Feature Channels: Particle Physics

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Released: 24-Apr-2019 1:05 PM EDT
Rapid destruction of Earth-like atmospheres by young stars
University of Vienna

The discoveries of thousands of planets orbiting stars outside our solar system has made questions about the potential for life to form

Released: 24-Apr-2019 7:05 AM EDT
Rapid destruction of Earth-like atmospheres by young stars
University of Vienna

The discoveries of thousands of planets orbiting stars outside our solar system has made questions about the potential for life to form on these planets fundamentally important in modern science. Fundamentally important for the habitability of a planet is whether or not it can hold onto an atmosphere, which requires that the atmosphere is not completely lost early in the lifetime of the planet.

Released: 23-Apr-2019 8:05 PM EDT
Capturing the behavior of single-atom catalysts on the move
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Scientists are excited by the prospect of stripping catalysts down to single atoms. Attached by the millions to a supporting surface, they could offer the ultimate in speed and specificity. Now researchers have taken an important step toward understanding single-atom catalysts by deliberately tweaking how they’re attached to the surfaces that support them – in this case the surfaces of nanoparticles.

Released: 23-Apr-2019 4:30 PM EDT
Watching Molecules Split in Real Time
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Using a new X-ray technique, a team of researchers was able to watch in real time as a molecule split apart into two new molecules. The method could be used to look at chemical reactions that other techniques can’t catch, for instance in catalysis, photovoltaics, peptide and combustion research. The team, led by researchers from Brown University in collaboration with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, published their results in March in Angewandte Chemie.

Released: 22-Apr-2019 2:05 PM EDT
Spin Flipper Upends Protons
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The spin direction of protons was reversed, for the first time, using a nine-magnet device, potentially helping tease out details about protons that affect medical imaging and more.

Released: 19-Apr-2019 11:05 AM EDT
Sea Quark Spin Surprise!
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Antiquark spin contribution to proton spin depends on flavor, which could help unlock secrets about the nuclear structure of atoms that make up nearly all visible matter in our universe.

Released: 19-Apr-2019 8:05 AM EDT
Cassini’s last Titan flyby reveals deep methane lakes, Earth-like cycles
Cornell University

By examining data from the Cassini spacecraft’s last close encounter with Saturn’s moon Titan, scientists have found that its methane-filled lakes are up to 300 feet deep, much deeper than previously thought.

Released: 18-Apr-2019 11:00 AM EDT
Electric Skyrmions Charge Ahead for Next-Generation Data Storage
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

A team of researchers led by Berkeley Lab has observed chirality for the first time in polar skyrmions in a material with reversible electrical properties – a combination that could lead to more powerful data storage devices that continue to hold information, even after they’ve been turned off.

Released: 18-Apr-2019 10:05 AM EDT
CEBAF Turns on the Charm
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility

The world’s most advanced particle accelerator for investigating the quark structure of the atom's nucleus has just charmed physicists with a new capability. The production of charm quarks in J/ψ (J/psi) particles by CEBAF at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility confirms that the facility has expanded the realm of precision nuclear physics research with electron beams to higher energies.

Released: 18-Apr-2019 9:05 AM EDT
A “Jellyfish” Galaxy Swims Into View of NASA’s Upcoming Webb Telescope
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

As the spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 plunges into a galaxy cluster, gas is being pulled off of it as though it faced a cosmic headwind. Within that gas, stars are forming to create the appearance of giant, blue tentacle-like streamers. Astronomers, puzzled that stars could form within such tumult, plan to use Webb to study this galaxy and its stellar offspring.

Released: 17-Apr-2019 10:00 AM EDT
Texas State faculty member sheds light on groundbreaking black hole image
Texas State University

Dr. Blagoy Rangelov, assistant professor of physics at Texas State University, gives insight to the black hole image that captivated audiences around the world last week.

Released: 16-Apr-2019 3:05 PM EDT
Deep Space X-Ray Burst Gives Astronomers New Signal to Detect Neutron Star Mergers
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)

An international team of astronomers has discovered a new way to spot when collisions occur in distant galaxies between two neutron stars – incredibly dense, city-sized celestial bodies that possess the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe. The team’s findings validate predictions first made in 2013 by UNLV astrophysicist Bing Zhang, a member of the research team and one of the study’s corresponding authors.

Released: 16-Apr-2019 3:05 PM EDT
Quarks Under Pressure in the Proton
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Pressure in the middle of a proton is about 10 times higher than in a neutron star.

Released: 16-Apr-2019 2:05 PM EDT
Astronomers discover third planet in the Kepler-47 circumbinary system
San Diego State University

Astronomers have discovered a third planet in the Kepler-47 system, securing the system's title as the most interesting of the binary-star worlds.

Released: 16-Apr-2019 8:05 AM EDT
Optimizing Network Software to Advance Scientific Discovery
Brookhaven National Laboratory

A team optimized software for Intel’s high-speed communication network to accelerate particle physics and machine learning codes.

Released: 15-Apr-2019 3:05 PM EDT
Magnetic Levitation of Ultracold Neutrons Yields New Measurement of the Neutron Lifetime
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Storing extremely slow neutrons in a novel trap enables precise measurement of a basic property of particle physics.

