This is an aerial view of the Virgo site showing the Mode-Cleaner building, the Central building, the three kilometer-long west arm and the beginning of the north arm. The other buildings include offices, workshops, computer rooms and the control room of the interferometer. Credit: The Virgo collaboration/CCO 1.0

The first observation of gravitational waves has been discovered by by 3 different detectors, marking a new era of greater insights and improved localization of cosmic events now available through globally networked gravitational-wave observatories. In August, detectors on two continents recorded gravitational wave signals from a pair of black holes colliding...

The spectacular planetary nebula NGC 7009, or the Saturn Nebula, emerges from the darkness like a series of oddly-shaped bubbles, lit up in glorious pinks and blues. This colorful image was captured by the powerful MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), as part of a study which mapped the dust inside a planetary nebula for the first time. Credit: ESO/J. Walsh

The spectacular planetary nebula NGC 7009 is ~5000 light years away in the constellation of Aquarius (The Water Bearer). Its name derives from its odd shape, which resembles everyone’s favourite ringed planet seen edge-on. But in fact, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets...

TE ink printed in various shapes with curves and straight lines.
Credit: UNIST Wearable solar thermoelectric generator driven by unprecedentedly high temperature difference. Nano Energy, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.08.061

Engineers have introduced a new advanced energy harvesting system, capable of generating electricity by simply being attached to clothes, windows, and outer walls of a building. This new device is based on a temperature difference between the hot and cold sides. The temperature difference can be increased as high as 20.9 °C, which is much higher than the typical temperature differences of 1.5 to 4.1 °C of wearable thermoelectric generators driven by body heat...

Galaxy NGC 1068 can be seen in close-up in this view from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. This active black hole -shown as an illustration in the zoomed-in inset- is one of the most obscured known, as it is surrounded by extremely thick clouds of gas and dust that can be characterized using infrared and X-ray observations. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

New research examines the material that obscures active galactic nuclei obtained from infrared and X-ray observations. Black holes appear to play a fundamental role in how galaxies evolve throughout their life during a phase in which they are active and consume material from the galaxy itself...