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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Icy Giant Planets in the Laboratory

    March 27, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Even under extremely high pressure, such as those in the interior of Neptune or Uranus, there are stable crystal structures of carbon (orange) and hydrogen (gray). This discovery by HZDR researchers reveals new possibilities for the inner structure of the ice giants.
    Credit: HZDR / J. Vorberger

    Researchers use plastics to better understand what happens inside planets. Giant planets like Uranus and Neptune may contain much less free hydrogen than previously assumed. Researchers from the German Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) drove shock waves through two different types of plastic to reach the same temperatures and pressures present inside such planets, and observed the behavior using ultra-strong X-ray laser pulses...

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    Evidence for a Human Geomagnetic Sense

    March 24, 2019, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Research shows the changes in alpha wave amplitude — a measure of whether the brain is being engaged or is in a resting or “autopilot” mode — following rotations of an Earth-strength magnetic field. On the left, counterclockwise rotations induce a widespread drop in alpha wave amplitude. No drop is observed after clockwise rotation or in the FIXED condition.
    Credit: Connie X. Wang / Caltech

    Scientists develop a robust experiment that shows human brain waves respond to changes in Earth-strength magnetic fields. Many humans are able to unconsciously detect changes in Earth-strength magnetic fields, according to scientists at Caltech and the University of Tokyo.

    The study, led by geoscientist Joseph Kirschvink (BS, MS ’75) and neuroscientist Shin Shimojo at Caltech as well as neuroenginee...

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    Jupiter’s Unknown Journey Revealed

    March 23, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Jupiter was formed four times further from the sun than its current position would indicate, according to a new simulation.
    Credit: Illustration: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    The giant planet Jupiter was formed four times further from the sun than its current orbit, and migrated inwards in the solar system over a period of 700,000 years. Researchers found proof of this incredible journey thanks to a group of asteroids close to Jupiter.

    It is known that gas giants around other stars are often located very near their sun. According to accepted theory, these gas planets were formed far away and subsequently migrated to an orbit closer to the star.

    Now researchers from Lund University and other institutions have used advanced computer simulations to learn more about Jupiter’s journey through ou...

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    NASA’s Fermi Satellite Clocks ‘Cannonball’ Pulsar Speeding through Space

    March 23, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The CTB 1 supernova remnant resembles a ghostly bubble in this image, which combines new 1.5 gigahertz observations from the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope (orange, near center) with older observations from the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory’s Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (1.42 gigahertz, magenta and yellow; 408 megahertz, green) and infrared data (blue). The VLA data clearly reveal the straight, glowing trail from pulsar J0002+6216 and the curved rim of the remnant’s shell. CTB 1 is about half a degree across, the apparent size of a full Moon.
    Credit: Composite by Jayanne English, University of Manitoba, using data from NRAO/F. Schinzel et al., DRAO/Canadian Galactic Plane Survey and NASA/IRAS

    Astronomers found a pulsar hurtling through space at nearly 2...

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