New Webb Telescope image reveals Wonders, Beauty, Secrets of Star Structure and Building Blocks of life

milisavljevic-cassiopeia
Danny Milisavljevic’s research on the James Webb Space Telescope led to his new detailed image of stellar remnant Cassiopeia A in which infrared light is translated into visible-light wavelengths. (NASA image)

To gaze at the stars is human. To be able to see them in 3D detail is very nearly divine.
Divine vision is what the James Webb Space Telescope has granted Earthbound scientists in a new near-infrared, detailed image of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a stellar remnant—the clouds of gas, dust and other material left behind when a star dies. Danny Milisavljevic, assistant professor of physics and astronomy in Purdue University’s College of Science, studies supernova remnants and leads a year one research team on the JWST examining Cas A.

“I have spent 17 years studying stars and their ...

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Study shows how to Prevent a High-fat Diet from throwing Metabolism out of whack

Study shows how to prevent a high-fat diet from throwing metabolism out of whack
SAPS3 brings the PP6 catalytic subunit to dephosphorylate AMPK. Credit: Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36809-1

Eating lots of fats increases the risk of metabolic disorders, but the mechanisms behind the problem have not been well understood. Now, University of California, Irvine biologists have made a key finding about how to ward off harmful effects caused by a high-fat diet. Their study appears in Nature Communications.

The UC Irvine research centered on a protein complex called AMPK, which senses the body’s nutrition and takes action to keep it balanced. For example, if AMPK detects that glucose is low, it can boost lipid breakdown to produce energy in its place...

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An Energy Breakthrough: Tech researchers Create New Type of Fuel Cell

An energy breakthrough: Tech researchers create new type of fuel cell
(A) Schematic of the conventional SOFC, porous SOFC, and the CSSFC. (B) The I-V-P performance of different fuel cell configurations with Ni-BZCYYb as anodes operated on CH4 at 550 °C. (C) The temperature-dependent Arrhenius plot of oxygen ionic conductivities of different electrolytes with or without carbonate modification. (D) DSC plots of different electrolytes in Ar atmosphere. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2208750119

Like batteries, fuel cells produce energy through an electrochemical process. Unlike batteries, they don’t run down or require recharging. However, the potential advantages of fuel cells are offset by challenges that include cost, performance and durability.

Michigan Technological University researcher Yun Hang ...

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Hubble unexpectedly finds Double Quasar in Distant Universe

Artist concept: Two merging galaxies have a light blue glow overlaid by brownish-gold clouds set against a black, deep-space field. Two quasars are closely spaced, white objects at the merger's center: one above and to the right of the other.
This artist’s concept shows the brilliant glare of two quasars residing in the cores of two galaxies that are in the chaotic process of merging. The gravitational tug-of-war between the two galaxies ignites a firestorm of star birth. Quasars are brilliant beacons of intense light from the centers of distant galaxies. They are powered by supermassive black holes voraciously feeding on infalling matter. This feeding frenzy unleashes a torrent of radiation that can outshine the collective light of billions of stars in the host galaxy. In a few tens of millions of years, the black holes and their galaxies will merge, and so will the quasar pair, forming an even more massive black hole.
Credits: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

The early universe was a rambunctious place where galaxies ofte...

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