How it works: A proton (far left) from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator at CERN hits carbon nuclei (small gray spheres). This produces a shower of various elementary particles, including a large number of neutral pions (orange sphere). As the unstable neutral pions decay, they emit two high-energy gamma rays (curly yellow arrows). These … Read more
At left, a mid-infrared image of the rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the focus is on the WL20 star system. At right, WL20 is enlarged to reveal an artist’s impression of this new discovery. Astronomers couldn’t believe their luck when observations at multiple radio and infrared wavelengths by ALMA and … Read more
Thousands of satellites in “megaconstellations” have been launched to meet the demand for global Internet service, and thousands more will be launched in the near future. But these small satellites have a short lifespan and, when they burn up during reentry, will release ozone-depleting pollutants. A new study in Geophysical Research Letters measures this pollution … Read more
The inner core began to slow down around 2010, moving slower than the Earth’s surface. Credit: University of Southern California University of Southern California scientists have proven that Earth’s inner core is receding—slowing down—relative to the planet’s surface, as shown in a new study published in Nature. The motion of the inner core has been … Read more
Cracking and self-healing of peptide glass. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07408-x A team of materials scientists from Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, both in Israel, working with a colleague from the California Institute of Technology in the US, have discovered that mixing a certain peptide with water results in creating a … Read more
This plot shows the difference in length between a PCFG gray whale born in 2020 versus one born before 2000. OSU researchers determined that a PCFG gray whale born in 2020 is expected to reach an adult body length of 1.65 meters (about 5 feet, 5 inches) shorter than a gray whale born before 2000. … Read more
Sensing deflected wavefronts in fluorescence microscopy. Credit: Optics (2024). DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.518559 A team led by researchers at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus has adapted a class of techniques used in astronomy to whiten images of distant galaxies for use in the life sciences, offering biologists a faster and cheaper way to get clearer and sharper microscopic … Read more
This graphic shows a three-dimensional map of the stars near the sun. These stars are close enough that they could be prime targets for direct imaging searches for planets using future telescopes. Blue haloes represent stars that have been observed with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. The yellow star in the center of … Read more
Intensity map and geographic location of the 2023 Turkey earthquake. A black star indicates the epicenter of the earthquake (https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes). Credit: Journal of Applied Geodesy (2024). DOI: 10.1515/jag-2024-0024 A recent study in Journal of Applied Geodesy suggests. Developing early warning systems for earthquakes can be very helpful in preventing death and destruction. One such proposed … Read more