A giant iceberg, about twice the size of Chicago, broke off from Antartica’s Brunt Ice Shelf in late February 2021. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/giant-iceberg-breaks-off-antarctica-brunt-ice-shelf…
Tag: 2021
Earlier spring snowmelt in Alps threatens microbes in soil
A new study suggests that spring snowmelt in the Alps is occurring earlier in the year, and the earlier warming – due to climate change – threatens vitally important microbial communities in Alpine soils. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/alps-climate-change-driven-snowmelt-abrupt-seasonal-change…
Chinese astronauts training for space station crewed flights
China said Thursday a cohort of astronauts is training for four crewed missions this year as the country works to complete its first permanent orbiting space station. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-03-chinese-astronauts-space-station-crewed.html…
SpaceX Starship lands upright, then explodes in latest test
SpaceX’s futuristic Starship looked like it aced a touchdown Wednesday, but then exploded on the landing pad with so much force that it was hurled into the air. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-03-spacex-starship-upright-latest.html…
Source of hazardous high-energy particles located in the Sun
The source of potentially hazardous solar particles, released from the Sun at high speed during storms in its outer atmosphere, has been located for the first time by researchers at UCL and George Mason University, Virginia, U.S. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-03-source-hazardous-high-energy-particles-sun.html…
Study shows a sharp rise in detection rate of broad absorption line variations
Gas around black holes and interstellar medium distribution are key factors in understanding the growth of supermassive black holes and the evolution of their host galaxies. However, as a crucial parameter, gas density is hard to determine reliably, because the general method is not applicable to all quasars. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-03-sharp-broad-absorption-line-variations.html…
Researchers investigate ‘imaginary part’ in quantum resource theory
Recently, a research team led by academician Guo Guangcan from CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of CAS, has made important progress in quantum information theory. Prof. Li Chuanfeng and Prof. Xiang Guoyong from the team collaborated with Dr. Strelstov from University of Warsaw to investigate the imaginary part of quantum…
Photographs of historic Mars and Pleiades conjunction
On March 3, 2021, the red planet Mars and Pleiades star cluster in Taurus will appear close together on the sky’s dome. The two won’t get this close again until 2038! See photos of the big event. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/mars-pleiades-march-3-2021-conjunction-photographs…
AI Ethics Research Conference Suspends Google Sponsorship
The ACM Conference for Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) has decided to suspend its sponsorship relationship with Google, conference sponsorship co-chair and Boise State University assistant professor Michael Ekstrand confirmed today. From a report: The organizers of the AI ethics research conference came to this decision a little over a week after Google fired Ethical AI lead Margaret Mitchell and three…
Heat-free optical switch would enable optical quantum computing chips
In a potential boost for quantum computing and communication, a European research collaboration reported a new method of controlling and manipulating single photons without generating heat. The solution makes it possible to integrate optical switches and single-photon detectors in a single chip. …