Thursday 27 August 2015

Astrophysicist find supermassive black holes in quasar nearest Earth

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Astrophysicists have found two supermassive black holes in Markarian 231, the nearest quasar to Earth. The discovery of two supermassive black holes -- one larger one and a second, smaller one -- are evidence of a binary black hole and suggests that supermassive black holes assemble their masses through violent mergers.
via Science Daily
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Glass paint could keep metal roofs and other structures cool even on sunny days

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Sunlight can be brutal. It wears down even the strongest structures, including rooftops and naval ships, and it

The post Glass paint could keep metal roofs and other structures cool even on sunny days has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Hubble Finds That the Nearest Quasar Is Powered by a Double Black Hole


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Quasars are the light fantastic. These brilliant cores of active galaxies blaze with the radiance of a hundred billion stars compressed into a region of space not much larger than our solar system. Supermassive black holes, with millions or billions of times the mass of our sun, are the only imaginable powerhouse behind these tsunamis of raw energy.


via HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/31/

Space Walk 1 Poster

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Space Walk 1

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Imports from China are blocking US ozone improvements

Science Focus

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For a simple molecule, ozone (O3) wears many hats. Up in the stratosphere, the ozone layer provides planetary sunscreen, absorbing UV radiation before it can reach the Earth. Between the surface and the stratosphere, ozone’s significance comes from absorbing infrared radiation from the Earth—it’s a greenhouse gas. And down at ground level, ozone's reactivity makes it a harmful enough lung irritant that it’s a part of the daily weather report in some cities.

Ozone is produced in the atmosphere naturally, but it’s also created as a result of air pollution. In particular, nitrogen oxides react with sunlight to let rogue oxygen atoms loose, which can get together with friendly O2 molecules in the lower atmosphere, forming O3. By cutting the emissions of those “ozone precursors,” we can dial back the amount of ozone down here where we breathe. In the western US, emissions of nitrogen oxides were reduced by 21 percent between 2005 and 2010, yet ozone stayed about constant. Part of the answer to that conundrum lies across the Pacific, according to a new study led by Wageningen University’s Willem Verstraeten.

The suggestion that ozone from China is ending up in the US isn’t new, but the researchers turned to data from NASA’s Aura satellite (launched in 2004) to improve past estimates. The satellite data confirmed that nitrogen oxides had declined across the American West, while average ozone hadn’t changed much (some areas saw a slight decrease and some a slight increase). In China, on the other hand, emissions of nitrogen oxides rose about 21 percent between 2005 and 2010, and ozone increased by around seven percent.

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/UuoBuOW69sk/
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ALICE precisely compares light nuclei and antinuclei

Science Focus

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The ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has made a precise measurement of the difference

The post ALICE precisely compares light nuclei and antinuclei has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/9JWtb8EgHMY/
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Discovering dust-obscured active galaxies as they grow

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Astronomers have performed an extensive search for Dust Obscured Galaxies (DOGs). The research group discovered 48 DOGs, and has measured how common they are. Since DOGs are thought to harbor a rapidly growing black hole in their centers, these results give us clues for understanding the evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes.
via Science Daily
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Initialled Dumbbell Nebula Constellation Vulpecula Oval Sticker

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tagged with: awesome astronomy images, inspirational, dmbblneb, vulpecula constellation, intense ultraviolet radiation, european southern observatory, messier 27 ngc 6853, heavens, monograms, initialled, eso, vista, initials, monogrammed, monogram

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A great photo from deep space featuring the Dumbbell Nebula - also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853. It's a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox).

The distance is rather uncertain, but is believed to be around 1,200 light-years. It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as no. 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects.

Despite its class, the Dumbbell Nebula has nothing to do with planets. It consists of very rarefied gas that has been ejected from the hot central star (well visible on this photo), now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths.

