Skip to main content

2026 Physics Nobel Prize

  The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to a telescope that points down, not up. On October 6, 2026, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the prize for Francis Halzen, principal investigator of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, recognising his decisive part in building IceCube and in discovering high-energy neutrinos that arrive from the cosmos ( IceCube announcement ). Imagine a detector made from a cubic kilometre of Antarctic glacier, built to catch a particle that can cross the Universe and pass through a planet without noticing. That sounds like science fiction. It is now a Nobel-winning instrument. Here is the story of how it happened, why it matters, and a well-earned round of applause for the people behind it. A bold idea: use the ice itself as the detector Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the Universe, yet they barely interact with matter. Trillions pass through your body every second without leaving a trace. That shyness is exactly...
Post a Comment

Hubble reveals the dazzling stars of NGC 6544

 

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the globular cluster NGC 6544, a dense swarm of tens of thousands of stars that lies more than 8000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.



Globular clusters are ancient relics of the early universe, containing some of the oldest stars in the galaxy. They orbit around the center of the Milky Way, forming a spherical halo that extends far beyond the galactic disk. NGC 6544 is one of the closest globular clusters to the galactic plane, making it an interesting target for astronomers who want to study its origin and evolution.


The image of NGC 6544 combines data from two of Hubble's instruments — the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 — as well as two separate astronomical observations. The first observation was designed to find a visible counterpart to the radio pulsar discovered in NGC 6544. A pulsar is the rapidly spinning remnant of a dead star, emitting twin beams of electromagnetic radiation like a vast astronomical lighthouse. This pulsar rotates particularly quickly, and astronomers turned to Hubble to help determine how this object evolved in NGC 6544.


The second observation which contributed data to this image was also designed to find the visible counterparts of faint X-ray sources. Their observations could help explain how clusters like NGC 6544 change over time. For example, some of these X-ray sources could be binary systems, where two stars orbit each other and exchange mass and energy. These interactions can produce exotic phenomena such as novae, supernovae, or even black holes.


NGC 6544 lies adjacent to the vast and ethereal Lagoon Nebula - a captivating expanse of gas and dust sculpted by the intense stellar winds emanating from newborn stars. Known for its colossal proportions, the Lagoon Nebula spans an astonishing 55 light-years across and 20 light-years from top to bottom. Previous Hubble images of the nebula incorporated infrared observations to reveal young stars and intricate structures that would be obscured at visible wavelengths by clouds of gas and dust.


The contrast between the ancient stars of NGC 6544 and the youthful stars of the Lagoon Nebula showcases the diversity and beauty of our galaxy, as well as the power and versatility of Hubble.

SpaceQuanta blogs

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft reveals stunning ultraviolet views of Mars

NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission has acquired stunning views of Mars in two ultraviolet images taken at different points along our neighboring planet's orbit around the sun. The images show how the Martian atmosphere responds to changes in seasons and solar activity. They also reveal the diversity of clouds and ozone in the upper atmosphere. © NASA/LASP/CU Boulder MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars. The mission's combination of detailed point measurements and global observations provides a powerful way to understand the properties of the upper atmosphere¹. MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument captured the remarkable ultraviolet views. According to NASA, the instrument has been designed to measure ultraviolet wavelengths ranging from 110 to 340 nanometers, which fall outside of the visible range. One image was taken in July 2022, during the southern hemisphere's ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Phosphorus, a key element for life, found in Saturn's moon Enceladus

 Scientists have made a breakthrough discovery that could boost the chances of finding life beyond Earth. They have detected phosphorus, a vital element for life, in the ocean of Enceladus, one of Saturn's icy moons. The finding is reported in the journal Nature .  Phosphorus is one of the six essential elements for life, along with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur. It is used to build DNA, RNA and cell membranes, and is crucial for energy metabolism and cellular communication. Enceladus is a small moon that has a global ocean of liquid water beneath its frozen surface. The ocean periodically erupts through cracks in the ice, sending plumes of water vapor and ice grains into space. These plumes were sampled by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Using data from Cassini, researchers found traces of phosphorus in the form of sodium phosphates, a salt sometimes used in deli meat here on Earth, in the ice grains ejected by Enceladus....
Post a Comment
Read more

New study sheds light on the origins of Earth and Mars

A team of researchers from Denmark, Sweden and China has published a new study in Nature that reveals the composition and formation of the two most habitable planets in the Solar System: Earth and Mars. The study is based on the analysis of silicon isotopes, which are variations of the same element with different numbers of neutrons, in different types of meteorites. Silicon is the most abundant refractory element in rocky planets, and its isotopic composition can trace the origin and evolution of planetary building blocks. The researchers found that Earth and Mars have distinct silicon isotopic signatures that differ from those of chondrites, which are primitive meteorites that represent the undifferentiated material of the early Solar System. This means that chondrites are not the main source of material for terrestrial planets, as previously thought. Instead, the study suggests that Earth and Mars were formed from material similar to early-formed differentiated asteroids, which are...
Post a Comment
Read more