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Tag Archives: atoms

Where cosmic rays are born

By Sid Perkins / February 16, 2013

Here we go! Shock waves in the clouds of gas surrounding an exploding star (as in this artist’s depiction) accelerate charged particles called protons to very high speed, creating cosmic rays.
Credit: Greg Stewart, SLAC Nat'l Accelerator Lab.

New evidence links origin of these very energetic particles to massive explosions of distant stars

Posted in Earth & Sky, Space | Tagged astrophysicist, atoms, cosmic rays, galactic magnetic field, gamma rays, getinvolved, Harvard University, light year, light-speed, Milky Way, Patrick Slane, protons, Stanford University, Stefan Funk, subatomic particle, supernova, supernova remnant, topstories

Helium: Not so super after all

By Stephen Ornes / November 2, 2012

As a gas, helium glows yellow-pink when an electric current is added. Scientists recently reported that they’d made a mistake in a 2004 study that found the element was a supersolid. Turns out helium as a solid isn’t so super. Caption: Pslawinski

An exciting discovery in physics turns out to be merely a case of mistaken identity

Posted in Physics | Tagged atoms, École Normal Supérieure, energy, Eunseong Kim, friction, getinvolved, helium, materials science, matter, Moses Chan, Penn State University, physics, Sébastien Balibar, superfluids, supersolids, topstories