This image is the beautiful by-product of a technical test of some FORS1 narrow-band optical interference filters. They only allow light in a small wavelength range to pass and are used to isolate emissions from particular atoms and ions.

In this three-colour composite, a short exposure was first made through a wide-band filter registering blue light from the nebula. It was then combined with exposures through two interference filters in the light of double-ionized oxygen atoms and atomic hydrogen. They were colour-coded as “blue”, “green” and “red”, respectively, and then combined to produce this picture that shows the structure of the nebula in “approximately true” colours.



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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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Successful boron-doping of graphene nanoribbon

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Physicists have succeeded in synthesizing boron-doped graphene nanoribbons and characterizing their structural, electronic and chemical properties. The modified material could potentially be used as a sensor for the ecologically damaging nitrogen oxides, scientists report.
via Science Daily

The Large Cloud of Magellan

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The 16th century Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his crew had plenty of time to study the southern sky during the first circumnavigation of planet Earth. As a result, two fuzzy cloud-like objects easily visible to southern hemisphere skygazers are known as the Clouds of Magellan, now understood to be satellite galaxies of our much larger, spiral Milky Way galaxy. About 160,000 light-years distant in the constellation Dorado, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is seen here in a remarkably deep, colorful, image. Spanning about 15,000 light-years or so, it is the most massive of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies and is the home of the closest supernova in modern times, SN 1987A. The prominent patch below center is 30 Doradus, also known as the magnificent Tarantula Nebula, is a giant star-forming region about 1,000 light-years across.

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Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula, NGC 2264 Room Graphic

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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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Self-assembled aromatic molecular stacks, towards modular molecular electronic components

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Being able to effectively tune the electron-transport properties of a single-molecule has been a long-standing issue towards the crystallization of molecular electronics, where individual molecules mimic the behavior of common electronic components as a true alternative to conventional silicon devices. To functionalize electron transport properties, each and every individual molecule must be precisely aligned in place with sub-nanometer precision. In that sense, stacks of self-assembled aromatic components in which non-covalently bound π-stacks act as replaceable modular components are promising building blocks.

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NGC 602 bright stars Cover For The iPad Mini

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tagged with: nasa, space, astronomy, shuttle, hubble, bright, star, starry, blue, nebula

NGC 602 is a young, bright open cluster of stars located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. Radiation and shock waves from the stars have pushed away much of the lighter surrounding gas and dust that compose the nebula known as N90, and this in turn has triggered new star formation in the ridges (or "elephant trunks") of the nebula.

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Record measurements of matter and antimatter

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The existence of our world is anything but self-evident. The Big Bang created matter and antimatter in equal

The post Record measurements of matter and antimatter has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Superconductivity: No resistance at record temperatures

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Up until now, no material has been able to conduct current with no resistance at such high temperatures:

The post Superconductivity: No resistance at record temperatures has been published on Technology Org.

 
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First signals from CALET on the ISS

After berthing with the ISS, CALET is to be extracted by robotic arm from the Japanese H-II transfer vehicle (left, with Japanese flag) and installed on the Japanese Experiment Module (right) where it will start its first data-taking (Image: NASA/JAXA)

Five days after it launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on board the HTV-5 Transport Module, operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) docked at the International Space Station (ISS). The instrument, now in the check-out phase, is sending its first signals back from the Space Station.

CALET is the space mission lead by JAXA with the participation of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and NASA. It is a CERN recognized experiment and the second high-energy astroparticle experiment to be installed on the ISS after AMS-02, which is taking data from the remote station since 2011. Designed as a space observatory for long-term observations of cosmic radiation aboard the external platform JEM-EF of the Japanese module (KIBO) on the ISS, CALET aims at identifying electrons, nuclei and gamma-rays coming from space and measure their energies with high-resolution. “One of the main scientific objectives of CALET is to measure the detailed shape of the electron spectrum above 1 TeV,” says Shoji Torii of Waseda University in Tokyo, Principal Investigator (PI) of  CALET. “This unexplored region is gaining a growing interest by the scientific community as it might be able to show for the first time the smoking gun of the presence of nearby astronomical source(s) where electrons are accelerated. We know that electrons cannot travel for long distances as they quickly lose their energy. Therefore, they are expected to originate relatively near to Earth – about 1 Kpc.”

