An international team of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have detected helium in the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-107b. This is the first time this element has been detected in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. The discovery demonstrates the ability to use infrared spectra to study exoplanet extended atmospheres.
KRUSTY experiment demonstrates fission power’s promise for lunar, planetary exploration
Seamus Blackley, Cory Doctorow, Ashton Eaton, Kate Greene, Annalee Newitz, Scott Ross, Martine Rothblatt, Neal Stephenson, and Pete Worden among luminary panelists and performers to converge in Santa Fe June 7-8, 2018
Researchers have developed a new and improved version of an unconventional radio-astronomy imaging system known as a Phased Array Feed, which can survey vast swaths of the sky and generate multiple views of astronomical objects with unparalleled efficiency.
A team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory turned tiny liquid jets that carry samples into the path of an X-ray beam into thin, free-flowing sheets, 100 times thinner than any produced before. They’re so thin that X-rays pass through them unhindered, so images of the samples they carry come out clear.
Berkeley Lab’s Julian Borrill has been elected co-spokesperson for the CMB-S4 collaboration, the next-generation ground-based experiment to study the Cosmic Microwave Background.
In the fading afterglow of a supernova explosion, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have photographed the first image of a surviving companion to a supernova. This is the most compelling evidence that some supernovas originate in double-star systems.
A group of researchers announced April 26 in Nature that they had managed to entangle perhaps the largest items yet, at a whopping 20 microns across—about the diameter of a single human hair.
By aiming intense X-ray beams at iron samples, scientists have discovered what may lie at the core of “super-Earths,” rocky planets triple the mass of Earth orbiting far-distant stars.
Astronomers have witnessed the beginnings of a gargantuan cosmic pileup, the impending collision of 14 young, starbursting galaxies. This ancient megamerger is destined to evolve into one of the most massive structures in the known universe: a cluster of galaxies, gravitationally bound by dark matter and swimming in a sea of hot, ionized gas.
TRIUMF is pleased to announce that Queen's University faculty member Dr. Wolfgang Rau will join the Physical Sciences Division as a senior researcher, effective September 1st, 2018.
One of the key science goals of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is to learn about “first light,” the moment when the first stars and galaxies lit the universe. While the first galaxies will be within Webb’s reach, individual stars shine so faintly that Webb would not be able to detect them without help. That help could come in the form of natural magnification from gravitational lensing, according to a new theoretical paper.
A research team including U of A faculty has developed a method of detecting single photons using quantum dots. Single photon detection using quantum dots is an important element of new technology that could lead to faster and more secure data transfer.
In an experiment that mimics astrophysical conditions, with cryogenic temperatures in an ultrahigh vacuum, scientists used an electron gun to irradiate thin sheets of ice covered in basic molecules of methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide, the building blocks of life. The experiment tested how the combination of electrons and basic matter leads to more complex biomolecule forms -- and perhaps eventually to life forms. The researchers discuss their work in The Journal of Chemical Physics.
Almost all forms of animal life – from fruit flies to butterflies to mammals – contain a pause in transcription, a step that appears to allow the transcription machinery to take a break to fine-tune its copying process. No one knows when this pause originated in the evolution of life. Charles Danko, assistant professor of genetics and molecular biology at the Cornell University Baker Institute for Animal Health, will investigate with a three-year, $790,000 grant from NASA’s Exobiology program.
The American Institute of Physics announced today that particle physicist and movie producer David Kaplan has won the 2018 Andrew Gemant Award, an annual prize recognizing contributions to the cultural, artistic and humanistic dimension of physics.
Astronomy professor David Weintraub asks: Do we have any inalienable right to destroy the bio-ecosystem of an entire planet?
A new study calls for the U.S. to step up its laser R&D efforts to better compete with major overseas efforts to build large, high-power laser systems, and notes progress and milestones at the Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center and other sites.
Wichita State University physics professor Nickolas Solomey has won one of NASA's coveted Innovation and Advanced Concept Awards (NIAC) for his research to create a neutrino detector for close sun orbit.
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) scientists are collaborating to test a magnetic property of the muon. The experiment could point to the existence of physics beyond our current understanding, including undiscovered particles.
For 28 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has been delivering breathtaking views of the universe. The latest offering is this image of the Lagoon Nebula to celebrate the telescope’s anniversary. Hubble shows the roiling heart of this vast stellar nursery in stunning unprecedented detail.
Theoretical physicists used simulations to explain the unusual readings collected in 2009 by the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging mission. The origin of energetic electrons detected in Mercury’s magnetic tail has puzzled scientists. This new study, appearing in Physics of Plasmas, provides a possible solution to how these energetic electrons form.
Earlier today, April 16, 2018, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and India’s Atomic Energy Secretary Dr. Sekhar Basu signed an agreement in New Delhi to expand the two countries’ collaboration on world-leading science and technology projects. It opens the way for jointly advancing cutting-edge neutrino science projects under way in both countries: the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) with the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) hosted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermilab and the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO).
Planets orbiting "short-period" binary stars, or stars locked in close orbital embrace, can be ejected off into space as a consequence of their host stars' evolution, according to new research from the University of Washington.
