|  Graveyard of Stars May Surround Milky Way's Monster Black Hole  | The remains of thousands of stars might exist in a vast graveyard near the giant black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, a region where dead stars feed on companions like zombies and unleash X-ray "howls," researchers say. Scientists have long thought that a monster black hole with the mass of 4.3 million suns, named Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagittarius A star), lurks at the heart of the Milky Way. Recently, astronomers discovered that a surprising number of young, massive stars exist within a few dozen light-years of this black hole. "These young, massive stars are puzzling because when we think about how stars form from clouds of gas that gravitationally collapse in on themselves, it's hard to figure how these clouds could have survived long enough to form stars, given the intense gravitational pull of the supermassive black hole that's so close to them," lead study author Kerstin Perez, an astrophysicist now at Columbia University in New York, told Space.com.
| Read More » Planet Mercury: Some Surprising Facts for Skywatchers  | We have just entered a very favorable period for observing the so-called "elusive" planet Mercury. From now, until about May 13, you should be able to find it with not much difficulty. In 1965, radar studies showed that Mercury's rotation period is 58.65 days or almost exactly two-thirds of its orbital period of 87.969 days. This would mean that a certain point on the planet's surface faces the sun every other time that Mercury arrives at its closest point to the sun (called perihelion). In fact, if Mercury always moved with the same angular velocity that it has at perihelion, it would take only 56.6 days to orbit the sun.
| Read More » Kilauea Volcano's Lava Lake Overflows (Video)  | The lava lake sits in a crater within a crater: Halema'uma'u crater is the deep, wide pit at the top of Kilauea volcano. For this reason, the lava flood poses no risk to people or structures, said Matt Patrick, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. However, the fresh lava has reached the wall of Halema'uma'u crater, triggering rockfalls and spectacular explosions as cold rock hits hot lava. Close monitoring has revealed that the lava lake changes every day, rising and falling by the minute as gas builds up in the lava and then escapes.
| Read More » Space Station Astronauts Take Russian Cargo Ship Failure in Stride  | A robotic Russian cargo spacecraft won't make it to the International Space Station as planned this week, but astronauts aboard the orbiting lab say the failure is not the end of the world. "We are 100 percent confident that we will be living and working productively onboard the space station up until the time that the next cargo vehicle is going to come," Kornienko told reporters in a video interview Wednesday (April 29). Kornienko is one of the six crewmembers who make up the space station's current Expedition 43. He and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly are one month into an unprecedented yearlong mission that's designed to help pave the way for journeys to Mars and other deep-space destinations.
| Read More » Amazing 3D View of Iconic 'Pillars of Creation' Predict Cosmic Demise (Video)  | New images provide the first complete 3D view of the Pillars of Creation — some of the most iconic cosmic structures ever studied — and suggest that the glorious protrusions may be around for only another 3 million years. The new images reveal never-before-seen stars in the thick, fingerlike gas clouds, as well as new details about their orientation in space. The Pillars of Creation gained worldwide fame on Earth when they were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, and in 2014, Hubble used its updated hardware to produce even higher definition images of the region. These cosmic protrusions are composed of dust and gas, and are part of a larger region known as the Eagle Nebula — a fertile region of new star formation.
| Read More » What Chipotle's 'Ban' on Genetically Modified Foods Really Means Chipotle's decision to prepare only food that does not contain genetically modified ingredients is adding fuel to an ongoing debate about the health and safety of these foods. But experts say the foods that contain GMOs that are currently grown in the United States are no riskier than conventionally grown foods. The "growing international consensus" among scientific organizations is that foods made from currently approved genetically modified crops are safe to eat, said Gregory Jaffe, director of biotechnology at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. "This is not an ultrahazardous technology," Jaffe told Live Science. Read More » Deadly Gut Bacteria Infections Peak in Spring People may be more likely to get infected with the sometimes deadly gut bacteria called "C. diff" during the spring, according to a new study. During this time period, about 2.3 million people were released from a hospital following an infection with Clostridium difficile, which can cause severe diarrhea, and frequently comes back after treatment. In the spring, there were about 62 cases of C. difficile for every 10,000 people discharged from the hospital, the study found. In winter and summer, there were 59 C. difficile cases per 10,000 people discharged from the hospital, and the lowest rate was seen in the fall, when there were 56 C. difficile cases per 10,000 hospital discharges. Read More » 'Obesity Signature' Written in Pee A person's urine could reveal whether he or she is at risk for obesity and its related harmful conditions, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed information from more than 2,000 people in the United States and United Kingdom. The researchers found 25 chemical markers in the urine that were linked with the participants' body mass index (BMI), a ratio of height and weight that is an indicator of body fatness. The researchers call these 25 markers a "metabolic signature" of obesity. Read More » Jeff Bezos' rocket company test-flies suborbital spaceship  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Blue Origin, a startup space company owned by Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos, launched an experimental suborbital spaceship from Texas, the first in a series of test flights to develop commercial unmanned and passenger spaceflight services, the company said on Thursday. The New Shepard vehicle blasted off on Wednesday from Blue Origin's test facility near Van Horn, Texas, and rose to an altitude of 58 miles (93 km) before the capsule separated and parachuted back to Earth. "Fortunately, we've already been in work for some time on an improved hydraulic system ... We'll be ready to fly again soon." Blue Origin is among a handful of companies developing privately owned spaceships to fly experiments, satellites and passengers into space. Like Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group, and privately owned XCOR Aerospace, Blue Origin is eyeing suborbital spaceflights, which reach altitudes of about 62 miles (100 km), as a stepping stone to orbital flight.
