Enjoying a meteor shower requires only comfort and patience. In this brief video, Senior Editor Michael E. Bakich gives some tips on spending a night under “shooting stars.”
Robot arm simulates close approach of ESA’s asteroid mission
The final approach to an asteroid has been practised for ESA’s proposed Asteroid Impact Mission using a real spacecraft camera mounted on a robot arm.
Galileo taking shape
A new video shows Galileos 11 and 12 being readied for their 17 December launch, concluding a year when the number of satellites in orbit will have doubled
Electron Spin Coherence of Shallow Donors in Natural and Isotopically Enriched Germanium
Author(s): A. J. Sigillito, R. M. Jock, A. M. Tyryshkin, J. W. Beeman, E. E. Haller, K. M. Itoh, and S. A. Lyon
Measurements of the donor electron spin in germanium show coherence times that are long enough for the electrons to be used as qubits.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 247601] Published Mon Dec 07, 2015
Squeezing of Quantum Noise of Motion in a Micromechanical Resonator
Author(s): J.-M. Pirkkalainen, E. Damskägg, M. Brandt, F. Massel, and M. A. Sillanpää
The act of a quantum measurement reduces the uncertainty in the motion of a vibrating membrane below the fundamental quantum limit.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 243601] Published Mon Dec 07, 2015
Talking climate
Discover more about the importance of sea level as an Essential Climate Variable to understand our changing world
ALMA spots monstrous baby galaxies cradled in dark matter
These findings are important for understanding how monstrous galaxies form and evolve.
New Horizons returns the first of its best Pluto images
These latest pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto, revealing features less than half the size of a city block on the diverse surface of the distant planet.
NASA returns to Jupiter 20 years after Galileo
The Juno spacecraft meets the gas giant July 4, finally ending the decades-long hiatus of Jupiter missions.
Artificial eclipse
Space Science Image of the Week: SOHO is still going strong after two decades in space, sending back impressive images of the Sun and its varying bursts of activity
Engineering Made Fun: JPL’s Annual Invention Challenge
Los Angeles High School teams win big at the annual competition at JPL.
To Jupiter with JunoCam!
Scientists on NASA’s Juno mission are preparing to receive some stunning images of Jupiter, and they need your help.
Heavy Tails in the Distribution of Time to Solution for Classical and Quantum Annealing
Author(s): Damian S. Steiger, Troels F. Rønnow, and Matthias Troyer
Simulated quantum annealing, used in D-Wave systems, does not perform as well as classical annealing for computationally hard instances of the Ising spin glass problem, implying that median ‘time-to-solution’ is a poor measure of annealing algorithms.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 230501] Published Fri Dec 04, 2015
Nuclear Recoil Effect in the Lamb Shift of Light Hydrogenlike Atoms
Author(s): V. A. Yerokhin and V. M. Shabaev
The nuclear recoil correction in hydrogen-like atoms has been calculated nonperturbatively in the nuclear binding strength, Zα, improving the numerical accuracy by more than two orders of magnitude.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 233002] Published Fri Dec 04, 2015
Talking climate
Discover more about the importance of glaciers as an Essential Climate Variable to understand our changing world
Week In Images
Our week through the lens: 30 November – 4 December 2015
Mars mission team addressing vacuum leak on key science instrument
The seismometer is the prime science payload that will help answer questions about the interior structure and processes within the deep martian interior.
Curious “inkblot” star outed for trolling the astronomers
In just a couple of years, the red giant star CW Leonis has changed its appearance completely, meaning a whole set of carefully constructed models have been abandoned.
Tim Peake to run London marathon from space
Get ready, set, go! As the thousands of runners start the London Marathon in April, ESA astronaut Tim Peake will run the full 42 km distance on a treadmill aboard the International Space Station.
JPL CubeSat Clean Room: A Factory For Small Spacecraft
JPL CubeSat clean room is doing big things for space explorations smallest inhabitants.
