NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), an unmanned mission to comprehensively map the entire moon, has returned its first data. One of the seven instruments aboard, the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment, is making the first global survey of the temperature of the lunar surface while the spacecraft orbits some 31 miles above the moon.
Heavens
NASA and the Japanese Space Agency's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew over the center of Super Typhoon Choi-Wan at 2:34 EDT on September 17, 2009 and captured heavy rainfall around the storm's center.
TRMM rainfall images are false-colored with yellow, green and red areas, which indicate rainfall between 20 and 40 millimeters (.78 to 1.57 inches) per hour. Dark red areas are considered heavy rainfall, as much as 2 inches of rain per hour.
Marty is struggling to hold onto tropical storm status, and things are just going to get worse for him, as he moves into an area with stronger wind shear. Infrared satellite imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed that Marty's thunderstorm cloud tops are not as cold as they were earlier today, September 17, and his cloud pattern has become a little less organized.
CINCINNATI—Cancer and cell biology experts at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have developed a new mass spectrometry-based tool they say provides more precise, cost-effective data collection for drug discovery efforts.
Preliminary studies have shown that the new mass spectrometry tool—known as MALDI-QqQMS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-triple quadruple mass spectrometer)—provides a superior means of measuring the enzyme reactions critical to drug discovery at speeds comparable to currently available high-throughput screening systems at significantly lower costs.
NASA's Aqua satellite again flew over Super Typhoon Choi-Wan late last night and captured visible and infrared imagery of the monster typhoon. Aqua's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument and Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) captured two different views of Choi-Wan's clouds.
Researchers have discovered an unusual kind of meteorite in the Western Australian desert and have uncovered where in the Solar System it came from, in a very rare finding published today in the journal Science.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched on June 18 of this year, has begun its extensive exploration of the lunar environment and will return more data about the Moon than any previous mission. The Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP), developed by Southwest Research Institute, is an integral part of the LRO science investigation. LAMP uses a novel method to peer into the perpetual darkness of the Moon's so-called permanently shadowed regions.
BOULDER--Challenging conventional wisdom, new research finds that the number of sunspots provides an incomplete measure of changes in the Sun's impact on Earth over the course of the 11-year solar cycle. The study, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Michigan, finds that Earth was bombarded last year with high levels of solar energy at a time when the Sun was in an unusually quiet phase and sunspots had virtually disappeared.
Results: MIT researchers and colleagues have solved a longstanding mystery about a pair of stars called DI Herculis whose peculiar rotation (a shift in their orbit that was four times slower than expected) had remained a mystery for three decades. The real enation is simple: The stars are rotating tipped over on their sides, relative to their orbits around each other. This produces tidal effects that counteract the expected rate for the orbits to shift orientation over time (called precession), finally explaining the mysterious anomaly.
Planck, ESA's mission to study the early Universe, started surveying the sky regularly from its vantage point at L2 on 13 August. The instruments of ESA's 'time machine' were fine-tuned for optimum performance in the period preceding this date. In preparation for routine scientific operations, their long-term stability has been verified by conducting a first 'trial' survey.
ESA's Planck microwave observatory is the first European mission designed to study the Cosmic Microwave Background – the relic radiation from the Big Bang.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 17, 2009) —In a decade-long initiative to protect millions of families from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, a U.S. government-funded project helped sell 50 million bed nets in seven countries, crafted a voucher system to allow the poor to receive them for free or partial cost, and created enough incentives for private companies that they invested $88 million to expand their businesses, according to results released today by AED at a conference held at the National Press Club.
GREENBELT, Md. -- In a break from its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift satellite has acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own.
Acute non-variceal gastrointestinal bleeding accounts for approximately 20% of emergency room visits and 5% of admissions. Although endoscopy has been used as a first-line treatment option in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding, angiographic intervention can be used as a safe diagnostic and treatment method in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding that is refractory to endoscopic treatment. The incidence of rebleeding in patients with negative initial angiography has been reported in up to 60% of cases. However, little is known about the predictive factors for rebleeding.
The longest set of HARPS measurements ever made has firmly established the nature of the smallest and fastest-orbiting exoplanet known, CoRoT-7b, revealing its mass as five times that of Earth's. Combined with CoRoT-7b's known radius, which is less than twice that of our terrestrial home, this tells us that the exoplanet's density is quite similar to the Earth's, suggesting a solid, rocky world. The extensive dataset also reveals the presence of another so-called super-Earth in this alien solar system.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is starting to come together. A major component of the telescope, the Integrated Science Instrument Module structure, recently arrived at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. for testing in the Spacecraft Systems Development and Integration Facility.
The Integrated Science Instrument Module, or ISIM, is an important component of the Webb telescope. The ISIM includes the structure, four scientific instruments or cameras, electronics, harnesses, and other components.