Physicists Made an Insanely Precise Clock That Keeps Time Using Entanglement

 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 reasonable setup is split by oscillations during a ytterbium nucleus after it absorbs particular energy of sunshine.

Since ytterbium's core is made to hum at a rate 100,000 times faster than the nucleus of a cesium atom, it makes for a much more precise time-keeping mechanism.

But there comes a degree when physical science says it's impossible to mention exactly where an atom's oscillations start and stop. This Standard Quantum Limit (SQL) acts sort of a blur on the atomic pendulum; you may have a faster ticking clock, but what good does it do if you cannot even measure it?

Without the simplest way to beat this obstacle, it doesn't really matter if we swap out one set of atomic nuclei for a more precise type – their quantum messiness sets a tough limit on the precision of atomic clocks.

One trick is to record the frequencies of multiple atoms humming all without delay within a lattice consisting of many tiny atomic pendulums. Current timepiece technologies use lasers engineered to be as stable as possible, providing each atom with a particularly similar frequency of sunshine. By combining their collective blur, individual uncertainties average out.

This new method goes a step further during this averaging process. By connecting atoms together in a way that entangles the quantum probabilities of their spins, it's possible to redistribute the uncertainty within the system, increasing the precision in some parts at the expense of others.

"It's just like the light is a communication link between atoms," says MIT physicist Chi Shu.

"The first atom that sees this light will modify the sunshine slightly, which light also modifies the second atom, and also the third atom, and thru many cycles, the atoms collectively know one another and begin behaving similarly."

No matter which method is employed, the longer you listen, the more precise the top result is. during this case, the team found entanglement made the measurement process roughly thrice faster compared with clocks working at the SQL.

That might not seem all that dramatic, but a speed boost can be just the thing we'd like to review a number of the more subtle influences the Universe has on time.

"As the Universe ages, does the speed of sunshine change? Does the charge of the electron change?" says lead researcher Vladan Vuletic from MIT.

"That's what you'll probe with more precise atomic clocks."

It could even allow us to seek out the purpose at which Einstein's theory of relativity falls apart, pointing to new physics that connects the defined curvature of space-time with the uncertain nature of quantum fields. Or allow us to higher measure the fine time-warping characteristics of matter.

Standing at the sting of a replacement age in physics and astronomy, we're really visiting need time on our side.

A Chinese Probe Just Brought Back The First New Samples From The Moon in Decades

 

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, following us and therefore the land within the 1960s and 1970s.

This was the primary such attempt since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 mission in 1976.

The spacecraft's mission was to gather two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of fabric in a neighborhood referred to as Oceanus Procellarum – or "Ocean of Storms" – an enormous, previously unexplored lava plain, in line with the science journal Nature.

Under President Xi Jinping, plans for China's "space dream", as he calls it, are put into overdrive.

China hopes to possess a crewed space platform by 2022 and eventually send humans to the Moon.

Catastrophic Oil Spill From Abandoned Ship in The Red Sea Could Happen Any Second

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 disaster in 1989.

"A 1-million-barrel leak guarantees a regional environmental and humanitarian disaster," a replacement study warns.

"Devastation to the health and livelihoods of immeasurable people living in half a dozen countries along the sea coast would be assured. The air they breathe, the food they harvest bewildered, and their water desalination are all at immediate risk."

According to the study, local currents will make sure the distribution of oil to coral reefs that cover nearly all 4,000 kilometres of the sea coastline.

The Gulf of Aqaba, which is tucked within the northernmost corner of the sea, is home to at least one of the foremost pristine reef ecosystems within the world, and its corals have proved remarkably proof against rising temperatures and ocean acidification. A spill of this magnitude might be its undoing.

Currents of the Red Sea. (Viviane Menezes/WHOI)

Having modelled the distribution of a 30-day Red Sea oil spill in both winter and summer conditions, researchers now warn that we are squandering precious time. The Safer is in its final stages of decay, they say, and that we are approaching the worst season for an oil spill. 

In May of this year, a breach of seawater within the hull of the Safer was temporarily patched. Shortly after, in September, officials in the Asian nation claimed to own found an "oil spot" near the vessel, which sits right within the Red Sea's shipping lane.

While these reports haven't been verified, if the ship continues to decay at such a rate into winter, it can be catastrophic.

"It is obvious from the analysis that in winter oil dispersion will extend further north and into the centre of the Red Sea as compared to a spill dispersing during summer," the authors write.

"Therefore, action should be taken before winter, as a winter spill ensures that the oil will spread further north and can [remain] trapped for extended within the Red Sea."

Corals in the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea. (Maoz Fine)

The good news is that rebel forces have ultimately agreed to let the UN inspect and repair the tanker, in line with The big apple Times. The bad news is that this servicing has been delayed until January - if it occurs in the least.

The last time rebel forces agreed to let the UN service the tanker within the summer of 2019, they changed their minds the night before.

