New ultra-precise measurements reveal the orbital path of planet 55 Cnc e (nicknamed “Janssen”), a scorchingly hot super-Earth closely circling a distant star. New research sheds light on how the “hell planet” got so devilishly hot and how other worlds might become too toasty for life. That rocky world, 55 Cnc e (nicknamed “Janssen”), orbits its star so closely that a year lasts just 18 hours, its surface is a giant lava ocean, and its interior may be chock-full of…
New laser systems lay groundwork for solar-system-wide optical communication so that future space missions can transmit more data. Researchers report new results from the NASA Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) technology demonstration project, which develops and tests new advanced laser sources for deep-space optical communication. The ability to perform free-space optical communication throughout the solar system would go beyond the capabilities of the radio communication systems used now and provide the bandwidth necessary for future space missions to transmit large…
Light! We rely upon it in everyday uses and in various applications. Sunlight, candles, light bulbs, light-emitting diode (LED) lamps, etc. are just a few to name sources which illuminate objects for us to inspect surroundings and investigate the world. Those light sources differ in their properties and structure. Whereas the sunlight is incoherent, laser sources produce the so-called coherent light, i. e. when the light displays not only the same color, but also the same phase. For everyday uses, humans…
Oddball gamma-ray burst forces revision of theoretical framework. A long-duration gamma-ray burst observed in late 2021 revealed signatures typically associated with short-duration bursts, forcing puzzled scientists to create a new model for the origin of this unique burst. The mysteries of the cosmos continue to amaze astronomers, and with each new observation comes a chance to deepen – or upend – our understanding of the universe. In the Dec. 7 issue of the journal Nature, an international team of astrophysicists…
Photonics focuses on the use of light with all its possibilities. From light control to laser technologies and data transmission, photonics is used in many fields such as medicine, industry, astronomy, microscopy or traffic safety. One of the leading research institutes in this field is the Dresden Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS. After two years of corona-related absence, it is now presenting some of its latest developments in the field of area light modulators at the International Laser and…
Researchers at Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) developed a new glass fiber design that enables exceptionally long observations of a large number of individual, freely moving nanoparticles in a liquid. This allows the size distribution of nano-objects in a sample to be determined with even higher precision. The scientists are thus laying the foundation for even better research into environmental and bioanalytical issues in the future. Whether water analysis, vaccine production or the examination of biological samples –…
The NASA Quesst mission will fly a supersonic aircraft over various communities to test noise-mitigating technology. Supersonic aircraft generate a series of shock waves that merge into two distinct booms. The planes drag these incredibly loud sounds along their flight path, creating unacceptable noise levels over land. So far, sonic booms have prevented commercial supersonic flight over land, but fixing the noise could cut flight times in half. At the 183rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Gautam Shah…
Orbital observations unveil the presence of an enormous mantle plume pushing the surface of Mars upward and driving intense volcanic and seismic activity. On Earth, shifting tectonic plates reshuffle the planet’s surface and make for a dynamic interior, so the absence of such processes on Mars led many to think of it as a dead planet, where not much happened in the past 3 billion years. In the current issue of Nature Astronomy, scientists from the University of Arizona challenge…
Studying an atomic clock on-board a spacecraft inside the orbit of Mercury and very near to the Sun might be the trick to uncovering the nature of dark matter, suggests a new study published in Nature Astronomy. Dark matter makes up more than 80 per cent of mass in the universe, but it has so far evaded detection on Earth, despite decades of experimental efforts. A key component of these searches is an assumption about the local density of dark…
New method harnesses image scanning superresolution for enhanced photon efficiency in light-sheet microscopy. In biological imaging, researchers aim to achieve 3D, high-speed, and high-resolution, with low photobleaching and phototoxicity. The light-sheet fluorescence microscope (LSFM) helps meet that aim. Based on a unique excitation and detection scheme, the LSFM can image live specimens with high spatiotemporal resolution and low photobleaching. It has shown great potential for 3D imaging of biological samples. The principle of LSFM technology is to illuminate the sample…
Demonstration of a free-electron laser driven by plasma accelerated electron beams. Extremely intense light pulses generated by free-electron lasers (FELs) are versatile tools in research. Particularly in the X-ray range, they can be deployed to analyze the details of atomic structures of a wide variety of materials. Until now, FELs such as the European XFEL in Germany are based on conventional electron accelerators, which make them long and expensive. An international team led by Synchrotron SOLEIL, France, and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf…
Back in the late 1980s, astronomers from several countries initiated the effort to build a telescope with a collecting area approaching one square kilometer (one million square meters). Some three decades later, after years of engineering design and international science diplomacy, the project reaches another important milestone this year. On December 05, construction of the SKA Observatory (SKAO)’s telescopes formally begins with ceremonies in South Africa and Australia. It was already a long way to the foundation of the SKA…
Scientists develop a meaningful approach to analyze how a material’s microstructure relates to its macroscopic physical properties. Soft magnetic materials, i.e., materials that can be easily magnetized and demagnetized, play an essential role in transformers, generators, and motors. The ability of a magnetic material to resist an external magnetic field without changing its magnetization is known as “coercivity,” a property closely linked to the energy loss. In applications such as electric cars, low-coercivity materials are highly desirable to achieve higher…
Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the direction of Prof. WANG Rongsheng and Prof. LU Quanming, used data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission to directly observe bursty and turbulent magnetic reconnection in the solar wind. Their findings were published in Nature Astronomy. Magnetic reconnection is an energy-releasing process that causes explosive phenomena in interplanetary space. During the process, the magnetic energy is rapidly released to heat and accelerate the…
Large telescope receiver optics confirmed in lab prior to installation at Simons Observatory. Some of the largest and most sophisticated telescopes ever made are under construction at the Simons Observatory in Northern Chile. They are designed to measure cosmic microwave background – electromagnetic radiation left over from the formation of the universe – with unprecedented sensitivity. In a new study, researchers detail an analysis method that could improve these telescopes by evaluating their performance before installation. “We developed a way…
…laser upgrade opens new research possibilities. A new addition to the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator Center means researchers can explore extreme plasmas, radiation biology, materials for quantum computers, and beyond. Things are looking brighter than ever at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center run by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. A recently completed upgrade will expand the center’s capabilities into new areas, including studies of particle acceleration, extremely hot plasmas, cancer treatment techniques, and materials for…
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