Heavens

Galaxy clusters are massive congregations of galaxies that host huge reservoirs of hot gas -- the temperatures are so high that X-rays are produced. These structures are useful to astronomers because their construction is believed to be influenced by the Universe's notoriously strange components -- dark matter and dark energy. By studying their properties at different stages in the history of the Universe, galaxy clusters can shed light on the Universe's poorly understood dark side.

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a special feature on the first results of the XXL Survey. XXL is a large survey of the X-ray sky with the XMM-Newton space observatory. It aims to detect a few hundreds of clusters back to a time when the age of the Universe was about half its present value (z~1). With this information, astronomers will be able to infer the evolutionary properties and spatial distribution of the massive structures of the universe and, subsequently, to test various cosmological properties.

For the first time, scientists can observe the first two to three days of a mouse embryo's life, as it develops from a fertilised egg up to the stage when it would implant in its mother's uterus, thanks to a new light sheet microscope developed at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany.

"When I first saw the videos, I said 'This is a breakthrough - nobody has ever seen this before!'" says Jan Ellenberg, who led the work. "The beginning of our own lives looks like this, and we could never look at it before. Now there's so much we can learn!"

A survey of 10 hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets conducted with NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has led a team to solve a long-standing mystery -- why some of these worlds seem to have less water than expected. The findings offer new insights into the wide range of planetary atmospheres in our galaxy and how planets are assembled.

Of the nearly 2,000 planets confirmed to be orbiting other stars, a subset are gaseous planets with characteristics similar to those of Jupiter but orbit very close to their stars, making them blistering hot.

From a dusty atmosphere stretching across the Atlantic Ocean to daily views of clouds at sunrise, a new NASA camera keeping a steady eye on the sunlit side of Earth is yielding new insights about our changing planet.

Preview:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Recent orbital and rover missions to Mars have turned up ample evidence of clays and other hydrated minerals formed when rocks are altered by the presence of water. Most of that alteration is thought to have happened during the earliest part of Martian history, more than 3.7 billion years ago. But a new study shows that later alteration -- within the last 2 billion years or so -- may be more common than many scientists had thought.

As Typhoon Melor approached a landfall in the central Philippines, NASA's RapidScat instrument identified the strongest winds north of the center. As the storm was making landfall in the eastern Visayas and Bicol regions of the Philippines early on Dec. 14, 2015 NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible image that showed the extend of the storm.

LSU paleoclimatologist Kristine DeLong contributed to an international research breakthrough that sheds new light on how the tilt of the Earth affects the world's heaviest rainbelt. DeLong analyzed data from the past 282,000 years that shows, for the first time, a connection between the Earth's tilt called obliquity that shifts every 41,000 years, and the movement of a low pressure band of clouds that is the Earth's largest source of heat and moisture -- the Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ.

GAINESVILLE, FL - In Florida, a major fresh-market cabbage producing state, cabbage production currently relies on bare ground and subirrigation systems. Because of the large volume of water these systems need for irrigation, finding alternative production methods is a pressing need. Researchers at the University of Florida recently determined that plasticulture systems using drip irrigation can be effective for cabbage production in the state.

Exeter academics led an international team of experts in analysing observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. Their combined power gave a detailed study of the atmospheres of 10 hot-Jupiter exoplanets - the largest number ever collectively studied - in a bid to understand their atmospheres. Previously, scientists had been puzzled that they had not observed water on some of these planets - but the latest study, published in Nature on Monday December 14, has revealed that their view of the water was only obscured by haze and cloud.

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope to study the atmospheres of ten hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets in detail, the largest number of such planets ever studied. The team was able to discover why some of these worlds seem to have less water than expected -- a long-standing mystery. The results are published in Nature.

RALEIGH, NC - The authors of a new study say that bringing new types of cut flowers to market is good for consumers and the floral industry. Alicain Carlson and John Dole published a study in the October 2015 issue of HortTechnology that can help pineapple lilies gain favor with cut flower growers, and may spark interest among floral consumers.

MOUNT VERNON, WA - Ready-to-eat salad mixes have experienced a tremendous increase in popularity and sales over the last 20 years. A study in HortScience reports that supermarket sales of the produce increased from $197 million in 1993 to $2.7 billion in 2008 in the U.S. Looking for ways to meet consumer demand and extend the production season of popular baby-leaf salad greens in the Pacific Northwest, scientists in Washington evaluated salad cultivars for suitability as spring and fall crops.

"Glasses-less" 3-D displays now commercially available dispense with the need for cumbersome glasses, but existing 3-D stereoscopic content will not work in these new devices, which project several views of a scene simultaneously. To solve this problem, Disney Research and ETH Zurich have developed a system that can transform stereoscopic content into multiview content in real-time.