Friday 25 April 2014

Star is discovered to be a close neighbor of the Sun and the coldest of its kind

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A 'brown dwarf' star that appears to be the coldest of its kind -- as frosty as Earth's North Pole -- has been discovered by astronomers. The object's distance at 7.2 light-years away, making it the fourth closest system to our Sun.

via Science Daily

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Refreshingly cool, potentially toxic

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Refrigerant in car (Photo: bizoo_n / Fotolia.com) According to EU guidelines, the new compound R1234yf should in future be used as the refrigerant in air-conditioning systems for automobiles. But the compound is inflammable, and LMU chemists have now shown that combustion of the cooling agent leads to the formation of the highly toxic carbonyl fluoride. “It has been known for some time now that combustion of R1234yf results in production of the toxic hydrogen fluoride. Our analysis has now shown that 20% of the gases produced by combustion of the compound consist of the even more poisonous chemical carbonyl fluoride,” says Andreas Kornath, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at LMU Munich. He and his co-workers have just published the results of their investigation in the journal Zeitschrift für Naturforschung. Carbonyl fluoride is structurally related to phosgene (which contains chlorine in place of fluorine), which was used as a chemical weapon during the First World War. The simplest fluoride, hydrogen fluoride (or hydrofluoric acid, HF) is also highly corrosive and so toxic that burns about as big as the palm of one’s hand can be lethal. The agent binds avidly to calcium in body fluids, and this can result in heart failure unless

The post Refreshingly cool, potentially toxic has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Traces of recent water on Mars: Liquid water on Mars as recently as 200,000 years ago

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New research has shown that there was liquid water on Mars as recently as 200,000 years ago. The southern hemisphere of Mars is home to a crater that contains very well-preserved gullies and debris flow deposits. The geomorphological attributes of these landforms provide evidence that they were formed by the action of liquid water in geologically recent time.

via Science Daily

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High-voltage transmission lines to act as antenna in first-of-its-kind NASA space-weather project

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A NASA scientist is launching a one-to-two-year pilot project this summer that takes advantage of U.S. high-voltage power transmission lines to measure a phenomenon that has caused widespread power outages in the past.

via Science Daily

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Asteroids as seen from Mars -- A Curiosity rover first

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A new image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is the first ever from the surface of Mars to show an asteroid, and it shows two: Ceres and Vesta. These two -- the largest and third-largest bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter -- are the destinations of NASA's Dawn mission. Dawn orbited Vesta in 2011 and 2012, and is on its way to begin orbiting Ceres next year. Ceres is a dwarf planet, as well as an asteroid.

via Science Daily

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The Carina Nebula Posters

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: carina nebula, nebula, space, stars, astronomy, telescope, hubble

This is a stunning image of The Carina Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Quantum gate could link multiple qubits into single computer

Science Focus

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Computers, cell phones, and any other device being used to read this article rely on a three-century-old approach to computation that represents data with a binary system. However, it’s possible that some computations will shift to a different system entirely thanks to developments in the field of quantum computing.

Classical computing uses logic gates with a 1 or 0 value. Quantum bits, or qubits, can represent a 1, 0, or any state achieved by a mixture of these two through their quantum superposition. Single qubits can be linked to create a single computer that can perform parallel calculations that are out of the reach of today’s hardware.

Studies conducted at the Max-Planck-Institut in Germany may help enable these sorts of parallel computations. In their studies, published in Nature, researchers have used the two spin orientations of an atom, along with two polarization states of a photon, to represent a 0 or 1.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

 
#science  
original post: http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/uRR6CR20oKI/
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One kind of supersymmetry shown to emerge naturally

Science Focus

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UC Santa Barbara physicist Tarun Grover has provided definitive mathematical evidence for supersymmetry in a condensed matter system. Sought after in the realm of subatomic particles by physicists for several decades, supersymmetry describes a unique relationship between particles. Supersymmetry in a three-dimensional topological superconductor: Ising magnetic fluctuations (denoted by red arrows) at the boundary couple to the fermions (blue cone). Download Image   “As yet, no one has found supersymmetry in our universe, including at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC),” said the associate specialist at UCSB’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP). He is referring to the underground laboratory in Switzerland where the famous Higgs boson was identified in 2012. “This is a fresh insight as to how supersymmetry arises in nature.” The findings of Grover’s research, conducted with colleagues Donna Sheng and Ashvin Vishwanath, appear in the current online edition of the journal Science. The fundamental constituents of matter — electrons, quarks and their relatives — are fermions. The particles associated with fundamental forces are called bosons. Several decades ago, physicists hypothesized that every type of particle in the Standard Model of particle physics, a theory that captures the dynamics of known subatomic particles, has one or more superpartners — other types of particles

The post One kind of supersymmetry shown to emerge naturally has been published on Technology Org.

