STAR RIVERS The galaxy ESO 137-001, 200 million light-years away, leaves trails (shown in blue in this false-color Hubble Space Telescope image) of gas and newly born stars as it plows through the Norma Cluster. Bright stars in the foreground sit within our galaxy.
Ming Sun/UAH, Serge Meunier, NASA, ESA
LASER DEFENSE The U.S. Navy is reportedly deploying a laser weapon system on one of its ships. New work on carving out air-based conduits for high-energy laser beams could improve this technology.
Copyright U.S. Navy
BEAD CAPTURE A 50-nanometer-wide plastic bead (yellow circle, center) is trapped by light in this illustration. Laser light gets focused by a bow tie–shaped hole etched into a thin gold film at the tip of an optical fiber.
R. Quidant
GIVE A HOOT Peacocks make guys-only noises, including a hoot that may exaggerate their popularity and attract females during breeding season.
R. Dakin
SUN-SCORCHED WORLD Tau Boötis b orbits close to its sun, as seen in this artist’s illustration. The planet glows brightly with infrared light, which astronomers used to detect water in the planet’s atmosphere.
L. Calçada/ESO
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