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Construction of Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Receives National Science Foundation Support

The National Science Foundation (NSF) agreed on Friday to support the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) to manage the construction of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).

7 Aug 2014

JHU APL to Host Comet Siding Spring Observer's Workshop

Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) is calculated to have an extremely close brush with Mars on October 19, 2014, passing within 82,000 miles (130,000 km.) of the planet, as well as the flotilla of robotic spacecraft in its orbit and on its surface.

7 Aug 2014

Newly Discovered Extremely Cool Object May Have Been as Hot as a Star in its Youth

Astronomers have discovered an extremely cool object that could have a particularly diverse history—although it is now as cool as a planet, it may have spent much of its youth as hot as a star.

6 Aug 2014

New Muon Detector Design at SLAC's End Station Test Beam Facility

Last year, a monster magnet set out from Brookhaven National Lab on an epic, 35-day trek by land and sea to its new home at Fermilab, where it will serve as the heart of a search for evidence of new subatomic particles. Last month, with much less fanfare, researchers came to the End Station Test Beam (ESTB) facility at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to test the eyes and nerves of the same experiment: a cutting-edge design for a new detector.

6 Aug 2014

Controlled Positioning of Atomic-Scale Diamond Defects May Help Build Better Quantum Computers

By carefully controlling the position of an atomic-scale diamond defect within a volume smaller than what some viruses would fill, researchers have cleared a path toward better quantum computers and nanoscale sensors. They describe their technique in a paper published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing.

6 Aug 2014

New Biomolecular Forcefields Paper Wins Molecular Physics Young Author Prize

An EMRP-funded paper on new biomolecular forcefields has won the Molecular Physics Young Author Prize for 2013. Given the particularly strong competition, 72 nominations across 23 different countries, the editors decided to award two Young Author prizes, one of which went to Andrew P Jones, University of Edinburgh for: Electronically coarse-grained molecular dynamics using quantum Drude oscillators

6 Aug 2014

Gemini Observatory Captures Image of Very Bright Volcano on Jupiter's Moon

During the middle of 2013, Jupiter's moon Io came alive with volcanism. Now, an image from the Gemini Observatory captures what is one of the brightest volcanoes ever seen in our solar system. The image, obtained on August 29, reveals the magnitude of the eruption that was the "grand finale" in a series of eruptions on the distant moon.

5 Aug 2014

Processing of Planck Satellite Data in a New Way Makes Several Anomalies Disappear

Last year, the Planck Telescope revealed the most detailed picture of the cosmic microwave background, the relic radiation from the Big Bang. But this map contains features that challenge the standard model of cosmology, the theory that describes our entire Universe from early on.

5 Aug 2014

Outer Heliosphere Research Achievements Highlighted at 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly

Scientists yesterday highlighted an impressive list of achievements in researching the outer heliosphere at the 40th International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Scientific Assembly in Moscow.

5 Aug 2014

NSF to Support AURA’s Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in Chile

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has officialy agreed to support the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) in managing the construction of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) in Chile.

5 Aug 2014

The Trick of Growing Perfect Films of Ruddlesden-Poppers

Like the perfect sandwich, a perfectly engineered thin film for electronics requires not only the right ingredients, but also just the right thickness of each ingredient in the desired order, down to individual layers of atoms.

5 Aug 2014

Three Extremely Bright Volcanic Outbursts on Jupiter's Moon in August 2013

Three massive volcanic eruptions occurred on Jupiter's moon Io within a two-week period in August of last year. This led astronomers to speculate that such "outbursts," which can send material hundreds of miles above the surface, might be much more common than they thought.

5 Aug 2014