Science world

 Nothing keeps time just like the beating heart of an atom. But even the crisp tick-tock of a vibrating nucleus is restricted by uncertainties imposed by the laws of quantum physics. Several years ago, researchers from MIT and therefore the University of Belgrade in Serbia proposed that quantum entanglement could push clocks beyond this blurry boundary. Now, we've got a symptom of concept within the type of experiment. Physicists connected together with a cloud of ytterbium-171 atoms with streams of photons reflected from a surrounding hall of mirrors and measured the timing of their tiny wiggles. Their results show that entangling atoms during this way could speed up the time-measuring process of atomic nuclei clocks, making them more precise than ever. in theory, a clock supported this new approach would lose just 100 milliseconds since the dawn of your time itself. Similar to other cutting-edge clocks supported by the nuclei of atoms of cesium and thorium, a time during this rea...

  An unmanned Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the Moon returned safely to Earth early Thursday within the first mission in four decades to gather lunar samples, the Xinhua wire service said. The return module of the guided-missile called Chang'e-5 landed in northern China's Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua said, quoting the China National Space Administration. Beijing is looking to catch up with the US and Russia after taking decades to match its rivals' achievements and has poured billions into its military-run space program. The spacecraft, named after a mythical Chinese Moon goddess, landed on the laze on December 1 and commenced its return voyage two days later. While on the Moon it raised the Chinese flag, China's space agency has said. Scientists hope the samples will help them study the Moon's origins, formation, and volcanic activity on its surface. With this mission, China became only the third country to own retrieved samples from the Moon, fo...

If the coral refuge of the Red Sea can survive local pollution, scientists think these reefs may be the last ones standing on a rapidly warming planet. But that's a giant 'if'. Right now, life during this region is moored to the fate of a 45-year-old tanker, gradually rusting away off the western coast of Yemen, with 1,000,000 barrels of oil in its hold. Neglected by its owners for over five years, this massive old ship – the FSO Safer – represents serious danger, ironically enough. Ever since war broke out on the mainland between Iran-allied Houthi rebels and Saudi-led forces, the state-owned Yemeni company has lost access to its ship, even for repairs, and rebel forces have to this point refused the international organisation an opportunity to intervene. Under the established order, environmental experts warn it's just a matter of your time before all 34 of the Safer's storage tanks sink into the ocean, causing an oil spill fourfold the scale of the Exxon Valdez d...

Thousands of individuals turned their heads to the sky to look at an eclipse that lasted around two minutes on Monday as southern Chile and Argentina were plunged into darkness. Heavy rain had threatened to stop star gazers in Chile from seeing the eclipse but at the last moment, the clouds parted merely enough for the phenomenon to be partially visible. "It was beautiful, unique. the reality is that no-one held much hope of seeing it because of the weather and clouds, but it had been unique because it cleared up just in time. it had been a miracle," an emotional Matias Tordecilla, 18, told AFP within the town of Pucon on the shores of Lake Villarrica. "It's something that you simply don't just see together {with your|along with your} eyes but also feel with your heart," added Tordecilla, who traveled 10 hours along with his family to work out the eclipse. The eclipse seen in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 14 Dec 2020. (Muhammed Emin Canik/Anadolu Agency via AFP...

  Black sandy dust found during a capsule delivered to Earth by a Japanese guided missile is from the distant asteroid Ryugu, scientists confirmed after opening it on Monday. The discovery comes per week after the Hayabusa-2 probe dropped off its capsule, which entered the atmosphere in an exceeding streak of sunshine before landing within the desert then being transported to Japan. The Japanese space agency (JAXA) released an image of a little deposit of sooty material inside the metal box - a primary glimpse at the results of an unprecedented six-year mission for the uncrewed probe. (JAXA) The dust was found within the capsule's outer shell, agency officials said, with more substantial samples expected to be found once they open the inner container, a fragile task. "JAXA has confirmed that samples derived from the asteroid Ryugu are inside the sample container," the agency said. "We were ready to confirm black, sand-like particles which are believed to be derived f...

 In 2017, NASA space probes detected a large, human-made 'barrier' surrounding Earth. And tests have confirmed that it's actually having sway on space weather far beyond our planet's atmosphere. That means we're not just changing Earth so severely, scientists are calling for an entirely new geological epoch to be named after us - our activities are changing space too. But the great news is that unlike our influence on the world itself, that humungous bubble we created come in space is truly working in our favor. Back in 2012, NASA launched two space probes to figure in tandem with one another as they whizzed through Earth's James Alfred Van Allen Belts at speeds of around 3,200 km/h (2,000 mph).  Our planet is surrounded by two such radiation belts (and a short-lived third one) - the inner belt stretches from around 640 to 9,600 km (400 to six,000 miles) above Earth's surface, while the outer belt occupies an altitude of roughly 13,500 to 58,000 km (8,400 to...

