Categories

Observing oscillations, flares and tornados on the sun

For six and a half days in July 2024, the balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise III kept its gaze fixed on the sun. The stratospheric flight, which stretched from the northernmost tip of Sweden to Canada’s Northwest Territories, yielded a treasure trove of data exceeding 200 terabytes. These observations are unique. They provide insights—unprecedented in detail—into a layer of the sun approximately 2,000 kilometers thick and can continuously track its immense dynamics over several hours.

Go to Source

AI identifies new particle models that may explain neutrinos’ tiny mass

Physicists at the University of California, Irvine, have developed an artificial intelligence system that can autonomously design theoretical physics models, a task traditionally carried out by human theorists. The approach allows researchers to explore large, uncharted areas of particle physics theory, helping identify promising new explanations for the behavior of neutrinos.

Go to Source

A ‘smart ruler’ could help swarms of space telescopes image exoplanets

We’ve talked plenty of times here about the infeasibility of launching a mirror big enough to directly image exoplanets using current rocket fairings—at least as long as we’re not sending them 500-plus AU away to a gravitational lensing point. We’ve also talked at length about the potential solution to that problem—interferometry, where multiple smaller satellites link up precisely but are spaced far enough apart to act as one gigantic mirror. The problem is, from a technical standpoint, it’s really hard to build these kinds of systems.

Go to Source

New physics-based machine-learning method speeds search for 2D quantum materials

Researchers at The University of Manchester have developed a new computational approach to help identify two-dimensional materials that may host unusual quantum behavior. The work, published in Science Advances, focuses on materials with “flat bands,” electronic states where electrons have very little kinetic energy. In these materials, interactions between electrons can become much more important, creating conditions linked to phenomena such as magnetism, unconventional superconductivity and topological electronic behavior.

Go to Source

Image: Curiosity rover sees Martian sulfur up close

This close-up view shows fragments of sulfur crystals, the first ever seen on the Red Planet.

Go to Source

Quantum material opens new path for studying unusual electronic behavior

By combining approaches from two rapidly growing fields of quantum physics, researchers at Penn State and Saint Louis University have demonstrated that a novel specialized material can naturally enable a new way to study unusual physical phenomena known as non-Hermitian dynamics.

Go to Source

The ghost in Orion’s shell: Hydrogen maps show repeated stellar feedback sculpted around Orion Nebula

An international team led by Juan Diego Soler at the University of Vienna used two of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes to uncover previously hidden structures within the Orion Nebula. The project produced the sharpest maps ever made of neutral hydrogen in that region of massive star formation. The findings expose the complex relationship of star-forming regions with their environment and suggest that the Orion Nebula has been shaped by multiple episodes of stellar feedback rather than a single expanding bubble. The study has been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Go to Source

Ohio law establishes 15-foot buffer zone around law enforcement

House Bill 20 forbids people from remaining within a 15-foot zone around officers after receiving a warning or if their presence interferes with police actions

Go to Source

Newborn stars preserve organic-rich gas within ancient supernova debris

For the first time, astronomers have discovered stellar cocoons rich in complex organic molecules within a supernova remnant. A research team from Niigata University, Gifu University, RIKEN and Kyoto University in Japan used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe the remnant of a massive star that exploded about 1,600 years ago.

Go to Source

N.J. sheriff’s office sergeant charged in heat deaths of 2 K-9s

Salem County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Rip and K-9 Boomer were left in a cruiser unattended for about seven hours with the heat alarm system turned off

Go to Source

Using mechanical vibrations instead of magnetic memory for quantum computing

Quantum computers still face limits when it comes to storing information. Researchers at ETH Zurich are now turning to mechanical vibrations rather than electromagnetic memory. Their new vibrating memory can store significantly more information in a smaller volume. Combined with a suitable computer architecture, it also enables the efficient solution of complex computational problems.

Go to Source

‘Check your ingredients’: A new blueprint for using Fermi’s ‘Golden Rule’

Underpinning much of modern technology, from smartphones to scanning tunneling microscopes to particle colliders, is Fermi’s Golden Rule. Named for 20th-century Italian American physicist Enrico Fermi (but actually discovered by British physicist Paul Dirac), the rule is a formula that connects what can be measured in an experiment—such as how fast atoms “jump” between energy states—to the microscopic properties of a quantum mechanical system. The formula is taught in every undergraduate quantum physics class.

Go to Source

A new route to electrically controlled helimagnetic structures

Advanced magnetic memory and spintronic devices rely on the ability to control magnetic states using electricity. Today, such technologies work by manipulating relatively simple magnetic structures found in ferromagnets, where all the magnetic moments point the same way. However, researchers are becoming increasingly interested in controlling more complex magnetic systems because these could offer higher information density and improved efficiency.

Go to Source

Artemis II astronauts reunite with their moonship 3 months after record-breaking flight

The Artemis II astronauts reunited with their capsule Wednesday three months after flying around the moon and traveling deeper into space than anyone in history.

Go to Source

Young giant gas planet Beta Pic B refuses to reveal its origin

The young planetary system of the 23-million-year-old star Beta Pictoris (short: Beta Pic) is regarded as an iconic circumstellar dust disk, which hosts at least three giant gas planets. Discovered in 2008 by direct imaging, Beta Pic b is the most massive of those planets, measuring approximately 11 Jupiter masses. It orbits its host star on a wide trajectory, taking about 23 years for one revolution.

Go to Source