Physical Sciences

X-Ray Satellite Delivers Surprising New Clues about Formation of Clusters of Sun-like Stars
An important advance in understanding how clusters of stars like our Sun are formed has been made by a team that includes seven Penn State astronomers. One of the clusters that the astronomers studied is shown in this image. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/K.Getman, E.Feigelson, M.Kuhn & the MYStIX team; Infrared:NASA/JPL-Caltech
Star Is Discovered To Be a Close Neighbor of the Sun and the Coldest of Its Kind
This image is an artist's conception of the brown dwarf WISE J085510.83-071442.5. The Sun is the bright star directly to the right of the brown dwarf. Credit: Robert Hurt/JPL, Janella Williams/Penn State University.
Solved: Mysteries of a Nearby Planetary System's Dynamics
An illustration of the orbital distances and relative sizes of the four innermost planets known to orbit the star 55 Cancri A (bottom) in comparison with planets in own inner Solar System (top). Both Jupiter and the Jupiter-mass planet 55 Cancri are outside this picture, orbiting their host star with a distance of nearly 5 astronomical units (AU), where one AU is equal to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. Credit: Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, Penn State University
First Earth-Size Planet Is Discovered in Another Star's "Habitable Zone"
This artist's concept depicts Kepler-186f ,the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone -- a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet's surface. Credit: NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech
Abercrombie and Krecko Named 2014 Spring Commencement Student Marshals
Daniel Abercrombie and Laura Krecko were selected to represent the Eberly College of Science as student marshals at spring commencement
The Most Precise Measurement Yet of the Expanding Universe Is Achieved by Astronomers of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
This drawing illustrates how astronomers of the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) used quasar light to trace the expansion of the universe. Credit: Paul Hooper at Spirit Design, with Mat Pieri and Gongbo Zhao, ICG
WISE Satellite Finds No Evidence for Planet X in Survey of the Sky
This chart shows what types of objects WISE can and cannot see at certain distances from our sun. Bodies with larger masses are brighter, and therefore can be seen at greater distances. For example, if a Jupiter-mass planet existed at 10,000 au, WISE would have easily seen it. But WISE would not have been able to see a Jupiter-mass planet residing at 100,000 au -- it would have been too faint. (To learn more about this image click here.) Credit: Janella Williams, Penn State University.
Water is Detected in a Planet Outside Our Solar System
An artist's conception of a hot-Jupiter extrasolar planet orbiting a star similar to Tau Boötes. Credit: Image used with permission of David Aguilar, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Asteroid Named for Two Penn State Students
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey's 2.5-meter telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico is on the left. Credit: SDSS.
Nanomotors Are Controlled, for the First Time, Inside Living Cells
Optical microscope image of a HeLa cell containing several gold-ruthenium nanomotors. Arrows indicate the trajectories of the nanomotors, and the solid white line shows propulsion. Near the center of the image, a spindle of several nanomotors is spinning. Inset: Electron micrograph of a gold-ruthenium nanomotor. The scattering of sound waves from the two ends results in propulsion. Photo credit: Mallouk lab, Penn State University
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