Physics in the News

Wednesday June 25, 2014

The Curiosity rover has been on Mars for one Martian year. It celebrated by taking a selfie.

NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover captures a selfie to mark a full Martian year — 687 Earth days — spent exploring the Red Planet. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover captures a selfie to mark a full Martian year — 687 Earth days — spent exploring the Red Planet. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

via washingtonpost

 

Cold white dwarf star is ‘Earth-size diamond in space’

Artist impression of a white dwarf star in orbit with pulsar PSR J2222-0137. It may be the coolest and dimmest white dwarf ever identified. (Credit: B. Saxton NRAO/AUI/NSF)
Artist impression of a white dwarf star in orbit with pulsar PSR J2222-0137. It may be the coolest and dimmest white dwarf ever identified. (Credit: B. Saxton NRAO/AUI/NSF)

via public.nrao.edu

 

LLNL researchers define boundaries for petawatt laser absorption

 Lawrence Livermore physicist Hui Chen sets up targets for an experiment using petawatt laser technology at the Jupiter Laser Facility.
Lawrence Livermore physicist Hui Chen sets up targets for an experiment using petawatt laser technology at the Jupiter Laser Facility.

via phys.org

 

How the Aged Vacuum Tube Could Save Moore’s Law

One of the bulbs Thomas Alva Edison used to discover thermionic emission (the Edison Effect) in 1884. Edison found when he connected an ammeter between the filament and the auxiliary electrode, a current would flow, passing through the evacuated space of the bulb from filament to electrode. This current was later found to consist of electrons.

via gizmodo

 

Measuring the mass of ‘massless’ electrons

This image shows professor Donhee Ham and his student Hosang Yoon are in the laboratory at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. (Credit: Eliza Grinnell, Harvard SEAS.)
This image shows professor Donhee Ham and his student Hosang Yoon are in the laboratory at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. (Credit: Eliza Grinnell, Harvard SEAS.)

via phys.org

 

Philosophy begins where physics ends, and physics begins where philosophy ends

Richard Feynman - Philosopher (Image: Washington University)
Richard Feynman – Physicist, Philosopher (Image: Washington University)

via scientificamerican

Physics in the News

Friday, June 20, 2014

Classic space science: UD physicist’s findings about space plasma become ‘classics’

Energy Arc, central electrode of a Plasma Lamp.
Energy Arc, central electrode of a Plasma Lamp.
via udel

New Observatory Takes Highest-Energy Particle Research to New Heights

As cosmic-ray particles are accelerated by a black hole in this artist's interpretation, they stream toward Earth as very-high-energy gamma-rays. Upon hitting the atmosphere, they produce a shower of particles that rain down on Earth. Most of these particles run out of energy before they hit sea level. Credit: Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State University
As cosmic-ray particles are accelerated by a black hole in this artist’s interpretation, they stream toward Earth as very-high-energy gamma-rays. Upon hitting the atmosphere, they produce a shower of particles that rain down on Earth. Most of these particles run out of energy before they hit sea level. (Credit: Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State University)
via space.com

New test may provide ‘smoking gun’ for modified gravity

A schematic picture of how researchers can observe galaxy peculiar velocities, “a cosmic dance of galaxies.” (Credit: Wojciech A. Hellwing)
A schematic picture of how researchers can observe galaxy peculiar velocities, “a cosmic dance of galaxies.” (Credit: Wojciech A. Hellwing)
via phys.org

Supermassive Black Hole Shows Strange Gas Movements

A Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 5548. (Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA. Davide de Martin)
A Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 5548. (Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA. Davide de Martin)
via universetoday

Slowly rotating neutron star paired with a red-giant star reveals properties that conflict with existing theory

An artist’s impression of an x-ray binary system. The matter that a neutron star (blue) sucks from a regular star (red) leads to the emission of intense x-ray beams. (Credit: NASA)
An artist’s impression of an x-ray binary system. The matter that a neutron star (blue) sucks from a regular star (red) leads to the emission of intense x-ray beams. (Credit: NASA)
via phys.org
Slowly rotating neutron star paired with a red-giant star reveals properties that conflict with existing theoryRead more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-06-slowly-rotating-neutron-star-paired.html#jCp
Slowly rotating neutron star paired with a red-giant star reveals properties that conflict with existing theoryRead more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-06-slowly-rotating-neutron-star-paired.html#jCp

Physics in the News

Saturday, June 14, 2014

An Ocean On Pluto’s Moon? Hopeful Scientists Will Keep An Eye Out For Cracks

Artist impression of Pluto and Charon (NASA)
Artist impression of Pluto and Charon (NASA)
via universetoday

