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Keyword: physics

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  • ZEUS: US facility fires world’s most powerful laser at 2 petawatts

    05/21/2025 6:33:11 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 57 replies
    Interesting Engineering ^ | May 20, 2025 | Mrigakshi Dixit
    Imagine harnessing power on a scale almost unimaginable. A cutting-edge laser facility called ZEUS at the University of Michigan has reached a groundbreaking level of power. It generated a brief pulse of light with a power output exceeding the entire world’s electricity consumption by a factor of one hundred. The powerful laser facility has set a new U.S. record by achieving two petawatts (2 quadrillion watts) of peak power, almost doubling that of its closest competitors. Interestingly, the laser’s immense power lasted just a fleeting 25 quintillionths of a second. Yet, in that fleeting moment, ZEUS can unlock profound scientific...
  • Scientists Calculate Earlier End To Universe

    05/12/2025 11:28:34 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 69 replies
    Study Finds ^ | May 12, 2025 | Heino Falcke, Michael F. Wondrak, Walter D. van Suijlekom (Radboud University)
    Conceptual image depicting end of the universe by generative AI (© The 2R Artificiality - stock.adobe.com) In a nutshell * Scientists discovered that neutron stars and white dwarfs are slowly evaporating, shortening the universe’s expected lifespan from 10^1100 years to 10^78 years. * All massive objects lose energy through a process similar to how black holes evaporate, with denser objects deteriorating faster. Despite this “earlier” end, the universe’s death is still inconceivably far in the future—neutron stars will last 10^68 years and white dwarfs about 10^78 years. ================================================================================ NIJMEGEN, Netherlands — Scientists have just calculated that our universe will end...
  • 'Dark photon' theory of light aims to take down the famous double-slit experiment, upending quantum physics

    05/11/2025 4:45:21 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 14 replies
    Earth.com ^ | May 10, 2025 | Staff
    For centuries, most scientists have shared the belief that light behaves as both a wave and a particle. This idea, then, became the central component to quantum theory, sprouting the field of science known as quantum mechanics. The double-slit experiment supported the idea, showing bright and dark bands that indicated wave-like interference. But now, a new study suggests that this experiment might not lock us into seeing light as a wave. According to the experts, we can interpret those interference bands using quantum particles alone. The research was led by Gerhard Rempe, the director of the Max Planck Institute for...
  • NASA’s Hubble Spots Runaway Black Hole Devouring a Star 600 Million Light-Years From Earth

    05/11/2025 4:04:17 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 15 replies
    The Debrief ^ | May 09, 2025 | Staff
    CREDIT: NASA, ESA, STScI, Yuhan Yao (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) ************************************************************** A traveling black hole stalking the cosmos for stellar prey recently revealed itself to NASA telescopes in a tidal disruption event (TDE), shredding and swallowing a star in a radioactive burst. With its brilliant flash, the TDE AT2024tvd lit up several observatories, including NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the NRAO Very Large Array. The TDE event took place 600 million light-years from Earth, allowing astronomers a new glimpse at black hole physics to be published in a future issue of The Astrophysical Journal...
  • First Ever Image Of “Free Floating” Atoms Snapped By MIT Scientist...Two light systems trap the atoms and snap their photo.

    05/10/2025 6:57:42 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 19 replies
    IFL Science ^ | May 07, 2025 | Staff
    Atoms have been seen clumping up, pairing up, and staying alone thanks to a new technique. Image Credit: Sampson Wilcox Scientists now have a new approach to study never-before-seen quantum phenomena. Physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have produced the first images of atoms freely interacting in space, showing correlations that had been predicted in theory but never directly photographed before. The team’s Atom-Resolved Microscopy is done in this way. Atoms are allowed to move about and interact freely. The researchers then turn on a lattice made of light that, for a fraction of a second, freezes the atoms....
  • Strange ‘Terrell-Penrose Effect’ Observed in Lab For the First Time, in New Confirmation of Einstein’s Special Relativity

    05/09/2025 10:10:54 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 9 replies
    The Debrief ^ | May 08, 2025 | Staff
    For the first time, physicists have demonstrated a phenomenon known as the Terrell-Penrose effect, which causes an object moving close to the speed of light to warp before our eyes. The new findings, a collaboration between TU Wien and the University of Vienna, once again confirm a key prediction of Einstein’s theory of relativity by making an optical illusion of relativistic motion observable for the first time. Terrell-Penrose Effect According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, objects moving close to the speed of light experience unusual effects, including changes in length and time compared to objects at rest. Many relativistic...
  • Physicists Develop Novel Quantum Theory of Gravity

    05/07/2025 7:04:03 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 48 replies
    SCI News ^ | May 06, 2025 | Staff
    The new theory, developed by physicists at Aalto University, describes gravity in a way that’s compatible with the Standard Model of particle physics, opening the door to an improved understanding of how the Universe began. The Standard Model of particle physics describes electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions, which are three of the four known fundamental forces of nature. The unification of the fourth interaction, gravity, with the Standard Model has been challenging due to incompatibilities of the underlying theories — general relativity and quantum field theory. While quantum field theory utilizes compact, finite-dimensional symmetries associated with the internal degrees of...
  • Scientists Build First-Ever 'Black Hole Bomb' Analog

