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) —When a massive star exhausts its fuel, it collapses under its own gravity and produces a black hole, an object so dense that not even light can escape its gravitational grip. According to a new analysis by an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), just before the black hole forms, the dying star may generate a distinct burst of light that will allow astronomers to witness the birth of a new black hole for the first time. http://phys.org/news286821344.html Space & Earth Fri, 03 May 2013 17:35:56 EST news286821344 (Phys.org) —Three unusually long-lasting stellar explosions discovered by NASA's Swift satellite represent a previously unrecognized class of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Two international teams of astronomers studying these events conclude that they likely arose from the catastrophic death of supergiant stars hundreds of times larger than the sun. http://phys.org/news285348485.html Space & Earth Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:28:18 EST news285348485 (Phys.org)—A nearby short duration gamma-ray burst may be the cause of an intense blast of high-energy radiation that hit the Earth in the 8th century, according to new research led by astronomers Valeri Hambaryan and Ralph Neuhӓuser. The two scientists, based at the Astrophysics Institute of the University of Jena in Germany, publish their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://phys.org/news277966075.html Space & Earth Mon, 21 Jan 2013 04:48:08 EST news277966075 Spacetime may be less like foamy quantum beer and more like smooth Einsteinian whiskey, according to research led by physicist Robert Nemiroff of Michigan Technological University being presented today at the 221st American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, Calif. http://phys.org/news276985447.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:25:53 EST news276985447 (Phys.org)—Until recently, the years 774 and 775 were best known for Charlemagne's victory over the Lombards. But earlier this year, a team of scientists in Japan discovered a baffling spike in carbon-14 deposits within the rings of cedar trees that matched those same years. Because cosmic rays are tied to carbon-14 concentrations, scientists around the world have wondered about the cause: a nearby supernova, a gamma ray burst in the Milky Way or an intense superflare emanating from the Sun? http://phys.org/news273485251.html Space & Earth Fri, 30 Nov 2012 08:20:01 EST news273485251 Scientists from the University of New Hampshire and the Michigan Aerospace Corporation have signed an exclusive option agreement to commercialize instrumentation originally developed at UNH's Space Science Center for space-based missions and now being re-engineered for homeland security purposes. http://phys.org/news261059203.html Technology Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:27:00 EST news261059203 (Phys.org) -- A telescope buried beneath the South Pole has failed to find any neutrinos accompanying exploding fireballs in space, undermining a leading theory of how cosmic rays are born. http://phys.org/news254110750.html Space & Earth Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:19:20 EST news254110750 The IceCube neutrino telescope encompasses a cubic kilometer of clear Antarctic ice under the South Pole, a volume seeded with an array of 5,160 sensitive digital optical modules (DOMs) that precisely track the direction and energy of speeding muons, massive cousins of the electron, which are created when neutrinos collide with atoms in the ice. The IceCube Collaboration recently announced the results of an exhaustive search for high-energy neutrinos that would likely be produced if the violent extragalactic explosions known as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the source of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. http://phys.org/news253971652.html Physics Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:00:10 EST news253971652 (PhysOrg.com) -- Detectable for only a few seconds but possessing enormous energy, gamma-ray bursts are difficult to capture because their energy does not penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. Now, thanks to an orbiting telescope, astrophysicists are filling in the unknowns surrounding these bursts and uncovering new questions. http://phys.org/news248863705.html Space & Earth Sun, 19 Feb 2012 08:48:39 EST news248863705 Space is a violent place. If a star explodes or black holes collide anywhere in our part of the Milky Way, they'd give off colossal blasts of lethal gamma-rays, X-rays and cosmic rays and it's perfectly reasonable to expect Earth to be bathed in them. A new study of such events has yielded some new information about the potential effects of what are called "short-hard" interstellar radiation events. http://phys.org/news237199087.html Space & Earth Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:38:22 EST news237199087 (PhysOrg.com) -- Every three hours, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope scans the entire sky and deepens its portrait of the high-energy universe. Every year, the satellite's scientists reanalyze all of the data it has collected, exploiting updated analysis methods to tease out new sources. These relatively steady sources are in addition to the numerous transient events Fermi detects, such as gamma-ray bursts in the distant universe and flares from the sun. http://phys.org/news234806168.html Space & Earth Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:57:41 EST news234806168 A bright flash of gamma rays observed March 28 by the Swift satellite may have been the death rattle of a star falling into a massive black hole and being ripped apart, according to a team of astronomers led by the University of California, Berkeley. http://phys.org/news227449741.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:00:51 EST news227449741 Two scientists who are probing the brightest flashes in the universe were Tuesday named among the winners of the Shaw Prize, the $1 million award known as the Nobel Prize of the east. http://phys.org/news226667599.html Other Sciences Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:30:02 EST news226667599 (PhysOrg.com) -- A gamma-ray burst detected by NASA's Swift satellite in April 2009 has been newly unveiled as a candidate for the most distant object in the universe. At an estimated distance of 13.14 billion light years, the burst lies far beyond any known quasar and could be more distant than any previously known galaxy or gamma-ray burst. Multiple lines of evidence in favor of a record-breaking distance for this burst, known as GRB 090429B for the 29 April 2009 date when it was discovered, are presented in a paper by an international team of astronomers led by former Penn State University graduate student Antonino Cucchiara, now at the University of California, Berkeley. The paper has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. http://phys.org/news225446799.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 May 2011 14:00:03 EST news225446799 Most gamma-ray bursts come in two flavors. Firstly, there are long duration bursts which form in dense star-forming regions and are associated with supernovae – which would understandably generate a sustained outburst of energy. The technical definition of a long duration gamma-ray burst is one that is more than two seconds in duration – but bursts lasting over a minute are not unusual. http://phys.org/news225367086.