Mars Mission Team Addressing Vacuum Leak on Key Science Instrument
A key science instrument for NASA’s InSight spacecraft, being prepared for a March 2016 launch, is experiencing a leak in the vacuum container carrying its main sensors.
NASA Space Telescopes See Magnified Image of Faintest Galaxy from Early Universe
Astronomers harnessing the combined power of NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have found the faintest object ever seen in the early universe.
LISA Pathfinder Carries Advanced NASA Thruster Tech
The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft is on its way to space, having successfully launched from Kourou, French Guiana (Dec. 3 local time/Dec. 2 PST).
A strategic response to MOOCs: How one European university is approaching the challenge
This paper briefly outlines some of the macro level claims, counter-claims and unresolved debates surrounding the rapid growth of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Higher Education. It then reports insights, experiences and perceptions of those charged with developing a strategic institutional response to the challenges and opportunities presented by the MOOC movement framed within a wider European context. A description of the key drivers, strategic deliberations and major decision points at Dublin City University (DCU) is provided along with brief analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of a range of MOOC options set against an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving technology-enhanced learning terrain. In reflecting on this micro level experience, informed by lessons from the burgeoning literature on MOOCs, the paper aims to demonstrate the value of aligning key decisions with well-defined institutional drivers, which are used to help compare and contrast the affordances of different MOOC platforms. Finally, a number of strategic questions are presented that may help guide future decisions about the adoption of MOOCs by other institutions.
iMOOC on Climate Change: Evaluation of a Massive Open Online Learning Pilot Experience
MOOCs are a recent phenomenon, although given its impact, have been subject to a large debate. Several questions have been raised by researchers and educators alike as regarding its sustainability both economical and as an efficient mode of education p…
Comparing MOOC Adoption Strategies in Europe: Results from the HOME Project Survey
Much of the literature and the academic discussion about the impact of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) in institutional strategic planning has been centred on the US context. However, data shows that although the US are responsible for the largest M…
A MOOC on Approaches to Machine Translation
This paper describes the design, development and analysis of a MOOC entitled “Approaches to Machine Translation: rule-based, statistical and hybrid” providing lessons learnt on conclusions to be take into account in the future. The course was developed within a Canvas platform, used by recognized European universities. The course contains video-lectures, quizzes and laboratory assignments. Evaluation is done across on-line quizzes, programming assignments (PAs) evaluated by means of a specific code evaluation and peer-to-peer strategies. This MOOC allows to introduce people from various areas to the Machine Translation theory and practice. It also allows to internationally publisize different tools developed at the Universitat Polit`ecnica de Catalunya.
Setting-up a European Cross-Provider Data Collection on Open Online Courses
While MOOCS have emerged as a new form of open online education around the world, research is stilling lagging behind to come up with a sound theoretical basis that can cover the impact of socio-economic background variables, ICT competences, prior exp…
Dimensions of Openness: Beyond the Course as an Open Format in Online Education
The objective of the paper is to provide a framework for understanding the pedagogical opportunities of openness in education. The paper will argue that openness in education should not only be viewed as opening existing resources and courses to a broader audience. Openness is also a matter of providing insight and enable communication and collaboration across traditional barriers – such as distance and accessibility. From this perspective, openness is the removal of barriers for interaction and exchange – and not only a matter of providing access to resources or courses. Rather, the objective is to open education to the outside world, which entails an interaction between educational institutions and society. The key point of the paper is that to do this, educational activities need to change and move beyond the course as the main unit of openness. Openness is not only a matter of opening up the existing, but to develop new educational practices that interact with the world. The paper outlines three different dimensions of openness that describe different types of interaction between institutions and society: transparency, communication and engagement. To exemplify the dimensions, the paper presents a case study that demonstrates the three dimensions of openness in an university programme. The paper concludes in a discussion of educational technologies for the different dimensions of openness.
