Saturday 30 April 2016

Unique fragment from Earth's formation returns after billions of years in cold storage

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Astronomers have found a unique object that appears to be made of inner solar system material from the time of Earth's formation, billions of years ago. Observations show that C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) is the first object to be discovered on a long-period cometary orbit that has the characteristics of a pristine inner solar system asteroid. It may help understanding how the solar system formed.
via Science Daily
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160430

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Friday 29 April 2016

Cooling graphene-based film close to pilot-scale production

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Heat dissipation in electronics and optoelectronics is a severe bottleneck in the further development of systems in these fields. To come to grips with this serious issue, researchers have developed an efficient way of cooling electronics by using functionalized graphene nanoflakes.
via Science Daily

Fermi's Gamma-ray Moon

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If you could only see gamma-rays, photons with up to a billion or more times the energy of visible light, the Moon would be brighter than the Sun! That startling notion underlies this novel image of the Moon, based on data collected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope's Large Area Telescope (LAT) instrument during its first seven years of operation (2008-2015). Fermi's gamma-ray vision doesn't distinguish details on the lunar surface, but a gamma-ray glow consistent with the Moon's size and position is clearly found at the center of the false color map. The brightest pixels correspond to the most significant detections of lunar gamma-rays. Why is the gamma-ray Moon so bright? High-energy charged particles streaming through the Solar System known as cosmic rays constantly bombard the lunar surface, unprotected by a magnetic field, generating the gamma-ray glow. Because the cosmic rays come from all sides, the gamma-ray Moon is always full and does not go through phases. The first gamma-ray image of the Moon was captured by the EGRET instrument onboard the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory, launched 25 years ago.

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Exploring phosphorene, a promising new material

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Researchers have developed a new method to quickly and accurately determine the orientation of phosphorene, a promising material with potential application as a material for semiconducting transistors in ever faster and more powerful computers.
via Science Daily

Thursday 28 April 2016

Possible extragalactic source of high-energy neutrinos

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Nearly 10 billion years ago in a galaxy known as PKS B1424-418, a dramatic explosion occurred. Light from this blast began arriving at Earth in 2012. Now, an international team of astronomers have shown that a record-breaking neutrino seen around the same time likely was born in the same event.
via Science Daily
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A Dust Angel Nebula

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The combined light of stars along the Milky Way are reflected by these cosmic dust clouds that soar some 300 light-years or so above the plane of our galaxy. Dubbed the Angel Nebula, the faint apparition is part of an expansive complex of dim and relatively unexplored, diffuse molecular clouds. Commonly found at high galactic latitudes, the dusty galactic cirrus can be traced over large regions toward the North and South Galactic poles. Along with the refection of starlight, studies indicate the dust clouds produce a faint reddish luminescence, as interstellar dust grains convert invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Also capturing nearby Milky Way stars and an array of distant background galaxies, the deep, wide-field 3x5 degree image spans about 10 Full Moons across planet Earth's sky toward the constellation Ursa Major.

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Powerful winds spotted from mysterious X-ray binaries

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ESA’s XMM-Newton has discovered gas streaming away at a quarter of the speed of light from very bright X-ray binaries in two nearby galaxies.


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Powerful_winds_spotted_from_mysterious_X-ray_binaries

With Putin Looking On, Russian Rocket Launches Late

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Russia’s space agency postponed the inaugural launch of a rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Far East, citing technical problems.
via New York Times

One-step graphene patterning method created

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Researchers have developed a one-step, facile method to pattern graphene by using stencil mask and oxygen plasma reactive-ion etching, and subsequent polymer-free direct transfer to flexible substrates.
via Science Daily

Wednesday 27 April 2016

Rare transit of Mercury to take place on 9 May

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On 9 May there will be a rare transit of Mercury, when the smallest planet in our Solar System will pass directly between the Earth and the Sun. The last time this happened was in 2006, and the next two occasions will be in 2019 and 2032. During the transit, which takes place in the afternoon and early evening in the UK, Mercury will appear as a dark silhouetted disk against the bright surface of the Sun.
via Science Daily
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SpaceX Says It Plans to Send a Probe to Mars

