Steps into Space - Commercialisation, Occupation, Colonization: 04/12/14

Saturday, 12 April 2014

Finding the mix: Solar cell efficiency a delicate balance

Interior of a solar cell. Research from North Carolina State University reveals that solar cell efficiency is based upon a delicate balance between the size and purity of the interior layers, or domains. These findings may lead to better designs and improved performance in organic solar cells. Polymer-based solar cells are intended to have two domains, consisting of an electron acceptor and an electron donor material. Solar cell efficiency is based upon several factors: the ease with which excitons (the energy particles created by solar cells when light is absorbed) can travel to the interface of the donor and acceptor domains while retaining as much of the light’s energy as possible; and, once the charges are separated from the excitons, how efficiently separated charges travel to the device electrodes for collection. In reality, however, these domains are not separate and pure, and there can end up being many more than two. Current processing methods create a complex, multi-domain structure, which impacts all of the factors involved in the solar cell’s efficiency. NC State physicist Harald Ade and collaborators wanted to find out exactly how the solar cell’s complex structure impacts its performance. Using advanced soft X-ray techniques, Ade and colleagues

The post Finding the mix: Solar cell efficiency a delicate balance has been published on Technology Org.

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Chinese witnessed this supernova in AD185

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Chinese witnessed this supernova in AD185
..so is the oldest recorded supernova by mankind
#chandra

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory originally shared:

Lunch with the Stars - All Eyes on Oldest Recorded Supernova, for lunch reading
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/rcw86/

Chandra :: Photo Album :: RCW 86 :: October 26, 2011
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Copernicus in the tower at Frombork Poster

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Copernicus in the tower at Frombork Poster

tagged with: jan, matejko, 19th, male, portrait, astronomy, science, scientist, mathematician, rooftop, roof, telescope, observing, observatory, oil, canvas, nicolaus, copernicus, museum, frombork, poland, scientists, inventions, polish

Copernicus in the tower at Frombork | by Jan Matejko | Art Location: Nicolaus Copernicus Museum, Frombork, Poland | Polish Artist | Image Collection Number: XPH330617

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Confessions of a suicide survivor

Science Focus

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I was the newcomer to the group, along with Elizabeth. I guessed she was in her late forties, but sorrow has a way of making age indeterminable. Elizabeth had just lost her son, Charlie, that month. She found Charlie after he hanged himself in her garage. (All names used in this story have been changed to protect subjects' privacy.) Before the meeting, we were both escorted into a side room off the hall, away from the group. A counselor explained to us how the system worked, and asked about our loved ones and ourselves. Elizabeth had a hard time speaking through her tears. We were given name...

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A sort of particle-free supersymmetry found in exotic materials

Science Focus

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Table of the Standard Model (left) particles and their hypothetical supersymmetric particles.

Pauline Gagnon

Many of the great successes of particle physics involve symmetries of nature and the occasional violation of those symmetries. Discoveries such as the Higgs boson are strong vindications of this view of the world and of the Standard Model that describes these particles.

An extension to the Standard Model, called supersymmetry, takes this idea further by incorporating symmetries of space-time, as the name suggests. One side effect of supersymmetry in particle physics is the prediction of a partner to each known particle, which (among other things) could help solve the mystery of dark matter.

Despite intensive searches at the Large Hadron Collider, none of these supersymmetric partners have been detected in nature yet. However, Tarun Grover, D. N. Sheng, and Ashvin Vishwanath proposed in a new paper that an analog of supersymmetry could exist in certain exotic superconducting systems. By manipulating the characteristics of materials called "topological superconductors," researchers should be able to change particle-like excitations into their supersymmetric partners. The similarity in the physical description of these different systems could provide some important insights into the possible nature of supersymmetry and its violation in nature.

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Fusion reactor wall manages unexpected shielding against extreme heat loads

Science Focus

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Hydrogen plasma in DIFFER’s linear plasma generator Pilot-PSI. Credit: Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) Researchers of the FOM Institute DIFFER[ have discovered that the wall material of a fusion reactor can shield itself from high energy plasma bursts. The wall material tungsten seems to expel a cloud of cooling hydrogen particles that serves as a protective layer. The research team publishes their results on 24 March 2014 in the journal Applied Physics Letters. Currently, an international collaboration building the fusion reactor ITER, designed to be the first in the world to produce net power from fusion. The heart of a fusion reactor like ITER contains an extremely hot plasma, from which short, intense energy bursts rain down on the reactor wall. In ITER, the tungsten wall will face powerful discharges of several gigawatts per square meter, several times per second. However, researchers at FOM Institute DIFFER discovered that under some conditions less than half of that incoming energy actually hits the surface. Pilot-PSI The physicists used their linear plasma experiment Pilot-PSI to show that the tungsten surface shields itself from the blast by expelling a cloud of cooling hydrogen particles. This is the first time that fusion researchers see the energy pulses and the wall react to each other

The post Fusion reactor wall manages unexpected shielding against extreme heat loads has been published on Technology Org.