Editorial – Volume 16, Issue Number 6
MOOCs and the claim of education for all: A disillusion by empirical data
MOOCs have shaped the discussion on learning with digital media for the last few years. One claim of MOOCs in the tradition of Open Educational Resources is to expand access to education, mainly in the field of higher education. But do MOOCs meet this …
Opportunities and Threats of the MOOC Movement for Higher Education: The European Perspective
The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) movement is the latest ‘big thing’ in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) which threatens to transform Higher Education. Both opportunities and threats are extensively discussed in literature, comprising issues on opening up education for the whole world, pedagogy and online versus campus education. Most of the literature focus on the origin of the MOOC movement in the US. The specific context of Europe with on the one hand autonomous countries and educational systems and on the other hand cross-border cooperation and regulations through the European Union differs from the US context. This specific context can influence the way in which the MOOC movement affect education in Europe, both reusing MOOCs from other continents (US) as publishing MOOCs, on a European platform or outside of Europe. In the context of the EU funded HOME project, a research was conducted to identify opportunities and threats of the MOOC movement on the European institutions of higher education. Three sources of data were gathered and analysed. Opportunities and threats were categorized in two levels. The macro level comprises issues related to the higher education system, European context, historical period and institutional level. The micro level covers aspects related to faculty, professors and courses, thus to the operational level. The main opportunities mentioned were the ECTS system as being a sound base for formal recognition of accomplishments in MOOCs, the tendency to cooperate between institutions, stimulated by EU funded programs and the many innovative pedagogical models used in MOOCs published in Europe. The main threats mentioned were a lacking implementation of the ECTS system, hindering bridging non/formal and formal education and too much regulation, hindering experimenting and innovation.
Theories and Applications of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) : The Case for Hybrid Design
Initial research on learning in massive open online courses (MOOCs) primarily focused participation patterns and participant experiences. More recently, research has addressed learning theories and offered case studies of different pedagogical designs …
Test of Electric Charge Conservation with Borexino
Author(s): M. Agostini et al. (Borexino Collaboration)
Scientists have placed new limits on how often electrons decay into neutrinos and photons, a reaction that—if it occurred—would violate the law of charge conservation.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 231802] Published Thu Dec 03, 2015
Earth from Space
Join us Friday, 4 December, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-1A image of the Netherlands
Sentinel-2 moves on
The story so far of the second Copernicus satellite and what it will do next
Couture in Orbit: from spacewalk to catwalk
ESA and the Science Museum in London are working with four leading fashion schools around Europe to design clothes for the space age with their ‘Couture in Orbit’ project.
Liftoff for LISA Pathfinder
For the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s general relativity, LISA Pathfinder will demonstrate how to observe gravitational waves in space.
How LISA Pathfinder will “hear” the universe
The European Space Agency hopes its LISA Pathfinder mission will allow scientists to observe the universe outside the electromagnetic spectrum for the first time.
Hawaii Supreme Court revokes permit for massive telescope
Native Hawaiians have won their court challenge against an observatory that could one day be the world’s largest.
Why LISA Pathfinder?
Press briefing replay: mission experts describe how LISA Pathfinder will test-drive the technologies needed to detect gravitational waves from space
LISA Pathfinder en route to gravitational wave demonstration
ESA’s LISA Pathfinder lifted off earlier today on a Vega rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its way to demonstrate technology for observing gravitational waves from space.
A new frontier
LISA Pathfinder is on its way to test the extraordinary technology needed to observe gravitational waves from space
Launch – full replay
Watch LISA Pathfinder launch into low-Earth orbit, with commentary from experts at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou
Launch replay
Watch LISA Pathfinder launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou
ESA station tracks Earth flyby mission
An ESA deep-space ground station will lend a helping ear as Japan’s Hayabusa-2 asteroid mission visits Earth on Thursday.
Cosmic filaments exposed near huge cluster
ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has revealed three massive filaments of hot gas flowing towards a cluster of galaxies, uncovering a portion of the cosmic skeleton that pervades the entire Universe.
