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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News


What's baking on Saturn's moon Titan?

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 04:04 PM PDT

Radar images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal some new curiosities on the surface of Saturn's mysterious moon Titan, including a nearly circular feature that resembles a giant hot cross bun and shorelines of ancient seas.

Space station investigation to test fresh food experience

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 04:02 PM PDT

With all the prepackaged gardening kits on the market, an exceptionally green thumb isn't necessary to grow your own tasty fresh vegetables here on Earth. The same may hold true for U.S. astronauts living and working aboard the International Space Station when they receive a newly developed Vegetable Production System, called VEGGIE for short, set to launch aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule on NASA's third Commercial Resupply Services mission next year.

Planet found in nearest star system to Earth: HARPS instrument finds Earth-mass exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 03:44 PM PDT

European astronomers have discovered a planet with about the mass of Earth orbiting a star in the Alpha Centauri system -- the nearest to Earth. It is also the lightest exoplanet ever discovered around a star like the Sun. The planet was detected using the HARPS instrument on the 3.6-metre telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Jelly-like atmospheric particles resist chemical aging

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 01:32 PM PDT

Atmospheric chemists have found that when it comes to secondary organic material in the atmosphere, there are two distinct breeds: liquids and jellies.

New paper reveals fundamental chemistry of plasma/liquid interactions

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 01:32 PM PDT

New research has revealed a critical interaction that is occurring at this plasma-liquid interface in that the electrons in plasma actually serve to separate water, producing hydrogen gas.

Pluto's moons and possible rings may be hazards: New Horizons and the gauntlet it may encounter in 2015

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 01:31 PM PDT

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is now almost seven years into its 9.5-year journey across the solar system to explore Pluto and its system of moons. Just over two years from now, in January 2015, New Horizons will begin encounter operations, which will culminate in a close approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, and the first-ever exploration of a planet in the Kuiper Belt.

New type of cosmic ray discovered after 100 years

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 10:15 AM PDT

Using the European X-ray astronomy satellite XMM-Newton, researchers have discovered a new source of cosmic rays. In the vicinity of the remarkable Arches cluster, near the center of the Milky Way, these particles are accelerated in the shock wave generated by tens of thousands of young stars moving at a speed of around 700,000 km/h. These cosmic rays produce a characteristic X-ray emission by interacting with the atoms in the surrounding gas. Their origin differs from that of the cosmic rays discovered exactly a hundred years ago by Victor Hess, which originate in the explosions of supernovae.

Dark matter filament studied in 3-D for the first time

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 06:22 AM PDT

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have studied a giant filament of dark matter in 3D for the first time. Extending 60 million light-years from one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, the filament is part of the cosmic web that constitutes the large-scale structure of the Universe, and is a leftover of the very first moments after the Big Bang. If the high mass measured for the filament is representative of the rest of the Universe, then these structures may contain more than half of all the mass in the Universe.

'Physical Internet': Shared transportation system would increase profits, reduce carbon emissions

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 06:21 AM PDT

The Physical Internet – a concept in which goods are handled, stored and transported in a shared network of manufacturers, retailers and the transportation industry – would benefit the U.S. economy and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study.

Physicists crack another piece of the glass puzzle

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 05:51 AM PDT

When it comes to physics, glass lacks transparency. No one has been able to see what's happening at the molecular level as a super-cooled liquid approaches the glass state -- until now. Physicists have made a movie of particle motion during this mysterious transition. Their findings show how the rotation of the particles becomes decoupled from their movement through space.

Physicists explain how nonlinear dust acoustic waves arise in dusty plasmas

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 05:50 AM PDT

Dusty plasmas can be found in many places both in space and in the laboratory. Due to their special properties, dust acoustic waves can propagate inside these plasmas like sound waves in air, and can be studied with the naked eye or with standard video cameras. Physicists have published a model with which they describe how large amplitude dust acoustic waves in dusty plasmas behave.

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