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Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have solved the 40-year-old mystery of the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a long ribbon of gas stretching nearly halfway around the Milky Way. New Hubble observations reveal that most of this stream was stripped from the Small Magellanic Cloud some two billion years ago, with a smaller portion originating more recently from its larger neighbour.

The microwave sky as seen by Planck. Mottled structure of the CMB, the oldest light in the universe, is displayed in the high-latitude regions of the map. The central band is the plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured an intriguing star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies. This sharp image reveals two distinctive glowing clouds of gas: red-hued NGC 2014, and its blue neighbour NGC 2020. While they are very different, they were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars that also radiate into the gas, causing it to glow brightly.

This graphic shows a molecular robot (automaton) in action. To tag cells (grey circle) that display the Mi, Mj, and Mk receptors, five different components of a molecular robot are deployed. Each of the first three components consists of DNA and an antibody; one antibody binds to each receptor, bringing its DNA (represented by the colored lines) close together on the cell. The fourth DNA component, represented by the single red line, then initiates a chain reaction by pulling the red DNA strand away from the first antibody. That causes the blue DNA strand to change position, followed by the green DNA strand. In the final step, the last antibody pulls a fluorescent DNA strand (labeled F) from the fifth component, completing the action of the robot.

A star is born

A new ScienceCast video anticipates the reversal of the sun's global magnetic field.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/05aug_fieldflip/

Gray Scale Mona Lisa

This graphic depicts a device created using "negatively refracting metamaterials" that could bring advances in applications including sensing, imaging, data storage, solar energy and optics. Purdue researchers are working on a range of options to overcome a fundamental obstacle in commercializing the materials. The small spheres at right represent a lattice of "meta-atoms" carefully designed and fabricated to produce a high-performance device.

The dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) converts light to electricity. A coloured copper complex absorbs light and injects an electron into a semiconductor. This electron then passes around a circuit, does work, and is eventually returned to the copper to regenerate the dye by a transport system. In this new work, the cobalt complex acts as an electron transport agent between the cathode and the dye molecules allowing the photocurrent to flow.