ASTRONOMY: Neighborhood Gamma Ray Burst Boosts Theory

Titanic explosions that emit powerful flashes of energetic gamma rays are one of astronomy's hottest mysteries. Now an analysis of the nearest gamma ray burst yet detected has added weight to the popular theory that they are expelled during the death throes of supermassive stars.     

Synergistic Effect of 5-Bromodeoxyuridine and Gamma Rays on Chromosomes

The combined effect of 5-bromodeoxyuridine and gamma rays on chromosomes in cells from the root tips of Zebrina pendula is synergistic. The enhanced, combined effects per cell of aberrations, bridges, and acentric fragments were, respectively, 2, 2.4, and 1.9 times the sum of the separate effects.     

Resonant Nuclear Fusion Processes and the Gamma Rays of SS 433

Gamma-ray spectral lines have recently been reported coming from the celestial object SS 433, which is known to emit high-speed jets in opposite directions. The proposed identification of the lines as coming from fusion reactions on nitrogen nuclei as part of the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle operating in the jets has now received observational support. Predictions of strengths and widths of additional lines which, if seen, would provide valuable new information about conditions giving rise to the jets are presented.     

ASTRONOMY: Watch This Space!

Later this year, a site called SkyServer hopes to put the sky at your fingertips at www.skyserver.org. Initially aimed at a more general audience, SkyServer might become part of a National Virtual Observatory.     

ASTRONOMY: Researchers Get Spectrum Bands

Radio astronomers have been in danger of losing a precious band of the electromagnetic spectrum--the millimeter wavelengths, which promise insight into subjects as diverse as the origins of life and the birth of stars--to the burgeoning telecommunications industry, as millimeter wavelengths also look promising for transmitting high-bandwidth wireless information over relatively short distances. Earlier this month, however, astronomers won an international agreement that guarantees critical wavelengths safe for research.     

ASTRONOMY: Enhanced: Water's Role in Making Stars

Water has long been believed to play an important role in star-forming regions as an oxygen reservoir and by cooling the circumstellar gas cloud, but observational evidence has been hard to come by. In her Perspective, Nisini explains how recent satellite missions have provided the first observational evidence that allows chemical models of star formation to be tested. Water is found to be initially low in abundance but to increase in abundance once a protostar has formed. The observations include protostars that are the precursors of sunlike stars, thus shedding light on water production in solar-type systems.