CALET will perform accurate measurements of the electron energy spectrum from 1 GeV to 20 TeV. “The high end of the spectrum could be particularly interesting as it could help resolve the controversial interpretation of the electron and positron spectra measured by AMS-02 and could provide a clue on possible signatures of dark matter,” says John Wefel of Louisiana State University, Co-PI of the CALET project and lead of the American team participating in CALET.

CALET could also help explain the deviation from a pure power-law that was recently observed by the AMS-02 collaboration in the energy spectra of light nuclei. “Thanks to its excellent energy resolution and ability to identify cosmic nuclei from hydrogen to iron and above,” says Pier Simone Marrocchesi, Co-PI of the CALET collaboration and head of the Italian team. “CALET will be able to extend the present data to higher energies and measure accurately the curvature of the spectrum and the position of the spectral break-point for individual nuclear species. The calibration of the two calorimetric instruments is the key to control the energy scale and this is why we performed several calibration tests at CERN.”

After berthing with the ISS, CALET will be extracted by a robotic arm from the Japanese H-II transfer vehicle (HTV5) and installed on the JEM-EF where it will start a first data-taking period of 5 years.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2015/08/first-signals-calet-iss

Earth at Night Poster

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Earth at Night

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Self-healing material could plug life-threatening holes in spacecraft

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For astronauts living in space with objects zooming around them at 22,000 miles per hour like rogue super-bullets, it's good to have a backup plan. Although shields and fancy maneuvers could help protect space structures, scientists have to prepare for the possibility that debris could pierce a vessel. One team reports on a new material that heals itself within seconds and could prevent structural penetration from being catastrophic.
via Science Daily
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Monogram - Eagle Nebula, Pillars of Creation Oval Sticker

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Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A breathtaking outer space picture showing a spectacular three-colour composite mosaic image of the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16, or NGC 6611). It's based on images obtained with the Wide-Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory.

At the centre, the so-called “Pillars of Creation” can be seen and this wide-field image shows not only the central pillars, but also several others in the same star-forming region, as well as a huge number of stars in front of, in, or behind the Eagle Nebula.

The cluster of bright stars to the upper right is NGC 6611, home to the massive and hot stars that illuminate the pillars. The “Spire” - another large pillar - is in the middle left of the image.

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Constellation Puppis, NGC 2467 - Table Ornament Wall Skin

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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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Stellar Nursery R136 in the Tarantula Nebula iPad Air Cover

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Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds in appear in this the most detailed view of the largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood. The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus (or Tarantula) Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.
There is no known star-forming region in our galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. Many of the diamond-like icy blue stars are among the most massive stars known. Several of them are over 100 times more massive than our Sun. These hefty stars are destined to pop off, like a string of firecrackers, as supernovas in a few million years. The image, taken in ultraviolet, visible, and red light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, spans about 100 light-years.
The movement of the LMC around the Milky Way may have triggered the massive cluster's formation in several ways. The gravitational tug of the Milky Way and the companion Small Magellanic Cloud may have compressed gas in the LMC. Also, the pressure resulting from the LMC plowing through the Milky Way's halo may have compressed gas in the satellite. The cluster is a rare, nearby example of the many super star clusters that formed in the distant, early universe, when star birth and galaxy interactions were more frequent.
The LMC is located 170,000 light-years away and is a member of the Local Group of Galaxies, which also includes the Milky Way. The Hubble observations were taken Oct. 20-27, 2009. The blue color is light from the hottest, most massive stars; the green from the glow of oxygen; and the red from fluorescing hydrogen.
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Image credit: Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3

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