Physics and Astronomy News Archive: December 2009

Image: Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness

Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness

Source: NASA/JPL   Posted: 12/11/09

Cameras aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft have captured the most detailed images yet of the intriguing hexagon shape crowning the planet.
Image: Suzaku Catches Retreat of a Black Hole's Disk

Suzaku Catches Retreat of a Black Hole's Disk

Source: NASA   Posted: 12/11/09

Studies of one of the galaxy's most active black-hole binaries reveal a dramatic change that will help scientists better understand how these systems expel fast-moving particle jets.
Image: Solid Material Made Transparent to Terahertz Waves

Solid Material Made Transparent to Terahertz Waves

Source: Rice U   Posted: 12/11/09

Plasmonic material that would, with adjustments to its temperature and/or magnetic field, either stop a terahertz beam cold or let it pass completely was discovered.
Image: Physicists Find Reappearing Quantum Trios

Physicists Find Reappearing Quantum Trios

Source: Rice U   Posted: 12/11/09

Experimental evidence found for a universal quantum mechanism that allows trios of particles to appear and reappear at higher energy levels in an infinite progression.