http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Black holes are some of the most exotic objects in the universe. They are the final evolutionary stage of giant stars much larger than the sun. When these stars explode, their cores collapse down to the size of large asteroid. That produces gravitational fields so intense that not even light can escape, reaching a point where space and time as we know them cease to exist. http://www.physorg.com/news180297652.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:00:02 EST news180297652 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that helps to explain the origins of water on Earth, University of Michigan astronomers have found that water vapor can form spontaneously in habitable zones of solar systems, and that it develops into a protective layer that shields other water and organic molecules from harmful stellar radiation. http://www.physorg.com/news180297449.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:38:05 EST news180297449 Bacteria inhabited our planet for more than 4 billion years before humans showed up, and they'll probably outlive us by as many eons more. That suggests they may have something to teach us. http://www.physorg.com/news180182479.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:30:05 EST news180182479 (PhysOrg.com) -- Within a decade scientists could be able to detect the merger of tens of pairs of black holes every year, according to a team of astronomers at the University of Bonn`s Argelander-Institut fuer Astronomie, who publish their findings in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. By modelling the behaviour of stars in clusters, the Bonn team find that they are ideal environments for black holes to coalesce. These merger events produce ripples in time and space (gravitational waves) that could be detected by instruments from as early as 2015. http://www.physorg.com/news180173220.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:08:01 EST news180173220 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria dance the electric slide, officially named electrokinesis by the USC geobiologists who discovered the phenomenon. http://www.physorg.com/news180112213.html Biology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:00:01 EST news180112213 (PhysOrg.com) -- A collection of 30 never-before-released images of embryonic planetary systems in the Orion Nebula are the highlight of the longest single Hubble Space Telescope project ever dedicated to the topic of star and planet formation. Also known as proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, these modest blobs surrounding baby stars are shedding light on the mechanism behind planet formation. Only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with its high resolution and sensitivity, can take such detailed pictures of circumstellar discs at optical wavelengths. http://www.physorg.com/news180018260.html Space & Earth Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:05:25 EST news180018260 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of planet hunters has discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars, including two "super-Earths" with masses 5 and 7.5 times the mass of Earth. The researchers, led by Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said the two "super-Earths" are the first ones found around Sun-like stars. http://www.physorg.com/news180016985.html Space & Earth Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:43:48 EST news180016985 It's the stuff of a Hollywood disaster epic: A comet plunges from outer space into the Earth's atmosphere, splitting the sky with a devastating shock wave that flattens forests and shakes the countryside. http://www.physorg.com/news179994144.html Space & Earth Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:23:19 EST news179994144 Using atoms at temperatures colder than deep space, Rice University physicists have delivered overwhelming proof for a once-scoffed-at theory that's become a hotbed for research some 40 years after it first appeared. In a paper available online in Science Express, Rice's team offers experimental evidence for a universal quantum mechanism that allows trios of particles to appear and reappear at higher energy levels in an infinite progression. The triplets, often called trimers, form in special cases where pairs cannot. http://www.physorg.com/news179749630.html Physics Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:27:59 EST news179749630 VISTA is the latest telescope to be added to ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It is housed on the peak adjacent to the one hosting the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) and shares the same exceptional observing conditions. VISTA's main mirror is 4.1 metres across and is the most highly curved mirror of this size and quality ever made -- its deviations from a perfect surface are less than a few thousandths of the thickness of a human hair -- and its construction and polishing presented formidable challenges. http://www.physorg.com/news179739402.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:10:02 EST news179739402 An international team of scientists has observed four super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies, which may provide new information on how these central black hole systems operate. Their findings are published in December's first issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. http://www.physorg.com/news179690529.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:40:01 EST news179690529 Next time you spy the Big Dipper, keep in mind that there is another star, invisible to the unaided eye, contributing to this constellation. http://www.physorg.com/news179651081.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:07:05 EST news179651081 (PhysOrg.com) -- A specialized camera on a telescope operated by U.K. astronomers from Liverpool has made the first measurement of magnetic fields in the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst (GRB). The result is reported in the Dec.10 issue of Nature magazine by the team of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) astronomers who built and operate the telescope and its unique scientific camera, named RINGO. http://www.physorg.com/news179593825.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:11:24 EST news179593825 (PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory is celebrating its 10th anniversary. During its decade of operation, this remarkable space observatory has supplied new data for every aspect of astronomy. From our cosmic backyard to the further reaches of the Universe, XMM-Newton has changed the way we think of space. http://www.physorg.com/news179576027.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:15:12 EST news179576027 Understanding the evolution of galaxies is one of the biggest questions confronting astronomers today. Looking at distant astronomical objects gives scientists important clues to the origins of the Milky Way Galaxy and other galaxies in the local universe. http://www.physorg.com/news179512073.html Space & Earth Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:28:26 EST news179512073