Astronomy and Physics News - University of Sharjahscass.sharjah.ac.ae/en/Documents/Astronomy_Physics_News_Vol_3_Issue_14... · Astronomy and Physics News Our colleague Prof. Nacir

Astronomy and Physics News

Our colleague Prof. Nacir Tit has been awarded the Khalifa Award for Education in the field of Scientific Research for 2012-2013 (Sixth Cycle). The annual Khalifa Award (KA) recognizes excellence in the field of education of indi-viduals, schools and institu-tions. “The award was created to enhance the quality of edu-cation and initiate a sense of positive competition between participants to provide the field of education with rich experi-ences, creative ideas and inno-vative educational projects,” Amal Al Afifi, secretary-general of the award, said. The awards are given in 11 categories in-

cluding public education, higher education in the UAE and across the Arab World, special needs, creating knowledge networks, new media and education, educa-tion and sustainable environ-ment, education and commu-nity service, educational re-search, projects and innova-tive educational programs and educational writing for chil-dren, Amal added. Congratulations to Prof. Nacir Tit for this magnificent award and achievement.

Prof. Nacir Tit (UAEU) wins the Khalifa

Award for Scientific Research for 2012/2013

It is one of the cosmos' most mys-terious unsolved cases: dark mat-ter. It is supposedly what holds the universe together. We can't see it, but scientists are pretty sure it's out there. Led by a dogged, Nobel Prize-winning gumshoe who has spent 18 years on the case, scien-tists put a $2 billion detector aboard the International Space Station to try to track down the stuff. And after two years, the first evidence came in Wednesday: tantalizing cosmic footprints that seem to have been left by dark

matter. But the evidence isn't enough to declare the case closed. The footprints could have come from another, more con-ventional suspect: a pulsar, or a rotating, radiation-emitting star. The Sam Spade in the investiga-tion, physicist and Nobel laureate Sam Ting of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he expects a more definitive answer in a matter of months. He confi-dently promised: "There is no question we're going to solve this problem." "It's a tantalizing hint,"

said California Institute of Tech-nology physicist Sean Carroll, who was not part of the team. "It's a sign of something." But he can't quite say what that something is. It doesn't elimi-nate the other suspect, pulsars, he added. Read more…..

Scientists report hint of dark matter in first results from $2 billion cosmic ray detector

Department of Physics—United Arab Emirates University April 06, 2013 Volume 3, Issue 14

Prof. Nacir Tit wins the Kha-lifa Award for Scientific Re-

1

Scientists report hint of dark matter in first results from ..

1

Are Our Textbooks Wrong? Astronomers Clash Over Hub-

2

Don't call it vaporware: Scien-tists use cloud of atoms as ..

2

Gravity-Bending Find Leads to Kepler Meeting Einstein

2

Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to

3

New camera system creates high-resolution 3-D images

3

Graphene foams: Cozy and

conductive scaffolds for neural

3

IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead

Reflection Nebula

4

One grate idea leads to another 4

Inside this issue:

Weekly news from around the world compiled by Dr. Ilias Fernini

A technician examines the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer at Kennedy Space Center in

Cape Canaveral, Fla.. The cosmic ray detector was mounted on the International

Space Station, searched the universe and shall help to explain how everything came to

be. CERN , the European Organization for Nuclear Research, released first results

of the experiment Wednesday April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/NASA, Glenn Benson).

Prof. Nacir Tit is a faculty member at the

Physics Department at the United Arab

Emirates University. His research interests

are in computational semiconductor physics.

Edwin Hubble’s contributions to

astronomy earned him the honor of

having his name bestowed upon

arguably the most famous space

telescope (the Hubble Space Tele-

scope, HST). Contributions that are

often attributed to him include the

discovery of the extragalactic scale

(there exist countless other galaxies

beyond the Milky Way), the expand-

ing Universe (the Hubble constant),

and a galaxy classification system

(the Hubble Tuning Fork). However,

certain astronomers are questioning

Hubble’s pre-eminence in those

topics, and if all the credit is warrant-

ed.

