Allen Lawrence, wrapping up a long career as an electrical engineer, was serious about moving his astronomy hobby beyond the 20-inch telescope he'd hauled to star parties under the dark skies of Texas and Arizona.
Astronomy
Feb 5, 2020
11
803
A crystal with a 3-D photonic band gap is a powerful tool to control light, with applications for new types of solar cells, sensors and miniature lasers. Inside a man-made crystal like this, a range of light wavelengths is ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 24, 2020
0
6
Structural colors appear because the imprinted pattern on a surface changes the wavelengths of light. Chinese scientists have introduced an azopolymer that allows the imprinting of nanopatterns in a novel room-temperature ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 15, 2020
0
31
Astronomers have cataloged signs of nine heavy metals in the infrared light from supergiant and giant stars. New observations based on this catalog will help researchers to understand how events like binary neutron star mergers ...
Astronomy
Jan 9, 2020
61
319
Evaporation ponds, which are commonly used in many industries to manage wastewater, can span acres, occupying a large footprint and often posing risks to birds and other wildlife. Yet they're an economical way to deal with ...
Environment
Jan 6, 2020
0
357
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Perseus Molecular Cloud, a massive collection of gas and dust that stretches over 500 light-years across. Home to an abundance of young stars, it has drawn the attention ...
Astronomy
Dec 20, 2019
0
143
Researchers have designed a new chip-integrated light source that can transform infrared wavelengths into visible wavelengths, which have been difficult to produce with technology based on silicon chips. This flexible approach ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 19, 2019
2
27
How small are the smallest celestial objects that form like stars, but don't produce their own light? How common are they compared to full-fledged stars? How about "rogue planets," which formed around stars before being tossed ...
Astronomy
Dec 18, 2019
2
101
Researchers in the Organic Photonics and Nano-optics goup at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics have developed optical nanoantennas made from a conducting polymer. The antennas can be switched on and off, and will make ...
Nanophysics
Dec 9, 2019
0
39
A carved-out cloud of gas and dust looks like a celestial jack-o'-lantern in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Astronomy
Oct 31, 2019
0
282
