DURHAM, N.H. Research led by a University of New Hampshire professor has identified a new source of methane for gas — hydrates ice-like substances found in sediment that trap methane within the crystal structure of frozen water — in the Arctic Ocean. The findings, published online now in the May 2015 journal Geology, point to […]
Some of seventeenth century’s greatest astronomers, including Hevelius — the father of lunar cartography — and Cassini, carefully documented the appearance of a new star in the skies in 1670. Hevelius described it as nova sub capite Cygni — a new star below the head of the Swan — but astronomers now know it by […]
University of Washington scientists have built a new nanometer-sized laser — using the thinnest semiconductor available today — that is energy efficient, easy to build and compatible with existing electronics. Lasers play essential roles in countless technologies, from medical therapies to metal cutters to electronic gadgets. But to meet modern needs in computation, communications, imaging […]
Long before Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars formed, it seems that the inner solar system may have harbored a number of super-Earths–planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. If so, those planets are long gone–broken up and fallen into the sun billions of years ago largely due to a great inward-and-then-outward journey that Jupiter […]