Heavens

NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Lionrock that revealed the storm is consolidating and strengthening. Lionrock is moving through the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and away from Honshu, the big island of Japan.

When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the eastern Atlantic Ocean it looked at the weakening Tropical Depression Fiona and a developing tropical low pressure area named System 99L. Fiona became a post-tropical depression today, Aug. 23.

The energy-storage goal of a polymer dielectric material with high energy density, high power density and excellent charge-discharge efficiency for electric and hybrid vehicle use has been achieved by a team of Penn State materials scientists. The key is a unique three-dimensional sandwich-like structure that protects the dense electric field in the polymer/ceramic composite from dielectric breakdown. Their results are published today (Aug. 22) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Extensive systems of fossilised riverbeds have been discovered on an ancient region of the Martian surface, supporting the idea that the now cold and dry Red Planet had a warm and wet climate about 4 billion years ago, according to UCL-led research.

The study, published in Geology and funded by the Science & Technology Facilities Council and the UK Space Agency, identified over 17,000km of former river channels on a northern plain called Arabia Terra, providing further evidence of water once flowing on Mars.

NASA's Aqua satellite saw continually weakening Tropical Depression devoid of thunderstorms when it passed overhead early today, Aug. 23.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Depression Kay was located near 22.7 degrees north latitude and 120.1 degrees west longitude. That's about 650 miles (1,045 km) west of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico.

The Northwestern Pacific Ocean has seen quite a number of tropical cyclones in the last two weeks and another has just formed north of Guam triggering warnings on several islands. NASA's Terra satellite provided a visible image of Tropical Depression 14W today, Aug. 23.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - In the fast-growing and job-rich disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, improving instruction at the college level is critical to keeping students engaged in these fields.

But filling in bubbles on institutionalized end-of-term teacher evaluation questionnaires, a standard practice at many large research universities, often fails to produce timely and meaningful data for improving instruction, according to a new study from Oregon State University that explores how faculty are evaluating their teaching practice.

Astronomers have identified a young star, located almost 11,000 light years away, which could help us understand how the most massive stars in the Universe are formed. This young star, already more than 30 times the mass of our Sun, is still in the process of gathering material from its parent molecular cloud, and may be even more massive when it finally reaches adulthood.

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 22, 2016 -- Car emissions is a high-stakes issue, as last year's Volkswagen scandal demonstrated. Pressure to meet tightening standards led the carmaker to cheat on emissions tests. But wrongdoing aside, how are automakers going to realistically meet future, tougher emissions requirements to reduce their impact on the climate? Researchers report today that a vehicle's cold start -- at least in gasoline-powered cars -- is the best target for future design changes.

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 22, 2016 -- Scrap tires have been on environmentalists' blacklist for decades. They pile up in landfills, have fed enormous toxic fires, harbor pests and get burned for fuel. Scientists trying to rid us of this scourge have developed a new way to make synthetic rubber. And once this material is discarded, it can be easily degraded back to its chemical building blocks and reused in new tires and other products.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Job satisfaction in your late 20s and 30s has a link to overall health in your early 40s, according to a new nationwide study.

While job satisfaction had some impact on physical health, its effect was particularly strong for mental health, researchers found.

Those less than happy with their work early in their careers said they were more depressed and worried and had more trouble sleeping.

And the direction of your job satisfaction - whether it is getting better or worse in your early career - has an influence on your later health, the study showed.

How do you boil water? Eschewing the traditional kettle and flame, MIT engineers have invented a bubble-wrapped, sponge-like device that soaks up natural sunlight and heats water to boiling temperatures, generating steam through its pores.

SEATTLE -- Job satisfaction in your late 20s and 30s has a link to overall health in your early 40s, according to a new nationwide study.

While job satisfaction had some impact on physical health, its effect was particularly strong for mental health, researchers found.

Those less than happy with their work early in their careers said they were more depressed and worried and had more trouble sleeping.

And the direction of your job satisfaction -- whether it is getting better or worse in your early career -- has an influence on your later health, the study showed.

To everything there is a season -- even divorce, new research from University of Washington sociologists concludes.

Associate sociology professor Julie Brines and doctoral candidate Brian Serafini found what is believed to be the first quantitative evidence of a seasonal, biannual pattern of filings for divorce. The researchers analyzed filings in Washington state between 2001 and 2015 and found that they consistently peaked in March and August, the periods following winter and summer holidays.

SEATTLE -- To everything there is a season -- even divorce, new research from University of Washington sociologists concludes.

Associate sociology professor Julie Brines and doctoral candidate Brian Serafini found what is believed to be the first quantitative evidence of a seasonal, biannual pattern of filings for divorce. The researchers analyzed filings in Washington state between 2001 and 2015 and found that they consistently peaked in March and August, the periods following winter and summer holidays.