Physics in the News

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Best evidence yet for coronal heating theory

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of what the sun looked like on April 23, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. EDT when the EUNIS mission launched. EUNIS focused on an active region of the sun, seen as bright loops in the upper right in this picture. (Credit: NASA/SDO) — NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of what the sun looked like on April 23, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. EDT when the EUNIS mission launched. EUNIS focused on an active region of the sun, seen as bright loops in the upper right in this picture. (Credit: NASA/SDO)

Robot Olympics planned for 2020 powered by Japan’s ‘Robot Revolution’

via singularityhub

Moon closer to Mars, moving toward Saturn

Animation of Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring / Mars encounter. (Credit: Near-Earth Object (NEO) office and NASA JPL)

Scientists separate a particle from its properties

he study, carried out at the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL) and published in Nature Communications, showed that in an interferometer a neutron's magnetic moment could be measured independently of the neutron itself, thereby marking the first experimental observation of a new quantum paradox known as the 'Cheshire Cat'. Pictured are Yuji Hasegawa, Tobias Denkmayr, Stephan Sponar, Hartmut Lemmel, and Hermann Geppert. (Credit: Vienna University of Technology.) — The study, carried out at the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL) and published in Nature Communications, showed that in an interferometer a neutron’s magnetic moment could be measured independently of the neutron itself, thereby marking the first experimental observation of a new quantum paradox known as the ‘Cheshire Cat’. Pictured are Yuji Hasegawa, Tobias Denkmayr, Stephan Sponar, Hartmut Lemmel, and Hermann Geppert. (Credit: Vienna University of Technology.)

Companion planet could keep alien Earths warm in old age

An artist’s concept of a rocky world orbiting a red dwarf star. (Credit: NASA/D. Aguilar/Harvard-Smithsonian center for Astrophysics)

via universetoday

Exclusive: NASA’s Hubble finds ‘magnifying lens’ galaxy

In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, a giant elliptical galaxy 9.6 billion light-years away appears as a red patch. The bluish dot and tadpole-shaped smear are the distorted and magnified shapes of a more distant spiral galaxy 10.7 billion light-years away. (Credit: NASA, ESA, K.-V. Tran (Texas A&M University), and K. Wong) — In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, a giant elliptical galaxy 9.6 billion light-years away appears as a red patch. The bluish dot and tadpole-shaped smear are the distorted and magnified shapes of a more distant spiral galaxy 10.7 billion light-years away.
(Credit: NASA, ESA, K.-V. Tran (Texas A&M University), and K. Wong)

Scientists in Scotland have created a working tractor beam

(Credit: iStock/360/Getty) — The Dundee tractor beam is not entirely dissimilar from those in “Star Wars” and “Star Trek,” in that it draws an object toward it without making physical contact. The device works by taking advantage of an acoustic wave’s natural push effect, called radiation pressure. (Photons also exert radiation pressure, which is part of the reason comet tails always point away from the sun.) What the Dundee team was able to demonstrate was an example of negative radiation pressure, otherwise known as pull. (Credit: iStock/360/Getty)

via thenewyorker

Giant asteroids reshaped Earth 4 billion years ago

The team says that during this 500 million year period the planet likely experienced three to seven impacts by objects more than 300 miles wide. There were also as many as four impacts by titanic space rocks more than 600 miles across. If there had been any life on the Earth, a 600 mile wide monster asteroid probably would have wiped it out. Surprisingly, these impacts are compatible with the existence of liquid water on the surface as early as 4.3 billion years ago. — The team says that during this 500 million year period the planet likely experienced three to seven impacts by objects more than 300 miles wide. There were also as many as four impacts by titanic space rocks more than 600 miles across. If there had been any life on the Earth, a 600 mile wide monster asteroid probably would have wiped it out. Surprisingly, these impacts are compatible with the existence of liquid water on the surface as early as 4.3 billion years ago. (D. A. Aguilar, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

via geek

Will DARPA’s new space shuttle crush the SpaceX Grasshopper?

