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Categories: Energy: Batteries, Space: Astrophysics
Published How was the solar system formed? The Ryugu asteroid is helping us learn



Our solar system is estimated to be about 4.57 billion years old. Previous analyses of ancient meteorites have shown that minerals were created through chemical reactions with water as far back as 4.5 billion years ago. New findings from the Ryugu asteroid samples indicate that carbonates were forming from water-rock reactions several million years earlier, even closer to the solar system's beginnings.
Published The mechanism of cosmic magnetic fields explored in the laboratory


Recent research shows that magnetic fields can spontaneously emerge in a plasma if the plasma has a temperature anisotropy. This mechanism is known as the Weibel instability. This new research is the first to unambiguously observe the Weibel instability in the laboratory. It offers a possible solution to the problem of the origin of the microgauss-level magnetic fields that permeate the galaxies.
Published A star's unexpected survival


Hundreds of millions of light-years away in a distant galaxy, a star orbiting a supermassive black hole is being violently ripped apart under the black hole's immense gravitational pull. As the star is shredded, its remnants are transformed into a stream of debris that rains back down onto the black hole to form a very hot, very bright disk of material swirling around the black hole, called an accretion disc. This phenomenon -- where a star is destroyed by a supermassive black hole and fuels a luminous accretion flare -- is known as a tidal disruption event (TDE), and it is predicted that TDEs occur roughly once every 10,000 to 100,000 years in a given galaxy.
Published Researchers create smaller, cheaper flow batteries for clean energy


Flow batteries offer a solution. Electrolytes flow through electrochemical cells from storage tanks in this rechargeable battery. The existing flow battery technologies cost more than $200/kilowatt hour and are too expensive for practical application, but engineers have now developed a more compact flow battery cell configuration that reduces the size of the cell by 75%, and correspondingly reduces the size and cost of the entire flow battery. The work could revolutionize how everything from major commercial buildings to residential homes are powered.
Published The world in grains of interstellar dust


Understanding how dust grains form in interstellar gas could offer significant insights to astronomers and help materials scientists develop useful nanoparticles.
Published Researchers measure size-luminosity relation of galaxies less than a billion years after Big Bang


A team has studied the relation between galaxy size and luminosity of some of the earliest galaxies in the universe taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, less than a billion years after the Big Bang.
Published Hubble finds hungry black hole twisting captured star into donut shape


Black holes are gatherers, not hunters. They lie in wait until a hapless star wanders by. When the star gets close enough, the black hole's gravitational grasp violently rips it apart and sloppily devours its gasses while belching out intense radiation. Astronomers have recorded a star's final moments in detail as it gets gobbled up by a black hole.
Published How do rocky planets really form?


A new theory could explain the origin and properties of systems of rocky super-Earths and their relationship with the terrestrial planets of the solar system.
Published How did the Butterfly Nebula get its wings? It's complicated


Something is amiss in the Butterfly Nebula. When astronomers compared two exposures of this planetary nebula that had been taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009 and 2020, they saw dramatic changes in the material within its 'wings.' Powerful winds are apparently driving complex alterations of material within the Butterfly Nebula, behavior not seen in planetary nebulae to date. The researchers want to understand how such activity is possible from what should be a 'sputtering, largely moribund star with no remaining fuel.'
Published Novel design helps develop powerful microbatteries


Translating electrochemical performance of large format batteries to microscale power sources has been a long-standing technological challenge, limiting the ability of batteries to power microdevices, microrobots and implantable medical devices. Researchers have created a high-voltage microbattery (> 9 V), with high-energy and -power density, unparalleled by any existing battery design.
Published New battery could prevent post-hurricane electric vehicle fires


A researcher has developed technology that could prevent electric vehicle fires, like those caused by saltwater flooding from Hurricane Ian. The technology, an aqueous battery, replaces the volatile and highly flammable organic solvents found in electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries with saltwater to create a battery that is safer, faster charging, just as powerful and won't short circuit during flooding.
Published Lithium-sulfur batteries are one step closer to powering the future


A research team has built and tested a new interlayer to prevent dissolution of the sulfur cathode in lithium-sulfur batteries. This new interlayer increases Li-S cell capacity and maintains it over hundreds of cycles.
Published Efficient sodium-ion battery anode for energy storage


Lithium is expensive and limited, necessitating the development of efficient energy storage systems beyond lithium-ion batteries. Sodium is a promising candidate. However, sodium ions, being large and sluggish, hamper sodium-ion battery (SIB) anode performance. Researchers have recently developed pyrolyzed quinacridones, new carbonaceous SIB anode materials, that are efficient, easily prepared, and exhibit excellent electrochemical properties, including high sodium-ion storage performance and cycling stability.
Published Development of next-generation solid electrolyte technology, 'stable' even when exposed to the atmosphere


Engineers have announced the development of solid electrolytes with enhanced atmospheric stability.
Published Designing better battery electrolytes


Scientists give the lay of the land in the quest for electrolytes that could enable revolutionary battery chemistries.
Published Ingestible biobatteries could allow new view of digestive system


A new biobattery could power ingestible cameras in the small intestine.
Published New life flashed into lithium-ion anodes


Chemists use flash Joule heating to recover graphite anodes from spent lithium-ion batteries at a cost of about $118 per ton.
Published Flameproofing lithium-ion batteries with salt


A polymer-based electrolyte makes for batteries that keep working -- and don't catch fire -- when heated to over 140 degrees F.
Published New battery technology has potential to significantly reduce energy storage costs


Researchers are hoping that a new, low-cost battery which holds four times the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries and is far cheaper to produce will significantly reduce the cost of transitioning to a decarbonized economy.
Published X-rays reveal elusive chemistry for better EV batteries


Scientists used high energy x-rays to investigate the solid-electrolyte interphase, a chemical layer in batteries that's key to stabilizing lithium metal anodes. Chemists unraveled this complex chemical mechanisms that is crucial for boosting energy density.