Archive
New Instrument Sifts Through Starlight to Reveal New Worlds
ScienceDaily (July 5, 2012) — An advanced telescope imaging system that started taking data last month is the first of its kind capable of spotting planets orbiting suns outside of our solar system. The collaborative set of high-tech instrumentation and software, called Project 1640, is now operating on the Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California after more than six years of development by researchers and engineers at the American Museum of Natural History, the California Institute of Technology, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The project’s first images demonstrating a new technique that creates extremely precise “dark holes” around stars of interest were presented July 5 at the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation meeting in Amsterdam by Ben R. Oppenheimer, a curator in the Museum’s Department of Astrophysics and principal investigator for Project 1640.
Although hundreds of planets are known from indirect detection methods to orbit other stars, it’s extremely difficult to see them directly in an image. This is largely because the light that stars emit is tens of millions to billions of times brighter than the light given off by planets.
Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120705161252.htm
In a Cosmology Breakthrough, Astronomers Measure a Filament of Dark Matter
By Rebecca Boyle 07.05.2012
Invisible, cold dark matter plays a major role in the evolution of galaxies, according to modern cosmological theory. The most advanced simulations of cosmic evolution show stringy tendrils of mass — dark matter — connecting giant clusters of galaxies via a vast cosmic web. Now for the first time, astronomers have been able to detect one of these filaments, sussing out its location by watching it warp light.
Strength in Numbers: Physicists Identify New Quantum State Allowing Three — But Not Two — Atoms to Stick Together
July 4, 2012
ScienceDaily (July 3, 2012) — A Kansas State University-led quantum mechanics study has discovered a new bound state in atoms that may help scientists better understand matter and its composition.
The yet-unnamed bound state, which the physicists simply refer to as “our state” in their study, applies to three identical atoms loosely bound together — a behavior called three-body bound states in quantum mechanics. In this state, three atoms can stick together in a group but two cannot. Additionally, in some cases, the three atoms can stick together even when any two are trying to repel each other and break the connection.
“It’s really counterintuitive because not only is the pair interaction too weak to bind two atoms together, it’s also actively trying to push the atoms apart, which is clearly not the goal when you want things to stick together,” said Brett Esry, university distinguished professor of physics at Kansas State University and the study’s lead investigator.
Read more : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120703142515.htm
Higgs boson: scientists 99.999% sure ‘God Particle’ has been found
July 4, 2012
Scientists believe they have captured the elusive “God particle” that gives matter mass and holds the physical fabric of the universe together.
The historic announcement came in a progress report from the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator.
Professor John Womersley, chief executive of the Science and technology Facilities Council, told reporters at a briefing in London: “They have discovered a particle consistent with the Higgs boson.
“Discovery is the important word. That is confirmed. It’s a momentous day for science.”
Scientists say it is a 5 sigma result which means they are 99.999% sure they have found a new particle.
Finding the Higgs plugs a gaping hole in the Standard Model, the theory that describes all the particles, forces and interactions that make up the universe.
Watch Live: Higgs Boson Announcement
July 4, 2012
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/watch-live-higgs-talk/
Officials at CERN will finally be revealing their latest results in the search for the Higgs boson during a talk starting at midnight PT (3 a.m. ET) on July 4.
Physicists have been eagerly waiting for this announcement, with hopes running high that the new data will pin down Higgs boson with enough precision to consider it discovered. Previously, LHC results have strongly signaled the existence of a Higgs with a mass of 125 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), or roughly 125 times more massive than the proton. More recently, rumors have been flying that suggest this talk will be the definitive announcement of the long-sought boson’s discovery.
Read more : http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/watch-live-higgs-talk/
Tantalizing Signs of Higgs Boson Found By U.S. Tevatron Collider
By Rebecca Boyle Posted 07.02.2012
Your own solar observatory
July 2, 2012
You can watch or control the scopes for yourselves live here:
http://observatory.godlikeproductions.com/ (you can watch as a guest, but you are required to login for queueing in the control line)
Learn how to use it here:
http://video.godlikeproductions.com/video/HOW_TO_VIDEO_FOR_OBSERVATORY?id=1162905b337b781e514
==> Please note that believenothing.net is not affiliated in any way with the above mentioned website and this is not some kind of advertising.
I just think that it is something worth mentioning and a good alternative to the official channels.
Meteor plunges into ocean lighting up Perth sky
METEORIC SNAP: A photo of the meteor over Cottesloe taken by PerthNow reader Gavin Trought just before sunset. Source: PerthNow
AMAZING VIEWS: This picture was posted to Twitter by Pip Moir. She wrote ” Very bizarre. View from cott. Looks like fire. What is that?!?” Source: PerthNowTHIS fiery streak in the sky amazed Perth beachgoers at sunset as a suspected meteor plunged into the ocean off the WA coast.
PerthNow reader Gavin Trought snapped the ‘fire in the sky’ as it appeared over Cottesloe just before sunset on Friday, with remnants of the phenomenon still visible in the sky this afternoon.
“The weird streak in the sky as seen from Cottesloe last night. I noticed it just before sunset,” he told us.
Perth journalist Pip Moir also posted the photo she took at Cottesloe Beach to Twitter shortly after 6pm as puzzled onlookers debated what caused the colourful phenomena.
God particle is ‘found’: Scientists at Cern expected to announce on Wednesday Higgs boson particle has been discovered
July 2, 2012
- Scientists ‘will say they are 99.99% certain’ the particle has been found
- Leading physicists have been invited to event – sparking speculation that Higgs Boson particle has been found
- ‘God Particle’ gives particles that make up atoms their mass
PUBLISHED: 14:00, 1 July 2012 | UPDATED: 14:41, 1 July 2012
Scientists at Cern will announce that the elusive Higgs boson ‘God Particle’ has been found at a press conference next week, it is believed.
Five leading theoretical physicists have been invited to the event on Wednesday – sparking speculation that the particle has been discovered.
Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are expected to say they are 99.99 per cent certain it has been found – which is known as ‘four sigma’ level.
The particle accelerator: It is within these tubes that physicists are hunting for the ‘God’ particle
Evidence of Life On Mars Could Come from Martian Moon Phobos
ScienceDaily (June 29, 2012) — A mission to a Martian moon could return with alien life, according to experts at Purdue University, but don’t expect the invasion scenario presented by summer blockbusters like “Men in Black 3” or “Prometheus.”
“We are talking little green microbes, not little green men,” said Jay Melosh, a distinguished professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences and physics and aerospace engineering at Purdue. “A sample from the moon Phobos, which is much easier to reach than the Red Planet itself, would almost surely contain Martian material blasted off from large asteroid impacts. If life on Mars exists or existed within the last 10 million years, a mission to Phobos could yield our first evidence of life beyond Earth.”
Read more : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120629015408.htm
Believe nothing 