Eighteen years after NASA's Stardust mission returned to Earth with the first samples from a known comet, the true nature of that icy object is coming into focus.
Planetary Sciences
Jan 16, 2024
0
7299
Before planets form around a young star, the protosolar disk is populated with innumerable planetesimals. Over time, these planetesimals combine to form planets, and the core accretion theory explains how that happens. But ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 12, 2024
0
12
Scientists and engineers at the CU Boulder will soon take part in an effort to collect a bit of stardust—the tiny bits of matter that flow through the Milky Way Galaxy and were once the initial building blocks of our solar ...
Space Exploration
Jan 12, 2024
0
1
Aerosol particles play a key role in cooling the planet. They can either directly affect how much sunlight ends up on the surface of the Earth or indirectly through cloud formation, to which they contribute. New particles ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 11, 2024
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3
When we look at the moon, either through a pair of binoculars, a telescope, or past footage from the Apollo missions, we see a landscape that's riddled with what appear to be massive sinkholes. But these "sinkholes" aren't ...
Astrobiology
Jan 11, 2024
0
6
When light goes through a material, it often behaves in unpredictable ways. This phenomenon is the subject of an entire field of study called "nonlinear optics," which is now integral to technological and scientific advances ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 11, 2024
0
88
As greenhouse gas levels increase in Earth's atmosphere, scientists are considering ways to temporarily limit rising temperatures. One idea is to inject aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect incoming sunlight, thereby ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 9, 2024
5
93
How far microplastics travel in the atmosphere depends crucially on particle shape, according to a recent study by scientists at the University of Vienna and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in ...
Environment
Jan 9, 2024
0
78
The quantum Cheshire cat effect draws its name from the fictional Cheshire Cat in the Alice in Wonderland story. That cat was able to disappear, leaving only its grin behind.
General Physics
Jan 9, 2024
1
535
In recent years, there has been rising concern that tiny particles known as microplastics are showing up basically everywhere on Earth, from polar ice to soil, drinking water and food. Formed when plastics break down into ...
Environment
Jan 8, 2024
4
558
