Tuesday 30 September 2014

Engineers show light can play seesaw at the nanoscale

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University of Minnesota electrical engineering researchers have developed a unique nanoscale device that for the first time demonstrates

The post Engineers show light can play seesaw at the nanoscale has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Whirlpool Galaxy M51 Posters

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


tagged with: nasa, space, astronomy, prints, posters, photographs, hubble, telescope, beautiful, photography, pictures, picture, print, galaxy, galaxies, stars, star, gifts, gift, fantasy, science fiction

Whirlpool Galaxy M51 Poster.The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust.
This sharpest-ever image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy's grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The galaxy is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its swirling structure.
The Whirlpool's most striking feature is its two curving arms, a of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms which make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms serve an important purpose in spiral galaxies. They are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. In the Whirlpool, the assembly line begins with the dark clouds of gas on the inner edge, then moves to bright pink star-forming regions, and ends with the brilliant blue star clusters along the outer edge.
Some astronomers believe that the Whirlpool's arms are so prominent because of the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the Whirlpool's arms. At first glance, the compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble's clear view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past the Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years.
As NGC 5195 drifts by, its gravitational muscle pumps up waves within the Whirlpool's pancake-shaped disk. The waves are like ripples in a pond generated when a rock is thrown in the water. When the waves pass through orbiting gas clouds within the disk, they squeeze the gaseous material along each arm's inner edge. The dark dusty material looks like gathering storm clouds. These dense clouds collapse, creating a wake of star birth, as seen in the bright pink star-forming regions. The largest stars eventually sweep away the dusty cocoons with a torrent of radiation, hurricane-like stellar winds, and shock waves from supernova blasts. Bright blue star clusters emerge from the mayhem, illuminating the Whirlpool's arms like city streetlights.
The Whirlpool is one of astronomy's galactic darlings. Located 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs), the Whirlpool's beautiful face-on view and closeness to Earth allow astronomers to study a classic spiral galaxy's structure and star-forming processes. Courtesy: NASA.

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Price slowly rising on carbon emissions in US cap-and-trade states

Science Focus

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New York, one of the RGGI states, has nearly two Gigawatts of installed wind capacity.

Economists and policymakers frequently talk about the "social cost of carbon"—the price that society as a whole pays for disruptions caused by climate change and ocean acidification. Although there are various ways of calculating it that give different results, the US currently estimates the cost at $37 a ton. At least nationally, however, there have been no attempts to get anyone to actually pay this price for their emissions.

But locally, a number of states are trying. Most of the Northeast has banded together to form the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI. This is a cap-and-trade system, where emissions allowances are auctioned by the group. Unfortunately, plans for the auctions were made prior to the boom in fracking, which has dramatically lowered the emissions of electricity generation in the US. As a result, RGGI emissions allowances have been auctioned off at the legal minimum, just under $2 a ton—well below just about any estimate of the social cost of carbon.

As a result, the group decided to take two actions. To begin with, it reduced its total cap on CO2 emissions by 45 percent. Then, it reduced the number of allowances auctioned off. It does so by holding back a pool of allowances until the auction price reaches a preset value. Currently, that value is $4/ton. As a result, three consecutive auctions have resulted in prices above $4. The reserve price is set to rise by $2 every year until it hits $10, then rise by 2.5 percent each following year.

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/Q23a3pp0s80/
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Neutrino trident production may offer powerful probe of new physics

Science Focus

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The standard model (SM) of particle physics has four types of force carrier particles: photons, W and Z

The post Neutrino trident production may offer powerful probe of new physics has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/2KG8ceJC2gs/
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Mechanical behavior of twinned aluminum revealed

Science Focus

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A research group led by Dr. Xinghang Zhang, associate professor and the Gulf Oil/Thomas A. Dietz Career Development

The post Mechanical behavior of twinned aluminum revealed has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Name, Butterfly Nebula in Scorpius space image Gift Wrap

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: galaxies and stars, stellar winds, btbgneb, butterfly nebula, bug nebula, scorpius constellation, ngc 6302, sculptured gas clouds, outer space, astronomy

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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Nanotube cathode beats large, pricey laser

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Scientists are a step closer to building an intense electron beam source without a laser. Using the High-Brightness Electron Source Lab at DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a team led by scientist Luigi Faillace of RadiaBeam Technologies is testing a carbon nanotube cathode—about the size of a nickel—that completely eliminates the need for a room-sized laser system. Tests with the nanotube cathode have produced beam currents a thousand to a million times greater than the one generated with a large, pricey laser system.



