Free Republic

The semiconductor gold rush is all but over, and we've had our fill. Or so the past month of dismal earnings might have you believe. Electronics giant Samsung saw its profits contract 69 percent during the fourth quarter, while revenues slumped 8 percent overall. South Korean memory manufacturer SK Hynix, meanwhile, followed a few days later with an equally bleak report. Both companies told a story of macroeconomic forces that were suppressing consumer spending and driving DRAM and NAND flash inventories to unprecedented levels. Put simply, where there was once a chip shortage there is now a glut. Well, of...

These ultrabright flashes have recently been tracked for days, upending ideas about the cataclysms that create them. The Cherenkov Telescope Array, currently under construction, will use a network of more than 100 ground-based telescopes such as this one to monitor the long afterglows of ultrahigh-energy gamma-ray bursts.In July 1967, at the height of the Cold War, American satellites that had been launched to look for Soviet nuclear weapons tests found something wholly unexpected. The Vela 3 and 4 satellites observed brief flashes of high-energy photons, or gamma rays, that appeared to be coming from space. Later, in a 1973...

New research suggests that the key lies in the gases that get trapped in what's known as a fault valve and can build up ahead of an earthquake. These impermeable layers of rock can slip across a fault, effectively creating a gate that blocks the flow of underground water. When the fault valve eventually cracks and pressure decreases, carbon dioxide or methane dissolved in the trapped water is released, expanding in volume and pushing the cracks in the fault. As the gas emerges, it also gets electrified, with electrons released from the cracked surfaces attaching themselves to gas molecules and...

An emerging consensus suggests the crash can explain distant gamma-ray bursts GREAT ESCAPE A bright jet of fast-moving particles fled the scene after two neutron stars collided, spewing material and potentially forming a black hole (shown in this artist’s illustration). When a pair of ultradense cores of dead stars smashed into one another, the collision shot a bright jet of charged subatomic particles through space. Astronomers thought no such jet had made it out of the wreckage of the neutron star crash, first detected in August 2017. But new observations of the crash site using a network of radio telescopes...

An artist’s impression of the stars creating gamma-ray bursts. The background blue star is the progenitor of a standard long duration gamma-ray burst. A new type of powerful, long-lasting explosion deep in space may be the death knell of gigantic stars, scientists say. Star explosions (called supernovas) can give off high-powered flashes of radiation known as gamma-ray bursts. These bursts usually fall into two categories: ones that last less than two seconds, and ones that last for several minutes. But this new type of explosion can create a gamma-ray burst that goes on for much longer — up to several...

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A plane carrying about 200 passengers apparently veered off a runway late Tuesday and burst into flames. It was not immediately clear whether there were casualties. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the plane arriving from Amman, Jordan apparently veered off the runway as it landed in Khartoum and then burst into flames. It was not immediately clear what airline was involved. Ambulances and fire trucks were seen rushing to the scene. Sudan has a poor aviation safety record. In July 2003, a Sudan Airways Boeing 737 en route from Port Sudan to Khartoum crashed...

May 2, 2007—Jupiter's most turbulent moon, Io, is renowned among scientists for its flashy volcanic displays. But even experts were surprised when they saw this plume of gas vaulting nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) over the moon's north pole. The giant frozen jet—about as tall as the state of New Hampshire is long—spewed from a volcano known as Tvashtar in February, just as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was cruising by on its way to Pluto. The passing craft captured several images of the event, providing an unprecedented view of volcanism on Io, the most geologically active body in the solar...

JAKARTA (AFP) - A passenger jet burst into flames on landing in the central Indonesian city of Yogyakarta on Wednesday, witnesses told local radio. "The plane is burnt. The fire came suddenly from the front wheel," one witness, Hariman, told ElShinta radio. There was no immediate mention of casualties, and the number of passengers aboard the jet was not immediately known. The Detikcom news website said the plane was a jet from the country's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. Another passenger who escaped the blaze told ElShinta radio there were still passengers aboard as the fire raged. Indonesia's flight safety record...

Gamma-ray bursts could be the signature of ultradense stars. This X-ray image shows the 3C58 pulsar, the remnant of a supernova noted on Earth in AD 1181, which astronomers suspect may be a quark star. It lies about 10,000 light years from Earth.© NASA/SAO/CXC/P.Slane et al. Intense flashes of gamma rays in far-off galaxies might be produced by a bizarre kind of star, consisting of phenomenally dense material in which the particles that make up atomic nuclei have fallen apart. Two astrophysicists have proposed that gamma-ray (gamma-ray) bursts, whose origins have foxed astronomers for decades, might be the signatures of...

Summary - (Jul 29, 2004) NASA's Swift satellite is due to arrive at Florida's Cape Canaveral today, to prepare for its launch in October. Named after the fast-moving bird, Swift will track down the fastest and most powerful known explosions in the Universe: gamma ray bursts. Swift has one instrument to detect bursts in the sky, and then it can swing around two high-resolution telescopes in less than a minute for a closer look. It'll also inform the astronomical community of a blast so that anyone watching the sky can tune in as well and watch the explosion unfold....

Beijing bursts balloon plot Reuters in Beijing Thursday January 1, 2004 The Guardian (UK) An American and a New Zealander were jailed in Beijing yesterday on charges of plotting to explode balloons by remote control above Tiananmen Square and scatter pro-democracy leaflets. The New Zealander, Sun Gang, 44, who was born in China, was sentenced to five years and the American, Lan Yupeng, born in Taiwan, to three-and-a-half-years, the Xinhua news agency said. Both were fined unspecified amounts and ordered to be deported, it added, but did not say whether this would be immediately or after serving their sentences. The...