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. Black holes are surrounded by many mysteries, but now researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, have come up with new groundbreaking theories that can explain several of their properties. The research shows that black holes have properties that resemble the dynamics of both solids and liquids. The results are published in the prestigious scientific journal, Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news274445722.html Space & Earth Tue, 11 Dec 2012 10:55:40 EST news274445722 2012 will go down in history as a landmark year, when physicists discovered a fundamental particle that may answer one of the greatest riddles of all. http://phys.org/news274319221.html Physics Mon, 10 Dec 2012 01:00:01 EST news274319221 (Phys.org)—French researchers Sébastien Charnoz and Aurélien Crida have proposed in a paper published in the journal Science that moons that orbit some of the planets in our solar system came about due to accretion from material in rings that used to surround the planets, rather than as entities that took shape while their host planets were forming. http://phys.org/news273491487.html Space & Earth Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:20:01 EST news273491487 (Phys.org)—Astrophysicist Konstantin Batygin has published a paper in the journal Nature arguing that the reason some planets lie in a tilt off the equatorial plane of their sun is because of the prior existence of another star that impacted their orbit. He suggests that systems that once hosted more than one star, but now do not, could also explain the existence of "Hot Jupiters" that have an orbit opposite of their host star. http://phys.org/news272181640.html Space & Earth Thu, 15 Nov 2012 06:20:03 EST news272181640 Apple, the world's biggest and perhaps most admired company, seems to have lost some of its luster. http://phys.org/news271748887.html Technology Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:48:19 EST news271748887 (Phys.org)—A team of scientists from six European countries reported today they have finalized a thirty years long investigation of a hypergiant star that crossed the Yellow Evolutionary Void. In that period the star's surface temperature quickly rose from five to eight thousand degrees. With this discovery a crucial 'missing link' in the evolution of hypergiant stars has been found.  http://phys.org/news271324284.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Nov 2012 07:53:25 EST news271324284 (Phys.org)—An international team of astrophysicists, including UQ's Dr Holger Baumgardt, has shed light on the long-standing mystery of the binding force behind a cluster of unruly and rapidly swirling stars located in the famous Sword of Orion. http://phys.org/news270970024.html Space & Earth Thu, 01 Nov 2012 06:27:37 EST news270970024 European researchers studied accumulation of stellar material onto stars and black holes to gain insight into the growth and evolution of galaxies. http://phys.org/news269162082.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:14:57 EST news269162082 UCLA astronomers report the discovery of a remarkable star that orbits the enormous black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy in a blistering 11-and-a-half years—the shortest known orbit of any star near this black hole. http://phys.org/news268577522.html Space & Earth Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:00:04 EST news268577522 (Phys.org)—Astronomers in Germany have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm to help them chart and explain the structure and dynamics of the universe around us with unprecedented accuracy. The team, led by Francisco Kitaura of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, report their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://phys.org/news267701392.html Space & Earth Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:30:03 EST news267701392 (Phys.org)—There are still unanswered questions regarding how the Moon was formed. Improved simulation methods and higher-performance supercomputers have now paved the way for an alternative development model that could close gaps in our knowledge. This model allows the researchers more scope in the basic assumptions they make. http://phys.org/news267088214.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:10:33 EST news267088214 (Phys.org)—Two very different galaxies feature in this family portrait taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, together forming a peculiar galaxy pair called Arp 116. The image shows the dramatic differences in size, structure and colour between spiral and elliptical galaxies. http://phys.org/news266145058.html Space & Earth Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:11:03 EST news266145058 (Phys.org)—Two newly submitted studies verify 41 new transiting planets in 20 star systems. These results may increase the number of Kepler's confirmed planets by more than 50 percent: to 116 planets hosted in 67 systems, over half of which contain more than one planet. The papers are currently under scientific peer-review. http://phys.org/news265275770.