Author archives: César Tomé

MI weekly selection #416

MI weekly selection #416

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Artefacts hint at complex culture 105K years ago Archaeologists have found a cache of artefacts in the Kalahari Desert including a set of crystals that appeared to have been part of a collection with no practical purpose, suggesting the beginnings of a complex culture. Other artefacts included items that may have been used for water […]

MI weekly selection #415

MI weekly selection #415

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Trio of atomic clocks compared Light frequencies of three different atomic clocks have been compared, moving physicists a step closer to making the measurement of a unit of time — the second — more precise. One clock is made of ytterbium atoms, another of strontium atoms and the last is made of just one aluminum […]

MI weekly selection #414

MI weekly selection #414

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Oumuamua may be hunk of nitrogen-rich planet The interstellar object Oumuamua is likely a piece of a planet rich in nitrogen that broke off about 500 million years ago and is shaped more like a cookie than a cigar. Researchers used computer models focusing on Oumuamua’s shape, size and shininess to determine the object’s possible […]

MI weekly selection #414

MI weekly selection #414

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Tiny crystals inside white dwarfs may spark supernovas Tiny crystals made from uranium atoms that congregate in the middle of white dwarf stars as they age may spark Type 1a supernovas. Researchers say this could be the case in white dwarfs that have lower mass and aren’t part of a binary star pair, after observing […]

MI weekly selection #413

MI weekly selection #413

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Massive space storm over the North Pole A huge storm in space rained electrons on Earth’s atmosphere above the North Pole in an event scientists are calling a space hurricane. A global team of researchers spotted the space storm while reviewing satellite data from the last six years. NBC Nearby exoplanet may help scientists study […]

MI weekly selection #411

MI weekly selection #411

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

New observations of black hole reveal surprises Astronomers have recalculated the mass of the Cygnus X-1 black hole, the first black hole ever found, and they say it’s about one-and-a-half times more massive than once thought, detailing their findings in Science. Using observations by the Very Long Baseline Array, researchers say the Cygnus X-1 system […]

MI weekly selection #410

MI weekly selection #410

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Nearby system may host habitable exoplanet Another potentially habitable planet has been detected in the nearby Alpha Centauri system, orbiting the sunlike Alpha Centauri A. The data suggesting the exoplanet’s habitability was collected using the European Space Agency’s Very Large Telescope via the Near Earths in the Alpha Cen Region project. Space.com Brain EEG may […]

MI weekly selection #409

MI weekly selection #409

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

What we can learn about black holes from water in a tank Researchers can observe many properties of black holes through water simulations, since gravitational interactions behave like fluid. University of Nottingham scientists describe in Physical Review Letters how they witnessed backreaction for the first time by creating a vortex of water and propelling waves […]

MI weekly selection #408

MI weekly selection #408

Weekly Selection

By César Tomé

Range tightened for dark matter’s mass New calculations using quantum gravity have narrowed the possible range for the mass of dark matter particles, suggesting the mass can’t be very light nor very heavy. “This piece of research helps physicists in two ways: It focuses the search area for dark matter, and it will potentially also […]