Basic formulae and results of glacier physics appearing in glaciology textbooks can be derived from
first principles introduced in algebra-based first year physics courses. We discuss the maximum
thickness of alpine glaciers and ice sheets and the re…
Transverse vibrations of a thin loaded rod: theory and experiment
The general formulation of a determinate solution problem is deduced for the transverse vibrations
of a thin loaded rod. The vibration frequencies of a thin homogeneous rod carrying a concentrated
mass as a function of the load’s position and mass …
A new look at the pushing force of an electromagnetic wave on a classical charged particle
The interaction between a plane wave and a classical charged particle is reviewed in this paper. A
matrix formulation is used to derive the relativistic motion of the particle due to the Lorentz
force of a spatially homogeneous time-harmonic radiatio…
Tracking A Mysterious Group of Asteroid Outcasts
Astronomers may have found the source of a particularly hard-to-spot group of near-Earth asteroids, thanks to a once-dormant NASA space telescope.
Fly over Atlantis Chaos
Space science image of the week: Explore the Atlantis Chaos region of Mars in images and a new fly-through movie
Stars in our galaxy move far from home
Scientists have found that about 30 percent of the Milky Way’s stars have traveled a long way from the orbits in which they were born.
Hubble captures stormy seas in Sagittarius
The new composite image of the Lagoon Nebula’s central region shows churning funnels of gas and energetic star formation.
Satcoms linking rural schools in South Africa and Italy
Teachers and students from rural schools in South Africa and Italy are benefiting from an ESA-supported project that enriches education through satcoms.
Corrigendum: On Maxwell?s discovery of electromagnetic waves and the gauge condition (2015 Eur. J. Phys. 36 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0143-0807/36/2/025002] 025002 )
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Teaching Rayleigh?Plateau instabilities in the laboratory
The breakup of a liquid jet into spherical droplets via the Rayleigh?Plateau instability is a common
and fundamental part of fluid mechanics. However, teaching this instability in a laboratory setting
is challenging, requiring sophisticated methods t…
Light bending effect and space curvature
The doubling of the gravitational light-bending effect, in comparison with Newton’s theoretical
prediction, is explained by the space curvature.
Equivalent linearization technique for quantum anharmonic oscillators
Quantum dynamics means studying the evolution of an initially prescribed wave function. This is
analytically tractable for special wavefunctions for the simplest of the situations—free particle
and simple harmonic oscillator. The purely anharmonic …
The frictionless damping of a piston in thermodynamics
The paper revisits Rüchardt’s experiment and the two-chamber variant of Clark and Katz, where the
oscillating motion of a freely sliding piston involves the adiabatic exponent of the gas enclosed in
a thermally isolated chamber. While the common t…
Corrigendum: On Maxwell’s discovery of electromagnetic waves and the gauge condition (2015 Eur. J. Phys. 36 [http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0143-0807/36/2/025002] 025002 )
Description unavailable
Teaching Rayleigh–Plateau instabilities in the laboratory
The breakup of a liquid jet into spherical droplets via the Rayleigh–Plateau instability is a common
and fundamental part of fluid mechanics. However, teaching this instability in a laboratory setting
is challenging, requiring sophisticated methods…
Powerful Auroras Found at Brown Dwarf
Mysterious objects called brown dwarfs are sometimes called “failed stars.”
Earth Flyby of ‘Space Peanut’ Captured in New Video
New NASA video shows a rotating, two-lobed asteroid that recently flew past Earth.
Exoplanets 20/20: Looking back to the future
Two decades into the study of planets that orbit other stars, scientists recall that the discovery of the first such planet seemed almost unbelievable at the time.
Week In Images
Our week through the lens: 27-31 July 2015
Telescopes team up to find distant Uranus-sized planet through microlensing
The microlensing technique can find more distant and colder planets in long-period orbits that other methods cannot detect.
Philae lander finds ingredients for life
The European Space Agency’s Philae lander has discovered complex organic molecules on the surface of Comet 67P.
Register to visit ESTEC
Registration open for ESTEC Open Day on Sunday 4 October: your chance to visit ESA’s technical heart
Northern Italy
Earth observation image of the week: a Sentinel-2 image of lakes on the southern side of the Italian Alps, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme
California ‘Rain Debt’ Equal to Average Full Year of Precipitation
A new NASA study has concluded California accumulated a debt of about 20 inches of precipitation between 2012 and 2015.
NASA’s Spitzer Confirms Closest Rocky Exoplanet
Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed the discovery of the nearest rocky planet outside our solar system, larger than Earth and a potential gold mine of science data.
Science on the surface of a comet
Complex molecules that could be key building blocks of life, the daily rise and fall of temperature, and an assessment of the surface properties and internal structure of the comet are just some of the highlights of the first scientific analysis of the data returned by Rosetta’s lander Philae last November.
Earth from Space

