Graphite had already been extensively studied. German physicist Martin Dienwiebel was therefore extremely surprised when he discovered a completely new effect in this well-known lubricant. During research into the frictional properties of the material, he discovered that the frictional force almost completely disappeared at a certain moment.
Dienwiebel only intended to test the new friction force microscope he had developed. The Tribolever is a raster microscope which can measure frictional
On 30 June 1908, the seemingly endless forests of Siberia received an unwelcome and unexpected visit by an intruder from deep space. As it plunged headlong through the Earth’s atmosphere, the incoming asteroid exploded a few miles above the tree tops, flattening the forest over an area about 50 km (30 miles) in diameter. If the 60 metre (200 ft) wide chunk of rock had arrived a few hours later, it could have destroyed a city the size of London or Paris.
Exactly how many of these threatening
Until the last few years, Mars has been regarded as a cold, arid world that lost most of its water long ago. However, recent observations by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft have provided tantalising evidence that huge amounts of water may be hidden just below the surface.
Now, a powerful new instrument is poised to probe the Martian soil, using an advanced radar system to penetrate the rust-red desert. On Friday 11 April, Professor Iwan Williams (Queen Mary) will expl
Material has been discovered moving at nearly 10% the speed of light away from the centre of the nearby quasar PDS456 – the most powerful object in the local universe. Like all quasars, PDS456 is thought to be powered by matter converting into energy when material is swallowed by a supermassive black hole. New observations show that its energy output is so large that it is “choking on its food” and radiation is literally blowing the top off the inner region of the disc of in-falling material that su
Spinning black holes could be responsible for at least some of the immensely powerful gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) astronomers observe coming from distant galaxies. On Tuesday 8 April, Sheila McBreen of University College, Dublin, will tell the UK/Ireland National Astronomy Meeting in Dublin that her analysis of the way gamma-rays were emitted over the course of outbursts from a large sample of GRBs has revealed particular signatures, most likely to be those of a rotating black hole either being “spun up”
An international team of astronomers has discovered that “dark matter”, the mysterious material that seems to make up most of the mass of galaxies, is not as all-pervasive as previously believed. Surprising new results from studies of several elliptical galaxies show they are not surrounded by halos of dark matter as was expected. The findings will be presented at the UK/Ireland National Astronomy Meeting in Dublin on Wednesday April 9th by Dr Aaron Romanowsky of the University of Nottingham.
Spectacular VLT Photos Unveil Mysterious Nebulae
Quite a few of the most beautiful objects in the Universe are still shrouded in mystery. Even though most of the nebulae of gas and dust in our vicinity are now rather well understood, there are some which continue to puzzle astronomers.
This is the case of a small number of unusual nebulae that appear to be the subject of strong heating – in astronomical terminology, they present an amazingly “high degree of excitation”. This
Has an increasing trend in the Sun’s brightness contributed to global warming over the last few decades? One study published recently says it has but Judith Lean of the US Naval Research Laboratory will tell a joint session of the UK/Ireland National Astronomy Meeting and Solar Physics Meeting in Dublin that a different study has come to the opposite conclusion when she tackles the controversial topic of the relationship between our climate and the Sun on Tuesday 8 April.
Earth’s
A team of astronomers based in the UK and the US has for the first time measured the redshifts of a significant sample of puzzling “submillimetre galaxies”, discovered by some members of the team in 1997. Dr Ian Smail of the University of Durham will tell the UK/Ireland National Astronomy Meeting that these are remote galaxies with high redshifts, and are likely to contain huge numbers of young stars heavily enshrouded by dust. Because of the time it takes light to travel, they are seen how they were
When Gerald A. Miller first saw the experimental results from the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, he was pretty sure they couldn’t be right. If they were, it meant that some long-held notions about the proton, a primary building block of atoms, were wrong.
But in time, the findings proved to be right, and led physicists to the conclusion that protons aren’t always spherically shaped, like a basketball.
“Some physicists thought they did the experiment wron
This symmetry violation makes hydrogen possible, a requirement for life
Scientists at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility in Bloomington have made the first unambiguous detection of a rare process, the fusion of two nuclei of heavy hydrogen to form a nucleus of helium and an uncharged pion. The pion is one of the subatomic particles responsible for the strong force that holds every nucleus together. The achievement will be announced Saturday (April 5) at the meeting of the Amer
Two billion years ago, in a far-away galaxy, a giant star exploded, releasing almost unbelievable amounts of energy as it collapsed to a black hole. The light from that explosion finally reached Earth at 6:37 a.m. EST on March 29, igniting a frenzy of activity among astronomers worldwide. This phenomenon has been called a hypernova, playing on the name of the supernova events that mark the violent end of massive stars.
With two telescopes separated by about 110 degrees longitude, the Roboti
A bit of Earth-bound chemistry has led scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, to conclude that there is an unsuspected wind of low-energy cosmic ray particles blowing through the galaxy.
The cosmic rays aren’t energetic enough to make headway against the solar wind to reach Earth, but they appear to have a big impact on the chemistry within tenuous clouds of gas between stars, so-called diffuse interstellar clouds.
“This implies a new population of cosmic rays no
New physical phenomenon will likely impact atomic physics, chemistry and nanotechnology
In a discovery that is likely to impact fields as diverse as atomic physics, chemistry and nanotechnology, researchers have identified a new physical phenomenon, electrostatic rotation, that, in the absence of friction, leads to spin. Because the electric force is one of the fundamental forces of nature, this leap forward in understanding may help reveal how the smallest building blocks in nature r
Andrei Linde lauds the new era of precision cosmology
For most of us, “inflation” is a term that comes up only in conversations about the economy or flat tires. But for many cosmologists, inflation is the ultimate word in understanding how the universe was created.
In the beginning, according to inflation theory, the universe was tinier than an atom. Then, in an unimaginably brief period of time – .00000000000000000000000000000001 second, to be precise – it expanded (“inflat
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is a mysterious place. Its thick atmosphere is rich in organic compounds. Some of them would be signs of life if they were on our planet. How do they form on Titan? Will they help us to discover how life began on Earth?
ESA’s Huygens probe, arriving at Titan in 2005, will help find answers. Here on Earth, ground-based telescopes are playing their part also. They will help scientists to decide how and where precisely Huygens will land. What will it be –
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