Physics in the News

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

NuSTAR telescope discovers shockingly bright dead star

Astronomers have found a pulsating dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million Suns, which is the brightest pulsar ever recorded..  A rare and mighty pulsar (pink) can be seen at the center of galaxy M82 in this new multi-wavelength portrait. NASA's NuSTAR mission discovered the "pulse" of the pulsar — a type of dead star — using is high-energy X-ray vision.
Astronomers have found a pulsating dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million Suns, which is the brightest pulsar ever recorded.. A rare and mighty pulsar (pink) can be seen at the center of galaxy M82 in this new multi-wavelength portrait. NASA’s NuSTAR mission discovered the “pulse” of the pulsar — a type of dead star — using is high-energy X-ray vision.
via astronomy

Hypothetical new cosmological model known as Higgsogenesis (PDF)

The term Higgsogenesis refers to the first appearance of Higgs particles in the early universe, just as baryogenesis refers to the appearance of baryons (protons and neutrons) in the early moments after the big bang. While baryogenesis is a fairly well understood process, Higgsogenesis is still very hypothetical. (Credit: CERN/Lucas Taylor, Koberlein)
The term Higgsogenesis refers to the first appearance of Higgs particles in the early universe, just as baryogenesis refers to the appearance of baryons (protons and neutrons) in the early moments after the big bang. While baryogenesis is a fairly well understood process, Higgsogenesis is still very hypothetical. (Credit: CERN/Lucas Taylor, Koberlein)
via phys.org

Dark matter half what we thought, say scientists (PDF)

A new measurement of dark matter in the Milky Way has revealed there is half as much of the mysterious substance as previously thought.  The above is an artist's impression of the Milky Way and its dark matter halo (shown in blue, but in reality invisible). Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
A new measurement of dark matter in the Milky Way has revealed there is half as much of the mysterious substance as previously thought. The above is an artist’s impression of the Milky Way and its dark matter halo (shown in blue, but in reality invisible). (Credit: ESO/L. Calçada)
via sciencedaily

Astronomers see right into heart of exploding star

 (Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF)
An international team of astronomers has been able to see into the heart of an exploding star, by combining data from telescopes that are hundreds or even thousands of kilometres apart. (Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF)
via manchester

Among the artian hills: Curiosity Rover peers at rocks of Mount Sharp

After a couple of years of racing towards Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons), now it’s time for the Curiosity rover to get a better look at its Martian surroundings. Rover tracks and Martian sand as seen from the rear hazcam of NASA’s Curiosity rover. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
After a couple of years of racing towards Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons), now it’s time for the Curiosity rover to get a better look at its Martian surroundings. Rover tracks and Martian sand as seen from the rear hazcam of NASA’s Curiosity rover. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
via universetoday

Two new strange and charming particles appear at LHC

Two new particles have been discovered by the LHCb experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. One of them has a combination of properties that has never been observed before. : Dave Stock)
Two new particles have been discovered by the LHCb experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. One of them has a combination of properties that has never been observed before. (Credit: Dave Stock)
via newscientist

 The cosmic signal that might have changed human civilization

The image above shows a graphic which was produced by the SETI from the data of the Wow signal. A signal (Gaussian, triplet or pulse) arises only in a single narrowband channel. All other channels contain noise. Up to now we do not know cosmic phenomena which would generate such signals. It would seem improbable that they have no artificial origin. The picture shows a computer generated example of a strong Gaussian signal.
The image above shows a graphic which was produced by the SETI from the data of the Wow signal. A signal (Gaussian, triplet or pulse) arises only in a single narrowband channel. All other channels contain noise. Up to now we do not know cosmic phenomena which would generate such signals. It would seem improbable that they have no artificial origin. The picture shows a computer generated example of a strong Gaussian signal.
via dailygalaxy

World’s longest neutrino beam will explore why the universe still exists

This quirk of subatomics could have huge implications for our understanding of the universe, specifically how the current inequality between matter and antimatter came to be. Answering that could, in turn, provide a better insight as to why reality did not simply blink out of existence immediately after the Big Bang as a universe's worth of matter and antimatter negated one another's existences (
This quirk of subatomics could have huge implications for our understanding of the universe, specifically how the current inequality between matter and antimatter came to be. Answering that could, in turn, provide a better insight as to why reality did not simply blink out of existence immediately after the Big Bang as a universe’s worth of matter and antimatter negated one another’s existences (Credit: Tarantola, Fermilab, )
via gizmodo

What a difference a  neutron makes

For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that modified hydrogen bonding is sufficient to switch solid-state electronic properties. (Credit: University of Tokyo. ,Tan)
For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that modified hydrogen bonding is sufficient to switch solid-state electronic properties. (Credit: University of Tokyo. ,Tan)
via asianscientist