A team of astrophysicists at the University of the Basque Country has detected, for the first time ever, changes in Saturn’s winds. The research has merited front page coverage in the scientific magazine, Nature.

The winds blowing around Saturn and Jupiter are special. Unlike those of the rest of the planets, these move in an eastwards direction and are ten times stronger than the earth’s winds. On our planet it is solar radiation which governs the winds, but on the distant planets it is bel

First-Ever Census of Variable Mira-Type Stars in Galaxy Outside the Local Group
An international team led by ESO astronomer Marina Rejkuba has discovered more than 1000 luminous red variable stars in the nearby elliptical galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128).

Brightness changes and periods of these stars were measured accurately and reveal that they are mostly cool long-period variable stars of the so-called ‘Mira-type’. The observed variability is caused by stellar pulsation.

This is

A University of Ulster researcher has come up with a new method, using Artificial Intelligence techniques, to forecast wind energy more accurately than ever before.
Predicting how fast the wind will blow has always been a major problem for wind farm operators. It is essential that they have some idea of how much electricity they will be able to produce each day based on the strength of the wind.

Energy forecasting has become a critical factor in the efficient generation of power from w

As any viewer of Crimewatch will know, E-fit pictures don’t always give a true likeness of a human face. However, all this is set to change thanks to researchers at the University of Kent who are working with their counterparts at the Open University to create a software system that will generate far more life-like, and therefore far more easily identifiable, faces.

Using a combination of computer science and forensic psychology, the team are developing a revolutionary system that will enabl

The amount of gaseous mercury in the atmosphere has dropped sharply from its peak in the 1980s and has remained relatively constant since the mid 1990s. This welcome decline may result from control measures undertaken in western Europe and North America, but scientists who have just concluded a study of atmospheric mercury say they cannot reconcile the amounts actually found with current understanding of natural and manmade sources of the element. An international group of scientists, led by

Aircraft wheel and brake assemblies can become very hot during braking as the plane’s kinetic energy is transformed into heat by brake pads and dissipated into the surrounding components. The wheel, the tyres, the piston that clamps the pads into place and the metal housing of the brakes are all subject to sudden and intense heat. Now a new aluminium alloy eases manufacturers’’ fears of failure by handling the heat better.

The new alloy therefore forms a key component of a car