Magnetic Winds Drive Supermassive Black Hole Growth in Nearby Galaxy

By A. MORRIS, NORTHWESTERN U., JULY 28, 2024

https://scitechdaily.com/magnetic-winds-drive-supermassive-black-hole-growth-in-nearby-galaxy/

A spiraling wind helps the supermassive black hole in galaxy ESO320-G030 to grow, assisted by magnetic fields. In this illustration, the core of the galaxy is dominated by a rotating wind of dense gas leading outwards from the (hidden) supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s very center. The motions of the gas, traced by light from molecules of hydrogen cyanide have been measured with the ALMA telescope. 

Credit: M.D. Gorski/Aaron Geller/Northwestern University/CIERA

Newly uncovered process is similar to how stars and planets are born.

A Northwestern University study using ALMA Observatory data revealed that rotating magnetic winds accelerate the growth of supermassive black holes, akin to star formation processes. This discovery in galaxy ESO320-G030 provides new insights into the growth mechanisms of massive cosmic entities.

By studying nearby galaxy ESO320-G030, a Northwestern University-led team of international astronomers has discovered extremely powerful rotating, magnetic winds help the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole grow.

The process is strikingly similar to the birth of new stars and planets, which are fed by swirls of gas and dust. The new discovery provides a previously unknown clue to solving the long-standing mystery of how supermassive black holes grow to weigh as much as millions or billions of stars.

“It is well-established that stars in the first stages of their evolution grow with the help of rotating winds — accelerated by magnetic fields, just like the wind in this galaxy,” said Northwestern’s Mark Gorski, who led the study. “Our observations show that supermassive black holes and tiny stars can grow by similar processes, but on very different scales.”

The study was published this spring in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

An expert on the evolution of galaxies, Gorski is a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern’s Center for Interdisciplinary and Exploratory Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). When the research began, Gorski was a postdoctoral researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

Colored lines with arrows show the motions of the gas traced by light from molecules of hydrogen cyanide and seen with the ALMA telescope (blue indicated motion towards us and red away). 

Credit: M.D. Gorski/Aaron Geller/Northwestern University/CIERA

Spying on the Milky Way’s Neighbor

Most galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have a supermassive black hole at their centers. How these mind-bogglingly massive objects grow into super sizes has remained an unsolved mystery.

In the search for clues, Gorski and his collaborators looked to relatively nearby galaxy ESO320-G030, located just 120 million light years from Earth. ESO320-G030 is a highly active galaxy, forming stars 10 times faster than the Milky Way. The astronomers examined the galaxy using telescopes at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in Chile.

“Since this galaxy is very luminous in the infrared, telescopes can resolve striking details in its center,” said study co-author Susanne Aalto, a professor of radio astronomy at Chalmers University of Technology. “We wanted to measure light from molecules carried by winds from the galaxy’s core, hoping to trace how the winds are launched by a growing — or soon to be growing — supermassive black hole. By using ALMA, we were able to study light from behind thick layers of dust and gas.”

‘Clear Evidence of a Rotating Wind’

To examine the dense gas that closely hovers around ESO320-G030’s central black hole, the scientists studied light from hydrogen cyanide molecules. Using Doppler effect technology, the researchers imaged fine details and trace movements in the gas, which revealed patterns suggesting the presence of a magnetized, rotating wind.

While other winds and jets typically push material away from a galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, the newly discovered wind adds another process, which instead feeds the black hole and helps it grow.

The researchers liken the matter traveling around a black hole to water circling a drain. As matter approaches the black hole, it first collects in a chaotic, spinning disk. There, magnetic fields develop and grow stronger. The magnetic fields help lift matter away from the galaxy, creating a vortex of wind. As matter is lost to the wind, the spinning disk slows, which turns the slow trickle of matter into a stream — meaning that matter flows more easily into the black hole.