    05/03/2025 3:42:54 PM PDT · by algore · 22 replies
    Researchers have created the first laboratory analog of the 'black hole bomb', a theoretical concept developed by physicists in the 1970s. If there's one thing black holes are known for, it's their insatiable, inescapable gravity. Stuff goes into a black hole. From beyond the event horizon, this is, as far as we know, true. But from the space around a black hole, you might be able to get something. As Roger Penrose proposed in 1971, the powerful rotational energy of a spinning black hole could be used to amplify the energy of nearby particles. Then, physicist Yakov Zel'Dovich figured out...
  • First Image From Upgraded Solar Telescope Shows Sun Like Never Before

    04/25/2025 6:28:18 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 26 replies
    Study Finds ^ | April 25, 2025 | The National Solar Observatory
    A narrow-band image of the Sun at a wavelength of λ=588.9nm, that of a well known solar sodium line also known as the “NaD line.” The image was acquired during recent first light efforts with the VTF at the Inouye, and shows how precisely the structures within a sunspot are resolved. Each pixel in the original version of the image corresponds to 10 km (or 6.2 miles) on the Sun. (Credit: VTF/KIS/NSF/NSO/AURA) *********************************************************************** In a nutshell * The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope’s new Visible Tunable Filter (VTF) instrument has achieved “first light,” capturing detailed images of sunspots at an...
  • Scientists Unlock a Hidden Dimension for Light—And It Could Revolutionize Technology!

    04/24/2025 9:32:51 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 73 replies
    Daily Galaxy ^ | April 24, 2025 | Lydia Amazouz
    Scientists have discovered a groundbreaking phenomenon where light materializes from nothingness, opening the door to revolutionary advances in physics and technology. In a groundbreaking new study, researchers from the University of Rostock and the University of Birmingham have made a surprising discovery that challenges the long-held understanding of time and space in physics. Their research, recently published in Nature Photonics, reveals the existence of “space-time-topological events” where light appears to emerge from and disappear into nothingness—a phenomenon that initially seems like magic, but is grounded in deep mathematical principles. Rethinking Time and Space in Physics Time has long been considered...
  • Astronomers Discover First-Ever Lone Black Hole Drifting Through the Milky Way

    04/19/2025 9:09:16 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 29 replies
    Daily Galaxy ^ | April 19, 2025 | Lydia Amazouz
    In a landmark discovery, astronomers have confirmed the existence of a solitary stellar-mass black hole—an object with immense gravity, yet no visible companion, quietly roaming the depths of the Milky Way galaxy. Identified in the direction of the Sagittarius constellation, this black hole is believed to be around seven times more massive than our Sun and marks the first confirmed detection of a black hole not bound to another star. The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal and led by Kailash C. Sahu and colleagues at the Space Telescope Science Institute, relied on more than a decade of high-precision data...
  • New ‘Spinning Universe’ Theory Could Explain a Decades-Old Cosmological Mystery

    04/19/2025 9:24:25 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 27 replies
    The Debrief ^ | April 18, 2025 | Ryan Whalen
    The entire universe may be rotating—just like its individual components, from massive galaxies to solar systems and planets—a possibility that could help explain the long-standing “Hubble tension” that has puzzled scientists for years. None of the currently accepted models of the universe account for any overall spin. Instead, they describe it as expanding uniformly in all directions. However, these models run into trouble with the so-called Hubble tension, a discrepancy where different methods of measuring the universe’s expansion yield conflicting results. “To paraphrase the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus, who famously said ‘Panta Rhei’—everything moves—we thought that perhaps Panta Kykloutai—everything...
  • Webb Captures a Planet’s Final Plunge Into Its Star – And It Wasn’t What Scientists Expected

    04/15/2025 5:50:02 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 39 replies
    Scitech Daily ^ | April 15, 2025 | Space Telescope Science Institute
    A dramatic twist in cosmic storytelling: A Jupiter-sized planet didn’t get swallowed by an expanding red giant, as astronomers once believed. Instead, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope uncovered that the planet spiraled inward over time, ultimately plunging into its star in a fiery cosmic demise. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) ********************************************************************** Lingering Brightness Provides Evidence for How the Planet Met Its Demise Each year, scientists from around the world compete for a chance to use NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Proposals go through a rigorous review process, and approved projects are added to Webb’s observation schedule, which is...
  • Sleeping Black Hole Erupts in Real Time – Blasting Out Record-Breaking X-Rays