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:43:02 EST news265275770 (Phys.org) -- The July 24, 2012 Degradation Free Spectrometers (DFS) sounding rocket mission's ultimate objective is to significantly advance the state of the art in short wavelength observing solar spectrometers to permit more detailed investigation and understanding of the physics, and hence behavior, of our dynamic sun. Such spectrometers must be capable of high cadence measurements of the highly variable Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) solar flux and have minimal degradation over multi-year time scales while observing the sun 24/7, in order to improve previous state of the art instruments such as the still active SEM instrument on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft launched in December of 1995. http://phys.org/news261994431.html Space & Earth Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:14:02 EST news261994431 The world's most sensitive dark matter detector settled into a new home Friday in an old U.S. gold mine. http://phys.org/news261419916.html Physics Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:38:42 EST news261419916 (Phys.org) -- As time passes and more research is done, more evidence is compiled supporting the theory that suggests that dark matter is a real thing, even though no direct evidence for its existence has ever been found. Instead, the evidence comes about as measurements of other phenomenon are taken, generally involving gravitational pull on objects in the universe we can see that cannot be explained by other means. One of these instances is where weak gravitational lensing occurs, which is where light appears to bend as it passes by large objects. Theory suggests that in cases where lensing occurs but there is no detectable object behind its cause, the reason for it is dark matter exerting a gravitational influence. That has been the case with what are known as filaments; gravitational effects that connect galactic superclusters, keeping them bound together. http://phys.org/news260689633.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 Jul 2012 07:20:01 EST news260689633 Horologists around the world on Saturday will carry out one of the weirdest operations of their profession: they will hold back time. http://phys.org/news260072968.html Space & Earth Thu, 28 Jun 2012 03:29:34 EST news260072968 Scientists have witnessed the rare spectacle of a supermassive black hole devouring a star that had ventured too close -- an event that occurs about once in 10,000 years, they reported on Wednesday. http://phys.org/news255186557.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 May 2012 15:00:01 EST news255186557 (Phys.org) -- In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the brilliance of the compact center of Messier 70, a globular cluster. Quarters are always tight in globular clusters, where the mutual hold of gravity binds together hundreds of thousands of stars in a small region of space. Having this many shining stars piled on top of one another from our perspective makes globular clusters a popular target for amateur skywatchers and scientists alike. http://phys.org/news253551953.html Space & Earth Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:06:22 EST news253551953 Five years ago, San Francisco State researcher Andisheh Mahdavi and his colleagues observed an unexpected dark core at the center of Abell 520, a cosmic "train wreck" of galaxy clusters. With new space-based telescope observations, they have confirmed that the core really does exist. But they are no closer to explaining why it is there. http://phys.org/news249907299.html Space & Earth Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:41:50 EST news249907299 Alien planets might experience tidal forces powerful enough to remove all their water, leaving behind hot, dry worlds like Venus, researchers said. http://phys.org/news248001278.html Space & Earth Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:50:01 EST news248001278 A pair of Swiss astrophysicists who were the first to discover a planet from beyond our solar system were honoured Tuesday with a major Spanish science award. http://phys.org/news246627628.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:50:01 EST news246627628 Timekeepers meeting in Geneva failed to agree Thursday on a proposal to abolish a 40-year-old practice of adding the occasional second to world time. http://phys.org/news246201198.html Technology Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:20:01 EST news246201198 Timekeepers gathered in Geneva on Thursday to thrash out a contested proposal to abolish a 40-year-old practice of adding the occasional second to world time. http://phys.org/news246182184.html Space & Earth Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:56:47 EST news246182184 That the rise and fall of the tide is primarily driven by the gravitational pull of the moon and the Sun is common knowledge, but not all tides are controlled by such a standard mechanism. http://phys.org/news244740579.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:29:52 EST news244740579 A new image of the disk of gas and dust around a sun-like star has spiral-arm-like structures. These features may provide clues to the presence of embedded but as-yet-unseen planets. http://phys.org/news238259809.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:17:00 EST news238259809 (PhysOrg.com) -- Like all galaxies, our Milky Way is home to a strange substance called dark matter. Dark matter is invisible, betraying its presence only through its gravitational pull. Without dark matter holding them together, our galaxy's speedy stars would fly off in all directions. The nature of dark matter is a mystery -- a mystery that a new study has only deepened. http://phys.org/news238074437.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:47:28 EST news238074437 (PhysOrg.com) -- The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been used to make an image of galaxy cluster MACS J1206.2-0847. The apparently distorted shapes of distant galaxies in the background is caused by an invisible substance called dark matter, whose gravity bends and distorts their light rays. MACS 1206 has been observed as part of a new survey of galaxy clusters using Hubble. http://phys.org/news237719044.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:04:15 EST news237719044 Japan said it had successfully test-fired the engine of its "Akatsuki" space probe in preparation for a renewed attempt to get it into orbit around Venus in 2015. http://phys.org/news234674638.html Space & Earth Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:35:18 EST news234674638 NASA's Dawn spacecraft on Saturday became the first probe ever to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. http://phys.org/news230132599.html Space & Earth Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:43:50 EST news230132599