IceCube telescope: High-energy neutrinos discovered in galaxy NGC 1068. For over ten years the IceCube Observatory in the Antarctic has been monitoring the light traces of extragalactic neutrinos. While evaluating the observatory’s data, an international research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) discovered a high-energy neutrino radiation source in the active galaxy NGC 1068, also known as Messier 77. The universe is full of mysteries. One of these mysteries involves active galaxies with gigantic black holes located…
Konstanz physicists make a surprising discovery when they detect surface melting in glasses. In 1842, the famous British researcher Michael Faraday made an amazing observation by chance: A thin layer of water forms on the surface of ice, even though it is well below zero degrees. So the temperature is below the melting point of ice, yet the surface of the ice has melted. This liquid layer on ice crystals is also why snowballs stick together. It was not until…
A signature in the X-ray light emitted by a highly magnetised dead star known as a magnetar suggests the star has a solid surface with no atmosphere, according to a new study by an international team involving UCL (University College London) researchers. The study, published in the journal Science and led by researchers at the University of Padova, uses data from a NASA satellite, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), which was launched last December. The satellite, a collaboration between…
Gemini North telescope on Hawai‘i reveals first dormant, stellar-mass black hole in our cosmic backyard. Astronomers using the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, have discovered the closest-known black hole to Earth. This is the first unambiguous detection of a dormant stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way. Its close proximity to Earth, a mere 1600 light-years away, offers an intriguing target of study to advance our understanding of the evolution of binary systems. Black holes are the most…
An international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of Adelaide, have gathered new evidence about the energetic core of an active galaxy millions of lights years away by detecting neutrino particles emitted by it. The scientists have found that NGC 1068, also known as Messier 77, in the constellation of Cetus, is a high-energy neutrino emitter. They have observed the particles using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. “We are peering inside active regions of the NGC 1068…
– surprising observations of X-ray pulsar. Tübingen-led international research team evaluates first direct measurements by IXPE space telescope. An X-ray pulsar is a rotating magnetized neutron star. The very first direct measurement of the polarization of an X-ray pulsar by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) space telescope has challenged previous models of such systems. The degree of polarization of the X-ray pulsar Hercules X-1 was much lower than theoretically predicted, so astrophysicists are now having to reconsider their basic…
Scientists of the QUEST Institute at PTB have realized and evaluated a new type of optical atomic clock. They report on their results in the current issue of Nature. Optical atomic clocks are the most accurate measuring instruments ever built and are becoming key tools for basic and applied research, for example to test the constancy of natural constants or for height measurements in geodesy. Now, researchers at the QUEST Institute at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), in collaboration with the…
Planets can force their host stars to act younger than their age, according to a new study of multiple systems authored by scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This may be the best evidence to date that some planets apparently slow down the aging process for their host stars. While the anti-aging property of hot Jupiters, that is, giant gas exoplanets that orbit a star at Mercury’s distance or closer, has been…
Scientists funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation have been exploring the special properties of the star Gamma Columbae. Their hypothesis: it is a binary star whose heart has been laid bare. A bright star visible to the naked eye, but until recently a star that was of no particular interest to scientists. Gamma Columbae, a star in the Columba constellation located some 900 light years from Earth, has just revealed its astonishing history: it is thought to be the…
Researchers from the NanoPhoton Center at DTU have developed a nanostructure that compresses the light to become 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. This fundamental scientific breakthrough can be important for multiple fields, including energy-efficient technology. Until recently, it was widely believed among physicists that it was impossible to compress light below the so-called diffraction limit (see fact box), except when using metal nanoparticles, which unfortunately also absorb light. It therefore seemed impossible to compress light strongly in dielectric…
Microsphere assistance enables interferometric topography measurements. When measuring with light, the lateral extent of the structures that can be resolved by an optical imaging system is fundamentally diffraction limited. Overcoming this limitation is a topic of great interest in recent research, and several approaches have been published in this area. In a recent study published in the Journal of Optical Microsystems, a team of researchers from the University of Kassel in Germany present an approach that uses microspheres placed directly on…
As dense as it gets: With the exception of black holes, neutron stars are the densest objects in our universe. As their name suggests, neutron stars are mainly made of neutrons. However, our knowledge about the matter produced during the collision of two neutron stars is still limited. Scientists from Goethe University Frankfurt and the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics in Pohang have now developed a new model that gives insights about matter under such extreme conditions. After a…
A team of quantum physicists from Innsbruck, Austria, led by three-time ERC laureate Francesca Ferlaino has established a new method to observe vortices in dipolar quantum gases. These quantum vortices are considered a strong indication of superfluidity, the frictionless flow of a quantum gas, and have now been experimentally detected for the first time in dipolar gases. Vortices are ubiquitous in nature: Whirling up water can create swirls. When the atmosphere is stirred up, huge tornadoes can form. This is…
A group of researchers has, for the first time, identified rare earth elements produced by neutron star mergers. Details of this milestone were published in The Astrophysical Journal on October 26, 2022. When two neutron stars spiral inwards and merge, the resulting explosion produces a large amount of heavy elements that make up our Universe. The first confirmed example of this process was an event in 2017 named GW 170817. Yet, even five years later, identifying the specific elements created…
Since 2018, when the NASA InSight Mission deployed the SEIS seismometer on the surface of Mars, seismologists and geophysicists at ETH Zurich have been listening to the seismic pings of more than 1,300 marsquakes. Again and again, the researchers registered smaller and larger Mars quakes. A detailed analysis of the quakes’ location and spectral character brought a surprise. With epicentres originating in the vicinity of the Cerberus Fossae – a region consisting of a series of rifts or graben –…
A recently released set of topography maps provides new evidence for an ancient northern ocean on Mars. The maps offer the strongest case yet that the planet once experienced sea-level rise consistent with an extended warm and wet climate, not the harsh, frozen landscape that exists today. “What immediately comes to mind as one the most significant points here is that the existence of an ocean of this size means a higher potential for life,” said Benjamin Cardenas, assistant professor…
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