LISA Pathfinder launch
Follow the launch of our LISA Pathfinder mission on 3 December. Coverage from Kourou starts 03:44 GMT; a press briefing from ESA’s space operations centre starts at 05:30 GMT
Asymmetric Acoustic Propagation of Wave Packets Via the Self-Demodulation Effect
Author(s): Thibaut Devaux, Vincent Tournat, Olivier Richoux, and Vincent PagneuxAn acoustic diode composed of a multilayer phononic crystal connected to a granular layer supports the asymmetric propagation of a single mode wave packet.[Phys. Rev. Lett….
Black Hole Window into p-Wave Dark Matter Annihilation
Author(s): Jessie Shelton, Stuart L. Shapiro, and Brian D. FieldsGamma-ray observations of dark matter spikes near supermassive black holes provide a test of fermionic dark matter models.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 231302] Published Wed Dec 02, 2015
Fluctuation Relations of Fitness and Information in Population Dynamics
Author(s): Tetsuya J. Kobayashi and Yuki SughiyamaA path-wise description of population dynamics provides a general description of the fitness of a population that can account for sub-optimal evolution strategies.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 238102] Publishe…
Talking climate
Discover more about the importance of land cover as an Essential Climate Variable to understand our changing world
Happy birthday, SOHO!
The Sun as seen today by the ESA-NASA SOHO observatory on the 20th anniversary of the pioneering satellite’s launch
“Fast radio burst” sheds new light on origin of these extreme events
Research indicates that the burst originated inside a highly magnetized region of space, possibly linking it to a recent supernova or the interior of an active star-forming nebula.
Astronomers spy nursery of baby exoplanets
Astronomers report that this system, surrounding a star known as HD 100546, is giving us a glimpse back in time to see what other more developed exoplanet systems looked like in their adolescence.
Fits like a glove
Human spaceflight an operations image of the week: Testing pressure suits for Principia launch in two weeks
Farmers benefit from satellite coverage
Farmers can now call on the latest satellite information using the unique TalkingFields service to get the best from their land while cutting the environmental cost.
Are you a doctor with the right stuff?
ESA is looking for a medical doctor to live for a year in Antarctica at the French–Italian Concordia research station. Your job is to run experiments in the Antarctic wilderness that help to prepare for future spaceflight beyond Earth orbit.
Rover versus rocks
Technology image of the week: Robotic navigation testing with artificial rocks on beach next to ESA’s technical heart
SOHO celebrates 20 years of discoveries
Originally planned for a two-year mission, the ESA–NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, is today celebrating two decades of scientific discovery.
ESA wastewater recovery picked as key climate technology
An ESA-developed water treatment system has been chosen as one of a hundred top climate technologies to mark this week’s COP21 climate change summit in Paris.
Launch postponed
The launch of LISA Pathfinder has been postponed
Experimental Validation of a Nonextensive Scaling Law in Confined Granular Media
Author(s): Gaël Combe, Vincent Richefeu, Marta Stasiak, and Allbens P. F. Atman
The velocity distribution of sheared granular media shows unexpected similarities with turbulent fluid flows.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 238301] Published Tue Dec 01, 2015
Tuning the van der Waals Interaction of Graphene with Molecules via Doping
Author(s): Felix Huttmann, Antonio J. Martínez-Galera, Vasile Caciuc, Nicolae Atodiresei, Stefan Schumacher, Sebastian Standop, Ikutaro Hamada, Tim O. Wehling, Stefan Blügel, and Thomas Michely
By adding dopant atoms to a graphene sheet, researchers are able to control the van der Waals attraction that the surface exerts on molecules.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 236101] Published Tue Dec 01, 2015
One-to-One Mapping between Steering and Joint Measurability Problems
Author(s): Roope Uola, Costantino Budroni, Otfried Gühne, and Juha-Pekka Pellonpää
Quantum steering, the ability for Alice to use local measurements to steer Bob’s half of an entangled state, can be formulated in terms of a joint measurability problem allowing known techniques to be used from one protocol to the other.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 230402] Published Tue Dec 01, 2015
Global warming won’t stop the ‘green cancer’ from spreading
With its enormous green and purple leaves, the South American miconia tree is invading botanic gardens all around the world on account of its beauty. This plant, however, is called the ‘green cancer’ for its ability to infest new territories. A new stu…
Could life exist on other planets?