| Read More » NASA spacecraft to crash into Mercury  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA's pioneering Messenger spacecraft is expected to end its four-year study of the planet Mercury on Thursday by crashing into the planet's surface, scientists said. Out of fuel to maneuver, Messenger is being pushed down by the sun's gravity closer and closer to the surface of Mercury. Flight controllers at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland predict that Messenger, traveling at more than 8,700 mph (14,000 kph) will hit the ground near Mercury's north pole at 3:26 p.m. EDT. During its final weeks in orbit, Messenger has been relaying more details about the innermost planet of the solar system, which turns out to have patches of ice inside some of its craters, despite its sizzling location more than twice as close to the sun as Earth.
| Read More » NASA spacecraft to crash into Mercury  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA's pioneering Messenger spacecraft is expected to end its four-year study of the planet Mercury on Thursday by crashing into the planet's surface, scientists said. Out of fuel to maneuver, Messenger is being pushed down by the sun's gravity closer and closer to the surface of Mercury. Flight controllers at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland predict that Messenger, traveling at more than 8,700 mph (14,000 kph) will hit the ground near Mercury's north pole at 3:26 p.m. EDT/1926 GMT. During its final weeks in orbit, Messenger has been relaying more details about the innermost planet of the solar system, which turns out to have patches of ice inside some of its craters, despite its sizzling location more than twice as close to the sun as Earth.
| Read More » Nepal Earthquake Lifted Kathmandu, But Shrank Everest  | The first good view of the aftermath of Nepal's deadly earthquake from a satellite reveals that a broad swath of ground near Kathmandu lifted vertically, by about 3 feet (1 meter), which could explain why damage in the city was so severe. The new information comes from Europe's Sentinel-1A radar satellite. Scientists are racing to interpret the Sentinel data, which were made available today (April 29) just hours after the satellite passed over Nepal. Researchers detected the vertical shift in the ground by comparing before-and-after radar images from the satellite using a technique that produces an image called an interferogram.
| Read More » Obama's BRAIN Initiative yields first study results  | The study, describing a way to manipulate a lab animal's brain circuitry accurately enough to turn behaviors both on and off, is the first to be published under President Barack Obama's 2013 BRAIN Initiative, which aims to advance neuroscience and develop therapies for brain disorders. If scientists are able do that for the circuitry involved in psychiatric or neurological disorders, it may lead to therapies. "This tool sharpens the cutting edge of research aimed at improving our understanding of brain circuit disorders, such as schizophrenia and addictive behaviors," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the $1 million study. Brain neurons are genetically engineered to produce a custom-made - "designer" - receptor.
| Read More » Mt. Everest Shrank as Nepal Quake Lifted Kathmandu | The first good view of the aftermath of Nepal's deadly earthquake from a satellite reveals that a broad swath of ground near Kathmandu lifted vertically, by about 3 feet (1 meter), which could explain why damage in the city was so severe. The new information comes from Europe's Sentinel-1A radar satellite. Scientists are racing to interpret the Sentinel data, which were made available today (April 29) just hours after the satellite passed over Nepal. Researchers detected the vertical shift in the ground by comparing before-and-after radar images from the satellite using a technique that produces an image called an interferogram.
| Read More » NASA spacecraft spots possible ice cap on Pluto  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has spotted surface features on the icy world, including a possible polar cap, images released on Wednesday show. With 60 million miles (97 million km) left to go before its July 14, 2015, encounter, New Horizons already has been able to make out surprising light and dark patches on the surface of Pluto, which is currently more than 32 times farther away from Earth than the sun. "We are starting to see intriguing features, such as a bright region near Pluto's visible pole," NASA science chief John Grunsfeld said in a statement, in reference to what scientists believe could be a polar ice cap. In the images, Pluto appears as a small, highly pixelated blob, but already scientists can see there is something very odd about its surface.
| Read More » Study: Global warming to push 1 in 13 species to extinction  | WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming will eventually push 1 out of every 13 species on Earth into extinction, a new study projects.
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