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Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, announced today that they have for the first time used a beam of titanium to make a known superheavy element, livermorium — element 116. After upgrading the lab’s equipment, the team plans to use similar techniques to try to produce element 120. The heaviest element that has been made so far is oganesson, element 118, which was first synthesized in 2002.

The planet is as cold as ice and orbits far from its star. The observations from JWST of this cold giant planet. Image Credit: T. Müller (MPIA/HdA), E. Matthews (MPIA) ========================================================================== JWST has imaged a new planet directly and it is quite a fascinating object. It orbits one of the three stars in the Epsilon Indi system and it weighs six times the mass of Jupiter. This super-Jupiter is 20 to 40 times further from its star than Earth is from the Sun – so it is very cold. It also doesn't help that the star, Eps Ind A, is...

Physicists at the University of Stuttgart, led by Professor Sebastian Loth, have developed a groundbreaking quantum microscope that can record the movement of electrons at the atomic level with incredibly high spatial and temporal resolution. This new method could significantly advance the way scientists develop materials. Their findings have been published in the journal Nature Physics. “With our new method, we can see things that no one has ever seen before,” says Prof. Loth, the Managing Director of the Institute for Functional Matter and Quantum Technologies at the University of Stuttgart. “This allows us to answer questions about electron movements...

An international team of researchers, including a chemist from Northwestern University, has discovered that metallic minerals on the deep-ocean floor can produce oxygen at depths of 13,000 feet. This finding challenges the traditional belief that only photosynthetic organisms, such as plants and algae, generate Earth's oxygen. The discovery suggests oxygen can also be produced at the seafloor, supporting aerobic sea life in complete darkness. The study will be published on Monday, July 22, in the journal Nature Geoscience. Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) discovered this "dark oxygen" during ship-based fieldwork in the Pacific Ocean. Franz...

A patented experimental propellantless propulsion drive is finally ready to go to space, according to its inventor, a veteran NASA scientist with decades of expertise in electrostatics. [Multiple Videos at Site] Dr. Charles Buhler, the technology’s creator, says the propulsion system may represent a working version of Quantized Inertia, a theory first proposed by University of Plymouth professor Mike McCulloch. The proposition has been subjected to criticism from mainstream scientists in the past because it seemingly violates Newton’s third law of motion. The controversial technology, which The Debrief covered in April, is privately owned by Exodus Propulsion Technologies and is...

Astronomers at Penn State University have identified an exoplanet with the most eccentric orbit ever observed among transiting planets...Named TIC 241249530, this newly discovered exoplanet exhibits a highly elongated orbit resembling a cucumber rather than a circle. Published in the journal Nature, the study provides significant insights into the formation and evolution of Hot Jupiters, a class of massive gas giants that orbit very close to their host stars...First detected using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in January 2020, the exoplanet's host star exhibited a dip in its brightness, indicating the presence of a Jupiter-sized planet passing in front...

The galaxy PJ0116-24, located 10 billion light-years away from Earth, appears to exhibit characteristics that contradict the standard view that galaxy mergers are required to produce such intense luminosity.The groundbreaking findings, which are detailed in a newly published paper in Nature Astronomy, seem to point to the occurrence of rapid star formation in HyLIRGs, revealing that it can occur through internal processes. The discovery presents new challenges to existing notions held by astronomers about how such formations occur...In the past, it was believed that the intense luminosity produced by HyLIRGs was exclusively the result of mergers between galaxies, which result...

JWST deep field vs hubble This region of space, viewed first iconically by Hubble and later by JWST, shows an animation that switches between the two. Both images still have fundamental limitations, as they were acquired from within our inner Solar System, where the presence of zodiacal light influences the noise floor of our instruments, and cannot easily be removed.Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Christina Williams (NSF’s NOIRLab), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Michael Maseda (UW-Madison); Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI); Animation: E. Siegel ======================================================================================= KEY TAKEAWAYS: * The darkest night skies, both from Earth as well as from interplanetary space, aren’t completely...

While the “Epoch of Reionization” sounds like the title of a sci-fi novel destined for a Hugo award, this very real era of the universe featured the first light from the very first stars. Before this epoch, the universe was nothing more than a dark void filled with a fog of primordial hydrogen gas—and then, suddenly, there was light. For decades, scientists have searched for a source of radiation powerful enough to have cleared away this fog and introduced light into the universe. Now, an international team of scientists have analyzed the first faintest galaxies ...

Electron neutrinos have been experimentally observed for the first time during recent experiments by physicists at CERN, which produced proton-proton collisions at the facility’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Neutrinos are neutral subatomic particles possessing almost no mass. First detected in 1956, they possess 1/2 integral spin like all fermions and rarely react with normal matter except through the weak force. Neutrinos come in three different varieties, associated with electrons, muons, and tau particles. Due to their sparring interactions with matter, all three types of neutrinos are regarded as being among the most elusive particles in the universe. Despite this, physicists...