DARPA's hypothetical "space plane." (Credit: DARPA) — DARPA’s hypothetical “space plane.” (Credit: DARPA)

via fool

European spacecraft to attempt historic comet rendezvous this week

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft saw the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimernko from a distance of 1,210 miles (1,950 kilometers). Image taken July 29, 2014. (Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA) — The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft saw the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimernko from a distance of 1,210 miles (1,950 kilometers). Image taken July 29, 2014.
(Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)

Physics in the News

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Weirdly wonky binary star system discovered

Artist’s impression of the discs around the young stars HK Tauri A and B (Credit: R. Hurt (NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC)

NASA’s asteroid mission takes a beating

This Document is a Parody (Credit: Richard Binzel)

The tiniest propeller ever can sneak between cells

The nanoprop is able to easily pass between polymer chains, like those present in bodily fluids. (Credit:

Incredible GIF shows early Earth being pummeled by asteroids

The GIF below shows the impacts the model suggests happened. They go forward in time from red to blue (4.5 billion years ago to 3.5 billion years ago). (Credit: Simone Marchi)

via businessinsider

Scientists have recreated the core of Jupiter on Earth

The GIF below shows the impacts the model suggests happened. They go forward in time from red to blue (4.5 billion years ago to 3.5 billion years ago). (Credit: Collins et al)

via businessinsider

50-foot-wide Muon g-2 electromagnet installed at Fermilab

The 50-foot-wide Muon g-2 electromagnet at rest inside the Fermilab building that will house the experiment. The magnet was moved into the new building on Wednesday, July 30, 2014. The magnet will allow scientists to precisely probe the properties of subatomic particles called muons. (Credit: Fermilab.)

The Gaia Satellite will map one billion of the Milky Way’s stars (VIDEO)

via motherboard

Scientists explain mystery of our ‘lemon Moon’

A new accurate map of the Moon has shown that it bulges slightly at one side and is flattened at the top and bottom - but how did it get this way? (Credit: NASA) — A new accurate map of the Moon has shown that it bulges slightly at one side and is flattened at the top and bottom – but how did it get this way? (Credit: NASA)

via independent

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

Sunday, July 27, 2014

A cosmic two-step: The universal dance of the Dwarf Galaxies

The coherent dance of dwarf orbits around the Andromeda Galaxy. (Credit: R. Ibata/Nature)

via theepochtimes

Webb Sunshield Stacks Up to Test!

The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity.(Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)

via nasa

NASA Preps for nail-biting comet flyby of Mars

Simulation depicts comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring during its close Mars flyby on Oct. 19. Its nucleus will miss Mars by about 82,000 miles (132,000 kilometers). The comet’s trail of dust particles shed by the nucleus might be wide enough to reach the planet. Click to see the interactive, animated view. (Credit: Solarsystemscope.com)

via universetoday

Princeton man drawing attention to outer space

Justin Dowd, a Princeton man who won a contest and will be traveling into outer space next year, sits next to an illustration used in the opening scene of his educational video. (Credit: T&G Staff/STEVE LANAVA)

Sometimes a typo means you need to blow up your own spacecraft

via vice

Listening in on cosmic messages

Mapping signals on the sky can offer clues about where the signals originate. Pulsars (top) concentrate in the Milky Way, because most of the ones we see sit in our galaxy. Gamma bursts (middle) come from everywhere, which means they’re parked in other galaxies. Fast radio bursts (bottom) seem to mostly avoid our galgaxy, a hint that they may come from very far away.(Credits: Green Bank Telescope, West Virginia Univ; G. Fishman et al/BATSE, CGRO, NASA.; J. Carpenter, T.H. Jarrett/2MASS, R. Hurt, C. Crockett)

via sciencenews

Physicist thinks lack of evidence for inflation, multiverse a cosmic “deal-breaker”

Evidence of gravitational waves in the infant universe may have been uncovered by the BICEP2 radio telescope. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

via uncommondescent

Mars Mission advocated to a packed room at Comic-Con

The first Giant Leap was Apollo 11 landing astronauts on the moon. The next Giant Leap could be Apollo 45 landing humans on Mars. (Credit: NASA)

via io9

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)