 
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original post: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/iMhqiDumCPg/
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VIDEO: Welcome to Mars on Earth

Science Focus

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Richard Lancaster gives the BBC a guided tour of Stevenage's own indoor version of the Red Planet, and explains how it is being used to test the ExoMars rover. 
#science  
original post: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26764950#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Name, Gum 58 Emission Nebula, outer space image Gift Wrap Paper

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!


tagged with: star clusters, nebulae, rcw120, ionised gas clouds, star nurseries, galaxy stars, outer space photography, deep space astronomy, gstlnrsr, gum 58, starfields, eso, european southern observatory, vista, star forming regions

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic colour composite image of RCW120 (aka Gum 58).
It reveals how an expanding bubble of ionised gas about ten light-years across is causing the surrounding material to collapse into dense clumps where new stars are then formed.
The 870-micron submillimetre-wavelength data were taken with the LABOCA camera on the 12-m Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope. Here, the submillimetre emission is shown as the blue clouds surrounding the reddish glow of the ionised gas (shown with data from the SuperCosmos H-alpha survey). The image also contains data from the Second Generation Digitized Sky Survey (I-band shown in blue, R-band shown in red).more items with this image
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image code: gstlnrsr

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.


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Nikon ACULON 8x42 Binoculars for Under $70

Amazon Gold Box Daily Deal

An amazing daily deal from Amazon's Sky Watching Specials. Grab yours quickly, it won't last long!


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For a limited time, get the Nikon ACULON 8x42 binoculars for under $70 from Amazon.com.
Expires Jun 1, 2014

Hubble's Messier 5

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"Beautiful Nebula discovered between the Balance [Libra] & the Serpent [Serpens] ..." begins the description of the 5th entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous catalog of nebulae and star clusters. Though it appeared to Messier to be fuzzy and round and without stars, Messier 5 (M5) is now known to be a globular star cluster, 100,000 stars or more, bound by gravity and packed into a region around 165 light-years in diameter. It lies some 25,000 light-years away. Roaming the halo of our galaxy, globular star clusters are ancient members of the Milky Way. M5 is one of the oldest globulars, its stars estimated to be nearly 13 billion years old. The beautiful star cluster is a popular target for Earthbound telescopes. Of course, deployed in low Earth orbit on April 25, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has also captured its own stunning close-up view that spans about 20 light-years near the central region of M5. Even close to its dense core at the left, the cluster's aging red and blue giant stars and rejuvenated blue stragglers stand out in yellow and blue hues in the sharp color image.

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Rosette Nebula Photo Room Sticker

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: space, universe, stars, nebula, nebulas, rosette nebula, astronomy, photo, star clusters, hubble, star, astrology, photography, space photography, nebula photo, red, inferno, explosion, planets, galaxy, hubble photo, space travel

Beautiful Rosette Nebula photo. Great example of amazing space photography and great space gift ideas.

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Molybdenite diodes that can emit light or absorb it to produce electricity

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After using it to develop a computer chip, flash memory device and photographic sensor, EPFL scientists have once again tapped into the electronic potential of molybdenite (MoS2) by creating diodes that can emit light or absorb it to produce electricity.



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HH 901 and HH 902 in the Carina Nebula Case For The iPad Mini

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: carina nebula, hh901, hh902, space, deep space, hubble, hubble telescope, hubble telescope photos, images from hubble telescope, photos from hubble telescope, hubble nebulae, nasa photos, space photos, astronomy photos, astronomy, images of space, photos of space, pictures of space

This NASA/ESA image, taken by the Hubble Telescope, captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. Beautiful vivid colors in this restored NASA photo of deep space. If you love astronomy or science, or anything about space, you’ll really enjoy this.