A first-of-its-kind X-ray instrument for frontier research with high-brightness X-rays is now in operation at Argonne National Laboratory. The new device uses a unique superconducting technology that speeds electrons on a path much like that of a roller coaster.
Scientists have decoded faint distortions in the patterns of the universe’s earliest light to map huge tubelike structures invisible to our eyes – known as filaments – that serve as superhighways for delivering matter to dense hubs such as galaxy clusters.
This week, the Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX) unveiled a new result, published in Physical Review Letters, that places it in a category of one: It is the world’s first and only experiment to have achieved the necessary sensitivity to “hear” the telltale signs of dark matter axions. This technological breakthrough is the result of more than 30 years of research and development, with the latest piece of the puzzle coming in the form of a quantum-enabled device that allows ADMX to listen for axions more closely than any experiment ever built.
A group of scientists working on the MiniBooNE experiment at the Department of Energy’s Fermilab has reported a breakthrough: They were able to identify exactly-known-energy muon neutrinos hitting the atoms at the heart of their particle detector. The result eliminates a major source of uncertainty when testing theoretical models of neutrino interactions and neutrino oscillations.
Iowa State University's Steve Kawaler is heading back to Cape Canaveral this month to witness the launch of another planet-hunting spacecraft. This one, called TESS, will image 85 percent of the sky over the next two years, helping astronomers find planets beyond our solar system. Kawaler and other astronomers will also use TESS data to study stars.
Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers were able to use the same sort of trigonometry that surveyors use to precisely measure the distance to NGC 6397, one of the closest globular clusters to Earth. The only difference is that the angles measured in Hubble’s camera are infinitesimal by earthly surveyors’ standards.
Dr. Chang-kwon Kang’s proposal on Marsbees was one of only 25 selected for NASA’s 2018 Innovative Advanced Concepts program, which funds early-stage technology that has the potential to revolutionize future space exploration.A proposal on Marsbees submitted by Dr. Chang-kwon Kang, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), was one of only 25 selected to receive a 2018 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) award.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — designed, built and managed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) — will launch in summer 2018 and travel to our star on a historic mission to “touch the Sun.” Now you can get on board and be a part of this voyage of extreme exploration.
NASA has selected 24 new Fellows for its prestigious NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP). The program enables outstanding postdoctoral scientists to pursue independent research in any area of NASA Astrophysics. Each fellowship provides the awardee up to three years of support.
Accomplished neutrino physicist Hirohisa Tanaka has joined the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory as a professor of particle physics and astrophysics. He oversees a group at the lab that is preparing for research with the future Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF). The experiment will give scientists unprecedented opportunities to learn more about neutrinos – fundamental particles with mysterious properties that could play crucial roles in the evolution of the universe.
The free event is open to the public and offers an opportunity for people of all ages to spend the day exploring this world-class research facility. The biennial open house features tours of the lab’s unique particle accelerator facilities, as well as hands-on activities and interactive displays and demonstrations.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope and a quirk of nature called gravitational lensing, an international team of astronomers has found the most distant individual star ever discovered, dubbed "Icarus." This discovery provides new insight into the formation and evolution of stars in the early universe, the makeup of galaxy clusters, and the nature of dark matter.
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry visited the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory today, where he toured the site of a superconducting upgrade to the accelerator that powers the lab’s X-ray laser and met with employees in a town hall meeting.
Only by increasing the rate at which telescopes monitor the sky has it been possible to catch more Fast-Evolving Luminous Transients (FELTs) and begin to understand them.
Harnessing the unusual characteristics of elusive subatomic particles known as antineutrinos, the University of California, Irvine will play a key role in a nuclear nonproliferation research collaboration between U.S. and U.K. laboratories and universities.
Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 have turned up an oddity that sets it apart from most other galaxies, even the diffuse-looking ones. It contains little, if any, dark matter, an invisible substance that makes up the bulk of our universe.
A hot, metallic, Earth-sized planet with a density similar to Mercury - situated 260 million light years away - has been detected and characterised by a global team of astronomers, including the University of Warwick.Named K2-229b, the planet is almost 20% larger than Earth but has a mass which is over two-and-a-half times greater –and reaches a dayside temperature of over 2000°C (2330 Kelvin).
Collaborators of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR have shown they can shield a sensitive, scalable 44-kilogram germanium detector array from background radioactivity. This accomplishment is critical to developing and proposing a much larger future experiment to study neutrinos.
Using Kepler's unique capabilities, astronomers have captured the blast properties of an unusual exploding phenomenon known as a Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient (FELT). This allowed them to exclude a range of theories about how FELTs happen, and converge on a plausible model.
By comparing new Hubble observations with data from the Green Bank Telescope, astronomers have discovered the origin of a huge cloud of gas bridging the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, two dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.
A cloud of gas 300,000 light-years long is arching around the Milky Way, shunted away from two dwarf galaxies orbiting our own. For decades, astronomers have wanted to know which of the two galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, is the source of the gas that has been expelled as the two galaxies gravitationally pull at one another. The answer will help astronomers understand how galaxies form and change over time.
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