Category Astronomy/Space

A 2-mL “puddle” of water spontaneously jumps from a hydrophobic surface upon release into a freefall. Credit: Weislogel

Droplets in space can grow freakishly large and bounce off nonwetting surfaces in truly unearthly ways. Astronauts frequently encounter huge droplets, and Scott Kelly recently demonstrated their unusual behavior aboard the International Space Station (ISS) via water balls and a hydrophobic ping pong paddle. To explore the dynamics of these gigantic droplets, a group of researchers led by Mark Weislogel, a professor within the Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering at Portland State University in Oregon, is generating and studying them right here on Earth.

How, you ask? They simply form a puddle on a flat nonwetting surface and drop it 6 stories in a “tower drop...

This image of the Mars night side shows ultraviolet emission from nitric oxide (abbreviated NO). The emission is shown in false color with black as low values, green as medium, and white as high. These emissions track the recombination of atomic nitrogen and oxygen produced on the dayside, and reveal the circulation patterns of the atmosphere. The splotches, streaks and other irregularities in the image are indications that atmospheric patterns are extremely variable on Mars’ nightside. The inset shows the viewing geometry on the planet. MAVEN’s Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph obtained this image of Mars on May 4, 2016 during late winter in Mars Southern Hemisphere. Credit: NASA/MAVEN/University of Colorado

The new Mars UV views include “nightglow” that can be used to show how winds circu...

An artist’s impression depicts the separation of the ExoMars 2016 entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, named Schiaparelli, from the Trace Gas Orbiter, and heading for Mars

European-Russian spacecraft were on course for Mars Monday after crucial deep-space manoeuvres in preparation for a daring mission to find evidence of life on the Red Planet. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mothership despatched the tiny Mars lander called Schiaparelli Sunday on a 3-day trek to the Martian surface in a key phase of the joint ExoMars project. There were nervous moments for ground controllers when TGO, designed to enter Mars’ orbit to analyse its atmosphere for life, stopped sending status updates for about an hour before coming back online.

In the early hours of Monday, the TGO successfully complet...

Optical resolution is the ability of an imaging system to distinguish between closely spaced objects. In the picture, we show two points separated by the Rayleigh’s limit, as observed in the experiment. Credit: Martin Paúr – Palacký University

The resolution of an optical system (like a telescope or a camera) is limited by the Rayleigh criterion. An international team, led by Complutense University of Madrid, has broken this limit, showing that it is not a fundamental curse. This opens the door to considerable improvement in resolution and could force the revision of Optics textbooks. This research is the culmination of a thrilling race between four groups of scientists around the world.

An ideal optical system would resolve a point perfectly as a point...