https://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. How far the Milky Way's disk extends has long been difficult to define—it doesn't end sharply, but fades away gradually at its outer edges. Now, for the first time, an international team of astronomers has identified the edge of the Milky Way's star-forming disk by studying the ages of stars, revealing that the bulk of our galaxy's star formation occurs within 40,000 light-years of the Galactic Center. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-edge-milky-star-disk-revealed.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:40:03 EDT news695986421 Tropical cyclones represent a danger to life, property, and the economies of communities. Researchers who study tropical cyclones have focused on remote observations, using space-based platforms to image these storms, inform forecasts, better predict landfall, and improve understanding of storm dynamics and precipitation evolution (see fig. 1). https://phys.org/news/2025-06-nasa-tropics-mission-images-analysis.html Earth Sciences Tue, 10 Jun 2025 12:00:01 EDT news668773581 On 30 April 2023, all nominal operations of Aeolus, the first mission to observe Earth's wind profiles on a global scale, will conclude in preparation for a series of end of life activities. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-trailblazing-aeolus-mission.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 18 Apr 2023 13:27:04 EDT news601043221 ESA's wind mission continues to shine as engineers have worked their Christmas magic. With a switch back to its original laser, Aeolus is now shining more than twice as brightly with its best ever performance—just in time for the holidays. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-christmas-early-aeolus-laser.html Space Exploration Fri, 16 Dec 2022 12:19:43 EST news590415580 What do UX Tauri, RW Aurigae, AS 205, Z CMajoris, and FU Orionis have in common? They're young stellar systems with disks where planets could form. It appears those disks were disturbed by stellar flybys or other close encounters in the recent past. Astronomers want to know: did those events disrupt planet formation in the disks? What do they do? Does this happen in other systems? And, did our own solar system experience a strange encounter in its youth? https://phys.org/news/2022-08-stellar-flybys-permanent-newly-planetary.html Astronomy Mon, 01 Aug 2022 09:30:01 EDT news578563906 A large metal ring and sphere that villagers in rural western India said fell from the sky over the weekend could be from a Chinese rocket launched into space last year, officials told local media. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-space-debris-rural-india-china.html Space Exploration Mon, 04 Apr 2022 11:27:52 EDT news568290468 The longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years, which will bathe the Moon in red, was visible for a big slice of humanity on Friday. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-moon-partial-lunar-eclipse-longest.html Space Exploration Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:29:18 EST news556475356 A NASA spacecraft named Lucy rocketed into the sky with diamonds Saturday morning on a 12-year quest to explore eight asteroids. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-nasa-asteroid-hunter-lucy-soars.html Space Exploration Sat, 16 Oct 2021 06:19:45 EDT news553583974 Stars scattered throughout the cosmos look different, but they may be more alike than once thought, according to Rice University researchers. https://phys.org/news/2021-08-cool-stars-unique.html Astronomy Mon, 09 Aug 2021 11:12:23 EDT news547726337 Advanced materials with more novel properties are almost always developed by adding more elements to the list of ingredients. But quantum research suggests some simpler materials might already have advanced properties that scientists just couldn't see, until now. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-neutrons-piece-year-puzzle-iron-iodide.html General Physics Thu, 20 May 2021 04:37:27 EDT news540704240 A growing number of people are redefining what "home" looks like. For many of them, it looks like a van. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-workers-opting-vans.html Economics & Business Mon, 09 Nov 2020 09:30:01 EST news524135868 Computer simulations are showing astrophysicists how massive clumps of gas within galaxies scatter some stars from their orbits, eventually creating the smooth, exponential fade in the brightness of many galaxy disks. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-astronomers-disk-galaxies-evolve-smoothly.html Astronomy Fri, 25 Sep 2020 09:34:32 EDT news520245268 The cell membrane, the wall-like boundary between the cell interior and its outside environment, is primarily made up of two kinds of biomolecules: lipids and proteins. Different lipid species closely pack together to form a double layer, or "bilayer," the membrane's fundamental structure, while proteins are embedded within or attached to the bilayer. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-cell-membrane-key-uncovering-protein.html Biochemistry Thu, 24 Sep 2020 05:36:25 EDT news520144578 Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, an international team of astronomers has conducted deep imaging observations of a high-redshift radio galaxy known as 4C 63.20. The observational campaign has revealed an extended X-ray emission from this source. The finding is reported in a paper published July 20 on the arXiv pre-print paper. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-x-ray-emission-radio-galaxy-4c.html Astronomy Wed, 29 Jul 2020 09:00:02 EDT news515226524 Astronomers have made the first measurement of spin-orbit alignment for a distant 'super-Jupiter' planet, demonstrating a technique that could enable breakthroughs in the quest to understand how exoplanetary systems form and evolved. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-spin-orbit-alignment-planet-beta-pictoris.html Astronomy Mon, 29 Jun 2020 04:48:29 EDT news512624901 Polarized light is a familiar phenomenon because the scattering or reflection of light results in one of its two components being preferentially absorbed. The majority of sunlight on Earth, for example, is preferentially polarized due to scattering in the atmosphere (this helps make polarized sunglasses effective). Electromagnetic radiation from astrophysical sources can also be polarized, typically because of scattering from elongated dust grains that are aligned with each other by the local magnetic fields. These fields are thought to play a major, perhaps even a dominant role in controlling the shapes and motions of interstellar gas clouds and are extremely difficult to measure directly. Observations of polarization by dust grains offer a unique way to probe the magnetic fields. