Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Modeling offers new perspective on how Pluto's 'icy heart' came to be

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Pluto's "icy heart" is a bright, two-lobed feature on its surface that has attracted researchers ever since its discovery by the NASA New Horizons team in 2015. Of particular interest is the heart's western lobe, informally named Sputnik Planitia, a deep basin containing three kinds of ices--frozen nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide--and appearing opposite Charon, Pluto's tidally locked moon. Sputnik Planitia's unique attributes have spurred a number of scenarios for its formation, all of which identify the feature as an impact basin, a depression created by a smaller body striking Pluto at extremely high speed.
via Science Daily
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First signs of weird quantum property of empty space?

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By studying the light emitted from an extraordinarily dense and strongly magnetized neutron star, astronomers may have found the first observational indications of a strange quantum effect, first predicted in the 1930s. The polarization of the observed light suggests that the empty space around the neutron star is subject to a quantum effect known as vacuum birefringence.
via Science Daily
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Making flawless graphene coatings

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Graphene, the ultra-thin wonder material just a single carbon atom in thickness, holds the promise of such impressive applications as wear-resistant, friction-free coatings. But first manufacturers have to be able to produce large sheets of graphene under precisely controlled conditions.
via Science Daily

Milky Way over Shipwreck

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