Released: 15-Apr-2019 1:05 PM EDT
TESS finds its first Earth-sized planet
Carnegie Institution for Science

A nearby system hosts the first Earth-sized planet discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite, as well as a warm sub-Neptune-sized world, according to a new paper from a team of astronomers that includes Carnegie's Johanna Teske, Paul Butler, Steve Shectman, Jeff Crane, and Sharon Wang.

Released: 15-Apr-2019 12:10 PM EDT
Sizing Up a Starry Night
University of Delaware

We gaze up at them, we wish upon them, we even sing about swinging on them. But the one thing we haven’t been able to do with stars is figure out how big they are…until now.

Released: 15-Apr-2019 12:05 PM EDT
Astronomers take first, high-resolution look at huge star-forming region of Milky Way
Iowa State University

A team of astronomers used a newly commissioned radio telescope in South Korea to make the first high-resolution observations of the molecular clouds within a star-forming region of the Milky Way. The first good look at the region indicated large molecular clouds about 180 light years across.

Released: 15-Apr-2019 10:05 AM EDT
Notre Dame Stories: Lunar Samples, Rome Studies 50th Anniversary
University of Notre Dame

We chat with Notre Dame geologist and moon expert Clive Neal, who is part of a team that will examine previously sealed lunar samples obtained during the Apollo missions. In addition, we look at the School of Architecture's Rome Studies Program, as it marks its 50th Anniversary in the Eternal City.

11-Apr-2019 3:35 PM EDT
‘Snowball Chamber’ Helps Researchers Use Supercooled Water to Search for Dark Matter
American Physical Society (APS)

After watching YouTube videos of people supercooling water in a bottle and then triggering it to freeze by banging it, something about this concept solidified for Matthew M. Szydagis, an assistant professor of physics at the University at Albany, State University at New York, especially when he saw it again during the Disney movie “Frozen.” During the 2019 American Physical Society April Meeting in Denver, Szydagis will describe how this inspired him to explore whether a subatomic particle like dark matter can trigger the freezing of supercooled water.

11-Apr-2019 3:40 PM EDT
DIY Gravitational Waves with 'BlackHoles@Home'
American Physical Society (APS)

Researchers hoping to better interpret data from the detection of gravitational waves generated by the collision of binary black holes are turning to the public for help. West Virginia University assistant professor Zachariah Etienne is leading what will soon become a global volunteer computing effort. The public will be invited to lend their own computers to help the scientific community unlock the secrets contained in gravitational waves observed when black holes smash together.

Released: 13-Apr-2019 1:05 PM EDT
Travel Through Wormholes is Possible, But Slow
American Physical Society (APS)

A Harvard physicist has shown that wormholes can exist: tunnels in curved space-time, connecting two distant places, through which travel is possible. But don’t pack your bags for a trip to other side of the galaxy yet; although it’s theoretically possible, it’s not useful for humans to travel through, said the author of the study, Daniel Jafferis, from Harvard University, written in collaboration with Ping Gao, also from Harvard and Aron Wall from Stanford University.

Released: 12-Apr-2019 12:05 PM EDT
VIDEO: The Making of the Largest 3D Map of the Universe
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

In this video, Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) project participants share their insight and excitement about the project and its potential for new and unexpected discoveries.

Released: 11-Apr-2019 3:05 PM EDT
Researchers observe formation of a magnetar 6.5 billion light years away
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

A University of Arkansas researcher is part of a team of astronomers who have identified an outburst of X-ray emission from a galaxy approximately 6.5 billion light years away, which is consistent with the merger of two neutron stars to form a magnetar -- a large neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field. Based on this observation, the researchers were able to calculate that mergers like this happen roughly 20 times per year in each region of a billion light years cubed.

Released: 10-Apr-2019 2:05 PM EDT
Astronomers capture first image of a black hole
European Southern Observatory (ESO)

This breakthrough was announced today in a series of six papers published in a special issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Released: 10-Apr-2019 9:30 AM EDT
EHT Radio Astronomy Newsroom
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

The first direct visual evidence of a black hole will help scientists understand how the universe behaves under conditions of extreme gravity, forces so strong that they warp the fabric of space and time.

Released: 9-Apr-2019 4:00 PM EDT
New Model Accurately Predicts Harmful Space Weather
Los Alamos National Laboratory

A new, first-of-its-kind space weather model reliably predicts space storms of high-energy particles that are harmful to many satellites and spacecraft orbiting in the Earth’s outer radiation belt.

4-Apr-2019 11:05 AM EDT
Physics Tip Sheet: APS April Meeting
American Physical Society (APS)

This tip sheet highlights interesting presentations from the upcoming 2019 APS April Meeting in Denver -- a major international meeting that features talks and presentations about discoveries in astrophysics, particle physics, energy research and many other areas of modern physics. The meeting runs from Saturday, April 13 through Tuesday, April 16 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, located at 1550 Court Place in downtown Denver.

