Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: physics

New model predicts the melting of free-floating ice in calm water

A pair of US researchers have developed a new model to tackle a deceptively simple problem: how a small block of ice melts while floating in calm water. Using an advanced experimental setup, Daisuke Noto and Hugo Ulloa at the University of Pennsylvania have captured the intricate dynamics that underlie this everyday process—work that could ultimately pave the way for more accurate predictions of melting sea ice. The study has been published in Science Advances.

If you place a block of ice in a glass of water, it will float at the surface and gradually melt. While this scenario seems simple at first glance, the dynamics involved are surprisingly complex: even if the surrounding water is completely still, the flow of heat from the warmer liquid into the colder ice generates motion that disrupts the system.

As the ice melts, it can begin drifting, spinning, or even flipping over. In turn, these motions alter the surrounding flow of water and heat, affecting the overall melting rate and making it remarkably difficult for physicists to predict how long the ice will last.

Swift spacecraft reorientation buys time for reboost mission

WASHINGTON — NASA modified operations of an astrophysics spacecraft in a decaying orbit to buy more time for a mission later this year that will attempt to raise its orbit.

NASA announced in September it selected Katalyst Space to develop a spacecraft that will rendezvous with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and raise its orbit. Swift, launched in 2004, is in a decaying orbit, and the $30 million reboost mission would keep the spacecraft from reentering.

At an astronomy conference in early January, Jamie Kennea, a research professor at Penn State University who is head of Swift’s science operations team, said models projected that Swift’s orbit would decay below 300 kilometers, the minimum altitude for the reboost mission, sometime between mid-October 2026 and January 2027. That provided several months of margin for Katalyst’s Link spacecraft, scheduled to launch as soon as June 1 on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL.

The Real Shape of Alien Life May Shock You | Space Documentary

Do you believe alien life could be completely unlike anything we’ve ever imagined? In this Science Documentary, we explore forms of life that may not need light, oxygen, or even a recognizable body—glowing through chemistry, drifting like gel in endless darkness, or existing as silent, stone-like structures. This Science Documentary follows the latest discoveries as telescopes probe distant worlds for signs of life. And closer to home, beneath thick ice, hidden oceans may already hold the first alien organisms humanity could reach. Join this Science Documentary as we challenge everything we think life should be.
1:04 The Nearest Life – Europa
4:30 Ocean Worlds – Life Without Light
8:30 Tidally Locked Worlds
12:41 Life in the Atmosphere – Creatures That Never Touch the Ground
15:23 Extreme Gravity – When the Shape of Life Is Rewritten by an Invisible Force
19:11 Non-Carbon Life – When Biology Moves Beyond Our Definition
23:04 The Fermi Paradox – If They Are Everywhere… Why Do We See No One?
26:37 Conclusion.

Welcome to WUFO, your space documentary channel dedicated to both education and entertainment.
WUFO explores the outer reaches of space, the craziness of astrophysics, the possibilities of sci-fi, and anything else you can think of beyond Planet Earth.

Each video space documentary is crafted to inspire curiosity, bring scientific knowledge to life, and make learning about space exciting and enjoyable.

Whether you’re passionate about astronomy, planetary science, or simply love exploring the cosmos, WUFO channel offers engaging journeys that expand your mind and spark your imagination.

Watch more science videos here: • Space Documentary
Moon Documentary: • Moon Documentary — WUFO

Make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications and don’t miss out WUFO — Space Documentary!

Continue reading “The Real Shape of Alien Life May Shock You | Space Documentary” | >

Gravitational waves suggest a ‘forbidden zone’ for stellar-origin black holes

An international team led by Monash University has uncovered evidence of a rare form of exploding star, helping to shed light on one of the most cataclysmic events in the universe. At the end of their lives, most massive stars collapse into black holes—objects with gravity so strong that not even light can escape.

Some very massive stars, however, are expected to become so hot that they are blown apart in a pair-instability supernova—an explosion so intense that the star is completely disrupted, leaving behind no black hole.

First predicted in the 1960s, pair-instability supernovae are challenging to distinguish from more common stellar explosions that leave behind black holes.

Shaping Dance with Physics

A physics grad student waltzed away with the top prize in the 2026 Dance Your PhD contest.

Dance is the art of human movement. It combines motion and spin, energy and balance, synchronization and cadence. Many of these concepts are familiar to physicists—even those who might panic at the mere thought of being on a dance floor. Sofia Papa can give a lesson or two on the connections between physics and dance. A physics graduate student and professional dancer, Papa won the top prize this month in the annual Dance Your PhD contest, run by the journal Science. In the winning video, she and six other dancers mimic the internal workings of a piezoelectric, a type of material that turns atomic movement into electricity.

Papa has always loved dancing. “It was my first way to express myself,” she says. For several years now, she has complemented her physics education with dance training. While the dancing has served as a break from the rigors of studying, she has also used it as a way to work through difficult physical concepts. “I’ve always needed something creative to help understand complex ideas,” she says.

Hydrogen atmosphere could keep exomoons habitable for billions of years

Liquid water is considered essential for life. Surprisingly, however, stable conditions that are conducive to life could exist far from any sun. A research team from the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS at LMU and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) has shown that moons around freefloating planets can keep their water oceans liquid for up to 4.3 billion years by virtue of dense hydrogen atmospheres and tidal heating—that is to say, for almost as long as Earth has existed and sufficient time for complex life to develop.

Planetary systems often form under unstable conditions. If young planets come too close, they can fling each other out of their orbits. This creates free-floating planets (FFPs) that wander through the galaxy without a parent star. An earlier study by LMU physicist Dr. Giulia Roccetti had shown that gas giants ejected in this way do not necessarily lose all of their moons in the process. The new study is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Tidal heating keeps oceans liquid The ejection does, however, alter the orbits of the moons. They become highly elliptical, such that their distance from the planet constantly changes. The resulting tidal forces rhythmically deform the lunar body, compress its interior, and generate heat through friction. This tidal heating can be sufficient to maintain oceans of liquid water on the surface—even without the energy of a star, and in the cold of interstellar space.

Strained liquid crystals steer soliton ‘bullets’ along two diagonal paths

In physics, some waves behave in a surprising way: instead of spreading out and fading, they hold their shape as they travel at constant speeds. These unusual waves, called solitons, have interested scientists since they were first observed in canals in the 19th century. Today, researchers study solitons in everything from optical fibers to biological systems.

A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that these stubborn waves can be guided and steered through materials by carefully designing internal strain, offering new ways to move energy or information at microscopic scales.

In wrangling dark matter, some scientists find inspiration in the Torah, Krishna and Christ

When an invisible entity making up 85% of the universe’s mass stumps the greatest scientific minds of our time, awe is an understandable response.

Physicists call it dark matter, a substance they describe as the cosmic glue, the scaffolding, a web that uses gravity to corral, shape and hold together stars, planets and galaxies. Yet nobody knows exactly what it is.

Dark matter’s existence is only inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter. Together with dark energy—a mysterious force causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate—they are the biggest scientific mysteries of our time.

/* */