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    Category Astronomy/Space

    New study shows Small Magellanic Cloud is actually Two Smaller Galaxies

    December 28, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Top: Intensity-weighted mean velocity map of the SMC from Pingel et al (2022). The single contour indicates an Hi column density of 15×1020⁢cm−2. The center of the SMC used in this work (defined based on the stellar populations observed by Gaia Zivick et al, 2021) is marked with a magenta cross. Spatial bins are overlaid and identified with numbers. Bottom: The average Hi brightness temperature spectra (Tb⁢(vr)) profiles from spatial bins marked at left (black). Each panel includes shaded gray envelopes denoting the 16th through 84th percentile of the Tb⁢(vr) within each spatial bin. We observe that the radial velocity structure of Hi emission features multiple, distinct velocity peaks (and typically two, dominant components). Credit: arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2312...
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    NASA Flies Drones Autonomously for Air Taxi research

    December 27, 2023, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    An Alta-8 small Unmanned Aircraft System testbed vehicle flies above NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Flying beyond visual line of sight from observers on the ground required special approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA. Credit: NASA / Bowman

    Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia recently flew multiple drones beyond visual line of sight with no visual observer. The drones successfully flew around obstacles and each other during takeoff, along a planned route, and upon landing, all autonomously without a pilot controlling the flight. This test marks an important step towards advancing self-flying capabilities for air taxis.

    “Flying the vehicles beyond visual line of sight, where neither the vehicle nor the airsp...

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    Astronomers Detect New Pulsar Wind Nebula and its Associated Pulsar

    December 27, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers detect new pulsar wind nebula and its associated pulsar
    Composite image of the Galactic plane region and Potoroo, with the red layer showing the ASKAP total intensity image at 1368 MHz, and the green and blue layers representing WISE infrared images at 12 µm and 22 µm respectively. Known Galactic SNRs are indicated by red circles (Green, 2019, 2022), while known Galactic HII regions are marked by green circles (Anderson et al., 2014). The box highlights the section of deep interest. The inset is the ASKAP zoomed-in image showing Potoroo where a red cross marks the position of the X-ray source, while a red dashed line is Potoroo’s axis of symmetry, which corresponds to the tail length studied in this paper. Credit: arXiv (2023). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2312.06961

    Astronomers from the Western Sydney University in Australia and elsewhere repor...

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    Why the Universe might be a Hologram

    December 26, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Why the universe might be a hologram
    The colored circle represents the hologram, out of which the knotted optical vortex emerges.
    Credit: University of Bristol

    A quarter century ago, physicist Juan Maldacena proposed the AdS/CFT correspondence, an intriguing holographic connection between gravity in a three-dimensional universe and quantum physics on the universe’s two-dimensional boundary. This correspondence is at this stage, even a quarter century after Maldacena’s discovery, just a conjecture.

    A statement about the nature of the universe that seems to be true, but one that has not yet been proven to actually reflect the reality that we live in. And what’s more, it only has limited utility and application to the real universe.

    Still, even the mere appearance of the correspondence is more than suggestive...

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