Physics in the News

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Dust in the interstellar wind: Seven particles of possible interstellar origin identified in samples returned by NASA’s stardust spacecraft

A team of researchers has identified seven dust particles that were returned to Earth in 2006 by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft, which might have originated in the interstellar medium. This false-color image shows a diffraction pattern created by one of these particles, named Orion. Image (Credit: Zack Gainsforth)

via americaspace

NASA’s Chandra observatory searches for trigger of nearby supernova

“While it may sound a bit odd, we actually learned a great deal about this supernova by detecting absolutely nothing,” said Raffaella Margutti of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the study. “Now we can essentially rule out that the explosion was caused by a white dwarf continuously pulling material from a companion star.” (Credit: NASA)

via marketwatch

RNA exchange by vampire-like plant strangleweed inspires scientists

When parasitic plants such as dodder attack plants like the sugar beet shown here, there is a vast exchange of genetic information between the plants, a Virginia Tech researcher has discovered. (Photo : Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sceinces) — When parasitic plants such as dodder attack plants like the sugar beet shown here, there is a vast exchange of genetic information between the plants, a Virginia Tech researcher has discovered. (Credit: Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sceinces)

The violent past of a space rock that fell to Earth in Novato

The fragmentation of the Novato meteorite on Oct. 17, 2012, as depicted in a horizontally mirrored image to show the progression of the event (from left to right). (Robert P. Moreno Jr., Jim Albers and Peter Jenniskens/NASA-SETI)

via kqed

Young Hobart engineer Willem Olding maps out a revolutionary future in artificial intelligence

Engineering PhD student Willem Olding aims to take out the tedium in creating mapping systems to free-up time for more important work. (Credit: Richard Jupe)

ISEE-3 Reboot Team Unable to Change Spacecraft’s Trajectory

NASA's International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 spacecraft, which launched in 1978, will fly by the moon on Aug. 10, 2014. Credit: SpacecraftforAll. — NASA’s International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 spacecraft, which launched in 1978, flew by the moon on Aug. 10, 2014 and is heading toward the sun. (Credit: SpacecraftforAll.com)

via tvtechnology

Atomic force microscope sensitivity increases 20 times, thanks to laser cooling

Lasers can be used to super-cool microscopes, making them 20 times more sensitive than ever before. (Photo : Quantum Optics Group, ANU — Lasers can be used to super-cool microscopes, making them 20 times more sensitive than ever before. (Credit: Quantum Optics Group, ANU)

Higgs boson could also explain the earliest expansion of the Universe

The influence of the Higgs boson and its field (inset) on cosmological inflation could manifest in the observation of gravitational waves by the BICEP2 telescope (background). (Credit: EPFL)

Focus: Fast bit-switching in a thermal memory

A bit of heat. Two parallel, thin plates that exchange heat via thermal radiation can form a thermal “bit” that changes rapidly between “one” and “zero.” One of them is made of a material like VO2 that switches between two states with different thermal properties, depending on its temperature. (Credit: P. Ben-Abdallah/Univ. of Paris-Sud)

via physics.aps

Cygnus commercial cargo ship ‘Janice Voss’ finishes resupply mission and departs space station

Cygnus Orb-2 spacecraft ‘Janice Voss’ bids farewell to the ISS at 6:40 a.m. EDT, Friday, Aug. 15, 2014. It’s set to reenter the atmosphere on Aug. 17. (Credit: NASA TV)

via universetoday

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