Atlas tagged posts

Argonne scientists and collaborators used the Gammasphere, this powerful gamma ray spectrometer, to help create the right conditions to cause and spot a long-theorized effect called nuclear excitation by electron capture. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

For the first time, physicists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and their collaborators, led by a team from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, demonstrated a long-theorized nuclear effect. This advance tests theoretical models that describe how nuclear and atomic realms interact and may also provide new insights into how star elements are created. Physicists first predicted the effect, called nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC), over 40 years ago. But scientists had not seen it until now...

Unprocessed images of Saturn’s moon Atlas was taken on April 12, 2017, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

These raw, unprocessed images of Saturn’s moon, Atlas, were taken on April 12, 2017, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The flyby had a close-approach distance of about 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers). These images are the closest ever taken of Atlas and will help to characterize its shape and geology. Atlas (19 miles, or 30 kilometers across) orbits Saturn just outside the A ring—the outermost of the planet’s bright, main rings.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/cassini-sees-flying-saucer-moon-atlas-up-close