ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An early milestone for developing missile technologies is to show they can work in computer-simulations or large-scale field tests that shake and spin components without falling to pieces. “Screws can back out; things can break,” said Greg Tipton, a structural dynamics engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. Similar tests are performed in the […]
Category Archives: Space / Astronomy
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New Sandia balloon-borne infrasound sensor array detects explosions
January 11, 2018 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sheets of plastic similar to that used for garbage bags, packing tape, some string, a little charcoal dust and a white shoebox-size box are more than odds and ends. These are the supplies Danny Bowman, a Sandia National Laboratories geophysicist, needs to build a solar-powered hot air balloon for detecting infrasound. Infrasound […]
Aerospace test at Sandia goes green with alternative to explosives
August 30, 2017 – 11:05 am
Hopkinson bar technology applied to gas gun shot to test rocket part ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has successfully demonstrated a new, more environmentally friendly method to test a rocket part to ensure its avionics can withstand the shock from stage separation during flight. The new method — called the Alternative Pyroshock Test — […]
Black hole models contradicted by hands-on tests at Sandia’s Z machine
August 28, 2017 – 9:50 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A long-standing but unproven assumption about the X-ray spectra of black holes in space has been contradicted by hands-on experiments performed at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine. Z, the most energetic laboratory X-ray source on Earth, can duplicate the X-rays surrounding black holes that otherwise can be watched only from a great distance and then theorized […]
Origin of spooky meteor noises reappraised by Sandia researchers
February 17, 2017 – 9:35 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When a meteor is about to conk your neighborhood and gives fair warning by emitting sizzling, rustling and hissing sounds as it descends, you might think that the universe is being sporting. But these auditory warnings, which do occur, seem contrary to the laws of physics if they are caused by the […]
Sandia researchers win ‘best paper’ award from AIAA
October 1, 2015 – 10:00 am
Paper focuses on scramjet engines used for supersonic flight LIVERMORE, Calif. — The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has recognized Sandia National Laboratories researchers Joe Oefelein and Guilhem Lacaze with a best paper award for their work on scramjet engine simulations. The paper, “A Priori Analysis of Flamelet-Based Modeling for a Dual-Mode Scramjet […]
Sandia physicist accepts first joint faculty appointment with Washington State University
September 3, 2015 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories physicist Marcus Knudson is the first joint faculty appointee to serve both Sandia and Washington State University (WSU). In the position, Knudson will enhance fundamental research into the compression of materials under extreme conditions, using Sandia’s unique Z machine. “The science of dynamic material compression is a core capability […]
Sandia’s Z machine helps solve Saturn’s 2-billion-year age gap
June 26, 2015 – 8:35 am
Research supports 80-year-old prediction ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Planets tend to cool as they get older, but Saturn is hotter than astrophysicists say it should be without some additional energy source. The unexplained heat has caused a two-billion-year discrepancy for computer models estimating Saturn’s age. “Models that correctly predict Jupiter to be 4.5 billion years old […]
Iron rain fell on early Earth, new Z machine data supports
March 18, 2015 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have helped untangle a long-standing mystery of astrophysics: why iron is found spattered throughout Earth’s mantle, the roughly 2,000-mile thick region between Earth’s core and its crust. At first blush, it seemed more reasonable that iron arriving from collisions between Earth and planetesimals — ranging […]
‘Iron Sun’ is not a rock band, but a key to how stars transmit energy
January 6, 2015 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — Working at temperatures matching the interior of the sun, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have been able to determine experimentally, for the first time in history, iron’s role in inhibiting energy transmission from the center of the sun to near the edge of its radiative band — the section of […]
3-D codes yield unprecedented physics, engineering insights
August 4, 2014 – 11:30 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry in 2002, sophisticated computer models were key to determining what happened. A piece of foam flew off at launch and hit a tile, damaging the leading edge of the shuttle wing and exposing the underlying structure. Temperatures soared to thousands of degrees as Columbia […]
Physicist’s journey reveals smaller asteroids could cause bigger problems
November 20, 2013 – 10:45 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Once in a lifetime, a physicist may get a chance to test his theories and simulations in a real-life event that changes the course of his scientific life. But rarely does that opportunity literally fall from the sky. That’s the impact of the Feb. 15 asteroid that burst over the Russian city […]
Study rebuts hypothesis that comet attacks ended 13,000-year-old Clovis culture
January 30, 2013 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Rebutting a speculative hypothesis that comet explosions changed Earth’s climate sufficiently to end the Clovis culture in North America about 13,000 years ago, Sandia lead author Mark Boslough and researchers from 14 academic institutions assert that other explanations must be found for the apparent disappearance. “There’s no plausible mechanism to get airbursts […]
Alaskan North Slope climate: hard data from a hard place
August 13, 2012 – 5:00 am
Researchers examine clouds (from both sides now) and the structure of the atmosphere BARROW, Alaska — Sandia National Laboratories’ researcher Mark Ivey and I (science writer Neal Singer) are standing on the tundra at an outpost of science at the northernmost point of the North American continent. We are five miles northeast of Barrow, an Alaskan village […]
Sandia experiments may force revision of astrophysical models of the universe
March 15, 2012 – 9:10 am
Ice giant planets have more water volume than believed ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The idea of compressing water is foreign to our daily experience. Nevertheless, an accurate estimate of water’s shrinking volume under the huge gravitational pressures of large planets is essential to astrophysicists trying to model the evolution of the universe. They need to assume […]