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"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler", Albert Einstein
Browsing All Posts published on »March, 2012«
Einstein’s Proof of E=mc²
http://youtu.be/hW7DW9NIO9M
Hubble Spies a Spiral Galaxy Edge-on
March 30, 2012
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the “UFO Galaxy.” NGC 2683 is a spiral galaxy seen almost edge-on, giving it the shape of a classic science fiction spaceship. This is why the astronomers at the Astronaut Memorial Planetarium and Observatory, Cocoa, Fla., gave it this attention-grabbing nickname. While a bird’s eye view lets us […]
Earth has little to fear from a black hole attack
March 30, 2012
Detectable seismic consequences of the interaction of a primordial black hole with Earth Yang Luo, Shravan Hanasoge, Jeroen Tromp, Frans Pretorius Galaxies observed today are likely to have evolved from density perturbations in the early universe. Perturbations that exceeded some critical threshold are conjectured to have undergone gravitational collapse to form primordial black holes (PBHs) at […]
Maths and Olympics: How fast could Usain Bolt run?
March 29, 2012
By Kate Kelland (Reuters) – Usain Bolt, already the world’s fastest man, could lop another 0.18 seconds off his 100 meter sprint world record even without running any faster. It’s just a question of getting a few conditions right – and doing the maths. Luckily for the top Jamaican sprinter, John Barrow, a professor of […]
Plasma Indirection
March 29, 2012
The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a spectacular rotation of material in a solar prominence, which created a massive tornado-like feature on the Sun, five times bigger than the Earth. “This is perhaps the first time that such a huge solar tornado is filmed by an imager,” said Dr. Xing Li of Aberystwyth University, presenting his […]
Can GPS find variations in Planck’s constant?
March 28, 2012
Read more: physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/49135 Global Positioning System Test of the Local Position Invariance of Planck’s Constant J. Kentosh and M. Mohageg Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 110801 (2012) Published March 15, 2012 Pinpointing Planck’s Constant with GPS GPS is helping drivers find their way and parents track their kids and pets. But now a pair of researchers—reporting in Physical Review Letters—has used […]
The Mighty Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of
March 27, 2012
By NATALIE ANGIER Scientists are a famously anonymous lot, but few can match in the depths of her perverse and unmerited obscurity the 20th-century mathematical genius Amalie Noether. Albert Einstein called her the most “significant” and “creative” female mathematician of all time, and others of her contemporaries were inclined to drop the modification by sex. […]
Quantum Theory without Planck’s Constant
March 27, 2012
John P. Ralston Planck’s constant was introduced as a fundamental scale in the early history of quantum mechanics. We find a modern approach where Planck’s constant is absent: it is unobservable except as a constant of human convention. Despite long reference to experiment, review shows that Planck’s constant cannot be obtained from the data of […]
Could GPS be used to predict earthquakes?
March 26, 2012
Professor Kosuke Heki of Hokkaido University in Japan believes he has found a way to predict earthquakes. Heki analyses GPS signals by measuring the TEC, or Total Electron Content, in the upper atmosphere. Whilst measuring how the TEC was disrupted by sound waves after the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, he discovered – quite by accident […]
Physicists search for new physics in primordial quantum fluctuations
March 26, 2012
Inflation, the brief period that occurred less than a second after the Big Bang, is nearly as difficult to fathom as the Big Bang itself. Physicists calculate that inflation lasted for just a tiny fraction of a second, yet during this time the Universe grew in size by a factor of 1078. Also during this […]
Scouting the spectrum for interstellar travellers
March 25, 2012
Juan Carlos Garcia-Escartin, Pedro Chamorro-Posada Advanced civilizations capable of interstellar travel, if they exist, are likely to have advanced propulsion methods. Spaceships moving at high speeds would leave a particular signature which could be detected from Earth. We propose a search based on the properties of light reflecting from objects travelling at relativistic speeds. Based […]
The transit of Venus across the Sun
March 25, 2012
It’s a twice in a lifetime moment On 6 June, an event that takes place only four times every two centuries will enthral the world’s astronomers, as it has ever since the 1600s – but now it can provide priceless data in the hunt for habitable planets in deep space By Robin McKie A tiny […]
