Heavens

A team of hundreds of physicists and astronomers have announced results from the largest-ever, three-dimensional map of distant galaxies. The team constructed this map to make one of the most precise measurements yet of the dark energy currently driving the accelerated expansion of the Universe.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Fathers play a surprisingly large role in their children's development, from language and cognitive growth in toddlerhood to social skills in fifth grade, according to new findings from Michigan State University scholars.

TORONTO [For immediate release] After analyzing four years of Kepler space telescope observations, astronomers from the University of Toronto have given us our clearest understanding yet of a class of exoplanets called "Warm Jupiters", showing that many have unexpected planetary companions.

The team's analysis, published July 10th in the Astrophysical Journal, provides strong evidence of the existence of two distinct types of Warm Jupiters, each with their own formation and dynamical history.

Tropical Storm Celia continues to weaken in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and NASA data showed that the strongest winds and storms were pushed north of the center of the storm.

NASA found the strongest winds in Hurricane Darby were occurring on its eastern side before northeasterly wind shear started affecting the storm.

NASA's RapidScat instrument measured the surface winds around Hurricane Darby on July 14 between 0731 to 0904 UTC (3:31 to 5:04 a.m. EDT) and found the strongest winds east of the center of circulation near 30 meters per second (67 mph/108 kph). Hurricane-force winds were found to extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles (150 km).

Scientists at the John Innes Centre have discovered a key "twist" in a Rubik's cube-like plant puzzle, which could pave the way to new, or more effective pharmaceuticals.

Researchers for the first time have found a quantum-confined bandgap narrowing mechanism where UV absorption of the grapheme quantum dots and TiO2 nanoparticles can easily be extended into the visible light range.

Such a mechanism may allow the design of a new class of composite materials for light harvesting and optoelectronics.

Dr Qin Li, Associate Professor in the Environmental Engineering & Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, says real life application of this would be high efficiency paintable solar cells and water purification using sun light.

As if it were one of the known Russian dolls, a group of astronomers, led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, (IAC) has found the first known case of three supernova remnants one inside the other. Using the programme BUBBLY, a method developed within the group for detecting huge expanding bubbles of gas in interstellar space, they were observing the galaxy M33 in our Local Group of galaxies and found example of a triple-bubble.

A violent outburst by the young star V883 Orionis has given astronomers their first view of a water "snowline" in a protoplanetary disk - the transition point around the star where the temperature and pressure are low enough for water ice to form.

Young stars are often surrounded by dense, rotating discs of gas and dust, known as protoplanetary discs, from which planets are born. The heat from a typical young solar-type star means that the water within a protoplanetary disc is gaseous up to distances of around 3 au from the star [1] -- less than 3 times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun -- or around 450 million kilometres [2]. Further out, due to the extremely low pressure, the water molecules transition directly from a gaseous state to form a patina of ice on dust grains and other particles.

Tropical Cyclone Celia continued to generate heavy rains as it moved through the Eastern Pacific Ocean. NASA's RapidScat analyzed surface wind speeds while the GPM core satellite measured rainfall rates occurring within the storm.

Tropical Storm Darby has been increasing in intensity since yesterday and is expected to become a hurricane. NASA provided a visible look at the structure of the storm and peered through it to determine surface wind speed.

On July 12 at 21:45 UTC (5:45 p.m. EDT) the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA-DOD's Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible light image of Hurricane Celia and Tropical Storm Darby in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Celia is located to the northwest of Darby. As of today, July 13, Celia has weakened to a tropical storm.

A researcher at The University of Texas at Arlington has created a new method that uses big data analytics and text-mining techniques to improve market intelligence and explain potential mergers and acquisitions of startup companies in the fast-moving high-technology industry.

Rising income inequality, and the resulting scarcity of certain types of jobs, is a key reason young Americans are having babies before getting married.

Astronomers from KU Leuven, Belgium, have shown that the interaction between the surface and the atmosphere of an exoplanet has major consequences for the temperature on the planet. This temperature, in turn, is a crucial element in the quest for habitable planets outside our Solar System.