A signature in the X-ray light emitted by a highly magnetised dead star known as a magnetar suggests the star has a solid surface with no atmosphere, according to a new study by an international team involving UCL (University College London) researchers. The study, published in the journal Science and led by researchers at the University of Padova, uses data from a NASA satellite, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), which was launched last December. The satellite, a collaboration between…

Gemini North telescope on Hawai‘i reveals first dormant, stellar-mass black hole in our cosmic backyard. Astronomers using the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, have discovered the closest-known black hole to Earth. This is the first unambiguous detection of a dormant stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way. Its close proximity to Earth, a mere 1600 light-years away, offers an intriguing target of study to advance our understanding of the evolution of binary systems. Black holes are the most…

An international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of Adelaide, have gathered new evidence about the energetic core of an active galaxy millions of lights years away by detecting neutrino particles emitted by it. The scientists have found that NGC 1068, also known as Messier 77, in the constellation of Cetus, is a high-energy neutrino emitter. They have observed the particles using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. “We are peering inside active regions of the NGC 1068…

– surprising observations of X-ray pulsar. Tübingen-led international research team evaluates first direct measurements by IXPE space telescope. An X-ray pulsar is a rotating magnetized neutron star. The very first direct measurement of the polarization of an X-ray pulsar by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) space telescope has challenged previous models of such systems. The degree of polarization of the X-ray pulsar Hercules X-1 was much lower than theoretically predicted, so astrophysicists are now having to reconsider their basic…

Scientists of the QUEST Institute at PTB have realized and evaluated a new type of optical atomic clock. They report on their results in the current issue of Nature. Optical atomic clocks are the most accurate measuring instruments ever built and are becoming key tools for basic and applied research, for example to test the constancy of natural constants or for height measurements in geodesy. Now, researchers at the QUEST Institute at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), in collaboration with the…

Planets can force their host stars to act younger than their age, according to a new study of multiple systems authored by scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This may be the best evidence to date that some planets apparently slow down the aging process for their host stars. While the anti-aging property of hot Jupiters, that is, giant gas exoplanets that orbit a star at Mercury’s distance or closer, has been…

Scientists funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation have been exploring the special properties of the star Gamma Columbae. Their hypothesis: it is a binary star whose heart has been laid bare. A bright star visible to the naked eye, but until recently a star that was of no particular interest to scientists. Gamma Columbae, a star in the Columba constellation located some 900 light years from Earth, has just revealed its astonishing history: it is thought to be the…

Researchers from the NanoPhoton Center at DTU have developed a nanostructure that compresses the light to become 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. This fundamental scientific breakthrough can be important for multiple fields, including energy-efficient technology.  Until recently, it was widely believed among physicists that it was impossible to compress light below the so-called diffraction limit (see fact box), except when using metal nanoparticles, which unfortunately also absorb light. It therefore seemed impossible to compress light strongly in dielectric…

Microsphere assistance enables interferometric topography measurements. When measuring with light, the lateral extent of the structures that can be resolved by an optical imaging system is fundamentally diffraction limited. Overcoming this limitation is a topic of great interest in recent research, and several approaches have been published in this area. In a recent study published in the Journal of Optical Microsystems, a team of researchers from the University of Kassel in Germany present an approach that uses microspheres placed directly on…

A seismic shift in advanced technology is on the way. The Quantum Collaborative is Arizona State University’s answer to this upheaval, uniting quantum technology research efforts and developing a prepared workforce. Arizona State University has launched the Quantum Collaborative, a major 21st century initiative poised to profoundly impact society and the American economy with new discoveries and applications in advanced quantum technology. The promise of quantum technology has kicked off an international contest the likes of which have not been…

This machine-learning system can simulate how a listener would hear a sound from any point in a room. Imagine the booming chords from a pipe organ echoing through the cavernous sanctuary of a massive, stone cathedral. The sound a cathedral-goer will hear is affected by many factors, including the location of the organ, where the listener is standing, whether any columns, pews, or other obstacles stand between them, what the walls are made of, the locations of windows or doorways,…

As dense as it gets: With the exception of black holes, neutron stars are the densest objects in our universe. As their name suggests, neutron stars are mainly made of neutrons. However, our knowledge about the matter produced during the collision of two neutron stars is still limited. Scientists from Goethe University Frankfurt and the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics in Pohang have now developed a new model that gives insights about matter under such extreme conditions. After a…

A team of quantum physicists from Innsbruck, Austria, led by three-time ERC laureate Francesca Ferlaino has established a new method to observe vortices in dipolar quantum gases. These quantum vortices are considered a strong indication of superfluidity, the frictionless flow of a quantum gas, and have now been experimentally detected for the first time in dipolar gases. Vortices are ubiquitous in nature: Whirling up water can create swirls. When the atmosphere is stirred up, huge tornadoes can form. This is…

Plankton are fundamental to the marine ecosystem and an indispensable means of modern marine ecological management. Since previous studies have shown that zooplankton are insensitive to long wavelength (i.e., red) light, such light is often used to make images of plankton as part of the ecological management process. Unfortunately, red light only produces grayscale images of plankton, thus losing information about their true color. In response to this problem, a research team led by Dr. LI Jianping from the Shenzhen…

H2020 project INSPIRE-5Gplus (https://www.inspire-5gplus.eu/), contributes to the monitoring of 5G protocols and the detection of 5G-specific cyberattacks. The Horizon 2020 project INSPIRE-5Gplus(https://www.inspire-5gplus.eu/), continues to advance security of 5G and Beyond networks. As it is entirely devoted to improve security at various dimensions, the MMT (Montimage Monitoring Tool) framework has been extended, to cover the monitoring of 5G protocols and the detection of 5G-specific cyberattacks. The framework is now being proposed through an Open-Source project in GitHub: https://github.com/montimage https://github.com/montimage/mmt-probe The monitoring…

A group of researchers has, for the first time, identified rare earth elements produced by neutron star mergers. Details of this milestone were published in The Astrophysical Journal on October 26, 2022. When two neutron stars spiral inwards and merge, the resulting explosion produces a large amount of heavy elements that make up our Universe. The first confirmed example of this process was an event in 2017 named GW 170817. Yet, even five years later, identifying the specific elements created…