News by Subject Space & Planetary

Although Hurricane Juliette is no longer a major hurricane in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, NASA's Aqua satellite revealed there are still powerful thunderstorms around its center and captured an image of the storm over Socorro Island, Mexico.

NASA's Aqua satellite provided forecasters at the National Hurricane Center with infrared data and cloud top temperature information for Tropical Storm Fernand as it was making landfall in northeastern Mexico. Those temperatures indicated Fernand's rainmaking capabilities. The infrared data also showed wind shear was affecting the storm.

Researchers, for the first time, have observed the accelerated rate at which eight quasars consume interstellar fuel to feed their black holes.

A recent study investigated around 100,000 localized seismic events to search for patterns in the data. University of Tokyo Professor Satoshi Ide discovered that earthquakes of differing magnitudes have more in common than was previously thought. This suggests development of early warning systems may be more difficult than hoped. But conversely, similarities between some events indicate that predictable characteristics may aid researchers attempting to forecast seismic events.

The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite provided a look at rainfall rates in Tropical Depression Kajiki after it made a quick landfall in Vietnam.

In the early hours of Tuesday, Sept. 3, Hurricane Dorian had been stationary over the island of Grand Bahama for 18 hours, most of the time as a category 5 hurricane. Storm-total rain accumulation over parts of Grand Bahama and Abaco Islands have exceeded 24 inches according to NASA satellite-based estimates.

Another Atlantic Ocean basin depression formed while Hurricane Dorian is still wreaking havoc on the Bahamas and affecting the southeastern US Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite shows that Tropical Depression 7 in the western Gulf of Mexico has developed powerful thunderstorms with heavy rain capabilities. That potential for heavy rainfall includes southern Texas and northeastern Mexico.

Electric solid propellants are being explored for use in dual-mode rocket engines because they aren't susceptible to ignite from a spark or flame and can be turned on and off electrically. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Missouri University of Science and Technology, and NASA conducted experiments to understand the behavior of a high-performance electric propellant compared with a traditional propellant.

A team of scientists has discovered a new possible pathway toward forming carbon structures in space using a specialized chemical exploration technique at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source.