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ScienceDaily: Space & Time News |
| Can a planet have a mind of its own? Thought experiment Posted: 16 Feb 2022 12:38 PM PST Astrophysicists combine current scientific understanding about the Earth with broader questions about how life alters a planet to ask: if a planet with life has a life of its own, can it also have a mind of its own? The research raises new ideas about the ways in which humans might tackle global issues such as climate change. |
| How to design a sail that won’t tear or melt on an interstellar voyage Posted: 16 Feb 2022 10:03 AM PST Breakthrough Starshot plans to send microscopic probes to Alpha Centauri using lightsails. Previous conceptions of these structures have imagined them being passively pushed by light from the sun, but Starshot's laser-based approach requires rethinking the sail's shape and composition so it won't melt or tear during acceleration to relativistic speeds. |
| Atomic clocks measure Einstein's general relativity at millimeter scale Posted: 16 Feb 2022 08:22 AM PST Physicists have measured Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, or more specifically, the effect called time dilation, at the smallest scale ever, showing that two tiny atomic clocks, separated by just a millimeter or the width of a sharp pencil tip, tick at different rates. |
| Ultraprecise atomic clock poised for new physics discoveries Posted: 16 Feb 2022 08:22 AM PST Physicists have made one of the highest performance atomic clocks ever. Their instrument, known as an optical lattice atomic clock, can measure differences in time to a precision equivalent to losing just one second every 300 billion years and is the first example of a 'multiplexed' optical clock, where six separate clocks can exist in the same environment. Its design allows the team to test ways to search for gravitational waves, attempt to detect dark matter, and discover new physics with clocks. |
| Supermassive black hole caught hiding in a ring of cosmic dust Posted: 16 Feb 2022 08:22 AM PST The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO's VLTI) has observed a cloud of cosmic dust at the centre of the galaxy Messier 77 that is hiding a supermassive black hole. The findings have confirmed predictions made around 30 years ago and are giving astronomers new insight into "active galactic nuclei", some of the brightest and most enigmatic objects in the universe. |
| Psyche, the iron giant of asteroids, may be less iron than researchers thought Posted: 15 Feb 2022 04:51 AM PST Scientists have thought that the asteroid Psyche could be a big ball of pure iron, but new research suggests it's likely harboring a hidden rocky component. |
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