Some of the strongest, longest, smallest, biggest and best reasons to celebrate space as the year comes to a close. There are a handful of awesome firsts in here too.
Polarized (sub)millimetre emission from dust grains in circumstellar disks was initially thought to be because of grains aligned with the magnetic field1,2. However, higher-resolution multi-wavelength observations3–5 and improved models6–10 found that this polarization is dominated by self-scattering at shorter wavelengths (for example, 870 µm) and by grains aligned with something other than magnetic fields at longer wavelengths (for example, 3 mm). Nevertheless, the polarization signal is expected to depend on the underlying substructure11–13, and observations until now have been unable to resolve polarization in multiple rings and gaps. HL Tau, a protoplanetary disk located 147.3 ± 0.5 pc away14, is the brightest class I or class II disk at millimetre–submillimetre wavelengths. Here we show deep, high-resolution polarization observations of HL Tau at 870 µm, resolving polarization in both the rings and
The cover shows a composite near-infrared image of Herbig-Haro 211, a striking interstellar jet emanating from a young star in the Perseus Molecular Cloud..
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 21, 2023 -
Tryptophan is one of the 20 amino acids considered essential for the formation of proteins, which are key macromolecules for the development of life on Earth. This amino acid has many spectral featu