The latest finds from robot explorers are boosting fears that fine-grained toxins in Martian dust will be hazardous to human explorers – and tough to avoid    

(author unknown)

Discrete clouds of neutral gas between the galaxies M31 and M33

Nature 497, 7448 (2013). doi:10.1038/nature12082

Authors: Spencer A. Wolfe, D. J. Pisano, Felix J. Lockman, Stacy S. McGaugh & Edward J. Shaya

Spiral galaxies must acquire gas to maintain their observed level of star formation beyond the next few billion years. A source of this material may be the gas that resides between galaxies, but our understanding of the state and distribution of this gas is incomplete. Radio observations of the Local Group of galaxies have revealed hydrogen gas extending from the disk of the galaxy M31 at least halfway to M33. This feature has been interpreted to be the neutral component of a condensing intergalactic filament, which would be able to fuel star formation in M31 and M33, but simulations suggest that such a feature could also result from an interaction between both galaxies within the past few billion years (ref. 5). Here we report radio observations showing that about 50 per cent of this gas is composed of clouds, with the rest distributed in an extended, diffuse component. The clouds have velocities comparable to those of M31 and M33, and have properties suggesting that they are unrelated to other Local Group objects. We conclude that the clouds are likely to be transient condensations of gas embedded in an intergalactic filament and are therefore a potential source of fuel for future star formation in M31 and M33.

Galaxy formation: The cosmic web in focus

Nature 497, 7448 (2013). doi:10.1038/497191a

Author: Robert Braun

Detection of the trace neutral fraction of hydrogen gas that stretches between the nearby Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies has allowed resolved spectral imaging of this elusive intergalactic medium. See Letter p.224

Astronomy: Baby star wind travels far

Nature 497, 7448 (2013). doi:10.1038/497160e

What happens in a star-forming galaxy does not stay in a star-forming galaxy. Powerful outflows from newborn stars can energize space well beyond the main boundaries of a galaxy.Sanchayeeta Borthakur at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and her colleagues used the Hubble Space

What heats gas near supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies? Astronomers have looked at the centre of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, with ESA's Herschel Space Observatory and discovered a rich variety of molecules at surprisingly high temperatures - up to 1000 K. The new data suggest that the molecular gas is heated up by shocks, in addition to ultraviolet radiation from massive stars close to the Galactic Centre. Shocks develop in the gas as the material surges towards Sagittarius A*, the region harbouring the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way.(author unknown)

Can plants adapt to the novelty of climate change? Researchers seeking to answer this question have sent genetically engineered plants to the ISS for exposure to extreme conditions. To report their stress, the plants have learned to glow in the dark.(author unknown)

Cloud of gas swirling towards the black hole at the centre of our galaxy might allow us to test Einstein's greatest theory in a new way    

(author unknown)

Milky Way miners will have to dig deeper for carbon planets than we realised – there is probably no more than one in every 1000 rocky worlds    

(author unknown)

The Danish 1.54-metre telescope located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile has captured a striking image of NGC 6559, an object that showcases the anarchy that reigns when stars form inside an interstellar cloud.(author unknown)

After four years in space, the telescope that brought us galactic bubbles and water on Jupiter has run out of liquid helium and will say goodbye    

(author unknown)

Tour some of the most impressive finds made by the Herschel infrared telescope, from tangles of glowing gas to water-soaked worlds – and a hole in space    (author unknown)

An asteroid that will be explored by a NASA spacecraft has a new name, thanks to a third-grade student in North Carolina.(author unknown)

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted a gigantic hurricane swirling inside a mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as "the hexagon" at Saturn's north pole.(author unknown)

The liquid helium coolant that enabled instruments on board the Herschel space observatory to collect extraordinary images and spectra has finally run out. Launched in 2009, the ESA mission collected unprecedented data of the cool as well as of the distant Universe. Herschel's observations have exceeded expectations, enabling scientists to learn more about how stars form, about the rates of star formation in galaxies across the cosmos, and about the origin and presence of water in different celestial bodies. While observations have come to an end and the spacecraft is to be propelled to a stable parking orbit around the Sun, where it will remain indefinitely, the science mission will continue for several years with many discoveries still to be made in the treasure trove of images and spectra collected by the observatory.(author unknown)

The flagship Herschel telescope, the most powerful infrared observatory ever put into orbit, has run out of coolant and stopped working.(author unknown)

The Herschel observatory, a European space telescope for which NASA helped build instruments and process data, has stopped making observations after running out of liquid coolant as expected.(author unknown)

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided the first direct evidence of small meteoroids crashing into Saturn's rings and breaking into streams of rubble.(author unknown)

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have shown for the first time that bursts of star formation have a major impact far beyond the boundaries of their host galaxy. These energetic events can affect galactic gas at distances of up to twenty times greater than the visible size of the galaxy - altering how the galaxy evolves, and how matter and energy is spread throughout the Universe.(author unknown)

Astronomers have used ESO’s Very Large Telescope, along with radio telescopes around the world, to find and study a bizarre stellar pair consisting of the most massive neutron star confirmed so far, orbited by a white dwarf star. This strange new binary allows tests of Einstein’s theory of gravity — general relativity — in ways that were not possible up to now. So far the new observations exactly agree with the predictions from general relativity and are inconsistent with some alternative theories. The results will appear in the journal Science on 26 April 2013.(author unknown)