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Category: space – Page 56

Scientists demonstrate time reflection of electromagnetic waves in a groundbreaking experiment

Observation of temporal reflection and broadband frequency translation at photonic time interfaces https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-023-01975-y

NEW YORK, March 13, 2023 — When we look in a mirror, we are used to seeing our faces looking back at us. The reflected images are produced by electromagnetic light waves bouncing off of the mirrored surface, creating the common phenomenon called spatial reflection. Similarly, spatial reflections of sound waves form echoes that carry our words back to us in the same order we spoke them.

Scientists have hypothesized for over six decades the possibility of observing a different form of wave reflections, known as temporal, or time, reflections. In contrast to spatial reflections, which arise when light or sound waves hit a boundary such as a mirror or a wall at a specific location in space, time reflections arise when the entire medium in which the wave is traveling suddenly and abruptly changes its properties across all of space. At such an event, a portion of the wave is time reversed, and its frequency is converted to a new frequency.

To date, this phenomenon had never been observed for electromagnetic waves. The fundamental reason for this lack of evidence is that the optical properties of a material cannot be easily changed at a speed and magnitude that induces time reflections. Now, however, in a newly published paper in Nature Physics, researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) detail a breakthrough experiment in which they were able to observe time reflections of electromagnetic signals in a tailored metamaterial.

Chandrayaan-2 unveils the effect of the Earth’s geomagnetic tail on the Lunar ionosphere plasma

New study reveals surprisingly high electron densities in the Lunar environment, hinting at the potential role of lunar crustal magnetic fields in shaping plasma dynamics.

In a major finding, scientists from Space Physics Laboratory, VSSC, analysing radio signals from India’s Chandrayaan-2 (CH-2) orbiter – which is in good health and providing data — have revealed that the Moon’s ionosphere exhibits unexpectedly high electron densities when it enters the Earth’s geomagnetic tail. This finding sheds new light on how plasma behaves in the lunar environment and suggests a stronger influence of the Moon’s remnant magnetic fields than previously thought.

The scientists have used an innovative method to study the plasma distribution around moon. In this method they conducted experiments using the S-band Telemetry and Telecommand (TTC) radio signals in a two-way radio occultation experiment, tracking CH-2’s radio transmissions through the Moon’s plasma layer. These signals were received at the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN), Byallalu, Bangalore. The results revealed a surprisingly high electron density of approximately 23,000 electrons per cubic centimetre in the lunar environment, comparable to densities observed in the Moon’s wake region (previously discovered by the same team) and nearly 100 times higher than those on the sunlit side of the Moon.

Athena Dead — Starship Explodes — Space is Hard

Starship 38 disintegrates just before reaching space and Intuitive Machines Athena lunar lander lands on its side. Watch to learn more.

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PokéChamp: an Expert-level Minimax Language Agent

We introduce PokéChamp, a minimax agent powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) for Pokémon battles. Built on a general framework for two-player competitive games, PokéChamp leverages the generalist capabilities of LLMs to enhance minimax tree search. Specifically, LLMs replace three key modules: player action sampling, opponent modeling, and value function estimation, enabling the agent to effectively utilize gameplay history and human knowledge to reduce the search space and address partial observability. Notably, our framework requires no additional LLM training. We evaluate PokéChamp in the popular Gen 9 OU format. When powered by GPT-4o, it achieves a win rate of 76% against the best existing LLM-based bot and 84% against the strongest rule-based bot, demonstrating its superior performance. Even with an open-source 8-billion-parameter Llama 3.1 model, PokéChamp consistently outperforms the previous best LLM-based bot, Pokéllmon powered by GPT-4o, with a 64% win rate. PokéChamp attains a projected Elo of 1300–1500 on the Pokémon Showdown online ladder, placing it among the top 30%-10% of human players. In addition, this work compiles the largest real-player Pokémon battle dataset, featuring over 3 million games, including more than 500k high-Elo matches. Based on this dataset, we establish a series of battle benchmarks and puzzles to evaluate specific battling skills. We further provide key updates to the local game engine. We hope this work fosters further research that leverage Pokémon battle as benchmark to integrate LLM technologies with game-theoretic algorithms addressing general multiagent problems. Videos, code, and dataset available at this https URL.

‘Nanodot’ control could fine-tune light for sharper displays and quantum computing

Newly achieved precise control over light emitted from incredibly tiny sources, a few nanometers in size, embedded in two-dimensional (2D) materials could lead to remarkably high-resolution monitors and advances in ultra-fast quantum computing, according to an international team led by researchers at Penn State and Université Paris-Saclay.

In a recent study, published in ACS Photonics, scientists worked together to show how the light emitted from 2D materials can be modulated by embedding a second 2D material inside them—like a tiny island of a few nanometers in size—called a nanodot. The team described how they achieved the confinement of nanodots in two dimensions and demonstrated that, by controlling the nanodot size, they could change the color and frequency of the emitted light.

“If you have the opportunity to have localized from these materials that are relevant in quantum technologies and electronics, it’s very exciting,” said Nasim Alem, Penn State associate professor of materials science and engineering and co-corresponding author on the study. “Envision getting light from a zero-dimensional point in your field, like a dot in space, and not only that, but you can also control it. You can control the frequency. You can also control the wavelength where it comes from.”

The Holy Grail of Physics: Superconductivity Without the Cold

Researchers found that fundamental constants determine the upper limit of superconducting temperatures, and luckily, our Universe allows for conditions where this breakthrough might be possible.

The Holy Grail of Physics: Room-Temperature Superconductivity

A new study, published on March 3 in the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, suggests that room-temperature superconductivity — long considered the “holy grail” of condensed matter physics — may indeed be possible within the fundamental laws of the universe.

How heat from the sun plays a role in seismic activity on Earth

The role of solar heat in earthquake activity https://pubs.aip.org/aip/cha/article-abstract/35/3/033107/33…m=fulltext

Seismology has revealed much of the basics about earthquakes: Tectonic plates move, causing strain energy to build up, and that energy eventually releases in the form of an earthquake. As for forecasting them, however, there’s still much to learn in order to evacuate cities before catastrophes like the 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake that, in addition to causing the tsunami that led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, resulted in more than 18,000 deaths.

In recent years, research has focused on a possible correlation between the sun or moon and on Earth, with some studies pointing to or electromagnetic effects interacting with the planet’s crust, core, and mantle.

In Chaos researchers from the University of Tsukuba and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan explored the likelihood that Earth’s climate, as affected by , plays a role.

Spectacular photo taken from ISS shows ‘gigantic jet’ of upward-shooting lightning towering 50 miles over New Orleans

A newly unveiled photo captured by an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) provides a rare glimpse at an upward-shooting “gigantic jet” of lightning likely extending more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the U.S. coast.

The striking image was taken by an unnamed ISS crewmember on Nov. 19, 2024, but it was not initially shared by NASA or any other space organization. However, photographer Frankie Lucena, who specializes in capturing giant lightning sprites, stumbled across photos of the event on the Gateway to Astronaut photography of Earth website and shared them with Spaceweather.com, which reshared the shots Feb. 26.