Black holes and the LHC: A review
March 24, 2012
Seong Chan Park In low-scale gravity models, a particle collider with trans-Planckian collision energies can be an ideal place for producing black holes because a large amount of energy can be concentrated at the collision point, which can ultimately lead to black hole formation. In this article, the theoretical foundation for microscopic higher dimensional black […]
Solar Storm Dumps Gigawatts into Earth’s Upper Atmosphere
March 24, 2012
http://youtu.be/t2Biv2YAE6Y Earth’s atmosphere lights up at infrared wavelengths during the solar storms of March 8-10, 2012. This ScienceCast video explains the physics of this phenomenon. A recent flurry of eruptions on the sun did more than spark pretty auroras around the poles. NASA-funded researchers say the solar storms of March 8th through 10th dumped enough […]
Cygnus Loop Nebula
March 23, 2012
Wispy tendrils of hot dust and gas glow brightly in this ultraviolet image of the Cygnus Loop nebula, taken by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The nebula lies about 1,500 light-years away, and is a supernova remnant, left over from a massive stellar explosion that occurred between 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. The Cygnus Loop extends […]
Red Wine, Tartaric Acid And The Secret Of Superconductivity
March 22, 2012
Last year, physicists discovered that red wine can turn certain materials into superconductors. Now they’ve found that Beaujolais works best and think they know why Last year, a group of Japanese physicists grabbed headlines around the world by announcing that they could induce superconductivity in a sample of iron telluride by soaking it in red […]
O/OREOS Nanosatellite Success in Orbit
March 22, 2012
Living Organisms (SESLO) experiment, executed by one of the two 10 cm cube-format payloads aboard the 5.5 kg Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses (O/OREOS) free-flying nanosatellite. The O/OREOS spacecraft was launched successfully to a 72° inclination, 650 km Earth orbit on 19 November 2010. This satellite provides access to the radiation environment of space in relatively weak regions […]
Endre Szemerédi: Abel Prize 2012
March 22, 2012
Pattern master wins million-dollar mathematics prize Imagine I present you with a line of cards labelled 1 through to n, where n is some incredibly large number. I ask you to remove a certain number of cards – which ones you choose is up to you, inevitably leaving ugly random gaps in my carefully ordered sequence. It might […]
Cosmology when living near the Great Attractor
March 22, 2012
Wessel Valkenburg, Ole Eggers Bjaelde If we live in the vicinity of the hypothesized Great Attractor, the age of the universe as inferred from the local expansion rate can be off by three per cent. We study the effect that living inside or near a massive overdensity has on cosmological parameters induced from observations of […]
Stunning photos of the Titanic …
March 21, 2012
… shown on the base of the ocean nearly 100 years from that fateful night The sinking of the Titanic is one of the 20th century’s great dramas, a mystery that has confounded scientists and historians for years. There is still an aura of mysticism that remains around that fateful ship and new photos that […]
Dr. Wernher von Braun
March 21, 2012
100 Years of Possibility: Celebrating the Centennial Birthday of Dr. Wernher von Braun “I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution.” – Wernher von Braun March 23 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Wernher von Braun, a father of modern rocketry, an early champion of human space exploration […]
Discovery of an exotic galaxy, Speca
March 21, 2012
Speca – An Intriguing Look Into The Beginning Of A Black Hole Jet Its catalog number is NGC 3801, but its name is SPECA – a Spiral-host Episodic radio galaxy tracing Cluster Accretion. That’s certainly a mouthful of words for this unusual galaxy, but there’s a lot more going on here than just its name. […]
How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific Discoveries
March 21, 2012
Adam Savage walks through two spectacular examples of profound scientific discoveries that came from simple, creative methods anyone could have followed — Eratosthenes’ calculation of the Earth’s circumference around 200 BC and Hippolyte Fizeau’s measurement of the speed of light in 1849. (Launching a series on Inventions that Shaped History) “How Simple Ideas Lead to […]
Sunspots and Solar Flares
March 20, 2012
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of an M7.9 class flare on March 13, 2012 at 1:29 p.m. EDT. It is shown here in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength particularly good for seeing solar flares and a wavelength that is typically colorized in teal. The flare peaked at 1:41 p.m. EDT. It […]
