Wednesday 28 March 2018

Most of Earth's water was likely present before the moon-forming giant impact

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Based on an extensive collection of lunar and terrestrial samples, a new study probing the elusive origins of the moon -- now typically thought to have formed from a collision between a proto-Earth and a solid impactor -- supports theories of a collision with extremely high energy. So high, in fact, that it resulted in nearly complete mixing of materials between the impactor and proto-Earth.
via Science Daily
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Next-gen lithium-metal batteries for electric vehicles, smart grids

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Electric vehicles, wind turbines or smart grids require batteries with far greater energy capacity than currently available. A leading contender is the lithium-metal battery. However, dendrite, or sharp needles, made of clumps of lithium atoms can cause the batteries to heat up, lose efficiency and occasionally short-circuit. Using supercomputers, researchers have simulated the behavior of graphene oxide nanosheets that can limit the formation of dendrites.
via Science Daily

Dark Matter Goes Missing in Oddball Galaxy


Galaxy was expected to contain 400 times more dark matter than observations show

Grand, majestic spiral galaxies like our Milky Way are hard to miss. Astronomers can spot these vast complexes because of their large, glowing centers and their signature winding arms of gas and dust, where thousands of glowing stars reside.

But some galaxies aren't so distinctive. They are big, but they have so few stars for their size that they appear very faint and diffuse. In fact, they are so diffuse that they look like giant cotton balls.

Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of one such galaxy have turned up an oddity that sets it apart from most other galaxies, even the diffuse-looking ones. It contains little, if any, dark matter, the underlying scaffolding upon which galaxies are built. Dark matter is an invisible substance that makes up the bulk of our universe and the invisible glue that holds visible matter in galaxies — stars and gas — together.

Called NGC 1052-DF2, this "ghostly" galaxy contains at most 1/400th the amount of dark matter that astronomers had expected. How it formed is a complete mystery. The galactic oddball is as large as our Milky Way, but the galaxy had escaped attention because it contains only 1/200th the number of stars as our galaxy.

Based on the colors of its globular clusters, NGC 1052-DF2 is about 10 billion years old. It resides about 65 million light-years away.


via Hubble - News feed
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2018-16

Dark matter goes missing in oddball galaxy

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Galaxies and dark matter go together like peanut butter and jelly. You typically don't find one without the other.
via Science Daily
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What the first American astronauts taught us about living in space

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Project Mercury proved that humans could live and work in space, paving the way for all future human exploration.
via Science Daily
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