Scientists discover hidden geometry that bends electrons like gravity - Science Daily

The aurora is among nature's most visually striking phenomena. It occurs when charged particles from the sun are funneled by Earth's magnetic field into the upper atmosphere, where they collide with atoms and molecules and produce distinctly colored curtainlike patterns of light. Despite a good understanding of the physics driving the aurora, some small-scale features have proven more challenging to make sense of. Using high-resolution optical data and a simple mathematical model, researchers N. Brindley and D. Whiter showed certain fine auroral structures could result from electrons "bouncing" off low-frequency plasma waves (Alfvén waves) above the ionosphere. Their research is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.

No matter how free we are, human existence will always be confined. We cannot escape the dimensions of the classical Universe – three spatial directions and the inexorable march of time. But gravity may not be bound by the same rules that apply to flesh and stone. It may bleed into a hidden, fifth 'dark' dimension beyond the brane to which matter is bound. And if such a demesne exists, there may be objects whose gravity reaches into it, warping their geometry in ways that could give us a window into a plane our minds can barely perceive. Such a window could take the form of primordial black holes – microscopic, but incredibly dense objects thought to have formed in the extreme conditions shortly after the Big Bang. In fact, according to a new study led by physicist Luis Anchordoqui of Lehman College in the US, in a Universe with a dark dimension, all primordial black holes (PBHs) must be five-dimensional – barring some exotic, unknown new physics at low energies. They can't help themselves otherwise. You're probably already familiar with the concept of black holes – ultra-dense objects that form from the collapsed cores of massive stars after they run out of fuel and go

Gomez's Hamburger System. This artist's impression of the Gomez's Hamburger system shows the stacked layers of gas and dust as they rotate around a young star. ALMA observations reveal a direct view of its vertical structure at millimeter wavelengths, allowing astronomers to map the location of the millimeter-sized dust grains and several different gas-phase molecules, which have arranged themselves into distinct levels. Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/P. Vosteen. Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) were surprised to discover the earliest phases of giant planet formation between the dense layers of gas and dust in the "Gomez's Hamburger" system, referred to as GoHam.