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Categories: Offbeat: Computers and Math, Space: General
Published Do your homework to prep for the 2023 and 2024 eclipses
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source This year and next, Americans will have the extraordinary opportunity to witness two solar eclipses as both will be visible throughout the continental U.S. Both occurrences promise to be remarkable events and teachable moments but preparation is essential. Astronomers provide a practical playbook to help teachers, students, and the general public prepare for the eclipse events.
Published Astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have observed a star swallowing a planet for the first time. Earth will meet a similar fate in 5 billion years.
Published Astronomers find distant gas clouds with leftovers of the first stars
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), researchers have found for the first time the fingerprints left by the explosion of the first stars in the Universe. They detected three distant gas clouds whose chemical composition matches what we expect from the first stellar explosions. These findings bring us one step closer to understanding the nature of the first stars that formed after the Big Bang.
Published A touch-responsive fabric armband -- for flexible keyboards, wearable sketchpads
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source It's time to roll up your sleeves for the next advance in wearable technology -- a fabric armband that's actually a touch pad. Researchers say they have devised a way to make playing video games, sketching cartoons and signing documents easier. Their proof-of-concept silk armband turns a person's forearm into a keyboard or sketchpad. The three-layer, touch-responsive material interprets what a user draws or types and converts it into images on a computer.
Published What would the Earth look like to an alien civilization located light years away?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source What would the Earth look like to an alien civilization located light years away? A team of researchers has used crowd-sourced data to simulate radio leakage from mobile towers and predict what an alien civilization might detect from various nearby stars, including Barnard's star, six light years away from Earth.
Published Self-folding origami machines powered by chemical reaction
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have harnessed chemical reactions to make microscale origami machines self-fold -- freeing them from the liquids in which they usually function, so they can operate in dry environments and at room temperature.
Published A stormy, active sun may have kickstarted life on Earth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The first building blocks of life on Earth may have formed thanks to eruptions from our Sun, a new study finds. A series of chemical experiments show how solar particles, colliding with gases in Earth's early atmosphere, can form amino acids and carboxylic acids, the basic building blocks of proteins and organic life.
Published Quantum entanglement of photons doubles microscope resolution
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using a "spooky" phenomenon of quantum physics, researchers have discovered a way to double the resolution of light microscopes.
Published Sensor enables high-fidelity input from everyday objects, human body
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Couches, tables, sleeves and more can turn into a high-fidelity input device for computers using a new sensing system.
Published Webb finds water vapor, but from a rocky planet or its star?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study a rocky exoplanet known as GJ 486 b. It is too close to its star to be within the habitable zone, with a surface temperature of about 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius). And yet, their observations show hints of water vapor.
Published Astronomers detect 'nearby' black hole devouring a star
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have discovered a new 'tidal disruption event,' in which the center of a galaxy lights up as its supermassive black hole rips apart a passing star. The outburst is the closest tidal disruption event observed to date, and one of the first to be identified at infrared wavelengths.
Published Superflare with massive, high-velocity prominence eruption
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of Japanese astronomers used simultaneous ground-based and space-based observations to capture a more complete picture of a superflare on a star. The observed flare started with a very massive, high-velocity prominence eruption. These results give us a better idea of how superflares and stellar prominence eruptions occur.
Published Speedy robo-gripper reflexively organizes cluttered spaces
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new gripper robot grasps by reflex. Rather than start from scratch after a failed attempt, the bot adapts in the moment to reflexively roll, palm, or pinch an object to get a better hold.
Published Most massive touching stars ever found will eventually collide as black holes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study looked at a known binary star (two stars orbiting around a mutual center of gravity), analyzing starlight obtained from a range of ground- and space-based telescopes. The researchers found that the stars, located in a neighboring dwarf galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud, are in partial contact and swapping material with each other, with one star currently 'feeding' off the other. They orbit each other every three days and are the most massive touching stars (known as contact binaries) yet observed.
Published Casting a safety net: A reliable machine learning approach for analyzing coalescing black holes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An interdisciplinary team has developed an algorithm that immediately checks its own calculations of merging black holes' properties and corrects its result if necessary -- inexpensively and rapidly. The machine learning method provides very accurate information about the observed gravitational waves and will be ready for use when the global network of gravitational-wave detectors starts its next observing run in May.
Published Direct image of a black hole expelling a powerful jet
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have observed, in one image, the shadow of the black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87 (M87) and the powerful jet expelled from it. Thanks to this new image, astronomers can better understand how black holes can launch such energetic jets.
Published New findings indicate gene-edited rice might survive in Martian soil
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research suggests future Martian botanists may be able to grow gene-edited rice on Mars.
Published Tunneling electrons
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source By superimposing two laser fields of different strengths and frequency, the electron emission of metals can be measured and controlled precisely to a few attoseconds. Physicists have shown that this is the case. The findings could lead to new quantum-mechanical insights and enable electronic circuits that are a million times faster than today.
Published Astronomers solve the 60-year mystery of quasars -- the most powerful objects in the Universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have unlocked one of the biggest mysteries of quasars -- the brightest, most powerful objects in the Universe -- by discovering that they are ignited by galaxies colliding.
Published Medium-sized black holes eat stars like messy toddlers
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In new 3D computer simulations, astrophysicists modeled black holes of varying masses and then hurled stars (about the size of our sun) past them to see what might happen. If they exist, intermediate-mass black holes likely devour wayward stars like a messy toddler -- taking a few bites and then flinging the remains across the galaxy.