“We can see how the winds form a spiraling structure, billowing out from the galaxy’s center,” Aalto said. “When we measured the rotation, mass, and velocity of the material flowing outwards, we were surprised to find that we could rule out many explanations for the power of the wind, including star formation for example. Instead, the flow outwards may be powered by the inflow of gas and seems to be held together by magnetic fields.”
Future Directions in Astronomical Research

Next, the researchers plan to study the centers of other galaxies, searching for hidden spiraling outflows.

“In our observations, we see clear evidence of a rotating wind that helps regulate the growth of the galaxy’s central black hole,” Gorski said. “Now that we know what to look for, the next step is to find out how common a phenomenon this is. And if this is a stage that all galaxies with supermassive black holes go through, what happens to them next? Far from all questions about this process are answered.”

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New car smell reaches toxic levels on hot days, researchers find

JULY 23, 2024, by PNAS Nexus

https://phys.org/news/2024-07-car-toxic-hot-days.html

Measured material surface temperature, in-cabin air temperature, in-cabin relative humidity, and out-cabin air temperature during the field tests. MST, material surface temperature; IAT, in-cabin air temperature; IRH, in-cabin relative humidity; OAT, out-cabin air temperature. 

Credit: PNAS Nexus (2024). 

A study of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by new cars on hot summer days finds concerning levels of formaldehyde and other aldehydes.

Consumers are familiar with—and even drawn to—the "new car smell" produced as VOCs from carpets, upholstery, and other interior materials in newly manufactured passenger vehicles. These VOCs can cause a range of health effects, including headaches, inflammation of the eyes, nose and throat, fatigue, irritability, dry cough, lung disease, and disorientation.

Jianyin Xiong, Shaodan Huang, and colleagues sought to capture the levels of VOCs in the passenger cabins of new cars on hot summer days given that climate change is increasing summer temperatures globally. Data from several hot summer days, with outside air temperatures of 25.3 °C– 46.1 °C (77.5 °F–115 °F), showed high levels of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and hexaldehyde.

The study is published in the journal PNAS Nexus.

The Chinese national concentration limit for formaldehyde in passenger vehicle cabins is 100 μg/m3. The authors found levels in the experimental car sometimes exceeding 200 μg/m3. The national limit for acetaldehyde is 50 μg/m3. Levels in the experimental car could reach 140 μg/m3.

A machine learning model of the data identified material surface temperature as the most important influence on in-cabin VOC concentrations. The authors produced a deep learning model to predict the concentrations of 12 typical VOCs in passenger vehicle cabins.

According to the authors, the model could be used for in-cabin concentration prediction and exposure assessment, which could be integrated with the control system of intelligent cars.

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NASA cans lunar rover after spending $450 million building it

JULY 18, 2024,

  https://phys.org/news/2024-07-nasa-cancels-moon-rover-mission.html

NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) assembled inside the cleanroom at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

NASA announced Wednesday that cost overruns and delays have forced it to cancel a planned moon rover it already spent $450 million to develop, marking a significant setback for the agency's lunar exploration program.

The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) was intended to explore the lunar south pole in search of ice and other resources, paving the way for planned crewed missions by American astronauts under the Artemis program later this decade.

"Decisions like this are never easy," said Nicky Fox, NASA's associate administrator of the science mission directorate.

"But in this case, the projected remaining expenses for VIPER would have resulted in having to either cancel or disrupt many other missions."

The mobile robot, which NASA had hoped would venture into the moon's permanently shadowed craters, where ice reserves have endured for billions of years, was originally planned to launch in 2023.

But in 2022, the US space agency requested a launch delay to late 2024 to allow more time for preflight testing of the Griffin lander vehicle, supplied by the Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic under the new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, a public-private venture.

The launch readiness date of the rover then slipped back further to September 2025, while the cost was projected to rise to $609.6 million.

Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's science mission directorate, added that Congress had been notified of the agency's decision.

