In The News: Department of Physics and Astronomy
Cataclysmic variables are a broad class of binary systems that periodically undergo powerful outbursts, which we perceive as novae. However, in the intervals between these events, their brightness can also increase. And now scientists have a good idea of why this happens.
They鈥檒l only be available on the new models of planes easyJet is introducing (for aviation nerds, that鈥檚 the Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft, of which there鈥檒l be just over 200).
Throughout the nation, communities are divided on the rapid development of AI data centers that threaten to suck rivers dry and raise utility bills with enormous energy demands. In Boulder City, a short drive southeast from Henderson, voters will get to decide whether data centers are an acceptable use for a specific portion of city-owned land known as the Eldorado Valley Transfer Area.
Confusing calls for 鈥榩riority boarders鈥 and numbered groups can make the process drag on 鈥 so it might surprise travelers to learn that there鈥檚 actually a tried and tested boarding system proven to make the process quicker.
Airlines use slower boarding methods because they help sell perks like priority boarding and seat upgrades.
Planetary alignments happen more often than you might think. Here鈥檚 why this one is special.
When someone talks about frozen water, they typically mean the ice cubes in a cold drink or the vast glaciers in Earth鈥檚 coldest corners. What most people don鈥檛 know, however, is that H2O molecules can arrange themselves into many different types, or phases, of ice with various structures. Researchers have discovered more than 20 of these phases, the latest of which鈥攃alled Ice XXI鈥攁 team recently created under extreme pressure, allowing water to turn to ice at room temperature.
Chances are that all your encounters with frozen water鈥攚hile trudging through slushy winter streets, perhaps, or treating yourself to cool summer lemonades鈥攈ave been confined to one structural form of ice, dubbed Ih, with the h referring to its crystal lattice鈥檚 hexagonal nature. But there is so much more to ice than that.
At the start of the year, Earth will quietly reach a milestone in its orbit around the sun. Known as perihelion, this is the moment when our planet is closer to the sun than at any other point in the year.
If you鈥檝e been following astronomy headlines, you might have noticed a curious new arrival to the neighborhood: Comet 3I/ATLAS. It鈥檚 not just another 鈥渞egular鈥 comet from the outer solar system鈥搕his one鈥檚 an interstellar visitor, meaning it was born around another star entirely.
For the first time, scientists have detected two black hole mergers with spins so unusual they may reveal a new generation of cosmic collisions. The twin discoveries, labeled GW241011 and GW241110, were announced by the international LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA collaborations鈥攖eams that have been tuning their instruments to detect the faintest ripples in space and time. Each signal, lasting less than a second, was a final whisper from black holes that collided billions of years ago.
Michael Pravica talks about how consciousness can transcend the physical realm.
