Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the only such object classed as a dwarf planet. NASA's Dawn spacecraft has been in orbit around Ceres for more than a year and has mapped its surface in great detail. One of the biggest surprises has been the discovery of very bright spots, which reflect far more light than their much darker surroundings [1].
Heavens
As mobile and wearable devices such as smartwatches grow smaller, it gets tougher for people to interact with screens the size of a matchbook.
That could change with a new sonar technology developed by University of Washington computer scientists and electrical engineers that allows you to interact with mobile devices by writing or gesturing on any nearby surface -- a tabletop, a sheet of paper or even in mid-air.
The annotations were discovered in England's first printed Bible, published in 1535 by Henry VIII's printer. It is one of just seven surviving copies, and is housed in Lambeth Palace Library, London. The secrets hidden in the Lambeth Library copy were revealed during research by Dr Eyal Poleg, a historian from Queen Mary University of London.
Type 1 diabetes affects 30,000 individuals throughout Germany and is the most common metabolic disease in children and adolescents. To halt the ever-increasing incidence, the young investigator group "Immunological Tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes" at the Institute of Diabetes Research directed by Prof. Dr. Anette-Gabriele Ziegler is exploring new strategies to prevent the onset of the disease.
For the purpose of blood analyses and industrial tests, it is often necessary to measure the concentration of specific ions. At present, the relevant devices are large and cannot be produced at low costs. A new dry electrode could change all that.
Mini analysis systems for ion concentrations have posed a considerable challenge for developers to date. They had to find a compromise between size, costs and reproducible results.
Geologists from the University of Sydney and the California Institute of Technology have solved the mystery of how Australia's highest mountain - Mount Kosciuszko - and surrounding Alps came to exist.
Most of the world's mountain belts are the result of two continents colliding (e.g. the Himalayas) or volcanism. The mountains of Australia's Eastern highlands - stretching from north-eastern Queensland to western Victoria - are an exception. Until now no one knew how they formed.
Extremely heavy rain fell over the southern United States during the past week and data from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission core satellite and others in the GPM constellation provided a look at areas with heaviest rainfall. The data showed the largest amounts of rain fell from north central Louisiana to southern Arkansas.
New research from Boston Children's Hospital could potentially change how doctors approach two blinding diseases: 'Wet' age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, and macular telangiectasia (MacTel).
Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have designed an antenna that is able to process incoming and outgoing radio-wave signals more efficiently and without the need for separate bulky and expensive electrical components commonly used in antenna systems. This new technology could lead to significantly faster, cheaper and clearer telecommunications in the future.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Terahertz radiation is a relatively unexplored slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, but it holds the promise of countless new imaging applications as well as wireless communication networks with extremely high bandwidth. The problem is that there are few off-the-shelf components available for manipulating terahertz waves.
Dark matter is all around us. Though no one has ever seen it, and no one knows what it really is, indisputable physical calculations state that approximately 27% of the universe is dark matter. Only five % is the matter of which all known materials consist; from the smallest ant to the largest galaxy.
Ice shelves, the floating extensions of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, are not simply resting on the ocean waters: they rise, fall and bend with the tides. Ultimately, these oceanic motions impact the flow of ice coming from the glaciers that these ice shelves buttress. Ryan Walker and Christine Dow, researchers with the Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, recently spent more than a month doing fieldwork in Antarctica to study the influence of tidal movements on a small, little-studied ice shelf.
An estimated 3 million shipwrecks are scattered across the planet's oceans. Most maritime mishaps take place close to shore where hazards to navigation -- such as rocks, reefs, other submerged objects and vessel congestion -- are abundant. While there is a romantic association of shipwrecks and buried treasure, it is desirable to know where they are located for many other practical reasons. The ships may be of historical significance or, if the hard substrate of the ship has created a reef, of ecological significance.
On Thursday, March 10, 2016 astronauts on the International Space Station logged their 1,000th educational contact with the ground. NASA astronaut Tim Kopra answered questions posed by the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium in Grand Forks, North Dakota. No matter how many times it happens, talking directly with someone orbiting above the Earth remains a thrill for students.
Imagine a house that could fit in a backpack or a wall that could become a window with the flick of a switch.
Harvard researchers have designed a new type of foldable material that is versatile, tunable and self actuated. It can change size, volume and shape; it can fold flat to withstand the weight of an elephant without breaking, and pop right back up to prepare for the next task.