Gizmorama - August 13, 2014

Good Morning,

Just when you thought that space couldn't get any scarier... apparently, astronomers say they've found a zombie star. That's just great!

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Astronomers say they've found a zombie star --*
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Most supernovas, the explosive death of a star, spray gas and dust out into space, scattering particles in all directions. In the wake of these explosions, nothing is left behind but cold, empty space. But some aren't powerful enough to kill off the entire star, leaving behind a zombie -- or so the thinking goes.

Scientists have observed a small number of supernovas that are slightly less powerful. They call these supernovas Type Iax, as opposed to the more common Type Ia. Astronomers think Type Iax supernovas allow a faint remnant of the exploded white dwarf to remain.

Recently, scientists witnessed a smaller-than-usual supernova using images from the Hubble telescope and telescopes at the Lick Observatory.

After learning about the small supernova in galaxy NGC 1309, which is roughly 108 million light-years away, astronomers were able to go back and look at images of the star leading up to the explosion -- an attempt to understand what causes the type of supernovas that might leave behind a zombie star.

"We were tremendously excited to see a progenitor system for this supernova," Curtis McCully, an astronomer at Rutgers, told Space.com. "No one had ever seen a progenitor system for a white-dwarf supernova in pre-explosion data, so our expectation was that we wouldn't see anything. Nature surprised us, which is always exciting."

McCully is lead author of a study of the supernova and potential zombie star, which was recently published in Nature.

Their observations showed a bright companion star interacting with the white dwarf may have ignited this Type Iax supernova.

"Our results show that at least some white-dwarf supernova explosions arise from a white dwarf that accretes material from a luminous companion star," explained Saurabh Jha, another Rutgers astronomer.

To confirm they've actually witnessed a distinct type of supernova, astronomers will have to wait until 2015, when Hubble will capture imagery of the explosion site once the light from the supernova has faded.

"We also hope to see the remnant zombie star," Jha said.


*-- Origami robots self-assemble and crawl --*
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (UPI) - No batteries necessary -- or humans! New robots created by a team of researchers from Harvard and MIT can assemble and begin crawling all on their own.

"We demonstrated this process by building a robot that folds itself and walks away without human assistance," said Sam Felton, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the lead author of the study, featured in the latest edition of the journal Science.

The robots have been dubbed Origami robots because their self-assemblage is more like self-folding. The robot starts out flat, but embedded in the thin sheet are creases made of a polymer that bend on their own when heated.

"The exciting thing here is that you create this device that has computation embedded in the flat, printed version," explained Daniela Rus, an MIT researcher who helped create the Origami robots. "And when these devices lift up from the ground into the third dimension, they do it in a thoughtful way."

Rus and her colleagues previously built self-assembling modular cube robots called M-Blocks as well as a robot that sprang to life when it was baked in the oven. The latest research builds on that easy-bake robot, only this time the heat is delivered via electric circuits.

"That's exciting from a geometry standpoint," MIT researcher Erik Demaine said, "because it lets us fold more things. Because we can do the sequencing, we have a lot more control. And it lets us make active folding structures. Instead of just self-assembly, you can then make it walk."

Though the robot starts flat, it is actually five separate layers of materials: a middle copper layer, two structural layers of paper, and then two outer layers made of shape-memory polymer (the part that folds when heated).

The idea is to be able to create something complex through simple methods and using lightweight, easily transportable material. Researchers say, with the Origami robot, they've done just that.

"These robots are inexpensive and [their] layered composites can be built faster than equivalent 3-D printed structures," Felton said.

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