Webb makes first detection of crucial carbon molecule

A team of international scientists has used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. Known as methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on) (CH3+), the molecule is important because ...

Chip-scale spectrometry using a photonic molecule

Chip-scale miniaturization of spectrometers allows rapid detection of spectral information in portable devices, opening up new applications. However, integrated spectrometers typically suffer from a trade-off between spectral ...

FAST telescope reveals unprecedented details of the Milky Way

The Milky Way is our home galaxy in the vast universe, but the structure and composition of the Milky Way remain mysterious. The vast interstellar space between the billions of stars is not empty, but filled with tenuous ...

Prospects for an all-optical remote magnetic field sensor

Crystals doped with rare-earth (RE) ions exhibit very narrow linewidths of optical transitions. The narrow-line spectra of triply ionized RE elements cover the entire visible and infrared range. RE-doped materials are widely ...

Optimizing competing instrument needs with an objective metric

Designing instruments for spacecraft missions is an exercise in managing trade-offs. With severe restrictions on power, mass, and volume, space-based instruments are often compromised in ways an equivalent laboratory instrument ...

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