treat patients with many of the symptoms of a tear, but whose ligaments don't show this kind of damage.

A team of researchers led by scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is looking at ways to improve how blood-forming stem cells can be used for therapeutic interventions. The work has uncovered a group of genes that regulate how hematopoietic stem cells start to grow and thrive in mice. The function of many of these genes was previously unknown. Reconstitution of a robust blood-forming system is essential for recovery from many catastrophic diseases as well as from chemotherapy treatments. A report on this study appears today in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

In 2013 February 15, the approach of asteroid (367943) Duende to our planet was being closely monitored by both the public and the scientific community worldwide when suddenly a superbolide entered the atmosphere above the region of Chelyabinsk in Russia. Three years and hundreds of published scientific studies later, we are still looking for the origin of such unexpected visitor, that caused damage to hundreds of buildings and injuries to nearly 1,500 people.

A team of Korean researchers, affiliated with UNIST has recently pioneered in developing a new type of multilayered (Au NPs/TiO2/Au) photoelectrode that boosts the ability of solar water-splitting to produce hydrogen. According to the research team, this special photoelectrode, inspired by the way plants convert sunlight into energy is capable of absorbing visible light from the sun, and then using it to split water molecules (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen.