Astronomers Search for Iron Volcanism on Metallic Asteroids
Metallic asteroids are thought to have started out as blobs of molten iron floating in space. As if that’s not strange enough, scientists now think…
UC Santa Cruz
Mysterious Features in Active Galactic Nuclei Due to Dust Clouds
Mysterious features seen in light emitted from active galactic nuclei may be due to partial obscuration by dust clouds, according to new study. Many large…
‘Deep Learning’ Algorithm Brings New Tools to Astronomy
A ‘deep learning’ algorithm trained on images from cosmological simulations has been surprisingly successful at classifying real galaxies in Hubble images. A machine learning method…
Geophysicists Reveal Megathrust Fault Off Costa Rica
Geophysicists have obtained detailed three-dimensional images of a dangerous megathrust fault west of Costa Rica where two plates of the Earth’s crust collide. The images…
Technical Advances Provide Big Improvements in HIV Vaccine Production
Research on HIV over the past decade has led to many promising ideas for vaccines to prevent infection by the AIDS virus, but very few…
UC Researchers Reveal Black Hole Regulated Star Formation in Massive Galaxies
Young galaxies blaze with bright new stars forming at a rapid rate, but star formation eventually shuts down as a galaxy evolves. A new study,…
Hydrocarbon Haze Keeps Pluto Cooler Than Expected
Observations from NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft show that Pluto is much colder than predicted, suggesting that atmospheric haze works as a novel cooling mechanism. The…
Supercomputer Simulations Reveal an Unusual Death for Ancient Supermassive Stars
New supercomputer simulations show that non-rotating supermassive primordial stars can die as highly energetic thermonuclear supernovae powered by explosive helium burning, releasing about 10,000 times…
Hyades Supercomputer Reveals Why Sibling Stars Look Alike
A newly published study details how astronomers from UC Santa Cruz used supercomputer simulations to trace the mixing of chemical elements in star-forming clouds, finding…
UCSC Study Details the Destruction of a Star as It Falls into a Black Hole
A newly published study details what happens during the destruction of a star as it falls into a black hole, explaining why observers might fail…
Radiation of Distant Quasar Reveals a Filament of the Cosmic Web
Using the Keck I Telescope, a team of astronomers viewed part of the network of filaments thought to connect galaxies in a cosmic web. Astronomers…
New Device Produces Hydrogen Fuel from Sunlight and Wastewater
By combining a microbial fuel cell and a type of solar cell called a photoelectrochemical cell, researchers from UC Santa Cruz have developed a hybrid…
Cassini Reveals a Rigid and Weathered Ice Shell on Titan
Using new data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists from UC Santa Cruz discovered a negative correlation between the gravity and topography signals on Titan, indicating…
3D+2D Television Allows for Simultaneous 3D and 2D Watching
Engineers at UC Santa Cruz have developed a 3D+2D television that that combines both 2D and 3D, allowing viewers with stereo glasses to see three-dimensional…
Emission Spectrum from Blazar PKS 1424+240 Deviates from Expectations
Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers noticed that the emission spectrum from blazar PKS 1424+240 deviated from what was expected, possibly indicating something…
Tau Ceti May Host a Habitable Planet
By combining more than six-thousand observations from three different instruments and using new data modeling techniques, an international team of astronomers greatly improved the sensitivity…