1. A near-perfect broadband absorber that’s thin, flexible and transparent in visible light. Credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
2. SEM images of a nanotube array: side view (left) and top view (right). Credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

Transparent window coatings that keep buildings and cars cool on sunny days. Devices that could more than triple solar cell efficiencies. Thin, lightweight shields that block thermal detection. These are potential applications for a thin, flexible, light-absorbing material developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego...

For the first time, researchers have simulated local magnetic anisotropy at the atomic level in a magnetic material based on experimental data. This figure shows changes in magnetic energy across individual iron and platinum atoms from an FePt nanoparticle.
Credit: Image courtesy of Markus Eisenbach and Nature

Barely wider than a strand of human DNA, magnetic nanoparticles – such as those made from iron and platinum atoms – are promising materials for next-generation recording and storage devices like hard drives. Building these devices from nanoparticles should increase storage capacity and density, but understanding how magnetism works at the level of individual atoms is critical to getting the best performance...

1. Ahuna Mons seen in a simulated perspective view. The elevation has been exaggerated by a factor of two. The view was made using enhanced-color images from NASA’s Dawn mission.
Credit: NASA
2. Ceres’ mysterious mountain Ahuna Mons is seen in this mosaic of images from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Dawn took these images from 385 kilometers (240 miles ) above the surface, in December 2015. The resolution of the image is 35 meters (120 feet) per pixel.
Credit: NASA

A recently discovered solitary ice volcano on the dwarf planet Ceres may have some hidden older siblings, say scientists who have tested a likely way such mountains of icy rock – called cryovolcanoes – might disappear over millions of years. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft discovered Ceres’s 2.5-mile tall Ahuna Mons cryovolcano in 2015...

Artist’s impression of a stray black hole storming through a dense gas cloud. The gas is dragged along by the strong gravity of the black hole to form a narrow gas stream. Credit: Keio University

By analyzing the gas motion of an extraordinarily fast-moving cosmic cloud in a corner of the Milky Way, astronomers found hints of a wandering black hole hidden in the cloud. This result marks the beginning of the search for quiet black holes; millions of such objects are expected to be floating in the Milky Way although only dozens have been found to date.

It is difficult to find black holes, because they are completely black. In some cases black holes cause effects which can be seen...