An international team led by an Edinburgh astronomer have discovered that by studying polarised light from black holes they can focus much more closely on what exactly is going on around them. The work is published this week in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on November 11th.
Studying black holes at the centre of galaxies is difficult. A huge amount of material is falling on to the centre in an active black hole system, and this falling material is thought
As summer draws to a close in the southern hemisphere of Uranus, storm clouds are brewing in the upper atmosphere, northern hemisphere winds are gusting to 250 miles per hour, and the planet’s rings are getting brighter every day.
This weather report comes from researchers using the Keck II 10-meter telescope atop Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, where recent observations are proving that Uranus is not the “boring and unchanging” planet people have assumed, according to Imke de
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a technique for growing well-formed, single-crystal nanowires in place—and in a predictable orientation—on a commercially important substrate.
The method uses nanoparticles of gold arranged in rows on a sapphire surface as starting points for growing horizontal semiconductor “wires” only 3 nanometers (nm) in diameter. Other methods produce semiconductor nanowires more than 10 nm in dia
A laser-based method for identifying a single atom or molecule hidden among 10 trillion others soon may find its way from the laboratory to the real world.
Developed by physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the technique is believed to be more than 1,000 times more sensitive than conventional methods. Vescent Photonics of Denver, Colo., hopes to commercialize the method as an “optical nose” for atmospheric monitoring. The portable sensors would r
Peering into the center of Sandia National Laboratory’s Z machine as it fires had been a feat unachievable for a decade.
Other than a nuclear bomb, Z is the most powerful generator of X-rays on the planet. Last year, its central mechanism, called a Z-pinch, fused isotopes of hydrogen to create nuclear fusion. Now, by inserting a pretty, two-inch-long crystal that reflects at only a single frequency into the hellish center of Z as it fires, researchers have been able to visuall
This false-colour image of two density waves in Saturn’s A ring was taken by the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft at a distance of 6.8 million kilometres from Saturn.
The image was made from the stellar occultation observed by the Cassini-Huygens Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph, and shows a section of rings about 724 kilometres across and the smallest features about half a kilometre across.
Bright areas indicate the denser regions of the rings. The bright ban
These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, are Europe’s highest-resolution pictures so far of the Martian moon Phobos.
These HRSC images show new detail that will keep planetary scientists busy for years, working to unravel the mysteries of this moon. The images show the Mars-facing side of the moon, taken from a distance of less than 200 kilometres with a resolution of about seven metres per pixel during orbit 756.
The word “crystal” is a technical term; iron and steel, for example, are crystals whereas glass is not. In fact, “crystal” means materials of a crystalline structure.
Just like any other kind of material, crystals can change their structure. For example, if the temperature rises sufficiently, it passes from a solid to a liquid state. But other, not so noticeable, structural changes also take place, such as those that occur in the solid state, itself. These changes are known as s
The maiden flight of a Soyuz 2-1a launch vehicle took place on Monday 8 November 2004 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia at 21:30 Moscow time (19:30 Paris). Starsem, Arianespace and their Russian partners report that the mission was accomplished successfully.
This launch marks a major step forward in the Soyuz evolution programme as this modernised version of the launcher implements a digital control system providing additional mission flexibility and enabling control of the
Capitalizing on the incomparable optical capabilities of the Keck Telescope, scientists have gained an unprecedented look at the atmosphere of Uranus, providing new insight into some of the most enigmatic weather in the solar system.
A pair of images unveiled here today (Nov. 10) at a meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, reveal more cloud features — an abundance of atmospheric phenomena that vary dramatically in size, brightness and
Today, a group of physicists published the most compact and elegant explanation of one of nature’s simplest phenomena: the way light behaves in the sky above us. This research appears today (Tuesday, 9th November) in the New Journal of Physics, published jointly by the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (German Physical Society).
Michael Berry and Mark Dennis from the University of Bristol, in collaboration with Raymond Lee of the US Naval Academy, have
This synthetic aperture radar image of the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan was taken on 26 October 2004, when the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft flew about 2500 kilometres above the surface and acquired radar data for the first time.
The radar illumination was from the south: dark regions may represent areas that are smooth, made of radar-absorbing materials, or are sloped away from the direction of illumination.
A striking bright feature stretches from up
An international team of astronomers (including the UK) has produced the first ever image of an astronomical object using high energy gamma rays, helping to solve a 100 year old mystery – an origin of cosmic rays. Their research, published in the Journal Nature on November 4th, was carried out using the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), an array of four telescopes, in Namibia, South-West Africa.
The astronomers studied the remnant of a supernova that exploded some
These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show the western end of the Valles Marineris Canyon system on Mars.
The images were taken during orbit 442 with a ground resolution of approximately 52 metres per pixel. The displayed region is located at the beginning of the canyon system at about latitude 7° South and longitude 269° East. The images show the western end of the canyons Tithonium Chasma and Ius Chasma, part o
Vast Public Education Project is an Outstanding Success
On June 8, 2004, Venus – the Earth’s sister planet – passed in front of the Sun. This rare event – the last one occurred in 1882 – attracted the attention of millions of people all over the world.
In a few days’ time, on November 5-7, 2004, about 150 educators, media representatives, as well as amateur and professional astronomers will gather in Paris (France) at the international conference “The Venus Transit Ex
An Imprinter that Combines Electron and Ion Beams Opens the Way for Wider Applications
An ion-beam system that simultaneously combines focused beams of electrons and positive ions promises to improve the versatility, efficiency, and economy of this important technology. The new system was developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who report its principles and applications in the November 8, 2004 issue of Applied Physics Letter
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