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Public Release: 1-Aug-2013
NASA looks at Tropical Storm Jebi in South China Sea Tropical Storm Jebi developed on July 31 and NASA satellite data on Aug. 1 shows the storm filling up at least half of the South China Sea. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 1-Aug-2013
NASA sees Hurricane Gil being chased by developing storm On July 31, NASA's TRMM satellite saw Tropical Storm Gil intensifying and the storm became a hurricane. NASA's Aqua satellite and NOAA's GOES-15 satellite captured views of Gil on Aug. 1 as it was being chased by another developing tropical system. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 1-Aug-2013
NASA seeing which way the wind blows The autonomous and compact High-altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Profiler, or HIWRAP, a dual-frequency conical-scanning Doppler radar, will hang under NASA's aircraft's belly as it flies above hurricanes to measure wind and rain and to test a new method for retrieving wind data. Contact: Ellen Gray Public Release: 1-Aug-2013
Sounding rocket to study active regions on the sun At NASA's White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, N.M., a sounding rocket is being readied for flight. Due to launch on Aug. 8, 2013, the VERIS rocket, short for Very high Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, will launch for a 15-minute trip carrying an instrument that can measure properties of the structures in the sun's upper atmosphere down to 145 miles across, some eight times clearer than any similar telescope currently in space. Contact: Karen Fox Public Release: 1-Aug-2013
Las Cumbres Observatory 'Sinistro' astronomy imager captures first light The Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope has captured its first on-sky images with the production Sinistro CCD camera. Contact: David Petry Public Release: 1-Aug-2013
When galaxies switch off Some galaxies hit a point in their lives when their star formation is snuffed out, and they become "quenched". Quenched galaxies in the distant past appear to be much smaller than the quenched galaxies in the Universe today. This has always puzzled astronomers -- how can these galaxies grow if they are no longer forming stars? A team of astronomers has now used a huge set of Hubble observations to give a surprisingly simple answer to this long-standing cosmic riddle. Contact: Nicky Guttridge Public Release: 1-Aug-2013
Trouble waking up? Camping could set your clock straight If you have trouble going to sleep at night and waking up for work or school in the morning, a week of camping in the great outdoors might be just what you need. That's according to evidence reported on August 1 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, showing that humans' internal biological clocks will tightly synchronize to a natural, midsummer light-dark cycle, if only they are given the chance. Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary Public Release: 31-Jul-2013
Satellite sees Flossie fizzle fast Tropical Depression Flossie fizzled fast on July 30 in the Central Pacific Ocean. Satellite imagery on July 31 showed remnant clouds northwest of the Hawaiian Island chain. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 31-Jul-2013
NASA finds powerful storms in quickly intensifying Tropical Storm Gil No sooner had Tropical Storm Flossie dissipated then another tropical cyclone called Tropical Depression 7E formed yesterday, July 30, in the eastern Pacific Ocean. NASA's TRMM satellite saw "hot towers" in the storm's center early on July 31, that indicated it would likely strengthen, and it became Tropical Storm Gil hours later. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 31-Jul-2013
NASA technologist makes traveling to hard-to-reach destinations easier Traveling to remote locations sometimes involves navigating through stop-and-go traffic, traversing long stretches of highway and maneuvering sharp turns and steep hills. The same can be said for guiding spacecraft to far-flung destinations in space. It isn't always a straight shot. Contact: Lori Keesey Public Release: 31-Jul-2013
New Explorer mission chooses the 'just-right' orbit Principal investigator George Ricker likes to call it the "Goldilocks orbit" -- it's not too close to Earth and her Moon, and it's not too far. In fact, it's just right. Contact: Lori Keesey Public Release: 31-Jul-2013
Citizen scientists rival experts in analyzing land-cover data Data gathered and analyzed by non-experts can rival the quality of data from experts, shows a new IIASA study of crowdsourced data from its Geo-Wiki project. Contact: Katherine Leitzell Public Release: 30-Jul-2013
