Monday 2 June 2014

Out There: A Star-Gazing Palace’s Hazy Future

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As attentions turn to newer telescopes, Lick Observatory fights to stay relevant.















via New York Times

Nanoengineers develop basis for electronics that stretch at the molecular level

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Darren Lipomi, a professor in the NanoEngineering Department at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, has made several new discoveries that could lead to electronics that can be stretched at the molecular level. Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego are asking what might be possible if semiconductor materials were flexible and stretchable without sacrificing electronic function? Today’s flexible electronics are already enabling a new generation of wearable sensors and other mobile electronic devices. But these flexible electronics, in which very thin semiconductor materials are applied to a thin, flexible substrate in wavy patterns and then applied to a deformable surface such as skin or fabric, are still built around hard composite materials that limit their elasticity.  Writing in the journal Chemistry of Materials, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering professor Darren Lipomi reports on several new discoveries by his team that could lead to electronics that are “molecularly stretchable.” Lipomi compared the difference between flexible and stretchable electronics to what would happen if you tried to wrap a basketball with either a sheet of paper or a thin sheet of rubber. The paper would wrinkle, while the rubber would conform to the surface of the ball. “We

The post Nanoengineers develop basis for electronics that stretch at the molecular level has been published on Technology Org.

 
#materials 
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Astronomers find a new type of planet: The 'mega-Earth'

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Astronomers have discovered a new type of planet -- a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth. Theorists believed such a world couldn't form because anything so hefty would grab hydrogen gas as it grew and become a Jupiter-like gas giant. This planet, though, is all solids and much bigger than previously discovered 'super-Earths,' making it a 'mega-Earth.'

via Science Daily

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'Neapolitan' exoplanets come in three flavors

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The planets of our solar system come in two basic flavors, like vanilla and chocolate ice cream. We have small, rocky terrestrials like Earth and Mars, and large gas giants like Neptune and Jupiter. We're missing the astronomical equivalent of strawberry ice cream -- planets between about one and four times the size of Earth.

via Science Daily

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Harsh space weather may doom potential life on red-dwarf planets

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Life in the universe might be even rarer than we thought. Recently, astronomers looking for potentially habitable worlds have targeted red dwarf stars because they are the most common type of star, composing 80 percent of the stars in the universe. But a new study shows that harsh space weather might strip the atmosphere of any rocky planet orbiting in a red dwarf's habitable zone.

via Science Daily

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The 'Serpent' star-forming cloud hatches new stars

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Stars that are just beginning to coalesce out of cool swaths of dust and gas are showcased in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). Infrared light has been assigned colors we see with our eyes, revealing young stars in orange and yellow, and a central parcel of gas in blue. This area is hidden in visible-light views, but infrared light can travel through the dust, offering a peek inside the stellar hatchery.

via Science Daily

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NASA's saucer-shaped craft preps for flight test

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NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project, a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle, has completed final assembly at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. This experimental flight test is designed to investigate breakthrough technologies that will benefit future Mars missions, including those involving human exploration. Three weeks of testing, simulations and rehearsals are planned before the first launch opportunity on the morning of June 3.

via Science Daily

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STMD: Advancing NASA’s path to Mars

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NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) is paving the way for future Mars exploration. The directorate is currently investing in and developing bold, disruptive technology required for future deep-space missions. This critical work leads a concerted effort throughout the agency, including at the program level and across multiple centers, as well as with partners in American industry.

via Science Daily

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LDSD testing for large payloads to Mars

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What will it take to land heavier spacecraft on Mars? How will engineers slow large payloads traveling at supersonic speeds in a thin Martian atmosphere? Can this be done? NASA's Wallops Flight Facility is playing an integral role in potentially answering those questions with the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator mission, or LDSD.

via Science Daily

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Because you can't eat just one: Star will swallow two planets

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(Phys.org) —Two worlds orbiting a distant star are about to become a snack of cosmic proportions. Astronomers announced today that the planets Kepler-56b and Kepler-56c will be swallowed by their star in a short time by astronomical standards. Their ends will come in 130 million and 155 million years, respectively.



