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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Bursts of Methane may have Warmed early Mars

    January 25, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    SEAS researchers suggest that early Mars may have been warmed intermittently by a powerful greenhouse effect, possibly explaining water on the planet's surface billions of years ago. Credit: NASA

    SEAS researchers suggest that early Mars may have been warmed intermittently by a powerful greenhouse effect, possibly explaining water on the planet’s surface billions of years ago. Credit: NASA

    Findings may help in search for life in the universe. The presence of water on ancient Mars is a paradox. There’s plenty of geographical evidence that rivers periodically flowed across the planet’s surface. Yet in the time period when these waters are supposed to have run – 3 to 4 billion years ago – Mars should have been too cold to support liquid water. Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) suggest that early Mars may have been warmed intermittently by a powerful greenhouse effect...

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    Quantum Optical Sensor tested in Space for the 1st time, with a Laser System from Berlin

    January 24, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Astronomy/Space

    1. MOPA laser module for MAIUS Hybrid-integrated master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) laser module for rubidium precision spectroscopy in space developed by the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut – three of these MOPA modules along with two redundant modules are integrated into the laser system. (© FBH/schurian.com) 2, MAIUS laser system used to successfully create a Bose-Einstein condensate for the first time in space. It is about as big as a shoe box with a mass of 27 kg. FBH’s laser modules are integrated on the bottom side of the heat sink, the top side houses modules for further processing of the light to be transferred to the main experiment. (© Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

    1. MOPA laser module for MAIUS
    Hybrid-integrated master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) laser module for rubidium precision spectroscopy in space developed by the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut – three of these MOPA modules along with two redundant modules are integrated into the laser system.
    (© FBH/schurian.com)
    2, MAIUS laser system
    used to successfully create a Bose-Einstein condensate for the first time in space. It is about as big as a shoe box with a mass of 27 kg. FBH’s laser modules are integrated on the bottom side of the heat sink, the top side houses modules for further processing of the light to be transferred to the main experiment.
    (© Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

    For the 1st time ever, a cloud of ultra-cold atoms has been successfully created in space on board of a soundin...

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    Can the Donut-Shaped Magnet ‘CAPPuccino submarine’ hunt for Dark Matter?

    January 24, 2017, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Scientists at IBS CAPP are prototyping haloscopes - machines that hunt for dark matter. Haloscope have very strong magnets. Helix-shaped magnets (solenoid magnets, on the left) are commonly used in dark matter experiments. CAPP scientists are also investigating the possibility of using donut-shaped magnets, technically known as toroidal magnets, and nicknamed this device "CAPPuccino submarine". Credit: Image courtesy of Institute for Basic Science

    Scientists at IBS CAPP are prototyping haloscopes – machines that hunt for dark matter. Haloscope have very strong magnets. Helix-shaped magnets (solenoid magnets, on the left) are commonly used in dark matter experiments. CAPP scientists are also investigating the possibility of using donut-shaped magnets, technically known as toroidal magnets, and nicknamed this device “CAPPuccino submarine”. Credit: Image courtesy of Institute for Basic Science

    IBS scientists clarify that toroidal magnets can also look for axions, one of the particle candidates for the mysterious dark matter...

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    First big-picture look at Meteorites from before Giant Space Collision 466 million years ago

    January 23, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Today's rare meteorites were once common

    Artist’s rendering of the space collision 466 million years ago that gave rise to many of the meteorites falling today. Credit: © Don Davis, Southwest Research Institute.

    466 million years ago, there was a giant collision in outer space. Something hit an asteroid and broke it apart, sending chunks of rock falling to Earth as meteorites since before the time of the dinosaurs. But what kinds of meteorites were making their way to Earth before that collision? In a new study in Nature Astronomy, scientists have tackled that question by creating the first reconstruction of the distribution of meteorite types before the collision. They discovered that most of the meteorites we see today are rare, while many meteorites that are rare today were common before the collision.

    Philipp Heck of The Fie...

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