Energy & Matter
NOvA neutrino detector in Minnesota records first 3-D particle tracks in search to understand universe
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The NOvA detector, currently under construction in Ash River, Minn., stands about 50 feet tall and 50 feet wide. The completed detector will weigh 14,000 tons. (Credit: Fermilab)[/caption]What will soon be the most powerful neutrino detector in the United States has recorded its first three-dimensional images of particles.
Using the first completed section of the NOvA neutrino detector under construction in Minnesota, scientists have begun collecting data from cosmic rays—particles produced by a constant rain of atomic nuclei falling on the Earth’s atmosphere from space. Scientists’ goal for the completed detector is to use it to discover properties of mysterious fundamental particles called neutrinos. Continue reading
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UPI: Cosmic explosions give dark energy clues
The Asian news wire service Asian News International has covered the SMU Physics Department’s recent supernovae discoveries.
The article, “Exploding stars offer clues to dark energy,” was published Feb. 28. Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova by SMU graduate students in the physics department. Continue reading
ANI News: Exploding stars offer clues to dark energy
The Asian news wire service Asian News International has covered the SMU Physics Department’s recent supernovae discoveries.
The article, “Exploding stars offer clues to dark energy,” was published Feb. 28. Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova by SMU graduate students in the physics department.
Both supernovae were spotted with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment‘s robotic telescope ROTSE3b, at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas. Continue reading
redOrbit: Astronomers Discover White Dwarf Supernovae
The news web site redOrbit has covered the SMU Physics Department’s recent supernovae discoveries. The article was published Feb. 27. Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova. Both supernovae were spotted with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment‘s robotic telescope ROTSE3b, which is now operated by SMU graduate students. Continue reading
White dwarf supernovae are discovered in Virgo Cluster galaxy and in sky area “anonymous”
Light from two massive stars that exploded hundreds of millions of years ago recently reached Earth, and each event was identified as a supernova by SMU researchers.
A supernova discovered Feb. 6 exploded about 450 million years ago, and a second supernova discovered Nov. 20 exploded about 230 million years ago. Continue reading
NBC News: Climate-changing methane ‘rapidly destabilizing’ off East Coast, study finds
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Methane hydrate samples.[/caption]
Methane hydrate samples.[/caption]
NBC News has covered the research of SMU marine geologist Matthew Hornbach, who led the study that has uncovered a powerful new way to use data from the geological record to discover non-anthropogenic climate changes underway. Continue reading
Nature: Seismic signs of escaping methane under the sea
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Sand is not the only thing on the move in the waters off the eastern United States — a shift in the Gulf Stream is melting methane hydrate in sediments that could release methane gas.
(Image: D. Harvey/Natl. Geographic/Getty Images)[/caption]
Sand is not the only thing on the move in the waters off the eastern United States — a shift in the Gulf Stream is melting methane hydrate in sediments that could release methane gas.(Image: D. Harvey/Natl. Geographic/Getty Images)[/caption]
Nature magazine covered the research of SMU marine geologist Matthew Hornbach, who led the study that has uncovered a powerful new way to use data from the geological record to discover non-anthropogenic climate changes underway. Continue reading
SMU Geothermal Lab students are finalists in U.S. Department of Energy’s National Geothermal Student Competition
A group of SMU graduate students in the SMU Geothermal Laboratory has been selected as one of three finalist teams in a prestigious national geothermal energy competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy competition challenges student teams to conduct research aimed at breakthroughs in geothermal energy development. Continue reading
Dallas Observer: How Texas Came Within an Atom’s Breadth of Discovering the God Particle
The Dallas Observer interviewed SMU physicist Ryszard Stroynowski about Texas’ historic role in particle physics before the landmark discovery announced in July of the new fundamental “God particle” necessary for scientists to explain how matter acquires mass. Continue reading