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Elon Musk’s company said it would dispatch its Dragon vessel to the planet, possibly as early as 2018, with a long-term goal of establishing colonies.
via New York Times

Omega Centauri: The Brightest Globular Star Cluster

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Nanotube semiconductors well-suited for PV systems

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Researchers have discovered single-walled carbon nanotube semiconductors could be favorable for photovoltaic systems because they can potentially convert sunlight to electricity or fuels without losing much energy.
via Science Daily

Theory establishes a path to high-performance 2-D semiconductor devices

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Researchers have uncovered a way to overcome a principal obstacle in using two-dimensional (2-D) semiconductors in electronic and optoelectronic devices.
via Science Daily

Light echoes give clues to planet nursery around star

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For the first time, astronomers used echoes of light to determine the distance from a star to the inner wall of its surrounding planet-forming disk of dust and gas. Being able to exactly pinpoint the inner edge of such disks is a big step forward in understanding the evolution of planetary systems.
via Science Daily
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Tuesday 26 April 2016

Trilobites: Makemake, the Moonless Dwarf Planet, Has a Moon, After All

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Astronomers found the moon, nicknamed MK2, in an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
via New York Times

Nearby massive star explosion 30 million years ago equaled detonation of 100 million suns

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A giant star that exploded 30 million years ago in a galaxy near Earth had a radius prior to going supernova that was 200 times larger than our sun, say astrophysicists. The massive explosion, Supernova 2013ej, was one of the closest to Earth in recent years. Comprehensive analysis of the exploding star's light curve and color spectrum found its sudden blast hurled material outward at 10,000 kilometers a second.
via Science Daily
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Hubble discovers moon orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake

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Peering to the outskirts of our solar system, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake, the second brightest icy dwarf planet -- after Pluto -- in the Kuiper Belt.
via Science Daily
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Cassini explores a methane sea on Titan

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A new study finds that a large sea on Saturn's moon Titan is composed mostly of pure liquid methane, independently confirming an earlier result. The seabed may be covered in a sludge of carbon- and nitrogen-rich material, and its shores may be surrounded by wetlands.
via Science Daily
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Hubble Discovers Moon Orbiting the Dwarf Planet Makemake


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Makemake is one of several dwarf planets that reside in the frigid outer realm of our solar system called the Kuiper Belt, a "junkyard" of countless icy bodies left over from our solar system's formation.


via HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/18/

Radioactive waste disposal could be safer and cheaper

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Scientists have developed a technology to reprocess irradiated reactor graphite by evaporation. This technology allows making radioactive waste disposal safer and economically feasible.
via Science Daily

Mars' surface revealed in unprecedented detail

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The surface of Mars -- including the location of Beagle-2 -- has been shown in unprecedented detail by scientists using a revolutionary image stacking and matching technique. Exciting pictures of the Beagle-2 lander, the ancient lakebeds discovered by NASA's Curiosity rover, NASA's MER-A rover tracks and Home Plate's rocks have been released by the researchers who stacked and matched images taken from orbit, to reveal objects at a resolution up to five times greater than previously achieved.
via Science Daily
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Profile of a methane sea on Titan

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Saturn’s largest moon is covered in seas and lakes of liquid hydrocarbons – and one sea has now been found to be filled with pure methane, with a seabed covered by a sludge of organic-rich material, and possibly surrounded by wetlands.


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Profile_of_a_methane_sea_on_Titan

NGC 6872: A Stretched Spiral Galaxy

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Space Microscope to test universality of freefall

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France’s Microscope satellite, carrying a set of ESA high-tech thrusters, lifted off last night from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, taking advantage of the same Soyuz launch that took the EU’s Sentinel-1B into orbit.


