AMES, Iowa – Allen Lawrence, wrapping up a long career as an electrical engineer, was serious about moving his astronomy hobby beyond the 20-inch telescope he’d hauled to star parties under the dark ...

Astronomers have revealed that a well-known, nearby galaxy has a rare double-nucleus structure. The so-called "Cocoon Galaxy" not only has a unique shape, it has a rare double-nucleus structure, ...

Nature’s rarest type of atomic nucleus is not giving up its secrets easily. Scientists looking for the decay of an unusual form of the element tantalum, known as tantalum-180m, have come up ...

Using computer simulations, chemists have discovered how nuclear bodies called nucleoli interact with chromosomes in the nucleus, and how those interactions help the nucleoli exist as stable droplets ...

Findings in nuclear physics theory have received several Nobel Prizes (1975-nucleus vibrations and rotations, 1963-nuclear shell model, 1949-meson exchange model of nuclear forces). Despite these ...

The Structure of the Nucleus The electrons in an atom tend to occupy distinct shells. What about particles in the nucleus? The "magic numbers" of the isotope chart suggest that they also have a shell ...

A researcher stands behind a metal pipe covered with electrical cords and gauges. A researcher works on a device at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. This part of the facility provides low-energy ...

Nuclear isomers are crucial probes for studying the structure of nuclei. Unlike chemical isomers—which have the same chemical formula but different arrangements of atoms—nuclear isomers are nuclei ...