Explanation: NGC 134 is probably not the best known spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. Still, the tantalizing island universe is a clearly a telescopic treasure in southern skies. It shares a bright core, clumpy dust lanes, and loosely wrapped spiral arms with spiky foreground stars of the Milky Way and the more diminutive galaxy NGC 131 in this sharp cosmic vista. From a distance of about 60 million light-years, NGC 134 is seen tilted nearly edge-on. It spans some 150,000 light-years, making it even larger than our own Milky Way galaxy. NGC 134's warped disk and faint extensions give the appearance of past gravitational interactions with neighboring galaxies. Like the much closer and brighter Sculptor galaxy NGC 253, tendrils of dust appear to rise from a galactic disk sprinkled with blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions.
Explanation: Some of the Solar System's largest moons rose together on February 23. On that night, a twilight pairing of a waning gibbous Moon and Jupiter was captured in this sharp telescopic field of view. The composite of short and long exposures reveals the familiar face of our fair planet's own large natural satellite, along with a line up of the ruling gas giant's four Galilean moons. Left to right, the tiny pinpricks of light are Callisto, Io, Ganymede, [Jupiter], andEuropa. Closer and brighter, our own natural satellite appears to loom large. But Callisto, Io, and Ganymede are actually larger than Earth's Moon, while water world Europa is only slightly smaller. In fact, of the Solar System's sixlargest planetary satellites, only Saturn's moon Titan is missing from the scene.
RIO - O músico Severino Filho, do grupo de bossa nova Os Cariocas, morreu na manhã desta terça-feira. Severino, que fundou o grupo ao lado do irmão Ismel Netto, em 1942, é pai da atriz Lúcia Veríssimo e tinha 88 anos. Internado desde o dia 18 de janeiro com um quadro de trombose pulmonar no Hospital Quinta D'Or, o músico sofreu uma parada cardiorrespiratória.
Unusual Clouds over Hong Kong Image Credit & Copyright: Alfred Lee
Explanation: What's that in the sky? Earlier this month, in the sky high above Hong Kong, China, not just one unusual type of cloud appeared -- but two. In the foreground was a long lenticular cloud, a cloud that forms near mountains from uprising air and might appear to some as an alien spaceship. Higher in the sky, and further in the background, was a colorful iridescent cloud. Iridescentclouds are composed of water droplets of similar size that diffract different colors of sunlight by different amounts. Furthest in the background is the Sun, blocked from direct view by the opaque lenticular, but providing the light for the colors of the iridescent. Either type of cloud is unusual to see in Hong Kong, and unfortunately, after only a few minutes, both were gone.
Explanation: The party is still going on in spiral galaxy NGC 3310. Roughly 100 million years ago, NGC 3310 likely collided with a smaller galaxy causing the large spiral galaxy to light up with a tremendous burst of star formation. The changing gravity during the collision created density waves that compressed existing clouds of gas and triggered the star-forming party. The featured image from the Gemini North Telescope shows the galaxy in great detail, color-coded so that pink highlights gas while white and blue highlight stars. Some of the star clusters in the galaxy are quite young, indicating that starburst galaxies may remain in star-burst mode for quite some time. NGC 3310 spans about 50,000 light years, lies about 50 million light years away, and is visible with a small telescope towards the constellation of Ursa Major.
Qualquer avanço na área do tratamento do cancro é recebido como uma boa notícia. Os resultados do ensaio clínico conduzido por Stanley Ridel, investigador no Centro Fred Hutchinson de Investigação em Cancro (Estados Unidos), não foram exceção. Embora considerem que esta investigação vem reforçar a importância da imunoterapia, os cientistas portugueses entrevistados pelo Observador referem que a técnica não é nova. Os investigadores não duvidam que os resultados sejam promissores, mas lembram que esta ainda é uma fase inicial dos ensaios clínicos.
“Do ponto de vista da eficácia terapêutica em leucemia linfoblástica aguda [LLA] avançada pode dizer-se que [a técnica] é revolucionária: 94% de remissões completas seriam impossíveis com qualquer outro tratamento disponível”, disse ao Observador Bruno Silva Santos, vice-diretor do Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM) da Universidade de Lisboa. Mas o investigador, que também faz investigação em imunoterapia, disse que, em termos conceptuais, a técnica não é novidade e já se sabia que podia “ser aplicável a tumores de linfócitos B [células B do sistema imunitário], como é o caso dos doentes de LLA ou de certos casos de linfoma”.