Heavens

How did the universe begin? And what came before the Big Bang? Cosmologists have asked these questions ever since discovering that our universe is expanding. The answers aren't easy to determine. The beginning of the cosmos is cloaked and hidden from the view of our most powerful telescopes. Yet observations we make today can give clues to the universe's origin. New research suggests a novel way of probing the beginning of space and time to determine which of the competing theories is correct.

PITTSBURGH - An international team of researchers, including Carnegie Mellon University's Rachel Mandelbaum, has shown that the relationship between galaxy clusters and their surrounding dark matter halo is more complex than previously thought. The researchers' findings, published in Physical Review Letters today (Jan. 25), are the first to use observational data to show that, in addition to mass, a galaxy cluster's formation history plays a role in how it interacts with its environment.

NASA satellite imagery captured the size of the massive winter storm that continued to pummel the U.S. East Coast early on Jan. 23, 2016.

Resting out in the open on rocks can be a risky business for Aegean wall lizards. Out in these habitats they have nowhere to hide and their backs, which show varying shades of green and brown between individuals, are dangerously exposed to birds hunting in the skies above.

The term "black holes" was first used in the mid-20th century by theoretical physicist John Wheeler. This term denotes relativistic supermassive objects that are invisible in all electromagnetic waves, but a great number of astrophysical effects confirms their existence.

After days at hurricane-force, NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite showed that Tropical Cyclone Victor in the South Pacific Ocean was falling apart as a result of wind shear. Victor has weakened to a tropical storm.

The Southern Indian Ocean's Tropical Cyclone Corentin achieved hurricane strength on Jan. 22 as NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead.

When Aqua flew over Corentin on January 22, 2016 at 08:35 UTC (3:35 a.m. EST), the Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument saw an eye forming. Bands of thunderstorms wrapped around the storm and into the center from the north and west.

TAMPA, Fla. (Jan. 22, 2016) - Scientists from the University of South Florida, along with colleagues in Canada and the Netherlands, have determined that the influx of fresh water from the Greenland ice sheet is "freshening" the North Atlantic Ocean and could disrupt the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), an important component of global ocean circulation that could have a global effect. Researchers say it could impact the future climate in places such as portions of Europe and North America.

An intensifying winter storm that is forecast to cause an historic blizzard in the Washington, D.C. area has also spawned severe weather in states from Texas to Florida along the Gulf Coast. NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM mission core satellite observed the extreme rainfall this system was generating in the Gulf coast.

In a discovery that may lead to ways to prevent frost on airplane parts, condenser coils, and even windshields, a team of researchers led by Virginia Tech has used chemical micropatterns to control the growth of frost caused by condensation.

To understand what goes on inside a beehive you can't just study the activity of a single bee. Likewise, to understand the photosynthetic light-harvesting that takes place inside the chloroplast of a leaf, you can't just study the activity of a single antenna protein. Researchers with the U.S.

WASHINGTON, Jan 21, 2016 -- A huge snowstorm could dump more than two feet of snow all over the East Coast, and that means trillions and trillions of tiny snowflakes. Through advances in crystallography, scientists have learned a lot about the structure of snowflakes. While they all start pretty much the same, once they start crystallizing, it's true that no two snowflakes are alike. In fact, the number of possible shapes is staggering.

Tropical Cyclone Corentin developed in the Southern Indian Ocean as NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM mission core satellite flew overhead and analyzed the storm's rainfall and clouds.

The GPM core observatory satellite saw the developing tropical cyclone east of Madagascar on January 21, 2016 at 0146 UTC (Jan 20 at 8:46 p.m. EST). GPM is a mission that is co-managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite shows that cloud top temperatures are warming in Tropical Cyclone Victor. Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC noted that Victor is on a weakening trend, however, warnings were in effect in Tonga on Jan. 21.

Invisible structures shaped like noodles, lasagne sheets or hazelnuts could be floating around in our Galaxy radically challenging our understanding of gas conditions in the Milky Way.

CSIRO astronomer and first author of a paper released in Science Dr Keith Bannister said the structures appear to be 'lumps' in the thin gas that lies between the stars in our Galaxy.

"They could radically change ideas about this interstellar gas, which is the Galaxy's star recycling depot, housing material from old stars that will be refashioned into new ones," Dr Bannister said.