Cooled to almost absolute zero, atoms not only move in waves like light but also can be focused into shapes called caustics, similar to the reflecting or refracting patterns light makes on the bottom of a swimming pool or ...
Quantum Physics
Dec 10, 2021
1
464
The Snowman Nebula is an emission nebula that resides in the constellation Puppis in the southern sky, about 6,000 light-years away from Earth. Emission nebulae are diffuse clouds of gas that have become so charged by the ...
Astronomy
Nov 10, 2021
0
20
Lightspeed is the fastest velocity in the universe. Except when it isn't. Anyone who's seen a prism split white light into a rainbow has witnessed how material properties can influence the behavior of quantum objects: in ...
General Physics
Nov 4, 2021
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3476
Where do our elements come from? And how are they made? Michael Famiano's new research is flipping the script on those age-old nuclear astrophysics questions. The truth is out there—several light years away among the stars, ...
General Physics
Oct 12, 2021
1
52
Measuring a magnetic field isn't so hard if you're inside of it. Measuring a magnetic field remotely—whether from across a room, across a country, or 93 million miles away—is an entirely different story. But that's exactly ...
Space Exploration
Oct 5, 2021
0
4
At least one 1 in 4 white dwarfs will end its life as a magnetic star. At the end of their life, most stars shrink in size to the dimension of a small planet, an object called a "white dwarf," a late stage of stellar evolution.
Astronomy
Oct 4, 2021
0
112
Meet NGC 5728, a spiral galaxy around 130 million light-years from Earth. This image was acquired using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which is extremely sensitive to visible and infrared light. Therefore, it beautifully ...
Astronomy
Oct 4, 2021
0
87
Scientists have generated circularly polarized light and controlled its direction without using clunky magnets or very low temperatures. The findings, by Nagoya University researchers and colleagues in Japan, and published ...
Optics & Photonics
Sep 14, 2021
0
253
Clustered at the center of this image are six luminous spots of light, four of them forming a circle around a central pair. Appearances can be deceiving, however, as this formation is not composed of six individual galaxies, ...
Astronomy
Aug 27, 2021
0
1135
By connecting two of the biggest radio telescopes in the world, astronomers have discovered that a simple binary wind cannot cause the puzzling periodicity of a fast radio burst after all. The bursts may come from a highly ...
Astronomy
Aug 26, 2021
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