Tuesday 22 August 2017

Hubble's twisted galaxy

more »
Gravity governs the movements of the cosmos. It draws flocks of galaxies together to form small groups and more massive galaxy clusters, and brings duos so close that they begin to tug at one another. This latter scenario can have extreme consequences, with members of interacting pairs of galaxies often being dramatically distorted, torn apart, or driven to smash into one another, abandoning their former identities and merging to form a single accumulation of gas, dust and stars.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Saturn-lit Tethys

more »
Cassini gazes across the icy rings of Saturn toward the icy moon Tethys, whose night side is illuminated by Saturnshine, or sunlight reflected by the planet.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Large asteroid to safely pass Earth on Sept. 1

more »

via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Brown dwarf weather forecasts improved

more »
Dim objects called brown dwarfs, less massive than the Sun but more massive than Jupiter, have powerful winds and clouds -- specifically, hot patchy clouds made of iron droplets and silicate dust. Scientists recently realized these giant clouds can move and thicken or thin surprisingly rapidly, in less than an Earth day, but did not understand why.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Gravity, 'mechanical loading' are key to cartilage development

more »
Mechanical loading is required for creating cartilage that is then turned to bone; however, little is known about cartilage development in the absence of gravity. Now, bioengineers have determined that microgravity may inhibit cartilage formation. Findings reveal that fracture healing for astronauts in space, as well as patients on bed rest here on Earth, could be compromised in the absence of mechanical loading.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Trace of galaxies at the heart of a gigantic galaxy cluster

more »
The discovery of numerous ultra-diffuse galaxies is both remarkable and puzzling, explain scientists in a new report.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

The moving Martian bow shock

more »
Physicists throw new light on the interaction between the planet Mars and supersonic particles in the solar wind.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

Stellar Group, Tarantula Nebula outer space image Jelly Belly Tin

Stellar Group, Tarantula Nebula outer space image Jelly Belly Tin
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…


Turning human waste into plastic, nutrients could aid long-distance space travel

more »
Imagine you're on your way to Mars, and you lose a crucial tool during a spacewalk. Not to worry, you'll simply re-enter your spacecraft and use some microorganisms to convert your urine and exhaled carbon dioxide into chemicals to make a new tool. That's one goal of scientists developing ways to make long space trips feasible.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place

A Total Solar Eclipse over Wyoming

more »

Will the sky be clear enough to see the eclipse? This question was on the minds of many people attempting to view yesterday's solar eclipse. The path of total darkness crossed the mainland of the USA from coast to coast, from Oregon to South Carolina -- but a partial eclipse occurred above all of North America. Unfortunately, many locations saw predominantly clouds. One location that did not was a bank of Green River Lake, Wyoming. There, clouds blocked the Sun intermittantly up to one minute before totality. Parting clouds then moved far enough away to allow the center image of the featured composite sequence to be taken. This image shows the corona of the Sun extending out past the central dark Moon that blocks our familiar Sun. The surrounding images show the partial phases of the solar eclipse both before and after totality.

Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Graphene for spintronics – electron spin g factor insensitive to external effects

more »

Researchers have probed the electron spin g factor in graphene and discovered that, surprisingly, this factor is insensitive to external effects such as charge carrier type, density and mobility. The g factor is an important parameter that defines spin properties of electrons in a material, with fundamental implications in spintronic applications.

Their findings published in Physical Review Letters, the scientific team from the University of Hamburg, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Graphenea used electron spin resonance (ESR) to detect spin flips in monolayer graphene, while operating the device in a field-effect transistor configuration for charge carrier type, density, and mobility tuning. The finding that g is constant at a value of 1.95 regardless of external tuning surprised the researchers, as it indicates that the coupling of spin to the orbital degree of freedom of the electrons in graphene is intrinsic. This finding will have to be taken into account when designing any graphene-based spin-logic device, because the g factor affects all spin behaviour, such as spin lifetime.

Image: The graphene g-factor is constant against changing external factors, such as carrier density. Copyright APS, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 066802 (2017).

Spintronics is an emerging technology that, as opposed to electronics on which all our devices rely, manipulates electron spin instead of shuttling charged carriers across devices. Electron spin can have two states, “up” and “down”, analogous to the “0” and “1” bit in digital electronics. Manipulation of spin instead of (or in addition to) charge has several advantages over conventional electronics. Less energy is needed to change spin than to generate a current, thus spintronic devices will last longer and generate less heat than electronic devices. Spin states can be set quickly, allowing faster computing, and the state stays fixed, yielding a long-term memory device. In fact, spin-based memory is already being used in modern magnetic hard drives.

Graphene is an ideal material for spintronics. It has small spin-orbit coupling, weak hyperfine coupling and high mobility keeping the electron spins coherent over microns, enough to build spintronic devices and platforms. Earlier this year researchers demonstrated a room-temperature spin transistor from graphene. Other spin-logic devices will include rewritable microchips, transistors, logic gates, magnetic sensors and semiconductor nanoparticles for quantum computing.


via Graphenea

Solar spectacular seen from Earth and space

more »

While ground-based observers experienced the awe-inspiring view of a total solar eclipse yesterday, astronauts aboard the International Space Station, and our Sun-watching satellites, enjoyed unique perspectives of this spectacular sight from space.


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

Solar spectacular

more »

Images from Earth and space as 21 August’s solar eclipse swept over the globe
via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Highlights/Solar_spectacular

Experience Eclipse Totality

more »
Squeeze in among the crowds and witness the first total solar eclipse to cross the entire continental United States since 1918. An exclusive video by The New York Times in partnership with NOVA/PBS.
via New York Times