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Retro Report: Challenger, Columbia and the Nature of Calamity

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Over 30 years, there were 135 American shuttle launches and returns, and 133 were successes. Perhaps inevitably, it is the other two that people remember best.















via New York Times

Using antineutrinos to monitor nuclear reactors

Science Focus

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When monitoring nuclear reactors, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has to rely on input given by the operators. In the future, antineutrino detectors may provide an additional option for monitoring. However, heretofore the cumulative antineutrino spectrum of uranium 238 fission products was missing. Physicists at Technische Universität München (TUM) have now closed this gap using fast neutrons from the Heinz Maier Leibnitz Neutron Research Facility (FRM II). In addition to neutrons, the fission reaction of nuclear fuels like plutonium or uranium releases antineutrinos. These are also electrically neutral, but can pass matter very easily, which is why they can be discerned only in huge detectors. Recently, however, detectors on the scale of only one cubic meter have been developed. They can measure antineutrinos from a reactor core, which has generated great interest at the IAEA. Prototypes of these detectors already exist and collect data at distances of around 10 meters from a reactor core. Changes in the composition of nuclear fuels in the reactor – for example, when weapons-grade U-239 is removed – can be determined by analyzing the energy and rate of antineutrinos. This would free the IAEA from having to rely on representations of reactor operators. Antineutrino spectrum of

The post Using antineutrinos to monitor nuclear reactors has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/4iRiWNXPXMc/
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Keyhole Nebula and Digitus Impudicus Rectangle Sticker

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


tagged with: kndigimp, peel off, galaxies and stars, keyhole nebula, carina nebula, massive stars, hubble space telescope, digitus impudicus, complex structure

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Details of a mysterious, complex structure within the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) are revealed by this image of the 'Keyhole Nebula, ' obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The picture is a montage assembled from four different April 1999 telescope pointings with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which used six different colour filters. The picture is dominated by a large, approximately circular feature, which is part of the Keyhole Nebula, named in the 19th century by Sir John Herschel. This region, about 8000 light-years from Earth, is located adjacent to the famous explosive variable star Eta Carinae, which lies just outside the field of view toward the upper right. The Carina Nebula also contains several other stars that are among the hottest and most massive known, each about 10 times as hot, and 100 times as massive, as our Sun.

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image code: kndigimp

Image credit: Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2

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Name, M106 Spiral Galaxy, Canes Venatici 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 galaxies, outer space picture, deep space astronomy, hubble galaxy photography, supermassive black hole, messier 106, spiral arms, constellation canes venatici, hunting dog stars, hrftpraz m106cv, m106cv, seyfert ii galaxy

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. It is also a Seyfert II galaxy, which means that due to x-rays and unusual emission lines detected, it is suspected that part of the galaxy is falling into a supermassive black hole in the center.
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image code: m106cv

Image credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler (for the Hubble Heritage Team), J. GaBany

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The Space Station Captures a Dragon Capsule

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War and Peace Nebula Wall Graphic

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


tagged with: pismis 24, star cluster, stars, nebula, ngc 6357, emission nebula, cosmology, astronomy, starcluster, space, universe, astronomer, war and peace nebula, nebulae, nebulas

NGC 6357 is a diffuse nebula near NGC 6334 in the constellation Scorpius. The nebula contains many proto-stars shielded by dark disks of gas, and young stars wrapped in expanding "cocoons". This nebula was given the name War and Peace Nebula by the Midcourse Space Experiment scientists because of its appearance. They said that in infrared images the bright, western part resembles a dove, while the eastern part looks like a skull. This nebula includes the open cluster Pismis 24, which is home to several massive stars. One of the brightest stars in the cluster, Pismis 24-1, was thought possibly to be the most massive on record, approaching 300 solar masses, until it was discovered to be a binary system with each star exceeding 100 solar masses. Image by NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain). Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

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Hubble Reaches 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: galaxy, space, universe, stars, planets, travel, exploration, science, sun, astronomy, the milky way, telescope images, moons, phenomena, supernovas, cosmos, cosmology, nebula, star cluster, solar system, space shuttle, nasa, space images, themilkyway, hubble, reaches, hubble reaches

