Exoplanet may reveal secrets about the edge of habitability
How close can a rocky planet be to a star, and still sustain water and life? A recently discovered exoplanet may be key to solving that mystery.
Directly Imaging Quantum States in Two-Dimensional Materials
When some semiconductors absorb light, the process can create excitons, quasi-particles made of an electron bound to an electron hole. Two-dimensional crystals of tungsten disulfide have unique but short-lived exciton states. Scientists developed a new approach called time-resolved momentum microscopy to create separate images of these individual quantum states. The study found that the coupling mechanisms that lead to mixing of the states may not fully match current theories.
Predicting Future Flames
Wildfires can destroy homes, businesses, communities, infrastructure, and most importantly, lives. Researchers at CIRI are working on models to not only track wildfires, but also predict where they could spread to next.
Penguin Propulsion: The Physics Behind the World's Fastest Swimming Birds
In Physics of Fluids, researchers develop a model to explore the forces and flow structures created by penguin wings underwater. Penguin can adjust swimming posture by active wing feathering, pitching, and flapping and their dense, short feathers can also lock air between the skin and water to reduce friction and turbulence. The hydrodynamic model takes in information about the flapping and feathering of the wings and, using the immersed boundary method, solves for the motion of the wing and the thrust, lift, and lateral forces.
Scientists Unearth 20 Million Years of 'Hot Spot' Magmatism Under Cocos Plate
Situated 60 kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean floor, the magma channel covers more than 100,000 square kilometers, and originated from the Galapagos Plume more than 20 million years ago, supplying melt for multiple magmatic events -- and persisting today.
Webb Rules Out Thick Carbon Dioxide Atmosphere for Rocky Exoplanet
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has successfully measured the heat radiating from TRAPPIST-1 c, an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. With a dayside temperature of about 225 degrees Fahrenheit, it is the coolest rocky planet ever characterized using this method. Unfortunately for those hoping that the TRAPPIST-1 system is a true analog to our own, the results are a bit disappointing. While TRAPPIST-1 c is roughly the same size and mass as Venus and receives the same amount of radiation from its star, it appears unlikely to have the same thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. This indicates that the planet, and perhaps the system as a whole, may have formed with very little water. The result is the latest in the quest to determine whether planetary atmospheres can survive the violent environs of a red dwarf star.
Bridging traditional economics and econophysics
In a new study, researchers of the Complexity Science Hub highlight the connecting elements between traditional financial market research and econophysics.
Yun Liu wins Faraday Cup Award for breakthrough laser comb
When opportunity meets talent, great things happen. The laser comb developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory serves as such an example.
Glitches in the matrix
Physicists at Washington University are finding new ways to harness the quantum power of defects in otherwise flawless crystals.
We've pumped so much groundwater that we've nudged the Earth's spin
By pumping water out of the ground and moving it elsewhere, humans have shifted such a large mass of water that the Earth tilted nearly 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) east between 1993 and 2010 alone, according to a new study.
The 'Brightest of All Time' Gamma-Ray Burst and Its Ordinary Supernova
A team of astronomers using the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF's NOIRLab, have observed the 'brightest of all time' long gamma-ray burst. Using the Gemini South Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS), the team found that although GRB 221009A exhibits a jet structure as rare as it is bright, its associated supernova is surprisingly ordinary.
La explosion de rayos gamma "mas brillante de todos los tiempos"
Un equipo de astronomos observo la explosion de rayos gamma "mas brillante de todos los tiempos" con el telescopio Gemini Sur, la mitad austral del Observatorio Internacional Gemini que opera NOIRLab de NSF. Gracias al Espectrografo Multi Objetos de Gemini Sur (GMOS por sus siglas en ingles), el equipo descubrio que, a pesar que GRB 221009A presentaba una estructura de jet tan inusual como su brillo, su supernova no era nada fuera de lo comun.
