Researchers from Jena Deliver Optics for Greenhouse Gas Monitoring. ESA’s CO2M space mission aims to find out exactly how many CO₂ -greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere is caused by human activity. Researchers from Jena have developed and manufactured what is probably the most important optical assembly for the spectrometers on board the satellites: the disperser. It allows high-precision measurements of greenhouse gases and their concentration. The first airworthy assembly has now been fully delivered. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide…

David Stanley’s interest in climate change led him to develop a program to improve how we gather data to study the inside of a cloud. The program simulated multiple satellites, collecting images of a cloud from many angles at the same time, which could help us to better understand what’s happening inside the cloud. “Normally, we can only see the outside features of a cloud,” Stanley said. “Computed cloud tomography gets its name from computed tomography which is like a…

Quantum squeezing is a concept in quantum physics where the uncertainty in one aspect of a system is reduced while the uncertainty in another related aspect is increased. Imagine squeezing a round balloon filled with air. In its normal state, the balloon is perfectly spherical. When you squeeze one side, it gets flattened and stretched out in the other direction. This represents what is happening in a squeezed quantum state: you are reducing the uncertainty (or noise) in one quantity,…

Discovery of orbital angular momentum monopoles boosts the emerging field of orbitronics, an energy-efficient alternative to electronics. Orbital angular momentum monopoles have been the subject of great theoretical interest as they offer major practical advantages for the emerging field of orbitronics, a potential energy-efficient alternative to traditional electronics. Now, through a combination of robust theory and experiments at the Swiss Light Source SLS at Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, their existence has been demonstrated. The discovery is published in the journal…

Some of the first data from an international space mission is confirming decades worth of speculation about the galactic neighborhoods of supermassive black holes. More exciting than the data, though, is the fact that the long-awaited satellite behind it—the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission or XRISM—is just getting started providing such unparalleled insights. “We have found the right tool for developing an accurate picture of the unexplored orders of magnitude around supermassive black holes,” Jon Miller, professor of astronomy at…

Recently, a research group led by Prof. WANG Xianlong from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, successfully synthesized high-energy-density materials cubic gauche nitrogen (cg-N) at atmospheric pressure by treating potassium azide (KN3) using the plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique (PECVD). The research results were published in Science Advances. Cg-N is a pure nitrogen material consisting of nitrogen atoms bonded by N-N single bonds, resembling the structure of diamond. It has attracted attention because it…

… comes together with PPPL’s contributions. First plasma is coming soon to the University of Seville’s compact spherical tokamak called SMART. Like atoms coming together to release their power, fusion researchers worldwide are joining forces to solve the world’s energy crisis. Harnessing the power of fusing plasma as a reliable energy source for the power grid is no easy task, requiring global contributions. The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) — a U.S. national laboratory funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) — is leading several efforts on this…

In a surprise finding, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. The stars, called novae, are not caught inside the jet, but apparently in a dangerous neighborhood nearby. The finding is confounding researchers searching for an explanation. “We don’t know what’s going on, but it’s just a very exciting finding,” said lead author Alec Lessing of…

Researchers at the University of Regensburg in collaboration with IBM Research Europe – Zurich have found a way to access excited states of single molecules and determine their energies. A very fundamental property of atoms and molecules are the energies, at which electrons can be added to or removed from the compound. This is decisive for many chemical reactions, in which electrons are exchanged. However, it is not only of fundamental interest: Organic compounds are promising candidates for advanced solar…

Meandering conduction channels and the tunable nature of quantized charge transport. Topological protection provides unprecedented robustness of physical phenomena against all kinds of perturbations; but in doing so, it exercises topological censorship by hiding all kinds of interesting and important microscopic information. Recent experiments have collected microscopic information precisely of the kind hidden by such topological censorship. The work by Douçot, Kovrizhin, and Moessner provides a detailed microscopic theory that goes beyond such topological censorship. It not only identifies an…

A new study shows Mars’ early thick atmosphere could be locked up in the planet’s clay surface. Mars wasn’t always the cold desert we see today. There’s increasing evidence that water once flowed on the Red Planet’s surface, billions of years ago. And if there was water, there must also have been a thick atmosphere to keep that water from freezing. But sometime around 3.5 billion years ago, the water dried up, and the air, once heavy with carbon dioxide,…

A “saga” about 101 galaxies like the Milky Way and their companions. Is our home galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, a special place? A team of scientists started a journey to answer this question more than a decade ago. Commenced in 2013, the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey studies galaxy systems like the Milky Way. Now, the SAGA Survey just published three new research articles that provide us with new insights into the uniqueness of our own Milky Way Galaxy after completing the…

Although Mars is currently a cold, dry planet, geological evidence suggests that liquid water existed there around 3 to 4 billion years ago. Where there is water, there is usually life. In their quest to answer the burning question about life on Mars, researchers at Tohoku University created a detailed model of organic matter production in the ancient Martian atmosphere. Organic matter refers to the remains of living things such as plants and animals, or the byproduct of certain chemical…

A new paper unravels the mysteries of a bizarre physical state known as the pseudogap, which has close ties to the sought-after state called high-temperature superconductivity, in which electrical resistance disappears. By cleverly applying a computational technique, scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding the ‘pseudogap,’ a long-standing puzzle in quantum physics with close ties to superconductivity. The discovery, presented in the September 20 issue of Science, will help scientists in their quest for room-temperature superconductivity, a holy grail of…

… shape-shift into versatile robots. Scientists at MPI-IS have developed electrically driven robotic components, called HEXEL modules, which can snap together into high-speed reconfigurable robots. Magnets embedded along the outside of the modules allow them to electrically and mechanically connect to other modules, forming robots with diverse shapes and capabilities. HEXEL modules are a promising technology for use in resource-limited environments, such as on space or rescue missions, and can be used to construct versatile robots from redundant parts, altogether…

Researchers from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands have been able to initiate a controlled movement in the very heart of an atom. They caused the atomic nucleus to interact with one of the electrons in the outermost shells of the atom. This electron could be manipulated and read out through the needle of a scanning tunneling microscope. The research, published in Nature Communications today, offers prospects for storing quantum information inside the nucleus, where it is safe from…