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Researchers Unleash Record-Breaking X-Ray Flashes in Just 300 Attoseconds

Researchers used the European XFEL to produce ultrashort X-ray flashes that reached record intensity for this type of pulse.

To understand chemical reactions and perhaps one day control the electrons involved, scientists need a detailed picture of how electrons behave inside atoms and molecules. X-rays offer a way to probe that behavior, but the flashes can also change the sample they are meant to examine. Researchers therefore need enough light to gather useful information before those changes become substantial.

At the European XFEL, a team has now concentrated X-ray flashes onto an area roughly 100,000 times smaller than the cross-section of a typical human hair. The pulses lasted an estimated 300 attoseconds, with each attosecond equal to a billionth of a billionth of a second.

NASA’s James Webb Telescope Reveals a Giant Alien Planet That’s Not Quite Round

Weather maps of distant planets are a step closer after the James Webb Space Telescope distinguished hotter and cooler regions around the giant exoplanet WASP-17b.

One side of WASP-17b’s atmosphere extends farther into space than the other, giving this intensely hot giant planet an uneven outline. Astronomers have now mapped that distortion with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), finding a pattern consistent with predictions of how heat and powerful winds shape a world with permanent day and night sides.

WASP-17b is a hot Jupiter, a giant planet that orbits close to its star, about 1,300 light-years from Earth. The study, co-led by Cornell University in the United States and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, was published in Nature Astronomy. It marks the first application of a method called transmission strings, developed at Bristol by astrophysicists Dr. David Grant and Dr. Hannah Wakeford.

Quantum Computing Breakthrough Opens a New Path to Larger, More Powerful Processors

Keeping silicon quantum bits accurate while they work together could help turn established chipmaking technology into larger quantum computers capable of tackling increasingly complex problems.

The manufacturing technology behind everyday computer chips could help build larger quantum computers. Silicon spin qubits offer that possibility, but the precision they achieve on their own can slip when several are controlled at once.

Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and their collaborators have now demonstrated a way to preserve much of that precision during simultaneous operation. Working with five silicon qubits controlled through a single shared microwave line, they identified a major source of control errors and developed a calibration protocol to compensate for it. Their study was published in Nature Physics.

Scientists Discover Metals That Refuse To Crack at an Astonishing —424°F

Two experimental alloys resisted cracking at −424°F by forming new crystal defects, offering a possible route to tougher metals for extreme cold.

Most metals become stronger as they cool, but some also become more vulnerable to breaking. Iron, tungsten, and chromium belong to a class called body-centered cubic metals, whose atomic arrangement can make them increasingly brittle as temperatures fall. A crack that the metal might otherwise accommodate by bending or stretching can instead cause a fracture.

That ability to deform depends heavily on the movement of dislocations, line-like defects in the metal’s crystal structure. At low temperatures, these defects become harder to move, limiting how much the material can deform to relieve the forces building up around a crack.

WordPress SEO plugin Rank Math compromised to backdoor websites

Some downloads of the Rank Math PRO WordPress plugin from the vendor’s official website carried malware that planted hidden backdoors in a supply-chain attack last week.

According to the vendor, a limited number of users who downloaded version 3.0.123 of the plugin between October 15 at 20:02 UTC and October 16 at 07:12 UTC received compromised versions that could compromise their websites upon activation.

“The affected plugin files contained malware that could compromise your website if the plugin was activated,” Rank Math warned.