International Young Scientist Awards

A distant stellar nursery holds a clutch of newborn Jupiter-sized worlds, the tiniest of which is surrounded by a dusty disk that might someday give rise to moons. The detailed discovery, made thanks to the unparalleled sensitivity of the James Webb Space Telescope, could provide new insights into star and planetary formation , researchers report in a study in press at The Astronomical Journal. Stars arise from enormous clouds of gas and dust when pockets of material collapse under the influence of gravity. The same process can also create smaller nonstellar objects, such as giant planets and brown dwarfs , which lack the internal pressure to fuse hydrogen into helium in their bellies (SN: 7/24/17). In the young star cluster NGC1333, located about 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus, a team of astronomers found hundreds of newly formed starlike objects, including six infant worlds with masses between five and 15 times that of Jupiter. The dusty disk around the sm

The motion of whizzing electrons has been captured like never before. Researchers have developed a laser-based microscope that snaps images at attosecond — or a billionth of a billionth of a second — speed. Dubbed “attomicroscopy,” the technique can capture the zippy motion of electrons inside a molecule with much greater precision than previously possible, physicist Mohammed Hassan and colleagues report August 21 in Science Advances. “I always try to see the things nobody’s seen before,” says Hassan, of the University of Arizona in Tucson. The attomicroscope is a modified transmission electron microscope , which uses a beam of electrons to image things as small as a few nanometers across (SN: 7/16/08). Like light, electrons can be thought of as waves. These wavelengths, though, are much smaller than those of light. That means an electron beam has a higher resolution than a conventional laser and can detect smaller things, like atoms or clouds of other electrons. To get their superfa

In new research, scientists find that flocks of birds may become ordered after a disordered start. The way flocks and other “ collective motions ” form has eluded scientists for a long time. Understanding physics this way could help us understand trends in the human body’s cells. Particles, in many senses, are one of the most vibrant parts of popular and academic culture in 2024. Our video games and movies are marked by how many particles are represented in order to mimic reality. Our science is moved forward by supercomputer models that can sledgehammer through billions of individual points in a simulation. These models allow scientists to combine models from different disciplines and calculate likelihoods rather than certainties. Real life is also crammed with “particles”—and things that act a surprising amount like particles—that we’re coming to understand more and more. For instance, new research published in the Institute of Physics’ peer-reviewed Journal of Statistical Mechanic

  Asteroid Psyche, one of the most intriguing objects in our solar system, has captured the attention of scientists worldwide with the discovery of evidence suggesting the presence of hydration . This finding, while not indicating liquid water as we know it, reveals that Psyche contains minerals that have interacted with water, offering new insights into the asteroid’s history and composition. 🌌 The Mysterious Asteroid Psyche Psyche, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter , is unique due to its largely metallic composition. Unlike most asteroids, which are rocky or icy, Psyche is believed to be made primarily of iron and nickel, resembling the core of a planet. This has led scientists to speculate that Psyche might be the remnant of a planetesimal, a building block of planets that was stripped of its outer layers by collisions in the early solar system. Measuring about 140 miles in diameter, Psyche is one of the largest asteroids in the belt and has been a subject of

A German aircraft flying out of Cairns is measuring the chemistry of the clouds above Australia and the Pacific FEBRUARY 23, 2024: This week, a German research aircraft is sampling air up to 15 km above Australia and the Pacific Ocean. The CAFE-Pacific Mission aims to better understand:how the tropical atmosphere deals with air pollution; how clouds form over oceans; how to refine weather and climate models, leading to better forecasts and projections; and, fundamentally to better understand the chemistry of climate. Flying out of Cairns in the northeast of Australia, the Chemistry of the Atmosphere : Field Experiment (CAFE) team are tracking weather events and taking atmospheric measurements to better understand the atmospheric chemistry occurring above the clouds. This is their third mission, using a highly modified Gulfstream G550 ultra long-range jet capable of exploring the full extent of the troposphere from the ground up to about 15 km above sea level. Described by some research