Artist’s concept shows the gaseous exoplanet CoRoT-2b with a westward hot spot in orbit around its host star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (IPAC)

Puzzling finding raises new questions about atmospheric physics of giant planets. The hottest point on a gaseous planet near a distant star isn’t where astrophysicists expected it to be – a discovery that challenges scientists’ understanding of the many planets of this type found in solar systems outside our own. Unlike our familiar planet Jupiter, hot Jupiters circle astonishingly close to their host star – so close that it typically takes fewer than three days to complete an orbit. And one hemisphere of these planets always faces its host star, while the other faces permanently out into the dark.

Not surprisingly, the “day” side of the pl...

Artistic rendition of strong winds disrupting the outer disc of material surrounding a stellar-mass black hole. The disk material (mostly in yellow) is first pulled from the outer parts of a nearby star (upper right-hand). The stellar-mass black hole sits at the center of the approximately 5 million kilometer disc, but it only consumes the material if and when it reaches the central 30 kilometers. Credit: NASA/Swift/A. Simonnet, Sonoma State University 

New research shows the first evidence of strong winds around black holes throughout bright outburst events when a black hole rapidly consumes mass. The study, published in Nature, sheds new light on how mass transfers to black holes and how black holes can affect the environment around them...

Working principle of virtual vortices: intertwined short vortices of opposite directions are emitted to trap and stabilize the particle. Credit: University of Bristol

Acoustic tractor beams use the power of sound to hold particles in mid-air, and unlike magnetic levitation, they can grab most solids or liquids. For the first time University of Bristol engineers have shown it is possible to stably trap objects larger than the wavelength of sound in an acoustic tractor beam. This discovery opens the door to the manipulation of drug capsules or micro-surgical implements within the body. Container-less transportation of delicate larger samples is now also a possibility and could lead to levitating humans.

Researchers previously thought that acoustic tractor beams were fundamentally limited to ...

Electric fields drive the rotating nano-crane – 100,000 times faster than previous methods. Credit: Enzo Kopperger / TUM

Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a novel electric propulsion technology for nanorobots. It allows molecular machines to move a 100000X faster than with the biochemical processes used to date. This makes nanobots fast enough to do assembly line work in molecular factories. The new research results will appear as the cover story on 19th January in the renowned scientific journal Science.

Up and down, up and down. The points of light alternate back and forth in lockstep. They are produced by glowing molecules affixed to the ends of tiny robot arms. Prof...