“[The above mentioned] discoveries …

are well-known … and most astrono-

mers would associate them solely with

Edwin Hubble; yet this is a gross over-

simplification. Astronomers and histori-

ans are beginning to revise that standard

story and bring a more nuanced version

to the public’s attention,” said NASA

scientist Michael J. Way, who just pub-

lished a new study entitled “Dismantling

Hubble’s Legacy?” Has history clouded

our view of Hubble the man? Or are his

contributions seminal to where we are

today in astronomy? Read more…...

with its partner, a small "red

dwarf" star. While the tiny white

dwarf is physically smaller than the

red dwarf, it is more massive.

"This white dwarf is about the size

of Earth but has the mass of the

sun," said Phil Muirhead of the

California Institute of Technology,

Pasadena, lead author of the find-

ings to be published April 20 in

the Astrophysical Journal. "It's so

hefty that the red dwarf, though

NASA's Kepler space telescope

has witnessed the effects of a dead

star bending the light of its com-

panion star. The findings are

among the first detections of this

phenomenon -- a result of Ein-

stein's general theory of relativity -

- in binary, or double, star systems.

The dead star, called a white

dwarf, is the burnt-out core of

what used to be a star like our sun.

It is locked in an orbiting dance

larger in physical size, is circling

around the white dwarf."

Kepler's primary job is to scan

stars in search of orbiting plan-

ets. As the planets pass by, they

block the starlight by miniscule

amounts, which Kepler's sensi-

tive detectors can see. Read

more ………...

Are Our Textbooks Wrong? Astronomers Clash Over Hubble’s Legacy

Don't call it vaporware: Scientists use cloud of atoms as optical memory device (w/ video)

Talk about storing data in the

cloud. Scientists at the Joint Quan-

tum Institute (JQI) of the National

Institute of Standards and Tech-

nology (NIST) and the University

of Maryland have taken this to a

whole new level by demonstrating

that they can store visual images

within quite an ethereal memory

device—a thin vapor of rubidium

atoms. The effort may prove help-

ful in creating memory for quan-

tum computers. Their work builds

on an approach developed at the

Australian National University,

where scientists showed that a

Page 2 Astronomy and Phys ics News Volume 3, I ssue 14

Illustration only.

Images of Galactic nebulae and a supernova remnant that

were obtained via the Hubble Space Telescope, which is

named after astronomer Edwin Hubble. The honor was

bestowed upon E. Hubble given his seminal contributions to

astronomy (image credit: spikedrocker/deviantart).

Gravity-Bending Find Leads to Kepler Meeting Einstein

rubidium vapor could be manipu-

lated in interesting ways using

magnetic fields and lasers. The

vapor is contained in a small tube

and magnetized, and a laser pulse

made up of multiple light frequen-

cies is fired through the tube. The

energy level of each rubidium

atom changes depending on which

frequency strikes it, and these

changes within the vapor become

a sort of fingerprint of the pulse's

characteristics. Read more …..

Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to Mars

Graphene foams: Cozy and conductive scaffolds for neural stem cells

Human travel to Mars has long

been the unachievable dangling

carrot for space programs. Now,

astronauts could be a step closer

to our nearest planetary neighbor

through a unique manipulation of

nuclear fusion, the same energy

that powers the sun and stars.

University of Washington re-

searchers and scientists at a Red-

mond-based space-propulsion

company are building components

of a fusion-powered rocket aimed

to clear many of the hurdles that

block deep space travel, including

long times in transit, exorbitant

costs and health risks. "Using

existing rocket fuels, it's nearly

impossible for humans to explore

much beyond Earth," said lead

researcher John Slough, a UW

research associate professor of

aeronautics and astronautics. "We

are hoping to give us a much more

powerful source of energy in space

that could eventually lead to mak-

ing interplanetary travel common-

place." . The project is funded

through NASA's Innovative Ad-

vanced Concepts Program. Last

month at a symposium, Slough

and his team from MSNW, of

which he is president, presented

their mission analysis for a trip to

Mars, along with detailed comput-

er modeling and initial experi-

mental results. Theirs was

one of a handful of projects

awarded a second round of

funding last fall after already

receiving phase-one money in

a field of 15 projects chosen

from more than 700 pro-

posals. Read more…….

based physicists has recently tack-

led these limitations and reported

their findings in the Optical Socie-

ty's (OSA) open-access journal

Optics Express. The research

team, led by Gerald Buller, a pro-

fessor at Heriot-Watt University in

Edinburgh, Scotland, describes a

ToF imaging system that can gath-

er high-resolution, 3-D infor-

mation about objects that are

typically very difficult to image,

from up to a kilometer away.

