The Milky Way is not alone in its little corner of the Universe. Small faint dwarf galaxies, many with a few to a thousand stars, orbit our cosmic neighborhood in long graceful circles. It’s unclear exactly how many there are, but there must be many more than the 60 or so we’ve found so far. … Read more
Daedalus could have learned a thing or two from a team of physicists in the UK and Switzerland. Taking principles from fractal geometry and the strategic game of chess, they have created what they say is the most difficult maze ever created. Led by physicist Felix Flicker of the University of Bristol in the United … Read more
A stunning new place has been discovered, hidden deep beneath the ocean waves of the Arctic Circle. Off the coast of Svalbard, Norway, more than 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) below, a field of hydrothermal vents unfolds along Knipovich Ridge, an underwater mountain range previously thought to be quite inconspicuous. Instead, like underfloor heating, volcanic activity … Read more
California vehicle emissions have fallen steadily over the years as environmental policies and advanced technology clean up traffic emissions. However, since 2010, microscopic air particles and ground-level ozone have stubbornly refused to fall thanks to the rise of ‘secondary sources’ – many of which are the trees and shrubs that line our city streets. To … Read more
A discovered black hole lurking in the Cosmic Dawn is too big to be easily explained. Sitting at the center of a galaxy called J1120 + 0641, it tips the scales at the mass of a billion Suns. Supermassive black holes exist all around us today. The problem is when of the existence of J1120+0641. … Read more
The path to quantum supremacy is complicated by a fairytale challenge – how do you keep a cloud from changing its shape? The possible solution sounds almost as fantastic as the problem. You can direct the cloud to dance as it travels, to the beat of a unique material known as a time crystal. Krzysztof … Read more