NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over the Sea of Japan and provided forecasters with a visible image of Tropical Storm Francisco as it was transitioning into an extra-tropical cyclone.

An international team of astrophysicists from Southampton, Oxford and South Africa have detected a very hot, dense outflowing wind close to a black hole at least 25,000 light-years from Earth.

Lead researcher Professor Phil Charles from the University of Southampton explained that the gas (ionised helium and hydrogen) was emitted in bursts which repeated every 8 minutes, the first time this behaviour has been seen around a black hole. The findings have been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The object Professor Charles's team studied was Swift J1357.2-0933 which was first discovered as an X-ray transient – a system that exhibits violent outbursts - in 2011. These transients all consist of a low-mass star, similar to our Sun and a compact object, which can be a white dwarf, neutron star or black hole. In this case, Swift J1357.2-0933 has a black hole compact object which is at least 6 times the mass of our Sun.

Read more at: University of Southampton

Schematic illustration of J1357.2-0933 (Photo Credit: John Paice)

Since 1906, the global average surface temperature has increased by more than 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit — even more in certain polar regions. While this doesn’t seem a lot, the effects of this global warming are becoming more and more apparent. The heat is melting glaciers, shifting precipitation patterns and forcing animals to move from their natural habitats.

To help combat global warming, a team led by Dr. Mert Atilhan from Texas A&M University and Dr. Cafer Yavuz at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), is working on a new porous polymer that can store natural gas more effectively than anything currently being used. Their research focuses on adsorbed natural gas (ANG), a process to store natural gas that is a safer and cheaper alternative to compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas.

“Currently we are facing serious issues that are related to global warming due to the excessive use of coal and petroleum,” Atilhan said. “Natural gas is a much cleaner source and there is an abundant amount of gas being explored in the United States, the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere all around the world. If natural gas can be stored effectively, it can be utilized easily, even in remote areas.”

Read more at: Texas A&M University

Synthesis at small scale (82.11 grams of product). Note that the reaction is carried out in a beaker open to air. (Photo Credit: Vepa Rozyyev/Texas A&M University)

It was an audacious idea: To send an unmanned saildrone on a 13,670-nautical-mile journey around Antarctica alone, at the mercy of the most hostile seas on the planet. In winter.  

From a rocky outcrop in the forest surrounding Penticton, members of the UBC Okanagan Wildlife Society gaze across a valley onto a steep sun-drenched slope, as government wildlife biologist Craig McLean details what he has spotted.

Recovery of big sagebrush populations after fire is inhibited by the loss of adult plants and the limited ability of new seedlings to survive or reproduce.

Canada has committed to protecting nearly 20 per cent of the country’s landscape by 2020.

Growing up in Idaho, far from any coastline, Danielle Claar says her curiosity about the underwater world was sparked as a teenager on a scuba diving trip with her parents.

The remains of a microscopic drop of ancient seawater has assisted in rewriting the history of Earth’s evolution when it was used to re-establish the time that plate tectonics started on the planet. 

A four-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health will help researchers determine how the stabilization of ovarian hormones estradiol and progesterone may help lower symptoms associated with suicidality among females with longstanding thoughts of suicide.