Science News

Detecting Exoplanets and Asteroids: First Citizen Science Successes for Backyard Astronomy Found this on Twitter and sharing here as it may be of interest, https://unistellaroptics.com/detecting-exoplanets-and-asteroids-first-citizen-science-successes-for-backyard-astronomy/ Great the citizen science is making a real contribution. Hope this is interesting Paul

But the best bit is the title: Your Brain Is Not an Onion With a Tiny Reptile Inside https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/TWK8BX6W2M4FFRTYXBZD/full

This is awesome. A picture of the dust cloud around a star 520 light years away. But better than that, there are signs that a planet is forming. Full story here: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2008/ Note that this is a real image, not a simulation or "artists impression"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200506091537.htm https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2007/eso2007a.pdf

This one caught my eye: Hydrocarbon seepage in the deep seabed links subsurface and seafloor biospheres Anirban Chakraborty, S. Emil Ruff, Xiyang Dong, Emily D. Ellefson, Carmen Li, James M. Brooks, Jayme McBee, Bernie B. Bernard, Casey R. J. HubertProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Apr 2020 From the paper: Significance The marine subsurface is one of the largest habitats on Earth composed exclusively of microorganisms and harboring on the order of 1029 microbial cells. It is unclear if deep subsurface life impacts overlying seafloor diversity and biogeochemical cycling in the deep ocean. We analyzed the microbial communities of…

BBC documentary tonight 2100 on BBC2 Friday 24th April

Abstract Complex bound states of magnetic excitations, known as Bethe strings, were predicted almost a century ago to exist in one-dimensional quantum magnets. The dispersions of the string states have so far remained the subject of intense theoretical studies. Here, by performing neutron scattering experiments on the one-dimensional Heisenberg–Ising antiferromagnet SrCo2V2O8 in high longitudinal magnetic fields, we reveal in detail the dispersion relations of the string states over the full Brillouin zone, as well as their magnetic field dependencies. Furthermore, the characteristic energy, the scattering intensity and linewidth of the observed string states exhibit ex…

LIGO and VIRGO have detected gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes of vastly different mass (8 and 30 solar masses). https://www.sciencealert.com/this-black-hole-collision-is-the-first-with-wildly-mismatched-masses They have a nice animation of the merger. This enables some further tests of GR (plot spoiler: results consistent with GR).

Does Transparent aluminum breath new life into the concept of a nuclear light bulb rocket? https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8095 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb

From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52297058 This seems to be the first evidence for neutrino CP violation. I don't know how significant the results might be. The original paper is free to read in Nature.

Just found an interesting article on the BBC science pages about the CHEOPS Telescope being operational. Looks like there are some really interesting planets out there. Exciting times ahead. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52307087 Great too that CoronaVIrus isn't going to get in the way of science such as this. Paul

A house sized asteroid, which usually spends most of its orbit out past Mars ( in the asteroid belt ), crossed Earth's orbit today, at closer separation than the moon. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/technology/newfound-house-sized-asteroid-2020-gh2-flies-past-earth-today/ar-BB12Gvdz?ocid=msedgntp And... Bmpbmp1975, DID NOT claim it was the end of the world. ( sorry Bmpbmp1975, I just couldn't resist )

Interesting article on how using "intuitionist" mathematics might explain why time appears to flow and even unite quantum and classical theory: https://www.quantamagazine.org/does-time-really-flow-new-clues-come-from-a-century-old-approach-to-math-20200407/ Some more background here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuitionism

'Less than a second after the Big Bang, the universe suddenly blew up from nothing to a hot, dense sea of neutrons and electrons stretching across billions of lightyears. And, 13.8 billion years later, the universe is still expanding, albeit at a much slower rate. The prevailing theory, known as the isotropy hypothesis, argues that the universe is not only expanding but doing so at the same rate in all directions. But a new study suggests that may not be the case after all.' https://www.inverse.com/science/universe-expanding-theory A map showing the rate of the expansion of the Universe in different directions across the sky.K. Migkas et al. 2020, CC BY-SA…

Ancient air pollution, trapped in ice, reveals new details about life and death in 12th Century Britain. In a study, scientists have found traces of lead, transported on the winds from British mines that operated in the late 1100s. Air pollution from lead in this time period was as bad as during the industrial revolution centuries later. The pollution also sheds light on a notorious murder of the medieval era; the killing of Thomas Becket. Becket, though, had other plans. Henry's growing irritation with his Archbishop led the King to reportedly utter the infamous phrase: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Unfortunately for Becket,…

Astronomers have observed a distant planet where it probably rains iron. It sounds like a science fiction movie, but this is the nature of some of the extreme worlds we're now discovering. Wasp-76b, as it's known, orbits so close in to its host star, its dayside temperatures exceed 2,400C - hot enough to vaporise metals. The planet's nightside, on the other hand, is 1,000 degrees cooler, allowing those metals to condense and rain out. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51828871

FSU physicists proposed a new particle (yellow) to explain recently reported rare kaon (blue) decays to neutral pions (orange). Credit: Florida State University https://phys.org/news/2020-03-physics-subatomic-particle.html

https://www.sciencealert.com/d-star-hexaquark-particles-could-be-responsible-for-creating-dark-matter https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6471/ab67e8

https://familylifegoals.com/extinct-formosan-clouded-leopard-seen-in-taiwan-for-the-first-time-since-disappearing-over-30-years-ago/?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson Freeman Dyson, best known for the Dyson sphere has died today aged 96. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/science/freeman-dyson-dead.html

Scientists detect biggest explosion since Big Bang - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51669384 This sounds interesting, i am guessing this is being observed from the Southern Hemisphere. I am trying to find the paper this BBC article has mentioned on https://iopscience.iop.org But am unsure exactly what to search for. So I would be grateful for any help please. Granted these science papers are not really for the layman, as such, as they are somewhat complex. It would be good to try and read the actual paper rather than just the report written for everyone else. However doing searches for Ophiuchus yields a few papers t…

Betelgeuse has been acting strange lately. Over the past two months it has dimmed considerably. Its luminosity is usually variable, but the amount of dimming is considerable since October, and it being a red giant, could be nearing the end of its life and about to go supernova. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/12/27/is-betelgeuse-one-skys-brightest-stars-brink-supernova/ https://www.sciencealert.com/betelgeuse-looks-fainter-than-usual-and-we-re-all-hoping-this-star-is-about-to-pop https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/12/betelgeuse-is-acting-strange-astronomers-are-buzzing-about-supernova/ It is a huge star that, if located in …

Researchers have held individual atoms and released them to interact for the first time. Their secret weapon is a set of three optical tweezer setups to hold atoms in suspension. They made predictions about the few-body problem, but were surprised by their results. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/amp31026792/scientists-hold-atoms-quantum-physics/?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral

When any of you find a way to explain this in other words, please do. ----> https://scitechdaily.com/new-droplet-based-electricity-generator-a-drop-of-water-can-light-up-100-led-bulbs/

The 14th through the 17th is the annual GBBC. This is a great way to join in on a scientific endeavour to monitor the the bird population around the world. Here is the site for the GBBC. As an aside, today was one of my favorite days, it was the first day since last summer that I have heard a Northern Cardinal sing it's territorial song. It was -2F but there was brilliant sun shine, and that was good enough for the Cardinals.😊