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Space_Microscope_to_test_universality_of_freefall

Monday 25 April 2016

CMS releases new batch of LHC open data

A CMS collision event as seen in the built-in event display on the CERN Open Data Portal (Image: CERN)

The CMS collaboration has made 300 TB of high-quality data from the LHC available to the public through the CERN Open Data Portal.

The collision data come in two types: The so-called “primary datasets” are in the same format used by the CMS Collaboration to perform research. The “derived datasets” on the other hand require a lot less computing power and can be readily analysed by university or even high-school students.

Notably, CMS is also providing the simulated data generated with the same software version that should be used to analyse the primary datasets. Simulations play a crucial role in particle-physics research and CMS is also making available the protocols for generating the simulations that are provided. The data release is accompanied by analysis tools and code examples tailored to the datasets.

These data are being made public in accordance with CMS’s commitment to long-term data preservation and as part of the collaboration’s open-data policy. 

“Members of the CMS Collaboration put in lots of effort and thousands of person-hours each of service work in order to operate the CMS detector and collect these research data for our analysis,” explains Kati Lassila-Perini, a CMS physicist who leads these data-preservation efforts. “However, once we’ve exhausted our exploration of the data, we see no reason not to make them available publicly. The benefits are numerous, from inspiring high-school students to the training of the particle physicists of tomorrow. And personally, as CMS’s data-preservation co-ordinator, this is a crucial part of ensuring the long-term availability of our research data.”

The scope of open LHC data has already been demonstrated with the previous release of research data. A group of theorists at MIT wanted to study the substructure of jets — showers of hadron clusters recorded in the CMS detector. Since CMS had not performed this particular research, the theorists got in touch with the CMS scientists for advice on how to proceed. This blossomed into a fruitful collaboration between the theorists and CMS revolving around CMS open data.

Read more about CMS Open Data on the CERN Open Data Portal.

A longer version of this article was originally published on the CMS website


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.cern/about/updates/2016/04/cms-releases-new-batch-lhc-open-data

Supernova Remnant Simeis 147: The Spaghetti Nebula

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Preparations continue for the upcoming physics run

Hubble’s birthday bubble

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Space science image of the week: A massive star has blown a giant bubble in space – and Hubble has finally seen it all
via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/04/The_Bubble_Nebula_also_known_as_NGC_7635_as_seen_by_Hubble

Saturday 23 April 2016

The Universe, where space-time becomes discrete

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A theoretical study has analyzed a model that saves special relativity and reconciles it with granularity by introducing small-scale deviations from the principle of locality demonstrating that it can be experimentally tested with great precision.
via Science Daily
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Dark matter does not contain certain axion-like particles

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Researchers are getting closer to corner light dark-matter particle models. Observations can rule out some axion-like particles in the quest for the content of dark matter.
via Science Daily
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Cosmic beacons reveal the Milky Way's ancient core

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Astronomers have discovered that the central 2000 light years within the Milky Way Galaxy hosts an ancient population of stars. These stars are more than 10 billion years old and their orbits in space preserve the early history of the formation of the Milky Way. For the first time the team kinematically disentangled this ancient component from the stellar population that currently dominates the mass of the central Galaxy.
via Science Daily
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Menstruation in spaceflight: Options for astronauts

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A new article explores the options for astronauts who want to prevent menstrual bleeding during their space missions. The article reviews contraceptive devices available including those already used by military and aviation personnel, and calls for more research into the effect of hormone treatments on bone mineral loss in space.
via Science Daily
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Milky Way in Moonlight

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A waning crescent moon, early morning twilight, and Al Hamra's city lights on the horizon can't hide the central Milky Way in this skyscape from planet Earth. Captured in a single exposure, the dreamlike scene looks southward across the region's grand canyon from Jabal Shams (Sun Mountain), near the highest peak in Oman, on the Arabian Peninsula. Mist, moonlight, and shadows still play along the steep canyon walls. Dark rifts along the luminous band of the Milky Way are the galaxy's cosmic dust clouds. Typically hundreds of light-years distant, they obscure starlight along the galactic plane, viewed edge-on from the Solar System's perspective.

