Astronomers shoot first film of the stars, dust and gas at the centre of a galaxy.

Astronomers have made their first movie of the roiling mass of stars, dust and gas at the centre of a galaxy.

The movie zooms into the disk of saucer-shaped galaxy NGC 1068 and through its super-bright core. It reveals an energetic region of space created by material flying out of the suspected black hole at the centre and crashing back into the disk. This region appears as a pale blue cloud

The hydrological regime of the inner delta of the River Niger, situated in Mali, is subject to strong annual and indeed intra-annual variability. This delta ecosystem has a characteristic feature, a three-phase cycle. The first, a period of flood, starts in July marking the beginning of the cycle; then, after several months of rising water-levels, the flood recedes, between November and January; finally, a period of low water prevails between March and June.

The river’s various fish species

An extremely intense El Niño event in 1983 prompted an international surveillance programme, involving the deployment of moored or drift measurement buoys and observation satellites. This research effort is proving to be fruitful. The data obtained provide a key to understanding how the two components of the now-famous two-phase system El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) -El Niño and its reverse counterpart La Niña- are generated. Forecasting models for three months in advance are quite reliable. How

Scientists make strides in the study of women’s sports injuries.

Straighter legs and knock-knees may be causing female athletes to tear knee ligaments more frequently than males. The finding could help coaches to shape women’s training to reduce such injuries.

When researchers at the University of North Carolina spotted that women land with their knees straighter and closer together than do men, they asked the athletes to spring on and off platforms that measure force in sev

The planet Jupiter has spectacular rings of auroras around each pole but until now scientists have not been able to explain how they form. All auroras are caused by energetic charged particles crashing into the top of the atmosphere and making it glow. In the Earth’s auroras, these particles come from the Sun in a flow of charged particles known as the solar wind. But this can’t account for Jupiter’s auroras because the solar wind does not reach to the region where the brightest are found. Space phys

The international used tyre trade is bringing unwanted visitors to Europe – exotic mosquitoes. Species such as the Asian ‘Tiger Mosquito’ are able to survive in temperate climates, spread diseases (such as dengue and West Nile virus, among others) and may be poised to take Britain by surprise, unless monitoring systems are put in place.

Tiger mosquitoes lay their eggs around places that are prone to flooding. Their eggs can survive long periods of drought and, when a pool forms, the larvae