SciByte

researchers fired a couple of photons into a cloud of rubidium – a chemical element belonging to the metal group – in a vacuum chamber cooled to just a few degrees above absolute zero.

When the photons exited the other side of the cloud of atoms

were surprised to see the pair emerge as a single molecule.

special type of medium in which photons interact with each other

so strongly that they begin to act as though they have mass, and they bind together to form molecules

Rydberg blockade

states that when an atom has energy imparted to it, nearby atoms cannot be excited to the same degree

the pair of photons moved through the cloud of atoms, the first photon excited atoms, but had to move forward before the second photon could do the same.

the pair of photons pushed and pulled each other through the cloud

atomic interaction

makes these two photons behave like a molecule

team is hoping to use their newly discovered state of matter in the advancement of quantum computing

demonstration test flight from the California coast carrying a Canadian satellite to an elliptical earth orbit

Both Cygnus and Falcon 9 were developed with seed money from NASA in a pair of public-private partnerships between NASA and Orbital Sciences and SpaceX

docking was delayed a week due to an easily fixed communications glitch

The Cygnus spacecraft

Hatches to Cygnus

opened on Monday, Sept. 30 after completing leak checks

second commercial partner’s demonstration mission reaches the ISS

Cygnus delivers about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothing, water, science experiments, spare parts and gear to the Expedition 37 crew

SpaceX Falcon 9 blasted off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California

deployed Canada’s 1,060 pound (481 kg) Cascade, Smallsat, and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) weather satellite and several additional small satellites.

recently succeeded in collecting “really interesting” new high resolution survey scans of Solander Point

The new MRO data are crucial for targeting the rover’s driving in coming months.

Solander Point is an eroded ridge located along the western rim of huge Endeavour Crater where Opportunity is currently located

it will take some time to review and interpret the bountiful new spectral data and decide on a course of action

Expect that analysis to take a “couple of weeks”

The new CRISM survey from Mars orbit will vastly improve the spectral resolution – from 18 meters per pixel down to 5 meters per pixel

Another important point about ‘Solander Point’ is that it also offers northerly tilted slopes that will maximize the power generation during Opportunity’s upcoming 6th Martian winter

winter’s last six full months

The rover recently investigated an outcrop target called ‘Poverty Bush’.

deployed her 3 foot long (1 meter) robotic arm and collected photos with the Microscopic Imager (MI)

collected several days of spectral measurements with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).

There are several geologic units that are overlapping

Opportunity is sitting on the contact

the east side of the contact are rocks maybe a billion years older than those on the west side of the contact

So far

has snapped over 184,500

images

total odometry stands at over 23.82 miles (38.34 kilometers) since touchdown on Jan. 24, 2004

silver as an example

has the same number of protons

Silver has 47

not every atom of an element necessarily has the same number of neutrons

different versions of an element's atoms are called isotopes

Silver occurs as silver-109 and silver-107

Chemists calculate the atomic weight of an element that you see on the periodic table from the masses of its isotopes, giving more common isotopes more weight than less common isotopes

doesn't necessarily mean every sample of silver on Earth has an atomic weight of exactly

samples of elements vary from place to place

erences play an important role in many sciences

They help chemists trace the origin of different materials

and date archaeological findings

The latest atomic weights measurements differ too little from their predecessors to really change science

do it?"

If it's just small changes, why

should give the best numbers there are

some new idea will come up that needs more accurate data

Molybdenum, Losing 0.0122

Atomic weights are relative, so they don't have units

Thorium, Losing 0.000322

Yttrium and Niobium, Tied, Losing 0.00001

Selenium, Gaining 0.0088

Cadmium, Gaining 0.0026

Holmium, Thulium and Praseodymium, All Tied, Gaining 0.00001

The changes in weights mostly come from continuing improvements in atomic mass measurements

advances in the technology behind mass spectrometers

not all about measuring more accurately

thorium, the IUPAC decided to recognize an isotope, thorium-230, that it previously thought was too rare to include in atomic weight calculations

The last time international chemistry

really altered the periodic table was in 2009, when IUPAC decided to list the atomic weights of some elements as ranges, instead of single numbers

A moderately large telescope.

A comet's brightness

an "extended" object with the light inside the comet's head spread out over a larger area of space

(a dark sky) is absolutely necessary

telescope in the 8 to 12-inch range

magnification of at least 200 to 300 power

if you're trying to see the comet you’ll have much better success by looking off to one side of its position (averted vision) rather than staring right at it; in that way you’ll be able to better detect its faint and fuzzy image

if you're trying to see the comet you’ll have much better success by looking off to one side of its position (averted vision) rather than staring right at it; in that way you’ll be able to better detect its faint and fuzzy image

Tuesday, Oct. 15. 

the comet will appear 1.1 degrees above and to the left of Mars, while Mars itself is passing only 0.9 degrees above and to the left of the bluish 1st-magnitude star Regulus

Comet ISON continues to run roughly two magnitudes fainter than original projections

recent 'discovery' of a jet feature may be the key in understanding Comet ISON's behavior during the past 7 weeks

observers

have begun to notice a lengthening of Comet ISON's tail

might" be a sign that the sun's warmth has indeed begun to make the comet more active by way of sublimation

addition of gas and dust should cause the comet’s coma to increase in size.