Mysterious ‘Blue blobs’ Reveal a New Kind of Star System

Stars and galaxies
UArizona astronomers have identified a new class of star system. The collection of mostly young blue stars are seen here using the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys.Michael Jones

University of Arizona astronomers have identified five examples of a new class of stellar system. They’re not quite galaxies and only exist in isolation.

The new stellar systems contain only young, blue stars, which are distributed in an irregular pattern and seem to exist in surprising isolation from any potential parent galaxy.

The stellar systems – which astronomers say appear through a telescope as “blue blobs” and are about the size of tiny dwarf galaxies – are located within the relatively nearby Virgo galaxy cluster...

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Single Brain Scan can Diagnose Alzheimer’s disease

A single MRI scan of the brain could be enough to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research by Imperial College London.

The research uses Machine Learning technology to look at Structural features within the brain, including in regions not previously associated with Alzheimer’s. The advantage of the technique is its simplicity and the fact that it can identify the disease at an early stage when it can be very difficult to diagnose.

Although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, getting a diagnosis quickly at an early stage helps patients. It allows them to access help and support, get treatment to manage their symptoms and plan for the future...

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Engineers create Single-step, All-in-One 3D Printing method to make Robotic Materials

A 3D-printed ‘meta-bot’ developed by UCLA engineers.Rayne Research Group / UCLA

Advance shows promise for ”meta-bots’ designed to deliver drugs or aid rescue missions. A team of UCLA engineers and their colleagues have developed a new design strategy and 3D printing technique to build robots in one single step.

A study that outlined the advance, along with the construction and demonstration of an assortment of tiny robots that walk, maneuver and jump, was published in Science.

The breakthrough enabled the entire mechanical and electronic systems needed to operate a robot to be manufactured all at once by a new type of 3D printing process for engineered active materials with multiple functions (also known as metamaterials)...

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Watching the Death of a Rare Giant Star

Artist’s impression of the red hypergiant star VY Canis Majoris. Located about 3,009 light-years from Earth, VY Canis Majoris is possibly the most massive star in the Milky Way.NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Humphreys, University of Minnesota / J. Olmsted, STScI.

A University of Arizona-led team of astronomers has created a detailed, 3D image of a dying hypergiant star. The team, led by UArizona researchers Ambesh Singh and Lucy Ziurys, traced the distribution, directions and velocities of a variety of molecules surrounding a red hypergiant star known as VY Canis Majoris.

Their findings, which they presented on June 13 at the 240th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California, offer insights, at an unprecedented scale, into the processes that accompany the death ...

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