"The time is now to stop a possible devastation to the region's waters and therefore the livelihoods and health of countless people living in half a dozen countries along the Red Sea's coast," says coral researcher Karine Kleinhaus from Stony Brook University in the big apple.

"If a spill from the Safer is allowed to occur, the oil would spread via ocean currents to devastate a worldwide ocean resource, because the coral reefs of the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba are projected to be among the last reef ecosystems within the world to survive the approaching decades."

Most of the time, oil spills come as a surprise - a minimum of to the extent that we do not know after they are visiting occur. But researchers say this is often the foremost advanced warning of a significant spill we've ever had, yet we're squandering the chance to prevent it.

Despite several reports of corroding pipes and leaks, the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) still has no decisively assured route to repairing the ship or removing the oil, although the vessel is increasingly in danger of sinking.

Besides, repairs are probably not visiting cut it at now, although they might buy us precious time to dump the oil.

"Our last chance to pump off the oil within the vessel and stockpile oil booms regionally to contain an imminent spill is quickly disappearing," the authors warn.

Environmental experts have long described the Safer as a 'floating bomb', and as long as the oil itself has been left to rot, some diplomats think the rebels agree and are using it as a deterrent, "like having a nuclear weapon".

Rebel forces may also see it as leverage. With the correct price, UN officials may well be able to remedy matters, but who to pay and the way much continues to be under intense negotiation.

Some losses, after all, are priceless.

In July, a Yemeni environmental group estimated it'd take 30 years for the environment to recover if the Safer sank, and over 126,000 people during this nation alone could potentially lose their livelihoods from the following pollution.

If pollution clogs up the region's myriad desalination plants, it could deprive countless people of water. Many of these in Yemen are already facing starvation and poverty from the continued war.

"The UN, the IMO, and global oil extraction, refinement and shipping companies must act to protect the Red Sea and its critical marine resources by acting to stop this potentially massive and devastating spill," the authors conclude.

We know what we have to do, now we have to make it happen.

We Just Had The Only Total Solar Eclipse of 2020, And The Photos Are Amazing

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)

It was the second occultation for Chile within the last 18 months.

This one struck at 1:00 pm (1600 GMT) as thousands of tourists and residents gathered, hoping the clouds would disappear in time.

"It gave me goosebumps everywhere," said Pucon resident Cinthia Vega.

In Argentine Patagonia, several families and foreigners had founded camp between the towns of Villa El Chacon and Piedra del Aguila hoping to determine the eclipse.

The arm of a statue is seen as solar eclipse occurs in Santiago, Chile on 14 Dec 2020. (Cristobal Saavedra Vogel /Anadolu Agency via AFP)

While there was no rain there, strong winds had threatened to impact visibility.

Despite COVID-19 restrictions on movement, almost 300,000 tourists had arrived within the Araucania region around 800-kilometers (500 miles) south of the capital Santiago.

Dozens of amateur and professional scientists founded telescopes on the slopes of the Villarrica volcano - one among the foremost active in Chile - to look at the phenomenon when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth.

The total solar eclipse as seen from from Pucon, southern Chile, on 14 Dec 2020. (Martin Bernetti/AFP)

The eclipse was thanks to being visible along a 90-kilometer wide corridor from the coast in Chile across the Andes geological formation and into Argentina.

In July 2019, some 300,000 people clothed within the Atacama Desert in Chile's north, home to many observatories, to determine the previous eclipse.

Battle with evil force

Chilean authorities had been worried that the eclipse would attract large gatherings of individuals.

There are over 570,000 coronavirus cases amongst the 18 million population with almost 16,000 confirmed deaths.

Strict controls were announced for the areas where the full eclipse would be visible, with free movement banned both the day before and after.

This event was eagerly anticipated amongst Chile's Mapuche indigenous community, the most important such group within the country's south.

A Mapuche indigenous family watch the eclipse in Carahue in southern Chile. (Mario Quilodran/AFP)

"Today we were all hoping for a sunny day but nature gave us rain and at the identical time it's giving us something we want," Estela Nahuelpan, a frontrunner within the Mateo Nahuelpan community within the southern city of Carahue, told AFP.

"In Mapuche culture, the eclipse has different meanings: they discuss 'Lan Antu', just like the death of the Sun and also the conflict between the Moon and therefore the Sun," she said.

"It refers to the required balance that has got to exist in nature."

In another tradition, an eclipse signifies the temporary death of the Sun during a battle between the star and an evil force referred to as "Wekufu".

Indigenous people want to worship the Sun "like a God", astronomer Jose Maza told AFP last week.

According to indigenous expert Juan Nanculef, the people would light bonfires and launch "stones and arrows into the air" to assist the Sun in its battle against the Wekufu.

Nanculef actually performed a ritual because the eclipse began to ask nature to bring an end to the rains and make it visible.

