Tag Archive for 'X-rays'

This illustration shows NASA’s NICER mission at work aboard the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA Engineers Demonstrate Pulsar-Based Navigation in Space

Jan 16, 2018 by News Staff

NASA engineers have successfully demonstrated X-ray navigation in space — a capability that could revolutionize NASA’s ability in the future to...

This image shows the SDSS J1354+1327 galaxy in a composite image with data from Chandra (purple), and Hubble (red, green and blue). The inset box contains a close-up view of the central region around SDSS J1354+1327’s supermassive black hole. The larger companion galaxy, SDSS J1354+1328, is shown to the north. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Colorado / STScI/ J. Comerford et al.

Astronomers Spot ‘Flickering’ Supermassive Black Hole

Jan 15, 2018 by News Staff

A rapidly growing supermassive black hole — known as an active galactic nucleus — in the center of a distant galaxy appears to have consumed...

Mysterious X-Ray Signal from Perseus Galaxy Cluster Points to Dark Matter

Dec 21, 2017 by News Staff

In 2014, a team of astrophysicists reported the detection of an unusual emission line in X-ray light from the Perseus cluster, a cluster of galaxies 240...

X-ray source LGGS J004527.30+413254.3. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Washington / T. Dorn-Wallenstein et al / ESA / J. Dalcanton et al / R. Gendler.

Double Supermassive Black Hole ‘Photobombs’ Andromeda Galaxy

Dec 5, 2017 by News Staff

Using X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical data from ground-based telescopes, astronomers have spotted what could be the most...

An artist’s impression of an accretion disk around a black hole. Image credit: XMM-Newton / ESA / NASA.

X-Rays from Accretion Disks around Rotating Black Holes Can Act as Carriers of Quantum Information

Nov 17, 2017 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal New Astronomy, theoretical physicist Ovidiu Racorean suggests that X-ray photons emitted by accretion disks around...

Dr. Thomas Gaumnitz, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Wörner’s group, with the setup that generates the shortest laser pulses in the world. Image credit: ETH Zurich.

Swiss Physicists Set Record for Shortest Laser Pulse

Nov 2, 2017 by News Staff

A team of physicists at ETH Zürich in Switzerland has produced the shortest-ever laser pulses: just 43 attoseconds (an attosecond is an incomprehensible...

This image combines an image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in the optical and observations of the Jovian aurora in the ultraviolet. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Jupiter’s Northern and Southern X-Ray Auroras Pulse Independently

Oct 31, 2017 by News Staff

High-energy X-ray emissions at Jupiter’s south pole consistently pulse every 11 minutes; meanwhile those at the gas giant’s north pole are erratic:...

This artist’s illustration depicts a two billion year old star called Gliese 176 (GJ 176), located 30 light-years from Earth, with the exoplanet Gliese 176b in orbit around it. The large dark area is a ‘coronal hole,’ a phenomenon associated with low levels of magnetic activity. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

Astronomers Use X-Rays to Determine Hospitability of Sun-Like Stars for Extraterrestrial Life

Sep 11, 2017 by News Staff

X-rays emitted by a Sun-like star may provide valuable information about whether its planetary system will be hospitable to life, a new study suggests....

An image showing X-rays detected from the Type Ia supernova SN 2012ca (inside the circle). According to astronomers, SN 2012ca occurred in the spiral-shaped galaxy ESO 336-G009, located about 260 million light-years away. Image credit: Vikram Dwarkadas / Chandra X-ray Observatory.

X-Rays from Type Ia Supernova Detected for the First Time

Aug 23, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have detected the first X-rays from a Type Ia supernova, located inside the spiral-shaped galaxy ESO 336-G009. An image showing X-rays detected...

An iron element map (right) made with new X-ray technology reveals the underlying craftsmanship hidden beneath a damaged portrait of a Roman woman (left). Image credit: Roberto Alberti.

New X-Ray Imaging Technique Reveals Hidden Beauty of Ancient Roman Wall Painting

Aug 22, 2017 by News Staff

A research team led by Pratt Institute researcher Eleonora Del Federico has used a novel imaging technique, called high-resolution portable Macro-XRF scanning,...