Α remarkable rectangular-looking galaxy
March 20, 2012
Astronomers discover ‘emerald-cut’ galaxy An international team of astronomers has discovered a rare square galaxy with a striking resemblance to an emerald cut diamond. The astronomers – from Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Finland – discovered the rectangular shaped galaxy within a group of 250 galaxies some 70 million light years away. “In the Universe around […]
Cosmic rays alter chemistry of lunar ice
March 19, 2012
Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire and multi-institutional colleagues report they have quantified levels of radiation on the moon’s surface from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) bombardment that over time causes chemical changes in water ice and can create complex carbon chains similar to those that help form the foundations of biological structures. In […]
A Surprising New Kind of Proton Transfer
March 19, 2012
Berkeley Lab scientists and their colleagues have discovered an unsuspected way that protons can move among molecules – revealing new opportunities for research in biology, environmental science, and green chemistry When a proton – the bare nucleus of a hydrogen atom – transfers from one molecule to another, or moves within a molecule, the result […]
Looking at quantum gravity in a mirror
March 18, 2012
Einstein’s theory of gravity and quantum physics are expected to merge at the Planck-scale of extremely high energies and on very short distances. At this scale, new phenomena could arise. However, the Planck-scale is so remote from current experimental capabilities that tests of quantum gravity are widely believed to be nearly impossible. Now an international […]
Network Cosmology
March 17, 2012
Dmitri Krioukov, Maksim Kitsak, Robert S. Sinkovits, David Rideout, David Meyer, Marian Boguna Causal sets are an approach to quantum gravity in which the causal structure of spacetime plays a fundamental role. The causal set is a quantum network which underlies the fabric of spacetime. The nodes in this network are tiny quanta of spacetime, […]
A Determination of the Fine Structure Constant …
March 17, 2012
… using Precision Measurements of Helium Fine Structure Marc Smiciklas Spectroscopic measurements of the helium atom are performed to high precision using an atomic beam apparatus and electro-optic laser techniques. These measurements, in addition to serving as a test of helium theory, also provide a new determination of the fine structure constant α. An apparatus […]
“The Pale Green Dot” -The Coldest Star in the Universe
March 17, 2012
Same Temperature as the Human Body NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has uncovered the coldest brown dwarf known so far (green dot in very center of this infrared image). Called WISE 1828+2650, located in the constellation Lyra, this chilly star-like body isn’t even as warm as a human body, at less than about […]
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
March 17, 2012
Image of Ireland from Aqua satellite It is easy to see from this true-color image why Ireland is called the Emerald Isle. Intense green vegetation, primarily grassland, covers most of the country except for the exposed rock on mountaintops. Ireland owes its greenness to moderate temperatures and moist air. The Atlantic Ocean, particularly the warm […]
Video from cameras mounted on the Shuttle solid rockets
March 15, 2012
From the upcoming Special Edition Ascent: Commemorating Space Shuttle DVD/BluRay a movie from the point of view of the Solid Rocket Booster with sound mixing and enhancement done by the folks at Skywalker Sound. http://youtu.be/2aCOyOvOw5c
The Enigmas of Supernova 1987A
March 15, 2012
Supernova 1987A exploded on February 23, 1987 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Because of its relative proximity to us (a mere 168,000 light years) SN 1987A is by far the best-studied supernova of all time. Immediately after the discovery was announced, literally every telescope in the southern hemisphere started observing this exciting new object. The […]
Quasars Acting as Gravitational Lenses
March 15, 2012
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found several examples of galaxies containing quasars, which act as gravitational lenses, amplifying and distorting images of galaxies aligned behind them. Quasars are among the brightest objects in the universe, far outshining the total starlight of their host galaxies. Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes. To find […]
New WISE mission catalog of entire infrared sky released
March 15, 2012