With a little help from planetary neighbors, perhaps life could exist, according to new research.
Exoplanet kicked into exile
A star’s lopsided comet belt indicates a disturbed system
Launch media briefing
Follow a live webcast from LISA Pathfinder mission control on 2 December, when managers, scientists and experts brief the media, starting at 05:45 GMT (06:45 CET)
LISA Pathfinder launch
Follow the launch of our LISA Pathfinder mission on 2 December. Coverage from Kourou starts at 03:55 GMT (04:55 CET), with liftoff due at 04:15 GMT (05:15 CET)
Media on the move
Access our press releases, media calendar and ESA TV information for media professionals via the new media section on our mobile ESA website
More Galileo satellites broadcasting navigation signals
Having completed their rigorous checks in space, two more of Europe’s Galileo satellites are now fully operational, broadcasting navigation signals and, from today, relaying search and rescue messages from across the globe.
Gaps in advertising and PR education are due to new roles in social media, study finds
Blurred boundaries between advertising and public relations professions due to new roles in social media raise the question of whether educators can adequately prepare their students for a career in those growing fields, according to a Baylor study.
Tim arrives in Baikonur on his last stop before space
ESA astronaut Tim Peake, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and Roscosmos commander Yuri Malenchenko arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today ahead of their launch to the International Space Station.
Set for launch on 15 December, the…
LISA Pathfinder launch timeline
On Thursday, a Vega rocket will boost LISA Pathfinder into space to pave the way to a future mission for detecting gravitational waves. Once aloft, ESA’s mission control teams will pace the ultra high-tech spacecraft through the critical first days of the journey to its final destination.
Talking climate
Discover more about the importance of sea ice as an Essential Climate Variable to understand our changing world
Hydrodynamics Versus Intracellular Coupling in the Synchronization of Eukaryotic Flagella
Author(s): Greta Quaranta, Marie-Eve Aubin-Tam, and Daniel Tam
A study of the breaststroke motion in swimming algae shows that hydrodynamic forces cannot explain the synchronization between the microorganism’s two “arms.”
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 238101] Published Mon Nov 30, 2015
Molecular Mechanism of Water Evaporation
Author(s): Yuki Nagata, Kota Usui, and Mischa BonnEach time a liquid water molecule enters the vapor phase, a coordinated dance of several molecules is involved, according to simulations.[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 236102] Published Mon Nov 30, 2015
Searching for Dark Matter Annihilation from Milky Way Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with Six Years of Fermi Large Area Telescope Data
Author(s): M. Ackermann et al. (The Fermi-LAT Collaboration)Gamma-ray signatures of dark matter have not been seen by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration in data from dwarf spheroidal galaxies of the Milky Way. Their absence puts tighter constraints on the Dar…
Sneak preview
Space Science Image of the Week: ESA’s LISA Pathfinder gravitational wave demonstrator getting ready for launch at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou
Hungary and ESA
2015 is a special year: the Hungarian space community is celebrating Hungary’s accession to ESA as 22nd full Member State
Supercomputer simulates collapse of massive stars
This simulation demonstrates that as a rotating star collapses, the star and its attached magnetic field spin faster and faster, revving the magnetic field to a million billion times the magnetic field of Earth.
Supermassive black hole spotted snacking on a star
The supermassive black hole was found to have faint jets of material shooting out from it and helps to confirm scientists’ theories about the nature of black holes.
