http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (Phys.org) —Astronomers at the Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research (SOAR) and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) have demonstrated the significant difference that sharp stellar images can make in our understanding of the properties of stars. They have observed the globular cluster NGC 6496 using a new instrument dubbed SAM, for SOAR Adaptive Module, which creates an artificial laser guide star. SAM, built by CTIO/NOAO-S, is mounted on the SOAR 4.1 meter telescope. http://phys.org/news286624726.html Space & Earth Wed, 01 May 2013 10:58:52 EST news286624726 (Phys.org) —With data collected from the mighty W. M. Keck Observatory, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) astronomer Mike Brown—known as the Pluto killer for discovering a Kuiper-belt object that led to the demotion of Pluto from planetary status—and Kevin Hand from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have found the strongest evidence yet that salty water from the vast liquid ocean beneath Europa's frozen exterior actually makes its way to the surface. http://phys.org/news281688687.html Space & Earth Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:51:39 EST news281688687 (Phys.org)—Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have obtained what is likely the first direct observation of a forming planet still embedded in a thick disc of gas and dust. If confirmed, this discovery will greatly improve our understanding of how planets form and allow astronomers to test the current theories against an observable target. http://phys.org/news281271964.html Space & Earth Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:06:14 EST news281271964 (Phys.org)—An international team of astronomers led by Satoshi Mayama (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan) and Ruobing Dong (Princeton University) has made observations with the Subaru Telescope and captured the first vivid infrared image of a curved arm of dust extending over a hole on a disk around a young star—2MASS J16042165-2130284 (J 1604). This feature indicates the probable existence of unseen planets within the hole. The image shows the dynamic environment in which planets may be born and gives information about constraints on the distance at which planets can form from a central star. http://phys.org/news279532082.html Space & Earth Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:10:02 EST news279532082 Astronomers have used the Subaru Telescope to show that the HAT-P-7 planetary system, which is about 1040 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus, includes at least two giant planets and one companion star (Figure 1). The discovery of a previously unknown companion (HAT-P-7B) to the central star (HAT-P-7) as well as confirmation of another giant planet (HAT-P-7c) orbiting outside of the retrograde planet HAT-P-7b offer new insights into how retrograde planets may form and endure. http://phys.org/news278318517.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:42:05 EST news278318517 A new image released today reveals how Gemini Observatory's most advanced adaptive optics (AO) system will help astronomers study the universe with an unprecedented level of clarity and detail by removing distortions due to the Earth's atmosphere. The photo, featuring an area on the outskirts of the famous Orion Nebula, illustrates the instrument's significant advancements over previous-generation AO systems. http://phys.org/news276969516.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:30:01 EST news276969516 (Phys.org)—An international team of researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and the Japanese universities of Kobe, Hyogo, and Saitama used the Subaru Telescope to capture a clear image of the protoplanetary disk of the star UX Tauri A. The team's subsequent, detailed study of the disk's characteristics suggests that its dust particles are large in size and non-spherical in shape. This exciting result shows that these dust grains are colliding with and adhering to each other, a process that will lead to their eventual formation into planets. http://phys.org/news273315818.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:03:47 EST news273315818 A large international team of astronomers led by Jun Hashimoto (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) and Ruobing Dong (Princeton University) has used the High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics (HiCIAO) to observe and examine PDS 70, a young star about 10 million years old with a mass similar to that of the Sun. Images captured from the observations clearly show a giant gap inside the protoplanetary disk, the largest ever found among lower mass stars similar to the Sun. A protoplanetary disk is where planets form, and the gravitational force of newborn planets may account for the huge gap between the inner edge of the disk and the central star. No single planet, regardless of how heavy or efficient it is in its formation, is sufficient to create such a giant gap. The researchers think that the gap in PDS 70's protoplanetary disk may have resulted from the birth of multiple planets. The high contrast images from the observations allowed the researchers to study the details of the disk, which then enabled them to directly reveal the site of formation of one and possibly more planets. The research team is now attempting to detect those planets. http://phys.org/news271870054.html Space & Earth Sun, 11 Nov 2012 15:27:50 EST news271870054 (Phys.org) -- Technology that helps ground-based telescopes cut through the haze of Earth's