Science | WPN World People News

Before April 24, 1990, seeing photos of space from space was not an option. Since then however, as spectators we’ve seen some photos that are nearly unimaginable. Why is that date so special? It was the date the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space, making it a bit more than 25 years old.

Large-scale crossbedding in the sandstone of this ridge on a lower slope of Mars' Mount Sharp is typical of windblown sand dunes that have petrified.

This simulation helps explain an odd light signal thought to be coming from a close-knit pair of merging black holes, PG 1302-102, located 3.5 billion light-years away.

Researchers have tried to synthesize and study new nanostructured absorbing layers made of cheap and available elements with desirable physical properties because indium and gallium are very rare and expensive.

Working with brick-like blocks of gold nanoantennas, the Berkeley researchers fashioned a "skin cloak" barely 80 nanometers in thickness, that was wrapped around a three-dimensional object about the size of a few biological cells and arbitrarily shaped with multiple bumps and dents. The surface of the skin cloak was meta-engineered to reroute reflected light waves so that the object was rendered invisible to optical detection when the cloak is activated.

This research deals with the production of biocompatible electromagnetic superabsorbent nanocomposites, and their application in the removal of pollutants, including lead, cadmium and cobalt, from drinking water. The nanosorbent has been produced through a simple and cost effective method, and it has good performance. After the removal of heavy metals, the produced nanosorbent can be separated from the cycle by using a magnetic field and it can be reused.

NASA’s mission to send astronauts to deep space destinations where no other human has traveled has taken another important step forward with the completion of a critical milestone for the Orion spacecraft currently in production.

Entangled by gravity and destined to merge, two candidate black holes in a distant galaxy appear to be locked in an intricate dance. Researchers using data from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have come up with the most compelling confirmation yet for the existence of these merging black holes and have found new details about their odd, cyclical light signal.