The rover was "completely assembled" but had not yet undergone certain tests that would certify it could withstand launch, flying through the vacuum of space, and experiencing extreme temperatures, said Kearns.

But it was still possible the rover could be re-used in future missions, either in whole or in component parts, if NASA could reach a suitable agreement with industry partners who might be interested, he said.

Astrobotic, which in January launched the Peregrine lander that failed to reach the moon, is still on track to launch in late 2025, but it will now carry a "mass simulator" or heavy weight in place of a NASA rover.

Kearns insisted that despite the setback, the United States was not falling behind in its space rivalry with China, which in June succeeded in returning the first ever samples from the far side of the moon.

"We congratulate China's national space agency for the seemingly very successful Chang'e-6 mission," he said.

But he added that, by partnering with the space industry under the CLPS program, "we think that we're going to have a more robust science program and a more robust lunar landing capability in the United States."

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Students Revolutionize Army Vehicle Camouflage With Ingenious Invention

By U. OF FLORIDA, JULY 16, 2024

https://scitechdaily.com/students-revolutionize-army-vehicle-camouflage-with-ingenious-invention/

University of Florida senior engineering students, collaborating with peers and the U.S. Army, developed a vehicle camouflage deployment device that enhances battlefield safety and efficiency. 

The project, which spanned three semesters and involved input from soldiers, resulted in a device that significantly speeds up the camouflage process, uses existing materials more effectively, and adapts to various ground conditions.

University of Florida and Georgia Tech engineering students developed a vehicle camouflage system for the U.S. Army, enhancing camouflage speed and safety, and demonstrating the potential of academic-military collaboration to solve practical defense challenges.

What began as a class project for senior engineering students at the University of Florida evolved into a practical solution for soldiers, providing them with a quicker, easier, and safer method to camouflage their vehicles on the battlefield.

Students from Matthew J. Traum’s mechanical engineering capstone course received real-world training last year when they partnered with peers at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Civil-Military Innovation Institute, or CMI2, to design and produce a vehicle camouflage deployer for the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

“This was a successful collaboration that tackled a problem faced by soldiers in the field — and much more rapidly than the Army’s conventional process,” said Traum, Ph.D., an instructional associate professor in the UF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Traum said a prototype of the UF-designed vehicle camouflage deployment device was delivered to Fort Stewart at the end of the fall 2023 semester and replicated in-house by the Army. The device is currently being field tested.

Speedy Innovation and Army Engagement

“Our students designed and built the device in one calendar year, which is remarkable speed compared to conventional Army innovation timelines, which can take years,” Traum said. “The system surpassed the Army’s stated targets for mounting, deploying, and retracting the camouflage while keeping the soldiers safer.”

Traum learned through a colleague, Randy Emert at CMI2, about the potential for collaboration with the nonprofit organization through the Army’s Pathfinder program, managed by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory and supported by CMI2 to bridge the gaps in defense innovation by fostering relationships between service members and researchers. Traum was invited to the Army base to listen as soldiers presented their wish lists of projects.

“The Army’s tactical innovation labs play a key role in addressing in-field challenges faced by frontline soldiers and securing the necessary resources and technologies to resolve them,” said Emert, the CMI2 lab manager for the Marne Innovation Center at Fort Stewart. “We source problems directly from service members and engage engineering students in a short cycle of product development.”

Based on what Traum heard that day, the need to camouflage combat vehicles faster was a good fit for his capstone students.

“Every time we park a combat vehicle on a battlefield, we need to cover it with camouflage material to hide it from the enemy,” said Capt. Chris Aliperti, co-founder of the Marne Innovation Center. “The process is not easy, and the soldiers were asking for something that would save them time and keep them safe.”

The camouflage deployment problem was broad enough for senior engineering students to work on, and one that could potentially be designed and built within a year, said Aliperti, who recently was promoted and is now a mechanical engineering instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“This was something soldiers on the frontline were asking for, and our team didn’t have the bandwidth to address it,” Aliperti said. “The collaboration with the University of Florida provided invaluable hands-on experience to their students, and the end result contributes directly to enhancing the capabilities of our service members.”

