(Press-News.org) As magnetic fields on the sun rearrange and realign, dark spots known as sunspots can appear on its surface. Over the course of Feb. 19-20, 2013, scientists watched a giant sunspot form in under 48 hours. It has grown to over six Earth diameters across but its full extent is hard to judge since the spot lies on a sphere not a flat disk.
The spot quickly evolved into what's called a delta region, in which the lighter areas around the sunspot, the penumbra, exhibit magnetic fields that point in the opposite direction of those fields in the center, dark area. This is a fairly unstable configuration that scientists know can lead to eruptions of radiation on the sun called solar flares.
INFORMATION:
NASA's SDO observes fast-growing sun spot
2013-02-21
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
NASA's SDO shows a little rain on the sun
2013-02-21
VIDEO:
On July 19, 2012, an eruption occurred on the sun that produced a moderately powerful solar flare and a dazzling magnetic display known as coronal rain. Hot plasma in the...
Click here for more information.
Eruptive events on the sun can be wildly different. Some come just with a solar flare, some with an additional ejection of solar material called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and some with complex moving structures in association with changes in magnetic field lines ...
Regenstrief study: Informatics tools underutilized in prevention of hospital-acquired infection
2013-02-21
INDIANAPOLIS -- Advances in electronic medical record systems and health information exchange are shifting efforts in public health toward greater use of information systems to automate disease surveillance, but a study from the Regenstrief Institute has found that these technologies' capabilities are underutilized by those on the front lines of preventing and reporting infections.
The new study measured the awareness, adoption and use of electronic medical record systems and health information exchange by hospital-based infection preventionists (formerly known as infection ...
3 NASA satellites see wide-eyed Cyclone Haruna
2013-02-21
VIDEO:
The TRMM satellite flew above Haruna on Feb. 20 at 0717 UTC. Some powerful storms Haruna's northern edge showed rainfall over 108 mm (~4.25 inches) per hour and cloud tops...
Click here for more information.
Cyclone Haruna strengthened into a cyclone and quickly developed an eye that became apparent on visible and infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite. NASA's TRMM satellite analyzed Haruna's heavy rainfall, and NASA and NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured a ...
Low-pitched song indicates fairy-wren size
2013-02-21
AUDIO:
This is an example of a trill song type that tells listeners how big the singer is. Their larger physical size means that bigger male purple-crowned fairy-wrens can sing this...
Click here for more information.
A male fairy-wren's low pitch song indicates body size, a new international study has shown.
The study led by University of Melbourne researcher Dr Michelle Hall, is the first to show that the larger the male fairy wren, the lower the pitch of his song.
"This ...
Genome-wide imaging study identifies new gene associated with Alzheimer's plaques
2013-02-21
INDIANAPOLIS -- A study combining genetic data with brain imaging, designed to identify genes associated with the amyloid plaque deposits found in Alzheimer's disease patients, has not only identified the APOE gene -- long associated with development of Alzheimer's -- but has uncovered an association with a second gene, called BCHE.
A national research team, led by scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine, reported the results of the study in an article in Molecular Psychiatry posted online Tuesday. The study is believed to be the first genome-wide association ...
Researchers say sunlight yields more efficient carbon dioxide to methanol model
2013-02-21
Researchers from The University of Texas at Arlington are pioneering a new method for using carbon dioxide, or CO2, to make liquid methanol fuel by using copper oxide nanowires and sunlight.
The process is safer, simpler and less expensive than previous methods to convert the greenhouse gas associated with climate change to a useful product, said Krishnan Rajeshwar, interim associate vice president for research at UT Arlington and one of the authors of a paper recently published in the journal Chemical Communications. Researchers began by coating the walls of copper oxide, ...
A simple view of gravity does not fully explain the distribution of stars in crowded clusters
2013-02-21
Gravity remains the dominant force on large astronomical scales, but when it comes to stars in young star clusters the dynamics in these crowded environments cannot be simply explained by the pull of gravity.
After analyzing Hubble Space Telescope images of star cluster NGC 1818 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, researchers at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) at Peking University in Beijing found more binary star systems toward the periphery of cluster than in the center – the opposite of what they expected. The ...
Background checks, permanent records needed for all firearm transfers, not just gun sales by retailers
2013-02-21
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Gun violence in the United States can be substantially reduced if Congress expands requirements for background checks on retail gun sales to cover firearm transfers between private parties, a new report by the director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program concludes.
The report "Background Checks for Firearm Transfers" by Garen Wintemute, who also serves as a professor of emergency medicine, notes that 40 percent of U.S. gun transactions occur between unlicensed private parties, such as people buying and selling at gun shows. That ...
Employees shed pounds in worksite-based weight loss intervention with behavioral counseling
2013-02-21
BOSTON (Wednesday, February 20, 2013)- Workplace-based programs that include dietary advice coupled with behavioral counseling appear to be a promising approach for men and women with significant weight loss goals, based on the results of a pilot study conducted by researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University. Employees enrolled in the intervention arm of a randomized controlled trial lost on average, 18 pounds over a six-month period compared to a two pound weight gain in a control group. The study results ...
Perceptions of health improve with pension receipt, researcher says
2013-02-21
COLUMBIA, Mo. – After retirement, pensions provide consistent income to aging individuals. Although the details of pension eligibility and implementation vary by country, receiving pensions can represent a new life stage for individuals. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has studied how older men and women view their health before and after receiving fixed incomes. South African men and women in the study viewed their health more positively when they began receiving their pensions, but the heightened sense of well-being faded over time.
"We looked at individuals' ...