In the blink of an eye, a massive star more than 2 billion light-years away lost a million-year-long fight against gravity and collapsed, triggering a supernova and forming a black hole at its center.
Astronomy
Jul 26, 2018
0
93
We are bathed in starlight. During the day we see the Sun, light reflected off the surface of the Earth and blue sunlight scattered by the air. At night we see the stars, as well as sunlight reflected off the Moon and the ...
Astronomy
Jan 22, 2018
0
37
ESA's Integral space observatory has been orbiting Earth for 15 years, observing the ever-changing, powerful and violent cosmos in gamma rays, X-rays and visible light. Studying stars exploding as supernovas, monster black ...
Space Exploration
Nov 20, 2017
0
15
A research team led by UCLA electrical engineers has developed a new technique to control the polarization state of a laser that could lead to a new class of powerful, high-quality lasers for use in medical imaging, chemical ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 20, 2017
0
1042
Individual molecules are extremely hard to see through feeble fluorescence. Leiden physicists have managed to use tiny gold nanorods as antennas to intensify their signal 500 times. They have published their results in Angewandte ...
Materials Science
Feb 28, 2017
0
32
Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have been able to quantify fundamental physical limitations on the performance of cloaking devices, a technology that allows objects to ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 5, 2016
0
493
Einstein's general theory of relativity predicts the emission of gravitational waves by massive celestial bodies moving though space-time. For the past century gravitational waves have eluded a direct detection, but now the ...
Astronomy
Feb 15, 2016
4
19
A single drop of blood is teeming with microorganisms—imagine if we could see them, and even nanometer-sized viruses, with the naked eye. That's a real possibility with what scientists call a "perfect lens." The lens hasn't ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 17, 2015
2
870
It's like using fiber optics to communicate – only without the fiber.
Telecom
Jul 3, 2015
1
169
It can be difficult in our everyday lives to appreciate the extraordinary range of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Electromagnetic radiation—from radio waves to visible light to x-rays—travels through space ...
General Physics
May 5, 2015
2
39
