To operate a nuclear power plant like Three Mile Island, hundreds of highly trained employees must work in concert to generate power from safe fission, all the while containing dangerous nuclear wastes.
On the other hand, it’s been known for 30 years that Mother Nature once did nuclear chain reactions by her lonesome. Now, Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have analyzed the isotopic structure of noble gases produced in fission in a sample from the only known nat
Russian researchers have developed a small, smart and tolerant to vibrations spectrometer, which is equally reliable in the outer space and in oceanic depths. The development was performed with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE). The unique device is based on a completely new principle: the light goes through an acoustooptical filter in the device.
Specialists of the Sci
This image shows Titan in ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths, taken by the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft on 26 October 2004, during the close fly-by.
This image is constructed from four images acquired through different colour filters. Red and green colours represent infrared wavelengths and show areas where atmospheric methane absorbs light.
These colours reveal a brighter (redder) northern hemisphere. Blue represents ultraviolet wavelengths and shows the high
A University of Michigan scientist is part of a European Space Agency team that has detected methane gas on Mars, the clearest indicator yet that there could be life there, said Sushil Atreya, professor and director of the Planetary Science Laboratory in the College of Engineering.
“Biologically produced methane is one of many possibilities,” Atreya said. “Methane is a potential biomarker, if a planet has methane we begin to think of the possibility of life on the planet. On Earth
An international team of astronomers [1] has succeeded in measuring with high precision the velocities of a large number of planetary nebulae [2] in the intergalactic space within the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. For this they used the highly efficient FLAMES spectrograph 3] on the ESO Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory (Chile).
These planetary nebulae stars free floating in the otherwise seemingly empty space between the galaxies of large clusters can be used as “pro
VLTI Watches the Changing Size of Bright Southern Cepheids
Taking advantage of the very high spatial resolution provided by the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, a team of French and Swiss astronomers [1] has measured directly the change in angular diameter of four southern Cepheid variable stars over their pulsation cycle.
When combined with spectroscopic radial velocity measurements, this allowed the astronomers to measure very accurately the distances of these st
An international team of astronomers is announcing today that they have identified the probable surviving companion star to a titanic supernova explosion witnessed in the year 1572 by the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and other astronomers of that era.
A new discovery provides the first direct evidence supporting the long-held belief that Type Ia supernovae originate in binary star systems that contain a normal star and a burned-out white dwarf star. The normal star spills m
Cornell University researchers have demonstrated for the first time a device that allows one low-powered beam of light to switch another on and off on silicon, a key component for future “photonic” microchips in which light replaces electrons.
Photonics on silicon has been suggested since the 1970s, and previous light-beam switching devices on silicon have been demonstrated, but they were excessively large (by microchip standards) or have required that the beam of light that doe
Ming Zhang’s cosmic radiation research takes first step in missions to Mars, moon base
As American space exploration fulfills promises for a new era of long-term moon colonization and a mission to Mars, the research of Florida Institute of Technology space physicist Ming Zhang will become more important to the lives of each and every astronaut. While his research on cosmic radiation has its roots in pure science, the practical applications of what he has learned about space weath
Cassini-Huygens, the joint NASA/ESA/ASI space mission has successfully made a close encounter with Saturn’s moon, Titan. This was confirmed in the early hours of this morning as the first information and pictures were beamed back via NASA’s Deep Space Network tracking station in Madrid, Spain. As anticipated, the spacecraft came within 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) of Titan’s surface.
At the time, Cassini was about 1.3 billion kilometres (826 million miles) from Earth. Numerous ima
Today the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft makes a fly-by of Saturn’s largest moon Titan – the closest ever performed.
At the time of the closest approach, which is scheduled for 18:44 CEST, the spacecraft will be travelling only 1200 kilometres above the surface of the moon, almost grazing the outer atmosphere, at a speed of six kilometres per second (21 800 kilometres per hour)!
Confirmation that the fly-by was successful and that all the data were receive
Researchers at The University of Manchester and Chernogolovka, Russia have discovered the world’s first single-atom-thick fabric, which reveals the existence of a new class of materials and may lead to computers made from a single molecule. The research is to be published in Science on 22 October.
The team led by Professor Andre Geim at The University of Manchester has succeeded in extracting individual planes of carbon atoms from graphite crystals, which has resulted in the prod
UK scientists and industrialists involved in the NASA, ESA, ASI Cassini-Huygens space mission are eagerly awaiting the data to be received when the spacecraft makes its closest fly-by of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, on 26th October.
At the time of the closest approach, which is scheduled to be at 5.44 pm BST (9.44 am PDT), the spacecraft will travel a mere 1200km (745 miles) above the surface of the moon at a speed of 6.1 km per second. Confirmation that the flyby has been suc
Converting quantum bits
A team of physicists at the Georgia Institute of Technology has taken a significant step toward the development of quantum communications systems by successfully transferring quantum information from two different groups of atoms onto a single photon.
The work, to be published in the October 22 issue of the journal Science, represents a “building block” that could lead to development of large-scale quantum networks. Sponsored by the Research Corpor
This turbulent boundary between two latitudinal bands in Saturn’s atmosphere curls repeatedly along its edge in this NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens image.
This pattern is an example of a ’Kelvin-Helmholtz instability’, which occurs when two fluids of different density flow past each other at different speeds. This type of phenomenon should be fairly common on the gas-giant planets given their alternating jets and the different temperatures in their belts and zones.
The i
Exactly what governs the motions of falling paper?
While college students suspect the answer is known to lazy professors — the ones who allegedly grade essays by throwing them down stairwells to see which sails the farthest — the so-called falling paper problem has long intrigued scientists.
Now an enterprising professor and her graduate student at Cornell University have solved the falling paper problem — in part by calculating the motions of a scientific journal p
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