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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Harvesting renewable energy from the sun and outer space at the same time

    November 11, 2018, Categories  Environment/Geology, Physics, Technology/Electronics, Astronomy/Space, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    This image shows the apparatus that is proving the efficacy of a double-layered rooftop panel. The top layer uses the standard semiconductor materials that go into energy-harvesting solar cells, the novel materials on the bottom layer perform the cooling task. CREDIT Linda Cicero, Stanford News

    This image shows the apparatus that is proving the efficacy of a double-layered rooftop panel. The top layer uses the standard semiconductor materials that go into energy-harvesting solar cells, the novel materials on the bottom layer perform the cooling task. CREDIT Linda Cicero, Stanford News

    Scientists at Stanford University have demonstrated for the first time that heat from the sun and coldness from outer space can be collected simultaneously with a single device. Their research, published November 8 in the journal Joule, suggests that devices for harvesting solar and (space energy will not compete for land space and can actually help each other function more efficiently.

    Renewable energy is increasingly popular as an economical and efficient alternative to fossil fuels, with solar en...

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    Aging a Flock of Stars in the Wild Duck Cluster

    November 10, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An image of the Wild Duck Cluster was captured by the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The blue stars at the center of the image are the stars of the cluster. Every star in the Wild Duck Cluster is roughly 250 million years old. Older, redder stars surround the cluster. Credit: European Southern Observatory

    An image of the Wild Duck Cluster was captured by the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The blue stars at the center of the image are the stars of the cluster. Every star in the Wild Duck Cluster is roughly 250 million years old. Older, redder stars surround the cluster.
    Credit: European Southern Observatory

    Do star clusters harbor many generations of stars or just one? Scientists have long searched for an answer and, thanks to the University of Arizona’s MMT telescope, found one in the Wild Duck Cluster, where stars spin at different speeds, disguising their common age.

    In a partnership between the UA and the Korean Astronomy and Space Science Institute, a team of Korean and Belgian astronomers used UA instruments to solve a puzzle about flocks of stars call...

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    Astronomers find pairs of Black Holes at the centers of Merging Galaxies

    November 10, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    These images reveal the final stage of unions between pairs of galactic nuclei in the messy cores of colliding galaxies. The image at top left, taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, shows the merging galaxy NGC 6240. A close-up of the two brilliant cores of this galactic union is shown at top right. This view, taken in infrared light, pierces the dense cloud of dust and gas encasing the two colliding galaxies and uncovers the active cores. The hefty black holes in these cores are growing quickly as they feast on gas kicked up by the galaxy merger. The black holes' speedy growth occurs during the last 10 million to 20 million years of the merger. Images of four other colliding galaxies, along with close-up views of their coalescing nuclei in the bright cores, are shown beneath the snapshots of NGC 6240. The images of the bright cores were taken in near-infrared light by the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, using adaptive optics to sharpen the view. The reference images (left) of the merging galaxies were taken by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). The two nuclei in the Hubble and Keck Observatory photos are only about 3,000 light-years apart -- a near-embrace in cosmic terms. If there are pairs of black holes, they will likely merge within the next 10 million years to form a more massive black hole. These observations are part of the largest-ever survey of the cores of nearby galaxies using high-resolution images in near-infrared light taken by the Hubble and Keck observatories. The survey galaxies' average distance is 330 million light-years from Earth. CREDIT NASA, ESA, and M. Koss (Eureka Scientific, Inc.); W. M. Keck Observatory; Panoramic Survey

    These images reveal the final stage of unions between pairs of galactic nuclei in the messy cores of colliding galaxies. The image at top left, taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, shows the merging galaxy NGC 6240. A close-up of the two brilliant cores of this galactic union is shown at top right. This view, taken in infrared light, pierces the dense cloud of dust and gas encasing the two colliding galaxies and uncovers the active cores. The hefty black holes in these cores are growing quickly as they feast on gas kicked up by the galaxy merger. The black holes’ speedy growth occurs during the last 10 million to 20 million years of the merger...

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    Ultra-Hot Gas around remnants of Sun-like Stars

    November 8, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist’s impression of the hot white dwarf GALEXJ014636.8+323615 (white) and its ultra-hot circumstellar magnetosphere (purple) trapped with the magnetic field (green). Credit: N. Reindl. Click for a larger image

    Artist’s impression of the hot white dwarf GALEXJ014636.8+323615 (white) and its ultra-hot circumstellar magnetosphere (purple) trapped with the magnetic field (green). Credit: N. Reindl. Click for a larger image

    Solving a decades-old mystery, an international team of astronomers have discovered an extremely hot magnetosphere around a white dwarf, a remnant of a star like our Sun. The work was led by Dr Nicole Reindl, Research Fellow of the Royal Commission 1851, based at the University of Leicester, and is published today (7 November) in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

    White dwarfs are the final stage in the lives of stars like our Sun...

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