The first asteroid discovered from Ireland for 160 years was confirmed in the early hours yesterday after first being spotted on Tuesday by an enthusiastic stargazer from his back garden.
"I've been doing asteroid work for a good few years but I can't think of anything better than discovering one, particularly as an amateur," said a delighted Dave McDonald yesterday.
Science & Technology
Astronomers have used ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer to conduct the first high resolution survey that combines spectroscopy and interferometry on intermediate-mass infant stars. They obtained a very precise view of the processes acting in the discs that feed stars as they form. These mechanisms include material infalling onto the star as well as gas being ejected, probably as a wind from the disc.
Infant stars form from a disc of gas and dust that surrounds the new star and, later, may also provide the material for a planetary system. Because the closest star-forming regions to us are about 500 light-years away, these discs appear very small on the sky, and their study requires special techniques to be able to probe the finer details.
This is best done with interferometry, a technique that combines the light of two or more telescopes so that the level of detail revealed corresponds to that which would be seen by a telescope with a diameter equal to the separation between the interferometer elements, typically 40 to 200 metres. ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has allowed astronomers to reach a resolution of about a milli-arcsecond, an angle equivalent to the size of the full stop at the end of this sentence seen from a distance of about 50 kilometres.
© ESO/L. Calçada
Artist's impression of the environment of a young star, showing the geometry of the dust disc in the outer area and the hot gas disc closer to the central star. Note that the image is not to scale and the inner gas disc, which was studied by the astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, is smaller than the distance between the Earth and the Sun, while the whole disc is tens of times larger.
Artist's impression of the environment of a young star, showing the geometry of the dust disc in the outer area and the hot gas disc closer to the central star. Note that the image is not to scale and the inner gas disc, which was studied by the astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer, is smaller than the distance between the Earth and the Sun, while the whole disc is tens of times larger.
Infant stars form from a disc of gas and dust that surrounds the new star and, later, may also provide the material for a planetary system. Because the closest star-forming regions to us are about 500 light-years away, these discs appear very small on the sky, and their study requires special techniques to be able to probe the finer details.
This is best done with interferometry, a technique that combines the light of two or more telescopes so that the level of detail revealed corresponds to that which would be seen by a telescope with a diameter equal to the separation between the interferometer elements, typically 40 to 200 metres. ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has allowed astronomers to reach a resolution of about a milli-arcsecond, an angle equivalent to the size of the full stop at the end of this sentence seen from a distance of about 50 kilometres.
Four months after a successful hand transplant -- 35 years after amputation in an industrial accident at age 19 -- a 54-year-old man's emerging sense of touch is registered in the former "hand area" of the his brain, says a University of Oregon neuroscientist.
DNA, the molecule that acts as the carrier of genetic information in all forms of life, is highly resistant against alteration by ultraviolet light, but understanding the mechanism for its photostability presents some puzzling problems. A key aspect is the interaction between the four chemical bases that make up the DNA molecule. Researchers at Kiel University have succeeded in showing that DNA strands differ in their light sensitivity depending on their base sequences.
© J. Haacks, CAU
Nina Schwalb adjusting the femtosecond laser spectroscope.
Nina Schwalb adjusting the femtosecond laser spectroscope.
A novel enzyme may play a major role in anencephaly, offering hope for a genetic test or even therapy for the rare fatal birth defect in which the brain fails to develop, according to a study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
An influential group of Astronomers meeting in Prague are deciding whether our solar system has 12 planets, not nine.
They have agreed on a draft proposal for redefining what constitutes a planet.
A new kind of planet, the pluton, differs from classical planets in that they have orbits round the Sun that take longer than 200 years to complete, and their orbits are highly tilted and non-circular.
All these characteristics suggest that they have an origin different from that of classical planets.
If plutons are approved at the meeting in the Czech capital, it would mean there are 12, not nine planets, and more could be added to the list in the future.
They have agreed on a draft proposal for redefining what constitutes a planet.
A new kind of planet, the pluton, differs from classical planets in that they have orbits round the Sun that take longer than 200 years to complete, and their orbits are highly tilted and non-circular.
All these characteristics suggest that they have an origin different from that of classical planets.
If plutons are approved at the meeting in the Czech capital, it would mean there are 12, not nine planets, and more could be added to the list in the future.
Scientists using DNA testing have confirmed the second-known instance of "virgin birth" in a shark -- a female Atlantic blacktip shark named Tidbit that produced a baby without a male shark.
A team of internationally renowned astronomers and opticians may have found a way to make "unbelievably large" telescopes on the Moon.
"It's so simple," says Ermanno F. Borra, physics professor at the Optics Laboratory of Laval University in Quebec, Canada. "Isaac Newton knew that any liquid, if put into a shallow container and set spinning, naturally assumes a parabolic shape - the same shape needed by a telescope mirror to bring starlight to a focus. This could be the key to making a giant lunar observatory."
"It's so simple," says Ermanno F. Borra, physics professor at the Optics Laboratory of Laval University in Quebec, Canada. "Isaac Newton knew that any liquid, if put into a shallow container and set spinning, naturally assumes a parabolic shape - the same shape needed by a telescope mirror to bring starlight to a focus. This could be the key to making a giant lunar observatory."
Quantum cryptography is inherently unbreakable
The network connects six locations across Vienna and in the nearby town of St Poelten, using 200 km of standard commercial fibre optic cables.
