As the solar wind encounters Mercury, it slows down, piles up and flows around the planet (gray ball). This figure shows the density of protons from the solar wind, as calculated by modeling of the planet's magnetic sheath, or magnetosphere. The highest density, indicated by red, is on the side facing the sun; yellow indicates [...]
NIST’s unique "sliding spark source" (inside the glass tubing) feeds ultraviolet light into NASA’s Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation instrument, designed to measure magnetic fields on the sun. Credit: Reader/NIST With a brilliant, finely tuned spark of ultraviolet (UV) light, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology helped NASA scientists successfully position a [...]
The red giant carbon star CW Leonis as seen by the PACS and SPIRE cameras on board Herschel. The star itself is too bright to be seen well, but it is releasing material in a violent stellar wind, some of which is seen in a “bow shock” to the left of the star in this [...]
Keck II image of the young extrasolar planet HR 8799 b, seen as the point source in center of image. The bright light from the parent star HR 8799 is seen in background in yellow/red and has been removed in an annular region centered on the planet. Credit: Brendan Bowler and Michael Liu, IfA/Hawaii (PhysOrg.com) [...]
A new study found that organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious berries while leaving the soil healthier and more genetically diverse. (Credit: iStockphoto/Margarita Borodina) ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2010) — Side-by-side comparisons of organic and conventional strawberry farms and their fruit found the organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious berries while leaving the soil [...]
This visible full-disk image of the Earth was captured by GOES-15 on August 27, 2010 at 1800 UTC (2 p.m. EDT). At that time Hurricane Danielle, Tropical Storm Earl and a tropical wave were occurring in the Atlantic Ocean basin. (Credit: NOAA/CIRA) ScienceDaily (Sep. 1, 2010) — NASA and NOAA's latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, [...]
EMPTY space may really be empty. Though quantum theory suggests that a vacuum should be fizzing with particle activity, it turns out that this paradoxical picture of nothingness may not be needed. A calmer view of the vacuum would also help resolve a nagging inconsistency with dark energy, the elusive force thought to be speeding [...]
A lonely island in the middle of the South Atlantic conceals Charles Darwin's best-kept secret. In his twenties, Charles Darwin explored the world aboard HMS Beagle. Two hundred years ago, Ascension Island was a barren volcanic edifice. Today, its peaks are covered by lush tropical "cloud forest". What happened in the interim is the amazing [...]
A NASA astronaut on the Space Shuttle Endeavor brought space back down to Earth. Astronaut Don Pettit took over 85 time-lapsed videos of Earth from his stint on the International Space Station to highlight features of the changing planet. "There is phenomenology that happens on a timescale that you can't see in real time," [...]
Edward Cheung, long-time principal engineer for the Hubble Space Telescope Development Project was recently dubbed Knight of the Royal Order of the Netherlands Lion. In this picture, the Governor of Aruba, Fredis Refunjol, fastens the royal decoration to Cheung’s jacket. Credit: Edward Cheung A long-time NASA engineer working on the Hubble Space Telescope is now [...]
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