Join us Friday, 31 July, at 10:00 CEST for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-2A image of northern Italy
Spitzer confirms closest rocky exoplanet
Dubbed HD 219134b, this exoplanet, which orbits too close to its star to sustain life, is a mere 21 light-years away.
Unusual red arcs spotted on Saturn’s icy moon Tethys
Narrow, curved red lines on Tethys’ surface are among the most unusual color features on Saturn’s moons to be revealed by Cassini’s cameras.
Third spaceflight for astronaut Paolo Nespoli
ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli will be heading for space a third time, as part of Expeditions 52 and 53 to the International Space Station. He will be launched on a Soyuz vehicle in May 2017 on a five-month mission.
Tracking spacecraft through the cosmos contest: enter and win

Musicians, composers and audio buffs are invited to help celebrate 40 years of ESA’s tracking station network. Create some truly cosmic sound and you may win impressive prizes, including a trip to our anniversary gala event in Spain.
Unusual Red Arcs Spotted on Icy Saturn Moon
Unexplained arc-shaped, reddish streaks are visible on the surface of Saturn’s icy moon Tethys in new, enhanced-color images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
Wide-Field Lensing Mass Maps from Dark Energy Survey Science Verification Data
Author(s): C. Chang et al.The Dark Energy Survey has generated a map of invisible dark matter by observing tiny gravitationally induced distortions in the images of distant galaxies.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 051301] Published Wed Jul 29, 2015
Surfing for science
Thanks to a new system developed by scientists in the UK, taking to the waves for a spot of surfing can benefit research into the health of coastal waters, and could help confirm satellite measurements of sea-surface temperature.
Space Kombucha in the search for life and its origin
You might know it as a drink for hipsters or as an ancient brew drunk for centuries in Eurasia, but the culture that ferments sugary tea into Kombucha is going around the world. Bolted to the outside of the International Space Station are …
Astronomers discover powerful aurora beyond solar system
The scientists found the aurora not from a planet, but from a low-mass star at the boundary between stars and brown dwarfs.
First detection of lithium from an exploding star
Observations of Nova Centauri 2013 help to explain the mystery of why many young stars seem to have more of this chemical element than expected.
NASA Mars Orbiter Preparing for Mars Lander’s 2016 Arrival
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will fire thrusters on Wednesday for a maneuver to get into position for the 2016 arrival of NASA’s next Mars lander.
New Names and Insights at Ceres
Colorful new maps of Ceres, based on NASA’s Dawn spacecraft data, showcase a diverse topography, with dramatic height differences between crater bottoms and mountain peaks.
Resolving the Tevatron Top Quark Forward-Backward Asymmetry Puzzle: Fully Differential Next-to-Next-to-Leading-Order Calculation
Author(s): Michal Czakon, Paul Fiedler, and Alexander Mitov
Fully differential two loop calculations in the Standard Model explain the excess of top quarks in the direction of the proton beam in pp¯ collisions at the Tevatron collider.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 052001] Published Tue Jul 28, 2015
Orbital handover

Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: MSG-4 controllers hand over Europe’s newest weather satellite
Dense galaxies hiding in plain sight
Undergraduates discovered two tiny galaxies crammed with stars at more than 10,000 times the density of the Milky Way.
Ceres gets new maps, new names
Now with detailed topography and official feature names from the IAU, these maps of asteroid Ceres are worth exploring.
First applications from Sentinel-2A

From agricultural monitoring to charting changing lands, early images from Europe’s new Sentinel-2A satellite show how the ‘colour vision’ mission’s critical observations can be used to keep us and our planet safe.
Introducing Sentinel-2

Discover some of the mission’s benefits for the planet’s ever-growing population, such as deforestation monitoring, food security and the sustainable management of natural resources
Born-again nebula
Space Science image of the week: XMM-Newton’s view of an eye-shaped cloud carved by a dying star’s brief comeback to life
Negative Differential Conductivity in an Interacting Quantum Gas
Author(s): Ralf Labouvie, Bodhaditya Santra, Simon Heun, Sandro Wimberger, and Herwig OttRubidium atoms in an optical trap have been made to exhibit negative differential conductance, a phenomenon normally found in semiconductor diodes.[Phys. Rev. Lett…
Next two Galileo satellites reach Europe’s Spaceport

