Latest University of California, Santa Cruz Stories

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., Sept. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Historic and interesting sounds and sound bites from NASA space missions are available for download as ringtones or on your computer for events, errors, alarms and notifications. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The public now can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong's, "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," every time they get a phone call. A new NASA web...

  With the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and colleagues have discovered supermassive black holes growing in shockingly small galaxies, the university announced on Thursday. The findings, according to a UCSC press release, suggests that central black holes, which can be found in all massive galaxies, had formed at an earlier stage of galaxy evolution, since they are rarely observed in smaller "dwarf" galaxies. The...

  Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz have used a supercomputer to create a spiral galaxy that matches our own Milky Way galaxy. The computer simulation is part of a physics project involving galaxy formation and evolution. "Previous efforts to form a massive disk galaxy like the Milky Way had failed, because the simulated galaxies ended up with huge central bulges compared to the size of the disk," Javiera Guedes, a graduate student in astronomy and astrophysics...

NASA has exercised Option Period #2 on the Intelligent Systems Research and Development Support (ISRDS) contract. Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc., (SGT, Inc.), Greenbelt, Md., received the option award to continue to support intelligent systems research at the agency's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. The option period has a maximum value of $60 million. This is a cost plus fixed fee contract. The exercised option will continue performance from Sept. 29, 2011, to Sept. 28,...

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., Aug. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has exercised Option Period #2 on the Intelligent Systems Research and Development Support (ISRDS) contract. Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc., (SGT, Inc.), Greenbelt, Md., received the option award to continue to support intelligent systems research at the agency's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The option period has a maximum value of $60...

The TEDxNASA@SiliconValley event, which will feature presentations on "extreme green ideas," will be streamed live online on Wednesday, Aug. 17, from 2:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. PDT.NASA's four research centers -- Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif; Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; Langley Research Center and the National Institute of Aerospace, both in Hampton Va. -- are co-hosting the event. It is modeled after the TED...

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., Aug. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The TEDxNASA@SiliconValley event, which will feature presentations on "extreme green ideas," will be streamed live online on Wednesday, Aug. 17, from 2:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. PDT. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) NASA's four research centers -- Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.; Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; Langley Research Center and...

Astronomers say that the Earth may have once had two moons, until the current moon devoured the other. A new study by planetary scientists at the University of California - Santa Cruz said that the far side of the moon, known as the lunar farside highlands, may be the remains of a collision with a similar companion moon. The near side of the moon is low and flat, while the far side is mountainous with a thicker crust.  The new study suggests that Earth's once second moon eventually fell...

New theory of 'Extremely Correlated Fermi Liquids' may explain anomalous photoemission spectra of high-temperature superconductorsAlthough high-temperature superconductors are widely used in technologies such as MRI machines, explaining the unusual properties of these materials remains an unsolved problem for theoretical physicists. Major progress in this important field has now been reported by physicists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in a pair of papers published back-to-back...

NASA is inviting reporters and the public to join agency leaders, technologists and innovators from a variety of fields at TEDxNASA@SiliconValley 2011 on Aug. 17. The event will be held at the Marriott Marquis hotel in San Francisco from 2:30 to 8:30 p.m. PDT.The event is in the spirit of the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences that bring together leading thinkers to create a dialogue about important global challenges.Speakers include an aeronautics researcher developing a...