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Name, Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232, Deep space image Gift Wrapping Paper

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!

Name, Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232, Deep space image Gift Wrapping Paper

tagged with: star clusters, inspirational, star forming regions, spgxy1232, young blue stars, galactic arms, astromomy image, spiral galaxies, star galaxies, outer space images, european southern observatory, heavens, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic image that reveals a little of the wonder that is our universe.
This spectacular image of the large spiral galaxy NGC 1232 was obtained on September 21, 1998, during a period of good observing conditions. It is based on three exposures in ultra-violet, blue and red light, respectively. The colours of the different regions are well visible : the central areas contain older stars of reddish colour, while the spiral arms are populated by young, blue stars and many star-forming regions. Note the distorted companion galaxy on the left side, shaped like the greek letter "theta".

NGC 1232 is located 20º south of the celestial equator, in the constellation Eridanus (The River). The distance is about 100 million light-years, but the excellent optical quality of the VLT and FORS allows us to see an incredible wealth of details. At the indicated distance, the edge of the field shown corresponds to about 200,000 light-years, or about twice the size of the Milky Way galaxy.
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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Crab Pulsar Time Lapse - Neutron Star Sticker

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Crab Pulsar Time Lapse - Neutron Star Sticker

tagged with: stars, galaxies, astronomy, tarnebes, tarantula nebula, r136, massive stars, youngest stars, supernovae

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

Multiple observations made over several months with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope captured the spectacle of matter and antimatter propelled to near the speed of light by the Crab pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star the size of Manhattan.

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Image code: crbplsr

Image credit: NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope

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Clouds and Crosses over Haleakala

Aloha and welcome to a breathtaking skyscape. The dreamlike panoramic view from March 27 looks out over the 10,000 foot summit of Haleakala on Maui, Hawai'i. A cloud layer seeps over the volcanic caldera's edge with the Milky Way and starry night sky above. Head of the Northern Cross asterism, supergiant star Deneb lurks within the Milky Way's dust clouds and nebulae at the left. From there you can follow the arc of the Milky Way all the way to the stars of the more compact Southern Cross, just above the horizon at the far right. A yellowish Mars is right of center, near the top of the frame, with rival red giant Antares below it, closer to the Milky Way's central bulge. Need some help identifying the stars? Just slide your cursor over the picture, or download this labeled panorama.

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Carina Nebula: The Caterpillar Wall Graphics

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Carina Nebula: The Caterpillar Wall Graphics

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"This Hubble Space Telescope view of the central region of the Carina Nebula reveals a violent maelstrom of star birth. The fantasy-like landscape of the nebula is sculpted by the intense pressure of starlight from monster stars and their accompanying star clusters, as well as the hydrodynamics of their stellar winds of charged particles."

(qtd. from the HubbleSite.org NewsCenter release STScI-2007-16)

Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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Hubble over Earth 3 Covers For iPad

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Hubble over Earth 3 Covers For iPad

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Optical components made of multiresponsive microgels

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“Intelligent” materials that can respond to external stimuli are high on the wish lists of many scientists because of their possible usefulness in various applications from sensors to microrobotics. Canadian researchers are working with polymer-based microgels that can swell and shrink. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, they introduce tiny, stacked structures of microgels whose optical properties change in response to light, changes in pH value, or temperature. They can also detect nerve gases. Gels are cross-linked molecules that can hold a liquid within their “loops”, which makes them swell up; microgels are “small” colloidally stable gel particles. The microgels being investigated by Michael J. Serpe and his team at the University of Alberta are swollen at temperatures below 32 °C; at higher temperatures they collapse and shrink. The researchers used these materials to make small stacked structures called etalons: they enclosed a whisper-thin layer of microgel between two thin layers of gold. When the gel swells up, the two sheets of gold move farther apart, when it shrinks they get closer to each other. The optical properties of the stack change significantly as the distance between the gold layers changes, meaning that they “respond” to a change in temperature. However, the goal is to

The post Optical components made of multiresponsive microgels has been published on Technology Org.

