Physical Sciences

Experiment Near South Pole Reveals How Earth Blocks High-Energy Particles Produced by Nuclear Reactions
This image shows a visual representation of one of the highest-energy neutrino detections superimposed on a view of the IceCube Lab near the South Pole. Credit: IceCube Collaboration
New quest to map stars and galaxies across the entire sky
This artist's impression shows a cutaway view of the parts of the Universe that SDSS-V will study. SDSS-V will study millions of stars to create a map of the entire Milky Way...and way far beyond. Credit: Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science/SDSS
Sky-high observatory sheds light on origin of excess anti-matter: New study excludes nearby pulsars, points to dark matter as possible culprit
High-energy photon emission around the pulsars Geminga and PSR B0656+14, as captured by the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory. Credit: High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Collaboration (moon image Gregory H. Revera)
Astronomers discover sunscreen snow falling on hot exoplanet
Giant Exoplanet Dwarfs Solar System Family. This is an artist's impression of the gas giant planet Kepler-13Ab as compared in size to several planets in our solar system. The behemoth exoplanet is six times more massive than Jupiter. Kepler-13Ab is also one of the hottest known planets, with a dayside temperature of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It orbits very close to the star Kepler-13A, which is 1,730 light-years from Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)
Two-dimensional materials gets a new theory for control of properties
A grain boundary forms when graphene growth advances past an apex on a conical bump, where the curvature resembles that on a sphere; it terminates at the foot of the bump, where curvature is saddle-like. Credit: Crespi Lab / Penn State
Renewable resource: sulfur is used, replenished to produce lipoic acid
Model of the crystal structure of the lipoyl synthase enzyme (LipA) from the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis revealing the destruction of one of its iron-sulfur clusters (orange and yellow balls) to use as a sulfur source for the production of lipoic acid. New research demonstrates that the iron-sulfur cluster that is destroyed during the production of lipoic acid is replaced by an iron-sulfur carrier protein, NfuA, so that LipA can continue to produce lipoic acid. Credit: Booker laboratory, Penn State
Rechtsman awarded 2017 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering
Mikael Rechtsman
Gravitational waves + new clues from space reveal new way to make a black hole
Artist impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars. Credit: R. Hurt, Caltech/JPL
Terrones Elected as Fellow of the American Physical Society
Mauricio Terrones
You can see that from here: New telescope attachment allows ground-based observations of new worlds to rival those from space
A team of astronomers led by researchers at Penn State have developed beam-shaping diffusers – small pieces of etched glass that can be mounted on telescopes – that increase the quality of ground-based photometric observations. Image credit left/right: Gudmundur Stefansson; middle: Caltech/Palomar Observatory
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