In a discovery that challenges basic physics principles, researchers have shown that under specific conditions, a laser beam can block light and cast a visible shadow.
The video, featuring a cat named Taters, was sent back from nearly 19 million miles away by NASA’s laser communications demonstration, marking a historic milestone.
The Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment transmitted a near-infrared laser encoded with test data from an astonishing distance of nearly 10 million miles.
A pulse of laser light resulted in a stable "supercrystal" created by a team of U.S. researchers. The team's goal is to discover interesting states of matter that do not exist in equilibrium in nature.
It currently takes 90 minutes to transmit high-resolution images from Mars, but NASA would like to dramatically reduce that time to just minutes. A new optical communications system that NASA plans to demonstrate in 2016 will lead the way and even allow the streaming of high-definition video from distances beyond the Moon.
