Using an orbiting camera designed to block the light from the sun and stars, an international team of solar physicists has been able for the first time to directly image clouds of electrons surrounding Earth that travel from the sun during periods of solar flare activity.
These electron clouds, a part of the solar atmosphere that extends millions of miles from the sun, cause geomagnetic storms that can disrupt communications satellites, expose high-flying aircraft to excess radiation and ev
In the November issue of Optics Express*, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scientists describe a novel combination of microscopes that can peer deep into tissue-engineering scaffolds and monitor the growth and differentiation of cells ultimately intended to develop into implantable organs or other body-part replacements.
The new dual-imaging tool provides a much needed capability for the emerging tissue engineering field, which aims to regenerate form and function in d
A University of Sussex-led team of scientists is ahead in the race to solve one of the biggest mysteries of our physical world: why the Universe contains matter.
With the help of a new £2.3 million grant, the team is working on a project to make one of the most sensitive measurements ever of sub-atomic particles. The results, expected within six years, could finally help to explain the creation of matter in the aftermath of the Big Bang.
Physicist Dr Philip Harris, the leader of the
An image of an elliptical galaxy by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed a trail of black holes and neutron stars stretching more than fifty thousand light years across space. The trail of intense X-ray sources is evidence that this apparently sedate galaxy collided with another galaxy a few billion years ago.
“This discovery shows that X-ray observations may be the best way to identify the ancient remains of mergers between galaxies,” said Lars Hernquist of the Harvard-Smithsonia
The belt of high-energy electrons that normally cradles Earth from afar was greatly enhanced and pushed unusually close to our atmosphere during the violent solar activity that occurred in late October, University of Colorado at Boulder researchers say.
The results were obtained from observations by NASA’s Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer, or SAMPEX satellite, said CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics Director Daniel Baker. An investigato
Although rings around planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are relatively short-lived, new evidence implies that the recycling of orbiting debris can lengthen the lifetime of such rings, according to University of Colorado researchers.
Strong evidence now implies small moons near the giant planets like Saturn and Jupiter are essentially piles of rubble, said Larry Esposito, a professor at CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. These re-constituted small
The structure of the proton is under the microscope at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News, Virginia, where a series of experiments continues to produce unexpected results.
Simple theories of proton structure say that the way electric charge is distributed in the proton is the same as the magnetization distribution. But Jefferson Lab results indicate these distributions are definitely different.
A
Neutron star pairs may merge and give off a burst of gravity waves about six times more often than previously thought, scientists report in today’s issue of the journal Nature [4 December]. If so, the current generation of gravity-wave detectors might be able to register such an event every year or two, rather than about once a decade – the most optimistic prediction until now.
Gravity waves were predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Astronomers have indirect evidence of thei
Mars Express, ESA’s first probe to Mars, still has some challenges to face.
The spacecraft has successfully come through its first power test after the gigantic solar flare on 28 October.
Since 17 November the on-board software has been ’frozen’ after several updates and the spacecraft is now quietly proceeding to its destination. The next major task, starting on 19 December, will be to safely release the Beagle 2 lander.
Separation
To del
Researchers at Northeastern University today announced that they have been able to demonstrate the unique feature of imaging through a flat lens. Using the phenomenon of negative refraction through a novel photonic crystal, Northeastern physicists observed that a flat slab of such material behaves as a lens and focuses electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies to produce a real image.
The research, published in tomorrow’s edition of the journal Nature, represents an important advance in
Astronomers at the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Councils UK Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC) at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh have produced compelling new evidence that Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky, has a planetary system around it which is more like our own Solar System than any other so far discovered.
All of the hundred or so planets that have been discovered around other stars have been very large gaseous (Jupiter-like) planets orbiting close to their star.
VLT Interferometer Gives Insight Into the Shape of Eta Carinae
Ever since 1841, when the until then inconspicuous southern star Eta Carinae underwent a spectacular outburst, astronomers have wondered what exactly is going on in this unstable giant star. However, due to its considerable distance – 7,500 light-years – details of the star itself were beyond observation.
This star is known to be surrounded by the Homunculus Nebula, two mushroom-shaped clouds ejected by the star,
‘Black holes’ are truly black. When an object gets within a certain distance from a black hole, it will get swallowed forever with no chance to escape. That includes light, which means that black holes do not shine.
How do astronomers detect black holes if they are unable to see them? Well, to be precise, astronomers do not detect black holes. But they do detect the phenomena that can only be explained by the existence nearby of objects that match the description of black holes!
Th
Researchers from the Physics Department at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Institut de Ciènca de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), and the Universidad de Zaragoza have created a new ultra-light transparent magnetic material. Thanks to its properties, the new material could have interesting technological applications, such as creating new types of flat screens and magneto-optical memory devices for computers.
The researchers have obtained the new ultra-light magnets by com
ESA’s Mars Express probe is scheduled to arrive at Mars at Christmas : the Beagle 2 lander is expected to touch down on the surface of the Red Planet during the night of 24 to 25 December.
Launched on 2 June 2003 from Baikonur (Kazakhstan) on board a Russian Soyuz operated by Starsem, the European probe – built for ESA by a European team of industrial companies led by Astrium – carries seven scientific instruments that will perform a series of remote sensing experiments designed to shed
A super-cold collection of molecules behaving in perfect unison has been created for the first time from a sea of “fermion” atoms by researchers at JILA, a joint institute of the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder).
Fermions are a class of particles that are inherently difficult to coax into a uniform quantum state. The ability to meld fermions into this state—a soup of particles that ac
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