Heavens | Page 385 | Science Codex

NASA's TRMM satellite analyzes Hurricane Sandy in 3-D

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM satellite can measure rainfall rates and cloud heights in tropical cyclones, and was used to create an image to look into Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 28, 2012. Owen Kelly of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. created this image of Hurricane Sandy using TRMM data.

At 2:20 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 28, Hurricane Sandy was a marginal category 1 hurricane and its eyewall is modest, as TRMM reveals, which gives forecasters and scientists hints about its possible future strength.

Messier 87: Super-massive black hole inflates giant bubble

Like symbiotic species, a galaxy and its central black hole lead intimately connected lives. The details of this relationship still pose many puzzles for astronomers.

Sudden cardiac death in Ontario under age 40 - is exercise dangerous?

It's a tragic news story that often makes headlines – a young, healthy, fit athlete suddenly collapses and dies of cardiac arrest while playing sports.

Dr. Andrew Krahn of the University of British Columbia, presenting a study at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress about sudden cardiac death in Ontario, suggests this is a problem that warrants attention, but says don't blame the sports.

Reviewing coroners' reports, Dr. Krahn and a team of researchers found there were 174 cases of presumed sudden death in Ontario in 2008 in people aged two to 40 years.

Researchers look beyond space and time to cope with quantum theory

Physicists have proposed an experiment that could force us to make a choice between extremes to describe the behaviour of the Universe.

The proposal comes from an international team of researchers from Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and Singapore, and is published today in Nature Physics. It is based on what the researchers call a 'hidden influence inequality'. This exposes how quantum predictions challenge our best understanding about the nature of space and time, Einstein's theory of relativity.

Hurricane Sandy: the "Bride of Frankenstorm" approaches the US East Coast

National Hurricane Center Rainfall Expectations

Cost-effective titanium forming

To all intents and purposes, nothing stands in the way of titanium in terms of becoming a first-choice industrial material. It is a practically unlimited resource; it is stable and lightweight, but also extremely malleable as well as corrosion and temperature resistant. Nevertheless, this white silver lustrous metal remains in the shadows of steel, chrome, nickel and aluminum when it comes to manufacturing. The reason for this is that efficient metal forming processes such as deep drawing or hydroforming can only be used in a very limited way.

NASA sees Tropical Storm Son-tinh moving through South China Sea

NASA's Terra satellite got a good look at Tropical Storm Son-tinh moving through the South China Sea and headed for landfall in Vietnam.

NASA's Terra satellite flew over Son-Tinh on Oct. 26 at 0305 UTC (Oct. 25 at 11:05 p.m. EDT) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard captured a visible image of the storm. At the time, Son-tinh's western edge had already moved away from the Philippines. The image revealed powerful thunderstorms in the northwestern quadrant of the storm, and in the storm's center.

NASA spacecraft sees huge burp at Saturn after large storm

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has tracked the aftermath of a rare massive storm on Saturn. Data reveal record-setting disturbances in the planet's upper atmosphere long after the visible signs of the storm abated, in addition to an indication the storm was more forceful than scientists previously thought.

New study brings a doubted exoplanet 'back from the dead'

A second look at data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is reanimating the claim that the nearby star Fomalhaut hosts a massive exoplanet. The study suggests that the planet, named Fomalhaut b, is a rare and possibly unique object that is completely shrouded by dust.

Monster galaxy may have been stirred up by black-hole mischief

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a whopper of an elliptical galaxy, with a core bigger than any seen before. There are two intriguing explanations for the puffed up core, both related to the action of one or more black holes, and the researchers have not yet been able to determine which is correct.

A black widow's Tango Mortale in gamma-ray light

Pulsars are the compact remnants from explosions of massive stars. Some of them spin around their own axis hundreds of times per second, emitting beams of radiation into space. Until now, they could only be found through their pulsed radio emissions. Now, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute/AEI) in Hanover assisted by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy have discovered a millisecond pulsar solely via its pulsed gamma radiation. A new data analysis method developed by the AEI was crucial for the success.

For the Milky Way, it's snack time

Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, researchers have discovered a band, or stream, of stars believed to be the remnant of an ancient star cluster slowly being ingested by the Milky Way, Earth's home galaxy.

"The Milky Way is constantly gobbling up small galaxies and star clusters," said Ana Bonaca, a Yale graduate student and lead author of a study forthcoming in Astrophysical Journal Letters. "The more powerful gravity of our Milky Way pulls these objects apart and their stars then become part of the Milky Way itself."

NASA sees warming cloud tops indicating Tropical Storm Tony weakening

In a tropical cyclone, strong uplift of air pushes the tops of thunderstorms high into the troposphere. When that strength wanes, the cloud tops drop and become less cold. That's because the higher you go in the troposphere, the colder it gets. NASA satellite infrared data has revealed that Tropical Storm Tony's cloud top temperatures are warming and the storm is weakening.

NASA sees power in Hurricane Sandy moving toward Bahamas

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Sandy as it was moving over eastern Cuba early on Oct. 25. The AIRS instrument captured an infrared image of Sandy that showed a large area of very high, cold cloud tops indicating the power within the storm. Sandy is now headed toward the Bahamas and warnings and watches have already been posted for the mainland U.S.

NASA saw Tropical Storm Murjan making landfall on the Horn of Africa

NASA's Aqua satellite watched from space as Somalia in the Horn of Africa experienced a landfalling tropical cyclone on Oct. 25.

On Oct. 25, NASA's Aqua satellite saw Tropical Storm Murjan begin to make landfall in eastern Somalia, just south of Cape Guardafui. Cape Guardafui is located in the northeastern Bari province and forms the geographical point of the Horn of Africa.