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New type of barcode could make counterfeiters’ lives more difficult

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Counterfeiters, beware! Scientists are reporting the development of a new type of inexpensive barcode that, when added to documents or currency, could foil attempts at making forgeries. Although the tags are easy for researchers to make, they still require ingredients you can’t exactly find at the local hardware store. Their report appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Xiaogang Liu and colleagues explain that scientists have used fluorescent and DNA-based barcodes, or tags of known composition and sequence, in attempts to develop tests for cancer and other diseases. But their high cost and faint signal have hampered their application in security inks. One estimate states that about \$220 million in counterfeit bills are currently in circulation just in the U.S., and there’s no way to tell how many other “official” documents are fake. Liu’s team set out to thwart counterfeiters and overcome these obstacles by using microscopic “lanthanide-doped upconversion materials.” Lanthanides are a set of elements that are in a wide variety of products, including ceramics, glass and portable x-ray devices. The team made a set of multicolor barcodes with different combinations of red, green or blue fluorescent dots on either end of a tiny lanthanide-containing microrod using an

The post New type of barcode could make counterfeiters’ lives more difficult has been published on Technology Org.

 
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It was a plain ol' supernova after all :(

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It was a plain ol' supernova after all :(
One way of looking at is is that the inexplicably bright supernova helped find a galaxy!
 #outerspace
 
original post: https://plus.google.com/116000959328274308893/posts/jSrbYn7ZGDC
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Constellations Poster

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: artsprojekt, constellations, unitization, orion, constellation, network topology, asterism, astronomy, chunking, unitisation, celestial sphere, redundancy, night sky, topology, list of constellations, configuration, international astronomical union, plan, ptolemy, design, almagest, nicolas louis de lacaille, former constellations, chinese constellation, nakshatra, astrology

Space is never-ending source of inspiration for me! I wanted to draw a map of constellations in Photoshop, so I found suitable projection in Internet and used it as a reference.

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Spiral Galaxy - NGC 253 Oval Stickers

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: spgxy253, breathtaking astronomy images, galaxies, stars, spiral galaxy, european southern observatory, eso, vista, spiral galactic arms

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous image that reveals a little of the wonder that is our universe.

Measuring 70 000 light-years across and laying 13 million light-years away, the nearly edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 253 is revealed here in an image from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) of the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope at the La Silla Observatory.

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image code: spgxy253

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Name, Cats Paw Nebula in Scorpius space picture Gift Wrap Paper

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!


tagged with: star clusters, breathtaking astronomy images, inspirational, ctspwneb, star forming regions, scorpius constellation, cats paw nebula, outer space pictures, gas clouds, star galaxies, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A breathtaking outer space picture showing an infrared view of the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334) taken by VISTA. NGC 6334 is a vast region of star formation about 5500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius.

The whole gas cloud is about 50 light-years across. NGC 6334 is one of the most active nurseries of young massive stars in our galaxy, some nearly ten times the mass of our Sun and most born in the last few million years.
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image code: ctspwneb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Boomerang Nebula Hubble Astronomy Room Decal

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: boomerang nebula, nebula, stars, nasa, astronomy, universe, outer space, hubble telescope, nature, cool space, nebulae, esa, hubble space telescope, hubble photo, cosmos, astronomical, astrophotography, cosmology, deep space, space, natural, science, space picture, space photo, space image, nebula picture, nebula photo, nebula image, blue, cool astronomy

Hubble photograph of the Boomerang Nebula

This photograph of the Boomerang Nebula was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998. It shows the bow-tie-shaped nebula in beautiful bright blue and white colours, against a dark starry background.

Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Sahai and J. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and the WFPC2 Science Team

You can personalise the design further if you'd prefer, such as by adding your name or other text, or adjusting the image - just click 'Customize it' to see all the options. IMPORTANT: If you choose a different sized version of the product, it's important to click Customize and check the image in the Design view to ensure it fills the area to the edge of the product, otherwise white edges may be visible.

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Click here to see a wide range of other astronomy & space designs.

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Orion Nebula's Hubble Pink iPad Case

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: hubble, space, telescope, milky, galaxy, astronomy, cloudy, purple, girlie

The Orion Nebula's biggest stars, taken with NASA's Hubble Telescope.

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