Science News

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-world-powerful-magnet-ready-ship.html World's most powerful magnet ready to ship: After a decade of design and fabrication, General Atomics is ready to ship the first module of the Central Solenoid, the world's most powerful magnet. It will become a central component of ITER, a machine that replicates the fusion power of the sun. ITER is being built in southern France by 35 partner countries. ITER's mission is to prove energy from hydrogen fusion can be created and controlled on earth. Fusion energy is carbon-free, safe and economic. The materials to power society with hydrogen fusion for millions of years are readily abundant.…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-seed-black-hole-dark-halo.html Study points to a seed black hole produced by a dark matter halo collapse Supermassive black holes, or SMBHs, are black holes with masses that are several million to billion times the mass of our sun. The Milky Way hosts an SMBH with mass a few million times the solar mass. Surprisingly, astrophysical observations show that SMBHs already existed when the universe was very young. For example, a billion solar mass black holes are found when the universe was just 6% of its current age, 13.7 billion years. How do these SMBHs in the early universe originate? A team led by a theoretical physicist at the…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-robot-chemist-insight-life.html Robot chemist offers insight into the origins of life: A robotic 'evolution machine' capable of exploring the generational development of chemical mixtures over long periods of time could help cast new light on the origins of life, scientists say. team of chemists from the University of Glasgow developed the robot, which uses a machine-learning algorithm to make decisions about which chemicals from a selection of 18 to combine in a reactor, and how to set conditions under which the reaction occurs. The robot is capable of running the experiments on its own, with minimal human supervision. T…

https://newatlas.com/materials/thermally-stable-zte-advanced-material Extraordinary new material shows zero heat expansion from 4 to 1,400 K: By Loz Blain June 11, 2021 Australian researchers have created what may be one of the most thermally stable materials ever discovered. This new zero thermal expansion (ZTE) material made of scandium, aluminum, tungsten and oxygen did not change in volume at temperatures ranging from 4 to 1400 Kelvin (-269 to 1126 °C, -452 to 2059 °F). That's a wider range of temperatures, say scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), than any other material demonstrated to date, and it could make ortho…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-subatomic-particle-antiparticle.html Subatomic particle seen changing to antiparticle and back: Physicists have proved that a subatomic particle can switch into its antiparticle alter-ego and back again, in a new discovery revealed today. The extraordinarily precise measurement was made by UK researchers using the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at CERN. It has provided the first evidence that charm mesons can change into their antiparticle and back again. Mixing phenomenon For more than 10 years, scientists have known that charm mesons, subatomic particles that contain a quark and an antiqu…

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-source-gw190814-event-black-hole-strange.html JUNE 8, 2021 Could the source of the GW190814 event be a black hole-strange quark star system? On the 14th of August 2019, the LIGO-Virgo collaboration detected a gravitational wave signal believed to be associated with the merging of a binary stellar system composed of a black hole with a mass of 23 times the mass of the sun (M⊙) and a compact object with a mass of about 2.6 M⊙. The nature of GW190814ʼs secondary star is enigmatic, since, according to the current astronomical observations, it could be the heaviest neutron star or the lightest black hole ever observed. Research…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-tardigrades-survive-impacts-meters.htmlMAY 21, 2021 REPORT the paper: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2020.2405 Tardigrade Survival Limits in High-Speed Impacts—Implications for Panspermia and Collection of Samples from Plumes Emitted by Ice Worlds: Abstract The ability of tardigrades to survive impact shocks in the kilometer per second and gigapascal range was investigated. When rocks impact planetary surfaces, the impact speeds and shock pressures are in the kilometer per second and gigapascal range. This investigation tested whether tardigrades can survive in impacts typical of those that occur natur…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-chinese-cargo-spacecraft-docks-orbital.html Chinese cargo spacecraft docks with orbital station: An automated spacecraft docked with China's new space station Sunday carrying fuel and supplies for its future crew, the Chinese space agency announced. Tianzhou-2 spacecraft reached the Tianhe station eight hours after blasting off from Hainan, an island in the South China Sea, China Manned Space said. It carried space suits, living supplies and equipment and fuel for the station. Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, is third and largest orbital station launched by China's increasingly ambition space program. The station's…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-nihao-mars-china-zhurong-rover.html China lands on Mars in major advance for its space ambitions: In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, members at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center celebrate after China's Tianwen-1 probe successfully landed on Mars, at the center in Beijing, Saturday, May 15, 2021. China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in the latest advance for its ambitious goals in space. (Jin Liwang/Xinhua via China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat mo…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-reveals-microsecond-big.html MAY 21, 2021 Study reveals new details on what happened in the first microsecond of Big Bang: Researchers from University of Copenhagen have investigated what happened to a specific kind of plasma—the first matter ever to be present—during the first microsecond of Big Bang. Their findings provide a piece of the puzzle to the evolution of the universe, as we know it today. About 14 billion years ago, our universe changed from being a lot hotter and denser to expanding radically—a process that scientists have named the Big Bang. And even though we know that this fast expansion created…