The jet of this extreme object is changing direction creating an S-shape in the sky. ================================================================== One of the most iconic views of Circinus X-1. New research has revealed intriguing new details about this system. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/S. Heinz, et al.; Optical: DSS Radio image of the S-shaped precessing jet launched by the neutron star in Circinus X-1. Image Credit: Fraser Cowie ================================================================== Astronomers have spotted a neutron star whose jet is changing direction for the first time. Likened to a garden sprinkler, the jet is coming from the phenomenal object Circinus X-1, one of the brightest...

Explanation: The galaxy was never in danger. For one thing, the Triangulum galaxy (M33), pictured, is much bigger than the tiny grain of rock at the head of the meteor. For another, the galaxy is much farther away -- in this instance 3 million light years as opposed to only about 0.0003 light seconds. Even so, the meteor's path took it angularly below the galaxy. Also the wind high in Earth's atmosphere blew the meteor's glowing evaporative molecule train away from the galaxy, in angular projection. Still, the astrophotographer was quite lucky to capture both a meteor and a galaxy...

It’s not even truly part of our galaxy, but a newly discovered black hole in Omega Centauri with a mass at least 20,000 times the Sun is closer than Sagittarius A*. The remnant galactic nucleus known as Omega Centauri has a black hole at its heart, revealed by fast-moving stars in the box at its heart. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Häberle (MPIA) =============================================================================== The largest of the star clusters that surround the Milky Way, Omega Centauri, has a black hole at the core with a mass 20,000-50,000 times that of the Sun, new evidence reveals. At 18,000 light...

The mystery dates back to Voyager 2's visit to Uranus in January 1986, far before the probe left the solar system in 2018. The spacecraft found that Uranus' magnetic field is asymmetric and tilted roughly 60° away from its spin axis. Additionally, Voyager 2 found that the radiation belts of Uranus, consisting of particles trapped by this magnetic field, are about 100 times weaker than predicted. "It has a magnetic field like no other in the solar system. Most planets that have strong intrinsic magnetic fields, like Earth, Jupiter and Saturn. They have a very 'traditional' magnetic field shape, which...

(ESO/M. Kornmesser) Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have provided astronomers with unprecedented new insights into the early universe, thanks to detailed imagery of the quasar PJ308–21 recently obtained by NASA’s premier space observatory. The new imagery reveals the appearance of this celestial object as it would have looked when the universe was less than a billion years old, offering a detailed view of the quasar’s spectrum and host galaxy. Obtained with Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, the new imagery of quasar PJ308–21 reveals its spectrum with an uncertainty of less than 1% per pixel despite the object’s incredible...

The same observations also indicate LHS 1140b is a world of mostly solids and liquids, not an undersized gas giant. Artist's impression of LHS 1140b in the likely scenario where one side is all ice, while the side tidally locked to its star has a region of liquid ocean and cloud, which unfortunately looks like an eyeball (Earth for size comparison). Image Credit: B. Gougeon/Universite de Montreal Observations by the JWST have revealed exciting hints of an Earth-like atmosphere on a planet orbiting a relatively nearby star. The planet is likely to be cooler than Earth, but still warmer than...

Scientists believe a slowing or reversing inner core could potentially affect Earth's magnetic field. At the center of the Earth lies a solid metal ball that rotates independently of our spinning planet. Scientists have debated the inner core's rotation speed and direction. However, new research points to the inner core varying speed in recent years. However, researchers are not exactly sure if there are any effects from the inner core slowing down or reversing. Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann discovered the ball-shaped inner core in 1936. The inner core is buried approximately 3,220 miles deep inside Earth. The solid metal ball...

Facile preparation of peptide glass at room temperature using standard lab equipment. Credit: Tel Aviv University ============================================================================== Tel Aviv University researchers have created a unique glass that is both an effective adhesive and highly transparent. This spontaneously forming glass could significantly influence multiple high-tech industries. Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) have created a new type of glass with unique and even contradictory properties, such as being a strong adhesive (sticky) and incredibly transparent at the same time. The glass, which forms spontaneously when comes in contact with water at room temperature, could bring about a revolution in an array...

The ATLAS and CMS collaborations are using state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to search for exotic-looking collisions that could indicate new physics. Credit: S Sioni/CMS-PHO-EVENTS-2021-004-2/M Rayner ============================================================================ Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how new particles are detected in LHC experiments. By training AI to recognize and differentiate between typical and atypical jets, researchers can identify potential new physics hidden within particle collisions. Recent advancements were highlighted at a physics conference, showing the progress and potential of these AI applications. One of the primary goals of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments is to look for signs of new particles, which could explain...

In its first year, the Biden administration launched a fast-track Scientific Integrity Task Force, intended to “lift up the voices of Federal scientists of many perspectives and backgrounds” and put scientific integrity “paramount in Federal governance for years to come.” The task force took a “whole-of-government” approach to ensuring the scientific integrity of federally funded research and included representatives from the 21 federal agencies that maintain scientific-research programs. For those with a high pain threshold, the final report may be seen here. Prominent among the move’s critics have been the Council on Governmental Relations (a consortium of research universities) and...