An artist’s rendering of the proposed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. The 8.4-meter LSST will use a special three-mirror design, creating an exceptionally wide field of view and will have the ability to survey the entire sky in only three nights. Credit: LSST Corporation Arlington, VA-(ENEWSF)- With approval from the National[Read More…]
Environmental
1.5 Million Grant for HITS Astrophysicist Volker Springel
(Photo: HITS / Bernhard Kreutzer) Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) – 1.5 million Euros for research on dark matter and galaxy formation Heidelberg-(ENEWSF)- The astrophysicist Volker Springel (picture: HITS / Bernhard Kreutzer) is to receive a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). Volker Springel heads[Read More…]
How to Build a Middleweight Black Hole
This simulated image shows the interaction between a massive gas giant planet (comparable in mass to Jupiter) and a surrounding protoplanetary disk of gas and dust. New research predicts that intermediate-mass black holes can create gaps in gas disks around supermassive black holes, analogous to the gaps produced by giant[Read More…]
‘Deflector Shields’ protect the Lunar Surface
RAL Space-(ENEWSF)- Scientists from RAL Space at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have solved a lunar mystery and their results might lead the way to determining if the same mechanism could be artificially manipulated to create safe havens for future space explorers. Their work focussed on the origin of the enigmatic "lunar[Read More…]
Cassini Spots Daytime Lightning on Saturn
These false-color mosaics from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft capture lightning striking within the huge storm that encircled Saturn’s northern hemisphere for much of 2011. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Pasadena, CA-(ENEWSF)- Saturn was playing the lightning storm blues. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured images of last year’s storm on Saturn, the[Read More…]
Europe Clears the Air
Nitrogen dioxide fall EU–(ENEWSPF)–9 July 2012. Satellite measurements show that nitrogen dioxide in the lower atmosphere over parts of Europe and the US has fallen over the past decade. More than 15 years of atmospheric observations have revealed trends in air quality. As the world’s population increases, economies in[Read More…]
Flying Along the Vela Ridge
Vela C region EU–(ENEWSPF–9 July 2012. A beautiful blue butterfly flutters towards a nest of warm dust and gas, above an intricate network of cool filaments in this image of the Vela C region by ESA’s Herschel space observatory. Vela C is the most massive of the four parts of[Read More…]
Banned Pesticides Found in Connecticut Wells
Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–July 9, 2012. Health officials in Connecticut are telling residents who drink from private wells to test their water for the banned pesticides chlordane and dieldrin, after a study from the town of Stamford, CT found at least one of the toxic chemicals in 195 out of 628 wells[Read More…]
DuPont’s Liability for Toxic Herbicide Mounting
Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–July 6, 2012. The agribusiness conglomerate DuPont has received more than 30,000 damage claims arising from its sale of a pesticide that resulted in death and injury to hundreds of thousands of evergreen trees, particularly Norway spruce and white pine. DuPont marketed the pesticide, sold under the trade name[Read More…]
NOAA, Partners Predict Mild Harmful Algal Blooms for Western Lake Erie This Year
Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–July 5, 2012. In its first-ever seasonal harmful algal bloom forecast for Lake Erie, NOAA researchers are predicting that western Lake Erie will have a mild bloom this summer, equivalent to conditions last seen in 2007. Lake Erie has been plagued by a steady increase of harmful algal blooms[Read More…]
