Heavens

More asteroids could have made life's ingredients

A wider range of asteroids were capable of creating the kind of amino acids used by life on Earth, according to new NASA research.

Tranexamic acid (TXA), a drug used to treat heavy menstrual periods, could save the lives of tens of thousands of bleeding accident victims each year and reduce combat deaths, say Cochrane researchers. The researchers carried out a systematic review of trials examining the effectiveness of tranexamic acid (TXA) in patients with bleeding after severe injury.

One of the most important predictions of Einstein's theory of General Relativity is the existence of black holes. The dynamics of these systems are not yet fully understood, but researchers from Queen Mary, University of London have now provided a rigorous way of determining the evolutionary stage of a black hole by analysing the region outside where matter cannot escape, the event horizon.

HIV treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa should routinely report mortality rates among patients who remain in the programs and those patients lost to follow-up, according to a study by Matthias Egger and colleagues from the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS in East Africa, Western Africa, and Southern Africa that is published in this week's PLoS Medicine.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Researchers at Northwestern University have placed nanocrystals of rock salt into lead telluride, creating a material that can harness electricity from heat-generating items such as vehicle exhaust systems, industrial processes and equipment and sun light more efficiently than scientists have seen in the past.

Recently published in an article of the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal, a group of researchers from the Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC) at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has discovered, for the first time, a delta Scuti pulsating star that hosts a hot giant transiting planet. The study was carried out by the PhD student, Enrique Herrero, the researcher Dr. Juan Carlos Morales, the exoplanet expert, Dr. Ignasi Ribas, and the amateur astronomer, Mr. Ramón Naves.

ESA's Mercury mapper feels the heat

Key components of the ESA-led Mercury mapper BepiColombo have been tested in a specially upgraded European space simulator. ESA's Large Space Simulator is now the most powerful in the world and the only facility capable of reproducing Mercury's hellish environment for a full-scale spacecraft.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers have turned up the first direct proof that "standard candles" used to illuminate the size of the universe, termed Cepheids, shrink in mass, making them not quite as standard as once thought. The findings, made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, will help astronomers make even more precise measurements of the size, age and expansion rate of our universe.

A team of UBC physicists and engineers have designed a experiment featuring a trough of flowing water to help bolster a 35-year-old theory proposed by eminent physicist Stephen Hawking.

In 1974, Hawking predicted that black holes--often thought of having gravitational pulls so strong that nothing escapes from them--emit a very weak level of radiation. According to the theory, pairs of photons are torn apart by a black hole's gravitational field--one photon falls into the black hole, but the other escapes as a form of radiation.

NASA's TRMM Satellite sees Zelia born of System 94P

The low pressure area known as System 94P on January 13 strengthened into the seventh tropical cyclone of the South Pacific Cyclone season, today becoming Tropical Storm Zelia. NASA's TRMM satellite found heavy rainfall was already occurring in the storm as it was turning away from New Zealand and heading toward New Caledonia.

NASA's Aqua sees Tropical Storm Vince about to U-turn away from Australia

Building high pressure is expected to make Tropical Storm Vince do a U-turn in the Southern Indian Ocean and take a westward track away from Western Australia. Two instruments on NASA's Aqua satellite looked at Vince's clouds this morning before Vince's forecast U-turn.

 Tropical Storm Vania brought heavy rains to southeastern New Caledonia

Tropical Storm Vania moved through southeastern New Caledonia on January 14 and NASA's TRMM satellite noticed heavy rainfall occurring. Residents of Norfolk Island are now expected to receive gusty winds and rainfall as Vania continues to move south in the South Pacific Ocean.

Improved measurements of sun to advance understanding of climate change

WASHINGTON—Scientists have taken a major step toward accurately determining the amount of energy that the sun provides to Earth, and how variations in that energy may contribute to climate change.