Author: Earl
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Liquid mirror telescope opens in India
A unique telescope that focuses light with a slowly spinning bowl of liquid mercury instead of a solid mirror has opened its eye to the skies above India. Such telescopes have been built before, but the 4-meter-wide International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is the first large one to be purpose-built for astronomy, at the kind…
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Launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission delayed to late September
The launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission, which was set for Aug. 1 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, has been delayed to no earlier than Sept. 20 after ground teams discovered an issue during software testing on the spacecraft, officials said Monday. The robotic asteroid explorer arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida…
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In a pair of merging supermassive black holes, a new method for measuring the void
Three years ago, the first ever image of a black hole stunned the world. A black pit of nothingness enclosed by a fiery ring of light. That iconic image of the black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87 came into focus thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope, a global network of synchronized radio…
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Diagnosing Neptune’s Chilly Summer
Read more here Neptune
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Subatomic particle seen changing to antiparticle and back for the first time
Physicists have proved that a subatomic particle can switch into its antiparticle alter-ego and back again, in a new discovery revealed today. The extraordinarily precise measurement was made by UK researchers using the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at CERN. It has provided the first evidence that charm mesons can change into their antiparticle…
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Astronomers capture surprising changes in Neptune’s temperatures
An international team of astronomers have used ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), to track Neptune’s atmospheric temperatures over a 17-year period. They found a surprising drop in Neptune’s global temperatures followed by a dramatic warming at its south pole. – More here –
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Sunspots are increasing at an unexpected rate
Weather on the Sun is always tricky to predict accurately, however it’s looking like the upcoming Solar Maximum could be worth keeping an eye on! In fact, sunspot counts have been consistently higher than predicted levels since September 2020. This could mean that, in contrast to predictions, the Sun is in the swing of an…
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World’s Most Powerful Solar Telescope Reaches Historic Milestone as First Science Observations Commence
On Wednesday, February 23, 2022, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Inouye Solar Telescope commenced its first science observations, signaling the start of its year-long operations commissioning phase and a new era of solar science. The world’s largest solar telescope is now the cornerstone of a mission to advance our knowledge of the Sun and poised…
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The universe is in much sharper focus with new algorithms and supercomputers
With new algorithms and supercomputers, an incredibly detailed radio map of the universe has been created. Now astronomers can look at radio data of galaxies with much more precision. This research was published in Nature Astronomy by Leiden University Ph.D. student Frits Sweijen and colleagues. “This single map has almost as many pixels as previous maps of…
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New MeerKAT radio image reveals complex heart of the Milky Way
The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) has released today a new MeerKAT telescope image of the centre of our Galaxy, showing radio emission from the region with unprecedented clarity and depth. The international team behind the work is publishing the initial science highlights from this image in The Astrophysical Journal. The article is accompanied by…
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NASA’s Curiosity Rover Measures Intriguing Carbon Signature on Mars
The type of carbon is associated with biological processes on Earth. Curiosity scientists offer several explanations for the unusual carbon signals. After analyzing powdered rock samples collected from the surface of Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover, scientists have announced that several of the samples are rich in a type of carbon that on Earth is…
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How the Tonga eruption is helping space scientists understand Mars
NASA scientists say that the eruption of a submarine volcano in Tonga is helping them to understand how features formed on the surfaces of Mars and Venus. The unusual explosion — which has been calculated at more than 500 times the force of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 — is offering…
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Proof of concept verifies physics that could enable quantum batteries
Quantum batteries could one day revolutionize energy storage through what seems like a paradox – the bigger the battery, the faster it charges. For the first time, a team of scientists has now demonstrated the quantum mechanical principle of superabsorption that underpins quantum batteries in a proof-of-concept device. The quirky world of quantum physics is…
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China’s Mars rover has amassed reams of novel geological data
More than 30 scientists across mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau are rushing to process data collected by China’s Mars rover, Zhurong, and by the nation’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft, which is in orbit around the planet. Several studies have trickled out, but researchers say that more are coming in the next weeks and months, offering insights…