PASADENA — NASA unveiled a new atlas and catalog of the entire infrared sky today showing more than a half billion stars, galaxies and other objects captured by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. “Today, WISE delivers the fruit of 14 years of effort to the astronomical community,” said Edward Wright, WISE principal investigator […]
Scientists send encoded message through rock via neutrino beam
March 14, 2012
Humankind is constantly inventing new ways to stay in touch. But in some situations it’s difficult to keep the lines of communication open. A space shuttle’s radio falls silent when the craft slips behind a neighboring planet. A submarine loses contact when deep water blocks signals from the surface. Scientists recently proved possible a new […]
The Feeding Habits of Teenage Galaxies
March 14, 2012
New observations made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope are making a major contribution to understanding the growth of adolescent galaxies. In the biggest survey of its kind astronomers have found that galaxies changed their eating habits during their teenage years – the period from about 3 to 5 billion years after the Big Bang. At […]
Video: Rattling Jet Stream on Jupiter
March 13, 2012
New movies of Jupiter are the first to catch an invisible wave shaking up one of the giant planet’s jet streams, an interaction that also takes place in Earth’s atmosphere and influences the weather. http://youtu.be/YHAPD4ACf7U
Venus and Jupiter: how to spot them
March 13, 2012
Read also: EARTHLINGS DAZZLED BY VENUS-JUPITER CLOSE ENCOUNTER The two planets will appear side-by-side in western skies for the next two evenings – offering a dazzling spectacle. So where and how can you best see them? After the moon, they are the two brightest objects in the night sky, and for the next few evenings they […]
The origins of a torus in a galactic nucleus
March 13, 2012
Quasars are among the most energetic objects in the universe, with some of them as luminous as ten thousand Milky Way galaxies. Quasars are thought to have massive black holes at their cores, and astronomers also think that the regions around the black holes actively accrete matter, a process that releases vast amounts of energy […]
Albert Einstein: Why Light is Quantum
March 13, 2012
Ever wonder what Einstein really did? He showed that light was a particle! http://youtu.be/hSgIDgGpRpk
Cassini Captures New Images of Icy Moon
March 12, 2012
These raw, unprocessed images of Saturn’s second largest moon, Rhea, were taken on March 10, 2012, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This was a relatively distant flyby with a close-approach distance of 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers), well suited for global geologic mapping. During the flyby, Cassini captured these distinctive views of the moon’s cratered surface, creating […]
Intergalactic subway: All aboard the wormhole express
March 12, 2012
Video: What it would look like to travel through a wormhole IT IS not every day that a piece of science fiction takes a step closer to nuts-and-bolts reality. But that is what seems to be happening to wormholes. Enter one of these tunnels through space-time, and a few short steps later you may emerge near […]
2011 Japan Tsunami Wave Height…
March 12, 2012
….the First 22 Hours Scientists have known for years that the shape of the seafloor plays a role in how tsunami waves build up as they approach the coastline. Underwater topography also determines why some areas get hit worse than others. This animation shows the first 22 hours (120 second time resolution) of the wave’s […]
Kepler Catalog Adds More Planet Candidates
March 11, 2012
Since science operations began in May 2009, the Kepler team has released two catalogs of transiting planet candidates. The first catalog (Borucki et al, 2010), released in June 2010, contains 312 candidates identified in the first 43 days of Kepler data. The second catalog (Borucki et al, 2011), released in February 2011, is a cumulative catalog containing 1,235 candidates […]
Search for microscopic black holes in pp collisions …
March 10, 2012
… at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV CMS Collaboration A search for microscopic black holes in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. Events with large total transverse energy have […]
The Aroma of Stops and Gluinos …
March 10, 2012
… at the \sqrt{s} = 7 TeV LHC Tianjun Li, James A. Maxin, Dimitri V. Nanopoulos, Joel W. Walker In Profumo di SUSY, we presented evidence that CMS&ATLAS may have already registered a handful of deftly camouflaged supersymmetry events at the LHC in the multijet channels. Here, we explore the prospect for corroboration of this […]
March 31, 2012
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