Heavens
The most extensive survey of atmospheric chemical compositions of exoplanets to date has revealed trends that challenge current theories of planet formation and has implications for the search for water in the solar system and beyond.
Scientists from Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology, Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI), and Pulkovo Observatory discovered a unique neutron star, the magnetic field of which is apparent only when the star is seen under a certain angle relative to the observer. Previously, all neutron stars could be grouped into two big families: the first one included objects where the magnetic field manifests itself during the whole spin cycle, and the other one included objects where the magnetic field is not measured at all.
A University of Wyoming researcher and his colleagues have shown that much of the southwestern United States was once a vast high-elevation plateau, similar to Tibet today.
This work has implications for the distribution of natural resources, such as copper, and provides insight into the formation of mountains during the subduction of tectonic plates.
Algae are indispensable because they generate about 50% of primary organic matter and account for about 50% of all oxygen on Earth. They produce oxygen through oxygenic photosynthesis -a biological process that "harvests" light and turns it into chemical energy.
An international group of scientists, in cooperation with a research scientist from Skoltech, has developed a model to describe changes in solar plasma. This will help comprehend solar dynamics and gives some clues to understanding how to predict space weather events. The results have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.
WASHINGTON (Nov. 20, 2019)--Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the cosmos. These explosive events last a fraction of a second to several minutes and emit the same amount of gamma rays as all the stars in the universe combined. Such extreme amounts of energy can only be released during catastrophic events like the death of a very massive star, or the merging of two compact stars, and are accompanied by an afterglow of light over a broad range of energies that fades with time.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers a peek at the location of the most energetic outburst ever seen in the universe -- a blast of gamma-rays a trillion times more powerful than visible light. That's because in a few seconds the gamma-ray burst (GRB) emitted more energy than the Sun will provide over its entire 10-billion year life.
Researchers at Tohoku University have, for the first time, successfully demonstrated a formation and current-induced motion of synthetic antiferromagnetic magnetic skyrmions. The established findings are expected to pave the way towards new functional information processing and storage technologies.
MADISON - University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have cultivated lifelike chemical reactions while pioneering a new strategy for studying the origin of life.
The work is far from jumpstarting life in the lab. Yet, it shows that simple laboratory techniques can spur the kinds of reactions that are likely necessary to explain how life got started on Earth some four billion years ago.
In January of this year, China's Chang'E-4 - the fourth version of a lunar spacecraft named for the Chinese goddess of the Moon - landed on the far side of the Moon. Due to the location of the landing, Chang'E-4 had to navigate autonomously, without the guidance of scientists on Earth.
Every biological reaction is a chemical reaction. The exchange of carbon dioxide for oxygen in our lungs and blood cells, for example, is caused by molecules releasing chemicals and reforming with new ones. The uncontrolled replication of cancerous cells is the result of broken chemical compounds miscommunicating. The appeal of developing improved drugs to promote helpful reactions or prevent harmful ones has driven organic chemists to better understand how to synthetically create these molecules and reactions in the laboratory.
SAN ANTONIO -- Sept. 18, 2019 -- No one knows for certain when Saturn's iconic rings formed, but a new study co-authored by a Southwest Research Institute scientist suggests that they are much older than some scientists think.
Saturn is so beautiful that astronomers cannot resist using the Hubble Space Telescope to take yearly snapshots of the ringed world when it is at its closest distance to Earth.
In an underground vault enclosed by six-foot concrete walls and accessed by a rolling, 25-ton concrete-and-steel door, University of California, Berkeley, students are making neutrons dance to a new tune: one better suited to producing isotopes required for geological dating, police forensics, hospital diagnosis and treatment.
The discovery of a previously unknown species of hadrosaur dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period is reported in Scientific Reports this week. The fossil, found in Japan, furthers our understanding of hadrosaur diversity in the Far East and hadrosaurid evolution during the Late Cretaceous Period (100.5-66 million years ago).
Hadrosaurs are among the most successful group of dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous, and their fossils have been found in North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Antarctica.