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Accelerating progress on SESAME

New method for measuring temperature of nanoscale objects discovered

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Experimental schematic. Silica spheres are levitated in a dual-beam optical tweezer inside a vacuum chamber. Light of wavelength 1,064 nm is coupled into lenses from single-mode optical fibres, creating an optical trap. The motion of the levitated sphere is monitored with a camera and a QPD. Credit: (c) Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2014.82 Temperature measurements in our daily life are typically performed by bringing a thermometer in contact with the object to be measured. However, measuring the temperature of nanoscale objects is a much more tricky task due to their size – up to a thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. Pioneering research, published in Nature Nanotechnology, has now developed a method to accurately measure the surface temperature of nanoscale objects when they have a different temperature than their environment. A team led by Dr Janet Anders at the University of Exeter and Professor Peter Barker at University College London have discovered that the surface temperatures of nanoscale objects can be determined from analysing their jittery movement in air – known as Brownian motion. “This motion is caused by the collisions with the air molecules” said Dr Anders, a quantum information theorist and member of the Physics and Astronomy department at the University of Exeter. “We found

The post New method for measuring temperature of nanoscale objects discovered has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Wouldn't it be great if...

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Wouldn't it be great if...
..there was an app that could remove all the foreground stars and then let you partially rotate the image to give you a 3d sense of depth. As I'm asking fr pie in the sky, an option to remove the background stars as well would be good.
Come on you gals and guys, how about it? Pretty please, mwoah!
  #outerspace  

 » see original post https://plus.google.com/116000959328274308893/posts/VxuBDmoaSMK
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Blowing cosmic bubbles

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Space science image of the week: Rare image of a pulsar encased in the remnant of the supernova that created it

via ESA Space Science

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/06/Pulsar_encased_in_supernova_bubble

Monogram, Butterfly Nebula, Scorpius Constellation Round Sticker

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


tagged with: envelope sealers, galaxies and stars, stellar winds, btbgneb, butterfly nebula, bug nebula, scorpius constellation, ngc 6302, sculptured gas clouds, monogram initials

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series NGC 6302, more popularly called the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula, lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius.
The central dying star cannot be seen because it's hidden within a doughnut-shaped ring of dust, which appears as a dark band pinching the nebula in the centre. The thick dust belt constricts the star's outflow, creating the classic "bipolar" or hourglass shape displayed by some planetary nebulae.
The nebula's reddish outer edges are largely due to light emitted by nitrogen, which marks the coolest gas visible in the picture. The white-coloured regions are areas where light is emitted by sulphur. These are regions where fast-moving gas overtakes and collides with slow-moving gas that left the star at an earlier time, producing shock waves in the gas (the bright white edges on the sides facing the central star).

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image code: btbgneb

image credit: NGC 6302 was imaged on 27 July 2009 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in ultraviolet and visible light. Filters that isolate emissions from oxygen, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur were used to create this composite image.

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In GPS Battle, Russia Sets Restrictions of Its Own

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In imposing restrictions on the American satellite navigation system, Russia is answering the refusal of the United States to allow similar base stations on its soil.















via New York Times

Lobster Nebula Wall Stickers

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


tagged with: lobster nebula, star cluster, stars, nebula, ngc 6357, emission nebula, cosmology, astronomy, starcluster, space, universe, astronomer, war and peace nebula, nebulaes, nebulas, milky way, galaxy, galaxies

This image from ESO’s VISTA telescope captures a celestial landscape of vast, glowing clouds of gas and tendrils of dust surrounding hot young stars. This infrared view reveals the stellar nursery known as NGC 6357 in a new light. It was taken as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey, which is currently scanning the Milky Way in a bid to map our galaxy’s structure and explain how it formed. Source http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1309a/ Author: ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti.

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Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image Cover For iPad

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: galaxy, space, universe, stars, planets, travel, exploration, science, sun, astronomy, the milky way, telescope images, moons, phenomena, supernovas, cosmos, cosmology, nebula, star cluster, solar system, space shuttle, nasa, space images, themilkyway, hubble, ultra, deep, field, image, hubble ultra deep field image

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