Tag: speed of light

The black hole disk that shouldn’t exist

Astronomers didn’t expect to see a thin disk around the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 3147, some 130 million light-years away. They’re using Einstein’s theories of relativity to understand the velocities involved, and the intensity of black hole’s pull. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/black-hole-disk-shouldnt-exist-galaxy-ngc-3147…

Physicists have let light through the plane of the world’s thinnest semiconductor crystal

In every modern microcircuit hidden inside a laptop or smartphone, you can see transistors—small semiconductor devices that control the flow of electric current, i.e. the flow of electrons. If we replace electrons with photons (elementary particles of light), then scientists will have the prospect of creating new computing systems that can process massive information flows at a speed close to the…

Inside ‘Starshot’, the Audacious Plan To Shoot Tiny Ships To Alpha Centauri

“Starshot wants to build the world’s most powerful laser and aim it at the closest star. What could go wrong?” An anonymous reader quotes MIT’s Technology Review: In 2015, Philip Lubin, a cosmologist from the University of California, Santa Barbara, took the stage at the 100-Year Starship Symposium in Santa Clara. He outlined his plan to build a laser so powerful…

Powering the extreme jets of active galaxies

An active galaxy nucleus (AGN) contains a supermassive black hole that is vigorously accreting material. It typically ejects jets of particles that move at close to the speed of light, radiating across many wavelengths, in particular the X-ray, in processes are among the most energetic phenomena in the universe. The jets are often also highly collimated and extend far beyond their…

Learning how to protect astronauts from space radiation

There is little known about the effects of space radiation on the human body. Astronauts cannot see or feel it, yet the high doses they are exposed to outside Earth’s cocoon pose health hazards for trips to the Moon and Mars. To help investigate and find out more, European scientists can now accelerate atoms at close to the speed of light…