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Nov 12, 2024

Magnetars and FRBs: Revealing the Connection in Metal-Rich Galaxies

Posted by in categories: evolution, space

What is the origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs) and what can this teach us about the galaxies where they reside? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how FRB signals that originate from magnetars could reside in galaxies outside the Milky Way with the goal of better understanding the processes responsible for producing FRBs, and specifically the galaxies they inhabit. Since FRBs and magnetars remain some of the most mysterious objects in the universe, this study holds the potential to help researchers gain greater insight into not only their formation and evolution, but also how this bodes for finding life beyond Earth.

“The immense power output of magnetars makes them some of the most fascinating and extreme objects in the universe,” said Kritti Sharma, who is a PhD Candidate at Caltech and lead author of the study. “Very little is known about what causes the formation of magnetars upon the death of massive stars. Our work helps to answer this question.”

For the study, the researchers used the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA-110) to analyze 30 galaxies where FRBs have been confirmed to exist with the goal of ascertaining comparing the properties of each galaxy to the FRBs they produce. While researchers have long hypothesized that FRBs are produced in galaxies of all sizes that are actively forming stars, the researchers discovered a higher number of FRBs were produced in larger galaxies as opposed to smaller galaxies. They concluded that this was likely due to larger galaxies being more metal-rich, also known as metallicity, whereas smaller galaxies tend to have smaller metallicities.

Nov 12, 2024

New Clues to the Formation of Outer Planets from Ryugu’s Ancient Grains

Posted by in categories: particle physics, space

“We’re showing that, everywhere we look now, there was some sort of magnetic field that was responsible for bringing mass to where the sun and planets were forming,” said Dr. Benjamin Weiss.


What can dust grains that were returned to Earth from the asteroid Ryugu teach scientists about the early solar system? This is what a recent study published in AGU Advances hopes to address as an international team of researchers led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) investigated how dust grains from the asteroid Ryugu that returned to Earth by Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission could help unlock secrets of the early solar system, specifically regarding the formation of the gas giants that orbit beyond the asteroid belt.

For the study, the researchers analyzed three dust grain particles for evidence of magnetic fields that might have existed when Ryugu first formed billions of years ago. In the end, they found that the particles displayed an ancient magnetic field equal to 15 microtesla, which is 30 percent of the Earth’s current magnetic field at 50 microtesla. Despite this decrease, the researchers hypothesize that this could be powerful enough to allow matter in the early solar system to coalesce, known as accretion, to form the asteroids and possibly the gas giants that orbit in the outer solar system approximately 4.6 billion years ago.

Continue reading “New Clues to the Formation of Outer Planets from Ryugu’s Ancient Grains” »

Nov 12, 2024

Scientists Accidentally Discover a Sea Creature That Can Reverse Its Age

Posted by in category: futurism

A researcher made the discovery when a larva comb jelly mysteriously ‘replaced’ an adult comb jelly in his laboratory.

Nov 12, 2024

Scientists reveal structural basis for precursor protein import into chloroplasts

Posted by in category: space

A research team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences elucidated the high-resolution structure of the Orf2971-FtsHi complex, a chloroplast motor complex from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The study reveals the highly complex and assembly details of the complex, and explores the potential translocation pathway of precursor proteins.

The study, conducted by Prof. Li Mei’s team from the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Yang Wenqiang’s team from the Institute of Botany is published in Molecular Plant.

The Orf2971-FtsHi complex is a structure with 20 subunits formed by 19 proteins, spanning the chloroplast inner membrane and extending into the intermembrane space as well as the stromal side.

Nov 12, 2024

Robotic surgery nears autonomy with new AI training breakthrough

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

A robot trained via video observation performs surgery with skill rivaling human doctors, moving robotic surgery closer to autonomous procedures.

Nov 12, 2024

Particle accelerator helps discover new fossil species of coelacanth

Posted by in category: particle physics

Coelacanths are strange fish that are currently only known from two species found along the East African coast and in Indonesia. A team from the Natural History Museum (MHNG) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has succeeded in identifying an additional species, with a level of detail never before achieved. This discovery was made possible by the use of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, a particle accelerator for analyzing matter.

Nov 12, 2024

Artemis II Orion Spacecraft Undergoes Testing

Posted by in category: space

Teams lifted NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II test flight out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell and moved it to the altitude chamber to complete further testing on Nov. 6 inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Engineers returned the spacecraft to the altitude chamber, which simulates deep space vacuum conditions, to complete the remaining test requirements and provide additional data to augment data gained during testing earlier this summer.

The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign, sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back.

Nov 12, 2024

NVIDIA CEO Reveals: Computing Has Changed Forever (4x Growth/Year!)

Posted by in categories: innovation, robotics/AI

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang highlights the transformative impact of AI and accelerated computing on various industries, emphasizing rapid growth, enhanced productivity, and the evolution of software development through innovations like the Omniverse and advanced GPUs Questions to inspire discussion Physical AI and AGI 🤖

Nov 12, 2024

Google-deepmind/alphafold3: AlphaFold 3 inference pipeline

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

AlphaFold 3 inference pipeline. Contribute to google-deepmind/alphafold3 development by creating an account on GitHub.

Nov 12, 2024

New ‘gold-plated’ superconductor could be the foundation for massively scaled-up quantum computers in the future

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, quantum physics

The interface superconductor underwent a transition under a magnetic field and became more robust, the scientists said in the paper This suggests it has transformed into a “triplet superconductor.” — a type of superconductor that is more resistant to magnetic fields than conventional superconductors.

They conducted the research in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In earlier work, they demonstrated that thin films of gold and niobium naturally suppress decoherence — the loss of quantum properties due to external environmental interference.

Given its robust quantum qualities and its ability to suppress decoherence, this new superconducting material promises to be ideal for use in quantum computers, the scientists said. Minimizing decoherence within the system is a key challenge, which necessitates extreme measures to isolate the quantum computer from external influences, such as shifts in temperature or electromagnetic interference, as well as the use of error-correcting algorithms to ensure calculations remain accurate.

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