Europe’s ninth and tenth Galileo satellites have crossed the Atlantic, touching down in French Guiana ahead of their joint launch this September.
Fossil star clusters reveal their age
A new survey of globular clusters show many of the star groups are almost as old as the universe itself.
New Hubble image shows cosmic wind creating “Pillars of Destruction”
A new study shows how cosmic winds can erode a galaxy’s gas and dust, shutting down star formation.
ESA hands over control of the MSG-4 weather satellite

On 26 July at 09:30 GMT (11:30 CEST), ESA handed control of Europe’s last Meteosat Second Generation weather satellite, MSG-4, to EUMETSAT
New Horizons team finds haze, flowing ice on Pluto
Just 10 days after closest approach, the distant world is showing a diversity of planetary geology that has mission scientists thrilled.
Week In Images
Our week through the lens: 20-24 July 2015
Explore the Space Station

Explore the International Space Station with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti as your guide in this 360° interactive view
Andreas Mogensen launch moved by a day

The next ESA astronaut to work on the International Space Station, Andreas Mogensen, will arrive a day later than previously planned because the Station’s orbit has been changed.
The Danish flight engineer, commander Sergei Volkov and Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov will leave Earth from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, at 4:34 GMT (6:34 CEST, 10:34 local time) on 2 September and arrive at the Space Station just six hours later.
Andreas and Aidyn’s stay will be short – they will be back on terra firma just 10 days later. They will leave Sergei on the Station and return to Earth in a different Soyuz under commander Gennady Padalka, who is already in space.
Brown dwarfs, stars share formation process, new study indicates
This is the first time that jets have been found coming from brown dwarfs at such an early stage of their formation and shows that they form in a way similar to that of stars.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Inspects Unusual Bedrock
The laser-firing instrument on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has identified a rock target that is rich in silica, prompting further investigation with the rover.
Less Algae, Not Clearer Water, Keeps Tahoe Blue
Lake Tahoe’s iconic blueness is more strongly related to the lake’s algal concentration than to its clarity.
Finding Another Earth
Kepler’s newest planetary find joins a pantheon of planets with similarities to Earth.
NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth
NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star.
Earth from Space

Join us Friday, 24 July, at 10:00 CEST for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-1 radar image over southern Bavaria
Kepler mission discovered bigger, older cousin to Earth
The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone or a G2-type star like our Sun.
Pulsar punches hole in stellar disk
Scientists have discovered a binary system where a rapidly spinning neutron star’s wind is rocketing away material from the disk around its companion.
New Website Gathering Public Input on NASA Mars Images
Mars researchers are soliciting volunteers to locate odd polar-area features on Mars that have names such as “Swiss cheese terrain” and “spiders.”
A Wi-Fi Reflector Chip To Speed Up Wearables
Researchers at JPL and UCLA have developed a technology that could reduce the power needed to send information from wearable devices.
Could ‘Windbots’ Someday Explore the Skies of Jupiter?
Wind-harvesting robotic probes might someday explore the atmospheres of other planets, as well as our home planet, thanks to an innovative NASA JPL study.
Heat on Mercury antenna
Technology image of the week: Testing the antenna that will keep ESA’s Mercury mission linked to Earth
New Horizons finds second mountain range in Pluto’s “heart”
The heights of these mountains are comparable to those found in the U.S. Appalachian range.
ALMA witnesses assembly of galaxies in the early universe for the first time
The new observations allow astronomers to start to see how the first galaxies were built up and how they cleared the cosmic fog during the era of reionization.
New Horizons captures two of Pluto’s smaller moons
As more data on Nix and Hydra come back from the spacecraft, scientists will be able to make more detailed findings on these moons’ surface characteristics and other properties.
Greenland’s Undercut Glaciers Melting Faster than Thought
Greenland’s glaciers are badly undercut and melting faster than thought, raising sea levels faster than currently estimated.
Dark science
Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: Container for storing snow samples at the remotest base in the world
Dead galaxies in Coma Cluster may be packed with dark matter
New computer simulations show that these galaxies stopped star formation as early as 7 billion years ago but haven’t been ripped apart due to their dark matter.
NASA Hosts Media Telecon About Latest Kepler Discoveries
NASA will host a news teleconference at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT) Thursday, July 23, to announce new discoveries made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.
Cool summer boosts Arctic ice

Measurements from ESA’s CryoSat satellite show that the volume of Arctic sea ice increased by a third following the unusually cool summer of 2013. This new finding suggests that ice in the northern hemisphere is more sensitive to changes in summer melting than it is to winter cooling.
Inside Imhotep

