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To determine the mass of an exoplanet using transmission spectroscopy, de Wit relied on the effect that a planet's mass has on its atmosphere, as transmission spectra give information on a planet's atmospheric properties. To do that, he worked from a standard equation describing the effect of a planet's temperature, gravitational force, and atmospheric density on its atmospheric pressure profile-the extent to which pressure changes throughout its atmosphere.

The work is based on the use of a "continuous flow" microreactor to produce nanoparticle inks that make solar cells by printing. In this process, simulated sunlight is focused on the solar microreactor to rapidly heat it, while allowing precise control of temperature to aid the quality of the finished product. The light in these experiments was produced artificially, but the process could be done with direct sunlight, and at a fraction of the cost of current approaches.

anybody interested in having a closer look at this?

The habitable zones of single stars are larger and wider as the temperatures increase. Although hotter stars have the widest regions where water can lie on the surface, they also have short lifetimes that limit the ability of life to evolve. Moons in close binary solar systems have a better chance of hosting life than those in single-star systems, new research has shown.

looks like the study Aurélie wanted to do ...

The system is based on two liquids which are adsorbed. As the sensor generates heat, the liquids desorb and the pressure builds up, it can then move to an expansion vessel which is held at a cooler temperature and the liquid then adsorb together again. This technique requires no mechanical compression and there are less vibration, leading to less wear and tear of components. It is being developed in a joint collaboration between UTwente and Dutch Space.

The novel part here is that it can be scaled down to the cubesat platform. I then wondered, could we place multiple of such Cubesats in a 'decaying orbit' around the Sun? Fractionated will give spatial and temporal information which, even with a simple langmuir probe setup, can give information on density, temperature, velocity, ion energy distribution, potential.. Of course they will be lost relatively quickly, but more could be ejected from a mother ship which is orbiting at a safer distance.

For example like the KickSat projec https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zacinaction/kicksat-your-personal-spacecraft-in-space Although a pc-reboot due to a radiation event in the electronics has reset the deployment timeline to approximately 2 days after re-entry... http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/05/06/kicksat-satellites_n_5273821.html

Lasers + diamonds --> simulate pressure of thousands of atmospheres on planetary cores!

As a side note, this is also being used as method to create a hypothetical substance called 'metallic hydrogen'. At such high pressures, hydrogen itself should become superconducting at room temperature and thus of tremendous interest...

I wonder how much energy you can extract from the ocean in a responsible way... Mixing up different thermal layers would probably a quite an influence on ecology.

The last available assessment report on the ecological impact seems to date from 1981 which would need to be brought up to current standards. On the other hand, this system could have a positive influence on fish population as deep cold water brings nutrients to the surface. The cold water could also be used to lower sea surface temperatures and affect hurricane genesis!

When submerged, water tends to cling to the top of the spikes, while air and water vapor accrue in the pores between them. The combination of trapped air and water vapor within these cavities forms a gaseous layer that deters moisture from seeping into the surface below. More materials with amazing properties. Might even be usefull for liquid fuel tanks?

I don't quite see how the trapped water vapor keeps the water out of the cavities... since the vapor is at the same low temperature as the water it should hardly exert any pressure at all. One would expect though that surface tension keeps water out of smaller cavities because it tries to minimize surface area. If the water would enter the cavities it would need increase its surface area dramatically which in turn is energetically unfavorable. Interesting application would also be in non-wetting electronics which might make cooling of circuitry a lot easier: you just sink your data center.

Imagine a material that only admits thermal conduction for certain temperatures. Martin Maldovan from Georgia Tech holds a tiny thermoelectric device that turns cold on one side when current is applied. Recent research has focused on the possibility of using interference effects in phonon waves to control heat transport in materials. These are exciting news (see Nature Materials paper here http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v14/n7/full/nmat4308.html). Heterostructure research lead to outstanding new possibilities when applied to electronic transport (e.g. in quantum well and quantum dots) and to photonics (e.g. Quantum Cascade Laser tunnable lasers). Apparently the time has come to see selective thermal control in this way! Truly exciting!!

"V3Solar has developed a cone-shaped solar energy harvester that is claimed to generate over 20 times more electricity than a flat panel thanks to a combination of concentrating lenses, dynamic spin, conical shape, and advanced electronics."

Hmm.. that seems counter intuitive... how would it ever be that much better than a flat panel? Rotating the PV will only make sure only parts are illuminated. Operating temperature is a better argument, but that comes at the cost of exposure. Came across this little gem of a webpage, maybe we should outsource our impossibility EM drive work next time? :) https://www.metabunk.org/debunked-v3solars-spinning-solar-panel-cone-spin-cell-coolspin.t1166/

"In a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) Jérôme Duplat and Emmanuel Villermaux developed a method to generate centimeter-sized vacuum bubbles in water with miniature laser-driven explosions, and observed the flash of light produced as the bubble collapsed a not-fully-understood phenomenon known as sonoluminescence." Amazingly they concluded that the temperatrue inside the bubble as it collapses is about 26000 K. At this temperatures some (not me) argue for nuclear fusion... Intriguing stuff!!! Check the videos! Yet another test for the 'Experimental Physics Stagiare' :-)?

For sure no fusion, that starts appr. from about 20keV, not 20kK. Between both there is still a factor of 11500. What I would rather expect is that the conditions are not appropriate to work with Maxwellian distribution functions. If certain fusion products should be measurable, than this would rather confirm (but not proof) the hypothesis that they do not have Maxwellians but something close to monoenergetic. But most probably they will not measure fusion products, hence no fusion, hence no confusion.

metamaterials to stop radiations?

hmm ... in the optical range it is already a bit tricky .... lets brainstorm a bit about it ... anything in the literature? Luzi?

the components of the metamaterial need to have a size inversely proportional to the wavelenght, but here we are talking about high energy protons. So the idea was: is there metamaterials that change the electrical properties to solve this problem of holes in the material... but i dont have a clue !

"information experience" ... impressive

Nice!! I want that thing on my mobile which wakes you up in the morning with the weather and temperature....so cool

you will need to explain me what is nice in there ....

They are arguing about whether its the Sun or CO2 levels which effect global temperatures. which do you believe?

error in CO2 models? Cynthia have a look at it please - effect on our paper?

looks too simple to be true .... but? ...