This page is an archive. Do not edit the contents of this page. Please direct any additional comments to the current main page. |
This is an archive of entries that appeared on
Portal:Physics's
Selected Picture section in 2006.
Particles erupt from the collision point of two relativistic (100 GeV) gold ions in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Electrically charged particles are discernable by the curves they trace in the detector's magnetic field.
Z-pinch at Sandia National Laboratories Z machine. Due to the extremely high voltage, the power feeding equipment is submerged in concentric chambers of 540,000 gallons of transformer oil and 600,000 gallons of deionized water, which act as insulators. Nevertheless, impressive lightning, referred to as "arcs and sparks", can be seen over the power feeds.
Surface tension around a floating daisy. The surface tension prevents the water from spilling into the daisy. Photo credit:
William M. Connolley. |
The prolonged path length of the sunlight in earth's atmosphere increases scattering of blue (short) wavelengths, yielding an orange tint in the remaining light as the sun sets. Photo credit:
Fir0002. |
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The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, or HUDF, is an image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, composited from Hubble Space Telescope data accumulated over a period from September 3, 2003 through January 16, 2004. It is the deepest image of the universe ever taken in visible light, looking back in time more than 13 billion years. The HUDF contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies.
Icicles form when the temperature is below zero degrees Celsius and when there is a supply of water. Typically, temperature is just a few degrees below zero and water is melted by the sun, for instance on the roof of a house. Water, under its weight, flows down and freezes, thus increasing icicle's size. If temperature rises, water can no longer freeze, and the icicle can start melting and diminish in size. If weight of an icicle grows too large, the icicle breaks and collapses onto the ground.