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/brazil-e2-80-99s-amazon-has-e2-80-98flipped-e2-80-99-and-now-emits-more-carbon-pollution-than-it-sinks/ar-BB1gjOir?ocid=BingNews

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-juno-mission-expands-into-the-future This view from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft shows two storms merging. The two white ovals seen within the orange-colored band left of center are anticyclonic storms – that is, storms that rotate counterclockwise. The image was taken on Dec. 26, 2019. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Tanya Oleksuik, © CC BY The spacecraft, which has been gathering data on the gas giant since July 2016, will become an explorer of the full Jovian system – Jupiter and its rings and moons. NASA has authorized a mission extension for its Juno spacecraf…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-physicists-neutron-stars-bigger-previously.html Physicists predict neutron stars may be bigger than previously imagined: When a massive star dies, first there is a supernova explosion. Then, what's left over becomes either a black hole or a neutron star. That neutron star is the densest celestial body that astronomers can observe, with a mass about 1.4 times the size of the sun. However, there is still little known about these impressive objects. Now, a Florida State University researcher has published a piece in Physical Review Letters arguing that new measurements related to the neutron skin of a lead nucleus may require scie…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-extraterrestrial-radioactive-isotope-seabed-implications.html MAY 14, 2021 Extraterrestrial radioactive isotope found in seabed has implications for Earth's origins:\ The first-ever discovery of an extraterrestrial radioactive isotope on Earth has scientists rethinking the origins of the elements on our planet. The tiny traces of plutonium-244 were found in ocean crust alongside radioactive iron-60. The two isotopes are evidence of violent cosmic events in the vicinity of Earth millions of years ago. Star explosions, or supernovae create many of the heavy elements in the periodic table, including those vital fo…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-discovery-geologic-plate-tectonic.html Discovery of new geologic process calls for changes to plate tectonic cycle: Geoscientists at the University of Toronto (U of T) and Istanbul Technical University have discovered a new process in plate tectonics which shows that tremendous damage occurs to areas of Earth's crust long before it should be geologically altered by known plate-boundary processes, highlighting the need to amend current understandings of the planet's tectonic cycle. Plate tectonics, an accepted theory for over 60 years that explains the geologic processes occurring below the surface of Earth, holds that its outer…

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-space-telescope-golden-mirror-wings.html Space telescope's golden mirror wings open one last time on Earth: The process of deploying, moving, expanding and unfurling all of Webb's many movable pieces after they have been exposed to a simulated launch is the best way to ensure they will perform as intended once in space. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn For the last time while it is on Earth, the world's largest and most powerful space science telescope opened its iconic primary mirror. This event marked a key milestone in preparing the observatory for launch later this year. As part of the NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's …

Article about Tokomaks in Britain and America Interestingly set in the business section, not the science section of the BBC. However it does offer some useful up to date facts and figures. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56843149

NASA has found water on the Moon's lit surface. https://www.npr.org/2020/10/26/927869069/water-on-the-moon-nasa-confirms-water-molecules-on-our-neighbors-sunny-surface?t=1603753199805 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01222-x#_blank Abstract from Nature Astronomy: Interesting news, though not Earth-shattering, probably.

A new report has provided new estimates for COVID-19 deaths. Verified death numbers obviously are a lower estimate. By looking at excess deaths and accounting for non-COVID-19 related deaths the authors estimate a current death toll of 6.9 millions globally (more than double of verified cases). In the US the estimated total deaths are over 900k. In the UK both numbers are closer (209k vs 150k).

Another piece of the puzzle of life. Seems to present very primitive form of cell differentiation, with only two types of cells. A billion year old fossil, which provides a new link in the evolution of animals, has been discovered in Torridon, Scotland. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-billion-year-old-fossil-reveals-link-evolution.html The organism was spherical in shape, suggesting also that cellular differentiation, "tissue" formation, and body plan were very primitive. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00424-3

A new attempt to find the universe's age revealed troubling flaws. https://futurism.com/hubble-broke-understanding-universe

Interesting side effect of covid pandemic protocols:

Just heard the news that Michael Collins from Apollo 11 has died. He was 90 years old and will be remebered as being the "lonliest man in the world" orbiting the Moon while his two companions, the late Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the surface. Condolences to his family and friends.

What is to happen when the batteries wear out ? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56574779

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-astronomers-hint-silhouette-spaghettified-star.html Astronomers see first hint of the silhouette of a spaghettified star: For decades astronomers have been spotting bursts of electromagnetic radiation coming from black holes. They assumed those are the result of stars being torn apart, but they have never seen the silhouette of the actual material ligaments. Now a group of astronomers, including lead author Giacomo Cannizzaro and Peter Jonker from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research/Radboud University, has for the first time observed spectral absorption lines caused by strands of a spaghettified star. Publication in Monthl…