Heavens

Ocean acidification makes it harder for sea snails to escape from their sea star predators, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of The Royal Society B, suggest that by disturbing predator-prey interactions, ocean acidification could spur cascading consequences for food web systems in shoreline ecosystems.

For instance, black turban snails graze on algae. If more snails are eaten by predators, algae densities could increase.

Tropical Cyclone 02A made its way west across the Arabian Sea and NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the storm when it was just off the coast of Oman. Infrared data showed the storm was beginning to elongate from wind shear.

Infrared data taken from NASA's Aqua satellite on June 27, 2016 at 2159 UTC (5:59 p.m. EDT) showed cold cloud top temperatures in strong storms just off the coast of Oman. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument flies aboard Aqua. AIRS data was made into a false-colored infrared image at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Fog, blizzards, gusts of wind - poor weather can often make the operation of rescue helicopters a highly risky business, and sometimes even impossible. A new helmet-mounted display, developed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), may in the future be able to help pilots detect hazards at an early stage, even when their visibility is severely impaired: the information required to do this is created in an on-board computer and imported into digital eye glasses. A new study has shown that this augmented reality improves the performance of pilots.

For about two decades, astronomers have known about an object called VLA J213002.08+120904 (VLA J2130+12 for short). Although it is close to the line of sight to the globular cluster M15, most astronomers had thought that this source of bright radio waves was probably a distant galaxy.

Astronomers have long known that organic molecules form in diffuse gas clouds floating between stars. It is thought that as the Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago, some of these organic molecules were transported from interstellar space to the planet forming disk. Later, these molecules played important roles in the chemical evolution resulting in the emergence of life on the Earth. However, it is still unknown what kinds and quantities of organic molecules were actually supplied from interstellar space.

Irvine, Calif., June 27, 2016 -- A first-of-its-kind survey has confirmed what some water polo players - especially goalies - have long suspected: Concussions seem to be prevalent in the sport.

More than a third of water polo participants reported sustaining a concussion either during games or in practice, according to a poll conducted by University of California, Irvine researchers.

A team led by Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom are presenting new images of Jupiter at the UK's Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Nottingham.