atmosphere to get a clearer view of the heavens may also be used to collect better data at cutting-edge X-ray lasers like the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. http://phys.org/news261217063.html Physics Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:18:12 EST news261217063 A research team from the University of Tokyo/Kavli IPMU, Ehime University, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has succeeded in conducting the first, full-scale scientific observationswith an adaptive optics (AO) system at optical wavelengths. The team connected the Kyoto Tridimensional Spectrograph II with the Subaru Telescope's Adaptive Optics system and improved the spatial resolution of images by a factor of 2.5 over images taken without AO. Observations using Kyoto3DII coupled with AO 188 are likely to reveal the detailed structures and the formation processes of galaxies. http://phys.org/news257151397.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 May 2012 07:57:26 EST news257151397 Real-time, 3-D microscopic tissue imaging could be a revolution for medical fields such as cancer diagnosis, minimally invasive surgery and ophthalmology. University of Illinois researchers have developed a technique to computationally correct for aberrations in optical tomography, bringing the future of medical imaging into focus. http://phys.org/news254419085.html Physics Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:58:23 EST news254419085 As any other dutiful scientist, Dr. Weilin "Will" Hou, an oceanographer in the Oceanography Division at NRL Stennis Space Center (NRL-SSC), did his research. Earlier last summer, he decided the hottest tablet computer available on the market-the iPad-was the best option for an upcoming experiment. http://phys.org/news253178434.html Space & Earth Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:20:46 EST news253178434 Hydrogen molecules may act as a kind of energy sink that strengthens the magnetic grip that causes sunspots, according to scientists from Hawaii and New Mexico using a new infrared instrument on an old telescope. http://phys.org/news247227654.html Space & Earth Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:21:04 EST news247227654 (PhysOrg.com) -- The SEEDS (Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru Telescope/HiCIAO) project, a five-year international collaboration launched in 2009 and led by Motohide Tamura of NAOJ (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) has yielded another impressive image that contributes to our understanding of the link between disks and planet formation. http://phys.org/news244449890.html Space & Earth Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:45:08 EST news244449890 Even the most powerful high-tech telescopes are barely able to record remote low-mass and thus faint stars. Together with researchers from Poland and Chile, an astrophysicist from the University of Zurich has now detected a low-mass star in globular cluster M22 for the first time through microlensing. The result indicates that the overall mass of globular clusters might well be explained without enigmatic dark matter. http://phys.org/news243167958.html Space & Earth Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:39:28 EST news243167958 (PhysOrg.com) -- Ten years ago today, NACO became operational: the first adaptive optics system of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). Adaptive Optics allows astronomers to remove the stars' twinkling – disturbances due to the Earth's atmosphere –, allowing for extremely sharp images of celestial objects. NACO looks back on a decade of scientific results, including the first direct image of an exoplanet and insight into the surroundings of our home galaxy's central black hole. http://phys.org/news241448464.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:01:58 EST news241448464 Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are developing new microscope technologies to enable biologists to see deep within living tissues and observe critical processes involved in basic biology and disease. http://phys.org/news230958218.html Technology Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:05:13 EST news230958218 Until recently, astronomers were highly skeptical of whether or not planets should be possible in multiple star systems. It was expected that the constantly varying gravitational force would eventually tug the planet out of orbit. But despite doubts, astronomers have found several planets in just such star systems. Recently, astronomers announced another, this time in the trinary star HD 132563. http://phys.org/news229857362.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:10:20 EST news229857362 A team of researchers from four Japanese universities (Kobe, Saitama, Osaka, and Tokyo) has been able to delineate the intricate structure of the circumbinary disk that surrounds a young binary star system from the observation with the Subaru Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. By using different wavelengths to examine the system's internal structure, they succeeded in demonstrating a distinct color difference between its northern and southern portions. The researchers are now prepared to apply their approach of combining optical and near-infrared observations to other regions of binary formation. http://phys.org/news227871647.