Strange events have long been linked to nights of a full moon, though careful scrutiny dispels any association. So, when signals bounced off the lunar surface returned surprisingly faint echoes on full moon nights, scientists sought an explanation in reason rather than superstition. Still, the most compelling evidence arrived during another event that once evoked irrational fears—on a night when Earth's shadow eclipsed the full moon.
Heavens
COLUMBUS, Ohio—High hopes may help move a rubber tree plant (as the old song goes), but the real secret to the ant's legendary strength may lie in its tiny neck joint.
In the Journal of Biomechanics, researchers report that the neck joint of a common American field ant can withstand pressures up to 5,000 times the ant's weight.
Martian experts have known since 2011 that mysterious, possibly water-related streaks appear and disappear on the planet's surface. Georgia Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate Lujendra Ojha discovered them while an undergraduate at the University of Arizona. These features were given the descriptive name of recurring slope lineae (RSL) because of their shape, annual reappearance and occurrence generally on steep slopes such as crater walls.
Some towering thunderstorms were spotted in Tropical Cyclone Fobane as NASA's TRMM satellite passed over the Southern Indian Ocean on February 10. Fobane was formerly Tropical Cyclone 14S and when it strengthened into a tropical storm it was renamed.
A report led by a professor at the University of Southampton recommends the worldwide removal of the fixed or default retirement age (DRA).
Professor Yehuda Baruch from the Southampton Management School, in collaboration with Dr Susan Sayce from the University of East Anglia and Professor Andros Gregoriou from the University of Hull, has found that, on a global scale, current pension systems are unsustainable.
A team led by astronomers at The Australian National University has discovered the oldest known star in the Universe, which formed shortly after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
The discovery has allowed astronomers for the first time to study the chemistry of the first stars, giving scientists a clearer idea of what the Universe was like in its infancy.
Previous studies have shown that male fallow deer, known as bucks, can call for a mate more than 3000 times per hour during the rut (peak of the mating season), and their efforts in calling, fighting and mating can leave them sounding hoarse.
In this new study, published today (10 February) in the journal Behavioral Ecology, scientists were able to gauge that fallow bucks listen to the sound quality of rival males' calls and evaluate how exhausted the caller is and whether they should fight or keep their distance.
Scientists who study Earth, the sun and stars have long used high-altitude scientific balloons to carry their telescopes far into the stratosphere for a better view of their targets. Not so much for planetary scientists. That's because they needed a highly stable, off-the-shelf-type system that could accurately point their instruments and then track planetary targets as they moved in the solar system.
That device now exists.
The fourteenth tropical cyclone of the Southern Indian Ocean season was born as NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead.
On February 7 at 0900 UTC/4 a.m. EST, Tropical Cyclone 14S had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots/40 mph/62 kph. It was located about 814 nautical miles/936.7 miles/1,508 km east-northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius near 14.8 south and 70.4 east. At that time, 14S was moving to the south near 8 knots/9.2 mph/14.8 kph.
Imagine receiving as much as 7 inches of rain in one hour. That's about what NASA's TRMM satellite spotted falling in one area within Tropical Cyclone Edilson as it moved over the Southern Indian Ocean.
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite is managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency called JAXA. TRMM can read the rate in which rain is falling on Earth while in its orbit high above.
For the past eight years, scientists have been working to make sense of why some satellite data seemed to show the Amazon rain forest "greening-up" during the region's dry season each year from June to October. The green-up indicated productive, thriving vegetation in spite of limited rainfall.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A team of scientists last year presented evidence of a correlation between the migration patterns of ocean salmon and the Earth's magnetic field, suggesting it may help explain how the fish can navigate across thousands of miles of water to find their river of origin.
NASA's Terra satellite saw Tropical Cyclone Edilson pulling away from the island of Mauritius in the Southern Indian Ocean when it passed overhead on February 6, 2014.
Fires in and around Snowy River National Park in Victoria, Australia were captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on February 06, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red.
Fires dot the coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, in this Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite image collected on February 06, 2014. The MODIS instrument is aboard the Terra satellite and actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red.