Why the floppy disk just won’t die
A surprising number of industries, from embroidery to aviation, still use floppies. Enlarge / Photo taken in Florence, Italy (credit: Daniele Ciabatti/EyeEm via Getty) When Mark Necaise got down to his last four floppy d.....»»
ALMA observation of young star reveals details of dust grains
One of the primary goals of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is to study the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Young stars are often surrounded by a disk of gas and dust, out of which planets can form......»»
This is a first: An exoplanet in a polar circumbinary disk surrounding two stars
We live in an age of exoplanet discovery. One thing we've learned is not to be surprised by the kinds of exoplanets we keep discovering. We've discovered planets where it might rain glass or even iron, planets that are the rocky core remnants of gas.....»»
Variable star RZ Piscium has a compact and highly perturbed debris disk, study finds
Using NASA's Spitzer and WISE space telescopes, astronomers from the Steward Observatory and elsewhere have observed a well-known variable star designated RZ Piscium. They found that the star's circumstellar debris disk is compact and highly perturbe.....»»
JWST looks at the debris disk around a white dwarf
Debris disks are quite common in the universe. Young stars have protoplanetary disks from which planets form. Black holes have accretion disks that are the source of the galactic jets. Supernova remnants can form a disk around neutron stars. So what.....»»
Zombie star’s strange behavior ascribed to what it’s eating
Neutron star winds, an accretion disk, and jets combine for complex interactions. Enlarge / Pulsars are spinning neutron stars, the relics of massive stars gone supernova. (credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center) So.....»»
Astronomers discover first step toward planet formation
Solving the mystery of how planets like Earth were formed is an important question for understanding the origin of life. Planets are thought to form when interstellar dust and gas collect in a protoplanetary disk surrounding a protostar, but it has b.....»»
Hubble records rare radio galaxy NGC 612
A striking orange and blue streak fills this new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble's visible and infrared capabilities captured this edge-on view of lenticular galaxy NGC 612. Lenticular galaxies have a central bulge and disk much like.....»»
Autopsy of a star reveals what was eviscerated by a monster black hole
From the interior of a star to the accretion disk of a black hole. Enlarge / Ions of nitrogen and carbon show up in the spectrum of X-rays from a black hole's accretion disk. (credit: NASA/Chandra) Even huge stars are no.....»»
Toyota’s Japanese production was halted due to insufficient disk space
"Not caused by a cyberattack." Enlarge (credit: Getty) Toyota's 14 Japanese factories all shut down for about two days last week due to a production order system malfunction caused by a lack of disk space, the company a.....»»
Examining the effect of different geometric porosities on aerodynamic characteristics of supersonic parachutes
The safe landing of the probe is one of the most difficult challenges in Mars exploration, and the Mars supersonic parachute is extremely important for this process. To date, all the successful Mars exploration missions have used disk-gap-band (DGB).....»»
How does "MAD" accretion form around a black hole?
An international scientific team has revealed for the first time the magnetic field transport processes in the accretion flow of a black hole and the formation of a "MAD"—a magnetically arrested disk—in the vicinity of a black hole......»»
Quercetin ameliorates oxidative stress-induced senescence in rat nucleus pulposus-derived mesenchymal stem cells: Study
Intervertebral disk degeneration (IDD) is a main contributor to low back pain. Oxidative stress, which is highly associated with the progression of IDD, increases senescence of nucleus pulposus-derived mesenchymal stem cells (NPMSCs) and weakens the.....»»
First observations ever of the outskirts of a supermassive black hole"s accretion disk
Nothing can evoke an existential perspective-spiral quite like looking at an image of a galaxy. At first glance, these sublime structures may appear rather serene. But in fact the center of many galaxies is a turbulent environment containing an activ.....»»
You’re the OS is a game that will make you feel for your poor, overworked system
The disk caching will continue until idle process morale improves. Enlarge / If I click the "I/O Events" in the upper-left corner, maybe some of the frozen processes with a little hourglass will unfreeze. But how soon? Before the.....»»
Backblaze probes increased annualized failure rate for its 240,940 HDDs
Lifetime AFRs grew, while quarterly AFRs went from 1.54% in Q1 to 2.28% in Q2. Enlarge (credit: Getty) Backblaze's quarterly updates on annualized failure rates (AFRs) for its arsenal of hard disk drives (HDDs) have pro.....»»
Webb spots water vapor in a planet-forming disk
Astronomers have discovered water vapor in the planet-forming region of a star, which could help shed light on where Earth's water came from......»»
JWST observations find water for the first time in the inner disk around a young star with giant planets
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, the MPIA-led MINDS research collaboration discovered water in the inner region of a disk of gas and dust around the young star PDS 70. Astronomers expect terrestrial planets to be forming in that zone. This is th.....»»
Study shows the Earth formed from dry, rocky building blocks
Billions of years ago, in the giant disk of dust, gas, and rocky material that orbited our young sun, larger and larger bodies coalesced to eventually give rise to the planets, moons, and asteroids we see today......»»
"Sandwich" discovery offers new explanation for planet formation
Scientists have made a new discovery on how small planets might form. Researchers at the University of Warwick investigated the "birth environment" of planets—areas of gas and dust that swirl around a central star—known as the protoplanetary disk.....»»
In a First, Scientists See Neutrinos Emitted by the Milky Way
The disk of our galaxy was long thought to produce these ghostly high-energy particles, but they haven’t been detected until now.....»»