MESSENGER reveals more territory on Mercury

A NASA spacecraft’s third and final flyby of the planet Mercury gives scientists, for the first time, an almost complete view of the planet’s surface and provides new scientific findings about this relatively unknown planet.

Chemical-catching researchers look to copy canine ‘sniffer’

A dog’s nose, with its thousands of olfactory receptors, is one of the best chemical detection “sniffers” in military and police circles. That’s why a Homeland Protection Business Area team at Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on its RealNose program, which aims to construct a sensor that would operate like—and as well as—a dog’s nose. The sensor will eventually be integrated into a system that could simultaneously detect more than 20 chemicals.

New Cassini images help redraw shape of solar system

In a paper published Oct. 15 in Science, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory present a new view of the region of the sun’s influence, or heliosphere, and the forces that shape it. Images from one of the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument’s sensors, the Ion and Neutral Camera, known as MIMI/INCA, on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggest that the heliosphere may not have the cometlike shape predicted by existing models.

JHU brings virtual learning to Baltimore County schools

Software engineers at Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory, in collaboration with JHU’s Center for Technology in Education, have developed a prototype Virtual Learning Environment to provide Baltimore County students with a gaminglike experience to augment existing math and science curricula.

MESSENGER gains critical gravity assist for Mercury orbit

MESSENGER successfully passed Mercury on Tuesday, Sept. 29, on its third flyby, gaining a critical gravity assist that will enable it to enter orbit about Mercury in 2011 and capturing images of 5 percent of the planet never before seen.

MESSENGER spacecraft prepares for final pass by Mercury

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, the MESSENGER spacecraft will fly by Mercury for the third and final time, passing 141.7 miles above the planet’s rocky surface for a final gravity assist that will enable it to enter orbit about Mercury in 2011. With more than 90 percent of the planet’s surface already imaged, the team will turn its instruments during this flyby to specific features to uncover more information about the planet closest to the sun.

New sanitizer reduces infections, cuts back on costly disposables

Johns Hopkins experts in applied physics, computer engineering, infectious diseases, emergency medicine, microbiology, pathology and surgery have unveiled a 7-foot-tall, $10,000 shower cubicle–shaped device that automatically sanitizes in 30 minutes all sorts of hard-to-clean equipment in a highly trafficked hospital Emergency Department. The novel device can sanitize and disinfect equipment of all shapes and sizes, [...]

APL part of team expanding space weather radar network

Space weather researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory are helping expand a global radar network used to study electrical disturbances in our atmosphere that can create auroral displays or disrupt communications, knock out electrical power grids, damage satellites or even affect astronaut