Monday 16 June 2014

Miniature Truss Work

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Fancy Erector Set? Nope. The elaborate fractal structure shown at right (with a close-up below) is many, many times smaller than that and is certainly not child’s play. It is the latest example of what Julia Greer, professor of materials science and mechanics, calls a fractal nanotruss—nano because the structures are made up of members that are as thin as five nanometers (five billionths of a meter); truss because they are carefully architected structures that might one day be used in structural engineering materials. Greer’s group has developed a three-step process for building such complex structures very precisely. They first use a direct laser writing method called two-photon lithography to “write” a three-dimensional pattern in a polymer, allowing a laser beam to crosslink and harden the polymer wherever it is focused. At the end of the patterning step, the parts of the polymer that were exposed to the laser remain intact while the rest is dissolved away, revealing a three-dimensional scaffold. Next, the scientists coat the polymer scaffold with a continuous, very thin layer of a material—it can be a ceramic, metal, metallic glass, semiconductor, “just about anything,” Greer says. In this case, they used alumina, or aluminum oxide, which is a brittle

The post Miniature Truss Work has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Hubble to begin search beyond Pluto for a New Horizons mission target

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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will be used to search for a suitable Kuiper Belt object that NASA's New Horizons space probe could visit. It would be our first and perhaps last look at such a remote relic from the distant past. The search is very challenging even for Hubble's sharp vision. It has to find something the size of Manhattan Island, as black as charcoal, and embedded against a snowstorm of background stars.

via Science Daily

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Decontamination system to up research on space station

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Just like eating, drinking and even trying to wash your hair aboard the International Space Station, conducting science experiments in space is not a simple task for astronauts. There are so many more factors for crews to consider than scientists on Earth have to worry about. If not contained, microgravity can turn gasses, dust, fluids and sharp objects into a floating nightmare.

via Science Daily

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Giant telescopes pair up to image near-Earth asteroid

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NASA scientists using Earth-based radar have produced sharp views of a recently discovered asteroid as it slid silently past our planet. Captured on June 8, 2014, the new views of the object designated "2014 HQ124" are some of the most detailed radar images of a near-Earth asteroid ever obtained.

via Science Daily

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Herschel sees budding stars and a giant, strange ring

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The Herschel Space Observatory has uncovered a weird ring of dusty material while obtaining one of the sharpest scans to date of a huge cloud of gas and dust, called NGC 7538. The observations have revealed numerous clumps of material, a baker's dozen of which may evolve into the most powerful kinds of stars in the universe. Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions.

via Science Daily

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High-mass stars are rarely solitary: Binary stars are more common than thought

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High-mass stars are rarely solitary, according to new research. For several years, astronomers observed 800 celestial objects that are up to one hundred times heavier than our sun. More than 90 per cent have turned out to be multiple systems. These data support the theory that heavy stars are already formed as twins.

via Science Daily

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NASA's Hubble to Begin Search Beyond Pluto for a New Horizons Mission Target



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The Kuiper Belt is the final frontier of our solar system, and also the vastest. Stretching from 3 to 5 billion miles from the Sun, it contains myriad primate icy bodies left over from the birth of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. After passing the dwarf planet Pluto in July 2015, NASA's New Horizons space probe will hurtle deep into the Kuiper Belt at nearly 35,000 miles per hour. The Hubble Space Telescope is being used to search for a suitable Kuiper Belt object that New Horizons could pay a visit to. It would be our first and perhaps last look at such a remote relic from the distant past. The search is very challenging even for Hubble's sharp vision. It has to find something the size of Manhattan Island, as black as charcoal, and embedded against a snowstorm of background stars.




via HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2014/29/

Orion, from head to toes (portrait orientation) poster

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


tagged with: nebula, space, astronomy, poster, orion, horsehead, rigel, betelgeuse, constellation, stars, nebulae

An incredible and colorful deep wide field image of the Constellation of Orion.

