Astronomer searches for signs of life on Wolf 1061 exoplanet

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Astronomers have located the habitable zone, the region where water could exist on the surface of a planet, on the Wolf 1061, a planetary system that's 14 light years away.
via Science Daily
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Graphene's sleeping superconductivity awakens

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The intrinsic ability of graphene to superconduct (or carry an electrical current with no resistance) has been activated for the first time. This further widens the potential of graphene as a material that could be used in fields such as energy storage, high-speed computing, and molecular electronics.
via Science Daily

Creating atomic scale nanoribbons

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A recent study has demonstrated the first important step toward integrating atomically precise graphene nanoribbons (APGNRs) onto nonmetallic substrates.
via Science Daily

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula in Cepheus

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Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission nebula and young star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Also known as vdB 142, the cosmic elephant's trunk is over 20 light-years long. This colorful close-up view includes image data from a narrow band filter that transmits the light from ionized hydrogen atoms in the region. The resulting composite highlights the bright swept-back ridges that outline pockets of cool interstellar dust and gas. Such embedded, dark, tendril-shaped clouds contain the raw material for star formation and hide protostars within. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396 complex covers a large region on the sky, spanning over 5 degrees. This dramatic scene spans a 1 degree wide field, about the size of 2 Full Moons.

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