Physics in the News

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Stalking the Shadow Universe(VIDEO)

The mathematics of quantum computing

(Credit: Ritvars Skuja) — The Quantum Computer Science project was completed in August 2013. The project focused on the mathematical aspects of quantum computing. Andris Ambainis, a theoretical computer scientist at the University of Latvia in Riga, was the principal coordinator of the project. (Credit: Ritvars Skuja)

Perth’s planet hunter helps discover unusual exoplanet

Perth engineer ‘TG’ Tan hunts planets with his backyard observatory in Mt Claremont. (Credit: TG Tan)

Touchdown! Supply capsule arrives at International Space Station

The International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, grapples the Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo craft. (Source: NASA TV) — The International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, grapples the Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo craft. (Credit NASA TV)

via cbs

The machine learning community contest to take on the Higgs

(Credit: Sandbox Studio, Chicago) — Kaggle is currently running about 20 contests on its site. Most of them will attract between 300 and 500 teams. But the Higgs contest, which does not end until September, has already drawn almost 970. Names appear and drop off of the leader board every day. (Credit: Sandbox Studio, Chicago)

via symmetrymagazine

Pentagon enlists Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson to design a space plane

DARPA wants its new experimental spaceship to fly 10 times within in 10 days and it wants the contractor to show that the vessel can fly at 10 times the speed of sound or more. (Credit: DARPA)

via thedailybeast

Physicists propose molecular clock to expose new physics

(Credit: S. Schiller et al., Phys. Rev. Lett (2014)) — A lot of physics is based on the assumption that the mass of a proton remains constant over time—pretty much forever. But what if that’s not true? What if it grows or shrinks over time? That would mean that the ratio between them and electrons changes as well, and if that’s true, then physicists are going to have to come up with some new ideas to explain what that might mean. (Credit: S. Schiller et al., Phys. Rev. Lett (2014))

Holographic displays coming to smartphones

Quantum Photonic Imager: Ostendo’s light-field display produces 3-D images using light-emitting pixels and piles of pixel-level processing. (Credit: Ostendo Technologies) — Light-field displays for mobile devices might be only a year away. Ostendo’s light-field display produces 3-D images using light-emitting pixels and piles of pixel-level processing. (Credit: Ostendo Technologies)

Physics in the News

Monday, July 14, 2014

Confirmed: Magnetic waves cannot accelerate solar wind(VIDEO)

via thewatchers

British researchers devise material so dark it looks like a black hole

British scientists have created a material which absorbs all but 0.035 per cent of light, a new world record, and is so dark the human eye struggles to discern what it is that it is seeing, giving the appearance of a black hole. (Credit: Surrey Nano Systems)

via independent

Boron ‘buckyball’ discovered

Researchers have shown that clusters of 40 boron atoms form a molecular cage similar to the carbon buckyball. This is the first experimental evidence that such a boron cage structure exists. (Credit: Wang lab / Brown University)

How To Measure A Sun-Like Star’s Age

Image Caption: Artist's conception of a hypothetical exoplanet orbiting a yellow, Sun-like star. Astronomers have measured the ages of 22 Sun-like stars using their spins, in a method called gyrochronology. Before now, only two Sun-like stars had measured spins and ages. (Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)) — Artist’s conception of a hypothetical exoplanet orbiting a yellow, Sun-like star. Astronomers have measured the ages of 22 Sun-like stars using their spins, in a method called gyrochronology. Before now, only two Sun-like stars had measured spins and ages. (Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA))

Keeping an eye on passing asteroids

Bathurst Observatory Research Facility manager Ray Pickard said work will begin on the Bathurst Asteroid Research Telescope next week. (Credit: ZENIO LAPKA)

via westernadvocate

D-Wave Systems Secures $30M (CAD) Funding to Accelerate Quantum Computing

What’s going on inside the D-Wave Two is still a matter of debate. (Credit D-Wave Systems)

via marketwatch

A light bending exercise… in space!

An air bubble was blown into the water droplet to create this effect. (Credit: Imgur) — On Board the International Space Station, ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers blows an air bubble into a water droplet to create this effect. (Credit: ESA/NASA)

Physics in the News

Saturday, July 12, 2014

NASA Curiosity Rover is starting to explore dangerous new territory

The blue line added to this June 27, 2014, image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the edge of the ellipse that was charted as safe terrain for the rover's August 2012 landing. Curiosity is visible right on the ellipse line in the lower center of the image. This 3-sigma landing ellipse is about 4 miles long and 12 miles wide (7 kilometers by 20 kilometers). Curiosity reached the edge of it for the first time with a drive of about 269 feet (82 meters) earlier that day. (Credit: NASA) — The blue line added to this June 27, 2014, image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the edge of the ellipse that was charted as safe terrain for the rover’s August 2012 landing. Curiosity is visible right on the ellipse line in the lower center of the image. This 3-sigma landing ellipse is about 4 miles long and 12 miles wide (7 kilometers by 20 kilometers). Curiosity reached the edge of it for the first time with a drive of about 269 feet (82 meters) earlier that day. (Credit: NASA)

via technobuffalo

Space geeks’ resurrected NASA sun probe ISEE-3 now on collision course with the moon

An old McDonalds serves as ISEE-3 mission control (Credit: ISEE-3)

via theregister

Richard Feynman, sexism and changing perceptions of a scientific icon

via scientificamerican

Scientists ‘have no handle on’ radio bursts coming from deep space

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world. (Credit: David Parker)

NASA spacecraft observes more evidence of dry ice gullies on Mars

This pair of before (left) and after (right) images captured by the HiRise camera on NASA’s MRO documents the formation of a new channel on a Martian slope between 2010 and 2013. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

Dragonfly telephoto array discovers seven dwarf galaxies around Messier 101

This image shows the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 101 and the seven newly discovered dwarf galaxies. (Credit: Allison Merritt et al.)

