Steps into Space - Commercialisation, Occupation, Colonization: 06/26/14

Thursday 26 June 2014

Charging portable electronics in 10 minutes

Mihri and Cengiz Ozkan, both professors in the Bourns College of Engineering. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a three-dimensional, silicon-decorated, cone-shaped carbon-nanotube cluster architecture for lithium ion battery anodes that could enable charging of portable electronics in 10 minutes, instead of hours. Lithium ion batteries are the rechargeable battery of choice for portable electronic devices and electric vehicles. But, they present problems. Batteries in electric vehicles are responsible for a significant portion of the vehicle mass. And the size of batteries in portable electronics limits the trend of down-sizing. Silicon is a type of anode material that is receiving a lot of attention because its total charge capacity is 10 times higher than commercial graphite based lithium ion battery anodes. Consider a packaged battery full-cell. Replacing the commonly used graphite anode with silicon anodes will potentially result in a 63 percent increase of total cell capacity and a battery that is 40 percent lighter and smaller. In a paper, Silicon Decorated Cone Shaped Carbon Nanotube Clusters for Lithium Ion Battery Anode,recently published in the journal SMALL, UC Riverside researchers developed a novel structure of three-dimensional silicon decorated cone-shaped carbon nanotube clusters architecture via chemical vapor

The post Charging portable electronics in 10 minutes has been published on Technology Org.

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Hubble's Ultra Deep Field Image Poster

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Hubble's Ultra Deep Field Image Poster

tagged with: hubble, ultra deep field, ultra, deep, field, astronomical, astronomy, distant, galaxies, ancient, red shift, space images

This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The snapshot includes galaxies of various ages, sizes, shapes, and colors. The smallest, reddest galaxies may be among the most distant known, existing when the universe was just about 800 million years old. The nearest galaxies - the larger, brighter, well-defined spirals and ellipticals - thrived about 1 billion years ago, when the cosmos was 13 billion years old. The image required 800 exposures taken over the course of 400 Hubble orbits around Earth. The total amount of exposure time was 11.3 days, taken between Sept. 24, 2003 and Jan. 16, 2004. Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team For more information, visit http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2006/12/image/b/

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Long-range tunneling of quantum particles

Science Focus

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The quantum tunnel effect manifests itself in a multitude of well-known phenomena. Experimental physicists in Innsbruck, Austria, have now directly observed quantum particles transmitting through a whole series of up to five potential barriers under conditions where a single particle could not do the move. Quantum particles transmit through a whole series of barriers under conditions where a single particle could not do the move. One of the most remarkable consequences of the rules in quantum mechanics is the capability of a quantum particle to penetrate through a potential barrier even though its energy would not allow for the corresponding classical trajectory. This is known as the quantum tunnel effect and manifests itself in a multitude of well-known phenomena. For example, it explains nuclear radioactive decay, fusion reactions in the interior of stars, and electron transport through quantum dots. Tunneling also is at the heart of many technical applications, for instance it allows for imaging of surfaces on the atomic length scale in scanning tunneling microscopes. All the above systems have in common that they essentially represent the very fundamental paradigm of the tunnel effect: a single particle that penetrates through a single barrier. Now, the team of Hanns-Christoph Nägerl,

The post Long-range tunneling of quantum particles has been published on Technology Org.

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Peter Vesborg receives grant to develop artificial leaf

Science Focus

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Assistant Professor Peter Vesborg from the DTU Physics has received almost 2.5 million DKK from The Danish Council for Independent Research for the development of an artificial leaf. The purpose of the leaf is to produce environmentally friendly fuels from sunlight, water and air. It sounds like a day at the beach. Sun, water and air to be jointly used to produce environmentally friendly fuels, such as hydrogen. The Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF) has granted 2,463,840 DKK to the project “Efficient, two-photon water splitting photoelectrode’ led by Assistant Professor Peter Christian Kjaergaard Vesborg from the Department of Physics. The goal is to develop an artificial leaf that can effectively and inexpensively use sunlight to split water and create hydrogen. More efficient use of sunlight The process of using light, water and air to create fuel is also called artificial photosynthesis because it mimics the plants’ method of converting energy from sunlight into sugar, the plants’ fuel. The researchers utilize a “tandem design” in which the combined energy of two visible photons (light energy particles) provides the energy needed for water splitting. Compared to single-photon designs where only ultraviolet light has enough energy to split water, the advantage of

The post Peter Vesborg receives grant to develop artificial leaf has been published on Technology Org.

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Your pictures: Mighty minibeasts

Science Focus

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Your pictures celebrating National Insect Week 2014
#science
» see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/27980820
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Omega Nebula - Our Amazing Universe Stickers

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Omega Nebula - Our Amazing Universe Stickers

tagged with: omgneb, star forming regions, omega nebula, uplifting, messier 17, stars, hrbstslr, galaxies, outer space, universe, awesome astronomy images, ngc 6618, inspirational, heavens, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A great outer space picture featuring a three-colour composite image of the Omega Nebula (Messier 17, or NGC 6618), based on images obtained with the EMMI instrument on the ESO 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory. North is down and East is to the right in the image. It spans an angle equal to about one third the diameter of the Full Moon, corresponding to about 15 light-years at the distance of the Omega Nebula. The three filters used are B (blue), V ("visual", or green) and R (red).

