Science

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Investigating the Mystery of Migrating 'Hot Jupiters'

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The turbulent atmosphere of a hot, gaseous planet known as HD 80606b is shown in this simulation based on data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

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NASA's Spitzer Maps Climate Patterns on a Super-Earth

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This illustration shows one possible scenario for the hot, rocky exoplanet called 55 Cancri e, which is nearly two times as wide as Earth.

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New nanodevice shifts light's color at single-photon level

Converting a single photon from one color, or frequency, to another is an essential tool in quantum communication, which harnesses the subtle correlations between the subatomic properties of photons (particles of light) to securely store and transmit information. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have now developed a miniaturized version of a frequency converter, using technology similar to that used to make computer chips.

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False-colored scanning electron micrograph of the nanophotonic frequency converter, consisting of a ring-shaped resonator (shaded blue) into which light is injected using a waveguide (shaded red). The input signal, depicted as a purple arrow, is converted to a new frequency (blue arrow) through the application of two pump lasers (light and dark red arrows).

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Quantum computing closer as RMIT drives towards first quantum data bus: RMIT researchers trialling a quantum processor capable of routing information from different locations have found a pathway towards the quantum data bus

RMIT University researchers have trialled a quantum processor capable of routing quantum information from different locations in a critical breakthrough for quantum computing.

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Quantum information is encoded in single particles of light (photons). The perfect state transfer is applied to one photon of an entangled pair, relocating it to a distant location while preserving the delicate quantum information and entanglement.

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Saturn Spacecraft Samples Interstellar Dust

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Of the millions of dust grains Cassini has sampled at Saturn, a few dozen appear to have come from beyond our solar system. Scientists believe these special grains have interstellar origins because they moved much faster and in different directions compared to dusty material native to Saturn.

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A Space Spider Watches Over Young Stars

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The Spider Nebula lies about 10,000 light-years away from Earth and is a site of active star formation.

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Researchers create perfect nanoscrolls from graphene’s imperfect form

Water filters of the future may be made from billions of tiny, graphene-based nanoscrolls. Each scroll, made by rolling up a single, atom-thick layer of graphene, could be tailored to trap specific molecules and pollutants in its tightly wound folds. Billions of these scrolls, stacked layer by layer, may produce a lightweight, durable, and highly selective water purification membrane.

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This sketch illustrates how a nanoscroll forms from a graphene oxide flake as a result of ultrasonic irradiation.

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Elusive state of superconducting matter discovered after 50 years

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cornell University, and collaborators have produced the first direct evidence of a state of electronic matter first predicted by theorists in 1964.

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A schematic image representing a periodic variation in the density of Cooper pairs (pairs of blue arrows pointing in opposite directions) within a cuprate superconductor. Densely packed rows of Cooper pairs alternate with regions having lower pair density and no pairs at all. Such a "Cooper pair density wave" was predicted 50 years ago but was just discovered using a unique "scanning Josephson tunneling microscope.

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Searching for Far Out and Wandering Worlds

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As an exoplanet passes in front of a more distant star, its gravity causes the trajectory of the starlight to bend, and in some cases, results in a brief brightening of the background star as seen by a telescope. The artistic animation illustrates this effect. This phenomenon of gravitational microlensing enables scientists to search for exoplanets that are too distant and dark to detect any other way.

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NASA Invests in Two-Dimensional Spacecraft, Reprogrammable Microorganisms

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