Steps into Space - Commercialisation, Occupation, Colonization: 08/02/14

Saturday 2 August 2014

Emergence of the 8th phase of solid oxygen

In their present work, Associate Professor Yasuhiro H. Matsuda in the Institute for Solid State Physics (ISSP), the University of Tokyo and Ph.D student Toshihiro Nomura at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, have discovered a novel phase of solid oxygen by applying an extraordinarily strong magnetic field of up to 193 Tesla, in collaboration with Professor Tatsuo C. Kobayashi, Okayama University and other researchers. Oxygen becomes solid at low temperatures and under high pressures, and so far seven different solid phases have been discovered. The crystal structure of the solid oxygen is known to be deeply related to its magnetic properties, but it was not known how the characteristics of oxygen were affected by strong magnetic fields. In this research, magnetization and magneto-transmission measurements were performed in ultrahigh fields using a destructive single-turn coil technique. The ultrahigh magnetic field of up to 193 T was able to bring about a phase-change in solid oxygen. The discovered novel phase is the eighth phase of solid oxygen and has a different geometry of O2 molecules from the other seven phases, possessing a cubic crystal structure with a high degree of symmetry, and is thought to be weakly ferromagnetic. This finding is

The post Emergence of the 8th phase of solid oxygen has been published on Technology Org.

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VIDEO: Could you beat Usain Bolt in a race?

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Engineers are making it possible for spectators to race against the world's fastest man.
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» see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28364163#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Detailed imaging of Mount Rainier shows subduction zone in glorious detail

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A cross section of Washington's Cascade Range from west to east (left to right) passing near Mt. Rainier, indicated by a red triangle. The colors represent electrical resistivity, with red being low. Contour lines show temperature in degrees Celsius. Small red circles show the centers of earthquakes.

McGary et al/Nature

Most people know that the Pacific Ring of Fire is related to boundaries between tectonic plates, but there’s a common misconception about where the magma comes from to fuel those volcanoes. At those boundaries, called subduction zones, a plate made of denser oceanic crust dives beneath a continent (or another oceanic plate). It’s not that the diving plate heats up and melts as it sinks downward, though.

Actually, the minerals in the diving plate contain lots of water, and that water migrates upward as the plate slowly warms up. The addition of water to hot mantle rocks lowers the melting point of the rock, and this effect is enough to convert some mantle rock into magma. Since magma is less dense than solid rock, it works its way upward toward the surface, resulting in the arcs of volcanoes we see along subduction zones.

Within this simplified picture, however, there are complexities and open questions. Does the water simply rise directly into the mantle rocks above, or does it take a more tortuous path? Is that water the cause of all the magma production in an area, or does some magma form because the flow of mantle rock brings some up to lower pressures where it can melt?

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» see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/n10rP91rY68/
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New metamaterial gives light a one-way ticket

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The light-warping structures known as metamaterials have a new trick in their ever-expanding repertoire. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a silver, glass and chromium nanostructure that can all but stop visible light cold in one direction while giving it a pass in the other.* The device could someday play a role in optical information processing and in novel biosensing devices. Schematic of NIST’s one-way metamaterial. Forward travelling green light (left) or red light passes through the multilayered block and comes out at an angle due to diffraction off of grates on the surface of the material. Light travelling in the opposite direction (right) is almost completely filtered by the metamaterial and can’t pass through. Credit: Xu/NIST View hi-resolution image In recent years, scientists have designed nanostructured materials that allow microwave or infrared light to propagate in only one direction. Such structures hold potential for applications in optical communication—for instance, they could be integrated into photonic chips that split or combine signals carried by light waves. But, until now, no one had achieved one-way transmission of visible light, because existing devices could not be fabricated at scales small enough to manipulate visible light’s short wavelengths.

The post New metamaterial gives light a one-way ticket has been published on Technology Org.

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» see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/E0Zv0NTlrLo/
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NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula

These clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers, though. Still, this deep telescopic view shows off the Iris Nebula's range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail. Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star. The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the dusty clouds glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula may contain complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. The pretty blue petals of the Iris Nebula span about six light-years.