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image code: omgneb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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From deep sea to deep space: Creating and optimizing food for people living and working in extreme conditions

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How do you feed a six-person crew on a three-year mission to Mars? Food scientists are working on this and other challenges related to creating and optimizing food for astronauts, soldiers, pilots and other individuals working and living in extreme environments.

via Science Daily

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Conjunction by the Sea

Early morning risers were treated to a beautiful conjunction of Venus and waning Crescent Moon on June 24, captured in this seaside photo near Belmar, New Jersey, USA, planet Earth. The serene celestial pairing is seen above the Atlantic Ocean horizon as the eastern sky grows brighter with dawn's early light. Wispy, scattered clouds appear in silhouette. But the exposure also reveals the night side of the lunar orb in the arms of the sunlit crescent. That shadowed part of the Moon, with hints of the smooth, dark lunar seas or maria, is illuminated by Earthshine, sunlight reflected from planet Earth itself.

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Rosette Nebula Photo Room Sticker

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Rosette Nebula Photo Room Sticker

tagged with: space, universe, stars, nebula, nebulas, rosette nebula, astronomy, photo, star clusters, hubble, star, astrology, photography, space photography, nebula photo, red, inferno, explosion, planets, galaxy, hubble photo, space travel

Beautiful Rosette Nebula photo. Great example of amazing space photography and great space gift ideas.

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A certificate of excellence for CERN's Globe

Rose Galaxy iPad Mini Cases

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!

Rose Galaxy iPad Mini Cases

tagged with: rose, galaxy, rose galaxy, hubble, space, telescope, hubble space telescope

Depicting the Rose Galaxy, courtesy of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

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Snowballs to Soot: The Clumping Density of Many Things Seems to Be a Standard

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Particles of soot floating through the air and comets hurtling through space have at least one thing in common: 0.36. That, reports a research group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is the measure of how dense they will get under normal conditions, and it’s a value that seems to be constant for similar aggregates across an impressively wide size range from nanometers to tens of meters.* NIST hopes the results will help in the development of future measurement standards to aid climate researchers and others who need to measure and understand the behavior of aerosols like carbon soot in the atmosphere. Soot comes mostly from combustion and is considered the second biggest driver of global warming, according to NIST chemist Christopher Zangmeister. It is made up of small round particles of carbon about 10 or 20 nanometers across. The particles stick together randomly in short chains and clumps of a half dozen or more spheres. These, in turn, clump loosely together to form larger, loose aggregates of 10 or more which over a few hours will compact into a somewhat tighter ball which is atmospheric soot. The interesting question for chemists studying carbon aerosols is how

The post Snowballs to Soot: The Clumping Density of Many Things Seems to Be a Standard has been published on Technology Org.

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Pale Blue Dot Print

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Pale Blue Dot Print

tagged with: pale blue dot, carl sagan, earth, astronomy, cosmology, voyager 1

The world famous photograph of earth taken 3.7 billion miles away from home as Voyager 1 exited the solar system with Carl Sagan's beautiful words overlaid beneath it.

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Eagle Nebula, Pillars of Creation Oval Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Eagle Nebula, Pillars of Creation Oval Sticker

tagged with: breathtaking astronomy images, eglneb, young stars clusters, star forming nebulae, messier 16 ngc 6611, pillars of creation, inspirational, eagle nebula, heavens, stars, eso, european southern observatory, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A breathtaking outer space picture showing a spectacular three-colour composite mosaic image of the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16, or NGC 6611). It's based on images obtained with the Wide-Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory.

At the centre, the so-called “Pillars of Creation” can be seen and this wide-field image shows not only the central pillars, but also several others in the same star-forming region, as well as a huge number of stars in front of, in, or behind the Eagle Nebula.

The cluster of bright stars to the upper right is NGC 6611, home to the massive and hot stars that illuminate the pillars. The “Spire” - another large pillar - is in the middle left of the image.

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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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Glimpse into the invisible world of electric asteroids

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Space may appear empty -- a soundless vacuum, but it's not an absolute void. It flows with electric activity that is not visible to our eyes. NASA is developing plans to send humans to an asteroid, and wants to know more about the electrical environment explorers will encounter there.

via Science Daily

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Crab Nebula Space As Room Decals

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Crab Nebula Space As Room Decals

tagged with: nasa, esa, universe, space, astronomy, hubble telescope, astrophotography, nature, abstract, pink crab nebula, crab nebula, ngc 1952, nebula, nebulae, hubble space telescope, hubble photoh, hubble photo, cosmos, astronomical, cosmology, space photo, space picture, space image, deep space, natural, science, nebula photo, nebula picture, nebula image, pink, sky, cool space, cool astronomy

Hubble / x-ray photograph of the Crab Nebula

This photo of the Crab Nebula is a combination of optical and x-ray images from the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, and includes rich shades of pink, red and purple.

Credits for X-ray Image: NASA/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al. | Credits for Optical Image: NASA/HST/ASU/J. Hester et al.

You can personalise the design further if you'd prefer, such as by adding your name or other text, or adjusting the image - just click 'Customize it' to see all the options. IMPORTANT: If you choose a different sized version of the product, it's important to click Customize and check the image in the Design view to ensure it fills the area to the edge of the product, otherwise white edges may be visible.

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Eskimo Nebula

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!

Eskimo Nebula

tagged with: eskimo, nebula, space, image, orange, black, nasa, hubble

Lovely image of the Eskimo Nebula thanks to NASA/Hubble programs

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'Cosmic own goal' another clue in hunt for dark matter

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The hunt for dark matter has taken another step forward thanks to new supercomputer simulations showing the evolution of our "local Universe" from the Big Bang to the present day.

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