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So it's nearly upon us

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So it's nearly upon us
My gran lived in pre-flight days and now we're on track to treating space as a must-see tourist destination. How things have changed...

#outerspace

The Next Big Thing: the age of space tourism begins-Telegraph
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Galileo quote poster

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Galileo quote poster

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funny humor joke quote quotation galileo astronomer astronomy telescope stars planets sun genius brilliant science scientist professor phd college university school education teach teaching teacher learn learning wisdom truth scientific physics physicist universe

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Stellar Nursery R136 in the Tarantula Nebula Stickers

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Stellar Nursery R136 in the Tarantula Nebula Stickers

tagged with: stars, galaxies, astronomy, galaxy, envelope sealers, dorneblmc, stellar nursery, r136, 30 doradus nebula, massive stars, large magellanic cloud, star cluster, amazing hubble images, tarantula nebula

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 local galactic neighborhood. The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus (or Tarantula) Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.
There is no known star-forming region in our galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. Many of the diamond-like icy blue stars are among the most massive stars known. Several of them are over 100 times more massive than our Sun. These hefty stars are destined to pop off, like a string of firecrackers, as supernovas in a few million years. The image, taken in ultraviolet, visible, and red light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, spans about 100 light-years.
The movement of the LMC around the Milky Way may have triggered the massive cluster's formation in several ways. The gravitational tug of the Milky Way and the companion Small Magellanic Cloud may have compressed gas in the LMC. Also, the pressure resulting from the LMC plowing through the Milky Way's halo may have compressed gas in the satellite. The cluster is a rare, nearby example of the many super star clusters that formed in the distant, early universe, when star birth and galaxy interactions were more frequent.
The LMC is located 170,000 light-years away and is a member of the Local Group of Galaxies, which also includes the Milky Way. The Hubble observations were taken Oct. 20-27, 2009. The blue color is light from the hottest, most massive stars; the green from the glow of oxygen; and the red from fluorescing hydrogen.

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Image credit: Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3

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Arts | Westchester: A Tour of the Heavens Gets an Upgrade

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At an improved planetarium at the Hudson River Museum, visitors can fly to Saturn’s rings and trace the constellations.

via New York Times

Name, Crab Nebula in Taurus outer space picture Gift Wrap Paper

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!

Name, Crab Nebula in Taurus outer space picture Gift Wrap Paper

tagged with: messier 1, neutron stars, star ejecta, pulsars, supernovae explosions, supernova remnant, crbneb, astronomy pictures, outer space images, crab nebula, heavens, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A great outer space picture featuring a three colour composite of the well-known Crab Nebula (also known as Messier 1), as observed with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode in the morning of November 10, 1999.
It's the remnant of a supernova explosion at a distance of about 6,000 light-years, observed almost 1,000 years ago, in the year 1054. It contains a neutron star near its center that spins 30 times per second around its axis (see below).
In this picture, the green light is predominantly produced by hydrogen emission from material ejected by the star that exploded. The blue light is predominantly emitted by very high-energy ("relativistic") electrons that spiral in a large-scale magnetic field (so-called synchrotron emission). It's believed that these electrons are continuously accelerated and ejected by the rapidly spinning neutron star at the centre of the nebula and which is the remnant core of the exploded star.
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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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Light Echo from Star V838 Wall Sticker

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Light Echo from Star V838 Wall Sticker

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"[This is] the most recent NASA Hubble Space Telescope view of an unusual phenomenon in space called a light echo. Light from a star that erupted nearly five years ago continues propagating outward through a cloud of dust surrounding the star. The light reflects or "echoes" off the dust and then travels to Earth."

(qtd. from HubbleSite.org NewsCenter release STScI-2006-50)

Credit: NASA, ESA, and H. Bond (STScI)

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NASA's Hubble extends stellar tape measure 10 times farther into space

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Astronomers now can precisely measure the distance of stars up to 10,000 light-years away -- 10 times farther than previously possible.

via Science Daily

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Star Cluster N90 Hubble Space iPad Folio Case

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Star Cluster N90 Hubble Space iPad Folio Case

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This beautiful Hubble space photograph shows a cluster of newly formed stars in the N90 star forming region. Shiny twinkling stars are surrounded by brown dust clouds and dark black sky.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

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