Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found the clearest indications yet that planets with masses several times that of Jupiter have recently formed in the discs of gas and dust around four young stars. Measurements of the gas around the stars also provide additional clues about the properties of those planets.
Heavens
A long time ago in a galaxy half the universe away, a flood of high-energy gamma rays began its journey to Earth. When they arrived in April, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope caught the outburst, which helped two ground-based gamma-ray observatories detect some of the highest-energy light ever seen from a galaxy so distant. The observations provide a surprising look into the environment near a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center and offer a glimpse into the state of the cosmos 7 billion years ago.
A flare of very high-energy gamma rays emitted from a galaxy halfway across the universe has put new bounds on the amount of background light in the universe and given astrophysicists clues to how and where such gamma rays are produced.
Australian researchers have discovered why some galaxies are "clumpy" rather than spiral in shape--and it appears low spin is to blame.
The finding challenges an earlier theory that high levels of gas cause clumpy galaxies and sheds light on the conditions that brought about the birth of most of the stars in the Universe.
What factors inhibit strong responses to seasonal flu vaccines in the elderly? Why do anti-flu antibodies last longer after vaccination in some people?
Answers are emerging from an Emory University-based systems biology analysis of blood samples from more than 400 volunteers who received seasonal flu vaccines. Bali Pulendran, PhD, led a team of researchers who tracked patterns of gene expression, known as molecular signatures, of strong immune responses in volunteers' blood across five consecutive seasons from 2007 to 2011.
Super-Typhoon Melor moved through the central and northern Philippines and dropped heavy rainfall on Dec. 14, 2015 and Dec. 15, 2015. The Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM core satellite measured the rainfall within Typhoon Melor as it affected the Philippines on Dec. 14, 2015. Early on Dec. 15, 2015, Melor reached the South China Sea still maintaining typhoon status.
In April 2015, after traveling for about half the age of the universe, a flood of powerful gamma rays from a distant galaxy slammed into Earth's atmosphere. That torrent generated a cascade of light - a shower that fell onto the waiting mirrors of the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) in Arizona. The resulting data have given astronomers a unique look into that faraway galaxy and the black hole engine at its heart.
SAN FRANCISCO -- While some dream of the day that aerial drones deliver their online purchases, scientists are using the technology today to deliver data that was never available before.
About 5,000 meters high in the Peruvian Andes, the scientists are mapping glaciers and wetlands in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range with 10-centimeter precision to gauge how climate change will affect the half-million local residents who rely in part on those glaciers for their water supply.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2015 -- Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens hits movie screens this week with its intense plot, edge-of-your-seat action scenes and, of course, lots of lightsabers. But is it actually possible to create a real-life lightsaber or build a functioning Death Star laser? To answer these questions and more, Reactions explores the science behind the Star Wars franchise. Check it out here, and let the science be with you: https://youtu.be/3c8HrdyXEKk.
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.