Redshift formulas and the Doppler–Fizeau effect
In this paper, we show that redshifts, which appear in some pedagogical examples, can be expressed
in terms of the Doppler–Fizeau effect. For this purpose, we use, as suggested by Weyl, the worldline
elements of two physical events: the emission an…
Design of an inexpensive integrating sphere student laboratory setup for the optical characterization of light sources
In this paper, the design of an inexpensive integrating sphere setup is presented, enabling students
to perform optical characterization of light sources with reasonable accuracy, in a student
laboratory context. Instead of using an expensive sphere …
Tens of billions promised to boost clean energy tech
Government and business leaders are banking on clean energy technology to fight global warming, kicking off this week’s high-stakes climate change negotiations by pledging tens of billions of dollars for research and development.
Space for climate
While leaders from around the world meet at COP21 to reach an agreement on climate change, learn how satellites provide essential information about the health of our planet
Week In Images
Our week through the lens: 23-27 November 2015
Sudanese fields
Earth observation image of the week: a Sentinel-2A image of south Khartoum in Sudan, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme
Flight teams prepare for LISA Pathfinder liftoff
Following months of intensive training, mission controllers for the LISA Pathfinder gravitational wave detection testbed will complete a final rehearsal tomorrow, ensuring that all is ready for the journey to space.
Albert Einsteini kuulsad artiklid nüüd ka eesti keeles
Eesti keelde on tõlgitud Einsteini 1905. aastal ilmunud kuulsad artiklid: „Liikuvate kehade elektrodünaamikast“ (erirelatiivsusteooria), „Kas keha inerts sõltub selle energiasisaldusest?“ (E=mc2), „Ühest heuristilisest vaatekohast valguse tekkimisele ja muundumisele“ (valguse kvantteooria), „Paigalseisvates vedelikes hõljuvate osakeste liikumisest vastavalt molekulaarkineetilisele teooriale“ (Browni liikumise teooria), samuti pikem teadusfilosoofiline sissevaade 1936. aastast „Füüsika ja tegelikkus“, tõlkijateks Piret Kuusk, Georg Liidja ja Kalle Hein. Tõlgetele eelnevad Raivo […]
German Chancellor Merkel welcomes ESA astronaut to her home region
German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and ESA Director Thomas Reiter joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently in her home region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in the very northeast of Germany.
Earth from Space
Join us Friday, 27 November, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week features a Sentinel-2A image of south Khartoum in Sudan
Timelapse from space reveals glacier in motion
Animations that compress 25 years of satellite images into just one second reveal the complex behaviour and flow of glaciers in the Karakoram mountain range in Asia.
Testing gravity
Find out how LISA Pathfinder will test-drive technologies to detect gravitational waves from space
Hydrodynamic and Contact Contributions to Continuous Shear Thickening in Colloidal Suspensions
Author(s): Neil Y. C. Lin, Ben M. Guy, Michiel Hermes, Chris Ness, Jin Sun, Wilson C. K. Poon, and Itai Cohen
Experiments explain the significant increase in viscosity that occurs when stirring a mixture of cornstarch and water.
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 228304] Published Wed Nov 25, 2015
Ultrabroadband Dispersive Radiation by Spatiotemporal Oscillation of Multimode Waves
Author(s): Logan G. Wright, Stefan Wabnitz, Demetrios N. Christodoulides, and Frank W. Wise<br/>In nonlinear dynamical systems, qualitatively distinct phenomena occur depending continuously on the size of the bounded domain containing the system. For nonlinear waves, a multimode waveguide is a bounded three-dimensional domain, allowing observation of dynamics impossible in open settings. Here …<br/>[Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 223902] Published Wed Nov 25, 2015
A blue Neptune-sized exoplanet around a red dwarf star
Astronomers have detected light scattered by tiny particles through the atmosphere of a Neptune-sized transiting exoplanet, which suggests a blue sky on this world that is only 100 light-years away.
Comet fragments, not aliens, best explain mysterious dimming star
Just what caused the dimming of star KIC 8462852?
ExoMars prepares to leave Europe for launch site
The two ExoMars spacecraft of the 2016 mission are being prepared for shipping to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ahead of their launch in March.