Physics in the News

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

First indirect evidence of undetected strange Baryons

CDF physicist Petar Maksimovic, professor at Johns Hopkins University, presented the discovery to the particle physics community at Fermilab. He explained that the two types of Sigma-sub-b particles are produced in two different spin combinations, J=1/2 and J=3/2, representing a ground state and an excited state, as predicted by theory. (Credit: Fermilab)

Curiosity Rover on Mars Stalled by ‘Hidden Valley’ Sand Trap

This image, taken by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity in August 2014, looks across the northeastern end of sandy "Hidden Valley" to the lower slopes of Mount Sharp on the horizon. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) — This image, taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity in August 2014, looks across the northeastern end of sandy “Hidden Valley” to the lower slopes of Mount Sharp on the horizon.
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Сalculations with nanoscale smart particles

Nanoparcticles producing logical calculations. (Credit: Maxim Nikitin)

via phys

Scientific error delayed the search for alien life

Scientists of the early 20th century argued that tidal forces had caused the sun to spit out the planets when a rogue star passed too close. It was a kind of drive-by shooting theory of planetary formation known as the "Planetesimal Hypothesis." (Credit: NASA, M. Strauss) — Scientists of the early 20th century argued that tidal forces had caused the sun to spit out the planets when a rogue star passed too close. It was a kind of drive-by shooting theory of planetary formation known as the “Planetesimal Hypothesis.” (Credit: NASA, M. Strauss)

via io9

SpaceX releases video of reusable rocket’s soft splashdown(VIDEO)

Scientists unveil new technology to better understand small clusters of atoms

An illustration of the extent to which the atoms, in a small cluster of atoms, vibrate. The spheres represent the range of motion of the atoms, rather than the atoms themselves – the spheres have been exaggerated in size by 45 times in order to ease visualisation. The atoms on the surface have larger ranges of motion than those in the middle of the cluster. (Credit: University of York)

via york

Why darts will search for life on Mars

The ExoLance Concept. "Arrows" fall from a spacecraft, penetrate the ground, and expose the life-detecting equipment inside. (Credit: Explore Mars Inc.) — The ExoLance Concept: “Arrows” fall from a spacecraft, penetrate the ground, and expose the life-detecting equipment inside. (Credit: Explore Mars Inc.)

NASA will basically play SimAnt with new “Swarmies” robots

NASA engineers have built four robots nicknamed “Swarmies” to test whether a group of robots can autonomously and effectively scout an area for resources, and they’ve model the software design after how ants do the same thing. (Credit: NASA/D. Gerondidakis, G. Tickle)

New research improves quantum coherence time using cavity protection effect

The quantum system studied at TU Wien (Vienna): a black diamond (center) contains nitrogen atoms, which are coupled to a microwave resonator. (Credit: TU Wien)

Recycling old batteries into solar cells

This could be a classic win-win solution: A system proposed by researchers at MIT recycles materials from discarded car batteries—a potential source of lead pollution—into new, long-lasting solar panels that provide emissions-free power. (Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT)

The machine that tried to scan the brain – in 1882

Angelo Mosso's "human circulation balance" machine worked like a seesaw to measure blood flow changes to the brain. (Credit: Stefano Sandrone et al.) — Angelo Mosso’s “human circulation balance” machine worked like a seesaw to measure blood flow changes to the brain. (Credit: Stefano Sandrone et al.)

via npr

Space X Falcon 9 night time launch planned

Which came last—The supernova or the red giant?

A red giant star really is quite gigantic compared to our Sun. (Credit: NASA)

via arstechnica

Physics in the News

Monday August 18, 2014

Rubbish explodes in space

Astronaut Alexander Gerst captured the moment from his home aboard the ISS. (Credit: Alexander Gerst)

via theregister

Spacewalking cosmonaut tosses tiny satellite into space for Peru

Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev looks on after he released a small Peruvian satellite into space during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Aug. 18, 2014. (Credit: NASA TV) — Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev looks on after he released a small Peruvian satellite into space during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Aug. 18, 2014.
(Credit: NASA TV)

Novel technique to record quantum mechanical behavior of an electron within a nanoscale defect

Part of the optical apparatus used to direct pulses of light to control the quantum state of a single electronic spin in diamond. (Credit: UPenn)

Image overload: NASA requests h elp to sort it all out

North Korea is barely lit when juxtaposed with neighboring South Korea and China. (Credit NASA)

via cnn

Set your alarm: Venus and Jupiter will light up the pre-dawn sky

A panoramic view of the Venus Jupiter Conjunction on August 17, 2014, taken from the Cairns Esplanade in Queensland Australia. (Credit: Joseph Brimacombe.) — A panoramic view of the Venus Jupiter Conjunction on August 17, 2014, taken from the Cairns Esplanade in Queensland Australia. (Credit: Joseph Brimacombe)

via bbc

Black Holes? I’ll take a medium, please

To celebrate the NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescopes 16 years of success, NASA and the European Space Agency are releasing this mosaic image of the starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82), made in March 2006. It is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82, a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions. Located 12 million light-years away, it is also called the "Cigar Galaxy" because of the elongated elliptical shape produced by the tilt of its starry disk relative to our line of sight. (AP Photo/NASA-ESA) — To celebrate the NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescopes 16 years of success, NASA and the European Space Agency are releasing this mosaic image of the starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82), made in March 2006. It is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82, a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions. Located 12 million light-years away, it is also called the “Cigar Galaxy” because of the elongated elliptical shape produced by the tilt of its starry disk relative to our line of sight. (AP Photo/NASA-ESA)

via time

Quantum computing methodology a gigantic leap for next gen development

Fascinating rhythm: Light pulses illuminate a rare black hole

This image of the galaxy Messier 82 is a composite of data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The intermediate-mass black hole M82 X-1 is the brightest object in the inset, at approximately 2 o'clock near the galaxy's center. (Credit: NASA/H. Feng et al.) — This image of the galaxy Messier 82 is a composite of data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The intermediate-mass black hole M82 X-1 is the brightest object in the inset, at approximately 2 o’clock near the galaxy’s center. (Credit: NASA/H. Feng et al.)

