Physics in the News

Monday July 28, 2014

Measuring gravitational waves with eLISA

NASA Goddard intern Robert Buttles adjusts equipment used for the eLISA mission, which will test for vibrations that could reveal subtle changes in gravity. Image (Credit: NASA Goddard/Kristen Basham)

via spacefellowship

Computer model shows moon’s core surrounded by liquid and it’s caused by Earth’s gravity

Gravitational tidal heating from the Earth acts on the lower mantle of the moon (Credit: NASA/Apollo 8)

via abc

Measuring the smallest magnets: Physicists measured magnetic interactions between single electrons

: This is an illustration showing the magnetic field lines of two electrons, arranged so that their spins point in opposite directions. The image comes from the lab of Dr. Roee Ozeri. (Photo Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science)

via sciencecodex

NASA spacecraft is now buzzing Mercury 62 miles above the surface

Artist’s conception of NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft above Mercury. (Credit: JHUAPL)

via universetoday

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will use SPF 1,000,000 to stay protected

The full-scale James Webb Space Telescope model at South by Southwest in Austin. (Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)

A nation duped? UK govt. paves way for GM babies

Britain’s government has allegedly misled the public with respect to a new IVF technique experts claim will herald an era of genetically modified babies.(Reuters / United Photos)

via rt

Physics in the News

Saturday, July 26, 2014

NASA just made it possible to 3D-print your own asteroid

Model of Mars' Gale crater. NASA has released STL files so you can 3D print your own scale models of space probes, asteroids and the surface of the moon. (Credit: NASA) — Model of Mars’ Gale crater. NASA has released STL files so you can 3D print your own scale models of space probes, asteroids and the surface of the moon. (Credit: NASA)

via cnet

Voyager scientists disagree on whether craft has reached 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)

Earth survived near-miss from 2012 solar storm: NASA

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)

Physicists discuss quantum pigeonhole principle

An image of pigeons in holes. Here there are n = 10 pigeons in m = 9 holes. Since 10 is greater than 9, the pigeonhole principle says that at least one hole has more than one pigeon. (Credit: SA 3.0, McKay)

Quantum computing and the value of storytelling in science(VIDEO)

The internet of things & MindMeld

The Internet of Things, recently nicknamed the Internet of Everything, describes a future where all objects are linked together. — The Internet of Things, recently nicknamed the Internet of Everything, describes a future where all objects are linked together. (Credit: CISCO)

Robotics, research and resupply round out week for station crew

Images of panels from the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA Ames Research Center)

via spacefellowship

The war in Gaza as seen from space: Astronaut shares wrenching photo

"If we ever will be visited by another species from somewhere in the universe, how would we explain to them what they might see as the very first thing when they look at our planet? How would we explain to them the way we humans treat not only each other but also our fragile blue planet, the only home we have?" Astronaut Alexander Gerst (Credit: (Alexander Gerst / European Space Agency) — “If we ever will be visited by another species from somewhere in the universe, how would we explain to them what they might see as the very first thing when they look at our planet? How would we explain to them the way we humans treat not only each other but also our fragile blue planet, the only home we have?” Astronaut Alexander Gerst (Credit: (Alexander Gerst / European Space Agency)

Physics in the News

Friday, July 25, 2014

Lust in space: Russians lose control of gecko sex satellite

Progress is busily working to re-establish a connection with the operating system — currently on autopilot — before all hope is lost. (Credit: Tim Vickers )

Hot Jupiter measurements throw water on planet formation theory

The exoplanet 209458b, a gas giant, is located 150 light-years from Earth. Dry atmospheres of three exoplanets challenge ideas of how planets form. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Mysterious black holes may be exploding into ‘white holes’

A new scientific theory suggests that when black holes reach the end of their lifespan, they explode into “white holes” and release all of their matter into space. (Credit: Reuters / NASA)

via rt

CERN accelerators come alive for LHC restart

Powering up: CERN's Antiproton Decelerator will be running next week (Credit: CERN/Maximilien Brice) — Powering up: CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator will be running next week (Credit: CERN/Maximilien Brice)

via physicsworld

Breakthrough laser experiment reveals liquid-like motion of atoms in an ultra-cold cluster

he experiment was undertaken at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in the Artemis laser facility using an advanced femtosecond laser system to resolve rotations of complexes. The picture shows a section of the laser system used during the experiments. (Credit: Gediminas Galinis, University of Leicester.) — The experiment was undertaken at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in the Artemis laser facility using an advanced femtosecond laser system to resolve rotations of complexes. The picture shows a section of the laser system used during the experiments. (Credit: Gediminas Galinis, University of Leicester.)