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Friday 22 April 2016

NGC 7635: The Bubble Nebula

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Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape. Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 7 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and left of the Bubble's center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and around 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex lie a mere 7,100 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp, tantalizing view of the cosmic bubble is a composite of Hubble Space Telescope image data from 2016, released to celebrate the 26th anniversary of Hubble's launch.

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Herschels Galactic panorama

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This new video from ESA’s Herschel space observatory reveals in stunning detail the intricate pattern of gas, dust and star-forming hubs along the plane of our Galaxy, the Milky Way.


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel/Herschel_s_Galactic_panorama

Trilobites: A Hubble Birthday Bubble in Clear View

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NASA released a stunning image of the Bubble Nebula in advance of the space telescope’s 26th anniversary.
via New York Times

Trilobites: Periods in Space Are Not That Different Though a Bit More Complicated

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For future astronauts, who would rather not menstruate in space, researchers have written up some recommendations.
via New York Times

From bright flare ribbons to coronal rain

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Scientists at NJIT's Big Bear Solar Observatory have captured unprecedented images of a recent solar flare, including bright flare ribbons seen crossing a sunspot followed by 'coronal rain,' plasma that condenses in the cooling phase shortly after the flare, showering the visible surface of the sun where it lands in brilliant explosions.
via Science Daily
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Thursday 21 April 2016

Microscopic 'clocks' time distance to source of galactic cosmic rays

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Most of the galactic cosmic rays reaching Earth come from nearby clusters of massive stars, according to new observations from NASA's ACE spacecraft. The distance between the cosmic rays' point of origin and Earth is limited by the survival of a radioactive isotope of iron, Fe-60, which has a half life of 2.6 million years. These tiny clocks indicate there was a source within spitting distance of Earth within the past few million years.
via Science Daily
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Bubble Nebula looks like a gigantic cosmic soap bubble

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A new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures in stunning clarity what looks like a gigantic cosmic soap bubble. The object, known as the Bubble Nebula, is in fact a cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the brilliant star within it. The vivid new portrait of this dramatic scene wins the Bubble Nebula a place in the exclusive Hubble hall of fame.
via Science Daily
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Hubble Sees a Star 'Inflating' a Giant Bubble


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Twenty-six candles grace NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's birthday cake this year, and now one giant space "balloon" will add to the festivities. Just in time for the 26th anniversary of Hubble's launch on April 24, 1990, the telescope has photographed an enormous, balloon-like bubble being blown into space by a super-hot, massive star. Astronomers trained the iconic telescope on this colorful feature, called the Bubble Nebula, or NGC 7635. The bubble is 7 light-years across about one-and-a-half times the distance from our sun to its nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri. The Bubble Nebula lies 7,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.


via HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/13/

160421

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Renovated Globe opens new world for visitors

Mice flown in space show nascent liver damage research shows

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In a discovery with implications for long-term spaceflight and future missions to Mars, researchers have found that mice flown aboard the space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth with early signs of liver disease.
via Science Daily
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Light source for quicker computer chips

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Worldwide growing data volumes make conventional electronic processing reach its limits. Future information technology is therefore expected to use light as a medium for quick data transmission also within computer chips. Researchers have now demonstrated that carbon nanotubes are suited for use as on-chip light source for tomorrow's information technology, when nanostructured waveguides are applied to obtain the desired light properties.
via Science Daily

Wednesday 20 April 2016

Galaxy Einstein Ring

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Calling all artists: apply now for art and science residency

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ESA, in partnership with Ars Electronica, is announcing art&science@ESA, a new art residency to explore the fertile ground between art and space science.


via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Calling_all_artists_apply_now_for_art_and_science_residency

Graphenea increases capacity with AIXTRON BM Pro

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Graphenea announces a new order for Aixtron's BM Pro chemical vapor deposition system. Aixtron is a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry.