via phys

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

Physics in the News

Saturday, August 16, 2014

NASA develops origami style solar panels to be used in space(VIDEO)

The improbable case of the high-energy novae: NASA’s Fermi space telescope detects new gamma ray sources

Novae typically originate in binary systems containing Sun-like stars, as shown in this artist’s rendering. NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope discovered that a nova in a system like this likely produces gamma rays (magenta) through collisions among multiple shock waves in the rapidly expanding shell of debris. (Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger)

via americaspace

Electrons in magnetic field reveal surprises

Beam out: elongated "Landau" states - Instead of rotating uniformly at a particular frequency, an international team of researchers has found that electrons in a magnetic field are capable of rotating at three different frequencies, depending on their quantum properties. — Beam out: elongated “Landau” states – Instead of rotating uniformly at a particular frequency, an international team of researchers has found that electrons in a magnetic field are capable of rotating at three different frequencies, depending on their quantum properties.

via physicsworld

How can we clean up that space junk(VIDEO)?

via universetoday

Weird blurred light near giant black hole(VIDEO)

UT research uncovers forces that hold gravity defying near earth asteroid together

Asteroid 1950 DA. “Following the February 2013 asteroid impact in Chelyabinsk, Russia, there is renewed interest in figuring out how to deal with the potential hazard of an asteroid impact,” said Rozitis. “Understanding what holds these asteroids together can inform strategies to guard against future impacts.” (Credit: NASA)

‘Monster’ quasars got that way by gorging on gas

"The puzzle has been how these 'seed' black holes grew into the monsters that we now see within the time available, a few billion years at best," says Priyamvada Natarajan, who proposes that early quasars took in a "super boost," feasting from large reservoirs of gas that were part of early star clusters. (Credit: Lollito Larkham/Flickr) — “The puzzle has been how these ‘seed’ black holes grew into the monsters that we now see within the time available, a few billion years at best,” says Priyamvada Natarajan, who proposes that early quasars took in a “super boost,” feasting from large reservoirs of gas that were part of early star clusters. (Credit: Lollito Larkham/Flickr)

LHC research, presented in tangible tidbits

via symmetrymagazine

NASA sleep promoting light bulb hopes to send you to snoozeland, ASAP!

Lighting Science created special lightbulbs for the ISS. There are daylight bulbs with bluer light to encourage energy and activity during what would be daytime hours, and then there are lightbulbs that dial back on the blue to boost astronauts’ production of melatonin for a good night’s sleep. (Credit: Lightning Science)

via cnet

NASA funds robotic tumbling cubes for space exploration

Physics in the News

Friday, August 15, 2014

Cosmic grains pre-date Solar System

Scientists may have identified the first known dust particles from outside our Solar System, in samples returned to Earth by a Nasa space mission. (Credit: NASA)

via bbc

Every parking spot at the International Space Station is currently occupied

Here’s an awesome photo to start your day: The International Space Station currently has five spacecraft docked to it — the most that can be currently attached. If any of the world’s space agencies, or private companies like SpaceX were to send up another spacecraft today, they’d need to circle until another parking space becomes available. (Credit: NASA)

via extremetech

Massive trail of a boulder as it tumbles down a hill spotted by space probe above the red planet

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the trail from an oblong boulder that rolled down a slope on the Red Planet. The image was taken on July 3, 2014. (Credit: NASA)

Planck’s early universe exploration ‘great landmark’ in human history

“This piece of information, that has always been a dream, and never was thought of as being within human grasp. But here in the year 2014 on finds that perhaps this mission is going to be telling us how the universe started,” said Harwit, who is an expert in infrared astronomy and works as a member of the ESA’s Submillimeter Wave Astronomical Satellite, as well as on the Herschel Telescope. (Credit: East News/ Science Photo Library)

Mars orbiters plan for their October encounter with comet Siding Spring(VIDEO)

Microsoft Research turns 2D camera into depth sensor (VIDEO)

via i-programmer

Rise of the machines? Watch a 1000 Tiny robot horde swarms to form shapes (VIDEO)

Are processors pushing up against Moore’s Law and the limits of physics?

Plot of CPU transistor counts against dates of introduction. Note the logarithmic vertical scale; the line corresponds to exponential growth with transistor count doubling every two years. Transistor counts for integrated circuits plotted against their dates of introduction. The curve shows Moore's law - the doubling of transistor counts every two years. The y-axis is logarithmic, so the line corresponds to exponential growth. (Credit: Wgsimon) — Plot of CPU transistor counts against dates of introduction. Note the logarithmic vertical scale; the line corresponds to exponential growth with transistor count doubling every two years. The curve shows Moore’s law – the doubling of transistor counts every two years. The y-axis is logarithmic, so the line corresponds to exponential growth. (Credit: Wgsimon)

via arstechnica

Molecular engineers record an electron’s quantum behavior

These images show a diamond sample with a hemispherical lens (right and lower left), and the location of a single electron spin/quantum state visible through its light emission (upper left). The scale bar on the image at upper left measures five microns, the approximate diameter of a red blood cell. (Credit: Courtesy of Awschalom Lab/University of Chicago)

via phys

NASA’S NuSTAR catches a black hole bending light, space, and time

This plot of data captured by NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, shows X-ray light streaming from regions near a supermassive black hole known as Markarian 335. (Credit: NASA)

via universetoday