Cosmic Rays Confirmed To Originate From Supernovas In Two Separate Announcements

When stars explode, the supernovas send off shock waves, which accelerate protons to cosmic-ray energies through a process known as Fermi acceleration. In this mechanism, named for Enrico Fermi who first hypothesized it, the protons gain energy from collisions with turbulent magnetic fields on either side of a shock wave. Though many details of Fermi acceleration remain unknown, new results from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope provide overwhelming evidence that the mechanism is indeed responsible for producing many of the galaxy's cosmic ray protons.
Credit: Greg Stewart, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

In two separate announcements (and two separate studies), the European Southern Observatory and the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at the Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory confirmed that cosmic rays come from exploding stars or supernovas.

Cosmic rays are high energy particles from space. These particles travel at close to the speed of light and originate from outside the Solar System. They have very high energy that they can penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and even through solid rock at the surface. Prior to the announcement, its origin and how it was formed has been a mystery.

The ESO together with the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg Germany, used the VIMOS Equipment on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to study SN 1006, a supernova first observed in the year 1006, to gather data and base their discovery of the cosmic ray mystery. Their study, An Integral View of Fast Shocks around Supernova 1006, is appearing in the 14 February 2013 issue of the journal Science.

The Kavli Institute, NASA, and Stanford University used the Large Area Telescope (LAT), which sits onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to base their findings. They used the telescope to study two supernova remnants, IC 433 and W44. Both are located within the Milky Way with IC 443 5,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation Gemini, and W44 is located about 10,000 light years away, in the constellation of Aquila. Their study, Detection of the Characteristic Pion-Decay Signature in Supernova Remnants, will be appearing in the February 15 2013 issue of the journal Science.

Solar Panel Decals Which Can Be Peeled And Applied To Any Surface

Scientists have developed a solar panel that can be applied to anything from cellphones to business cards. These panels resemble decals that can be peeled and applied on to surfaces like helmets, cellphones, roofs, windows, etc.

Solar panels or solar cells convert light energy, particularly light from the Sun, into electrical energy. Solar energy has been the biggest growing trend in renewable energy. In 2011, investments in alternative and renewable energy reached a high of US$ 257 Billion.

Since sunlight is unlimited and constant, it is a viable source for endless amounts of energy. Solar panels gather energy by taking advantage of how electrons behave when energy is added to it.

At the moment, solar cells are the most affordable and available of the technologies around. Solar panels that generate electricity and provide heating are available commercially. Every year, the solar panel technology increases its efficiency and lowers cost making it more and more viable for use in everyday homes.

Recent developments have ranged from solar paint, solar cells that can be painted on to surfaces, to solar cell fibers that can be woven into cloth.

Using Graphene And Nanotechnology To Build A Faster Edison Battery

An electric battery is a device (called a cell) that converts stored chemical energy into electrical energy. It was invented by Italian physicist, Alessandro Volta in 1800.

There are two kinds of batteries: primary batteries and secondary batteries.

Primary batteries are batteries that are designed to be used once until the stored charge is all used up. Once the battery is empty, it is discarded. Primary batteries are also known as disposable batteries.

Secondary batteries are also called rechargeable batteries. As the name implies, these are batteries that can be recharged multiple times when needed.

The Edison battery is a secondary battery that is composed of a nickel-oxide-hydroxide cathode and an iron anode. It is referred to as a nickel-iron(NiFe) battery. The active materials of the Edison battery are held in nickel-plated steel tube.

Energy in the battery is used when oxygen travels from the anode through the electrolyte, to the cathode. When they travel in the opposite direction, the battery is recharged. This type of cell is sometimes called an oxygenlift cell. In a charged cell the active material of the positive plates is superoxidized, and that of the negative plates is in a spongy or deoxidized state

These are known to be very durable batteries that could last 50 years of use. But because of its low energy output, poor charge retention and high cost of production, other kinds of rechargeable batteries have replaced the use of nickel-iron batteries.

Edison batteries are ecological and environmentally safe since it does not contain lead or cadmium that most other battery cells contain.

Stanford scientists spark new interest in the century-old Edison battery

Stanford University scientists have breathed new life into the nickel-iron battery, a rechargeable technology developed by Thomas Edison more than a century ago.

Designed in the early 1900s to power electric vehicles, the Edison battery largely went out of favor in the mid-1970s. Today only a handful of companies manufacture nickel-iron batteries, primarily to store surplus electricity from solar panels and wind turbines.

"The Edison battery is very durable, but it has a number of drawbacks," said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. "A typical battery can take hours to charge, and the rate of discharge is also very slow."

Now, Dai and his Stanford colleagues have dramatically improved the performance of this century-old technology. The Stanford team has created an ultrafast nickel-iron battery that can be fully charged in about 2 minutes and discharged in less than 30 seconds. The results are published in the June 26 issue of the journal Nature Communications.