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Blog – Page 1026

Set for completion this decade, the Extremely Large Telescope in Chile will be the largest telescope globally, with a main mirror spanning 39 meters and made from 798 precision-engineered segments. It represents a significant international effort in astronomy.

Currently under construction in the Chilean Atacama Desert, the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ESO ’s ELT) is one step closer to completion. German company SCHOTT has successfully delivered the blank for the last of the 949 segments commissioned for the telescope’s primary mirror (M1). With a diameter of more than 39 meters, M1 will be by far the largest mirror ever made for a telescope.

Innovations in Telescope Mirror Design.

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A new review examines advancements in thermal management technologies (TMTs) for spacecraft electronics, tackling the problems of heat acquisition, transport, and rejection in the extreme conditions of space. This review is intended to inform the development of future thermal management systems for spacecraft, enhancing both the reliability and effectiveness of space missions.

Spacecraft electronics operate under extreme conditions, facing issues like microgravity, thermal cycling, and space radiation. These factors necessitate robust thermal management solutions to maintain the functionality and longevity of onboard equipment. Traditional thermal control methods often fall short in addressing these challenges. Based on these challenges, there is a need to conduct in-depth research on advanced thermal management technologies to ensure the stability and efficiency of space missions.

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Scientists have devised a 3D-printed vacuum system to detect dark matter and explore dark energy, using ultra-cold lithium atoms to identify domain walls and potentially explain the universe’s accelerating expansion.

Scientists have developed a novel 3D-printed vacuum system designed to ‘trap’ dark matter, aiming to detect domain walls. This advancement represents a significant step forward in deciphering the mysteries of the universe.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Physics have created a 3D-printed vacuum system that they will use in a new experiment to reduce the density of gas, then and add in ultra-cold lithium atoms to try to detect dark walls. The research has been published in the scientific journal Physical Review D.

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In a recent study published in Immunology, researchers investigated populations of regulatory T cells (Treg), a type of white blood cell, in various tissues.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have identified that regulatory T cells exist as a large, mobile population that continuously travels through the body to locate and repair damaged tissue.

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Conventional encryption methods rely on complex mathematical algorithms and the limits of current computing power. However, with the rise of quantum computers, these methods are becoming increasingly vulnerable, necessitating quantum key distribution (QKD).

QKD is a technology that leverages the unique properties of quantum physics to secure data transmission. This method has been continuously optimized over the years, but establishing large networks has been challenging due to the limitations of existing quantum light sources.

In a new article published in Light: Science & Applications, a team of scientists in Germany have achieved the first intercity QKD experiment with a deterministic single-photon source, revolutionizing how we protect our confidential information from cyber threats.

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As bristling with volcanoes as a porcupine with quills, Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System. At any given time, around 150 of the 400 or so active volcanoes on Io are erupting. It’s constantly spewing out lava and gas; a veritable factory of volcanic excretions.

And, thanks to the Juno probe’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) imaging Jupiter and its surrounding environment, we now know a lot more about what a gloriously hot mess Io is.

“The high spatial resolution of JIRAM’s infrared images, combined with the favorable position of Juno during the flybys, revealed that the whole surface of Io is covered by lava lakes contained in caldera-like features,” says astrophysicist Alessandro Mura of the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy.

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Bone remains found in a Tibetan cave 3,280 m above sea level indicate an ancient group of humans survived here for many millennia, according to a new study published in Nature.

The Denisovans are an extinct species of ancient human that lived at the same time and in the same places as Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Only a handful of Denisovan remains have ever been discovered by archaeologists. Little is known about the group, including when they became extinct, but evidence exists to suggest they interbred with both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

A research team led by Lanzhou University, China, the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS, China, and involving the University of Reading studied more than 2,500 bones from the Baishiya Karst Cave on the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau, one of the only two places where Denisovans are known to have lived.

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We study the possibility that the vacuum energydensity of scalar and internal-space gauge fieldsarising from the process of dimensional reduction ofhigher dimensional gravity theories plays the role of quintessence. We show that, for themultidimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills system compactifiedon a R × S3 × Sdtopology, there are classically stable solutions suchthat the observed accelerated expansion of the Universe atpresent can be accounted for without upsetting structureformation scenarios or violating observational bounds onthe vacuum energy density.

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