Saturn spot

Using a giant telescope atop a volcano at Mauna Kea, Honolulu, astronomers have discovered an unusually hot spot at the tip of Saturn?s south pole. Images captured by the telescope suggest a warm polar vortex ? a large-scale weather pattern similar to a jet stream on earth?s upper atmosphere. Such heat close to the pole poses a huge puzzle to astronomers.

Cool corals

Investigations at the Great Barrier Reef off Australia show that corals are full of dimethyl sulphide (DMS). If released, the chemical helps create clouds that cool down the reef when the temperature soars. The findings solve an old puzzle: how and why aerosol particles shoot up in the air above the Great Barrier Reef occasionally.

Aurora glow

Scientists had wondered what accelarates fast-moving electrons that cause aurora or the northern lights. Cornell University physicists blasted the lights with high-energy radio waves to bust the mystery. The resulting speckles showed waves in the ionosphere?s electric field wash the electrons back and forth, boo-sting their energy incessantly.