A cutaway depicts the interior of Neptune (left). In the new experiment, Kraus et al studied a plastic simulating compounds formed from methane -- a molecule with just one carbon bound to four hydrogen atoms that causes the distinct blue cast of Neptune; methane forms hydrocarbon (hydrogen and carbon) chains that respond to high pressure and temperature to form ‘diamond rain’ in the interiors of ice giants like Neptune; the authors were able to recreate similar conditions using high-powered optical lasers and watch the small diamonds form in real time with X-rays. Image credit: Greg Stewart, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

It Rains Diamonds on ‘Ice Giant’ Planets

Aug 21, 2017 by News Staff

A new experiment at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory reveals how large diamonds may be formed from just hydrogen and carbon in the deep interior of...

Professor Chang and co-authors broke the record for the shortest light pulse. Image credit: University of Central Florida.

Shortest Laser Pulse Lasts 53 Attoseconds

Aug 8, 2017 by News Staff

An international group of physicists and engineers, led by Professor Zenghu Chang of the University of Central Florida, has produced the shortest-ever...

Experimental configuration of the X-ray Free Electron Laser probe and optical laser; the shock freezing behavior of water captured in a Debye-Scherrer geometry. Inset: schematic of target package as a cut away side view. Image credit: Gleason et al, doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.025701.

Researchers Observe Real-Time Growth of Exotic ‘Ice VII’

Jul 12, 2017 by News Staff

A Stanford-led research team has captured the freezing of water, molecule-by-molecule, into a super-dense, exotic form of ice called ice VII. The results...

Portus Cosanus pier, Orbetello, Italy. Image credit: J.P. Oleson.

New Research Shows How Natural Chemistry Strengthened Ancient Roman Marine Concrete

Jul 4, 2017 by News Staff

While modern marine concrete structures crumble within years, ancient Roman piers and breakwaters endure to this day, and are stronger now than when they...

A rendering of how changes in an electron’s motion (bottom view) alter the scattering of light (top view), as measured in a new experiment that scattered more than 500 photons of light from a single electron. Image credit: Extreme Light Laboratory, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Ultra-High Intensity Laser Sparks New Behavior in Light

Jun 27, 2017 by News Staff

By focusing laser light to brightness one billion times greater than the surface of the Sun, a team of physicists from the United States and China has...

An artist’s impression of the two forms of ultra-viscous liquid water with different density; on the background is depicted the X-ray speckle pattern taken from actual data of high-density amorphous ice, which is produced by pressurizing water at very low temperatures. Image credit: Mattias Karlén.

Physicists Discover Two Low-Temperature Forms of Liquid Water

Jun 27, 2017 by News Staff

A Stockholm University-led team of physicists has discovered two low-temperature phases of liquid water with large differences in structure and density. An...

In this illustration, an ultra-intense X-ray laser pulse from SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source knocks so many electrons out of a molecule’s iodine atom (right) that the iodine starts pulling in electrons from the rest of the molecule (lower left), like an electromagnetic version of a black hole. Many of the stolen electrons are also knocked out by the laser pulse; then the molecule explodes. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

Researchers Create Molecular Version of Black Hole

Jun 2, 2017 by News Staff

When a team of physicists focused the full intensity of SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Coherent X-ray Imaging instrument — the world’s...

This X-ray image of the hot gas in the Perseus Cluster was made from 16 days of Chandra observations. An oval highlights the location of an enormous wave found to be rolling through the gas. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Stephen Walker et al.

Astronomers Find Enormous Wave of Hot Gas Rolling through Nearby Galaxy Cluster

May 2, 2017 by News Staff

A wave spanning 200,000 light-years (about twice the size of our Milky Way Galaxy) is rolling through the Perseus Cluster, according to observations from...

CDF-S XT1 became 1,000 times brighter over a few hours before fading dramatically in about a day. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Pontifical Catholic University / F.Bauer et al.

NASA’s Chandra Observatory Records Mysterious Explosion 10.7 Billion Light-Years Away

Mar 31, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers have discovered a mysterious flash of X-rays using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, in the deepest X-ray image...

Swift J0042.6+4112 is brighter at high energies than the Andromeda galaxy’s entire black hole population. The inset image shows the pulsar candidate in blue, as seen in X-ray light by NASA’s NuSTAR mission. The background image of the Andromeda galaxy was taken by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer in UV light. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC / JHU.

Astronomers Solve Mystery of Andromeda’s Hard X-Rays

Mar 28, 2017 by News Staff

The Andromeda galaxy (also known as Messier 31) features a dominant source of hard X-rays, but its identity was mysterious until now. An international...

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