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 May 2011 11:10:05 EST news225367086 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicist Nathan Whitehorn and a team of researchers with the IceCube collaboration have failed to come up with evidence to prove that neutrinos come from, or are caused by, gamma ray bursts, (cosmic explosions) after a year of study. http://phys.org/news222084262.html Physics Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:40:01 EST news222084262 (PhysOrg.com) -- These explosions have been puzzling scientists for years: those brief flashes of gamma light can in fact release more energy in a fraction of a second than what our entire galaxy releases in one year – even with its 200 billion stars. What causes those explosions? http://phys.org/news221457830.html Space & Earth Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:13:09 EST news221457830 A new supercomputer simulation shows the collision of two neutron stars can naturally produce the magnetic structures thought to power the high-speed particle jets associated with short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The study provides the most detailed glimpse of the forces driving some of the universe's most energetic explosions. http://phys.org/news221399850.html Space & Earth Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:57:55 EST news221399850 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Swift, Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory have teamed up to study one of the most puzzling cosmic blasts yet observed. More than a week later, high-energy radiation continues to brighten and fade from its location. http://phys.org/news221393717.html Space & Earth Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:15:44 EST news221393717 Gamma ray bursts, which are the most powerful bursts of radiation in the universe, have now been observed in direct connection with an exploding giant star - a supernova. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen are among those who have studied the rare event. The results have been published in the scientific journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://phys.org/news218973580.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:00:08 EST news218973580 (PhysOrg.com) -- Gamma-ray bursts are among the most energetic events in the Universe, but some appear curiously faint in visible light. The biggest study to date of these so-called dark gamma-ray bursts, using the GROND instrument on the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla in Chile, has found that these gigantic explosions don’t require exotic explanations. Their faintness is now fully explained by a combination of causes, the most important of which is the presence of dust between the Earth and the explosion. http://phys.org/news211704075.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Dec 2010 06:41:33 EST news211704075 A blast of the brightest X-rays ever detected from beyond our Milky Way galaxy's neighborhood temporarily blinded the X-ray eye on NASA's Swift space observatory earlier this summer, astronomers now report. The X-rays traveled through space for 5-billion years before slamming into and overwhelming Swift's X-ray Telescope on 21 June. The blindingly bright blast came from a gamma-ray burst, a violent eruption of energy from the explosion of a massive star morphing into a new black hole. http://phys.org/news198327539.html Space & Earth Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:59:28 EST news198327539 In its first five years in orbit, NASA's Swift satellite has given astronomers more than they could have hoped for. Its discoveries range from a nearby nascent supernova to a blast so far away that it happened when our universe was only 5 percent of its present age. http://phys.org/news190916660.html Space & Earth Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:24:49 EST news190916660 (PhysOrg.com) -- Whenever you look up at the stars you are looking back in time, as light from even our closest neighbour, Alpha Centauri, started its journey to Earth more than four years ago. It is a phenomenon that astrophysicists Professor Malcolm Bremer and Dr Ben Maughan from the Department of Physics grapple with daily in their research into deepest space. http://phys.org/news188666182.html Space & Earth Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:16:45 EST news188666182 Instruments scanning outer space for cataclysmic explosions called gamma-ray bursts are detecting intense flashes of gamma-ray energy right here in the friendly skies of Earth. These terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs, blast through thunderstorms close to the altitude where commercial airliners fly. In fact, they could be too close for comfort. http://phys.org/news185127233.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:50:01 EST news185127233 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers studying two exploding stars, or supernovae, have found evidence the blasts received an extra boost from newborn black holes. The supernovae were found to emit jets of particles traveling at more than half the speed of light. http://phys.org/news183836389.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:50:04 EST news183836389 (PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, astronomers have found a supernova explosion with properties similiar to a gamma-ray burst, but without seeing any gamma rays from it. The discovery, using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, promises, the scientists say, to point the way toward locating many more examples of these mysterious explosions. http://phys.org/news183817492.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:00:18 EST news183817492 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at Queen Mary, University of London have begun looking deep into the Earth to study some of nature's weirdest particles; neutrinos. http://phys.org/news180036183.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:50:02 EST news180036183 (PhysOrg.com) -- A specialized camera on a telescope operated by U.K. astronomers from Liverpool has made the first measurement of magnetic fields in the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst (GRB). The result is reported in the Dec.10 issue of Nature magazine by the team of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) astronomers who built and operate the telescope and its unique scientific camera, named RINGO. http://phys.org/news179593825.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:11:24 EST news179593825 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have published the discovery of the farthest known object in the cosmos: a star that exploded when the universe was only 630 million years old -- only 4.6% of its current age. Light from this cataclysm had been traveling towards us for about 13 billion years, finally arriving here last April 23. http://phys.org/news176733128.html Space & Earth Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:50:01 EST news176733128