    04/14/2025 6:11:42 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 30 replies
    Scitech Daily ^ | April 14, 2025 | European Space Agency (ESA)
    This artist’s impression illustrates the mechanism that could be at the origin of the powerful bursts of X-ray light seen from a newly awakened black hole named Ansky. Credit: ESA A mysterious black hole in a distant galaxy just woke up after decades of silence—and it’s putting on a cosmic light show! **************************************************************************** ESA’s XMM-Newton and other X-ray telescopes are capturing massive bursts of energy known as quasiperiodic eruptions (QPEs) that defy current theories. Unlike anything seen before, these powerful flashes may be rewriting the rulebook on how black holes behave, evolve, and interact with their surroundings. XMM-Newton Observes Rare...
  • Curious Grad Student Accidentally Discovers Shape-Changing Liquid That Bends the Laws of Thermodynamics

    04/10/2025 10:06:53 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 91 replies
    The Debrief ^ | April 09, 2025 | Ryan Whalen
    University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers have discovered a surprising “shape-changing” liquid that seems to bend the laws of thermodynamics. The strange compound—made of oil, water, and magnetic nickel particles—was first assembled by a graduate student who was merely curious to see what might happen. To his surprise, when the liquid was shaken, the magnetic particles quickly reformed into a shape resembling a Greek urn. Emulsion and Thermodynamics “Imagine your favorite Italian salad dressing,” says Thomas Russell, Silvio O. Conte Distinguished Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering at UMass Amherst and one of the paper’s senior authors. “It’s made up of...
  • Euclid Captures 26 Million Galaxies in Its First Glimpse of the Dark Universe

    04/05/2025 6:31:58 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 17 replies
    Scitech Daily ^ | April 05, 2025 | Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA
    This image shows examples of galaxies in different shapes, all captured by Euclid during its first observations of the Deep Field areas. Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by M. Walmsley, M. Huertas-Company, J.-C. Cuillandre ****************************************************************************** Euclid is on a quest to unravel one of the universe’s greatest mysteries: why it’s expanding faster and faster. With help from NASA, this space telescope is capturing sweeping views of billions of galaxies, allowing scientists to peer into the deep past. Using light that took billions of years to reach us, researchers are building 3D maps of the cosmos to track the strange force...
  • Webb Telescope Finds a Dozing, Overgrown Black Hole in the Early Universe

    04/05/2025 6:46:34 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 17 replies
    Study Finds ^ | April 05, 2025 | Research led by Ignas Juodžbalis, University of Cambridge
    A study in Nature finds that black holes in the early Universe go through short periods of ultra-fast growth, followed by long periods of dormancy. (Credit: Jiarong Gu) ******************************************************************************** In a nutshell * Astronomers have discovered a massive black hole from the early universe that’s barely feeding — suggesting these cosmic giants may spend most of their lives in a dormant, low-activity state. * The black hole outweighs its host galaxy’s stars by a factor of about 1,000, a ratio far higher than what we see in galaxies today, challenging our understanding of how black holes and galaxies grow together....
  • Alive, Dead, and Hot: Schrödinger’s Cat Defies the Rules of Quantum Physics

    04/04/2025 6:53:04 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 30 replies
    Scitech Daily ^ | April 04, 2025 | University of Innsbruck
    Quantum scientists have shown it’s possible to generate Schrödinger cat states in warmer conditions, challenging the assumption that cold is essential for quantum effects. Credit: SciTechDaily.com *************************************************************************** Researchers have pulled off a quantum feat that defies traditional expectations—they’ve created Schrödinger cat states not from ultra-cold ground states, but from warm, thermally excited ones. Using a superconducting qubit setup, the team demonstrated that quantum superpositions can exist even at higher temperatures, overturning the long-held belief that heat destroys quantum effects. This breakthrough not only validates Schrödinger’s original “hot cat” concept but also paves the way for more practical and accessible quantum...
  • ‘Ghosts of the radio universe’: Astronomers discover slew of faint circular objects

    04/02/2025 8:16:53 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 9 replies
    Study Finds ^ | March 04, 2025 | Research led by Miroslav Filipovic, Luke Barnes, and Nicholas Tothill (Western Sydney University); A
    Some of the objects captured by ASKAP. (Author provided) ******************************************************************************* Radio astronomers see what the naked eye can’t. As we study the sky with telescopes that record radio signals rather than light, we end up seeing a lot of circles. The newest generation of radio telescopes – including the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and MeerKAT, a telescope in South Africa – is revealing incredibly faint cosmic objects, never before seen. In astronomy, surface brightness is a measure that tells us how easily visible an object is. The extraordinary sensitivity of MeerKAT and ASKAP is now revealing a new...
  • ‘Impossible’ Device Physicists Said Wouldn’t Work Just Generated Electricity from the Earth’s Rotation

    03/27/2025 12:55:24 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 79 replies
    The Debrief ^ | March 27, 2025 | Christopher Plain
    Scientists from Princeton University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have invented a device that seemingly generates electricity from the Earth’s rotation. Although generally accepted theories show that generating electricity from a uniform field like Earth’s magnetic field is impossible, the team believes they have found a “loophole” that allows their device to generate tiny but measurable amounts of electricity. If independent reviews can confirm the team’s work, they say the next steps to building a practical energy-generating device would involve miniaturization and scaling efforts, as proposed in a new paper detailing their current efforts. Device That Generates Electricity from...