Physical Sciences

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
A New, "Exceptionally Close" Exploding Star
Swift UVOT images showing M82 before and after the new supernova. The pre-explosion view combines data taken between 2007 and 2013. The view showing SN 2014J merges three exposures taken on Jan. 22, 2014. Mid-ultraviolet light is shown in blue, near-UV light in green, and visible light in red. Credit: NASA/Swift/P. Brown, TAMU
Schaak Named DuPont Professor in Materials Chemistry
Raymond E. Schaak
Booker Named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Squire J. Booker
Book on Statistics in Astronomy Wins PROSE Award for Cosmology and Astronomy
Modern Statistical Methods for Astronomy with R Applications book cover
Size of the Universe Now Measured to Within One Percent
An artist's concept of the new measurement of the size of the Universe. The gray spheres show the pattern of the baryon acoustic oscillations from the early Universe. Galaxies today have a slight tendency to align on the spheres -- the alignment is greatly exaggerated in this illustration. By comparing the size of the spheres (white line) to the predicted value, astronomers can determine to 1% accuracy how far away the galaxies are. Image Credit: Zosia Rostomian, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
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