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Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
NASA's TRMM satellite video reveals 2012 hurricane season rainfall The 2012 Atlantic Hurricane season was a busy one as there were 19 tropical cyclones. A new NASA animation using data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM shows rainfall from tropical cyclones in the western Atlantic, as measured from space. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
NASA sees 'hot towers' in intensifying Typhoon Bopha Bopha intensified into a typhoon today, Nov. 30, as it continues to affect the islands in Micronesia in the western North Pacific Ocean. NASA's TRMM satellite captured rainfall data of Bopha and noticed "Hot Tower" thunderstorms as it was intensifying from a tropical storm into a typhoon. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
Clearest evidence yet of polar ice losses After two decades of satellite observations, an international team of experts brought together by ESA and NASA has produced the most accurate assessment of ice losses from Antarctica and Greenland to date. This study finds that the combined rate of ice sheet melting is increasing. Contact: Robert Meisner Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
Even brown dwarfs may grow rocky planets Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have for the first time found that the outer region of a dusty disc encircling a brown dwarf contains millimetre-sized solid grains like those found in denser discs around newborn stars. The surprising finding challenges theories of how rocky, Earth-scale planets form, and suggests that rocky planets may be even more common in the Universe than expected. Contact: Douglas Pierce-Price Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
New radio telescope could save world billions A small pocket of Western Australia's remote outback is set to become the eye on the sky and could potentially save the world billions of dollars. The Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope, unveiled today, Friday 30 November, will give the world a dramatically improved view of the Sun and provide early warning to prevent damage to communication satellites, electric power grids and GPS navigation systems. Contact: Kate Zappa Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
A multi-wavelength view of radio galaxy Hercules A Spectacular jets powered by the gravitational energy of a super massive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A illustrate the combined imaging power of two of astronomy's cutting-edge tools, the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, and the recently upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico. Contact: Lynn Chandler Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
NASA sees Tropical Storm Bopha moving through Southern Yap state NASA's TRMM and Aqua satellites captured images of Tropical Storm Bopha as it continues to move through Micronesia in the western North Pacific Ocean and trigger warnings and watches throughout. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Altimeter built at Goddard helped identify ice on Mercury A Goddard-built instrument on NASA's MESSENGER mission provided one of three new lines of evidence that water ice exists near the north pole of Mercury. Most of the ice is covered by a thin layer of material that blankets and protects the ice, but in a few areas where sunlight never reaches, some ice lies exposed on the surface, the researchers announced Nov. 29 in three papers published by Science Express and at a NASA press conference. Contact: Elizabeth Zubritsky Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
UCLA researchers find evidence for water ice deposits and organic material on Mercury Planetary scientists have identified water ice and anomalously dark deposits within permanently shadowed regions at Mercury's north pole. They conclude the newly discovered black deposits are a thin dark crust of residual organic material brought to the planet over the past several million years by water-rich asteroid and comet impacts. Contact: Kim DeRose Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Can life emerge on planets around cooling stars? New research from the University of Washington hints that planets orbiting white and brown dwarfs, even in the habitable zone, face a "difficult path to habitability." Contact: Rory Barnes Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
The beginning of everything: A new paradigm shift for the infant universe A new paradigm for understanding the earliest eras in the history of the universe has been developed by scientists at Penn State University. The new paradigm shows, for the first time, that the large-scale structures we now see in the universe evolved from fundamental fluctuations in the essential quantum nature of "space-time," which existed even at the very beginning of the universe. Contact: Barbara K. Kennedy Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
'Dark core' may not be so dark after all Astronomers were puzzled earlier this year when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted an overabundance of dark matter in the heart of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520. This observation was surprising because dark matter and galaxies should be anchored together, even during a collision between galaxy clusters. Contact: Andrea Gibson Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
First-ever hyperspectral images of Earth's auroras Hoping to expand our understanding of auroras and other fleeting atmospheric events, a team of space-weather researchers designed and built a new camera with unprecedented capabilities that can simultaneously image multiple spectral bands, in essence different wavelengths or colors, of light. The camera produced the first-ever hyperspectral images of auroras--commonly referred to as "the Northern (or Southern) Lights"--and may already have revealed a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon. Contact: Angela Stark Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Black hole upsets galaxy models An unusually massive object at the heart of a tiny galaxy is challenging the theory. Contact: Remco van den Bosch Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Clearest evidence yet of polar ice losses The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise has confirmed that both Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice. Contact: Esther Harward Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
NASA's Cassini sees abrupt turn in Titan's atmosphere Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft tie a shift in seasonal sunlight to a wholesale reversal, at unexpected altitudes, in the circulation of the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. At the south pole, the data show definitive evidence for sinking air where it was upwelling earlier in the mission. So the key to circulation in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan turned out to be a certain slant of light. The paper was published today in the journal Nature. Contact: Elizabeth Zubritsky Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Infrared NASA imagery sees Tropical Storm Bopha grow a tail Tropical Storm Bopha continues to intensify in the western North Pacific Ocean as it heads toward Yap State, triggering more warnings and watches. Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite captured over two days revealed that the storm had consolidated, intensified and developed a large band of strong thunderstorms south of the center, that resemble a tail. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Record-setting X-ray jet discovered A jet of X-rays from a supermassive black hole 12.4 billion light years from Earth has been detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This is the most distant X-ray jet ever observed and gives astronomers a glimpse into the explosive activity associated with the growth of supermassive black holes in the early universe. Contact: Megan Watzke Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Virginia Tech scientists discover record-breaking black hole energy blast Virginia Tech physics researchers have discovered a quasar with the most energetic outflow ever seen, a finding that may answer questions about how the mass of a galaxy is linked to its central black hole mass and why there are so few large galaxies in the universe. Contact: Rosaire Bushey Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Graphite experiment shines new light on giant planets, white dwarfs and laser-driven fusion A team led by researchers from the University of Warwick and Oxford University is dealing with unexpected results of an experiment with strongly heated graphite. The findings may pose a new problem for physicists working in laser-driven nuclear fusion and may also lead astrophysicists to revise our understanding of the life cycle of giant planets and stars. Contact: Dirk Gericke Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Autumn sets in rapidly on Saturn's giant moon As leaves fall and winter approaches in Earth's Northern Hemisphere, a change of seasons is also rapidly becoming noticeable in the southern hemisphere of Saturn's giant moon, Titan. Contact: Hannah Johnson Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
WSU researchers use 3-D printer to make parts from moon rock Imagine landing on the moon or Mars, putting rocks through a 3-D printer and making something useful – like a needed wrench or replacement part. "It sounds like science fiction, but now it's really possible,'' says Amit Bandyopadhyay, professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University. Contact: Amit Bandyopadhyay Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Texas astronomers measure most massive, most unusual black hole using Hobby-Eberly Telescope Astronomers have used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory to measure what may be the most massive black hole yet -- 17 billion suns -- in galaxy NGC 1277. The black hole makes up 14 percent of its galaxy's mass, rather than the usual 0.1 percent. This galaxy and others in the study (to be published in Nature 11/29/12) could change theories of how black holes and galaxies form and evolve. Contact: Rebecca Johnson Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Biggest black hole blast discovered Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered a quasar with the most energetic outflow ever seen, at least five times more powerful than any that have been observed to date. Quasars are extremely bright galactic centers powered by supermassive black holes. Contact: Richard Hook Public Release: 27-Nov-2012
Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts? Using ESA's Herschel space observatory, astronomers have discovered vast comet belts surrounding two nearby planetary systems known to host only Earth-to-Neptune-mass worlds. The comet reservoirs could have delivered life-giving oceans to the innermost planets. Contact: Markus Bauer |