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:41:30 EST news227871647 Scientists today reported that the tiny light-sensing cells known as rods have been clearly and directly imaged in the living eye for the first time. Using adaptive optics (AO), the same technology astronomers use to study distant stars and galaxies, scientists can see through the murky distortion of the outer eye, revealing the eye's cellular structure with unprecedented detail. This innovation, described in two papers in the Optical Society's (OSA) open access journal Biomedical Optics Express, will help doctors diagnose degenerative eye disorders sooner, leading to quicker intervention and more effective treatments. http://phys.org/news226752461.html Physics Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:49:00 EST news226752461 There are a lot of things someone could do in nearly 900 hours. http://phys.org/news226575689.html Space & Earth Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:41:46 EST news226575689 Many types of main sequence stars emit in the X-ray portion of the spectra. In massive stars, strong stellar winds ripping through the extended atmosphere of the star create X-ray photons. On lower mass stars, magnetic fields twisting through the photosphere heat it sufficiently to produce X-rays. But between these two mechanisms, in the late B to mid A classes of stars, neither of these mechanisms should be sufficient to produce X-rays. Yet when X-ray telescopes examined these stars, many were found to produce X-rays just the same. http://phys.org/news220275281.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:35:07 EST news220275281 A corrective strategy used by astronomers to sharpen images of celestial bodies can now help scientists see with more depth and clarity into the living brain of a mouse. Eric Betzig, a group leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus, will present his team's latest work using adaptive optics for biology at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. during a press conference on Thursday, Feb., 17, and a panel discussion on Friday, Feb. 18. http://phys.org/news217174416.html Medicine & Health Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:13:49 EST news217174416 (PhysOrg.com) -- The ongoing turmoil inside Jupiter’s missing – and slowly re-emerging – South Equatorial Belt can now be seen in unprecedented detail thanks to the Keck II telescope’s Adaptive Optics system and the cooperation of the icy Jovian moon Europa. In this newly released Keck image, the gas giant is shown as it looks in thermal infrared (IR) light, at a wavelength of nearly 5 microns (shown in bright red and yellow), overlaid on a composite image of three shorter, near infrared bands (1.21, 1.58 and 1.65 microns). http://phys.org/news216555035.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:10:45 EST news216555035 Adaptive optics makes it possible to remove distortions caused by turbulence in the atmosphere when observing the sky. A major innovation in this field has been achieved by a Franco-British team, including astronomers from the Paris Observatory, CNRS and Universite Paris Diderot. This new technique has for the first time been tested and validated under real conditions using the CANARY prototype mounted on a telescope in La Palma (Spain). It enables scientists to observe very faint astronomical sources over a much wider field of view than was previously possible. In the future, this innovative system may be included in one of the instruments that will equip ESO's European Extremely Large Telescope in Chile. It will make it possible to study the early Universe and better understand its evolution. http://phys.org/news214488235.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:04:08 EST news214488235 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have discovered a fourth giant planet, joining three others that, in 2008, were the subject of the first-ever pictures of a planetary system orbiting another star other than our sun. http://phys.org/news211043255.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:08:09 EST news211043255 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Arizona astronomers have developed a way to see faint planets previously hidden in their star's glare. The new mode enables scientists to search for planets closer to the star than has been previously possible. http://phys.org/news206291895.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:19:08 EST news206291895 The European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft beamed back to Earth dramatic close-up images on July 10, 2010, as it flew past the 100-kilometer-sized asteroid (21) Lutetia on its way to a comet rendezvous in 2014. But even before Rosetta's encounter with Lutetia, an international team of astronomers, using three of the world's largest telescopes, were busy making its own assessment of the asteroid's shape and size, as well as searching for satellites. The pre-flyby images are being compared this week with those from Rosetta at a meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, Calif., revealing that the ground-based images are amazingly accurate. http://phys.org/news205662472.html Space & Earth Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:28:13 EST news205662472 NJIT Distinguished Professor Philip R. Goode and the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) team have achieved "first light" using a deformable mirror in what is called adaptive optics at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). http://phys.org/news201874445.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:30:06 EST news201874445 If you are like most people, you probably enjoy the twinkling of stars that blanket the sky on a clear summer night. If you are an astronomer, chances are you find it extremely annoying. http://phys.org/news200075149.html Physics Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:00:15 EST news200075149