Testing Relativity with a Shredded Star
With the whole of the Universe to look at, a fair amount of astronomy is just luck and many were very lucky in March of last year. At that time a flash of light was observed that originally was just believed to be a gamma-ray burst; a not uncommon cosmic event. However this flash of X-rays survived longer than a gamma-ray burst, so researchers took a closer look and found a truly rare event.
Now called Swift J1644+57, the X-ray source was actually a star being destroyed by a previously quiet supermassive black hole, some 3.9 billion light years away. When the unfortunate star passed by the black hole it was ripped apart a much of its mass fell into an accretion disk. This disk spins around the black hole like the rings around Saturn, and as long as the matter does not cross the Innermost Stable Circular Orbit (ISCO), it will not fall in. The large flash the observatories detected was matter from the star crossing that threshold but not falling into the black hole. Instead it was ejected out in large jets, and one of them just happened to be point at Earth.
Thanks to relativity, the light from the jet was able to survive the trip to Earth, but that theory is not through with Swift J1644+57 just yet. Within the ISCO is the Quasi-Periodic Oscillation (QPO) which is created by the superhot matter still skirting the event horizon of the black hole. Researchers are able to study the flashes of the QPO to learn about the physics at this extreme environment, which also happens to be at a time when the Universe is different from our own.
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World’s Fastest Electric Airplane Soars the Skies at Up to 200 MPH
An all-electric version of the Long-ESA Aircraft now holds the title as the world's fastest electric plane, with a maximum speed of 202.6 MPH. Courtesy of Chip Yates, this maverick has also broken the record of the world's fastest electric motorcyle from his previous speed project. Dubbed as Flight of the Century, the electric plane piloted by Yates soared over the Mojave Desert after taking off from Inyokern Airport. Keen to push the limits of long range electric flight technology even further, Yates' team is also hoping to construct an electric aircraft with enough power to complete a 3,600 mile journey from New York to Paris. That's a target for 2014, although Yates wants to also wants to reach a top speed of 250 MPH with a future model. For the meantime, Yates is prepping the electric plane for a non-stop trans-Atlantic flight starting from Wisconsin scheduled next week.
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Direct Imaging of Graphene Improves Understanding of Properties
There are several mysteries surrounding the wonder material, graphene. This atom-thick sheet of carbon is extremely strong, flexible, and conductive, which makes it a prime material for electronics. Exactly how it is such a good conductor is still being debated, but researchers at Berkeley Lab and the University of California, Berkeley have recently made some important observations.
It has already been determined that part of the reason graphene conducts electricity so fell is because the electrons behave as though they are massless. This enables them to reach relativistic speeds that are unobtainable in other materials. What the recent research determined though is how the relativistic electrons interact. Some theories suggest the electrons do not react with each other to achieve this conductivity while others suggest electron-electron interactions are required. By inserting a charge impurity into the graphene, the researchers were able to confirm the electron-electron interactions do occur and are required.
Information like this will be critical for the development of electronic technology based on graphene. It allows researchers to know how strongly charge impurities affect electrons traveling on graphene, and thus how critical it is to avoid the impurities, or to implant them for new technologies.
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John Carmack Confirms id Software Closed Mobile Side to Focus on DOOM 4
QuakeCon has wrapped up its festivities, but there was some good information to come from it. The big one was the subdued PC release of Dawnguard for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and now another piece of news has appeared. During his keynote speech that covered a little bit of everything, John Carmack confirmed id Software closed down the mobile part of its business in order to better focus on DOOM IV. Carmack said shuttering the mobile side was tough because he loves that kind of work, but went on to say the move was necessary in order to bring some of those developers on to DOOM IV. The engineering mastermind hopes to return to mobile development at a later date, however the main focus right now is AAA titles, like the aforementioned title. Id Software does have an iOS game that is finished, however Carmack would not say its name.
Carmack would not comment on a release date for the horror sequel other than to say it "will be done when it's done." He did hope to get DOOM on a more consistent release schedule instead of once a decade, which would be nice to see. Still, at least work is progressing on DOOM IV, even if there is radio silence on just how far along it is and when we can expect to fear the dark.
If you are interested, John Carmack's entire keynote speech is below. It does go a little over three and a half hours, plus Carmack was feeling under the weather, but it is an impressive speech that everyone should listen to at some point.
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Curiosity Has Landed on Mars
Once more humanity has reached out and set something on another body in the Solar System. The Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity, is the bigger cousin of the well-known rovers Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity, of which only Opportunity is still functioning (despite having surpassed day 3000 of its 90 day mission).
At approximately one ton and the size of an SUV, Curiosity is a giant compared to the other rovers, but it has a great deal to show for its weight. With more equipment onboard for research and a thermoelectric radioisotope generator this rover should be able to do far more than the others, including survive the Martian Winters when it gets too cold and dark for solar panels to provide enough power to operate. It also will be communicating directly with Earth, instead of using one of the orbiting satellites to relay transmissions between the two planets.
Being so large, the engineers at NASA had to be very careful when designing how Curiosity would land on Mars, which they ultimately decided would utilize rockets like the Viking and Phoenix landers before it. The other rovers used an airbag system that allowed them to bounce on the surface before coming to a stop.
Only time will tell what Curiosity will find as it explores our planetary neighbor, but while it is the giant among them, it will discover what it can because it is standing upon those missions that came before it.
Update: The attached images are the first image received from the rover. The first is the original thumbnail that was received while the second is the larger version of the image. The third image here is from the opposite-facing camera and shows the shadow of Curiosity on Mars. In both larger images you can see dust on the lens cover. This dust was kicked up by the rockets used in the landing process.
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