Physical Sciences

Earth-Like Planets May Be Common in Known Planetary Systems
This image shows the differences (not to scale) between the inner regions of our Solar system, and a simulated planetary system containing a "hot Jupiter".
Planet or a Failed Star? . . . Discovery Reveals One of the Smallest Stellar Companions Ever Seen
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows one of the smallest objects ever seen around a normal star. Astronomers believe the object is a brown dwarf because it is 12 times more massive than Jupiter. The brown dwarf candidate, called CHXR 73 B, is the bright spot at lower right. It orbits a red dwarf star, dubbed CHXR 73, which is a third less massive than the Sun. At 2 million years old, the star is very young when compared with our middle-aged 4.6-billion-year-old Sun.
South African Clone of Penn State Telescope Makes First Scientific Discovery
The Southern African Large Telescope
Research Paper Illuminates How Light Pushes Atoms
A pencil-like laser beam can be made by intersecting two infinitely wide light waves at a small angle. "You might think that an atom would absorb a photon randomly from only one of the beams," as depicted in the section labeled a), "but this paper shows that the atom recoils with a speed that is less than it would get from the momentum of either of the infinitely wide photons, with no sideways recoil," as depicted in b).
How Big is Big? Probing the Conditions of the Universe on the Largest Scales
Credit: Hogg, SDSS-II collaboration The SDSS telescope at Apache Point, NM has been used to create a map of regular galaxies (black points) and luminous red galaxies (red points) out to 40% of the distance to the edge of the visible universe. Light from the most distant red galaxies has taken 5.6 billion years to reach us, while the edge of the visible universe is 13.7 billion light years away. This map of the universe allowed astronomers to detect galactic structures more than a billion light years across.
X-rays Fly as Cracking Comet Streaks Across the Sky
NASA's Swift satellite captured this image of comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 as it chanced to fly in front of the Ring Nebula.
Penn State Researchers Look Beyond the Birth of the Universe
The figure represents our expanding universe as the right branch of the arc.
Penn State Joins New Survey to Monitor the Sky
A current rendering of the 8.4-meter LSST which will use a special three-mirror design, creating an exceptionally wide field of view. The LSST will have the ability to survey the visible sky in only three nights. Credit: LSST Corporation
Gases in One Dimension -- Not Your Typical Desk Toy
Images of quantum Newton’s cradles during their first cycle of oscillation. Credit: David Weiss, Penn State
New Tools Developed for Studying Neurodegenerative Brain Disorders
A simple biophysical model of an axon was used to study the catastrophic consequences of oxidative stress to neurons.
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