A Puzzling Cosmic Ring

The Herschel Space Observatory has uncovered a weird ring of dusty material while obtaining one of the sharpest scans to date of a huge cloud of gas and dust, called NGC 7538. (Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Whitman College)
via spacefellowship

‘Dark’ and Powerful Space Explosions May Be Cloaked by Cosmic Dust

Observations of galaxy GRB 020819B of molecular gas (left) and dust (middle) done by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). At right is a visible-light image from the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North Telescope. The cross indicates the site of a gamma-ray burst in the region. Credit: Bunyo Hatsukade(NAOJ), ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
Observations of galaxy GRB 020819B of molecular gas (left) and dust (middle) done by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). At right is a visible-light image from the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North Telescope. The cross indicates the site of a gamma-ray burst in the region.  Credit: Bunyo Hatsukade(NAOJ), ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
via space.com

Two Giant Planets Hiding Beyond Pluto

Three images, showing dwarf planet 2012 VP113 in red, then green, then blue, were combined to reveal its path across the night sky (Image: Scott S. Sheppard, Carnegie Institution for Science)
Three images, showing dwarf planet 2012 VP113 in red, then green, then blue, were combined to reveal its path across the night sky (Image: Scott S. Sheppard, Carnegie Institution for Science)
via newscientist

NASA’s Orion spacecraft nearly ready for its mission to Mars

Credit: NASA
Credit: NASA
via asianlite

Images of “The Beast” asteroid blazing past earth

NASA scientists used Earth-based radar to produce these sharp views of the HQ124 asteroid on June 8, 2014. Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arecibo Observatory/USRA/NSF
NASA scientists used Earth-based radar to produce these sharp views of the HQ124 asteroid on June 8, 2014. Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arecibo Observatory/USRA/NSF
via nationalgeographic

Physics in the News

Updated Thursday, June 5, 2014

60-year-old Prediction of Atomic Behavior Confirmed

Quantum_Physics_60-year-old_Prediction_of_Atomic_Behavior_Confirmed_ml
Researchers at Washington State University have used a super-cold cloud of atoms that behaves like a single atom to see a phenomenon predicted 60 years ago and witnessed only once since.
via scientificcomputing.com

Big Bang research blunder leaves multiverse theory in ruins, theoretical physicist claims

multiverse
Scientist says the search for the multiverse is not stymied
via www.independent.co.uk

A violent, complex scene of colliding galaxy clusters

MACSJ0717
Colliding galaxy clusters MACS J0717+3745, more than 5 billion light-years from Earth. Background is Hubble Space Telescope image; blue is X-ray image from Chandra, and red is VLA radio image.
via www.astronomy.com

Kapteyn b and c: Two Exoplanets Found Orbiting Kapteyn’s Star

image_1965_1-Kapteyn-b-c
This artistic representation shows the potentially habitable exoplanet Kapteyn b and the globular cluster Omega Centauri in the background. It is believed that this cluster is the remaining core of a dwarf galaxy that merged with our own Milky Way Galaxy billions of years ago bringing Kapteyn’s star along. Image credit: PHL / UPR Arecibo / Aladin Sky Atlas.
via www.sci-news.com

Light from huge explosion 12 billion years ago reaches Earth

observedbyte
Light from the explosion 12 billion years ago of a massive star at the end of its life reached Earth recently. An image of its peak afterglow, circled with blue and yellow, was captured by Southern Methodist University’s ROTSE-IIIb telescope at McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, Texas. A bright star sits alongside the afterglow from GRB 140419A. Credit: ROTSE-IIIb, SMU
via phys.org

Miniature Digital Zenith Telescope For Astronomy And Geoscience

This shows the DZT-1 prototype and observation image. Credit: ©Science China Press
This shows the DZT-1 prototype and observation image. Credit: ©Science China Press
via technology.org

Powerful magnetic fields challenge black holes’ pull

zoom
A computer simulation of gas (in yellow) falling into a black hole (too small to be seen). Twin jets are also shown with magnetic field lines. Alexander Tchekhovskoy (LBNL)
via www.astronomy.com

Astronomers Find “Mega-Earth,” Most Massive Rocky Planet Yet

mega-earth-kepler-01_80397_990x742
Rocky world could be the first of an entirely new class of planet. An illustration of mega-Earth Rocky world could be the first of an entirely new class of planet. An illustration of mega-Earth The newly discovered ”mega-Earth” Kepler-10c dominates the foreground in this artist’s conception released by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 2, 2014.
via news.nationalgeographic.com

Penn science and art at the edge of space

Artacama
Penn astrophysicist Mark Devlin and Jackie Tileston, an associate professor of fine arts at PennDesign, collaborated on the ARTacama Project, the “highest known art installation in the world” three miles above sea level in the Chilean mountains.
www.upenn.edu