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Suzaku finds 'fossil' fireballs from supernovae

Studies of two supernova remnants using the Japan-U.S. Suzaku observatory have revealed never-before-seen embers of the high-temperature fireballs that immediately followed the explosions. Even after thousands of years, gas within these stellar wrecks retain the imprint of temperatures 10,000 times hotter than the sun's surface.

"This is the first evidence of a new type of supernova remnant -- one that was heated right after the explosion," said Hiroya Yamaguchi at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan.

2 NASA satellites see Edzani power up in clouds and rainfall

The latest satellite imagery from NASA's Aqua and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellites have provided forecasters with signs in clouds and rainfall that Edzani is strengthening in the Southern Indian Ocean. Edzani has become a tropical cyclone as a result of low wind shear and warm ocean temperatures.

Mirror testing at NASA breaks superstitious myths

In ancient mythological times reflective surfaces like shiny metals and mirrors were thought to be magical and credited with the ability to look into the future. NASA is using mirrors to do just the opposite – look into the past.

How the Earth survived birth

For the last 20 years, the best models of planet formation—or how planets grow from dust in a gas disk—have contradicted the very existence of Earth. These models assumed locally constant temperatures within a disk, and the planets plunge into the Sun. Now, new simulations from researchers at the American Museum of Natural History and the University of Cambridge show that variations in temperature can lead to regions of outward and inward migration that safely trap planets on orbits.

Mobile bushfire monitoring

Mobile technologies, including the global system for mobile communication (GSM) and the ZigBee short-range wireless data connection technology could be used to monitor and detect bushfires, according to two research papers to be published in the International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology.

Johns Hopkins researchers say vaccine appears to 'mop up' leukemia cells Gleevec leaves behind

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers say preliminary studies show that a vaccine made with leukemia cells may be able to reduce or eliminate the last remaining cancer cells in some chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients taking the drug Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec).

Fossil footprints give land vertebrates a much longer history

The discovery of fossil footprints from early backboned land animals in Poland leads to the sensational conclusion that our ancestors left the water at least 18 million years earlier than previously thought. The results of the Polish-Swedish collaboration are published online this week in Nature.

- These results force us to reconsider our whole picture of the transition from fish to land animals, says Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University, one of the two leaders of the study.

Most earthlike exoplanet started out as a gas giant

GREENBELT, Md. -- The most earthlike planet yet found around another star may be the rocky remains of a Saturn-sized gas giant, according to research presented today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.

UBC astronomers unveil images of 12-billion-year-old space nursery

A University of British Columbia astronomer has produced the most detailed images of deep space from 12 billion years ago, using data from the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory.

Recently presented at the first International Herschel Science Meeting in Madrid, Spain, the images by UBC post-doctoral fellow Gaelen Marsden reveal tens of thousands of newly-discovered galaxies at the early stages of formation – just one billion years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was a thriving nursery of newly-formed stars.

First Earth-like planet spotted outside solar system likely a volcanic wasteland

When scientists confirmed in October that they had detected the first rocky planet outside our solar system, it advanced the longtime quest to find an Earth-like planet hospitable to life.

Rocky planets – Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars – make up half the planets in our solar system. Rocky planets are considered better environments to support life than planets that are mainly gaseous, like the other half of the planets in our system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

University of Nevada, Reno researcher devises new solar pond distillation system

RENO, Nev. – Ecosystems of terminus lakes around the world could benefit from a new system being developed at the University of Nevada, Reno to desalinate water using a specialized low-cost solar pond and patented membrane distillation system powered by renewable energy.

Nature's most precise clocks may make 'galactic GPS' possible

WASHINGTON -- Radio astronomers have uncovered 17 millisecond pulsars in our galaxy by studying unknown high-energy sources detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The astronomers made the discovery in less than three months. Such a jump in the pace of locating these hard-to-find objects holds the promise of using them as a kind of "galactic GPS" to detect gravitational waves passing near Earth.

Sun glints seen from space signal oceans and lakes

In two new videos from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, bright flashes of light known as sun glints act as beacons signaling large bodies of water on Earth. These observations give scientists a way to pick out planets beyond our solar system (extrasolar planets) that are likely to have expanses of liquid, and so stand a better chance of having life.

New mathematical model aids Big Bang supercomputer research

Scientists have made many discoveries about the origins of our 13 billion-year-old universe. But many scientific mysteries remain. What exactly happened during the Big Bang, when rapidly evolving physical processes set the stage for gases to form stars, planets and galaxies?

Now astrophysicists using supercomputers to simulate the Big Bang have a new mathematical tool to unravel those mysteries, says Daniel Reynolds, assistant professor of mathematics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

In all the universe, just 10 percent of solar systems are like ours

Washington, DC -- In their quest to find solar systems analogous to ours, astronomers have determined how common our solar system is.

They've concluded that about 10 percent of stars in the universe host systems of planets like our own, with several gas giant planets in the outer part of the solar system.

"Now we know our place in the universe," said Ohio State University astronomer Scott Gaudi. "Solar systems like our own are not rare, but we're not in the majority, either."