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NASA: Warm Rivers Play Role in Arctic Sea Ice Melt

By Guest PostMarch 8, 2014ScienceArctic, arctic ocean, Arctic sea ice, beaufort sea, consumption rate, dorothy hall, drainage basins, energy, factor, ignatius rigor, mackenzie river, NASA, northern hemisphere, reflective sea ice, sea ice melt, son nghiem, united states, warm rivers, watersheds

The heat from warm river waters draining into the Arctic Ocean is contributing to the melting of Arctic sea ice each summer, a new NASA study finds.

A research team led by Son Nghiem of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperature of the waters discharging from a Canadian river into the icy Beaufort Sea during the summer of 2012. They observed a sudden influx of warm river waters into the sea that rapidly warmed the surface layers of the ocean, enhancing the melting of sea ice. A paper describing the study is now published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Startup Wants to Know How Damaged Your DNA Is

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2014Health, Technologyaging, berkeley lab startup, cancer, chemical spill, damage, DNA, dna damage, dna repair, double strand breaks, elk river, environmental event, exogen, genetics, immunity, jonathan tang, NASA, repair, scid, severe combined immunodeficiency, steve yannone, sylvain costes, west virginia

Exogen can check the DNA health not only of an individual but that of an entire region, thus answering questions on the impact of environmental events.

Currently if a scientist or doctor wanted to measure the level of a person’s DNA damage, they would have to look at some cells in a fluorescent microscope and manually count the number of DNA breaks. This kind of counting is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and a highly subjective process. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientist Sylvain Costes, who has spent over a decade studying the effects of low-dose radiation on cellular processes, came up with a way to automate the job using a proprietary algorithm and a machine to scan specimens and objectively score the damaged DNA. (more…)

NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Views Striated Ground

By Guest PostMarch 1, 2014Sciencecuriosity mars rover, Facebook, junda, martian environmental conditions, mount sharp, NASA, navigation camera, orbital image, outcrop, slope, striated ground

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has reached an area where orbital images had piqued researchers’ interest in patches of ground with striations all oriented in a similar direction.

A close-up look at some of the striations from the rover’s Navigation Camera gains extra drama by including Mount Sharp in the background. The lower slopes of that layered mountain are the mission’s long-term science destination. The image is online at: (more…)

Spitzer Stares into the Heart of New Supernova in M82

By Guest PostFebruary 27, 2014Sciencecigar galaxy, galaxy m82, heart, m82, mansi kasliwal, NASA, new supernova, sn 2014j, spirits, spitzer, spitzer space telescope, standard candles, stellar explosion, theoretical models

The closest supernova of its kind to be observed in the last few decades has sparked a global observing campaign involving legions of instruments on the ground and in space, including NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. With its dust-piercing infrared vision, Spitzer brings an important perspective to this effort by peering directly into the heart of the aftermath of the stellar explosion.

Dust in the supernova’s host galaxy M82, also called the “Cigar galaxy,” partially obscures observations in optical and high-energy forms of light. Spitzer can, therefore, complement all the other observatories taking part in painting a complete portrait of a once-in-a-generation supernova, which was first spotted in M82 on Jan. 21, 2014. A supernova is a tremendous explosion that marks the end of life for some stars. (more…)

NASA Responds to California’s Evolving Drought

By Guest PostFebruary 26, 2014Sciencebay area, california, central valley, drought, dwr, earth, evolving drought, flood control, freshwater, groundwater, icesat 2, jeanine jones, michael freilich, NASA, nasa satellite, san francisco, san joaquin valley, usgs, water cycle

NASA is partnering with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to develop and apply new technology and products to better manage and monitor the state’s water resources and respond to its ongoing drought.

NASA scientists, DWR water managers, university researchers and other state resource management agencies will collaborate to apply advanced remote sensing and improved forecast modeling to better assess water resources, monitor drought conditions and water supplies, plan for drought response and mitigation, and measure drought impacts. (more…)

The Shocking Behavior of a Speedy Star

By Guest PostFebruary 23, 2014Scienceastronomers, cassiopeia constellation, hd 2905, infrared light, kappa cassiopeiae, milky way galaxy, NASA, proxima centauri, shocking behavior, speedster star, speedy star, spitzer space telescope

Roguish runaway stars can have a big impact on their surroundings as they plunge through the Milky Way galaxy. Their high-speed encounters shock the galaxy, creating arcs, as seen in this newly released image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

In this case, the speedster star is known as Kappa Cassiopeiae, or HD 2905 to astronomers. It is a massive, hot supergiant moving at around 2.5 million mph relative to its neighbors (1,100 kilometers per second). But what really makes the star stand out in this image is the surrounding, streaky red glow of material in its path. Such structures are called bow shocks, and they can often be seen in front of the fastest, most massive stars in the galaxy. (more…)

A global map of Jupiter’s biggest moon

By Guest PostFebruary 21, 2014Sciencebiggest moon, galilean satellites, galileo spacecraft, ganymede, geoffrey collins, global geological map, global map, jim head, jupiter, lincoln field building, louise prockter, NASA, orbital galileo mission, robert pappalardo, solid state imaging, ssi, underground ocean, voyager mission, wes patterson

Using images from NASA’s Voyager Mission (1979) and the orbital Galileo Mission (1995), researchers have created the first global geological map of Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Scientists, including Brown University geologists and students, have completed the first global geological map of Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon and the largest in the solar system. (more…)

NASA’s NuSTAR Untangles Mystery of How Stars Explode

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2014Sciencebrian grefenstette, calcium in bones, cas a, cassiopeia a, fiona harrison, how stars explode, iron in blood, mystery, NASA, nuclear, nustar, paul hertz, popular models, spectroscopic telescope array, supernova explosions, supernova remnant, titanium 44, universe

One of the biggest mysteries in astronomy, how stars blow up in supernova explosions, finally is being unraveled with the help of NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR).

The high-energy X-ray observatory has created the first map of radioactive material in a supernova remnant. The results, from a remnant named Cassiopeia A (Cas A), reveal how shock waves likely rip apart massive dying stars. (more…)

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