A collaboration between the University of Leicester Space Research Centre and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is about to reach a new stage as hardware built at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai is sent to Leicester for integration into an x-ray camera.

The camera will eventually be returned to India for installation into Astrosat, India’s first national astronomy satellite. The five instruments in Astrosat’s payload will observe exotic o

These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express, show Pavonis Mons, the central volcano of the three ’shield’ volcanoes that comprise Tharsis Montes.

ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft obtained these images using the HRSC during orbit 902 with a ground resolution of approximately 14.3 metres per pixel. The images were acquired in the region of Pavonis Mons, at approximately 0.6° South and 246.4° East.

The conte

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first-ever picture of a distant quasar lensed into five images. In addition the image holds a treasure of lensed galaxies and even a supernova.

The most unique feature in this new image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is a group of five quasar images produced by a process called ‘gravitational lensing’. By this process the gravitational field of an extremely massive body – in this case, a cluster of galaxies – wa

Compact jets that shoot matter into space in a continuous stream at near the speed of light have long been assumed to be a unique feature of black holes. But these odd features of the universe may be more common than once thought.

Astrophysicists using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope recently spotted one of these jets around a super-dense dead star, confirming for the first time that neutron stars as well as black holes can produce these fire-hose-like jets of matter. A pap

Recovery of carbohydrates from aqueous media is a difficult separation problem, due to their large, irregular and multivalent structure and their low…

The current decade will probably be known as the dawn of pervasive computing, when PCs were dethroned by technology to embed computers in almost everything. The hardware already exists to add features such as artificial intelligence and wireless connectivity to clothing or cars. Thanks to researchers, software is catching up fast.

“Hardware development has reached a stage where it is possible to have a fully-fledged computer with processor, memory and operating system on a board the size

Research initially aimed at helping partially sighted customers use chip & pin keypads has led to the creation of a device which will protect all customers from “Shoulder Surfing” – A method where a “criminally motivated” bystander can casually observe consumers’ secret PIN when paying for goods or services.

Neil Radford an Enterprise Fellow at the University of Warwick has worked with colleagues in the University of Warwick’s Manufacturing Group to create a special easy to

Miniaturised and wireless electronics step in new age

Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT, in co-operation with VTI technologies Oy, has developed a new timer circuit that is one hundred times smaller than the traditional quartz crystal. The substitution of quartz for silicon opens up totally new possibilities for reducing the size of electronic devices and for improving their performance. The device is especially helpful in the realization of wireless electronics. For exampl

An ambitious mission by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to make a new, high resolution map of the universe has just successfully returned its first pictures, and UK team members are delighted with the success. The AKARI (formerly ASTRO-F) infrared space telescope is making its All-Sky Survey at infrared wavelengths with sharper images and a much higher sensitivity than the first infrared astronomical sky survey satellite launched in 1983. AKARI will leave a tremendous legacy f

As the World Cup draws closer and football fever starts to take over, physicist Nick Linthorne has found out how players like Gary Neville can achieve the perfect long throw-in, which could be crucial in setting up a goal for the England squad. An article, A new angle on throwing, in the June edition of Physics World, describes how the physics of projectiles can be used to calculate the optimum angle at which a ball needs to be released to achieve the longest possible throw-in. The article desc

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first-ever picture of a distant quasar lensed into five images. In addition the image holds a treasure of lensed galaxies and even a supernova.

The most unique feature in a new image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is a group of five quasar images produced by a process called gravitational lensing, in which the gravitational field of a massive object – in this case, a cluster of galaxies – bends and amplifies

People with diabetes, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are at increased risk of death when they are exposed to particulate air pollution, or soot, for one or more years, according to a study to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 22nd.

The study looked at hospital discharges for people with these four types of diseases living in 34 cities between 1985 and 1999. The research

Specific inhibitors of prostate and skin cancer cell growth.Further Information: PDF rubitec – Gesellschaft für Innovation und Technologie der Ruhr-Universität…

With the increase of metabolic diseases worldwide, new methods for researching these conditions takes on an ever-increasing priority in order to accelerate the…

AKARI, the new Japanese infrared sky surveyor mission in which ESA is participating, saw ‘first light’ on 13 April 2006 (UT) and delivered its first images of the cosmos. The images were taken towards the end of a successful checkout of the spacecraft in orbit.

The mission, formerly known as ASTRO-F, was launched on 21 February 2006 (UT) from the Uchinoura Space Centre in Japan. Two weeks after launch the satellite reached its final destination in space – a polar orbit around Ear

As scientists and engineers build devices at smaller and smaller scales, grasping the dynamics of how materials behave when they are subjected to electrical signals, sound and other manipulations has proven to be beyond the reach of standard scientific techniques. But now a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has found a way to time such effects at the nanometer scale, in essence clocking the movements of atoms as they are manipulated using electric fields.

The accomplis