Scientists have obtained new insight into the unique power source for many of Jupiter’s auroras, the most spectacular and active auroras in the Solar System. Extended monitoring of the giant planet with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory detected the presence of highly charged particles crashing into the atmosphere above its poles.
X-ray spectra measured by Chandra showed that the auroral activity was produced by ions of oxygen and other elements that were stripped of most
It is the hugest superconducting solenoid in the world and it is able to generate a magnetic field 100.000 times stronger than the Earth’s one
The hugest superconducting solenoid ever built in the world is finally completed. It is formed by five huge modules connected each other and will generate a magnetic field of 4 Tesla, equal to 100.000 times the Earth magnetic field. This extraordinary system will be dedicated to Cms (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiment at Lhc accelerator at
Cornell University-led team operating the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS), the largest of the three main instruments on NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, has discovered a mysterious population of distant and enormously powerful galaxies radiating in the infrared spectrum with many hundreds of times more power than our Milky Way galaxy. Their distance from Earth is about 11 billion light years, or 80 percent of the way back to the Big Bang.
Virtually everything about this new clas
An international team of astronomers using the world’s largest X-ray and optical telescopes have spotted the most distant massive object ever detected, a cluster of galaxies 9 billion light years distant from Earth.
The cluster of galaxies is so far away that the light detected by the team is much older than the Earth itself. The galaxy cluster, if it is even still there, would be at least 11 billion years old now. “By capturing this ancient, 9-billion-year-old light, we
Rosetta’s Earth fly-by on 4 March, ESA’s closest ever at just 1900 kilometres, will provide a fantastic photo opportunity. The ’Rosetta Up Close’ photo contest will recognize and reward the best images and sky watchers everywhere are invited to participate.
If you’ve got a decent amateur telescope and digital imaging equipment, you can probably take some impressive photos of Rosetta—weather permitting—as the craft speeds by Earth.
After sunse
Advance marks progress toward quantum computer made with ’artificial atoms’
Two superconducting devices have been coaxed into a special, interdependent state that mimics the unusual interactions sometimes seen in pairs of atoms, according to a team of physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The experiments, performed at the NIST laboratory in Boulder, Colo., are an important step toward
Data from the Cassini-Huygens satellite showing oxygen ions in the atmosphere around Saturn’s rings suggests once again that molecular oxygen alone isn’t a reliable indicator of whether a planet can support life.
That and other data are outlined in two papers in the Feb. 25 issue of the journal Science co-authored by University of Michigan engineering professors Tamas Gombosi, J. Hunter Waite and Kenneth Hansen; and T.E. Cravens from the University of Kansas. The papers b
ESA’s comet-chaser Rosetta will make a fly-by of planet Earth on 4 March 2005, and sky watchers should be able to see it with telescopes or binoculars if the sky is clear! Read on for details of ESA’s ’Rosetta Up Close’ photo contest.
Rosetta is approaching Earth from an area in the sky between the constellations Leo and Sextans, and should first become visible to large amateur telescopes around 26 February 2005. The spacecraft will make its closest approach to
A British-led team of astronomers have discovered an object that appears to be an invisible galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter – the first ever detected. A dark galaxy is an area in the universe containing a large amount of mass that rotates like a galaxy, but contains no stars. Without any stars to give light, it could only be found using radio telescopes. It was first seen with the University of Manchester’s Lovell Telescope in Cheshire, and the sighting was confirmed with the Areci
Just a month after a call for a European-wide ban of the swastika, scientists have found that the symbol has new applications in optical communications and could have a role in quantum cryptography.
Dr Darren Bagnall from the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton has found that he can arrange tens of thousands of gold swastikas on a square millimetre to form new optical metamaterials that act to artificially change the polarisation of lig
Researchers doing ultra-cold temperature physics may not have to wear parkas, but they are producing the coldest temperatures ever and exploring model quantum systems that might lead to more accurate clocks and gyroscopes, quantum computers and communications as well as a better understanding of quantum physics phenomena.
Nearly 80 years ago, Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose predicted that gases of atoms cooled down very close to absolute zero would behave in unison. In 1995,
Observing the edge of the famous Horsehead Nebula with the IRAM interferometer located on the Plateau de Bures (France), a team of French and Spanish astronomers discovered a large quantity of small hydrocarbon molecules. This is a surprise because the intense UV radiation illuminating the Nebula should destroy the small hydrocarbons near the edge. The astronomers suggest that these molecules might result from the fragmentation of giant molecules, called “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” (PAH
Soon we may be able to fill the bath, turn the lights on and play our favourite CD without moving from our chair or pressing a button. Technology, developed by ESA for European spacecraft, is now being used to create small sensors that can make any flat surface – walls, windows or tables – interactive.
“The idea is to use an accelerometer to determine the exact position of touch on an object,” says Nicolas Delorme from Nodal Consultants, part of ESA’s Technology Transfer Prog
On February 1, 2005, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has merged its two observatories, La Silla and Paranal, into one. This move will help Europe’s prime organisation for astronomy to better manage its many and diverse projects by deploying available resources more efficiently where and when they are needed. The merged observatory will be known as the La Silla Paranal Observatory.
Catherine Cesarsky, ESO’s Director General, comments the new development: “The me
Researchers at the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics have gained insight into the mysterious giant dark “tadpoles” that appear to swim towards the surface of the Sun during solar flares – enormous energy releases happening in the atmosphere of the Sun.
The tadpoles – colossal physical structures with dark heads and attendant wiggly tails that seem to swim sunwards against tides of hot matter being thrown away from the Sun during flares – have puzzled astrophys
For the last few years evidence that we are living on a very “weird” universe has been growing: the expansion of the universe is accelerating, and one theory proposed to account for this acceleration is what has been termed “dark energy.”
In order to find out what this mysterious energy really is, astronomers need to compare astrophysical observations that are at first sight completely unrelated. At a session on dark energy at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for
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