MAIUS-2 mission launched with FBH laser modules on board. The MAIUS-2 mission rocket was launched into space on December 2, 2023 from Kiruna, Sweden. On board the sounding rocket 75 experiments were scheduled in which compounds of so-called Bose-Einstein condensates, based on rubidium and potassium atoms, are investigated. The findings will be evaluated over the next few months. Laser modules developed and manufactured by the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut play an important role in controlling and manipulating the atoms under extreme conditions. Payload…
This photo of Saturn was taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on October 22, 2023, when the ringed planet was approximately 850 million miles from Earth. Hubble’s ultra-sharp vision reveals a phenomenon called ring spokes. Saturn’s spokes are transient features that rotate along with the rings. Their ghostly appearance only persists for two or three rotations around Saturn. During active periods, freshly-formed spokes continuously add to the pattern. In 1981, NASA’s Voyager 2 first photographed the ring spokes. NASA’s Cassini orbiter also saw the spokes during…
Magnetism occurs depending on how electrons behave. For example, the elementary particles can generate an electric current with their charge and thereby induce a magnetic field. However, magnetism can also arise through the collective alignment of the magnetic moments (spins) in a material. What has not been possible until now, however, is to continuously change the type of magnetism in a crystal. An international research team led by TU Wien professor Andrej Pustogow has now succeeded in doing just that:…
Kaiserslautern physicists in the team of Professor Dr. Herwig Ott have succeeded for the first time in directly observing pure trilobite Rydberg molecules. Particularly interesting is that these molecules have a very peculiar shape, which is reminiscent of trilobite fossils. At the same time, they have the largest electric dipole moments of any molecule known so far. The researchers used a dedicated apparatus, which is capable to prepare these fragile molecules at ultralow temperatures. The results are important to understand…
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on unusual and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that spins on its side. Webb captured this dynamic world with rings, moons, storms, and other atmospheric features – including a seasonal polar cap. The image expands upon a two-color version released earlier this year, adding additional wavelength coverage for a more detailed look. With its exquisite sensitivity, Webb captured Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings, including the elusive Zeta ring – the…
Fabrication method could facilitate materials discovery. Superconductors have intrigued physicists for decades. But these materials, which allow the perfect, lossless flow of electrons, usually only exhibit this quantum-mechanical peculiarity at temperatures so low – a few degrees above absolute zero – as to render them impractical. A research team led by Harvard Professor of Physics and Applied Physics Philip Kim has demonstrated a new strategy for making and manipulating a widely studied class of higher-temperature superconductors, called cuprates, clearing a…
…with implications for next-gen electronic devices. Research appearing in ACS Nano, a premier journal on nanoscience and nanotechnology, reveals the ballistic movement of electrons in graphene in real time. The observations, made at the University of Kansas’ Ultrafast Laser Lab, could lead to breakthroughs in governing electrons in semiconductors, fundamental components in most information and energy technology. “Generally, electron movement is interrupted by collisions with other particles in solids,” said lead author Ryan Scott, a doctoral student in KU’s Department of Physics & Astronomy….
Materials with enhanced thermal conductivity are critical for the development of advanced devices to support applications in communications, clean energy and aerospace. But in order to engineer materials with this property, scientists need to understand how phonons, or quantum units of the vibration of atoms, behave in a particular substance. “Phonons are quite important for studying new materials because they govern several material properties such as thermal conductivity and carrier properties,” said Fuyang Tay, a graduate student in applied physics working…
Brown dwarfs are objects that straddle the dividing line between stars and planets. They form like stars, growing dense enough to collapse under their own gravity, but they never become dense and hot enough to begin fusing hydrogen and turn into a star. At the low end of the scale, some brown dwarfs are comparable with giant planets, weighing just a few times the mass of Jupiter. What are the smallest stars? Astronomers are trying to determine the smallest object…
By studying how spider silk responds to sound, researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have developed a patent for a brand-new microphone technology. Using biomimicry as a model, Binghamton University Distinguished Professor of Engineering Ron Miles worked with then-doctoral student and current Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jian Zhou to patent a bio-inspired flow microphone — the very patent that has now been commercialized by the Canadian venture firm TandemLaunch and its spin-off company Soundskrit, which has also recently released both an analog…
In a study that could help fill some holes in quantum theory, the team recreated a “quantum bomb tester” in a classical droplet test. In our everyday classical world, what you see is what you get. A ball is just a ball, and when lobbed through the air, its trajectory is straightforward and clear. But if that ball were shrunk to the size of an atom or smaller, its behavior would shift into a quantum, fuzzy reality. The ball would…
Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) have discovered a new plasma instability that promises to revolutionize our understanding of the origin of cosmic rays and their dynamic impact on galaxies. At the beginning of the last century, Victor Hess discovered a new phenomenon called cosmic rays that later on earned him the Nobel prize. He conducted high-altitude balloon flights to find that the Earth’s atmosphere is not ionized by the radioactivity of the ground. Instead, he confirmed…
Rice study uncovers new ways to make ordered wafer-scale chiral carbon nanotube architectures. Chiral materials interact with light in very precise ways that are useful for building better displays, sensors and more powerful devices. However, engineering properties such as chirality reliably at scale is still a significant challenge in nanotechnology. Rice University scientists in the lab of Junichiro Kono have developed two ways of making wafer-scale synthetic chiral carbon nanotube (CNT) assemblies starting from achiral mixtures. According to a study in Nature Communications,…
– a step towards more sustainable superconductor applications. The study by Politecnico di Milano, Chalmers University of Technology, and Sapienza University of Rome, published in Nature Communications. Taking a significant step forward in superconductivity research, the discovery could pave the way for sustainable technologies and contribute to a more environmentally friendly future. The study just published in Nature Communications by researchers from Politecnico di Milano, Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg and Sapienza University of Rome sheds light on one…
Scientists are developing an experiment to test whether gravity is quantum – one of the deepest questions about our universe. Scientists are developing an experiment to test whether gravity is quantum In quantum mechanics, which describes the behaviour of atoms and molecules –objects behave differently to everything we know: they can be in a quantum superposition of being in two places at the same time Now, scientists are investigating a way to determine whether gravity operates in this way, by…
Like a shiny, round ornament ready to be placed in the perfect spot on a holiday tree, supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) gleams in a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. As part of the 2023 Holidays at the White House, First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden debuted the first-ever White House Advent Calendar. To showcase the “Magic, Wonder, and Joy” of the holiday season, Dr. Biden and NASA are celebrating with this new image…
Feedback
