The Mars Express radar, MARSIS, has now been deployed for more than four months. Here we report on the activities so far.
For the operational period up to now, Mars Express has been making its closest approaches to Mars predominantly in the daytime portion of its orbit. The MARSIS radar’s scientists are mainly collecting data about the upper layers of the Martian atmosphere, or ‘ionosphere’, which is the highly electrically conducting layer that is maintained by sunlight.
Astrophysicists at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have exploded one of two competing theories about how stars form inside immense clouds of interstellar gas.
Using supercomputer simulations that take into account the turbulence within a cloud collapsing to form a star, the researchers conclude that the “competitive accretion” model cannot explain what astronomers observe of star-forming regions studied to date.
A series of copper ridges nearly doubles the resolution of experimental X-ray sensors, enabling more precise identification of the X-ray “fingerprints” of different atoms, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report. The sensors are expected to be powerful tools for astronomy, such as in determining the temperature and motion of matter in space, and for semiconductor materials analysis, helping to differentiate between nanoscale contaminant particles on sil
ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory has discovered a new, highly populated class of X-ray fast ‘transient’ binary stars, undetected in previous observations.
With this discovery, Integral confirms how much it is contributing to revealing a whole hidden Universe.
The new class of double star systems is characterised by a very compact object that produces highly energetic, recurrent and fast-growing X-ray outbursts, and a very luminous ‘supergiant’ companion.
CERN has received the High Performance Computing (HPC) Public Awareness Award at a ceremony at Supercomputing 2005 in Seattle this week. Supercomputing 2005 is the foremost international conference for HPC. The award was presented by HPCwire, the leading HPC publication, as one of their 2005 Editors’ Choice Awards, a category where the winner is determined by a panel of recognized HPC luminaries and contributing editors from industry. The award citation is for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Creating Pub
Late last evening local time an Ariane 5 ECA launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place two satellites into geostationary transfer orbit . Liftoff took place at 20:46 in French Guiana (00:46 CET).
The 50.5-metre tall launcher was carrying the Spaceway 2 telecommunication satellite for the American operator DIRECTV and the Telkom 2 telecommunication satellite for the Indonesian operator PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk. With a mass of over 6100 kg,
Vibrations of magnetization have for the first time been captured on camera by scientists at The University of Manchester revealing a rainbow of colours.
For the first time, images of induced magnetic pulsations at the frequency of visible light have been captured – as reported in Nature (17 November, 2005).
The colours are produced when a new type of material, created by the research team, is exposed to light. The magnetic vibrations induced in the material are so strong t
Today the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) opens a new high-throughput crystallization facility at its Outstation located on the campus of the German Synchrotron Radiation Facility (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany. The facility, made possible by major funds from the German Ministry for Science and Education (BMBF), will combine technological advances in new ways to transform proteins into crystals, a key step in efforts to automate the process of analyzing protein structures. “We’re very
Latest study shows surprising variations in individual nanotube efficiency
Nanotubes are the poster children of the nanotechnology revolution. These tiny carbon tubes – less than 1/50,000 the diameter of a human hair – possess novel properties that have researchers excitedly exploring dozens of potential applications ranging from transistors to space elevators.
Nanotubes also produce light with a number of interesting properties, which have led researchers to propose
Unprecedented nonlinear optical efficiency could make small organic molecules useful for optical computing, data processing and telecommunication
Researchers from Lehigh University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) have reported unprecedented nonlinear optical efficiency in some small organic molecules that makes the molecules potentially useful for optical computing, optical data processing, and optical telecommunication.
In an article to
Ohio State University researchers have invented a new organic polymer tunnel diode – an electronic component that could one day lead to plastic computer memory and plastic logic circuits on computer chips. Today, computer chips use mainly inorganic silicon.
The diode transmits electrical current at room temperature, and its design lends itself to easy, inexpensive manufacturing for smart cards and other memory devices, said Paul Berger, a professor of electrical and computer engineer
Optical and structural properties of PbS nanoparticles produced in Zeolite Na-X
The study of semiconductor nanoparticles embedded in a matrix is currently a very active research area. These small particles have physicochemical properties quite different from those in the bulk material. A great variety of semiconductors nanoparticles have been synthesized in different matrix such as polymers, glasses and zeolites with the main purpose to modify their properties by controll
A new computer model indicates Jupiter’s massive winds are generated from deep within the giant planet’s interior, a UCLA scientist and international colleagues report today in the journal Nature.
Jupiter’s powerful winds are very different from those on Earth. They continually circle the planet, and have changed very little in the 300 years that scientists have studied them. Massive east-west winds in Jupiter’s equatorial region reach approximately 340 miles p
A Stanford University research team has designed the first microscope sensitive enough to track the real-time motion of a single protein down to the level of its individual atoms. Writing in the Nov. 13 online issue of the journal Nature, the Stanford researchers explain how the new instrument allowed them to settle long-standing scientific debates about the way genes are copied from DNA–a biochemical process that’s essential to life.
In a second paper published in the No
Astronomers from British and German universities have made a new discovery which could provide evidence for a previously unknown supermassive black hole millions of times heavier than the sun.
The team from the Centre for Astrophysics Research at the University of Hertfordshire and at the Dr Remeis-Sternwarte at the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg/D have discovered a short-lived massive star, named HE 0437-5439, that is moving at a very high speed through the outer halo of t
One of the world’s largest optical telescopes, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), in which the Armagh Observatory has a share, was officially unveiled today by the South African President Thabo Mbeki in Sutherland, a small town in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Also known as Africa’s Giant Eye, SALT (www.salt.ac.za) is a new ground-breaking project which will enable astronomers from six countries, including the UK, to study more closely the lives of stars and the origins of
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