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Category: physics – Page 137

Indian scientists discover gigantic alien planet, 13 times bigger than Jupiter

An international team of scientists led by Professor Abhijit Chakraborty of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad identified the densest alien planet, 13 times the size of Jupiter.

This is the third exoplanet identified by PRL scientists. The discovery was detailed in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters.

Scientists from India, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States utilised the indigenous PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search spectrograph (PARAS) at Mt. Abu’s Gurushikhar Observatory to precisely determine the planet’s mass. The exoplanet weighs 14 g/cm3.

Astrophysicists catalog all known planet-hosting, three-star systems

A planetary physicist at The University of Texas at Arlington is the lead author of a study that catalogs all known planet-hosting, triple-stellar systems—those having three or more stars with planets.

Manfred Cuntz, professor of physics, led the project, titled “An Early Catalog of Planet-hosting Multiple-star Systems of Order Three and Higher.” This study provides a thorough bibliographic assessment of planet-hosting, triple-stellar systems.

It was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplements Series. Co-authors include UTA alumni G.E. Luke, Matthew Millard and Lindsey Boyle, as well as Shaan D. Patel, a doctoral-bound graduate student.

LIGO starts its fourth round of searching for gravitational waves and black holes

After three years of upgrading and waiting, due in part to the coronavirus pandemic, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory has officially resumed its hunt for the signatures of crashing black holes and neutron stars.

“Our LIGO teams have worked through hardship during the past two-plus years to be ready for this moment, and we are indeed ready,” Caltech physicist Albert Lazzarini, the deputy director of the LIGO Laboratory, said in a news release.

Lazzarini said the engineering tests leading up to today’s official start of Observing Run 4, or O4, have already revealed a number of candidate events that have been shared with the astronomical community.

Scientists find first evidence for new superconducting state in Ising superconductor

In a ground-breaking experiment, scientists from the University of Groningen, together with colleagues from the Dutch universities of Nijmegen and Twente and the Harbin Institute of Technology (China), have discovered the existence of a superconductive state that was first predicted in 2017.

They present evidence for a special variant of the FFLO superconductive state in the journal Nature. This discovery could have significant applications, particularly in the field of superconducting electronics.

The lead author of the paper is Professor Justin Ye, who heads the Device Physics of Complex Materials group at the University of Groningen. Ye and his team have been working on the Ising superconducting state. This is a special state that can resist magnetic fields that generally destroy , and that was described by the team in 2015.

Astronomers explore a recently discovered luminous quasar

Using various space telescopes, an international team of astronomers have observed a recently detected luminous quasar known as SMSS J114447.77–430859.3, or J1144 for short. Results of the observational campaign, available in the July 2023 edition of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, shed more light on the properties of this source.

Quasars, or quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are (AGN) of very high luminosity, emitting observable in radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths. They are among the brightest and most distant objects in the known universe, and serve as fundamental tools for numerous studies in astrophysics as well as cosmology. For instance, quasars have been used to investigate the large-scale structure of the universe and the era of reionization. They also improved our understanding of the dynamics of supermassive black holes and the intergalactic medium.

J1144 was detected in June 2022 at a redshift of 0.83. It has a bolometric luminosity of about 470 quattuordecillion erg/s, which makes it the most luminous quasar over the last 9 billion years of cosmic history. It is also the optically brightest (unbeamed) quasar at a redshift greater than 0.4.

The laws of physics have not always been symmetric, which may explain why you exist

For generations, physicists were sure the laws of physics were perfectly symmetric. Until they weren’t.

Symmetry is a tidy and attractive idea that falls apart in our untidy . Indeed, since the 1960s, some kind of broken symmetry has been required to explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe—why, that is, that any of this exists at all.

But pinning down the source behind this existential symmetry violation, even finding proof of it, has been impossible.

Demystifying vortex rings in nuclear fusion and supernovae

Better understanding the formation of swirling, ring-shaped disturbances—known as vortex rings—could help nuclear fusion researchers compress fuel more efficiently, bringing it closer to becoming a viable energy source.

The model developed by researchers at the University of Michigan could aid in the design of the capsule, minimizing the energy lost while trying to ignite the reaction that makes stars shine. In addition, the model could help other engineers who must manage the mixing of fluids after a shock wave passes through, such as those designing supersonic jet engines, as well as physicists trying to understand supernovae.

“These move outward from the collapsing star, populating the universe with the materials that will eventually become nebulae, planets and even new stars—and inward during fusion implosions, disrupting the stability of the burning fusion fuel and reducing the efficiency of the reaction,” said Michael Wadas, a doctoral candidate in at U-M and corresponding author of the study.

You may have heard the theory that it’s possible there are multiple universes where you exist in each one

but live a different life, and make different decisions resulting in a totally different outcome in each universe.

We know this as the multiverse. But where did the idea for multiple universes come from?

Today we’re going to confront the idea of the existence of a multiverse as recent discoveries in physics and astronomy could point to their existence. Have we finally found evidence for a parallel universe, or is it something stranger we cannot comprehend?

Solar Cells Harvesting Water From Air Using Waste Heat Grow Spinach In Desert

Waste heat produced by solar cells undermines their performance, but the race is on to harness it for useful purposes. Researchers have found a way to tap into that heat to collect water out of the air, and have demonstrated the effectiveness of the idea by growing spinach in the Arabian desert, one of the driest places on Earth.

Stephen has a science degree with a major in physics, an arts degree with majors in English Literature and History and Philosophy of Science and a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication.