What's happening in the sky? It's a cold winter night in Iceland, and a lot is happening. In the foreground is Iceland's largest glacier, VatnaJokull. In the upper left, a green aurora creates a volcano-like effect. The aurora's reflection is visible on Lake Jökulsarlon. On the right, a lenticular cloud appears in front of another green aurora. And in the far corner […]
This globular cluster, containing 100,000 stars, is a relic of our galaxy's past, M15, and continues to orbit its center. Many globular clusters like this can be observed with binoculars. Of course, don't expect a view like the one pictured. Click here for a larger image.
The normally fragile quantum state lasted 39 minutes at room temperature, breaking a world record and marking a significant advancement for very fast quantum computers. In conventional computers, information is stored as 0s and 1s. In quantum computers, information known as qubits is held in superpositions, allowing it to be both 1s and 0s. This allows it to […]
As green sunlight filters through the trees on the Isle of Wight, the Milky Way Galaxy, in all its glory, rises into the sky. Professional astrophotographer Chad Powell captured this image, which he calls "Too Many Stars to Count," on January 4th with a Canon 6D camera (25 seconds, f/2.8, 20mm, and ISO: 4000).
There's much debate about how the Higgs boson and the Higgs field came into being. Many scientists are trying to claim credit for this discovery. In fact, even before Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the Higgs boson and the Higgs field, there were scientists working on the mechanisms that give rise to mass. Robert Brout […]
The red spot is one of the most mystical things in the solar system. A massive storm capable of engulfing two or three Earths should have ended a few centuries ago. But it's still here. Pedram Hassanzadeh, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, and Philip Marcus, a professor of fluid dynamics at the University of California, Los Angeles, believe they may be able to explain this mystery. Their work also suggests that ocean eddies and star and planet formation […]
