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IMAGE: The solar corona viewed in white light during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017 from Mitchell, Oregon. The moon blocks out the central part of the Sun, allowing. view more
Credit: American Astronomical Society (AAS)
WASHINGTON About 17 years ago, J. Martin Laming, an astrophysicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, theorized why the chemical composition of the Sun s tenuous outermost layer differs from that lower down. His theory has recently been validated by combined observations of the Sun s magnetic waves from the Earth and from space.
His most recent scientific journal article describes how these magnetic waves modify chemical composition in a process completely new to solar physics or astrophysics, but already known in optical sciences, having been the subject of Nobel Prizes awarded to Steven Chu in 1997 and Arthur Ashkin in 2018.
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IMAGE: Matthew Kerr, Ph.D., a research physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, was part of an international team of astronomers and astrophysicists recognized by the 2020 American Association for the. view more
Credit: Matthew Kerr; U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
WASHINGTON Imagine living in a large city. New York City, Los Angeles, or Washington. One morning you hear a siren off in the distance. You know the direction and that it was far away since it was just loud enough to hear. You wonder if it s an emergency. What type of siren was it? Police, Fire, EMS? But you never hear it again. Time passes, then one night you hear another siren, then another, eventually hearing sirens all the time. So what does this have to do with science?
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IMAGE: Tyler Robinson of Northern Arizona University has been named a 2021 Cottrell Scholar by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. view more
Credit: Northern Arizona University
A Northern Arizona University astronomer who studies the atmospheres of solar system worlds, exoplanets and brown dwarfs has been recognized for his academic leadership and the quality and innovation of his research. The Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) recently named Tyler Robinson, assistant professor in NAU s Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, a 2021 Cottrell Scholar. This award includes a three-year, $100,000 grant to advance his teaching and research.
One of only 25 early-career teacher-scholars selected nationally from the fields of chemistry, physics and astronomy and only the second NAU faculty member to receive the award Robinson was chosen for his proposal, which focuses on approaches to understanding exoplanet atmospheres as well a
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Credit: Photo courtesy Justine Sauvage
NARRAGANSETT, R.I. - February 26, 2021 - A team of researchers from the University of Rhode Island s Graduate School of Oceanography and their collaborators have revealed that the abundant microbes living in ancient sediment below the seafloor are sustained primarily by chemicals created by the natural irradiation of water molecules.
The team discovered that the creation of these chemicals is amplified significantly by minerals in marine sediment. In contrast to the conventional view that life in sediment is fueled by products of photosynthesis, an ecosystem fueled by irradiation of water begins just meters below the seafloor in much of the open ocean. This radiation-fueled world is one of Earth s volumetrically largest ecosystems.
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Volcanic rock samples collected during NASA s Apollo missions bear the isotopic signature of key events in the early evolution of the Moon, a new analysis found. Those events include the formation of the Moon s iron core, as well as the crystallization of the lunar magma ocean the sea of molten rock thought to have covered the Moon for around 100 million years after it formed.
The analysis, published in the journal
Science Advances, used a technique called secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to study volcanic glasses returned from the Apollo 15 and 17 missions, which are thought to represent some of the most primitive volcanic material on the Moon. The study looked specifically at sulfur isotope composition, which can reveal details about the chemical evolution of lavas from generation, transport and eruption.