Astronomers confirm the first image of a planet

An international team of astronomers reports today confirmation of the discovery of a giant planet, approximately five times the mass of Jupiter, that is gravitationally bound to a young brown dwarf. This puts an end to a year long discussion on the nature of this object, which started with the detection of a red object close to the brown dwarf.

In February and March of this year, the astronomers took new images of the youn

Open source software (OSS) should be considered as a matter of course in the IT procurement process at universities, says Randy Metcalfe, Communications Manager at OSS Watch, a national advisory service based at the University of Oxford.

Speaking at the AURIL conference in Edinburgh on 29 April, Metcalfe said:
“Interoperability and flexibility are two key reasons why higher education institutions should be looking at open source software alternatives alongside proprietary opt

Duke University physicists have developed a switching technique that uses a very weak beam of light to control a much stronger beam. The achievement could make optical telecommunications devices perform far more efficiently, and perhaps also aid in the development of futuristic quantum communications devices, the scientists said. “What’s important here is that this is an ’all-optical’ switch, using only light, with a weak beam affecting a strong one,” said physics professor Daniel Gauthier,

For the first time an X-ray image of a pair of interacting stars has been made by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The ability to distinguish between the interacting stars – one a highly evolved giant star and the other likely a white dwarf – allowed a team of scientists to observe an X-ray outburst from the giant star and find evidence that a bridge of hot matter is streaming between the two stars.

“Before this observation it was assumed that all the X-rays came

New software to speed up image processing could save the broadcasting industry millions of euros and could even be used to enable remote surgery, where a surgeon in one country performs on a patient in another country.

The Nuggets project successfully created a software layer that will allow real-time networks to be used in broadcasting. “Broadcasting demands a very high Quality of Service (QoS), but up to now transfer speeds across networks were too slow for broadcasting applicat

The Cassini spacecraft has seen a 50-mile-diameter impact crater on Titan with different instruments on separate flybys, giving scientists new information on impact-crater formation on Saturn’s giant moon.

They’ve released a composite image of one of Titan’s most prominent impact craters as previously seen by Cassini’s radar and recently seen by its Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS).

The composite image is online at

Target Skills of France has launched its scheduling management software, PlanningPME©. This multilingual scheduling management tool is highly adaptable and, therefore, suitable for use by all types of companies. With PlanningPME©, companies can eliminate unnecessary paperwork and cumbersome scheduling boards. In addition, modifications will no longer result in endless crossings-outs and corrections. As part of its export growth strategy, Target Skills is seeking international partners for the pro

The nucleus of an atom contains protons and neutrons. However, some atoms of the same chemical element can have varying numbers of neutrons, giving so-called isotopes of that element. Most elements have both stable and radioactive isotopes. Radioactive isotopes of an element are commonly used as tracers in medical, biological, and industrial studies to gain information about physical and mechanical processes. In geology and archaeology, radioactive isotopes are used to determine the age of a sa

Skylark, the one of the World’s longest running space programmes, will lift-off for the final time in a launch window starting on Saturday, April 30th. The launch of the 441st Skylark sounding rocket marks the end of 50 years of outstanding scientific research that has included investigations into atmospheric conditions, X-ray astronomy, land use and the effects of microgravity.

The Skylark sounding rocket has been a leading British success story since its design in the mid 1950s.

The first practical fountain pen was invented in 1884 by Lewis Waterman. Although pens with self-contained ink reservoirs had existed for more than a hundred years before his invention, they suffered from ink leaks and other troubles. Waterman solved these problems by inventing the capillary feed which produced even ink flow. Now fountain pen history is repeating itself in the tiny world of nanoscale writing.

Researchers at Northwestern University have demonstrated writing at the s

If you wanted a random number, historically you could do worse than to pick a sequence from the string of digits in pi. But Purdue University scientists now say other sources might be better.

Physicists including Purdue’s Ephraim Fischbach have completed a study comparing the “randomness” in pi to that produced by 30 software random number generators and one chaos-generating physical machine. After conducting several tests, they have found that while sequences of digits from pi are

Debris could be dust cloud around the moon

An instrument designed and built at the University of Chicago for the Cassini space probe has discovered dust particles around Enceladus, an ice-covered moon of Saturn that has the distinction of being the most reflective object in the solar system. The particles could indicate the existence of a dust cloud around Enceladus, or they may have originated from Saturn’s largest ring, the E-ring.

“We are operating on the plane o

Students play important role in Nobel-caliber research

Tucked away in a small, cluttered laboratory on Patuxent River Naval Air Station, two physicists spend their days trapping atoms – millions and millions of microscopic atoms. Dr. Frank Narducci, a physicist at Patuxent River Naval Air Station (NAVAIR 4.5.6.) and adjunct professor of physics at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and Dr. Charles Adler, a physics professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, are engaged in groundbreak

Thirty years after scientists at the University of Missouri-Rolla and Grambling College discovered “strange” Xenon in meteorites, scientists from Japan and France are reporting the discovery of other strange elements left over from the birth of the solar system.

A 1976 study published in the journal Nature showed that strange Xenon, which is made in supernova explosions, is present within the composition of the Sun. Those findings by the UMR and Grambling team were largely dismiss

The ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) has just passed an impressive milestone with the publication of the 1,000th peer-reviewed scientific article based on data from the world’s largest and most advanced optical and near-infrared telescope.

“This remarkable landmark, reached in only six years of operations is another clear demonstration of the unique capabilities of this telescope, a true flagship in European research that is continuously opening new horizons in astrophysics”, s

Scientists at Ohio State University have taken a step toward the development of powerful new computers — by making tiny holes that contain nothing at all.

The holes — dark spots in an egg carton-shaped surface of laser light — could one day cradle atoms for quantum computing. Worldwide, scientists are racing to develop computers that exploit the quantum mechanical properties of atoms, explained Greg Lafyatis, associate professor of physics at Ohio State . These so-called quan