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A Full Circle Rainbow over Australia

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Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula, NGC 2264 Wall Decals

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


tagged with: xmastrclst, star clusters, cone nebula, stars, starfields, nebulae, european southern observatory, christmas tree cluster, galaxies, amazing astronomy images, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous outer space photograph featuring a colour image of the region known as NGC 2264 - an area of sky that includes the sparkling blue baubles of the Christmas Tree star cluster and the Cone Nebula.

It was created from data taken through four different filters (B, V, R and H-alpha) with the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory, 2400 m high in the Atacama Desert of Chile in the foothills of the Andes.

The image shows a region of space about 30 light-years across.

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image code: xmastrclst

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

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Nebula iPad Mini 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: turquoise, stars, nebula, space, clouds, gases, brown, blue, green, astronomy, beauty, nature, astronomer, hubble

Colorful turquoise sky and stars in a nebula as seen through the Hubble telescope

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iPhone Chemistry: Elements of a smartphone

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By now, we’ve got all the details about Apple’s latest iPhone, and the lines are probably forming somewhere

The post iPhone Chemistry: Elements of a smartphone has been published on Technology Org.

 
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DNA Galaxy Print

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


tagged with: galaxy, milky way, milky way galaxy, space art, astronomical illustration, lynette cook, astronomy, astronomy magazine, dna, dna galaxy, double helix, chromosomes, life in space

A spiral galaxy metamorphoses into the DNA double helix. Chemical structures and chromosomes are visible, symbolic of life in space. From a mixed media illustration created for Astronomy magazine. The original art is in a private collection.

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Name, Star Cluster Pismis 24 outer space image Gift Wrapping 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: galaxies, star cluster, pismis 24, sculpting ultaviolet ionisation, super massive stars, sclustpsms, nebula ngc 6357, astronomy pictures, outer space

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series The star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357 that extends one degree on the sky in the direction of the Scorpius constellation. Part of the nebula is ionised by the youngest (bluest) heavy stars in Pismis 24. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the blazing stars heats the gas surrounding the cluster and creates a bubble in NGC 6357. The presence of these surrounding gas clouds makes probing into the region even harder. One of the top candidates for the title of "Milky Way stellar heavyweight champion" was, until now, Pismis 24-1, a bright young star that lies in the core of the small open star cluster Pismis 24 (the bright stars in the Hubble image) about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. Pismis 24-1 was thought to have an incredibly large mass of 200 to 300 solar masses. New NASA/ESA Hubble measurements of the star, have, however, resolved Pismis 24-1 into two separate stars, and, in doing so, have "halved" its mass to around 100 solar masses.
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image code: sclustpsms

Image credit: NASA/ESA Hubble

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Constellation Puppis, NGC 2467 - Table Ornament Room Decal

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


tagged with: stlrnrsry, star clusters, stars, starfields, nebulae, awesome astronomy pictures, constellation puppis, the stern, star nurseries, galaxies, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous outer space picture showing the area surrounding the stellar cluster NGC 2467, located in the southern constellation of Puppis ("The Stern"). With an age of a few million years at most, it is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars are born continuously from large clouds of dust and gas.

The image, looking like a colourful cosmic ghost or a gigantic celestial Mandrill, contains the open clusters Haffner 18 19, as well as vast areas of ionised gas.

The bright star at the centre of the largest pink region on the bottom of the image is HD 64315, a massive young star that is helping shaping the structure of the whole nebular region.

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image code: stlrnrsry

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

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Glaciers in the Grand Canyon of Mars?

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For decades, planetary geologists have speculated that glaciers might once have crept through Valles Marineris, the 2000-mile-long chasm that constitutes the Grand Canyon of Mars. Using satellite images, researchers have identified features that might have been carved by past glaciers as they flowed through the canyons; however, these observations have remained highly controversial and contested.

via Science Daily

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Cassini watches mysterious feature evolve in hydrocarbon sea on Saturn's moon Titan

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NASA's Cassini spacecraft is monitoring the evolution of a mysterious feature in a large hydrocarbon sea on Saturn's moon Titan. The feature covers an area of about 100 square miles (260 square kilometers) in Ligeia Mare, one of the largest seas on Titan. It has now been observed twice by Cassini's radar experiment, but its appearance changed between the two apparitions.

via Science Daily

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Simulations reveal an unusual death for ancient stars

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Certain primordial stars -- between 55,000 and 56,000 times the mass of our sun, or solar masses -- may have died unusually. In death, these objects -- among the universe's first generation of stars -- would have exploded as supernovae and burned completely, leaving no remnant black hole behind.

via Science Daily

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Hubble's Sharpest View of the Orion iPad Mini 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!


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Thousands of stars are forming in the cloud of gas and dust known as the Orion nebula. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. Some of them have never been seen in visible light. Credit: NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

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