Latest Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics Stories

For the first time, Lawrence Livermore researchers and international collaborators have peered into the makeup of complex airborne particulate matter so small that it can be transported into human lungs -- usually without a trace. The structure of micron-size particulate matter is important in a wide range of fields from toxicology to climate science (tobacco smoke and oil smoke particles are typically one micron in size). However, its properties are surprisingly difficult to measure in...

Scientists discover how ice jets on the moon feed Saturn's E ring and cause some slight snowfall to bootCassini's nose dives through Saturn's E ring have yielded insights on the give and take of ice particles between Enceladus and the ring. Some of the moon's jets are successful in shooting ice grains far enough to become part of the E ring. But even the ice grains that make it to the E ring tend to be recaptured by Enceladus within a few orbits as the moon moves around Saturn. This was...

Researchers in Europe released a new report on Wednesday that suggests the geyser seen on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus could be fed by a salty ocean underneath the surface.Writing in the journal Nature, scientists said that the discovery could support theories of the existence of extraterrestrial life.Scientists first discovered Enceladus' habit of spewing a mix of water vapor, gas and tiny grains of ice into space in 2005 with observations from the Cassini spacecraft.Enceladus is...

Scientists believe that ice volcanoes observed on Saturn's moon Enceladus may stem from a sea beneath its surface, which could support theories for the existence of extraplanetary life.Since the Cassini spacecraft arrived on Saturn four years ago, scientists have been trying to determine what is causing Enceladus' volcanoes to spew ice."What we have seen over the course of our travels has informed, moved and amazed us," planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, who heads Cassini's imaging...