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Fermilab Plans Celebration for Safe Arrival of Circular Muon g-2 Electromagnet

For the past month, a 50-foot-wide circular electromagnet has been on a fantastic journey between two U.S. Department of Energy national labs: Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. On Friday, July 26, that voyage is expected to conclude. Fermilab is planning a party to celebrate the ring’s safe arrival, and everyone is invited.

25 Jul 2013

New Theoretical Models May Explain Formation of the Solar System

Comets and meteorites contain clues to our solar system's earliest days. But some of the findings are puzzle pieces that don't seem to fit well together. A new set of theoretical models from Carnegie's Alan Boss shows how an outburst event in the Sun's formative years could explain some of this disparate evidence. His work could have implications for the hunt for habitable planets outside of our solar system. It is published by The Astrophysical Journal.

25 Jul 2013

Large Galaxies May Keep Mass Down Through Feast and Fast Sequence

Unlike humans, galaxies don’t have an obesity problem. In fact there are far fewer galaxies at the most massive end of the galactic scale than expected and scientists have long sought to explain why. A new, UMD-led study published in the journal Nature suggests that one answer lies in a kind of feast and fast sequence through which large galaxies can keep their mass down.

25 Jul 2013

New Observations May Help Solve Mystery of Missing High-Mass Galaxies

A new study published in the journal Nature shows how vigorous star formation can turn the tables on a starburst galaxy by forcing hydrogen and other gases high into the surrounding galactic halo, leaving little fuel for the next generation of stars.

25 Jul 2013

Dartmouth Astrophysicists Document Immense Power of Quasar Radiation

Quasars are among the brightest, oldest, most distant, and most powerful objects in the universe. Powered by massive black holes at the center of most known galaxies, quasars can emit enormous amounts of energy, up to a thousand times the total output of the hundreds of billions of stars in our entire Milky Way.

25 Jul 2013

First Definitive Observation of Transformation of Muon Neutrinos to Electron Neutrinos

A team of international scientists, including several at the University of Rochester, has announced the first definitive observation of the transformation of muon neutrinos to electron neutrinos – a type of neutrino oscillation that had not previously been observed. The researchers reported the new results this week at the European Physical Society meeting in Stockholm.

24 Jul 2013

Purple Bacteria Survives Under Alien Light

Purple bacteria contain pigments that allow them to use sunlight as their source of energy, hence their color. Small as they are, these microbes can teach us a lot about life on Earth, because they have been around longer than most other organisms on the planet.

24 Jul 2013