news 2016

Researchers have discovered that tantalum carbide and hafnium carbide materials can withstand scorching temperatures of nearly 4000 degrees Celsius. These materials may enable spacecraft to withstand the extreme heat generated from leaving and re-entering the atmosphere. Dr Omar Cedillos-Barraza In particular, the team from Imperial College London discovered that the melting point of hafnium carbide is the highest ever recorded for a material.

Signs of powerful changing winds have been detected on an exoplanet 16 times larger than Earth, according to a team involving UCL scientists. It's the first time that weather systems have been found on a gas giant outside the solar system. Led by the University of Warwick, the researchers discovered that the gas giant HAT-P-7b, which is located over 1000 light years away, is affected by large scale changes in strong winds moving across the planet, likely leading to catastrophic storms.

Scientists have found cosmic dust for the first time in urban places, on rooftops in three of the world's major cities. "When Jon first came to me I was dubious. Many people had reported finding cosmic dust in urban areas before, but when they were analysed scientists found that these particles were all industrial in origin.

Eight years ago Dr Nina Hatch , an astronomer at The University of Nottingham , identified a thin haze around a distant galaxy known as the Spiderweb galaxy. She suggested this haze was made up of rapidly forming young stars. But the problem with this research, published in the academic journal Royal Astronomical Society , was that no one knew where this young stellar population could be coming from.

A large oil painting inspired by the first ever detection of gravitational waves is to be unveiled at Cardiff University. Penelope Cowley, a local artist who specialises in bringing art and science together, will present her work at the University's School of Physics and Astronomy, along with a video showcasing a unique artistic spin on the discovery.

Scientists approach the broken, steaming ground around the Cordón Caulle vent, which was hugely uplifted during the 2011 eruption. Little of the slope seen behind the black lava flow would have been visible before the uplift occurred. Courtesy of Dr Hugh Tuffen. Research has identified, for the first time, a new type of hazard caused by explosive volcanic eruptions.

Scientists from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) are part of an international team that has discovered minute fluctuations in Saturn's gravitational field using several thousand images of the planet's moons obtained by the Cassini probe. Thursday 17 November 2016 The results help provide a better understanding of the internal structure of the planet, and hopefully answer the question of what lies at the centre of Saturn - whether it has a large rocky core or if its density is much lower.

Astronomers have cast light on how young galaxies ionise oxygen in the early Universe and its effects on the evolution of galaxies through time. Galaxies produce stars from cold gas, but some galaxies are more productive than others and their productivity changes across cosmic time. Overall, galaxies seem to have been the most productive 2-3 billion years after the Big Bang, with a consistent decline ever since.

A major international collaboration between the MINOS experiment, which involves UCL scientists, and the Daya Bay experiment has today announced results which shed new light on one of the most pressing questions in particle physics - do sterile neutrinos exist? Sterile neutrinos are a suggested fourth neutrino alongside the well-known electron, muon and tau neutrinos.

The universe is not spinning or stretched in any particular direction, according to the most stringent test yet. Looking out into the night sky, we see a clumpy universe: planets orbit stars in solar systems and stars are grouped into galaxies, which in turn form enormous galaxy clusters. But cosmologists assume this effect is only local: that if we look on sufficiently large scales, the universe is actually uniform.

The universe is expanding uniformly according to research led by UCL which reports that space isn't stretching in a preferred direction or spinning. The new study, published today in Physical Review Letters , studied the cosmic microwave background (CMB) which is the remnant radiation from the Big Bang.

Scientists have witnessed galaxies forming inside a mysterious giant space blob, which will one day form the heart of a giant galaxy cluster. Lyman-alpha Blobs (LABs) are gigantic clouds of hydrogen gas that can span hundreds of thousands of light years. Their structure looks relatively simple, but they glow far more brightly than might be expected.

The first results from the Gaia satellite, which is completing an unprecedented census of more than one billion stars in the Milky Way, are being released today to astronomers and the public. Gaia's first major data release is both a wonderful achievement in its own right, and a taster of the truly dramatic advances to come in future years.

The discovery of two massive holes punched through a stream of stars could help answer questions about the nature of dark matter, the mysterious substance holding galaxies together. While we do not yet understand what dark matter is formed of, we know that it is everywhere. Denis Erkal Researchers have detected two massive holes which have been 'punched' through a stream of stars just outside the Milky Way, and found that they were likely caused by clumps of dark matter, the invisible substance which holds galaxies together and makes up a quarter of all matter and energy in the universe.

An international exoplanet 'think tank? is meeting this week in Cambridge to deliberate on the ten most important questions that humanity could answer in the next decade about planets outside our solar system. We're really at the frontier in exoplanet research.

The greatest threat to sustainable groundwater in the Indo-Gangetic Basin is contamination and not depletion, according to a study co-authored by UCL researchers and published this week . Using groundwater measurements from across the region, the study reveals that over 60% of accessible groundwater is no longer safe to drink or usable for irrigation due to high concentrations of arsenic or salinity.

Extensive systems of fossilised riverbeds have been discovered on an ancient region of the Martian surface, supporting the idea that the now cold and dry Red Planet had a warm and wet climate about four billion years ago, according to UCL-led research. The study, published in Geology and funded by the Science & Technology Facilities Council and the UK Space Agency, identified over 17,000km of former river channels on a northern plain called Arabia Terra, providing further evidence of water once flowing on Mars.

Clear evidence of a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System, has been found by an international team of scientists led by astronomers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Using facilities operated by ESO (the European Southern Observatory) and other telescopes, The planet, called Proxima b, orbits its parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface.

Satellite image shows a group of lakes atop Langhovde Glacier, East Antarctica. (Satellite image courtesy of DigitalGlobe, Inc. A team of scientists from Lancaster and Durham Universities has monitored, for the first time, the evolution of meltwater ponds on the surface of a glacier at the coast of East Antarctica.

Scientists suggest signs of life from under Mars' surface may not survive in rocks excavated by some meteorite impacts. Scientists analysing samples from Mars' surface have so far not conclusively detected organic compounds that are indigenous to Mars, which would be indicators of past or present life.