The mystery of the spherical kilonova. When neutron stars collide, they produce an explosion that, contrary to what was believed until recently, is shaped almost like a perfect sphere. Although how this is possible is still a mystery, the discovery may provide a new key to measuring the age of the Universe. The discovery was made by an international collaboration with participation of researchers of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt and led by astrophysicists from the University of…
Gas clouds in the Cygnus X Region, a region where stars form, are composed of a dense core of molecular hydrogen (H2) and an atomic shell. These ensembles of clouds interact with each other dynamically in order to quickly form new stars. That is the result of observations conducted by an international team led by scientists at the University of Cologne’s Institute of Astrophysics and at the University of Maryland. Until now, it was unclear how this process precisely unfolds….
Researchers and engineers from QuTech and Eindhoven University of Technology have created Majorana particles and measured their properties with great control. These Majoranas are so-called ‘poor man’s Majoranas’ based on two quantum dots in a nanowire, which could be scaled up to a larger chain of quantum dots with more resilient Majorana behavior. Majorana particles are one of several promising candidates for stable quantum bits, the building blocks of quantum computers. The researchers have published their results in Nature. Quantum…
Using lasers, researchers can directly control a property of nuclei called spin, that can encode quantum information. In principle, quantum-based devices such as computers and sensors could vastly outperform conventional digital technologies for carrying out many complex tasks. But developing such devices in practice has been a challenging problem despite great investments by tech companies as well as academic and government labs. Today’s biggest quantum computers still only have a few hundred “qubits,” the quantum equivalents of digital bits. Now,…
Spain becomes the first country in the world to lead a global network of autonomous observatories. The BOOTES network, with seven facilities, is a pioneer in space surveillance and the study of transient cosmic phenomena, which shine briefly, intensely. “BOOTES is the result of almost twenty-five years of continuous effort, since we installed the first station in 1998 at INTA (Arenosillo, Huelva), the institution that initially supported the project. The complete deployment represents a scientific milestone since it is the…
In our solar system, everything seems to be in order: The smaller rocky planets, such as Venus, Earth or Mars, orbit relatively close to our star. The large gas and ice giants, such as Jupiter, Saturn or Neptune, on the other hand, move in wide orbits around the sun. In two studies published in the scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers from the Universities of Bern and Geneva and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS show that…
… moves closer to 2025 launch. SwRI leads payload management of mission to study the boundary of the solar system. NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft has completed the Mission Critical Design Review and is on track to meet its scheduled 2025 launch. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is managing the payload office, providing the scientific instrument Compact Dual Ion Composition Experiment (CoDICE) and is participating on other instrument teams for the mission, which will study the interaction between…
Scientists at the Universities of Würzburg and Bielefeld detect the quantum properties of collective optical-electronic oscillations on the nanoscale. The results could contribute to the development of novel computer chips. Whether the light in our living spaces is on or off can be regulated in everyday life simply by reaching for the light switch. However, when the space for the light is shrunk to a few nanometers, quantum mechanical effects dominate, and it is unclear whether there is light in…
The first model to describe the ways variously sized particles can jam together. The ways in which particles, such as sand or liquid droplets, behave during various mechanical processes is well studied. Typically, in situations where space is constrained, jams can occur, and understanding this can be useful in various industries. However, only instances where the particles in question are similar or have a limited range of sizes have been successfully modeled. For the first time, a model has been…
The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 10:48 a.m. EDT on Feb. 11, 2023. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. This flare is classified as an X1.1 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its…
A team of scientists from France and Austria has discovered a new abiotic pathway for the formation of peptide chains from amino acids – a key chemical step in the origin of life. The current study provides strong evidence that this crucial step for the emergence of life can indeed occur even in the very inhospitable conditions of space. The origin of life is one of the great questions of mankind. One of the prerequisites for the emergence of life…
New images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope herald the start of the planet’s “spoke season” surrounding its equinox, when enigmatic features appear across its rings. The cause of the spokes, as well as their seasonal variability, has yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists. Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn’s much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on…
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument reveals compelling evidence of a mass migration of stars into a galaxy other than the Milky Way. Over the course of billions of years, galaxies grow and evolve by forging new stars and merging with other galaxies through aptly named “galactic immigration” events. Astronomers try to uncover the histories of these immigration events by studying the motions of individual stars throughout a galaxy and its extended halo of stars and dark matter. Such cosmic archaeology,…
Artificial intelligence assists quantum metrology for greater efficiency with an innovative model-free learning algorithm. Quantum sensing represents one of the most promising applications of quantum technologies, with the aim of using quantum resources to improve measurement sensitivity. In particular, sensing of optical phases is one of the most investigated problems, considered key to developing mass-produced technological devices. Optimal usage of quantum sensors requires regular characterization and calibration. In general, such calibration is an extremely complex and resource-intensive task — especially…
Astronomers from the University of Sheffield have found a new ring system in our Solar System. A new ring system discovered in our Solar System Astronomers from the University of Sheffield have found a new ring system in our Solar System The rings are around Quaoar, which is a Pluto-sized dwarf planet orbiting beyond Neptune Quaoar’s rings are unique, orbiting much further away from the planet than the rings around Saturn, posing a challenge to ring formation theories The discovery…
Research offers a new approach to studying complex light in complex systems, such as transporting classical and quantum light through optical fiber, underwater channels, living tissue and other highly aberrated systems. An exciting prospect in modern optics is to exploit “patterns of light”, how the light looks in its many degrees of freedom, often referred to as structured light. Each pattern could form an encoding alphabet for optical communication or might be used in manufacturing to enhance performance and productivity. Unfortunately,…
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