This movie shows surface details beginning to resolve as NASA’s Dawn spacecraft closes in on the giant asteroid Vesta. The framing camera aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained the images used for this animation on June 1, 2011, from a distance of about 300,000 miles (483,000 kilometers). PASADENA, CA-(ENEWSPF)– Scientists working[Read More…]

Artist’s interpretation depicting the new view of the heliosphere. The heliosheath is filled with “magnetic bubbles” (shown in the red pattern) that fill out the region ahead of the heliopause. In this new view, the heliopause is not a continuous shield that separates the solar domain from the interstellar medium,[Read More…]

This is one of the Tagish Lake meteorite fragments. Credit: Michael Holly, Creative Services, University of Alberta. NASA—(ENEWSPF)— Some asteroids may have been like "molecular factories" cranking out life’s ingredients and shipping them to Earth via meteorite impacts, according to scientists who’ve made discoveries of molecules essential for life in[Read More…]

An artist’s impression of the ESA/NASA ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. The orbiter will carry a European entry, descent and landing demonstrator vehicle. Credits: ESA NASA—(ENEWSPF)— ESA and NASA have announced the scientific investigations selected for their 2016 ExoMars lander demonstrator. They will probe the atmosphere during the descent, and return[Read More…]

Viewed in visible light, Markarian 739 resembles a smiling face, with a pair of bright cores underscored by an arcing spiral arm. The object is really a pair of merging galaxies. Data from Swift and Chandra reveal the western core (right) to be a previously unknown AGN; past studies already[Read More…]

WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–June 10, 2011. A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study released yesterday suggests that snowpack declines in the Rocky Mountains over the last 30 years are unusual compared to the past few centuries. Prior studies by the USGS and other institutions attribute the decline to unusual springtime warming, more precipitation falling now[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–June 10, 2011.  NOAA and its federal partners are meeting today on Capitol Hill with East Coast, Gulf and Caribbean state officials to discuss U.S. tsunami warning capabilities and the need for better local preparedness. NOAA’s National Weather Service organized the federal-state conference at the request of Rep. Frank[Read More…]

Emeryville, Calif.–(ENEWSPF)–June 10, 2011.  Through negotiated agreements with farmers in Central California and Riverside County, Audubon California has secured the safety of several large colonies of rare Tricolored Blackbirds. In all, the agreements resulted in the protection of the breeding production of at least 50,000 birds, which constitutes more than[Read More…]

WASHINGTON, D.C.–(ENEWSPF)–June 10, 2011.  As part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to cut foreign oil imports, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced up to $36 million to fund six small-scale projects in California, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin, that will advance the technology improvements and process integration[Read More…]