SPACE
Ancient Stars Shed Light on Earth's Similarities to Other Planets
A new method used to study planets' geochemistry implies that Earth is not unique
by Staff Reporter
Mars Once Had Salt Lakes Similar to Earth
Texas A&M researchers found that Mars has undergone wet and dry periods and salt lakes formed similar to some found in South America.
by Staff Reporter
NASA's Hubble Telescope Captures Mesmerizing Images of Spiral Galaxies and Interstellar Comet Borisov
NASA's Hubble has done it again as it captured amazing images of spiral galaxies and the first comet outside of our solar system.
by Nhx T.
NASA Unveils New High-Tech Spacesuit for Artemis Mission
NASA is spending people on the moon again for the Artemis mission, and they have unveiled new spacesuits for it.
by Nhx T.
Black Holes Stunt Growth of Dwarf Galaxies
UC Riverside astronomers find large-scale winds associated with active black holes in small galaxies suppress star formation
by Staff Reporter
The UK is Sending a 'Walking' Spider Robot to the Moon in its First Lunar Rover Mission
A tiny walking spider robot, built by a British start-up space company, is set to be UK's first lunar rover in history.
by Lola Louson
The Milky Way kidnapped Several Tiny Galaxies From its Neighbor
UC Riverside-led research shows our galaxy is undergoing a massive merger with its largest satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud
by Staff Reporter
Physicists Have Found a Way to 'Hear' Dark Matter
Physicists at Stockholm University and the Max Planck Institute for Physics have turned to plasmas in a proposal that could revolutionize the search for the elusive dark matter.
by Staff Reporter
Elon Musk, SpaceX Face Increasing Pressure and Tension Over Delay of Crew Dragon Project
Elon Musk and SpaceX are currently experiencing intense pressure from NASA over the years of delay on Crew Dragon initiative.
by Lola Louson
Two Meteor Showers are Coming This Week Plus How to Best Watch Them
Draconids and Southern Taurids meteor showers will be lighting up the night sky this week. Here's how to best catch them as they peak.
by Nhx T.
Astronauts have Replaced Old Batteries in Series of Spacewalks
Astronauts in the International Space Station has hustled to replace the old batteries of the station in a series of spacewalks.
by Nhx T.
NASA Chief Scientist Predicts Life on Mars; Earth Not Yet Prepared for the Results
Chief scientist of NASA Jim Green has predicted that we will finally find sign of life in Mars in a couple of years but also says we are not yet ready for the results.
by Staff Reporter
Elon Musk Unveils The First-Ever Prototype of Starship, The Second Stage of the BFR
Man takes a step towards Mars colonization as Elon Musk and SpaceX officially unveil the first Starship prototype and its flight test schedule.
by Lola Louson
Using Lasers to Visualize Molecular Mysteries in Our Atmosphere
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 6, 2019 -- Invisible to the human eye, molecular interactions between gases and liquids underpin much of our lives, including the absorption of oxygen molecules into our lungs, many industrial processes and the conversion of organic compounds within our atmosphere. But difficulties in measuring gas-liquid collisions have so far prevented the fundamental exploration of these processes. Kenneth McKendrick and Matthew Costen, both at Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh, U.K., hope their new technique of enabling the visualization of gas molecules bouncing off a liquid surface will help climate scientists improve their predictive atmospheric models. The technique is described in The Journal of Chemical Physics, from AIP Publishing. "The molecule of interest in our study, the hydroxyl radical, is an unstable fragment of a molecule that affects the whole of the understanding of atmospheric chemistry and things that genuinely affect climate," said McKendrick. "Some of these important OH reactions take place at the surface of liquid droplets, but we can't see surface interactions directly, so we measure the characteristics of the scattered molecules from real-time movies to infer what happened during their encounter with the liquid." Laser sheets are the key to the technique, inducing a short-lived fluorescent signal from each molecule as it passes through 10 nanosecond pulses. Laser-induced fluorescence isn't new in itself, but this was the first time laser sheets have been applied to scattering from a surface in a vacuum with no other molecules present to interfere with the scattering from the molecular beam. This enabled the McKendrick team to capture individual frames of molecular movement, from molecular beam to liquid surface and scattering, which were compiled into movies. Unlike previous methods of capturing gas-liquid interactions, all the characteristics needed to understand the interaction -- speed, scatter angle, rotation, etc. -- are captured within the simple movies that McKendrick describes as "intuitive." By observing the molecular film strips, McKendrick's team noted molecules scattered at a broad range of angles, similar to a ball bouncing off in all directions when thrown onto an uneven surface. This simple observation directly proved the surface of liquids is not flat. "When you get down to the molecular level, the surface of these liquids is very rough, so much so that you can barely tell the difference between the distribution of molecules when directed down vertically onto the surface or when at an angle of 45 degrees. This finding is important for understanding the chances of different molecular processes happening at the liquid surface," said McKendrick. As they improve their technique, McKendrick's team hopes to collect more refined information from atmospheric relevant liquids. But McKendrick points out the technique is not limited to the field of atmospheric science and is likely to soon be applied to understanding the gas-solid interactions that occur in processes such as the catalytic conversion of gases in car engines.
by Staff Reporter
NASA Team Builds CubeSat-Compatible Aerosol-Detecting Instrument
A NASA team has built a miniaturized instrument that will measure more comprehensively than existing instruments the specks of naturally occurring and manmade matter in the air that can adversely affect human health and the climate.
by Staff Reporter
