Gaia starts Mapping the Galactic Bar in the Milky Way

This colour chart, superimposed on an artistic representation of the galaxy, shows the distribution of 150 million stars in the Milky Way probed using data from the second release of ESA’s Gaia mission in combination with infrared and optical surveys, with orange/yellow hues indicating greater density of stars. Most of these stars are red giants. While the majority of charted stars are located closer to the Sun (the larger orange/yellow blob in the lower part of the image), a large and elongated feature populated by many stars is also visible in the central region of the galaxy: this is the first geometric indication of the galactic bar. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, A. Khalatyan (AIP) & StarHorse Team; mapa artístic de la Galaxia: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC/Caltech)

The first direct ...

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Vast majority of Dietary Supplements Don’t Improve Heart health or put off Death, study finds

7-16-19 Save Your Money: Vast Majority Of Dietary Supplements Don’t Improve Heart Health or Put .jpg
Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine

In a massive new analysis of findings from 277 clinical trials using 24 different interventions, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have found that almost all vitamin, mineral and other nutrient supplements or diets cannot be linked to longer life or protection from heart disease.

Although they found that most of the supplements or diets were not associated with any harm, the analysis showed possible health benefits only from a low-salt diet, omega-3 fatty acid supplements and possibly folic acid supplements for some people. Researchers also found that supplements combining calcium and vitaminD may in fact be linked to a slightly increased stroke risk. Results of the analysis were published on July 8 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Survey...

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Researchers build Transistor-like Gate for Quantum Information processing – with Qudits

A two-qudit gate, among the first of its kind, maximizes the entanglement of photons so that quantum information can be manipulated more predictably and reliably. (Purdue University image/Allison Rice)

Two-qudit gate on a photonic platform achieves massive entangled quantum state. Researchers have built what could be a quantum version of a transistor – with qudits.

Quantum information processing promises to be much faster and more secure than what today’s supercomputers can achieve, but doesn’t exist yet because its building blocks, qubits, are notoriously unstable.

Purdue University researchers are among the first to build a gate – what could be a quantum version of a transistor, used in today’s computers for processing information – with qudits...

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Supernova observation first of its kind using NASA Satellite

Supernova Explosion, ASASSN-18tb

Data offer new clues about why stars explode. A team of astronomers at The Ohio State University showed that the satellite survey TESS, could be used to monitor a particular type of supernova, giving scientists more clues about what causes white dwarf stars to explode – and about the elements those explosions leave behind.

“We have known for years that these stars explode, but we have terrible ideas of why they explode,” said Patrick Vallely, lead author of the study and an Ohio State astronomy graduate student...

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