Category Astronomy/Space

Visualization of molecular dynamics simulations showing the fast diffusion of hydrogen ions (pink trajectories) within the solid lattice of oxygen in superionic ice. Credit: S. Hamel/M. Millot/J.Wickboldt/LLNL/NIF

Scientists have provided the first experimental evidence for superionic conduction in water ice at planetary interior conditions, verifying a 30-year-old prediction. Among the many discoveries on matter at high pressure that garnered him the Nobel Prize in 1946, scientist Percy Bridgman discovered 5 different crystalline forms of water ice, ushering in more than 100 years of research into how ice behaves under extreme conditions.

One of the most intriguing properties of water is that it may become superionic when heated to several thousand degrees at high pressure, similar to the...

Magnetic loops gyrate above the sun, March 23-24, 2017. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory

The Sun might emit less radiation by mid-century, giving planet Earth a chance to warm a bit more slowly but not halt the trend of human-induced climate change. The cooldown would be the result of what scientists call a grand minimum, a periodic event during which the Sun’s magnetism diminishes, sunspots form infrequently, and less ultraviolet radiation makes it to the surface of the planet. Scientists believe that the event is triggered at irregular intervals by random fluctuations related to the Sun’s magnetic field.

Scientists have used reconstructions based on geological and historical data to attribute a cold period in Europe in the mid-17th Century to such an event, named the “Maunder...

Top: Visible light continuum image. Bottom: Magnetic field strength map. The color shows the field strength, from weak (cool colors) to strong (warm colors). Red indicates a location with a strength of more than 6,000 gauss (600 mT). Credit: NAOJ/JAXA

Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) using the HINODE spacecraft observed the strongest magnetic field ever directly measured on the surface of the Sun. Analyzing data for 5 days around the appearance of this record breaking magnetic field, the astronomers determined that it was generated as a result of gas outflow from one sunspot pushing against another sunspot.

Magnetism plays a critical role in various solar phenomena such as flares, mass ejections, flux ropes, and coronal heating...

Schematic illustration showing chemical desorption is at work in interstellar molecular clouds. Molecules are released from an ice dust surface using excess energy from a chemical reaction. Credit: Hokkaido University

Researchers demonstrate how a gas escapes ice at an extremely cold temperature, providing insight about how stars form in interstellar clouds. The mechanism by which hydrogen sulphide is released as gas in interstellar molecular clouds is described by scientists in Japan and Germany. Chemical desorption, is more efficient than previously believed, and this has implications for our understanding of star formation in molecular clouds.

Molecular clouds are rare, but are important parts of the galaxy where molecules form and evolve...