The capstone course is a UF mechanical engineering student’s last class before they graduate and is viewed as a culmination of what students have learned throughout the curriculum, Traum said. The Army project spanned three semesters with about 80 students enrolled each semester.

Their approach evolved over the course of the year, and soldiers offered the students ideas and input weekly.

“It was interesting to see how the design started out as something most people would come up with, but after students met with the soldiers, took their feedback and ran analyses, they ended up with something that looked very different,” Aliperti said. “And it solves the problem much better than the original design.”

Innovative Solutions and Future Impact

The students’ innovation addresses a longstanding pain point for soldiers. Traditionally, the poles used to hold up the camouflage material are staked into the ground, posing difficulties in muddy terrain or on urban concrete where securing them is impractical. Recognizing this limitation, the students devised a solution that uses mounting plates that are secured into place by the weight of the vehicle.

“That novel feature excited the Army,” Traum said. “By eliminating dependence on ground conditions, the mounting plates offer a versatile solution.”

The new device also masks the type of vehicle hidden beneath the camouflage netting. By strategically deploying poles to disrupt the shape of the netting, the device ensures that the vehicle’s silhouette varies each time it is deployed, thwarting the enemy’s ability to identify the concealed asset.

“The students were smart enough to realize in order to make a new device feasible, they should build around the equipment already in use,” Aliperti said. “Their device allows us to use the same poles and the same net but much more efficiently.”

The success of projects like the vehicle camouflage deployment device that was borne out of the Army’s tactical innovation lab set a precedent for future endeavors between academia and the military.

“Bringing ideas of this scope and scale to students to chew on allows young engineers to apply the fundamental lessons they learn in a book to real-life problems,” Aliperti said. “And if we strike gold on a great design like this one from the University of Florida, we’ve made a monumental impact across the entire Army.”

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From stars to oceans: The impact of penetrative turbulence on climate science

JULY 3, 2024, by Chinese Academy of Sciences

https://phys.org/news/2024-07-stars-oceans-impact-penetrative-turbulence.html

A graphical representation delineating the mechanics of penetrative convection, accompanied by the major contributing elements. Various factors and their impacts are symbolized by circles with a representative example, while arrows and descriptives indicate how each one influences penetrative convection. 

Credit: Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-024-4014-0

Turbulence is an area of fluid dynamics that has been known about and researched for over a century. Most of us are broadly aware of it as a concept from our travels in the air, wherein it can at best be an inconvenience but at worst a frightening and dangerous experience.

Indeed, this was starkly demonstrated recently when, in May 2024, a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore encountered severe turbulence that was fatal for one passenger and left many others injured.

Perhaps less familiar to people is the specific phenomenon of penetrative turbulence, or penetrative convection, which is the subject of a recent review article written by Professor Zijing Ding and his team from the School of Energy Science and Engineering at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Penetrative turbulence occurs when a fluid that has been heated in an unstable manner penetrates another layer of fluid that has been stratified stably. It is a phenomenon often observed in large-scale natural and engineering environments, and is especially important in the earth and planetary sciences, as highlighted.

For example, penetrative turbulence is thought to play an important role in the mass–momentum transport in the tachocline (the transition region of stars between the radiative interior and the differentially rotating outer convective zone); and, here on Earth, it is also important for underwater oceanic life in winter. It influences the distribution of phytoplankton and other marine organisms, and can thus serve as an indicator of ecosystem health and contribute to the carbon cycle within these water bodies.

In our atmosphere, penetrative turbulence is central to the motions of key circulation systems, and thus its successful incorporation into prediction models ultimately impinges on our ability to forecast the weather. Of course, this takes on added importance in the current context of climate change and the effects it is having in the form of extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods.

