Tag Archive for 'Aluminum'

Homo erectus Reached East Asia Far Earlier than Previously Thought

Feb 18, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

New dating of fossil skulls from the Early Pleistocene site of Yunxian in China suggests that early members of Homo erectus lived in eastern Asia nearly...

Mastcam-Z landscape and multispectral images of light-toned float rocks atop the Jezero crater Margin Unit near the Hans Amundson Memorial workspace (Sol 912) demonstrating the spectral diversity of this material. Image credit: Broz et al., doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-02856-3.

Mars Was Warmer, Wetter Millions of Years Ago, Planetary Scientists Say

Dec 3, 2025 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered several thousand small, light-toned rock fragments, or float rocks, with some exhibiting spectral signatures...

Three-proton emission from aluminium-20. Image credit: Xiaodong Xu.

New Isotope of Aluminum Discovered: Aluminum-20

Jul 22, 2025 by News Staff

The previously unknown nucleus aluminum-20 has been observed for the first time by detecting its in-flight decays. Three-proton emission from aluminium-20....

A fragment of the Erg Chech 002 meteorite. Image credit: Steve Jurvetson / CC BY 2.0.

4.6-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Provides New Insights into Early Solar Nebula

Aug 29, 2023 by News Staff

Scientists have determined a precise lead isotopic age of the andesitic achondrite meteorite Erg Chech 002. Their result, combined with published aluminum-26-magnesium-26...

The Mörigen arrowhead. Image credit: Thomas Schüpbach.

2,800-Year-Old Arrowhead Was Made of Meteoritic Iron, Archaeologists Say

Aug 11, 2023 by Natali Anderson

The detection of the cosmogenic isotope aluminum-26; the concentrations of nickel, cobalt, germanium and gallium; and the presence of two minerals called...

This system, containing Synechocystis blue-green algae, powered a microprocessor continuously for a year using nothing but ambient light and water. Image credit: Paolo Bombelli.

Renewable Bio-Photovoltaic Cell Created

May 12, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists have created a bio-photovoltaic energy harvester system using a species of photosynthetic blue-green algae called Synechocystis on an aluminum...

Palmerini et al. analyzed the isotopic composition of heavy neutron capture elements measured in SiC stardust grains extracted from pristine meteorites, interpreting them as the outcome of s-process nucleosynthesis occurring in the AGB stages of stars with masses between two and three solar masses and solar metallicities. Image credit: Nan Liu / Andrew Davis / NASA.

Researchers Measure Isotopic Ratios in Presolar Stardust Grains

Oct 12, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has analyzed a diverse set of presolar grains with the goal of realizing their true stellar origins. Palmerini et al....

Multi-wavelength observations of the Ophiuchus star-forming region reveal interactions between clouds of star-forming gas and radionuclides produced in a nearby cluster of young stars. The top image (a) shows the distribution of aluminum-26 in red, traced by gamma-ray emissions. The central box represents the area covered in the bottom left image (b), which shows the distribution of protostars in the Ophiuchus clouds as red dots. The area in the box is shown in the bottom right image (c), a deep near-infrared color composite image of the L1688 cloud, containing many well known prestellar dense-gas cores with disks and protostars. Image credit: Forbes et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-021-01442-9.

Ophiuchus Star-Forming Complex Hosts Analogues of Early Solar System, Astronomers Say

Aug 17, 2021 by News Staff

The Ophiuchus star-forming complex is a complex of interstellar clouds, nebulae and prestellar cores in the constellation of Ophiuchus. At an estimated...

This SEM image shows crystals of donwilhelmsite in Oued Awlitis 001. Image credit: Ansgar Greshake, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

New Mineral Discovered in Lunar Meteorite: Donwilhelmsite

Nov 5, 2020 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers in Europe has identified a new high-pressure mineral in a lunar meteorite called Oued Awlitis 001. Fragments of Oued Awlitis 001....

An artist’s impression of a thermonuclear supernova: the material ejected by the supernova will initially expand very rapidly, but then gradually slow down, forming an intricate giant bubble of hot glowing gas; eventually, the charred remains of the white dwarf that exploded will overtake these gaseous layers, and speed out onto its journey across our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

Thermonuclear Supernova Ejects White Dwarf from Binary System

Jul 15, 2020 by News Staff

A white dwarf star called SDSS J124043.01+671034.68 (SDSS J1240+6710) is traveling at 900,000 km/h (559,234 mph) through our Milky Way Galaxy. It also...

Electrons travel in cars with increasing numbers, giving rise to a conductance series that shows up in Pascal’s triangle. Image credit: Yun-Yi Pai.

Scientists Discover New Electronic State of Matter

Feb 19, 2020 by News Staff

A team of U.S. physicists and materials scientists has observed a new state of matter at the interface between two oxide materials: lanthanum aluminate...

Thin films of glassy alumina (Al2O3) subjected to mechanical stress. Image credit: Tampere University.

New Glass Bends Instead of Breaking

Nov 20, 2019 by News Staff

A new glass material, developed by Tampere University researcher Erkka Frankberg and colleagues, appears to possess metal-like ductility at room temperature. Thin...

Minev et al figured out how to catch and save Schrödinger’s famous cat, the symbol of quantum superposition and unpredictability. Image credit: Kat Stockton.

Physicists Find Way to ‘Catch and Save’ Schrödinger’s Cat

Jun 3, 2019 by News Staff

Schrödinger’s cat, a thought experiment envisioned by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935, is a paradox that applies the concept of superposition...

An artist’s impression of Orion Source I, a young, massive star about 1,500 light-years away. The blue region -- about 1/3 the way out from the center of the disk -- represents the region where ALMA detected the millimeter-wavelength ‘glow’ from the salts. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

Aluminum Monoxide Found around Massive Protostar

May 21, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted aluminum monoxide (AlO) molecules in the gas surrounding Orion Source...

An artist’s impression of the collision of two stars, like the ones that formed CK Vulpeculae. The inset illustrates the inner structure of one red giant before the merger. A thin layer of 26Al (brown) surrounds a helium core. An extended convective envelope (not to scale), which forms the outermost layer of the star, can mix material from inside the star to the surface, but it never reaches deep enough to dredge 26Al up to the surface. Only a collision with another star can disperse 26Al. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

Radioactive Molecule Found in Stellar Merger Remnant

Aug 2, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) have made the first definitive...

Xu et al achieved a breakthrough, inventing a stretchy new material modeled after both squid skin and Hollywood dinosaurs with remarkable properties. Image credit: Xu et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aar5191.

Scientists Create Infrared Camouflage Material

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

Thermal vision cameras detect differences in temperature by sensing infrared wavelengths. If a coating could be developed that showed dynamic tuning of...

The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Image credit: Kintaiyo / CC BY 3.0.

Aluminum May Be Causing Alzheimer’s-like Disease in Bumblebees, Study Suggests

Jun 9, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published online in the journal PLoS ONE has found significant contamination of bumblebee pupae by the metal aluminum — a known neurotoxin...