AIXTRON’s BM Pro system, now in its 3rd generation, has been specially optimized for high quality graphene deposition with Graphenea’s tool having the highest throughput to date. Graphenea placed the order for an 8-inch configuration deposition system during the first quarter of 2016. The tool is scheduled for delivery later this year which will be followed by the installation and commissioning of the system by AIXTRON’s European support team.

Photo: Graphenea Headquarters in San Sebastian, Spain.

Graphenea’s Scientific Director, Dr. Amaia Zurutuza, comments: “Our existing AIXTRON BM Pro system has been a reliable workhorse in producing graphene for our needs. In taking the graphene to the next level, we chose an AIXTRON BM Pro tool again because of its scalable technology which allows meeting our graphene production needs of even higher throughput and larger areas. Also, the system meets our requirements of high temperature operation, combined with excellent uniformity. System flexibility, low maintenance, automatic recipe execution and process support were other compelling reasons for selecting AIXTRON again.”

Photo: Graphenea scientists working on the existing Aixtron BM Pro system.

Graphenea’s CEO, Jesus de la Fuente, comments: “This new system is part of our large investment program to introduce graphene technology in commercial devices. Our focus is to integrate graphene materials in CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) fabs starting with 8-inch wafers and 12-inch in the near future”.

See press release on Aixtron's website [link].

About Graphenea:

Graphenea, a leading company in graphene production and a venture backed by Repsol and CDTI, was established in 2010, and has since grown to be one of the world's largest providers of graphene. The company is headquartered at the nanotechnology cluster CIC nanoGune in San Sebastian, Spain and the MIT campus in Boston. Graphenea employs 15 people and exports graphene materials to more than 400 customers in 55 countries. The company has focused on constant improvement of graphene quality, becoming a supplier customers can rely on. Graphenea employs a team of skilled laboratory staff who have brought graphene film production techniques to a new level, offering the same high quality films on any substrate. Graphenea produces CVD graphene wafers up to 4 inches and graphene oxide in volumes up to 5 liters per package. Graphenea partners with large multinationals to develop custom graphene materials for their applications. Its research agility and ability to keep pace with the progress of graphene science and technology has allowed Graphenea to become the largest graphene supplier in the Graphene Flagship, a ten year project of the European Commission worth a billion euros. The company keeps a close relation with the world's leading scientists, regularly publishing scientific articles of the highest level.


via Graphenea

Merging black holes gravitational waves provide new insight into how the universe works

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On Sept. 14, waves of energy traveling for more than a billion years gently rattled space-time in the vicinity of Earth. The disturbance, produced by a pair of merging black holes, was captured by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) facilities in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana. This event marked the first-ever detection of gravitational waves and opens a new scientific window on how the universe works.
via Science Daily
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Tuesday 19 April 2016

Seeing double: NASA missions measure solar flare from 2 spots in space

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Solar flares are intense bursts of light from the sun. They are created when complicated magnetic fields suddenly and explosively rearrange themselves, converting magnetic energy into light through a process called magnetic reconnection -- at least, that's the theory, because the signatures of this process are hard to detect. But during a December 2013 solar flare, three solar observatories captured the most comprehensive observations of an electromagnetic phenomenon called a current sheet, strengthening the evidence that this understanding of solar flares is correct.
via Science Daily
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Psychologists study intense awe astronauts feel viewing Earth from space

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By analyzing accounts of awe that result from seeing Earth from space, psychologists delve deep into the psychology of astronauts.
via Science Daily
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Andromeda Rising over Colombia

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Exfoliating thinner flakes of phosphorene at higher yield

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By deoxygenating water, researchers discovered a new way to exfoliate phosphorene into atomically thin flakes. In order for phosphorene to reach its full potential, it needs to be incredibly thin -- preferably at the atomic scale. Until now, researchers have experienced difficulties in exfoliating atomically thin flakes from the bulk material, called black phosphorus, in a quick and efficient manner.
via Science Daily