"Our paper examines past theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies on penetrative turbulence, along with field studies that have provided insights into turbulence modeling," explains Professor Ding.

"We look at the physical factors that initiate penetrative convection, state-of-the-art methods being applied to better understand its transport mechanisms and statistical properties, and discuss some perspectives emerging from the knowledge we have gained in terms of implications and practical applications in various scientific fields."

A central theme of the review is the derivation of scaling laws embedded within large-scale penetrative turbulence. The ability to do so has, for example, enhanced our comprehension of heat distribution dynamics in the oceans, which, when integrated with other dynamic oceanographic factors such as wind-driven currents and thermohaline circulation, can help elucidate the influences of oceanic processes and glacial melt on Earth's climate.

In addition, the exploration of penetrative convection extends beyond natural systems to technical applications in engineering, such as the design of heat exchangers and the optimization of geothermal energy systems.

"However, practical applications often expose the limitations of our theoretical models," adds Professor Ding, "and this is perhaps most notably the case in the atmospheric sciences."

The frequency of extreme weather events is on the rise due to global warming, and scientists have been aware of penetrative convection as a contributing factor to this trend. By integrating more precise representations of penetrative convection into climate models, it should become possible to generate more reliable predictions of long-term climate patterns.

"Ultimately, in the atmospheric sciences, our goal is clear," concludes Professor Ding. "We need a more realistic model of atmospheric convection to facilitate better predictions of both weather and climate. This requires us to successfully incorporate such influences as boundary conditions, Earth's rotation, and solar radiation, to name but a few."

Advancements in our understanding of penetrative turbulence are central to these aims, and this timely review by Professor Ding and his colleagues provides a valuable point of reference for scientists to continue their studies in this important field.

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Defense News: Poland Bolsters Defense with Dozens of Rosomak IFVs Equipped with Israeli Spike ATGMs

 

Poland Bolsters Defense with Dozens of Rosomak IFVs Equipped with Israeli Spike ATGMs

This is the second contract under the framework agreement that provides 341 Rosomak IFVs with ZSSW-30 remote-controlled weapon stations

By Eyal Boguslavsky, Israel Defense, 10/07/2024 

https://www.israeldefense.co.il/index.php/en/node/62529

Polish troops fire a Spike anti-tank missile (photo: Rafael website)

The Polish Armament Agency signed a contract valued at approximately €610 million euros for the delivery of 58 Rosomak infantry fighting vehicles equipped with Israeli Rafael's Spike LR anti-tank guided missiles earlier this month. Deliveries are scheduled between 2026 and 2027.

RAFAEL’s SPIKE™ ATGM FAMILY – The Technological Answer to Superior Mass

According to Armyrecognition.com, this agreement marks the second contract under a framework agreement with several Polish defense companies, providing 341 Rosomak IFVs equipped with ZSSW-30 remote-controlled weapon stations. The first contract, signed two years ago in July 2022, was worth approximately 400 million euros and covered the production and delivery of 70 turret systems for the 8×8 Rosomak IFVs. Deliveries of the ZSSW-30 systems to the Polish Armed Forces are ongoing and will continue as scheduled until 2027.

Earlier this year, the Polish military unveiled an advanced version of the Rosomak 8×8 multi-role vehicle, based on Patria’s AMV product family, equipped with the ZSSW-30 remote-controlled turret system featuring Israeli Rafael's Spike missile launcher.

Poland receives new Rosomak 8×8 armored vehicles

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Bacterial glitter: New findings open up possibilities for sustainable color technologies

JULY 8, 2024, by J. Seeber, Friedrich Schiller U. of Jena

https://phys.org/news/2024-07-bacterial-glitter-possibilities-sustainable-technologies.html

The colors of the marine bacterium Marinobacter alginolytica are due to ordered bacterial cells forming a photonic crystal, producing color by interference effects. 

