Physical Sciences

Allergic Response Tied to Lipid Molecules in Cell Membrane
Image courtesy of Erin Sheets, Penn State Illustration of antigen-mediated cross-linking of IgE receptors on the cell membrane and their translocation into cholesterol-rich lipid domains.
Solar Cell Directly Splits Water for Hydrogen
Neutron Stars Join the Black-Hole Jet Set
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/S.Heintz et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss This artist's illustration depicts the jet of relativistic particles blasting out of Circinus X-1, a system where a neutron star is in orbit with a star several times the mass of the Sun.
Rapidly Whirling Black Holes Discovered Spinning at Near Maximum Speed
Results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, combined with new theoretical calculations, provide one of the best pieces of evidence yet that many supermassive black holes are spinning extremely rapidly. The images on the left show 4 out of the 9 large galaxies included in the Chandra study, each containing a supermassive black hole in its center. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC, Illustration: CXC/M. Weiss
Powerful New Sky Surveys to Explore Dark Energy, Milky Way Galaxy, and Giant Planets
Credit: T. Riecken Artist's rendition of planets orbiting a sun-like star. MARVELS will monitor more than 10,000 stars to detect the motions induced by giant, Jupiter-like planets, providing new constraints on the mechanisms of giant planet formation.
Hidden Population of Powerful Black Holes Revealed in Large Sky Survey
These pictures show galaxies that host three of the hidden quasars found in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II) sample.
Penn State, Rutgers Astronomy Teams Discover Ancestors of Galaxies Like the Milky Way
Credit: Todd Boroson/NOAO/AURA/NSF Galaxy M74 or NGC 628 is representative of spiral galaxies that evolved from Lyman alpha emitting galaxies in the early universe.
$30 Million from Charles Simonyi and Bill Gates for LSST Astronomy Project
Credit: LSST Corporation Design of LSST Telescope, current as of November 2006.
Intergalactic "Shot in the Dark" Shocks Astronomers
In this dramatic Hubble Space Telescope image, we see the "tidal tail" of the Tadpole Galaxy, UGC 10214.
Biocapture Surfaces Produced for Study of Brain Chemistry
A single layer of molecules (red lines) that resists biomolecule binding is first self-organized on a gold substrate. Credit: Mitchell J. Shuster and Thomas J. Mullen, Penn State
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