Researchers from the University of Rochester and University of California, Santa Barbara, have made a groundbreaking discovery that could change the game for various industries. By engineering a laser device smaller than a penny, they’ve created a tool that can power LiDAR systems in self-driving vehicles to gravitational wave detection – one of the most delicate experiments in existence.

The new chip-scale laser is a marvel of miniaturization, capable of conducting extremely fast and accurate measurements by precisely changing its color across a broad spectrum of light at rates of about 10 quintillion times per second. Unlike traditional silicon photonics, this laser is made with synthetic material lithium niobate, leveraging the Pockels effect to change the refractive index of a material when an electric field is present.

This tiny powerhouse has numerous applications that can already benefit from its designs. For instance, it can drive a LiDAR system on a spinning disc and identify objects at highway speeds and distances. The researchers demonstrated this capability by using their laser to spot toy building blocks forming the letters U and R.

Another significant application is the Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) laser frequency locking technique, essential for optical clocks that can measure time with extreme precision. A typical setup would require instruments the size of a desktop computer, but the chip-scale laser can integrate all these components into a single tiny chip that can be tuned electrically.

The research was supported in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation, showcasing the potential of this miniature marvel to revolutionize metrology and beyond.

The discovery of an object called ASKAP J1832-0911 has left astronomers puzzled. This mysterious entity emits pulses of radio waves and X-rays for two minutes every 44 minutes. What makes this finding even more intriguing is that it’s the first time such an object, known as a long-period transient (LPT), has been detected in X-rays.

The team behind this discovery used the ASKAP radio telescope to detect the radio signals, which they then correlated with X-ray pulses detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This coincidence of observations allowed them to confirm that ASKAP J1832-0911 is indeed emitting both types of radiation.

LPTs are a relatively recent discovery, with only ten such objects found so far. Scientists still have no clear explanation for what causes these signals or why they ‘switch on’ and ‘switch off’ at such long, regular intervals. Some theories suggest that ASKAP J1832-0911 could be a magnetar or a pair of stars in a binary system with one star being a highly magnetised white dwarf.

However, even these theories don’t fully explain what’s being observed. This discovery might indicate the existence of new types of physics or models of stellar evolution. By detecting objects like ASKAP J1832-0911 using both X-rays and radio waves, scientists hope to find more examples and gain a better understanding of their nature.

The discovery of ASKAP J1832-0911 is not only significant for the scientific community but also showcases an incredible teamwork effort between researchers across the globe. The study’s findings have been published in Nature, and the object itself is located in our Milky Way galaxy about 15,000 light-years from Earth.

The crater’s secrets are finally within reach. A team of planetary scientists has made a groundbreaking discovery that allows us to peer beneath the dusty surface of Mars and other planetary bodies. By studying the layers of rock blasted out of craters by impacts, researchers can now infer the properties of materials hidden beneath the impact point.

Historically, scientists have relied on the size and shape of impact craters to understand what lies beneath. However, this new study reveals that the ejecta blanket – a ring of material thrown out during an impact – is sensitive to subsurface properties as well. This gives us a fresh observable on the surface to help constrain materials present underground.

The research was led by Aleksandra Sokolowska, a UKRI fellow at Imperial College London. While working as a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, she collaborated with Ingrid Daubar and Gareth Collins to develop computer simulations that capture the physics of planetary impacts. These simulations allowed Sokolowska to test various subsurface materials and layering patterns, predicting how they would affect the distance debris travels.

The results showed that different subsurface materials produce distinct ejecta patterns. To add credibility to these findings, the team analyzed two fresh impact craters on Mars, confirming that differences in ejecta radius can be measured from orbit with cameras like HiRISE onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

One of the craters was located over solid bedrock, while the other had subsurface ice. Consistent with model predictions, the crater on the icy subsurface had a much smaller ejecta blanket than the one on bedrock. These findings help confirm that differences in ejecta radius reflect known subsurface properties.

This breakthrough method could be useful for several current and upcoming spacecraft missions, including the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft arriving at Dimorphos, an asteroid hit by NASA to test deflection capabilities. Sokolowska suggests that the ejecta around this crater might hold valuable information about the asteroid’s interior.