Read more …..

A standard camera takes flat, 2-D

pictures. To get 3-D information,

such as the distance to a far-away

object, scientists can bounce a

laser beam off the object and

measure how long it takes the light

to travel back to a detector. The

technique, called time-of-flight

(ToF), is already used in machine

vision, navigation systems for

autonomous vehicles, and other

applications, but many current

ToF systems have a relatively

short range and struggle to image

objects that do not reflect laser

light well. A team of Scotland-

Their open paper, published yes-

terday in Nature's Scientific Re-

ports, suggests new approaches for

neural tissue engineering, and

possibly for interfacing with neural

prosthetics. It has been previously

reported that graphene sheets

support growth and differentiation

of human neural stem cells (NSCs)

in a similar fashion to other com-

mon substrates like glass or poly-

Graphene foams have been

around now for a couple years.

Their widespread application in

everything from electronics and

energy storage to substitutes for

helium in balloons is still greatly

anticipated. Researchers from the

Chinese Academy of Sciences in

Suzhou, and Beijing, have now

shown that graphene foams can

also be used to craft conductive

scaffolds for neural stem cells.

mer PDMS. Chinese researchers have

done pioneering work in synthesizing

graphene foams to exacting standards

of purity and uniformity. When coat-

ed with laminin or other matrix pro-

teins, these foams could potentially

serve not only as compatible neural

housing but also as a means to con-

trol the tenants electrically. Read

more….

Page 3 Astronomy and Phys ics News Volume 3, I ssue 14

This shows 3-D images of a mannequin

(top) and person (bottom) from 325

meters away. The left-hand panels show

close-up photos of the targets taken with a

standard camera. In the center are 3-D

images of these targets taken by the scan-

ner from 325 meters away. On the right

is a color-coded map showing the number

of photons that bounce off the targets and

return to the detector, with black indicat-

ing a low number of photons. Notice that

human skin does not show up well using

the scanner: the mannequin's face includes

depth information, but the person's face

does not. Credit: Optics Express.

A concept image of a spacecraft powered by a fusion-driven rocket. In this

image, the crew would be in the forward-most chamber. Solar panels on

the sides would collect energy to initiate the process that creates fusion.

Credit: University of Washington, MSNW.

New camera system creates high-resolution 3-D images from up to a kilometer away

College of Science - United Arab Emirates University

POB 17551

Al-Ain

United Arab Emirates

http://fos.uaeu.ac.ae/department/physics

rant’s request.

The eatery, The Pass and Provi-

sions, turned to a Rice faculty

member last year for a design that

would fit its aesthetic. Five stu-

dents who cheekily called them-

selves “Fork Yeah” took up the

challenge as part of the freshman

engineering course taught by Ann

Saterbak, a professor in the prac-

tice of bioengineering education.

Read more….

Diners at a downtown Houston

restaurant will soon have to pause

and think about a process they all

too often take for granted when

they wash their hands.

Instead of a common wall-mounted

dispenser spitting out runny glop, a

device built around a real kitchen

grater will serve up flakes from a

high-quality bar of soap. Patrons

will find they have to scrub, scrub,

scrub to lather up and get clean.

That’s by design. They’ll be doing

the bidding of a group of Rice Uni-

versity freshman engineering stu-

dents who are creating a set of

unique soap graters for the women’s

and men’s restrooms at the restau-

One “grate” idea leads to another

Phone: 00-971-3-7136336

E-mail: [email protected]

Physics Department

IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Scott Rosen

Freshman engineering students at Rice University

created a unique kitchen-themed soap dispenser in

a project sponsored by a Houston restaurant. The

dispenser provides flakes of high-quality soap to

patrons who literally grate the soap as if it were

cheese. Image: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Do you see the horse's head? What you are seeing is not the famous

Horsehead nebula toward Orion but rather a fainter nebula that only takes

on a familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the above im-

aged molecular cloud complex is a reflection nebula cataloged as IC 4592.

Reflection nebulas are actually made up of very fine dust that normally

appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the light of energetic

nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star

at the eye of the horse. That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter

star systems toward the constellation of the Scorpion Scorpius. A second

reflection nebula dubbed IC 4601 is visible surrounding two stars on the

upper right of the image center.