Category Astronomy/Space

In this frame taken from video from NASA TV, the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship is captured by a robot arm from the International Space Station, Sunday April 10, 2016. A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, two days after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Station astronauts used a big robot arm to capture the Dragon, orbiting 260 miles above Earth. (NASA TV via AP)

A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at ISS on Sunday, 2 days after launching from Cape Canaveral. Station astronauts used a robot arm to capture the Dragon, orbiting 250 miles above Earth. The Dragon holds 7,000 pounds of freight, including the soft-sided compartment built by Bigelow Aerospace...

The breakthrough nanophotonic chip that can harness the angular momentum of light, paving the way for next generation optical technologies and enabling scientists to gain a deeper understanding of black holes. Credit: RMIT University

>>paves way for next generation optical technologies and enables deeper understanding of black holes. The Australian team designed an integrated nanophotonic chip that can achieve unparalleled control over angular momentum (AM) of light. The pioneering work opens new opportunities for using AM at a chip-scale for generation, transmission, processing and recording of information, and could also be used to help scientists better understand the evolution and nature of black holes.

While traveling approximately in a straight line, a beam of light also spins and tw...

Possible manifestations of brown dwarfs (artist’s impression). As brown dwarfs are nearly invisible in the optical light and only emit radiation in the IR regime, they exhibit different colors in that range. Credit: AIP/J. Fohlmeister

When re-analysing catalogued and updated observational data of brown dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood, astronomers from Potsdam have found a significant number of nearby brown dwarfs should still be out there. The study challenges the previously established picture of brown dwarfs in the solar neighborhood.

Brown dwarfs are objects that are too large to be called planets, yet too small to be stars...

Artist’s interpretation of a hypothetical moon in orbit around a planet found in a tight-knit triple-star system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Crisp, clear images of a “hot Jupiter” system captured by a University of Notre Dame physicist were vital in determining that a newly found planet inhabits a 3-star system, a phenomenon documented only a few times before.

KELT-4Ab is a “hot Jupiter”, a gas giant that orbits extremely close to one of the stars in its solar system. While the KELT, or Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope, detected the likely presence of the planet now called KELT-4Ab about 685 light years from Earth, Crepp was able to capture crisp, clear images of the system, discovering that the planet was in fact a member of a triple star system – one of only a few found to date.

The ...