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-inferring-temperature-circumstellar-disks-polarized.html Astronomy Fri, 26 Jun 2020 11:05:46 EDT news512388344 Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have boosted their control of the fundamental properties of molecules at the quantum level by linking or "entangling" an electrically charged atom and an electrically charged molecule, showcasing a way to build hybrid quantum information systems that could manipulate, store and transmit different forms of data. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-hybrid-quantum-entangling-molecule-atom.html Quantum Physics Wed, 20 May 2020 11:00:04 EDT news509187115 We are all too aware that COVID-19 is a serious threat to health, is putting huge pressure on healthcare systems and it could leave the global economy struggling for years to come. With lockdown measures in force across the globe, the pandemic is also affecting aspects of everyday life that may not be so obvious. The drop in commercial flights, for example, has led to fewer measurements for weather forecasts, but fortunately, ESA's Aeolus satellite mission is helping to fill the gap. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-covid-aeolus-weather.html Environment Wed, 22 Apr 2020 08:41:14 EDT news506763670 An ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in the NGC 1313 galaxy, known as NGC 1313 X-1, showcases an unusual X-ray spectral variability, according to a new study recently conducted by an international team of astronomers. The finding is reported in a paper published November 21 on arXiv.org. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-unusual-x-ray-spectral-variability-ngc.html Astronomy Wed, 04 Dec 2019 09:10:01 EST news494665360 Electrons in atoms are pretty talented. They can form chemical bonds, get kicked out of the atom and even "jump" to different locations based on their energetic states. https://phys.org/news/2019-11-team-golden-lollipop-elusive-effect.html Nanophysics Fri, 08 Nov 2019 06:57:35 EST news492418640 Italian astronomers have conducted multi-band observations of the high-redshift blazar S5 0836+710 during its period of high activity. The monitoring campaign resulted in the detection of two major gamma-ray flares from this source and provided more insights on the object's properties. The findings are available in a paper published October 18 on arXiv.org. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-astronomers-blazar-s5-high-period.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Oct 2019 09:05:48 EDT news491558736 A team of Empa acoustic researchers has built macroscopic crystal structures that use internal rotation to attenuate the propagation of waves. The method makes it possible to build very light and stiff materials that can also "swallow" low frequencies very well, as they report in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-super-dampers-tones.html Materials Science Mon, 14 Oct 2019 09:24:48 EDT news490263879 The iconic appearance of a spiral galaxy is exemplified here in the form of the stunning NGC 2903, imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It shows off whirling, pinwheeling arms with scatterings of sparkling stars, glowing bursts of gas, and dark, weaving lanes of cosmic dust. https://phys.org/news/2019-06-hubble-survey-captures-iconic-spiral.html Astronomy Mon, 10 Jun 2019 09:35:49 EDT news479378140 Spears and poisoned blowguns at hand, the Waorani people say they are ready to strike down invaders of their Amazon homelands, just like their forefathers did. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-ecuador-waorani-tribe-vows-life.html Environment Fri, 26 Apr 2019 04:38:33 EDT news475472301 Gravitational echoes may be caused by the collision of two black holes, and may indicate that these objects have completely new physical properties. This conclusion was made by RUDN physicists after a series of mathematical calculations. The scientists state that if the existence of the echo phenomenon is confirmed, astrophysicists would have to reconsider their view of compact space objects. The results of the study were published in Physical Review D. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-gravitational-echo-phenomenon-key-physics.html General Physics Mon, 15 Apr 2019 09:08:12 EDT news474538084 Astronomers are poised Wednesday to unveil the first direct image of a black hole and the surrounding whirlwind of white-hot gas and plasma inexorably drawn by gravity into its ravenous maw, along with the light they generate. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-black-holes-picturing-heart-darkness.html Astronomy Tue, 09 Apr 2019 06:43:58 EDT news474010909 New photonic tools for medical imaging can be used to understand the nonlinear behavior of laser light in human blood for theranostic applications. When light enters biological fluids it is quickly scattered, however, some cell suspensions can induce nonlinear responses in laser beams to self-focus and enhance the penetration of light for biomedical applications as a quantifiable marker of disease. In a recent study now published in Light: Science and Applications, Rekha Gautam and her colleagues at the San Francisco State University and an international team of co-workers showed that a laser beam shining through red blood cell suspensions could become "self-trapped." The process reduced light scattering to retain the power of the beam of laser light within the biological samples. https://phys.org/news/2019-03-optical-force-induced-self-guiding-human-red.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 21 Mar 2019 09:30:03 EDT news472284182 In the blink of an eye, squid can change from sandy brown to vibrant red or ripple with bright metallic rainbows. Their color-changing abilities (and those of their fellow cephalopods, octopus and cuttlefish) are more sophisticated than any found in the animal kingdom. https://phys.org/news/2019-03-secret-squid-ability-unexpected-skin.html Plants & Animals Wed, 06 Mar 2019 07:36:28 EST news471080180 The Cigar Galaxy (also known as M82) is famous for its extraordinary speed in making new stars, with stars being born 10 times faster than in the Milky Way. Now, data from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, have been used to study this galaxy in greater detail, revealing how material that affects the evolution of galaxies may get into intergalactic space. https://phys.org/news/2019-03-galactic-clues-evolution-galaxies.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Mar 2019 13:52:54 EST news471016366 Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have "flash-frozen" a flat crystal of 150 beryllium ions (electrically charged atoms), opening new possibilities for simulating magnetism at the quantum scale and sensing signals from mysterious dark matter. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-physicists-flash-freeze-crystal-ions.html Quantum Physics Wed, 20 Feb 2019 11:25:41 EST news469884318