Credit: : Colin Ingham

An international team of researchers of the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse" at the University of Jena has investigated the mechanism that makes some types of bacteria reflect light without using pigments. The researchers were interested in the genes responsible and discovered important ecological connections. Their findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The iridescent colors known from peacock feathers or butterfly wings are created by tiny structures that reflect light in a special way. Some bacterial colonies form similar glittering structures.

In collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Utrecht University, University of Cambridge, and the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, the scientists sequenced the DNA of 87 structurally colored bacteria and 30 colorless strains and identified genes that are responsible for these fascinating colonies. These findings could lead to the development of environmentally-friendly dyes and materials, a key interest of the collaborating biotechnology company Hoekmine BV.

Predictions with artificial intelligence

The researchers trained an artificial intelligence model to predict which bacteria produce iridescent colors based on their DNA.

"With this model, we analyzed over 250,000 bacterial genomes and 14,000 environmental samples from international open science repositories," says Prof. Bas E. Dutilh, Professor of Viral Ecology at the University of Jena and researcher in the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse."

"We discovered that the genes responsible for structural color are mainly found in oceans, freshwater, and special habitats such as intertidal zones and deep-sea areas. In contrast, microbes in host-associated habitats such as the human microbiome displayed very limited structural color," Prof. Dutilh continues.

The study results indicate that the colorful bacterial colony structures are not only used to reflect light. Surprisingly, these genes are also found in bacteria that live in deep oceans without sunlight. This could imply that the colors could reflect deeper processes of cell organization with important functions, such as protecting the bacteria from viruses, or efficiently colonizing floating food particles. These findings could inspire new, sustainable technologies based on these natural structures.

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Defense News: First Successful Firing Test of Israeli PULS Rocket Artillery System on Danish Soil

 

First Successful Firing Test of Israeli PULS Rocket Artillery System on Danish Soil

The Danish Army acquired two PULS batteries (8 launchers) from Elbit for $133 million, with full delivery completed. Operational by 2026

By Eyal Boguslavsky, Israel Defense, 08/07/2024 

https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/62509

                                                                      photo Elbit Systems 

The Danish Army tested its newly acquired Israeli-made PULS (Precise & Universal Launching System) rocket launcher for the first time on Danish soil last week. The Danish Ministry of Defense reported that the test firing occurred at the Oksbøl Shooting and Training Range, with the rocket launched approximately 10 kilometers into the North Sea. The test, conducted without an explosive payload, concluded as planned, marking a significant milestone in integrating the PULS system into the Danish Army. The comprehensive testing, conducted throughout the day, aimed to evaluate the system's noise levels and exhaust gas emissions.

Preparations for this event spanned several months. The first PULS systems arrived in Denmark about a year ago. Since then, soldiers from the Army and technicians from the Defense Acquisition and Logistics Organization (DALO) have collaborated closely with Elbit's technicians to integrate the PULS system into the Danish Army.

Brigadier General Henrik Lyhne, Deputy Commander of the Army, noted that the system works as intended and produces a significant sound. He mentioned that the Army had been missing such a system, which now provides increased firepower and range. He also highlighted the system's flexibility, capable of firing various types of missiles.

Elbit Systems / PULS

The Danish Army purchased two batteries of PULS launchers (eight launchers in total) from Elbit for $133 million, including rockets and missiles. All the launchers have been delivered, and they are expected to be operational by 2026.

Future EuroPULS multiple launch rocket system to reach targets 500km away with JFS M missiles

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Defense News: Report: Italy Set to Purchase $21.6 Billion in Armored Vehicles from Rheinmetall

Report: Italy Set to Purchase $21.6 Billion in Armored Vehicles from Rheinmetall

German media reports that Italy will buy 350 Lynx IFVs and over 200 Panther KF-51 tanks in the largest deal in the German company's history

By Eyal Boguslavsky, Israel Defense, 07/07/2024 

https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/62501

Photo: Rheinmetall website

Italy will buy 200 Panther tanks and 350 Lynx from Germany for 20 billion euros

In the coming days, Italy will sign a $21.6 billion contract with German company Rheinmetall to purchase 350 Lynx infantry fighting vehicles and over 200 Panther KF-51 tanks. This will be the largest transaction in the German company's history. This, according to a report in the German newspaper Handelsblatt.