  Estimates by astronomers indicate that there could be more than 100 BILLION Earth-like worlds in the Milky Way that could be home to life. Think that’s a big number? According to astronomers,    there are roughly 500 billion galaxies in the known universe, which means there are around 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (5×1022) habitable planets. That’s of course if there’s just ONE universe. In fact, just inside our own Milky Way Galaxy experts now believe are some 400 BILLION STARS, but this number may seem small as some astrophysicists believe that stars in our galaxy could figure the TRILLION. This means that the Milky Way alone could be home to more than 100 BILLION planets. However, since astronomers aren’t able to see our galaxy from the outside, they can’t really know for sure the number of planets the Milky Way is home to. They can only provide estimates. To do this, experts calculate our galaxy’s mass and calculate how much of that mass is composed of stars. Based...

Scientists may have discovered a large-toothed mammal off the western coast of Mexico that they say looks and sounds unlike anything else on Earth. Researchers collected environmental genetic samples of this strange creature that are still being analyzed, but the images and acoustic recordings have researchers "highly confident" it is a never-before-described species of toothed whale. "We saw something new. Something that was not expected in this area, something that doesn't match, either visually or acoustically, anything that is known to exist," announced Jay Barlow, a marine mammal researcher who worked with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization, during the expedition. "It just sends chills up and down my spine when I think that we might have accomplished what most people would say was truly impossible – finding a large mammal that exists on this earth that is totally unknown to science." A sn...

 Mexican archaeologists said Friday that they had found remains of 119 more people, including women and a number of other children, during a centuries-old Aztec "tower of skulls" within the heart of the capital. The new discovery was announced after an eastern section of the Huei Tzompantli was uncovered along with the outer facade, five years after the northeastern side was found. Archaeologists believe that a lot of the skulls belonged to captured enemy warriors which the tower was intended as a warning to rivals of the Aztec empire, which was overthrown by Spanish conquistadors in 1521. Some of the remains might be of individuals who were killed in ritual sacrifices to appease the gods, consistent with experts quoted during a statement released by the National Anthropology and History Institute. "Although we cannot determine how many of these individuals were warriors, perhaps some were captives set aside for sacrificial ceremonies," archaeologist Barrera Rodrigu...

 Improving the efficiency of solar cells can make a huge difference to the amount of energy produced from the same surface area and the same amount of sunshine, and another world record has been beaten in the push for better yields. Researchers have now hit efficiency of 29.15 percent in the perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell category, which is just one of several different types of cells. There are currently a variety of different technologies in use to convert solar energy into electricity. For this type of panel, the long-term target of more than 30 percent is now tantalizingly within reach. The latest lab tests edge ahead of the maximum 28 percent efficiency that perovskite/silicon cells have managed up to this point. The layers of the tandem solar cell. (Eike Köhnen/HZB) "Tandem solar cells that pair silicon with a metal halide perovskite are a promising option for surpassing the single-cell efficiency limit," write the researchers in their published paper. "We re...

 Feasts are rare on the barren landscape of the ocean depths. So researchers couldn't believe their luck after they chanced on a feeding frenzy of deep-sea sharks chowing down on a fallen swordfish off the US coast in July 2019. But they never imagined they might also capture footage of 1 of these sharks becoming the prey for an additional deep-sea creature. With their rover hovering nearby, a late arrival took advantage of the submersible's shadow. Nobody might blame a wary fish for holding back while ravenous sharks feed, but this heavyweight had plans to show one amongst the diners into its dinner. A video posted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows the aftermath of the ambush by a hungry wreckfish. you'll watch it for yourself within the clip below, with shark lunch being served at around 1:42. The action materialized at a depth of about 450 metres (roughly 1,480 ft) near an increase within the seafloor 130 kilometres (80 miles) off the...

 Invisible structures generated by gravitational interactions within the scheme have created a "space superhighway" network, astronomers have discovered. These channels enable the fast travel of objects through space and will be harnessed for our own space exploration purposes, moreover because of the study of comets and asteroids. By applying analyses to both observational and simulation data, a team of researchers led by Nataša Todorović of Belgrade Astronomical Observatory in Serbia observed that these superhighways encompass a series of connected arches inside these invisible structures, called space manifolds - and every planet generates its own manifolds, together creating what the researchers have called "a true celestial autobahn". This network can transport objects from Jupiter to Neptune in an exceedingly matter of decades, instead of them for much longer timescales, on the order of many thousands to voluminous years, normally found within the scheme. Find...

