Friday 4 December 2015

The switch molecule

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A single organic molecule with a molybdenum atom as its center, can be switched back and forth between two different quantum states with very different electrical conduction. That way, the atom can be used in logical circuits, much like a transistor.
via Science Daily

ALMA spots monstrous baby galaxies cradled in dark matter

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Astronomers discovered a nest of monstrous baby galaxies 11.5 billion light-years away using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The young galaxies seem to reside at the junction of gigantic filaments in a web of dark matter. These findings are important for understanding how monstrous galaxies like these are formed and how they evolve in to huge elliptical galaxies.
via Science Daily
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Curious 'inkblot' star outed for trolling the astronomers

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New images of an intriguing red giant star, known as CW Leo, have turned the usual astronomy narrative on its head, with scrutiny focussed not only on the stars but also on the astronomers who study them. In just a couple of years, the 400 light year distant CW Leo has changed its appearance completely, meaning a whole set of carefully constructed models have been abandoned.
via Science Daily
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VLA yields new insights on solar flares

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Observations with the upgraded VLA radio telescope provide strong support for a proposed mechanism by which solar flares accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light.
via Science Daily
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Researchers make thinnest plates that can be picked up by hand

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Despite being thousands of times thinner than a sheet of paper and hundreds of times thinner than household cling wrap or aluminum foil, newly developed corrugated plates of aluminum oxide spring back to their original shape after being bent and twisted.
via Science Daily

Cygnus: Bubble and Crescent

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These clouds of gas and dust drift through rich star fields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the high flying constellation Cygnus. Caught within the telescopic field of view are the Soap Bubble (lower left) and the Crescent Nebula (upper right). Both were formed at a final phase in the life of a star. Also known as NGC 6888, the Crescent was shaped as its bright, central massive Wolf-Rayet star, WR 136, shed its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind. Burning through fuel at a prodigious rate, WR 136 is near the end of a short life that should finish in a spectacular supernova explosion. recently discovered Soap Bubble Nebula is likely a planetary nebula, the final shroud of a lower mass, long-lived, sun-like star destined to become a slowly cooling white dwarf. While both are some 5,000 light-years or so distant, the larger Crescent Nebula is around 25 light-years across.

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How water escapes from Saturn: Magnetic reconnection

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Researchers have discovered how water ions escape from Saturn's environment. Water ions find a place to exhaust out of the magnetosphere at a reconnection point -- basically where magnetic fields from one environment disconnect and reconnect with magnetic fields from another environment.
via Science Daily
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Event Horizon Telescope reveals magnetic fields at Milky Way's central black hole

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For the first time, astronomers have detected magnetic fields just outside the event horizon of the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
via Science Daily
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What kinds of stars form rocky planets?

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As astronomers continue to find more and more planets around stars beyond our own Sun, they are trying to discover patterns and features that indicate what types of planets are likely to form around different kinds of stars. This will hopefully inform and make more efficient the ongoing planet hunting process, and also help us better understand our own Solar System's formation.
via Science Daily
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