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Science and Technology at phys.org

Saturday, Oct 5

19

Nuclear rockets could travel to Mars in half the time, but designing the reactors that would power them isn't easy

phys.org

NASA plans to send crewed missions to Mars over the next decade—but the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) journey to the red planet could take several months to years round trip.

15

Large radio bubble detected in galaxy NGC 4217

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An international team of astronomers has performed radio observations of a star-forming galaxy known as NGC 4217. The observational campaign detected a large radio bubble in the galaxy's halo. The finding was reported in a paper published…

Friday, Oct 4

20

The sun unleashes its strongest flare this cycle

phys.org

Yesterday the sun released a huge solar flare, and it's heading toward Earth. It's nothing to worry about since it's nowhere near as large as the Carrington Event of 1859, but it is large enough to give us some amazing aurora.

Capturing finer-scale topographic differences improves Earth system model capability to reproduce observations

phys.org

Earth system models (ESMs), used in climate simulations and projections, typically use grids of 50–200 km resolution. These are considered relatively coarse with limited ability to resolve land surface variability.

What's the best material for a lunar tower?

phys.org

Physical infrastructure on the moon will be critical to any long-term human presence there as both America and China gear up for a sustained human lunar presence. Increasingly, a self-deploying tower is one of the most essential parts of…

Coral reef snapper feeling impacts of marine heat waves on Great Barrier Reef

phys.org

The fate of a popular fish found on the Great Barrier Reef could be in jeopardy, with a new James Cook University study highlighting the impact of marine heat waves on the Spanish Flag Snapper.

19

ESA's Hera mission takes flight toward the asteroid deflected by NASA's DART probe two years ago

phys.org

The European Space Agency's Hera mission will set off from Cape Canaveral on 7 October on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It will travel several hundred million kilometers to reach the double asteroid Didymos in autumn 2026.

The earliest galaxies formed amazingly fast after the Big Bang. Do they break the universe or change its age?

phys.org

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the largest and most powerful space telescope built to date. Since it was launched in December 2021 it has provided groundbreaking insights. These include discovering the earliest and most distant…

18

X-ray scattering technique pinpoints new targets for antibiotic drug development

phys.org

Researchers from City St George's, University of London, have used a new ultra-high precision X-ray scattering technique to reveal the location and identity of metal ions in bacteria that are crucial for antibiotics to work optimally.

Quantum communication: Using microwaves to efficiently control diamond qubits

phys.org

In a first for Germany, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have shown how tin vacancies in diamonds can be precisely controlled using microwaves. These vacancies have special optical and magnetic properties and can…

Hubble observes a peculiar galaxy shape

phys.org

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the galaxy, NGC 4694. Most galaxies fall into one of two basic types. Spiral galaxies are young and energetic, filled with the gas needed to form new stars and sporting spiral arms that…

17

ESA's Hera spacecraft set for asteroid 'crime scene investigation'

phys.org

Europe's Hera probe is tentatively scheduled to launch Monday on a mission to inspect the damage a NASA spacecraft made when it smashed into an asteroid during the first test of Earth's planetary defenses.

Publisher Springer Nature makes stock market debut

phys.org

Leading academic publisher Springer Nature made its stock market debut Friday, one of the few initial public offerings in Frankfurt this year despite the exchange's strong performance.

Study finds people are skeptical of headlines labeled as AI-generated

phys.org

News consumers are averse to AI-generated headlines, which are seen as potentially inaccurate. AI-generated content is proliferating online, and social media companies have started to label it.

16

Some microbes used poison gas in battle for iron in the Earth's early oceans, geomicrobiologists find

phys.org

Early in the Earth's development, the atmosphere contained no oxygen. Yet the iron dissolved in the oceans was oxidized in gigantic quantities and deposited as rock. It can be seen today, for example, as banded iron ore in South Africa.

15

Successful Vulcan launch early Friday would unlock lucrative future for ULA

phys.org

United Launch Alliance is footing the bill for the second ever launch of its Vulcan Centaur rocket, so it can finally see the payouts for the backlog of $3.1 billion worth of national security missions, something ULA cannot do until the…

Investigating the possibility of using asteroid material to grow edible biomass for astronauts

phys.org

A team of engineers and planetary scientists at Western University's Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, in Canada, has found that it might be possible to produce food for space travelers by feeding bacteria asteroid material,…

07

Traces of antimatter in cosmic rays reopen the search for 'WIMPs' as dark matter

phys.org

One of the great challenges of modern cosmology is to reveal the nature of dark matter. We know it exists (it constitutes more than 85% of the matter in the universe), but we have never seen it directly and still do not know what it is.

Thursday, Oct 3

22

Sentinel-2 data reveal significant seasonal variations in intertidal seagrass

phys.org

With data from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, researchers have revealed seasonal variations in intertidal seagrass across Western Europe and North Africa. As a key indicator of biodiversity, these new findings offer valuable insights…

21

X-rays advance understanding of Earth's core-mantle boundary and super-Earth magma oceans

phys.org

Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have revealed new details about Earth's core-mantle boundary and similar regions found in exoplanets.

NASA's laser comms demo makes deep space record, completes first phase

phys.org

The Deep Space Optical Communications tech demo has completed several key milestones, culminating in sending a signal to Mars' farthest distance from Earth.

A new era of solar observation: International team produces global maps of coronal magnetic field

phys.org

For the first time, scientists have taken near-daily measurements of the sun's global coronal magnetic field, a region of the sun that has only been observed irregularly in the past. The resulting observations are providing valuable…

19

Lunar mission data analysis finds widespread evidence of ice deposits

phys.org

Deposits of ice in lunar dust and rock (regolith) are more extensive than previously thought, according to a new analysis of data from NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) mission. Ice would be a valuable resource for future lunar…

New lunar distress system could safeguard future astronauts

phys.org

A team of international scientists has taken a significant step towards making lunar exploration safer, proposing a distress monitoring and rescue system designed for the moon's unique and challenging environment.

Engineers create a chip-based tractor beam for biological particles

phys.org

MIT researchers have developed a miniature, chip-based "tractor beam," like the one that captures the Millennium Falcon in the film "Star Wars," that could someday help biologists and clinicians study DNA, classify cells, and investigate…

18

There were more black holes in the early universe than we thought, research finds

phys.org

Supermassive black holes are some of the most impressive (and scary) objects in the universe—with masses around 1 billion times more than that of the sun. And we know they've been around for a long time.

Ancient protein structure may have enabled early molecular evolution and diversification

phys.org

In a finding that offers fresh insights into the early evolution of life on Earth, two RIKEN biologists have conducted lab experiments that have revealed a previously unknown protein fold, which is completely absent in modern proteins.

Five-mile asteroid impact crater below Atlantic captured in 'exquisite' detail by seismic data

phys.org

New images of an asteroid impact crater buried deep below the floor of the Atlantic Ocean have been published today by researchers at Heriot-Watt University.

17

Scientists find plant-like behavior in human cells

phys.org

A team of scientists from Monash University has solved the structure of a protein known as "LYCHOS," which can detect and regulate cell growth by sensing cholesterol levels in the body.

New species of clearwing moth from Guyana discovered in Wales

phys.org

A new species of moth has been described far away from home following a cross-continent detective journey that included Natural History Museum scientists from separate fields, a budding young ecologist with a knack for community science, a…