 Three years ago, a team of archaeologists within u.  s. proposed a rare idea: the primary human settlers within the Americas received least 100,000 years previous we thought. The evidence came from a set of mastodon bones and ancient stones dating back to around 130,000 years ago, which perceived to are hammered and scraped by early humans.  The remains were found within the suburbs of the point of entry within the 1990s, and therefore the researchers think that the nearby stones may are used as hammers and anvils to figure on the bones. But outside of that, no other traces of human action were found. Today, the Cerutti Mastodon (CM) site remains one of the foremost controversial archaeological digs within the world. For years, scientists are going back and forth over the results and whether or not they indicate the presence of humans in North America 130,000 years ago, but the first authors aren't let go.  The team has now published a follow-up paper that claims to...

 The matter is what makes up the Universe, but what makes up matter? This question has long been tricky for people who consider it – especially for the physicists. Reflecting recent trends in physics, my colleague Jeffrey Eischen and that I have described an updated thanks to giving some thought to the matter. We propose that matter isn't made from particles or waves, as was long thought, but – more fundamentally – that matter is created of fragments of energy. From five to 1 The ancient Greeks conceived of 5 building blocks of matter – from bottom to top: earth, water, air, fire, and aether. Aether was the matter that filled the heavens and explained the rotation of the celebs, as observed from the planet viewpoint. These were the primary most elementary elements from which one could build up a world. Their conceptions of the physical elements didn't change dramatically for nearly 2,000 years. Then, about 300 years ago, Sir mathematician introduced the concept that every one m...

 WASP-12b is one in every of the more interesting exoplanets we all know of. Orbiting a plant disease star a bit bigger than the Sun 1,410 light-years away, the ultra-black planet is what's called a "hot Jupiter" - a superior planet exoplanet with similar mass and size to Jupiter, but so near the star that it's scorching hot. WASP-12b has never exactly been within the most secure position. With an orbital period of just over each day, the Jovian planet exoplanet is so near its star that a continuing stream of fabric is being siphoned removed from its atmosphere. But its death won't necessarily be by slow stellar slurping. Careful observations have found it is also on a noticeably decaying orbit. And, consistent with new research, that orbit is decaying a touch faster than we initially thought. Rather than the three.25 million years initially estimated, WASP-12b will meet its fiery end in mere 2.9 million years. According to current models of planet formation, tech...

 A team of Chinese scientists has developed the foremost powerful quantum computer within the world, capable of engaging at least one task 100 trillion times faster than the world's fastest supercomputers. In 2019, Google said it had built the primary machine to attain "quantum supremacy," the primary to outperform the world's best supercomputers at quantum calculation, Live Science previously reported. (IBM disputed Google's claim at the time.) The Chinese team, based primarily at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, reported their quantum computer, named Jiuzhang, is 10 billion times faster than Google's. an outline of Jiuzhang and its feat of calculation was published December 3 within the journal Science. Assuming both claims interference, Jiuzhang would be the second quantum computer to realize quantum supremacy anywhere within the world. China has invested heavily in quantum computing, with Xi Jinping's government spending US$1...

The Sun may be in for a very busy time. According to new predictions, the next maximum in its activity cycles could be one of the strongest we've seen. This is in direct contradiction to the official solar weather forecast from NASA and the NOAA, but if it bears out, it could confirm a theory about solar activity cycles that scientists have been working on for years. "Scientists have struggled to predict both the length and the strength of sunspot cycles because we lack a fundamental understanding of the mechanism that drives the cycle," said solar physicist Scott McIntosh of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research. "If our forecast proves correct, we will have evidence that our framework for understanding the Sun's internal magnetic machine is on the right path." The Sun's activity levels are actually quite variable, and its activity cycles are bound up with its magnetic field. Every 11 years, the Sun's poles swap places; south becomes north...

 Physicists have spotted the Higgs boson performing a brand new trick, but one that brings us no closer to understanding the workings of fundamental particles. The Higgs boson, discovered at the CERN high energy physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, in 2012, is that the particle that offers all other fundamental particles mass, in keeping with the quality model of high-energy physics. However, despite the work of thousands of researchers around the world, nobody has been ready to determine exactly how it does that or why some particles are more massive than others. The only thanks to trying and solve that problem is by observing how the Higgs interacts with other particles using the massive Hadron Collider (LHC). For the primary time, both of the most important groups that use it – the CMS and ATLAS collaborations – have observed the Higgs decaying into two muons, a kind of particle we've never directly seen it interact with before. Members of the collaborations presented th...