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APOD Heatmap

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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Solar Flair Wall Skins

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


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Stunning Solar Flair iPad Air with sun flares, earth and nebulas. Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

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The difference between baking soda and baking powder

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This is what happens when baking soda and acid (in this case vinegar) interact. Photo credit: Kate Ter Haar, via Wikimedia Commons. What’s the difference between baking soda and baking powder? Short answer: acid. But it can make a big difference for baked goods, so let’s explain. Baking soda has only one ingredient: sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate is a base that reacts when it comes into contact with acids, like buttermilk, yogurt or vinegar. This reaction produces carbon dioxide (CO2) in the form of bubbles, like a liquid foam (think of the grade school experiments involving fake volcanoes, vinegar and baking soda). When making baked goods, the process is called “chemical leavening,” because the trapped CO2 gas makes the dough or batter rise. But when baking soda comes into contact with an acid, it pretty much reacts immediately. And that’s a problem. For many baking recipes, you want an extended reaction, so that the rising doesn’t take place all at once. Baking powder addresses this problem because it is “double acting” – it has different ingredients that create CO2 gas at different stages of the baking process. All baking powders contain sodium bicarbonate (just like baking soda). But baking powder also contains

The post The difference between baking soda and baking powder has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Solar necklace

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Space science image of the week: The well-behaved Sun of 1998 showed equal bands of solar activity in both hemispheres, strung out like beads on a necklace

via ESA Space Science

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

Horse head Nebula Poster

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


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The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 1500 light years from Earth. It is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of the shape of its swirling cloud of dark dust and gases, which is similar to that of a horse's head when viewed from Earth.

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Name, Tarantula Nebula, Intriguing Outer Space 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: astronomy, tarnebes, tarantula nebula, r136, massive stars, youngest stars, supernovae, star galaxies, deep space pictures, outer space images

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A section of the Tarantula Nebula. The Tarantula is situated 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) in the Southern sky and is clearly visible to the bare eye as a large milky patch.
Astronomers believe that the LMC galaxy is currently going through a violent period in its life. It is orbiting around the Milky Way and has had several close encounters with it. It is believed that the interaction with the Milky Way has caused an episode of energetic star formation - part of which is visible as the Tarantula Nebula.
Just above the centre of the full image there is a huge cluster of very hot stars called R136. The stars in R136 are also among the most massive stars we know. R136 is also a very young cluster, its oldest stars being "just" 5 million years old or so. Its smallest stars, however, are still forming, so astronomers observe R136 to try to understand the early stages of stellar evolution. Near the lower edge of the full image we find the star cluster Hodge 301. Hodge 301 is almost 10 times older than R136. Some of the stars in Hodge 301 are so old that they have already exploded as supernovae. The shockwave from this explosion has compressed the gas in the Tarantula into the filaments and sheets that are seen around the cluster.
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image code: tarnebes

Image credit: This mosaic of the Tarantula Nebula consists of images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and was created by 23 year old amateur astronomer Danny LaCrue. The image was constructed by 15 individual exposures taken through three narrow-band filters allowing light from ionised oxygen (501 nm, shown as blue), hydrogen-alpha (656 nm, shown as green) and ionised sulphur (672 nm, shown as red). The exposure time for the individual WFPC2 images vary between 800 and 2800 seconds in each filter. The Hubble data have been superimposed onto images taken through matching narrow-band filters with the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory, Chile. Additional image processing was done by the Hubble European Space Agency

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Orion Nebula and Trapezium Stars Sticker

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


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Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous picture from the deep universe featuring the bubbling, seething mass of gas and dust that is the Orion Nebula, 1500 light years away and the closest star-forming region to us. The nebula is a star nursery in which there are birthing, new-born, young and adult stars. Look carefully in the brightest central region and you'll see the Trapezium, four of the most massive stars in Orion.

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image code: ornebcsfr

Image credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

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Inter-Galactic Portals Wall Decals

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


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Stunning Galaxy Portals iPad Air with nebulas. Psalm 19:1 The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands

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Hubble Interacting Galaxy NGC 454 iPad Cover

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!


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