Microsoft and Niels Bohr Institute QDev partner to realize Quantum Information

The base for the research collaboration between Microsoft and the Center for Quantum Devices, called Station Q–Copenhagen, aims to realise quantum information (Credit: ku.dk)

via azoquantum

Physics in the News

Friday, July 11, 2014

Fireball as Russian space junk ‘belly flops’ to Earth above Australia

Steven Wright saw the fireball Thursday, July 10 (Credit: Steven Wright)

via cnn

Uncertainty gives scientists new confidence in search for novel materials

This image shows the results of calculations aimed at determining which of six chemical elements would make the best catalyst for promoting an ammonia synthesis reaction. Based on thousands of these calculations, which yielded a range of results (colored dots) that reveal the uncertainty involved, researchers estimated an 80 percent chance that ruthenium (Ru, in red) will be a better catalyst than iron (Fe, in orange.) (Credit: Andrew Medford and Aleksandra Vojvodic/SUNCAT, Callie Cullum)

Astronomers discover two objects in the mysterious Milky Way halo

ULAS J0015+01 at the center of the photo. (Credit: NASA)

19th century math tactic gets a makeover—and yields answers up to 200 times faster

ohns Hopkins graduate student Xiang Yang, at right, teamed up with Rajat Mittal, a professor of mechanical engineering, to revamp a "useless" 169-year-old math strategy, making it work up to 200 times faster. (Credit: Will Kirk/JHU) — Johns Hopkins graduate student Xiang Yang, at right, teamed up with Rajat Mittal, a professor of mechanical engineering, to revamp a “useless” 169-year-old math strategy, making it work up to 200 times faster. (Credit: Will Kirk/JHU)

Artificial spacetime experiment could show tantalizing effects of gravitational waves(VIDEO)

Physics in the News

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Comet Pan-STARRS Makes Stunning ‘Galactic Flyby'(VIDEO)

NASA 3D prints a model of light-year-long Eta Carinae nebula

A new shape model of the Homunculus Nebula reveals protrusions, trenches, holes and irregularities in its molecular hydrogen emission. The protrusions appear near a dust skirt seen at the nebula's center in visible light (inset) but not found in this study, so they constitute different structures. (Credit: NASA Goddard, ESA, Hubble SM4 ERO Team) — A new shape model of the Homunculus Nebula reveals protrusions, trenches, holes and irregularities in its molecular hydrogen emission. The protrusions appear near a dust skirt seen at the nebula’s center in visible light (inset) but not found in this study, so they constitute different structures. (Credit: NASA Goddard, ESA, Hubble SM4 ERO Team)

via astronomy.com

Bid to ‘reboot’ aging NASA satellite is scuttled as fuel system fails

Engineers failed to resolve fuel system problems on NASA's retired ISEE-3 satellite Wednesday. An artist's rendition shows the spacecraft during a close lunar pass. (Credit: NASA) — Engineers failed to resolve fuel system problems on NASA’s retired ISEE-3 satellite Wednesday. An artist’s rendition shows the spacecraft during a close lunar pass. (Credit: NASA)

MESSENGER and STEREO measurements open window into high-energy processes on the Sun

A solar flare erupted on the far side of the sun on June 4, 2011, and sent solar neutrons out into space. Solar neutrons don't make it to all the way to Earth, but NASA's MESSENGER, orbiting Mercury, found strong evidence for the neutrons, offering a new technique to study these giant explosions. (Credit: NASA/STEREO/Helioviewer) — A solar flare erupted on the far side of the sun on June 4, 2011, and sent solar neutrons out into space. Solar neutrons don’t make it to all the way to Earth, but NASA’s MESSENGER, orbiting Mercury, found strong evidence for the neutrons, offering a new technique to study these giant explosions. (Credit: NASA/STEREO/Helioviewer)

via nasa

Space Probe Might Lack Nitrogen to Push It Home

The International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center before its launch. (Credit NASA)

Saturn Probe Ready for Its “Grand Finale”

Cassini will end its historic mission with 22 breathtaking loops passing through the gap between Saturn and its innermost ring. (Credit: NASA)

via scientificamerican

Singing Solar Shockwave Confirms Voyager Is In Interstellar Space

This artist’s concept shows the Voyager 1 spacecraft entering the space between stars. Interstellar space is dominated by plasma, ionized gas (illustrated here as brownish haze), that was thrown off by giant stars millions of years ago. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Astronomers invite worldwide public to help name exoplanets and their stars

Artist’s impression of a distant exoplanet – planet beyond our solar system – orbiting its star. (Credit: IAU)

Universe’s missing photons baffle scientists

There's just not enough of them to account for interstellar light, say researchers. (Credit: NASA/ESA — There’s just not enough of them to account for interstellar light, say researchers. (Credit: NASA/ESA)

via cnet