
Rochester leads effort to understand matter at atom-crushing pressures
The University is the host institution for a NSF-funded national collaboration to explore ‘revolutionary states of matter.’

A new way to determine the age of stars?
Rochester researchers have developed a new conceptual framework for understanding how stars similar to our Sun evolve. Their framework helps explain how the rotation of stars, their emission of x-rays, and the intensity of their stellar winds vary with time. According to Eric Blackman, professor of physics and astronomy, the work could also “ultimately help to determine the age of stars more precisely than is currently possible.”

First measurements taken of South Africa’s iron age magnetic field history
Combined with the current weakening of Earth’s magnetic field, the data suggest that the region of Earth’s core beneath southern Africa may play a special role in reversals of the planet’s magnetic poles.

Experiment on earth demonstrates effect observed in space
Streaming jets of high-speed matter produce some of the most stunning objects seen in space. an experiment by French and American researchers using extremely high-powered lasers offers experimental verification of one proposed mechanism for creating them.

How stellar death can lead to twin celestial jets
How do spherical stars evolve to produce highly aspherical planetary nebulae? A Rochester professor and his undergraduate student have a new theory as to why.