Heavens
An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) found a peculiar dust ring system around the young triple star GW Orionis. The system has three large, misaligned rings with sufficient dust for planet formation. The misaligned rings might have been formed by a hidden planet between the rings, which would provide a clue to understand planet formation around a multiple star system.
Black holes can expel a thousand times more matter than they capture. The mechanism that governs both ejection and capture is the accretion disk, a vast mass of gas and dust spiraling around the black hole at extremely high speeds. The disk is hot and emits light as well as other forms of electromagnetic radiation. Part of the orbiting matter is pulled toward the center and disappears behind the event horizon, the threshold beyond which neither matter nor light can escape. Another, much larger, part is pushed further out by the pressure of the radiation emitted by the disk itself.
Strong interaction between plasmonic nanoparticles and free-space light induced the evanescently confined modes on the nanoparticle surfaces, which holds great promise in plasmonic nanophotonic technologies. Plasmonic nanoparticle with the capability of generating energetic charges makes it being widely exploited in the field of photocatalysis, providing a new paradigm for conversion renewable sunlight to useful fuels and high-value chemicals.
Every hour, the sun saturates the earth with more energy than humans use in a year. Harnessing some of this energy to meet global demand has become a grand challenge, with the world poised to double its energy consumption in just thirty years.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2020 -- Many viruses, including HIV and influenza A, mutate so quickly that identifying effective vaccines or treatments is like trying to hit a moving target. A better understanding of viral propagation and evolution in single cells could help. Today, scientists report a new technique that can not only identify and quantify viral RNA in living cells, but also detect minor changes in RNA sequences that might give viruses an edge or make some people "superspreaders."
The metabolic enzyme IL4I1 (Interleukin-4-Induced-1) promotes the spread of tumor cells and suppresses the immune system. This was discovered by scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH). The enzyme that activates the dioxin receptor is produced in large quantities by tumor cells. In the future, substances that inhibit IL4I1 could open up new opportunities for cancer therapy. The scientists have now published their results in the journal Cell.
How complete is our census of the Sun’s closest neighbors? Astronomers using NSF’s NOIRLab facilities and a team of data-sleuthing volunteers participating in Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a citizen science project, have discovered roughly 100 cool worlds near the Sun — objects more massive than planets but lighter than stars, known as brown dwarfs. Several of these newly discovered worlds are among the very coolest known, with a few approaching the temperature of Earth — cool enough to harbor water clouds.
Scientists at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), together with colleagues from the Karl-Franzens University of Graz & the Kanzelhöhe Observatory (Austria), Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology (USA), Helioresearch (USA) and Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia) developed a method to study fast Coronal Mass Ejections, powerful ejections of magnetized matter from the outer atmosphere of the Sun.
According to a 2018 United Nations report, more than 25,000 individuals are officially reported to be victims of trafficking each year. The true number is likely much larger. While scientists have tried to help pinpoint outfits participating in sex trafficking, few scientific studies have looked of how the digital infrastructure behind the online sex market operates.
Every night on Mars, when the sun sets and temperatures fall to minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit and below, an eerie phenomenon spreads across much of the planet's sky: a soft glow created by chemical reactions occurring tens of miles above the surface.
An astronaut standing on Mars couldn't see this "nightglow"--it shows up only as ultraviolet light. But it may one day help scientists to better predict the churn of Mars' surprisingly complex atmosphere.
Imagine if there were, say, 600 species of giraffes: some the size of a shrew, some three stories tall, some with purple spots. Of course, many giraffes could be found in Africa, but suppose there were reports of rare ones, wandering high in the mountains of the remote tropical island of New Guinea.
Researchers from Kobe University and the National Institute of Technology, Oshima College have conducted a detailed reanalysis of image data from Voyager 1, 2 and Galileo spacecraft in order to investigate the orientation and distribution of the ancient tectonic troughs found on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. They discovered that these troughs are concentrically distributed across almost the entire surface of the satellite. This global distribution indicates that these troughs may be actually part of one giant crater covering Ganymede.
It is not yet possible to predict earthquakes, but the analysis of different types of seismic data allows scientists to pinpoint where and when each type of earthquake originated, and hence better understand when and where tectonic slip might occur via damaging earthquakes. Tens of thousands of seismic stations around the world continuously record local seismic activity, with an output that is far beyond what scientists can process.
ITHACA, N.Y. - NASA's Juno spacecraft - orbiting and closely observing the planet Jupiter - has unexpectedly discovered lightning in the planet's upper atmosphere, according to a multi-institutional study led by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which includes two Cornell University researchers.
The work was published Aug. 5 in the journal Nature.
Thanks to researchers from The University of Queensland, we now know with much greater certainty the nuclear magnetic moments of francium atoms.
Dr Ben Roberts, a postdoctoral research fellow in UQ's School of Mathematics and Physics, said that the nuclear magnetic moment is a fundamental property of atoms, and knowing its value precisely is important when testing fundamental physics theories.
"But because francium is radioactive, the standard techniques for determining nuclear magnetic moments can't easily be applied," Dr Roberts said.