Category Astronomy/Space

UConn chemistry professor Doug Adamson has found an inexpensive way to manufacture the pristine form of this substance, which is stronger than steel and thinner than a human hair. Credit: Peter Morenus/UConn Photo

A UConn chemist Professor Doug Adamson has patented a one-of-a-kind process for exfoliating graphene in its pure (unoxidized) form, as well as manufacturing innovative graphene nanocomposites that have potential uses in a variety of applications, including desalination of brackish water. If you think of graphite like a deck of cards, each individual card would be a sheet of graphene. Comprised of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, graphene is a 2D crystal at least 100X stronger than steel...

SPHEREx could provide some important hints into the origin of the universe, improving our knowledge about its birth and evolution

NASA has recently chosen 6 proposed astrophysics mission for concept studies. Among them is the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, or SPHEREx, which aims to unlock the mysteries of the universe by performing the first all-sky spectral survey. If selected for construction and launch, the survey provided by the SPHEREx spacecraft could provide crucial insights into the origin and evolution of galaxies, and could help scientists explore whether planets around other stars might harbor life.

“SPHEREx will produce the first infrared spectral survey of the entire sky...

A massive, young galaxy cluster seen in X-rays (blue), visible light (green), and infrared light (red). Image by X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Missouri/M.Brodwin et al.; optical: NASA/STScI; infrared: JPL/CalTech

It’s a cosmic irony: the biggest things in the universe can also be the hardest to find. Elizabeth Blanton, a Boston University associate professor of astronomy, started hunting for distant galaxy clusters more than 20 years ago. A single galaxy cluster can be as massive as a quadrillion suns, yet faraway clusters are so faint that they are practically invisible to all but the biggest Earth-bound telescopes. Distant clusters hold pieces of the story of how the web-like structure of the universe first emerged and could help illuminate the true nature of dark energy and dark matter.

Now, ...

Sandia National Laboratories’ Guillaume Loisel poses with Sandia’s Z machine, where hands-on experiments contradicted a long-standing assumption about the X-ray spectra from the vicinity of black holes in space. Loisel is the lead author of a paper on the experimental results, published in Physical Review Letters. Credit: Randy Montoya, Sandia National Laboratories

Small cracks in basic theories. A long-standing but unproven assumption about the X-ray spectra of black holes in space has been contradicted by hands-on experiments performed at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine. Z, the most energetic laboratory X-ray source on Earth, can duplicate the X-rays surrounding black holes that otherwise can be watched only from a great distance and then theorized about...