Missouri S&T physicist-led team finds new behavior of light
A research collaboration led by a Missouri University of Science and Technology physicist has used a new computational process that increases the speed and scale of numerical simulations to observe a previously theorized emerging behavior of light.
STAR Physicists Track Sequential 'Melting' of Upsilons
Recent data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider show how three distinct variations of particles called upsilons "melt," or dissociate, in the hot particle soup that existed in the very early universe. The results from the STAR experiment support the theory that this hot matter is a soup of "free" quarks and gluons. Measuring how different upsilons dissociate helps scientists learn about the quark-gluon plasma.
A scorching-hot exoplanet scrutinized by UdeM astronomers
Through the Gemini-North Telescope in Hawai'i, the chemical composition of WASP-76 b is revealed in unprecedented detail, giving new insights also into the composition of giant planets.
Illuminating physics in the kitchen
It's a place most of us have to visit daily. Sometimes eagerly. Sometimes begrudgingly. But the kitchen also can be a place of scientific discovery.
BGSU researchers develop 'green chemistry' method to recycle, upcycle silicone
Pioneering research out of Bowling Green State University is aiming to keep silicone out of landfills through an innovative process designed to recycle or upcycle the popular consumer product.
Phosphate, a key building block of life, found on Saturn's moon Enceladus
An international team has found that the water on one of Saturn's moons harbors high concentrations of phosphates, a key building block of life. The team detected evidence of phosphates in particles ejected from the ice-covered global ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
The heat is on! Don't panic. Get the latest news on heat waves and the dangers of heat in the Extreme Heat channel
As we enter the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere and the possibility of extreme heat becomes more common, it's important to stay up-to-date on the science of heat waves and take measures to protect ourselves from this growing public health threat.
UC Irvine scientists create long-lasting, cobalt-free, lithium-ion batteries
Irvine, Calif., June 14, 2023 - In a discovery that could reduce or even eliminate the use of cobalt - which is often mined using child labor - in the batteries that power electric cars and other products, scientists at the University of California, Irvine have developed a long-lasting alternative made with nickel. "Nickel doesn't have child labor issues," said Huolin Xin, the UCI professor of physics & astronomy whose team devised the method, which could usher in a new, less controversial generation of lithium-ion batteries.
Historic Advanced Photon Source magnet sees the light of day for the first time in 29 years
In 1994, one of the last magnets produced for the Advanced Photon Source was signed by many who worked on the facility's construction. That magnet was recently removed to make way for the APS Upgrade, and many of those who signed it are still with the lab.
Creation of a new molecule through innovative combination of two reactions
A research group succeeded, for the first time, in synthesizing a new molecule using a novel combination of dynamic covalent chemistry, in which organic radicals couple and dissociate reversibly, and coordination chemistry, which binds radicals to metal ligands.
Getting to the Bottom of When the Smallest Meson Melts
Bottomonium mesons consist of a heavy bottom quark bound to an antibottom quark, and the two quarks can be bound loosely, more tightly, and very tightly (creating the smallest bottomonium meson). New calculations that predict the temperature at which these mesons will melt show that the smallest bottomonium particles can stay intact at very high temperatures. This may explain why collisions at different particle accelerators produce different numbers of bottomonium particles.
A new magnetizable shape memory alloy with low energy loss, even at low temperatures
Shape memory alloys (SMA) remember their original shape and return to it after being heated. Similar to how a liquid transforms into a gas when boiled, SMAs undergo a phase transformation when heated or cooled.
Microplastics Stick Around in Human Airways
Inhaled microplastics can pose serious health risks, so understanding how they travel in the respiratory system is essential for prevention and treatment of respiratory diseases. In Physics of Fluids, researchers develop a computational fluid dynamics model to analyze microplastic transport and deposition in the upper airway. The team explored the movement of microplastics with different shapes and sizes and under slow and fast breathing conditions. Microplastics tended to collect in hot spots in the nasal cavity and oropharynx, or back of the throat.