The deal was further solidified when Rheinmetall and Italian defense firm Leonardo signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a 50:50 joint venture. This collaboration aims to develop and commercialize new Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) and the Lynx platform for the Armored Infantry Combat System (AICS) within the Italian Army’s ground systems programs.

Rheinmetall states that the future joint venture, headquartered in Italy, will act as the Lead System Integrator, prime contractor, and system integrator for both the Italian MBT and AICS programs. Leonardo will be responsible for developing and producing mission systems, electronics suites, and weapons integration according to the Italian client's requirements.

This deal also provides an opportunity to introduce systems made by Israeli companies to the Italian Army. Recently, Rheinmetall presented the KF-51 tank equipped with the "Iron Fist" active defense system, manufactured by Elbit Systems, at the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris.

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Electronics That Defy Venus’ Heat: How Gallium Nitride Could Revolutionize Space Exploration

By A. ZEWE, M. I. T. , JULY 1, 2024

https://scitechdaily.com/electronics-that-defy-venus-heat-how-gallium-nitride-could-revolutionize-space-exploration/

Researchers studied how temperatures up to 500 degrees Celsius would affect electronic devices made from gallium nitride, a key step in their multiyear research effort to develop electronics that can operate in extremely hot environments, like the surface of Venus. Credit: MIT News; iStock

Researchers are turning to gallium nitride for high-temperature applications such as Venus exploration, due to its ability to withstand temperatures above 500 degrees Celsius.

A recent study by MIT and other institutions has shown that this material, along with its ohmic contacts, remains structurally stable even at these high temperatures. The study involved building gallium nitride devices and testing them under high-temperature conditions, revealing promising results for future electronics in extreme environments.

Venus Exploration and Gallium Nitride

On the scorching surface of Venus, temperatures can climb to 480° Celsius /900° Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to melt lead. This makes it an inhospitable place for humans and machines alike. One reason scientists have not yet been able to send a rover to the planet’s surface is that silicon-based electronics can’t operate in such extreme temperatures for an extended period of time.

For high-temperature applications like Venus exploration, researchers have recently turned to gallium nitride, a unique material that can withstand temperatures of 500 degrees or more.

The material is already used in some terrestrial electronics, like phone chargers and cell phone towers, but scientists don’t have a good grasp of how gallium nitride devices would behave at temperatures beyond 300 degrees, which is the operational limit of conventional silicon electronics.

Research Findings on Gallium Nitride

In a new paper published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, which is part of a multiyear research effort, a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and elsewhere sought to answer key questions about the material’s properties and performance at extremely high temperatures.

They studied the impact of temperature on the ohmic contacts in a gallium nitride device. Ohmic contacts are key components that connect a semiconductor device with the outside world.

The researchers found that extreme temperatures didn’t cause significant degradation to the gallium nitride material or contacts. They were surprised to see that the contacts remained structurally intact even when held at 500 degrees Celsius for 48 hours.

Future Directions in High-Temperature Electronics

Understanding how contacts perform at extreme temperatures is an important step toward the group’s next goal of developing high-performance transistors that could operate on the surface of Venus. Such transistors could also be used on Earth in electronics for applications like extracting geothermal energy or monitoring the inside of jet engines.

“Transistors are the heart of most modern electronics, but we didn’t want to jump straight to making a gallium nitride transistor because so much could go wrong. We first wanted to make sure the material and contacts could survive, and figure out how much they change as you increase the temperature. We’ll design our transistor from these basic material building blocks,” says John Niroula, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student and lead author of the paper.

