Category Astronomy/Space

Image of the collection of the Rusty Rock, 66095, on the lunar surface by lunar module pilot, Charlie Duke and commander John Young. April 1972. Credit: NASA

The study contradicts a recently published paper, which suggested the moon’s interior is wet. The moon is likely very dry in its interior according to a new study from researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, published August 21, 2017 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The question of the moon’s moistness matters because the amount of water and other volatile (easily evaporated) elements and compounds provide clues to the moon’s history and how it was formed.

“It’s been a big question whether the moon is wet or dry...

By conducting experiments at the Linac Coherent Light Source — one of the world’s most powerful X-ray lasers — an international team of researchers led by HZDR physicist Dr. Dominik Kraus was able to demonstrate that hydrocarbon compounds split into carbon and hydrogen inside ice giants such as Neptune, shown here. The carbon turns into a “diamond shower.” Credit: Greg Stewart / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

SLAC’s X-ray laser and Matter in Extreme Conditions instrument allow researchers to examine the exotic precipitation in real-time as it materializes in the laboratory. In an experiment designed to mimic the conditions deep inside the icy giant planets of our solar system, scientists were able to observe “diamond rain” for the first time as it formed in high-pressure conditions...

Electron density distribution of the frontier orbital of a TMTTF molecule. Electrons of the constituent atoms of the molecule can be considered as either core electrons, which have no interactions with the surroundings, or electrons of frontier orbitals, which determine many physical properties of the molecule. We succeeded in visualizing the frontier molecular orbital distribution of a TMTTF by precise structural analysis using a core differential Fourier synthesis (CDFS) method. Credit: Shunsuke Kitou

Researchers probe a mysterious phase transition in an organic molecular conductor using synchrotron X-ray radiation. We normally associate conduction of electricity with metals. However, some of the high measured conductivities are found in certain organic molecular crystals...

Conceptual image of the Mars 2020 rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, which will look for signs of past life on Mars, will use smart methods originally developed to find the oldest life on Earth, according the mission’s Deputy Project Scientist, Dr Ken Williford. The 2020 mission builds on the successes of prior rovers, to make coordinated measurements that could detect signs of ancient life – or biosignatures – in their original spatial context. These techniques, known as “spatially resolved biosignature analysis” derive from geochemical analysis of early life on Earth.

Speaking at the Goldschmidt conference in Paris where he is presenting the methods to be adopted, Dr Ken Williford (who is also Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Astrobiogeochemistry Laborat...