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X-rays are used to study the atomic and microstructure properties of matter. Such studies are conducted with special accelerator complexes called synchrotrons. A synchrotron source generates powerful electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength equal to fractions of a nanometer. Some X-rays are reflected from the atomic planes of a crystal and some go through the crystal plane that plays the role of a beam-splitter (or the so-called semitransparent mirror). If the radiation passes through monochromators-optical devices that consist of two or more ideal crystals - its optimal exit wavelength can be regulated. The parameters of electromagnetic radiation depend on the material that the optical element is made of. By improving the properties of optical devices one can increase the quality and efficiency of X-ray research methods and use modern scientific unique megascience facility to their full potential.
DESY, Science Communication Lab
In a distant galaxy, a supermassive black hole ripped a star to bits, sending out an enormous blast of energy. For the first time, researchers have observed a neutrino that probably came from this type of cataclysm, which is called a tidal disruption event or TDE.
Neutrinos are tiny particles that rarely interact with other matter, making them extremely difficult to detect. On 1 October 2019, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica spotted a neutrino with relatively high energy that appeared to come from beyond our galaxy.
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Meanwhile, Robert Stein at the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) and his colleagues were using the Zwicky Transient Facility in California to watch a star that had got too close to a supermassive black hole. The extreme gravity of the black hole shredded the star, creating a TDE that lasted for months. The TDE and the IceCube neutrino came from the same location in the sky, indicating that the ripped-up sta
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IMAGE: The Zwicky Transient Facility captured this snapshot of tidal disruption event AT2019dsg, circled, on Oct. 19, 2019. view more
Credit: ZTF/Caltech Optical Observatories
For only the second time, astronomers have linked an elusive particle called a high-energy neutrino to an object outside our galaxy. Using ground- and space-based facilities, including NASA s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, they traced the neutrino to a black hole tearing apart a star, a rare cataclysmic occurrence called a tidal disruption event. Astrophysicists have long theorized that tidal disruptions could produce high-energy neutrinos, but this is the first time we ve actually been able to connect them with observational evidence, said Robert Stein, a doctoral student at the German Electron-Synchrotron (DESY) research center in Zeuthen, Germany, and Humboldt University in Berlin. But it seems like this particular event, called AT2019dsg, didn t generate the neutrino when or how