Released: 9-Apr-2019 10:05 AM EDT
Life could be evolving right now on nearest exoplanets
Cornell University

Rocky, Earth-like planets orbiting our closest stars could host life, according to a new study that raises the excitement about exoplanets.

Released: 4-Apr-2019 10:00 AM EDT
NASA Awards 2019 Postdoctoral Fellowships
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

NASA has selected 24 new Fellows for its prestigious NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP). The program enables outstanding postdoctoral scientists to pursue independent research in any area of NASA Astrophysics, using theory, observation, experimentation, or instrument development. Each fellowship provides the awardee up to three years of support.

Released: 3-Apr-2019 2:05 PM EDT
UW-Milwaukee astrophysicist elected spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Astrophysicist Patrick Brady has been elected spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration as new run begins with Virgo.

Released: 3-Apr-2019 1:05 PM EDT
Subaru Telescope helps find dark matter is not made up of tiny black holes
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe

An international team of researchers has put a theory speculated by the late Stephen Hawking to its most rigorous test to date, and their results have ruled out the possibility that primordial black holes smaller than a tenth of a millimeter make up most of dark matter.

Released: 3-Apr-2019 11:00 AM EDT
Dark Energy Instrument’s Lenses See the Night Sky for the First Time
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

On April 1 the dome of the Mayall Telescope near Tucson, Arizona, opened to the night sky, and starlight poured through the assembly of six large lenses that were carefully packaged and aligned for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project.

Released: 3-Apr-2019 9:05 AM EDT
NSF press conference on first result from Event Horizon Telescope project
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project and the National Science Foundation (NSF) will hold a press conference on April 10 to announce a groundbreaking result.

Released: 3-Apr-2019 8:50 AM EDT
VLA Makes First Direct Image of Key Feature of Powerful Radio Galaxies
National Radio Astronomy Observatory

A dusty, doughnut-shaped feature, long thought an essential part of the "engines" of active galaxies, is found in one of the most powerful galaxies in the Universe.

Released: 1-Apr-2019 10:05 AM EDT
Physicist named 2019 Cottrell Scholar
West Virginia University - Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

A West Virginia University physicist is using her experiences as a Cottrell Scholar to further her research efforts and create a new curriculum. Weichao Tu, an assistant professor of physics in the WVU Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been named a 2019 Cottrell Scholar.

Released: 28-Mar-2019 10:00 AM EDT
Hubble Watches Spun-up Asteroid Coming Apart
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, all-sky surveys, and several other ground- and space-based telescopes, an international team of astronomers watching asteroid (6478) Gault say it has spun up so fast that its ejected dusty material formed two long, thin, comet-like tails. Each tail represents an episode in which the asteroid gently shed its material — key evidence that Gault is beginning to come apart.

Released: 27-Mar-2019 5:05 PM EDT
Data flows from NASA’s TESS Mission, leads to discovery of Saturn-sized planet
Iowa State University

Astronomers who study stars contributed to the analysis of a planet discovered by NASA's new TESS Mission. It's the first planet identified by TESS for which the oscillations -- "starquakes" -- of the planet's host star could be measured.

Released: 27-Mar-2019 2:05 PM EDT
GRAVITY instrument breaks new ground in exoplanet imaging
European Southern Observatory (ESO)

The GRAVITY instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has made the first direct observation of an exoplanet using optical interferometry. This method revealed a complex exoplanetary atmosphere with clouds of iron and silicates swirling in a planet-wide storm.

Released: 26-Mar-2019 1:05 PM EDT
In Hunt for Life, Astronomers Identify Most Promising Stars
Cornell University

NASA’s new Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is designed to ferret out habitable exoplanets, but with hundreds of thousands of sunlike and smaller stars in its camera views, which of those stars could host planets like our own? A team of astronomers from Cornell University, Lehigh University and Vanderbilt University has identified the most promising targets for this search in the new “TESS Habitable Zone Star Catalog,” published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Released: 26-Mar-2019 8:05 AM EDT
Ultra-sharp Images Make Old Stars Look Absolutely Marvelous!
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)

Using high-resolution adaptive optics imaging from the Gemini Observatory, astronomers have uncovered one of the oldest star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy. The remarkably sharp image looks back into the early history of our Universe and sheds new insights on how our Galaxy formed.

Released: 20-Mar-2019 10:05 AM EDT
2019 APS April Meeting: Preliminary Highlights & Last Call for Hotel Registration
American Physical Society (APS)

Information on the 2019 American Physical Society April Meeting in Denver, which explores research from “Quarks to Cosmos.” It runs from Saturday, April 13 through Tuesday, April 16 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. At the meeting, the latest breaking research in particle and astrophysics will be presented -- from long views of massive, ancient objects in the universe to short-lived, subatomic interactions. The meeting will also feature thoughtful presentations by experts in education, policy, the history of physics, and many other areas.

Released: 19-Mar-2019 9:05 PM EDT
SCOPE project scoops $16 million EU grant
University of Adelaide

A University of Adelaide researcher, alongside members of an international team, has won an AU$16 million ERC Synergy Grant to use plasma energy to produce fertilisers which provides the opportunity for new business models and could even lead to crops on Mars.



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