Black Holes in a Blender

Massive black holes drag and warp the spacetime around them in extreme ways. Observing these effects firsthand is practically impossible, so physicists look for laboratory-sized analogs that behave similarly.  (Image credit: L. Solidoro; research credit: P. Švančara et al.; via Physics World) Read the full article

Etna's Blowing Rings

Mount Etna has long been known for its smoke rings, but thanks to the opening of a new vent on the volcano's southeast crater, it's now making more rings than ever. Etna's smoke rings are, more precisely, vortex rings -- produced in the same way dolphins, swimmers, and whales make vortex rings: a sudden push of air through a roughly circular opening. (Video and image credit: The Straits Times; via Colossal) Read the full article

Supernova Rings

Some 20,000 years ago, a massive star blew off a ring of dust and gas that expanded into the surrounding interstellar medium. Later, in 1987, the star exploded as supernova 1987A. That explosion lit the surrounding area, revealing a clumpy ring astronomers have struggled to explain. But a new team believes they have a fluid dynamical answer: the Crow instability. (Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/M. Matsuura/R. Arendt/C. Fransson and NASA/ESA/A. Angelich + M. Wadas et al.; research credit: M. Wadas et al.; via APS Physics) Read the full article

Millennium Falcon's Glide

In what seems to be a tradition now, a group at MIT imagined how the Millennium Falcon would perform if it lost its engines during atmospheric flight. Their hypothetical scenario took place in the Battle of Endor, with the Falcon flying at an altitude of 2 kilometers. Could Han Solo and Chewbecca safely glide the craft down? (Image credit: S. Costa et al.; see also X-Wing Re-entry and AT-AT Flow) Read the full article

"Divebomb"

Seabirds like gannets and boobies are engineered for diving. They fly to a certain altitude, locate fish underwater, and then fold themselves into a streamlined projectile.  (Image credit: K. Zhou; via UPY 2024 and Colossal) Read the full article

Unsticking in Jumps

Soft materials tend to be sticky, and once they're adhered to a surface, they're often harder to remove than they were to attach -- think of Scotch tape stuck to a desk. This difficulty separating sticky things -- known as adhesion hysteresis -- has been attributed to various causes, like energy lost to viscoelasticity or age-related chemical bonding. But a new study shows that both those explanations are unnecessary. (Image and research credit: A. Sanner et al.; via Physics World) Read the full article

Kirigami Parachutes

To fly stably, parachutes need to deform and allow some air to pass through their canopy. In this video, researchers investigate kirigimi parachutes, inspired by a form of paper art that uses cuts to create three-dimensional shapes. (Video and image credit: D. Lamoureux et al.; via GoSM) Read the full article

Seeking Rogue Wave Origins

Rogue waves -- rare waves much larger than any surrounding waves -- have long been a part of sailors' tales, but their existence has only been confirmed relatively recently. The exact mechanisms behind them are still a matter of debate.  (Image credit: S. Baisch; research credit: A. Toffoli et al.; via APS Physics) Read the full article

Evolving Fingers

If you sandwich a viscous fluid between two plates and inject a less viscous fluid, you'll get viscous fingers that spread and split as they grow. This research poster depicts that situation with a slight twist: the viscous fluid (transparent in the image) is shear-thinning. (Image credit: E. Dakov et al.; via GoSM) Read the full article

Geyser Sculptures

In the remote landscape of Tajikistan, photographer Øystein Sture Aspelund discovered a small geyser near a high-altitude lake. With a fast shutter, he "froze" the shapes of the eruption, capturing bubbly columns, mushrooms, and splashes. (Image credit: Ø. Aspelund; via Colossal) Read the full article

Why Inkjet Paper Curls

Printed pages from inkjet printers tends to curl up over time. Researchers found that this long-term curl correlates with the migration of glycerol -- one of the solvents used in inkjet ink -- through the paper's fiber layers toward the unprinted side.  (Image credit: Lunghammer - TU Graz; research credit: A. Maass and U. Hirn; via Physics World) Read the full article

Bubbles Encased in Ice

If you've ever made ice in a freezer, you've probably noticed the streaks of frozen bubbles inside the ice. In its liquid state, water is good at dissolving various gases -- like the carbon dioxide in sparkling water. (Image credit: J. Meijer and D. Lohse; via GoSM) Read the full article

How Moths Confuse Bats

When your predators use echolocation to locate you, it pays to have an ultrasonic deterrence. So, many species of ermine moths have structures on their wings known as tymbals.  (Image credit: Wikimedia/entomart; research credit: H. Mendoza Nava et al.; via APS Physics) Read the full article

Drops of Fiber Suspensions

To 3D print with fiber-infused liquids, we need to understand how these drops form, break-up, and splash. That's the subject of this research poster, which shows drops of a fiber suspension forming and pinching off along the top of the image. (Image credit: S. Rajesh and A. Sauret; via GoSM) Read the full article

"Ferro Field"

Ferrofluid forms a labyrinth of blobs and lines against a white background in this award-winning photo by Jack Margerison. Ferrofluids are a magnetically-sensitive fluid, typically created by suspending magnetic nanoparticles in oil. (Image credit: J. Margerison from CUPOTY; via Colossal) Read the full article

Floating in Sync

Objects on a vibrating liquid bath can interact with each other through the waves they make as they bounce. Here, researchers look at three-armed spinners interacting in pairs and in larger groups.  (Video and image credit: J. Barotta et al.; via GoSM) Read the full article

Mimicking Plant Movement

Many plants control the curvature of their leaves by selectively pumping water into cells that line the outer surface. This swelling triggers bending. Engineers created their own version of this structure. (Image credit: T. Gao et al.; via GoSM) Read the full article