New Telescope design could Capture Distant Celestial objects with Unprecedented Detail

A new multi-field hypertelescope design could image multiple stars at once with high resolution. Hypertelescopes use large arrays of mirrors with space between them. The multi-field design could be incorporated into the hypertelescope prototype being tested in the Alps (pictured).
Credit: Antoine Labeyrie, Collège de France and Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur

Researchers have designed a new camera that could allow hypertelescopes to image multiple stars at once. The enhanced telescope design holds the potential to obtain extremely high-resolution images of objects outside our solar system, such as planets, pulsars, globular clusters and distant galaxies.

“A multi-field hypertelescope could, in principle, capture a highly detailed image of a star, possibly also showing its planets and e...

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‘Natural Killer’ Cells could halt Parkinson’s Progression

‘Natural killer’ cells could halt Parkinson’s progression
March 12, 2020
by Charlene Betourney
Left, imaging of healthy neurons from mouse brain. Right, imaging of damaged neurons by PD protein clumps. (Images courtesy of the Lee Lab)

Researchers at the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center and their colleagues have found that “natural killer” white blood cells could guard against the cascade of cellular changes that lead to Parkinson’s disease and help stop its progression.

Natural killer (NK) cells are white blood cells that can kill tumors without being “told” from the body to do so...

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Fish Scales could make Wearable Electronics more Sustainable

This film derived from fish scales could someday be used in flexible electronic devices.
Credit:: Adapted from ACS Nano 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.9b09880

Flexible temporary electronic displays may one day make it possible to sport a glowing tattoo or check a reading, like that of a stopwatch, directly on the skin. In its current form, however, this technology generally depends on plastic. New research in ACS Nano describes a way to make these displays, which would likely be discarded after a single use, more environmentally friendly using a plentiful and biodegradable resource: fish scales.

Within such displays, electricity-conducting and light-emitting components are layered onto a transparent film...

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Black Hole team discovers path to Razor-sharp Black Hole Images

George Wong (UIUC) and Michael Johnson (CfA)The image of a black hole has a bright ring of emission surrounding a “shadow” cast by the black hole. This ring is composed of a stack of increasingly sharp subrings that correspond to the number of orbits that photons took around the black hole before reaching the observer.

A team of researchers have published new calculations that predict a striking and intricate substructure within black hole images from extreme gravitational light bending. Last April, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) sparked international excitement when it unveiled the first image of a black hole...

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