An international team of astronomers released today (15 May) new results on the Cosmos, based on the largest map of the heavens ever produced.
This massive atlas emphatically confirmed recent findings that the Universe is full of ’dark energy’, a mysterious substance that makes up three-quarters of our Universe, together with ’dark matter’ which accounts for most of the remaining quarter. Understanding this composition is now one of the most important problem
From snowflakes to the leaves on a tree, objects in nature are made of irregular molecules called fractals. Scientists now have created and captured an image of the largest man-made fractal molecule at the nanoscale.
The molecule, developed by researchers at the University of Akron, Ohio University and Clemson University, eventually could lead to new types of photoelectric cells, molecular batteries and energy storage, according to the scientists, whose study was published onl
Organic light emitting diodes (OLED) are the technology used in making light emitting fabrics used in cell phones and televisions. The fabrication of flexible OLEDs has up to now been held back by the fragility of the brittle indium tin oxide layer that serves as the transparent electrode. But researchers at the Regroupement Québecois sur les Matériaux de Pointe (RQMP) have found a solution which they published in the May online issue of Applied Physics Letters.
“Organic light emitting
In the past few years, scientists have found ways to make light go both faster and slower than its usual speed limit, but now researchers at the University of Rochester have published a paper today in Science on how they’ve gone one step further: pushing light into reverse. As if to defy common sense, the backward-moving pulse of light travels faster than light.
Confused? You’re not alone.
“I’ve had some of the world’s experts scratching their heads over thi
ESO’s Very Large Telescope, equipped with the multi-mode FORS instrument, took an image of NGC 3190, a galaxy so distorted that astronomers gave it two names. And as if to prove them right, in 2002 it fired off, almost simultaneously, two stellar explosions, a very rare event.
This beautiful edge-on spiral galaxy with tightly wound arms and a warped shape that makes it resemble a gigantic potato crisp lies in the constellation Leo (‘the Lion’) [1] and is approximately 70 million
Deep observations of two X-ray bright clusters of galaxies with ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite allowed a group of international astronomers to measure their chemical composition with an unprecedented accuracy. Knowing the chemical composition of galaxy clusters is of crucial importance to understanding the origin of chemical elements in the Universe.
Clusters, or conglomerates, of galaxies are the largest objects in the Universe. By looking at them through optical telescopes it is possible t
A gamma-ray burst (GRB) occurring in our own galaxy could decimate life on Earth, destroying the ozone layer, triggering climate change and drastically altering life’s evolution. However, the good news is that results published online today in the journal Nature show that the likelihood of a natural disaster due to a GRB is much lower than previously thought.
Long-duration GRBs are powerful flashes of high-energy radiation that arise from some of the biggest explosions of extremely
Neptune’s large moon Triton may have abandoned an earlier partner to arrive in its unusual orbit around Neptune. Triton is unique among all the large moons in the solar system because it orbits Neptune in a direction opposite to the planet’s rotation (a “retrograde” orbit). It is unlikely to have formed in this configuration and was probably captured from elsewhere.
In the May 11 issue of the journal Nature, planetary scientists Craig Agnor of the University of California,
Less than one month after insertion into orbit, and after sixteen loops around the planet Venus, ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has reached its final operational orbit on 7 May 2006.
Already at 21:49 CEST on 6th May, when the spacecraft communicated to Earth through ESA’s ground station at New Norcia (Australia), the Venus Express ground control team at ESA’s European Spacecraft Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt (Germany) received advanced confirmation that final orbit was
The next time someone whispers in your ear, think “cochlea.”
The cochlea is the marvelous structure in the inner ear that is shaped like a snail shell and transforms sounds into the nerve impulses that your brain can process and interpret. You may remember learning about it in elementary school anatomy.
This critical hearing organ consists of a fluid-filled tube about a cubic centimeter (three hundredths of an ounce) in volume. For decades, hearing experts thought that
These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show the tectonic ’grabens’ in Tempe Terra, a geologically complex region that is part of the old Martian highlands.
The HRSC obtained these images during orbit 1180 on 19 December 2004 with a ground resolution of approximately 16.5 metres per pixel. The data were acquired in the region of Northern Olympus Mons, at approximately 48.5° North and 288.4° East.
Experts have uncovered a secret Ministry of Defence (MoD) report asserting that UFOs exist, explaining the phenomena and assessing the security threat they may pose to the UK. The report was unearthed by academics at Sheffield Hallam University using the Freedom of Information Act.
The four year study, codenamed Project Condign, says that unexplained UFO sightings are caused by ’plasmas’, which create false memories of alien experiences and burn the skin. The report says these
With ESO’s VLT, astronomers find molecular hydrogen at edge of Universe
Using a quasar located 12.3 billion light-years away as a beacon, a team of astronomers detected the presence of molecular hydrogen in the farthest system ever, an otherwise invisible galaxy that we observe when the Universe was less than 1.5 billion years old, that is, about 10% of its present age. The astronomers find that there is about one hydrogen molecule for 250 hydrogen atoms. A similar set of
Until a couple of years ago, scientists thought the dark equatorial regions of Titan might be liquid oceans.
New radar evidence shows they are seas — but seas of sand dunes like those in the Arabian or Namibian Deserts, a University of Arizona member of the Cassini radar team and colleagues report in Science (May 5).
Radar images taken when the Cassini spacecraft flew by Titan last October show dunes 330 feet (100 meters) high that run parallel to each other for hund
Using an entirely new technology, a research team from Umeå University in Sweden has succeeded in controlling and converting energy from the random movement of atoms.
“You could say that we have found a detox cell where drunken atoms can sober up,” says physicist Peder Sjölund. The findings are being published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
We are surrounded by random, staggering, movements. We don’t notice it, but particles collide with each other in an uncont
A little more than one year after the spectacular descent of ESA’s Huygens on Saturn’s giant moon Titan, scientists from the probe’s Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) have released two new movies of the descent. These represent the best visual product from the mission obtained so far and the most realistic way yet to experience the landing on a far-away world.
These movies were built thanks to the data collected by DISR on 14 January 2005, during the 147-minutes plunge through Titan
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