If you‚ like me‚ have dabbled with telescope making you will know what a fickle friend light can be. On one hand you want to capture as much as you can (but only from the object‚ not from nearby lights) and want to reflect or refract it to the point of observation or study.  What you most certainly don’t want is stray light to be bounced around inside the telescope so components (except the mirror!) are sprayed as black as possible. Unfortunately black paints tend to be quite susceptible to damage and struggle to cope with the harsh conditions and cold temperatures telescopes are subjected to. A team has recently developed a new atomic-layer deposition method which absorbs 99.3% of light and is durable too.  A team of scientists from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have recently published a paper in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. The paper announces that they have engineered an ultrablack thin-film coating which boasts the remarkable light absorption rate of 99.3%. The technique is tailored for coating aerospace grade magnesium alloys (not a lot of help for my telescope but there is hope) and the result is a coating that is durable and capable of withstanding harsh environmental conditions.  Of course‚ this is designed for telescopes operating in the harsh environment of space rather than the cold winter nights of Norfolk in the UK but it will certainly help with professional observatories atop mountains too. Current coatings like vertically aligned carbon nanotubes or black silicon tend to be easily damaged needing repair and leaving contamination that has to be carefully managed.  Another problem is the often difficult and intricate shapes and curves that the black coatings are to be deposited upon. To overcome these problems‚ the team explored atomic layer deposition (ALD). Items to be coated are paced in a vacuum chamber and exposed to different gasses in sequence which will adhere to the object’s surface in thin layers. It’s a technique not too dissimilar to aluminising a telescope mirror that is placed inside a vacuum chamber before allowing the aluminium to be deposited on the mirror surface.  The vacuum coating method is far easier to apply to intricate shapes than previous techniques. To build up the layers‚ the process uses alternating layers of aluminium mixed with titanium carbide and silicon nitride. The two materials work well together to stop nearly all light from reflecting off the coated surface.  During the test phase‚ the team tested wavelengths of light from violet light at 400 nanometers to near infrared at 1‚000 nanometers and found average absorption levels over 99% across all wavelengths. The coating seems to withstand heat‚ friction‚ damp and extreme changes in temperature well so it is most certainly suited to space instrumentation. The team haven’t given up yet though‚ they are now working to improve the performance of the material.  Source : Ultrablack coating could make next-gen telescopes even better The post Ultrablack Coating Could Be Ideal for Telescopes appeared first on Universe Today.

'I a hundred percent am gonna listen to the people back home who I represent in this house,' says rising GOP rep.

Voters in the 2020 battleground state of North Carolina lean toward former Presiden Trump in 2024 by a 5.4 point margin over incumbent President Biden‚ a new poll conducted after Super Tuesday shows. The statewide poll conducted by Cygnal from March 6-7 and published by the Carolina Journal on Tuesday found that 45.2% of likely voters said they are planning to vote for Trump‚ while 39.8% said they plan to vote for Biden. A substantial amount – 9.4% – of likely voters indicated that they plan to...

After uproar over its initial decision to ban the Bible — which was later reversed — a Utah school district has been trying to better separate the wheat from the chaff in determining which religious books can stay on library shelves. And it has decided all of them are good books. Earlier this year‚ Davis School District concluded its long pending reviews of both the Book of Mormon‚ which is the foundational scripture for the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints‚ and the Quran...

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Wednesday Russia was technically ready for nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine‚ it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict. Putin‚ speaking just days before a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power‚ said the nuclear war scenario was not "rushing" up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. "From a military-technical point of view‚ we are...

When special counsel Robert Hur released his report last month explaining why he wouldn’t charge President Joe Biden with mishandling classified documents‚ his claim that Biden displayed a “poor memory” and “diminished faculties” in their interview received enormous attention. But now‚ the full transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden have been released — and they make Hur’s claims about Biden’s memory appear cherry-picked and exaggerated. Biden...

President Joe Biden will announce in Milwaukee on Wednesday $3.3 billion in infrastructure grants that will used across the country to connect communities divided by other projects. The grants‚ done in conjunction with the Department of Transportation‚ will cover more than 130 projects in 41 states‚ and will attempt to give access to neighborhoods and communities cut off from transportation infrastructure years ago‚ Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.

U.S. President Joe Biden sketched his policy vision for a potential second four-year term on Monday‚ unveiling a $7.3 trillion election-year budget aimed at convincing skeptical Americans that he can run the economy better than Donald Trump. Biden wants to raise taxes by trillions on corporations and high earners‚ his budget wish-list showed‚ to help cut the deficit and pay for new programs assisting those who make less cope with high housing and childcare costs....

President Joe Biden's proposed 2025 budget includes some perks for millions of families and low-income workers as well as senior citizens‚ including reviving a program that lifted millions of children out of poverty during the pandemic. The budget‚ released Tuesday‚ aims to pay for those tax breaks by raising taxes on corporations and the rich. One proposal‚ for instance‚ would completely reverse one of the cuts implemented by former President Donald Trump‚ whose 2017 Tax Cuts and...