ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• NASA spacecraft reactivated to hunt for asteroids; Probe will assist agency in search for candidates to explore
• NASA's Fermi celebrates five years in space, enters extended mission
• Astronomers take sharpest photos ever of the night sky
• Lab-made complexes are 'sun sponges'
• High-precision measurement of subatomic shape shifting and new result on differences among neutrino masses
• Mars rover Opportunity working at edge of 'Solander'
• NASA Voyager statement about competing models to explain recent spacecraft data
• Radar images of Asteroid 2005 WK4
• Researchers open a door for solid state physics: Laser processes observed with X-rays on a solid
• A brighter method for measuring the surface gravity of distant stars
• Physicists pinpoint key property of material that both conducts and insulates
• First scientific method to authenticate world's costliest coffee, from the feces of the palm civet
• Pulsars make a GPS for the cosmos
• Plasma-treated nano filters help purify world water supply
• Better insight into molecular interactions
• 'Zombie vortices' may be key step in star formation

NASA spacecraft reactivated to hunt for asteroids; Probe will assist agency in search for candidates to explore Posted: 21 Aug 2013 02:56 PM PDT A NASA spacecraft that discovered and characterized tens of thousands of asteroids throughout the solar system before being placed in hibernation will return to service for three more years starting in September, assisting the agency in its effort to identify the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, as well as those suitable for asteroid exploration missions.

NASA's Fermi celebrates five years in space, enters extended mission Posted: 21 Aug 2013 12:25 PM PDT During its five-year primary mission, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has given astronomers an increasingly detailed portrait of the universe's most extraordinary phenomena, from giant black holes in the hearts of distant galaxies to thunderstorms on Earth.

Astronomers take sharpest photos ever of the night sky Posted: 21 Aug 2013 12:21 PM PDT Thanks to new technology, astronomers can now view objects in the sky at unprecedented sharpness in visible light. Using a telescope mirror that vibrates a thousand times each second to counteract atmospheric flickering, the team has achieved image resolution capabilities that could see a baseball diamond on the moon.

Lab-made complexes are 'sun sponges' Posted: 21 Aug 2013 12:21 PM PDT Scientists have described a testbed for light-harvesting antennae, the structures that capture the sun's light in plants and bacteria. Prototype designs built on the testbed soak up more of the sun's spectrum and are far easier to assemble than synthetic antennas made entirely from scratch. They offer the best of both worlds, combining human synthetic ingenuity with the repertoire of robust chemical machinery selected by evolution.

High-precision measurement of subatomic shape shifting and new result on differences among neutrino masses Posted: 21 Aug 2013 12:21 PM PDT New results about the oscillation of neutrinos -- elusive, ghostlike particles that carry invaluable clues about the makeup of the early universe -- have been announced by the Daya Bay Collaboration, an international experiment taking place outside of Hong Kong.

Mars rover Opportunity working at edge of 'Solander' Posted: 21 Aug 2013 12:10 PM PDT NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is studying the area of contact between a rock layer formed in acidic wet conditions long ago and an even older one that may be from a more neutral wet environment.

NASA Voyager statement about competing models to explain recent spacecraft data Posted: 21 Aug 2013 12:06 PM PDT A newly published paper argues that NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has already entered interstellar space. The model described in the paper is new and different from other models used so far to explain the data the spacecraft has been sending back from more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from our sun.

Radar images of Asteroid 2005 WK4 Posted: 21 Aug 2013 12:01 PM PDT A collage of radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2005 WK4 was generated by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., on Aug. 8, 2013. The asteroid is between 660 and 980 feet (200 and 300 meters) in diameter; it has a rounded and slightly asymmetric shape. As it rotates, a number of features are evident that suggest the presence of some flat regions and a bulge near the equator.

Researchers open a door for solid state physics: Laser processes observed with X-rays on a solid Posted: 21 Aug 2013 10:27 AM PDT Researchers report a new way to use X-rays to probe the properties of solid materials. They were able to show that solids lend themselves to X-ray analysis based on nonlinear physical effects. Until now, this could only be done using laser analysis. Their results could potentially redefine what future lightsources ought to look like.

A brighter method for measuring the surface gravity of distant stars Posted: 21 Aug 2013 10:23 AM PDT Astronomers have found a clever new way to slice and dice the flickering light from a distant star in a way that reveals its surface gravity, one of the key properties that astronomers use to calculate a star's physical properties and assess its evolutionary state.

Physicists pinpoint key property of material that both conducts and insulates Posted: 21 Aug 2013 10:23 AM PDT Scientists have made the first-ever accurate determination of a solid-state triple point -- the temperature and pressure at which three different solid phases can coexist stably -- in a substance called vanadium dioxide.

First scientific method to authenticate world's costliest coffee, from the feces of the palm civet Posted: 21 Aug 2013 09:45 AM PDT The world's most expensive coffee can cost $80 a cup, and scientists now are reporting development of the first way to verify authenticity of this crème de la crème, the beans of which come from the feces of a Southeast Asian animal called a palm civet. Their study appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Pulsars make a GPS for the cosmos Posted: 21 Aug 2013 06:49 AM PDT Scientists have written software that could guide spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, show that the planet Nibiru doesn't exist... and prove that the Earth goes around the Sun.

Plasma-treated nano filters help purify world water supply Posted: 21 Aug 2013 06:49 AM PDT Access to safe drinking water is a step closer to being a reality for those in developing countries.

Better insight into molecular interactions Posted: 21 Aug 2013 06:49 AM PDT How molecules in biochemical solutions do interact, is a question of great importance for understanding processes in catalysts, functional materials and even in organisms. Until now, scientists could have a look at these interactions by spectroscopy, but it was hard to distinguish the different interactions, which take place simultaneously. New research could now change the game.

'Zombie vortices' may be key step in star formation Posted: 20 Aug 2013 03:58 PM PDT Scientists have proposed a new model that elucidates a key step in star formation. They point to "zombie vortices" as a destabilizing force needed to help protostars accumulate the mass needed to grow into stars.

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