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Why is the Sun's atmosphere so much hotter than its surface? Nanoflares

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Scientists have recently gathered some of the strongest evidence to date to explain what makes the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than its surface. The new observations of the small-scale extremely hot temperatures are consistent with only one current theory: something called nanoflares -- a constant peppering of impulsive bursts of heating, none of which can be individually detected -- provide the mysterious extra heat.

via Science Daily

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Lobster Nebula Wall Stickers

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This image from ESO’s VISTA telescope captures a celestial landscape of vast, glowing clouds of gas and tendrils of dust surrounding hot young stars. This infrared view reveals the stellar nursery known as NGC 6357 in a new light. It was taken as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey, which is currently scanning the Milky Way in a bid to map our galaxy’s structure and explain how it formed. Source http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1309a/ Author: ESO/VVV Survey/D. Minniti.

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Light pulses control graphene's electrical behavior

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Graphene, an ultrathin form of carbon with exceptional electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, has become a focus of research on a variety of potential uses. Now researchers have found a way to control how the material conducts electricity by using extremely short light pulses, which could enable its use as a broadband light detector. These findings could allow ultrafast switching of conduction, and possibly lead to new broadband light sensors.

via Science Daily

The world of titanium dioxide: Market dialogue and breakthrough

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Products employing titanium dioxide as a photocatalyst are becoming more and more common in everyday life. The very simple reaction of splitting water with light energy has blossomed in both industry and academia, giving birth to a surprising number of applications. Begun by Emeritus Professor Kenichi Honda and Honorary Emeritus Professor Akira Fujishima at the University of Tokyo, today Professor Kazuhito Hashimoto continues this research at the Graduate School of Engineering. Discovery of the Honda-Fujishima effect When titanium dioxide (TiO2) is irradiated with light, the energy absorbed enables the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen. This phenomenon was discovered by chance by Akira Fujishima, a graduate student working under the guidance of Associate Professor Kenichi Honda, beginning the half-century story of titanium dioxide. A photocatalyst is any material that uses light energy to promote a chemical reaction. However, research on titanium dioxide and its derivatives has dominated over other materials and titanium dioxide is the only photocatalyst that has seen industrial application. The discovery that titanium dioxide photocatalyzed the decomposition of water was announced in 1972 in the journal Nature, and is now called the Honda-Fujishima effect after its discoverers. That titanium dioxide, a common material used in white paint

The post The world of titanium dioxide: Market dialogue and breakthrough has been published on Technology Org.

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Purple Stars Galaxy Space Astronomy Print

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Purple Stars Galaxy Space Astronomy Print

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Small Magellanic Cloud Galaxy photograph

This stunning space photograph shows the tip of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy (SMC), which is situated about 200,000 light years away. This is a composite image created from data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In this picture, it has a beautiful purple, pink and red appearance, and the sky is studded with bright twinkling stars.

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/JPL-Caltech/STScI

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Companion planets can increase old worlds' chance at life

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(Phys.org) —Having a companion in old age is good for people—and, it turns out, might extend the chance for life on certain Earth-sized planets in the cosmos as well.

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Monogram - Sculpted Region of the Orion Nebula Sticker

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Monogram - Sculpted Region of the Orion Nebula Sticker

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Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A region within the Orion Nebula showing the sculpting effect that stars can have on any surrounding gas clouds. This glowing region reveals arcs and bubbles formed when stellar winds - streams of charged particles ejected by the nearby Trapezium stars - collide with material.

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Image credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

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Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus) Wall Decor

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Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus) Wall Decor

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"This huge Hubble Space Telescope mosaic, spanning a width of 600 light-years, shows a star factory of more the 800,000 stars being born. The stars are embedded inside the Tarantula Nebula, a vibrant region of star birth that resides 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, satellite galaxy of our Milky Way."

(qtd. from HubbleSite.org NewsCenter release STScI-2014-02)

Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Sabbi (STScI)

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The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field iPad Mini Cases

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The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field iPad Mini Cases

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The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) is an image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, composited from Hubble Space Telescope data accumulated over a period from September 24, 2003, through to January 16, 2004. Looking back approximately 13 billion years (between 400 and 800 million years after the Big Bang) it will be used to search for galaxies that existed at that time. The HUDF image was taken in a section of the sky with a low density of bright stars in the near-field, allowing much better viewing of dimmer, more distant objects. The image contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies. In August and September 2009, the Hubble's Deep Field was expanded using the infrared channel of the recently attached Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). When combined with existing HUDF data, astronomers were able to identify a new list of potentially very distant galaxies.

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