ESA's Rosetta comet chaser will swing by Earth on 13 November to pick up orbital energy and begin the final leg of its 10-year journey to the outer Solar System. Several observations of the Earth–Moon system are planned before the spacecraft heads out to study comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Heavens
Tropical Storm Neki formed today about 830 miles southeast of Johnston Island in the Central Pacific Ocean. NASA's QuikScat and Aqua satellites quickly captured and analyzed winds and temperatures in Neki, enabling forecasters to see the storm strengthening.
NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites flew over Hurricane Rick this weekend, and watched the storm strengthen into a major hurricane.
Rick was a tropical storm during the early morning hours on Friday, October 16, and strengthened into a hurricane late in the day. Over the weekend, Rick became a major hurricane. On Saturday, October 17 Rick reached a Category Five hurricane status with maximum sustained winds reaching 180 mph, becoming the second most powerful hurricane in the Eastern Pacific on record, only behind Hurricane Linda of 1997.
In a large population-based study published online today, researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute report that after adjusting for a number of factors, typically developing children and children with autism have similar levels of mercury in their blood streams. Mercury is a heavy metal found in other studies to adversely affect the developing nervous system.
Lupit has joined the ranks of super typhoons in the Western Pacific Ocean, and is currently packing maximum sustained winds near 132 mph, down from a previous peak near 149 mph, but still a Category Four strength typhoon.
Washington, DC – A study published in The Cochrane Review this month concludes that pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV), already known to prevent invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and x-ray defined pneumonia, was also effective against child deaths. The findings were based on a systematic review of the results of 6 randomized and controlled trials conducted in the US, Africa, Philippines, and Finland. Eighty percent of children were less likely to develop vaccine-type IPD, 58% all-serotype IPD, and 27% x-ray defined pneumonia than children who did not receive the vaccine.
George Boyne, Professor of Public Sector Management at Cardiff University, who conducted the research along with Oliver James, Peter John and Nicolai Petrovsky said: "This is a good news story for local government. It shows that local democracy works, with poor performance leading to change in political leadership and management. That's what is supposed to happen."
The researchers measured election results and managerial change in upper-tier councils over a six-year-period (2001-7) against their ratings under the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).
Three instruments on NASA's Aqua satellite captured views of Typhoon Lupit on its western track toward the Philippines and are helping forecasters get an idea of its strength and behavior. Lupit strengthened quickly in 24 hours from a tropical depression to a typhoon, between October 15 and 16.
The first solar system energetic particle maps show an unexpected landmark occurring at the outer edge of the solar wind bubble surrounding the solar system. Scientists published these maps, based mostly on data collected from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer satellite, in the Oct. 15 issue of Science Express, the advance online version of the journal Science.
(Boston) - The first all-sky maps developed by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, the initial mission to examine the global interactions occurring at the edge of the solar system, suggest that the galactic magnetic fields had a far greater impact on Earth's history than previously conceived, and the future of our planet and others may depend, in part, on how the galactic magnetic fields change with time.
Direct communication between Earth and Mars can be strongly disturbed and even blocked by the Sun for weeks at a time, cutting off any future human mission to the Red Planet. An ESA engineer working with engineers in the UK may have found a solution using a new type of orbit combined with continuous-thrust ion propulsion.
In a paper published Oct. 15 in Science, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) present a new view of the region of the sun's influence, or heliosphere, and the forces that shape it. Images from one of the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument's sensors, the Ion and Neutral Camera (MIMI/INCA), on NASA's Cassini spacecraft suggest that the heliosphere may not have the comet-like shape predicted by existing models.
Key Laboratory of Quantum Information (CAS), University of Science and Technology of China has recently demonstrated a metropolitan Quantum Cryptography Network (QCN) for Government Administration in Wuhu, China. Because of its scientific significance and social impact, the project is reported in Volume 54, Issue 17 (September, 2009) of the Chinese Science Bulletin authored by Fang-xing Xu et al.
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX,spacecraft has made it possible for scientists to construct the firstcomprehensive sky map of our solar system and its location in theMilky Way galaxy. The new view will change the way researchers viewand study the interaction between our galaxy and sun.
The sky map was produced with data that two detectors on thespacecraft collected during six months of observations. The detectorsmeasured and counted particles scientists refer to as energeticneutral atoms.
LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, October 15, 2009—The invisible structures of space are becoming less so, as scientists look out to the far edges of the solar wind bubble that separates our solar system from the interstellar cloud through which it flies. Using the High Energy Neutral Atom Imager, led by Los Alamos National Laboratory, the NASA Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission has sent back data that indicates a "noodle soup" of solar material has accumulated at the outer fringes of the heliosphere bubble.