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Category: space – Page 137

A new telescope called the “Condor Array Telescope” may open up a new world of the very-low-brightness universe for astrophysicists. Four new papers, published back to back in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) this month, present the first scientific findings based on observations acquired by Condor. The project is a collaborative led by scientists in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).

According to lead researchers Kenneth M. Lanzetta, Ph.D., a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Stefan Gromoll of Stony Brook, and Michael M. Shara, Ph.D., Curator in the Department of Astrophysics at the AMNH, Condor is now in full operation. The new “array telescope” uses computers to combine light from several smaller telescopes into the equivalent of one larger telescope and is able to detect and study astronomical features that are too faint to be seen with conventional telescopes.

In the first paper, Lanzetta and colleagues used Condor to study extremely faint “stellar streams” surrounding the nearby galaxy NGC 5,907, a well-known spiral galaxy located some 50 million light years from Earth.

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Coming hot on the heels of two massive announcements last year, last week Nvidia and Cerebras showed yet again that the pace of computing is still accelerating.

The first CS-2 based Condor Galaxy AI supercomputers went online in late 2023, and already Cerebras is unveiling its successor the CS-3, based on the newly launched Wafer Scale Engine 3, an update to the WSE-2 using 5nm fabrication and boasting a staggering 900,000 AI optimized cores with sparse compute support. CS-3 incorporates Qualcomm AI 100 Ultra processors to speed up inference.

Note: sparse compute is an optimization that takes advantage of the fact that a multiplication by zero always results in zero to skip calculations that could include dozens of operands, one of which is a zero. The result can lead to a huge speedup in performance with sparse data sets like neural networks.

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Several thousand sensors distributed over a square kilometer near the South Pole are tasked with answering one of the large outstanding questions in physics: does quantum gravity exist? The sensors monitor neutrinos—particles with no electrical charge and almost without mass—arriving at the Earth from outer space. A team from the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), University of Copenhagen, has contributed to developing the method that exploits neutrino data to reveal if quantum gravity exists.

If as we believe, quantum gravity does indeed exist, this will contribute to unite the current two worlds in physics. Today, classical physics describes the phenomena in our normal surroundings such as gravity, while the atomic world can only be described using .

The unification of quantum theory and gravitation remains one of the most outstanding challenges in fundamental physics. It would be very satisfying if we could contribute to that end, says Tom Stuttard, Assistant Professor at NBI.

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Sand ripples are fascinating. They are symmetrical, yet wind — which causes them — is very much not. Furthermore, they can be found on Mars and on Earth. They would be even more fascinating if the same effect found on Mars could be found here on Earth as well. What if one unified theory could explain their formation on two different planets of our solar system?

That is what Ben-Gurion University of the Negev physicist Prof.

Hezi Yizhaq and Prof. Itzhak Katra and their colleagues from Denmark, Germany, Italy, China, and the US contend in a cover article published in Nature Geoscience.

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How viewing the Sun in ultraviolet can uncover its secrets. Get a 20% discount on your next VisiSolar purchase when you use this link: https://bit.ly/49G6XhX

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Continue reading “The Deepest We Have Ever Seen Into the Sun | SDO 4K” | >

Dr. Fan Liu: “Thanks to this very high precision analysis, we can see chemical differences between the twins. This provides very strong evidence that one of the stars has swallowed planets or planetary material and changed its composition.”

Can stars eat planets? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of international researchers led by ASTRO 3D researchers investigated how some pairs of twin stars possess different compositions, which contradicts longstanding theories that they should possess similar compositions, hence the same twin stars. However, astronomers now hypothesize the compositional differences could be due to one of the twin stars devouring planets that orbit them. This study holds the potential to help astronomers better understand the formation and evolution of planetary systems and the mechanisms behind them, as well.

For the study, the team used a combination of the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescope, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, and the 10-meter Keck Telescope to collect data on 91 twin stars to ascertain their chemical compositions, and specifically the similarity of their compositions. In the end, the team discovered that approximately eight percent (7−8 twin stars) exhibited differences in their compositions, with the team hypothesizing that this was due to one of the stars ingesting one of their orbiting planets. Additionally, they found that the differing pairs were all main sequence stars, meaning they’re average-aged and conducting their fusion at their full potential. For context, our Sun is a main sequence star.

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“For the first time we have shown that even a tiny fraction of cellular material could be identified by a mass spectrometer onboard a spacecraft,” said Dr. Fabian Klenner.

How will we find life on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, and Saturn’s icy moon, Enceladus? This is what a recent study published in Science Advances hopes to address as a team of international researchers investigate how ice grains that are discharged from the active plumes of these small moons could possess enough organic material for life to exist. This study holds the potential to help astrobiologists develop the necessary instruments and methods to find life on these small moons, specifically with NASA’s Europa Clipper scheduled to launch this October, whose goal will be to investigate Europa’s habitability potential.

Artist’s illustration of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, seen here upside down as the plumes are on the south pole. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Image of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, obtained in natural light by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill)

Continue reading “Exploring Extraterrestrial Oceans: Ice-Grains as Potential Carriers of Life” | >