"E Nose" to sniff out harmful chemicals on International Space Station

NASA astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission will install an instrument known as "ENose" on the International Space Station (ISS) that can help protect crew members' health and safety by "smelling" dangerous chemicals in the air. The experimental ENose will monitor the space station's environment for harmful chemicals such as ammonia, mercury, methanol and formaldehyde.

The ENose, which will run continuously and autonomously, is the first instrument on the ISS that will detect and quantify chemical leaks or spills as they happen.

It fills the long-standing gap between onboard alarms and complex analytical instruments. Air-quality problems have occurred before on the International Space Station, space shuttle and Russian Space Station Mir."The ENose is a 'first-responder' that will alert crew members of possible contaminants in the air and also analyze and quantify targeted changes in the cabin environment.

The shoebox-sized ENose contains an array of 32 sensors that can identify and quantify several organic and inorganic chemicals, including organic solvents and marker chemicals that signal the start of electrical fires. The ENose sensors are polymer films that change their electrical conductivity in response to different chemicals.The pattern of the sensor array's response depends on the particular chemical types present in the air.The instrument can analyze volatile aerosols and vapors, help monitor cleanup of chemical spills or leaks, and enable more intensive chemical analysis by collecting raw data and streaming it to a computer at JPL's ENose laboratory.

NASA discovers magnetic ropes which connect Earth to the Sun

A fleet of NASA spacecraft has discovered the existence of giant magnetic ropes (a twisted bundle of magnetic fields), that connects Earth's upper atmosphere directly to the sun, among other findings.

The discovery was a result of the analysis of the spectacular eruptions of Northern Lights called "substorms" and the source of their power.

The magnetopause is where the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field meet and push against one another. There, the rope formed and unraveled in just a few minutes, providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind energy.

Among other findings, the mission known as THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) observed the dynamics of a rapidly developing substorm, and witnessed small explosions in the outskirts of Earth's magnetic field.

NASA scientists discover heftiest known Black Hole

Using two NASA satellites, astronomers have discovered the heftiest known black hole to orbit a star.The new black hole, with a mass 24 to 33 times that of our Sun, is more massive than scientists expected for a black hole that formed from a dying star.
The newly discovered object belongs to the category of "stellar-mass" black holes.
Formed in the death throes of massive stars, they are smaller than the monster black holes found in galactic cores.
The previous record holder for largest stellar-mass black hole is a 16-solar-mass black hole in the galaxy M33.
The black hole is located in the nearby dwarf galaxy IC 10, 1.8 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.

NASA beams music across the universe

* NASA has decided to beam across the universe the Beatles’ song recorded 40 years ago. The music will be digitised and beamed through its deep-space communications network on a 431 light year journey to the North Star, Polaris, where it is scheduled to arrive in 2439.
* The song is titled “Across the Universe”.
* 9th of February is the 45th anniversary of NASA’s deep-space communications network and 50th anniversary of NASA’s foundation