Black holes are the most fuel efficient engines in the Universe, according to a new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. By making the first direct estimate of how efficient or “green” black holes are, this work gives insight into how black holes generate energy and affect their environment.
The new Chandra finding shows that most of the energy released by matter falling toward a supermassive black hole is in the form of high-energy jets traveling at near the speed of light
The Binary Research Institute (BRI) has found that orbital characteristics of the recently discovered planetoid, “Sedna”, demonstrate the possibility that our sun might be part of a binary star system. A binary star system consists of two stars gravitationally bound orbiting a common center of mass. Once thought to be highly unusual, such systems are now considered to be common in the Milky Way galaxy.
Walter Cruttenden at BRI, Professor Richard Muller at UC Berkeley, Dr. Daniel Whitmire
To celebrate the NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 16 years of success, the two space agencies are releasing this mosaic image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82). It is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82, a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions.
Throughout the central region of Messier 82, young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside in our Mil
A small but surprisingly efficient and multi-purpose thermograph has been developed by Russian scientists. It helps to measure within seconds the temperature of surface in the most detailed way. It also assists in diagnosing – be it a pipeline or a human being. It is able of diagnosing any object if the processes taking place in it somehow affect the temperature of its different parts.
“Naturally, there are a lot of various thermovisors now in general, i.e. the devices which allow to vis
Scientists have created a molecular switch that could play a key role in thousands of nanotech applications. The Mol-Switch project successfully developed a demonstrator to prove the principle, despite deep scepticism from specialist colleagues in biotechnology and biophysics.
“Frankly, some researchers didn’t think what we were attempting was possible,” says Dr Keith Firman, at Portsmouth University and Mol-Switch project coordinator, funded under the European Commission’s Future a
The Columbus laboratory is Europe’s cornerstone contribution to the International Space Station. Final integration has been successfully completed in Bremen. Columbus will be shipped to Cape Canaveral at the end of May, from where it will be flown on a Space Shuttle to the ISS in the second half of 2007.
During its planned 10-year operational lifetime, scientific researchers in Europe, with the help of the astronauts onboard and a Europe-wide support infrastructure on the ground, will
To celebrate the NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 16 years of success, the two space agencies are releasing the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of Messier 82 (M82), a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions.
Located 12 million light-years away, M82 appears high in the northern spring sky in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It is also called the ’Cigar Galax
A team of Control Engineering researchers at the Public University of Navarra has successfully finalised their work on QFT Multivariable Robust Control of Darwin-type Satellites with large flexible structures, undertaken for the European Space Agency (ESA).
The scientists have designed a new automatic control system capable of governing the Darwin Project satellite telescopes.
The Darwin Project
The European Space Agency is currently developing what is known as the Darw
Try mixing caramel into vanilla ice cream — you will always end up with globs and swirls of caramel. Scientists are finding that galaxies may distribute themselves in similar ways throughout the universe and in places where there is lots of so-called dark matter.
“Our findings suggest that unseen dark matter — which emits no light but has mass — has had a major effect on the formation and evolution of galaxies, and that bright active galaxies are only born within dark matter
Scientists have secured their first look at the birth of monstrous stars that shine 100 000 times more brightly than the Sun, thanks to ESA’s Infrared Space Observatory (ISO).
The discovery allows astronomers to begin investigating why only some regions of space promote the growth of these massive stars.
Space is littered with giant clouds of gas. Occasionally, regions within these clouds collapse to form stars. “One of the major questions in the field of study is why do
Raw code for “unbreakable” encryption, based on the principles of quantum physics, has been generated at record speed over optical fiber at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The work, reported today at the SPIE Defense & Security Symposium in Orlando, Fla.,* is a step toward using conventional high-speed networks such as broadband Internet and local-area networks to transmit ultra-secure video for applications such as surveillance.
The N
Hubble has captured the most detailed images to date of the open star clusters NGC 265 and NGC 290 in the Small Magellanic Cloud – two sparkling sets of gemstones in the southern sky.
Two new composite images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show a myriad of stars in crystal clear detail. The brilliant open star clusters, NGC 265 and NGC 290, are located about 200,000 light-years away and are roughly 65 light-years across.
Using data from ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, an international group of astrophysicists discovered that one spinning neutron star doesn’t appear to be the stable rotator scientists would expect. These X-ray observations promise to give new insights into the thermal evolution and finally the interior structure of neutron stars.
Spinning neutron stars, also known as pulsars, are generally known to be highly stable rotators. Thanks to their periodic signals, emitted either i
Laser that could save computer industry from ’interconnect bottleneck’ uses quantum paint — and a hairdryer
Researchers at the University of Toronto have created a laser that could help save the $200-billion dollar computer chip industry from a looming crisis dubbed the “interconnect bottleneck.”
But this isn’t a laser in the stereotypical sense — no corded, clunky boxes projecting different coloured lights. In fact, Professor Ted Sargent, of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. De
Scientists observe strong spectral signals from spikes on gold particles
New optics research from Rice University’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics suggests that tiny gold particles called nanostars could become powerful chemical sensors.
The findings are available online and due to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nano Letters.
Nanophotonics is a rapidly growing field of study that looks at ways to generate and manipulate light using ultrasmall, e
ESA’s Venus Express has returned the first-ever images of the hothouse planet’s south pole from a distance of 206 452 kilometres, showing surprisingly clear structures and unexpected detail. The images were taken 12 April during the spacecraft’s initial capture orbit after successful arrival on 11 April 2006.
Engineers have lost no time in switching on several of the instruments and yesterday the VMC (Venus Monitoring Camera) and VIRTIS (Visible and Infrared Thermal Imagin
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