A NASA infrared baby picture of Tropical Depression 7E Tropical Depression 7E formed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean during the morning of July 30, and a NASA satellite was overhead to get an infrared baby picture. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the depression and saw strong, but fragmented thunderstorms around the center. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 30-Jul-2013
Satellite shows ex-Tropical Storm Dorian's remnants elongated Former Tropical Storm Dorian has been hanging around the Caribbean Sea for a couple of days, and appears stretched out on satellite imagery. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 30-Jul-2013
NASA sees little rainfall in Tropical Depression Flossie Tropical Storm Flossie weakened as it interacted with the Hawaiian Islands and became a depression. NASA's TRMM satellite saw mostly light rain and one isolated area of heavy rainfall within the storm after it weakened. All watches and warnings were dropped for the Hawaiian Islands on July 30. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 30-Jul-2013
Planetary 'runaway greenhouse' more easily triggered, research shows It might be easier than previously thought for a planet to overheat into the scorchingly uninhabitable "runaway greenhouse" stage, according to new research by astronomers at the University of Washington and the University of Victoria published July 28 in the journal Nature Geoscience. Contact: Peter Kelley Public Release: 30-Jul-2013
Cracking how life arose on earth may help clarify where else it might exist A novel and potentially testable theory of how life arose on earth advanced over 25 years ago by Michael Russell, research scientist in planetary chemistry and astrobiology, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was further developed in a recent paper published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B by Russell, Wolfgang Nitschke, team leader at National Center for Scientific Research in Marseille, France; and Elbert Branscomb, an affiliate faculty member at the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Contact: Nicholas Vasi Public Release: 30-Jul-2013
Radio waves carry news of climate change Prof. Colin Price of Tel Aviv University has discovered that radio waves reflecting back to earth from the ionosphere can offer valuable news about the extent of climate change. His simple, cost-effective measurement can be a valuable contribution to the ongoing effort to track climate change, adding to current measurements for a more holistic picture. Contact: George Hunka Public Release: 30-Jul-2013
Station astronauts remotely control planetary rover from space On June 17 and July 26, NASA tested the Surface Telerobotics exploration concept, in which an astronaut in an orbiting spacecraft remotely operates a robot on a planetary surface. Contact: Julie A. Robinson Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
NASA keeping an eye on Dorian's remnants NASA and NOAA satellites continue to keep a close eye on the remnants of Tropical Storm Dorian as they make their way through the eastern Caribbean Sea. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
GOES-R satellite magnetometer boom deployment successful The GOES-R Magnetometer Engineering Development Unit made an important development in the construction of the spacecraft recently after completing a successful boom deployment test at an ATK facility in Goleta, Calif. Contact: Rob Gutro Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
NASA's Chandra sees eclipsing planet in X-rays for first time For the first time since exoplanets, or planets around stars other than the sun, were discovered almost 20 years ago, X-ray observations have detected an exoplanet passing in front of its parent star. Contact: Megan Watzke Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
Pulsating star sheds light on exoplanet A team of researchers has devised a way to measure the internal properties of stars -- a method that offers more accurate assessments of their orbiting planets. Contact: James Devitt Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
Capturing black hole spin could further understanding of galaxy growth Astronomers have found a new way of measuring the spin in supermassive black holes, which could lead to better understanding about how they drive the growth of galaxies. Contact: Leighton Kitson Public Release: 29-Jul-2013
Experimental quest to test Einstein's speed limit Special relativity states that the speed of light is the same in all frames of reference and that nothing can exceed that limit. UC Berkeley physicists used a novel experimental system -- the unusual electron orbitals of dysprosium -- to test whether the maximum speed of electrons follows this rule. The answer is yes, to tighter limits than ever before. They plan another experiment a thousand times more sensitive, approaching the realm where theory may break down. Contact: Robert Sanders |