Overhead view of Mars rover 10 years after launch

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An image from Mars orbit taken 10 years after the launch of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the long-lived rover on its trek to a new destination on Mars.

via Science Daily

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Milestone in quest to advance emerging super-black nanotechnology

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A NASA engineer has achieved yet another milestone in his quest to advance an emerging super-black nanotechnology that promises to make spacecraft instruments more sensitive without enlarging their size.

via Science Daily

In the zone: How scientists search for habitable planets

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There is only one planet we know of, so far, that is drenched with life. That planet is Earth, and it has all the right conditions for critters to thrive on its surface. Do other planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, also host life forms? Astronomers still don't know the answer, but they search for potentially habitable planets using a handful of criteria. Ideally, they want to find planets just like Earth, since we know without a doubt that life took root here. The hunt is on for planets about the size of Earth that orbit at just the right distance from their star -- in a region termed the habitable zone.

via Science Daily

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Curiosity Mars rover passes kilometer of driving

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The latest drive by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover brought the total distance that the rover has driven on Mars to more than 1 kilometer. One kilometer is about 0.62 mile.

via Science Daily

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Astronomers witness birth of Milky Way's most massive star

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(Phys.org) —Scientists have observed in unprecedented detail the birth of a massive star within a dark cloud core about 10,000 light years from Earth.



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Astronomers find clues to decades-long coronal heating mystery

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Drs. Michael Hahn and Daniel Wolf Savin, research scientists at Columbia University's Astrophysics Laboratory in New York, NY, found evidence that magnetic waves in a polar coronal hole contain enough energy to heat the corona and deposit most of their energy at sufficiently low heights for the heat to spread throughout the corona. The observations help to answer a 60-year-old solar physics conundrum about the unexplained extreme temperature of the Sun's corona—known as the coronal heating problem.



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NASA Announces Effort to Form New Collaborative Partnerships with Private Space Industry

NASA officials Wednesday released a synopsis requesting information from U.S. private enterprises interested in pursuing unfunded partnerships. The aim is to advance the development of commercial space products and services.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/july/nasa-announces-effort-to-form-new-collaborative-partnerships-with-private-space

Earth's gold came from colliding dead stars

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We value gold for many reasons: its beauty, its usefulness as jewelry, and its rarity. Gold is rare on Earth in part because it's also rare in the universe. Unlike elements like carbon or iron, it cannot be created within a star. Instead, it must be born in a more cataclysmic event - like one that occurred last month known as a short gamma-ray burst (GRB).



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Silicon oxide memories transcend a hurdle

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A Rice University laboratory pioneering memory devices that use cheap, plentiful silicon oxide to store data has pushed them a step further with chips that show the technology's practicality.



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NASA, International Space Agencies Note Benefits of Space Station during Disasters on Earth

The International Space Station (ISS) partner agencies released a statement Wednesday on the benefits of the space station during natural disasters on Earth.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/july/nasa-international-space-agencies-note-benefits-of-space-station-during-disasters-on

Physicists build quantum refrigerator based on four quantum dots

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(Phys.org) —With the goal of understanding the relation between thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, physicists have recently been investigating the fundamental limits of the smallest possible quantum refrigerator. As a refrigerator, the device must be able to transfer heat from one reservoir to another. In a new study, physicists have proposed a quantum refrigerator consisting of just four quantum dots, each in contact with a thermal reservoir. They theoretically show that this system can extract heat from the coldest reservoir and cool the nearby quantum dot, making it one of the smallest quantum refrigerators proposed to date.



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NASA Announces 2013 Aeronautics Scholarship Recipients

NASA has selected 25 students from across the nation to receive the agency's Aeronautics Scholarship for the 2013-2014 school year.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/july/nasa-announces-2013-aeronautics-scholarship-recipients

Murchison Widefield Array: Square Kilometre Array precursor debuts

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Solar storms, space junk and the formation of the Universe are about to be seen in an entirely new way with the start of operations today by the $51 million Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope.



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Ripped apart by a black hole: Gas cloud makes closest approach to monster at center of Milky Way

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New observations show for the first time a gas cloud being ripped apart by the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy. The cloud is now so stretched that its front part has passed the closest point and is traveling away from the black hole at more than 10 million km/h, whilst the tail is still falling towards it.

via Science Daily

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Eavesdropping on lithium ions

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(Phys.org) —Lithium ion batteries are at the energetic heart of almost all things tech, from cell phones to tablets to electric vehicles. That's because they are a proven technology, light, long-lasting and powerful. But they aren't perfect.



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Detection of single photons via quantum entanglement

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Almost 200 years ago, Bavarian physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer discovered dark lines in the sun's spectrum. It was later discovered that these spectral lines can be used to infer the chemical composition and temperature of the sun's atmosphere. Today we are able to gain information about diverse objects through light measurements in a similar way. Because often very little light needs to be detected for this, physicists are looking for ever more sensitive spectroscopy methods. In extreme cases, also single particles of light (photons) need to be measured reliably, which is technically challenging.



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Seeing Red: Hunting Herschel's Garnet Star

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Quick, what's the reddest star visible to the naked eye?



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Two papers investigate the thermodynamics of quantum systems

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(Phys.org) —As one of the pillars of the natural sciences, thermodynamics plays an important role in all processes that involve heat, energy, and work. While the principles of thermodynamics can predict the amount of work done in classical systems, for quantum systems there is instead a distribution of many possible values of work. Two new papers published in Physical Review Letters have proposed theoretical schemes that would significantly ease the measurement of the statistics of work done by quantum systems.



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Cosmic dust belts without dust: Astrophysicists discover six ultra-cold debris disks

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Planets and asteroids, red giants and brown dwarfs - there are all kinds of objects in our Universe. Debris disks are among them. These are belts consisting of countless dust particles and planetesimals, circling around one central star.



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Physicists publish solution to the quantum measurement problem

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(Phys.org) —Quantum mechanics is a highly successful theory, but its interpretation has still not been settled. In their recent opus magnum, Theo Nieuwenhuizen (Institute of Physics, UvA) and colleagues claim to have found a solution to the so-called quantum measurement problem.



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Black cat in night sky of stars coffee mugs

Black cat in night sky of stars coffee mugs

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by samupress

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UK launches Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence Research Network

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(Phys.org) —A network has been launched to promote academic research in the UK relating to the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The UK SETI Research Network (UKSRN) brings together academics from 11 institutions across the country. The network's Patron is the Astronomer Royal, Professor Martin Rees. UKSRN will present current activity and consider future strategy in a session and panel discussion at the National Astronomy Meeting in St Andrews on Friday 5 July.



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NASA technology may breathe life, safety into mines

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A technology used by NASA to protect crews working around hazardous gases soon could be called on for a number of life-saving applications as well as the agency's new human spaceflight endeavors.

via Science Daily

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