Quantum Physics News

RSS

ALMA Reveals Poison Gas, Comet Swarms and Hypothetical Planet Around Beta Pictoris

An international team of astronomers exploring the disk of gas and dust around a nearby star have uncovered a compact cloud of poisonous gas formed by ongoing rapid-fire collisions among a swarm of icy, comet-like bodies. The researchers suggest the comet swarm is either the remnant of a crash between two icy worlds the size of Mars or frozen debris trapped and concentrated by the gravity of an as-yet-unseen planet.

7 Mar 2014

New Threshold of Dark Matter Detection with Extremely Improved Background Rejection Capabilities

Dr. Rusty Harris, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, recently joined the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) collaboration in announcing a new threshold of dark matter detection with extremely improved background rejection capabilities.

7 Mar 2014

Researchers Directly Measure Spin of Distant Supermassive Black Hole

Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's (ESA's) XMM-Newton to show a supermassive black hole six billion light years from Earth is spinning extremely rapidly. This first direct measurement of the spin of such a distant black hole is an important advance for understanding how black holes grow over time.

6 Mar 2014

Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer Successfully Installed on ESO Paranal Observatory’s Very Large Telescope

A new innovative instrument called MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) has been successfully installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. MUSE has observed distant galaxies, bright stars and other test targets during the first period of very successful observations.

6 Mar 2014

Spiral Galaxy Caught Like a Dandelion in a Breeze

The spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 looks like a dandelion caught in a breeze in this new Hubble Space Telescope image.

6 Mar 2014

UW Astronomer Plays Key Role in Discovery of New Exoplanets Around Kepler-90

University of Washington astronomer Eric Agol played a key role in the windfall of 715 new exoplanets announced by NASA Feb. 26. Agol was on a team that found seven of those worlds, all in orbit around the same star, Kepler-90. It’s the first planetary system with seven planets seen to transit, or cross in front of their host star.

5 Mar 2014

Intense Blue Streaks Stream Outwards from ESO 137-001 Spiral Galaxy

This new Hubble image shows spiral galaxy ESO 137-001, framed against a bright background as it moves through the heart of galaxy cluster Abell 3627. This cluster is violently ripping the spiral’s entrails out into space, leaving bright blue streaks as telltale clues to this cosmic crime.

5 Mar 2014

New Method for Gauging Atmospheric Pressure of Exoplanets

Astronomers at the University of Washington have developed a new method of gauging the atmospheric pressure of exoplanets, or worlds beyond the solar system, by looking for a certain type of molecule.

5 Mar 2014

New Physical Phenomenon Allows Manipulation of Magnet’s State by Electric Signals

The research group of Professor Jairo Sinova at the Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), in collaboration with researchers from Prague, Cambridge, and Nottingham, have predicted and discovered a new physical phenomenon that allows to manipulate the state of a magnet by electric signals.

5 Mar 2014