"Previously it had been 100% effective," he said.

This time it seems to possess worked just to a tolerable degree to grant people a glimpse of the eclipse.

Japan Just Revealed The First Image of Ryugu's Asteroid Dust to The World

 

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 from the asteroid Ryugu."

The sample container inside the re-entry capsule was opened on December 14, and that we confirmed black grains thought to be from Ryugu were inside. this can be outside the most chambers, and sure particles attached to the sample catcher entrance. (English release available tomorrow) https://t.co/NAw1R1cjvy pic.twitter.com/5BfXxfH29h

— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) December 14, 2020

Hayabusa-2 traveled about 300 million kilometers (200 million miles) from Earth to gather the samples, which scientists hope could help shed light on the origin of life and also the formation of the universe.

The probe collected both surface dust and pristine material from below the surface that was excited by firing an "impactor" into the asteroid.

"We will continue our work to open the sample-catcher within the sample container. Extraction of the sample and analysis of it'll be applied," JAXA said.

Hayabusa2 probe as it landed in Australia. (JAXA/Twitter)

Half of Hayabusa-2's samples are going to be shared between JAXA, US space agency NASA and other international organizations, and also the rest kept for future study as advances are made in analytic technology.

But work isn't over for the probe, which is able to now begin an extended mission targeting two new asteroids.

There's a Human-Made Barrier in Space, Surrounding The Entire Earth

 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 36,000 miles).

In 2017, the James Alfred Van Allen Probes detected something strange as they monitored the activity of charged particles caught within Earth's magnetic flux - these dangerous solar discharges were being kept cornered by some reasonably low-frequency barrier.

When researchers investigated, they found that this barrier had been actively pushing the Van Allen Belts faraway from Earth over the past few decades, and now the lower limits of the radiation streams are literally further faraway from us than they were within the 1960s.

So what's changed? 

A certain style of transmission called very low frequency (VLF) radio communications, became way more common now than within the 60s, and also the team at NASA confirmed that they'll influence how and where certain particles in space move about.

In other words, due to VLF, we now have anthropogenic (or human-made) space weather.

"A number of experiments and observations have found out that, under the proper conditions, radio communications signals within the VLF frequency range can, of course, affect the properties of the high-energy radiation environment around the Earth," said one amongst the team, Phil Erickson from the MIT Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts, back in 2017.

Most people won't have much to try and do with VLF signals in our daily life, but they are a mainstay in many engineering, scientific, and military operations.

With frequencies between 3 and 30 kilohertz, they're far too weak to hold audio transmissions, but they're perfect for broadcasting coded messages across long-distances or deep underwater.

One of the foremost common uses of VLF signals is to speak with deep-sea submarines, but because their large wavelengths can diffract around large obstacles like mountain ranges, they're also accustomed achieve transmissions across tricky terrain.

It was never the intention for VLF signals to travel anywhere aside from on Earth, but it seems they have been leaking into the space surrounding our planet, and have lingered long enough to make a large protective bubble.

When the James Alfred Van Allen Probes compared the situation of the VLF bubble to the bounds of Earth's radiation belts, they found what initially gave the impression of a remarkable coincidence - "The outward extent of the VLF bubble corresponds almost exactly to the inner fringe of the Van Allen radiation belts," said NASA.

But once they realized that VLF signals can actually influence the movement of the charged particles within these radiation belts, they realized that our unintentional human-made barrier has been progressively pushing them back.

One of the team, Dan Baker, from the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, stated this because of the "impenetrable barrier".

While our protective VLF bubble is maybe the simplest influence we humans have made on the space surrounding our planet, it's on no account the sole one - we've been making our mark on space since the 19th century, and particularly over the past 50 years, when nuclear explosions were all the fad.

"These explosions created artificial radiation belts near Earth that resulted in major damages to many satellites," the NASA team explained.

"Other anthropogenic impacts on the space environment include chemical release experiments, high-frequency wave heating of the ionosphere and therefore the interaction of VLF waves with the radiation belts."

Astronomer Carl Sagan once wanted to search out unequivocal indications of life on Earth from up in space - seems, there are a bunch of them if you recognize where to appear.

Astronomers Admit: We Were Wrong—100 Billion Habitable Earth-Like Planets In Our Galaxy Alone

 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 on these calculations scientists believe our galaxy is home to at least 400 billion stars, but as I mentioned above, this number could drastically rise.

There are some calculations that suggest that the Milky Way is home on an average between 800 billion and 3.2 trillion planets, but there are some experts who believe the number could be as high as eight trillion.

Furthermore, if we take a look at what NASA has to say, well find out how the space agency believes there are at least 1,500 planets located within 50 light-years from Earth. These conclusions are based on observations taken over a period of six years by the PLANET—Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork—collaboration, founded in 1995. The study concluded that there are way more Earth-sized planets than Jupiter-sized worlds.