Iota orionis: Pulsating beacon of a constellation

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Using the world's smallest astronomical satellites, researchers have detected the biggest stellar heartbeat ever. Astronomers are hopeful that this discovery will provide the initiative to search for other such systems, creating a fundamental shift in how we study the evolution of massive stars. This is important, since massive stars are laboratories of elements essential to human life.
via Science Daily
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Going glassy: Revealing structure and dynamics of glassy polymers during transition

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Computational physicists and chemists have shed new light on how the polymer structure bears on the glass-transition temperature in the forming of glass in atactic polystyrene (PS), a commonly used glass substance.
via Science Daily

Towards mastering terahertz waves?

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Terahertz waves allow for the detection of materials that are undetectable at other frequencies. However, the use of these waves is severely limited by the absence of suitable devices and materials allowing to control them. Researchers have developed a technique based on the use of graphene, which allows for the potentially very quick control of both the intensity and the polarization of terahertz light.
via Science Daily

UGC 12591: The Fastest Rotating Galaxy Known

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Why does this galaxy spin so fast? To start, even identifying which type of galaxy UGC 12591 is difficult -- it has dark dust lanes like a spiral galaxy but a large diffuse bulge of stars like a lenticular. Surprisingly observations show that UGC 12591 spins at about 480 km/sec, almost twice as fast as our Milky Way, and the fastest rotation rate yet measured. The mass needed to hold together a galaxy spinning this fast is several times the mass of our Milky Way Galaxy. Progenitor scenarios for UGC 12591 include slow growth by accreting ambient matter, or rapid growth through a recent galaxy collision or collisions -- future observations may tell. The light we see today from UGC 12591 left about 400 million light years ago, when trees were first developing on Earth.

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