Tour one of the most geologically diverse regions on Rosetta’s comet
Satellite camera provides “EPIC” view of Earth
Data from the new NASA camera will be used to study the sunlit face of our planet.
Internet investor Yuri Milner joins with Berkeley in $100 million search for extraterrestrial intelligence
The Breakthrough Prize Foundation has already contracted with two of the world’s largest radio telescopes to devote major telescope time to searching for signals from other civilizations.
The Argo’s hidden cargo
Space science image of the week: Intricate dust lanes are revealed in this far-infrared view of the constellation Carina
Dawn Maneuvering to Third Science Orbit
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is using its ion propulsion system to descend to its third mapping orbit at Ceres, and all systems are operating well.
Preparing to build ESA’s Jupiter mission

Airbus Defence & Space in France has been selected as the prime industrial contractor for ESA’s Juice mission to Jupiter and its icy moons.
Week In Images
Our week through the lens: 13-17 July 2015
Pluto’s icy plains, pits, and mountains take shape in Tombaugh Regio
New views of Tombaugh Regio, Pluto’s icy heart, provide still more evidence of a geologically rich world.
Gaia satellite and amateur astronomers spot one in a billion star
It is a type of a two-star system known as a cataclysmic variable, where one super dense white dwarf star is stealing gas from its companion star, effectively “cannibalizing” it.
A simple demonstration of Einstein’s lift: a body thrown upwards moves rectilinearly and uniformly relative to a free-falling model of the lift
The educational model of Einstein’s lift consists of a table suspended from an electromagnet. A
flexible support is attached to the table. A metal ball is on the support and deforms it. When the
electromagnet is deenergized, the table falls, the syst…
Calculation of the ac to dc resistance ratio of conductive nonmagnetic straight conductors by applying FEM simulations
This paper analyzes the skin and proximity effects in different conductive nonmagnetic straight
conductor configurations subjected to applied alternating currents and voltages. These effects have
important consequences, including a rise of the ac res…
Evidence of Wγγ Production in pp Collisions at sqrt[s] =8 TeV and Limits on Anomalous Quartic Gauge Couplings with the ATLAS Detector
Author(s): G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration)The first measurement of triple gauge boson production (W boson and two photons) at the LHC provides new limits on interactions beyond the standard model.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 031802] Published Thu Jul 16,…
Coupling Ferroelectricity with Spin-Valley Physics in Oxide-Based Heterostructures
Author(s): Kunihiko Yamauchi, Paolo Barone, Tatsuya Shishidou, Tamio Oguchi, and Silvia PicozziA theoretically proposed oxide-based heterostructure indicates how coupling of spin and valley degrees of freedom may be engineered and controlled via the fe…
Earth from Space

Join us Friday, 17 July, at 10:00 CEST for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a satellite image of New York City
A dark matter bridge in our cosmic neighborhood
This is the first time scientists have had observational verification that large filamentary superhighways are channeling dwarf galaxies across the cosmos along bridges of dark matter.
The mysterious “lakes” on Saturn’s moon Titan
A new study of Titan’s surface depressions suggests that it dissolves in a process similar to the creation of sinkholes on Earth.
Full launch coverage

Watch the replay of the full MSG-4 launch coverage from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 15 July
Launch replay

Missed MSG-4 liftoff? Watch the replay of the launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 15 July
X-ray specs
Technology image of the week: ESA’s 7.5 tonne X-ray machine for seeing into space parts
THz-Pulse-Induced Selective Catalytic CO Oxidation on Ru
Author(s): Jerry L. LaRue, Tetsuo Katayama, Aaron Lindenberg, Alan S. Fisher, Henrik Öström, Anders Nilsson, and Hirohito Ogasawara
Terahertz pulses drive certain reactions on a metal surface by selectively exciting some of the adsorbed molecules.

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 036103] Published Wed Jul 15, 2015
Physical Limit to Concentration Sensing Amid Spurious Ligands
Author(s): Thierry MoraThe accuracy with which a cell can sense a specific ligand is limited by the concentration of incorrect ligands that can bind to and interfere with the cell receptors.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 038102] Published Wed Jul 15, 2015
Boundary conditions

Stunning shots of Rosetta’s comet reveal details of regional boundaries
MSG-4 liftoff

MSG-4 lifted off on an Ariane 5 launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 21:24 GMT (23:42 CEST) on 15 July
MSG-4 in orbit

The last weather satellite in Europe’s highly successful Meteosat Second Generation series has been launched from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana
Europe’s MSG-4 weather satellite delivered into orbit

The last weather satellite in Europe’s highly successful Meteosat Second Generation series lifted off on an Ariane 5 launcher at 21:42 GMT (23:42 CEST) on 15 July from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.