His co-authors include Qingyun Xie PhD ’24; Mengyang Yuan PhD ’22; EECS graduate students Patrick K. Darmawi-Iskandar and Pradyot Yadav; Gillian K. Micale, a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; senior author Tomás Palacios, the Clarence J. LeBel Professor of EECS, director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories, and a member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics; as well as collaborators Nitul S. Rajput of the Technology Innovation Institute of the United Arab Emirates; Siddharth Rajan of Ohio State University; Yuji Zhao of Rice University; and Nadim Chowdhury of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
Resistance and Performance Under Heat

While gallium nitride has recently attracted much attention, the material is still decades behind silicon when it comes to scientists’ understanding of how its properties change under different conditions. One such property is resistance, the flow of electrical current through a material.

A device’s overall resistance is inversely proportional to its size. But devices like semiconductors have contacts that connect them to other electronics. Contact resistance, which is caused by these electrical connections, remains fixed no matter the size of the device. Too much contact resistance can lead to higher power dissipation and slower operating frequencies for electronic circuits.

“Especially when you go to smaller dimensions, a device’s performance often ends up being limited by contact resistance. People have a relatively good understanding of contact resistance at room temperature, but no one has really studied what happens when you go all the way up to 500 degrees,” Niroula says.

Testing Methodologies and Results

For their study, the researchers used facilities at MIT.nano to build gallium nitride devices known as transfer length method structures, which are composed of a series of resistors. These devices enable them to measure the resistance of both the material and the contacts.

They added ohmic contacts to these devices using the two most common methods. The first involves depositing metal onto gallium nitride and heating it to 825 degrees Celsius for about 30 seconds, a process called annealing.

The second method involves removing chunks of gallium nitride and using a high-temperature technology to regrow highly doped gallium nitride in its place, a process led by Rajan and his team at Ohio State. The highly doped material contains extra electrons that can contribute to current conduction.

“The regrowth method typically leads to lower contact resistance at room temperature, but we wanted to see if these methods still work well at high temperatures,” Niroula says.

Stability and Performance at High Temperatures

They tested devices in two ways. Their collaborators at Rice University, led by Zhao, conducted short-term tests by placing devices on a hot chuck that reached 500 degrees Celsius and taking immediate resistance measurements.

At MIT, they conducted longer-term experiments by placing devices into a specialized furnace the group previously developed. They left devices inside for up to 72 hours to measure how resistance changes as a function of temperature and time.

Long-Term Stability and Improvements

Microscopy experts at MIT.nano (Aubrey N. Penn) and the Technology Innovation Institute (Nitul S. Rajput) used state-of-the-art transmission electron microscopes to see how such high temperatures affect gallium nitride and the ohmic contacts at the atomic level.

“We went in thinking the contacts or the gallium nitride material itself would degrade significantly, but we found the opposite. Contacts made with both methods seemed to be remarkably stable,” says Niroula.

While it is difficult to measure resistance at such high temperatures, their results indicate that contact resistance seems to remain constant even at temperatures of 500 degrees, for around 48 hours. And just like at room temperature, the regrowth process led to better performance.

The material did start to degrade after being in the furnace for 48 hours, but the researchers are already working to boost long-term performance. One strategy involves adding protective insulators to keep the material from being directly exposed to the high-temperature environment.

Future Prospects in Microelectronics

Moving forward, the scientists plan to use what they learned in these experiments to develop high-temperature gallium nitride transistors.

“In our group, we focus on innovative, device-level research to advance the frontiers of microelectronics, while adopting a systematic approach across the hierarchy, from the material level to the circuit level. Here, we have gone all the way down to the material level to understand things in depth. In other words, we have translated device-level advancements to circuit-level impact for high-temperature electronics, through design, modeling, and complex fabrication. We are also immensely fortunate to have forged close partnerships with our longtime collaborators in this journey,” Xie says.

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