The first supercomputer simulations of ‘spin–orbit’ forces between neutrons and protons in an atomic nucleus

Figure 1: Nucleons (protons and neutrons) are made up of quarks (colored spheres) and have an orientation called spin (indicated by up and down arrows). The spin–orbit force is the interaction between two orbiting nucleons, resulting in a potential well (center) that holds them together. (Credit: Keiko Murano, RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science)

Watch the Falcon 9 rocket booster descend into the ocean for its “soft” landing(VIDEO)

via extremetech

NASA says it’s too poor to fly

Space Launch System's planned variant vehicle configurations. (Credit: NASA) — Space Launch System’s planned variant vehicle configurations. The agency’s current funding plan for SLS may be $US400 million short of what the program needs to launch by 2017 (Credit: NASA)

via theregister

Physics in the News

Thursday, July 24, 2014

The future of ultrashort laser pulses

View of a thin-disc laser. Its geometry ensures more stable operation at higher powers than is possible with conventional solid-state lasers. (Credit: Thomas Metzger)

Searching for water in the Milky Way, drier than first thought

The Hubble Space Telescope finished another step in a important mission, looking for water in the milky way. The results so far are a bit surprising, with three exoplanets (planets outside the solar system) coming up short in their water supplies. (Credit: Greg Bacon)

Neck of Rosetta’s ‘rubby duckie’ comet shows a bright ring

Rosetta imaged its target comet, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, from about 3,417 miles (5,500 kilometers) away. The “neck” of the comet appears to be brighter than the rest of the nucleus. (Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)

via universetoday

Calling for a debate over Pluto’s nature

Artist's concept of Pluto (Credit: NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI)) — Artist’s concept of Pluto (Credit: NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI))

via huffingtonpost

The birth of topological spintronics

The atomic layers of the topological insulator bismuth selenide are visible in this high-resolution electron microscope image. (Credit: Samarth lab, Penn State University)

China Plans Supercollider

Proposals for two particle accelerators could see the country aim to become the collider capital of the world. View of the LHC tunnel sector 3-4. (Credit: Maximilien Brice (CERN))

via scientificamerican

Higgs and top: a new window on dark matter

Fig. 1. Left: Limits on the dark-matter particle mass as a function of the effective interaction scale from the associated production of the particle with a top-quark pair. Fig. 2. Right: The limits set on the dark-matter particle mass from the search for invisible Higgs-boson decays compared with those from direct-detection experiments. — Fig. 1. Left: Limits on the dark-matter particle mass as a function of the effective interaction scale from the associated production of the particle with a top-quark pair. Fig. 2. Right: The limits set on the dark-matter particle mass from the search for invisible Higgs-boson decays compared with those from direct-detection experiments. (Credit: CMS)

via cerncourier

Unleashing the power of quantum dot triplets

One approach of making computers faster relies on quantum dots, a kind of artificial atom, easily controlled by applying an electric field. A new study demonstrates that changing the coupling of three coherently coupled quantum dots with electrical impulses can help better control them. (Credit: Tooski, S. B. et al.)

via sciencecodex

Still confused about quantum computing? This may help

There’s nothing like a Star Trek reference (yay Tribbles!) to help explain complex stuff like quantum computing. (Credit: Microsoft, Michael-Freedman)

Physics in the News

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Scientists set new record by discovering the two most distant stars ever found in the milky way

: Density, temperature, and CII projections along the y-axis at a scale of 1 pc, for three different metallicities. (Credit: University of Göttingen)

Optical fibres from thin air

An “air waveguide” has been used to enhance light signals collected from distant sources. A single waveguide could be used to send out a laser and collect a signal. (Credit: Howard Milchberg)

via theengineer

Hubble traces the halo of a galaxy more accurately than ever before

This image shows the stunning elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. Recently, astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to probe the outskirts of this galaxy to learn more about its dim halo of stars. (Credit: ESA/Hubble)/NASA/Digitized Sky Survey/MPG/ESO

Proton spin mystery gains a new clue

Physicists long assumed a proton’s spin came from its three constituent quarks. New measurements suggest particles called gluons make a significant contribution (Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory)

via scientificamerican

‘Transformer’ pulsar is more than meets the eye

These artist's renderings show one model of pulsar J1023 before (top) and after (bottom) its radio beacon (green) vanished. Normally, the pulsar's wind staves off the companion's gas stream. When the stream surges, an accretion disk forms and gamma-ray particle jets (magenta) obscure the radio beam. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — These artist’s renderings show one model of pulsar J1023 before (top) and after (bottom) its radio beacon (green) vanished. Normally, the pulsar’s wind staves off the companion’s gas stream. When the stream surges, an accretion disk forms and gamma-ray particle jets (magenta) obscure the radio beam.
(Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)

Massive neutrinos and new standard cosmological model: No concordance yet

The research group demonstrates that adding such massive neutrinos to the standard model does not really explain all datasets. Credit: The Milky Way, NASA. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-07-massive-neutrinos-standard-cosmological-concordance.html#jCp — The research group demonstrates that adding such massive neutrinos to the standard model does not really explain all datasets. (Credit: The Milky Way, NASA.)

What is gravity really (VIDEO)?

via nasa

Advanced dark matter experiment coming to SNOL

The Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search is an international, multimillion dollar dark matter experiment currently based in Minnesota with plans to progress the project by building a more sensitive detector at SNOLAB. — The Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search is an international, multimillion dollar dark matter experiment currently based in Minnesota with plans to progress the project by building a more sensitive detector at SNOLAB. (Credit: SNOLAB)

Update: Einstein is still full of surprises

What is the view of time that Albert Einstein presents to us in special relativity? Einstein tells us that there is no separate ‘time’ or ‘space.’ ‘Time’ and ‘space’ cannot be separated; they are a united whole.

via davidreneke