A stunning image released by the Gemini Observatory captures the graceful interactions of a galactic ballet, on a stage some 300 million light years away. The clarity of the image is thanks, in part, to an instrument built in the UK, the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS).
The galaxies, members of a famous troupe called Stephan’s Quintet, are literally tearing each other apart. Their shapes are warped by gravitational interactions occurring over millions of years. Sweeping arches of

A new study of a large number of planetary nebulae has revealed that rings, such as those seen here around the Cat’s Eye Nebula, are much more common that thought so far and have been found in at least one third of all planetary nebulae. Although the rings may be the key to explaining the final agonized ‘gasp’ of the dying central star, the mystery behind the Cat’s Eye nebula’s nested Russian doll structure remains largely unsolved.

In this detailed view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Sp

Using integrated circuit fabrication techniques, a team of researchers from Yale University has bound a single photon to a superconducting device engineered to behave like a single atom, forming an artificial molecule. It’s the first experimental result in a field Yale professors Robert Schoelkopf and Steven Girvin have dubbed Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics.

The superconducting devices can be operated as qubits, the basic element of information storage in the field of quantum

VLT Images and Spectra of Intriguing Object near Young Brown Dwarf

Is this newly discovered feeble point of light the long-sought bona-fide image of an exoplanet?

A research paper by an international team of astronomers provides sound arguments in favour, but the definitive answer is now awaiting further observations.

On several occasions during the past years, astronomical images revealed faint objects, seen near much brighter stars. Some of these have been thought

These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show part of a heavily eroded impact crater at Solis Planum, in the Thaumasia region of Mars.

The images were taken during orbit 431 in May 2004 with a ground resolution of approximately 48 metres per pixel. The displayed region is located south of Solis Planum at longitude 271° East and latitude of about 33° South.

The larger eroded impact crater in the lower left of thi

A report in the journal Nature describes the first experiment in which a single photon is coherently coupled to a single superconducting qubit (quantum bit or “artificial atom”).

This represents a new paradigm in which quantum optics experiments can be performed in a micro-chip electrical circuit using microwaves instead of visible photons and lasers. The work is a collaboration of the laboratory of Professor Robert Schoelkopf and the theory group of Professor Steven Girvin in the

Spacecraft observations of the landing area for one of NASA’s two Mars rovers now indicate there likely was an enormous sea or lake covering the region in the past, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.

Research Associate Brian Hynek of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics said data from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft now show that the region surrounding the Opportunity rover’s landing site probably had a body of water at leas

At the Institute of Physics conference Photon 04 yesterday, Professor Jim Hough, one of the UK’s leading scientists, revealed that he thinks high street bookmakers are crazy to be offering odds of 100-1 on whether Gravitational Waves (wrinkles in relativity) will be discovered before 2010. He has placed a personal bet of £25 – the maximum Ladbrokes allowed him to stake. The available odds were quickly cut from an initial offering of 500-1.

Professor Jim Hough, from the Universi

Scientists have obtained their best measurement yet of the size and contents of a neutron star, an ultra-dense object containing the strangest and rarest matter in the universe.

The measurement may lead to a better understanding of nature’s building blocks — protons, neutrons and their constituent quarks — as they are compressed inside the neutron star to a density trillions of times greater than on Earth.

Tod Strohmayer of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,

The joint NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission is continuing to provide a fascinating insight into the Saturn system. The latest detection of one small body, possibly two, orbiting in the planet’s contorted F ring region and a ring of new material associated with Saturn’s moon Atlas, has been made by a team of UK scientists.

A small object was discovered moving near the outside edge of the F ring, interior to the orbit of Saturn’s moon Pandora. The object was first seen by Professor C

A ceremony to mark development phase completion of Cupola was held in Turin, Italy, on Monday 6 September. From inside Cupola, a dome-shaped structure fitted with seven specially developed windows, astronauts will have a panoramic view for observing and guiding operations on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS).

With a diameter of about 2 metres and height of 1.5 metres, the European-built Cupola provides a shirtsleeve working environment for two crewmembers. The erg

A new technology developed by scientists at IBM could bring the promise of personalized medicine one step closer to reality.

Using a basic computer language, the researchers created a “smart” DNA stream that contains a patient’s entire medical record, according to a report in the upcoming Oct. 11 print edition of the Journal of Proteome Research, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. The report was published online July 2

Scientists at Ohio State University have found that a special type of glass that is finding use in the electronics industry softens when exposed to very low-level laser light, and hardens back into its original condition when the light is switched off.

The discovery — made by accident as physicists were trying to study properties of the material — may one day enable new uses for the glass. Ratnasingham Sooryakumar said that he and former doctoral student Jared Gump thought they wer

A new way of taking pictures of the retina could give medics a powerful new tool in diagnosing and monitoring the most prevalent diseases of the eye — glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and age related macula degeneration. The technique was revealed today at the Institute of Physics conference Photon 04 in Glasgow.

By 2020 there will be 200 million visually-impaired people worldwide but 80% of these cases are preventable or treatable. For this to happen, screening and early detection

A team of scientists from Glasgow today revealed a new technique that will allow dentists to detect and study the tell-tale signs of tooth decay before too much damage is done.

Speaking at one of the opening sessions at the Institute of Physics conference Photon 04 in Glasgow, Simon Poland outlined a new way of making a detailed 3D picture of a diseased area of a tooth, which could be done while a patient waits. Simon Poland, from the Institute of Photonics at the University of St

“These tiny relics, a millionth of a meter small, could point us to the first steps of dust formation in both old and young stars,” stated Dr. Larry Nittler of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Nittler is co-author of a study published in the September 3, 2004, issue of Science,* about the origin of two presolar grains from the Tieschitz meteorite and the implications they have for resolving observational and theoretical challenges of dusty outflows surrounding