Month: June 2024

“Two athletes square off for an intense dance battle. The DJ starts spinning tunes, and the athletes begin twisting, spinning and seemingly defying gravity, respectfully watching each other and taking turns showing off their skill.

The athletes converse through their movements, speaking through a dance that celebrates both athleticism and creativity. While the athletes probably aren’t consciously thinking about the physics behind their movements, these complex and mesmerizing dances demonstrate a variety of different scientific principles.

Breaking, also known as breakdancing, originated in the late 1970s in the New York City borough of the Bronx. Debuting as an Olympic sport in the 2024 Summer Olympics, breaking will showcase its dynamic moves on a global stage. This urban dance style combines hip-hop culture, acrobatic moves and expressive footwork.

Since its inception, breaking has evolved into a competitive art form. An MC narrates the movements, while a DJ mixes songs to create a dynamic atmosphere. The Olympics will feature two events: one for men, called B-boys, and one for women, called B-girls. In these events, athletes will face off in dance battles.”

Credit: Amy Pope and Clemson News

Read more: 
Paris 2024 Olympics to debut high-level breakdancing — and physics in action | Clemson News

A little over three decades ago, the only planets we could confirm were the ones in our solar system. But with the advent of more powerful telescopes on the ground and new observatories in space, scientists have since discovered the existence of thousands of exoplanets orbiting stars other than our sun. According to Janus Kozdon, a graduate student in the Clemson University Department of Physics and Astronomy, the vast majority of the observed exoplanets orbit older stars, with very few found orbiting young stars, who are still forming protoplanetary disks from gas and dust. Kodzon says detecting planets in these young systems is challenging because the disk can obscure the planet’s signature. Kodzon and his team developed a novel technique to study planets surrounding young stars through disk morphology, which he plans to the June American Astronomical Society meeting in Madison, Wisconsin.

Kodzon’s research, published in the Astronomical Journal in August 2023, focuses on CI Tau, a young star located about 523 light-years away, where an exoplanet was already discovered within its protoplanetary disk. Observing CI Tau for nine nights, Kozdon used spectroscopy and his custom model to analyze carbon monoxide in the disk, revealing its two oppositely oriented components. The findings from this research provided the first empirical evidence of disk eccentricities potentially caused by the embedded planet. Sean Brittain, Clemson’s associate provost and dean of undergraduate learning; Jeffrey Fung, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy; and physics graduate students Stanley Jensen and John Kern also worked on the project. This work sheds light on planet-disk interactions and opens new avenues for studying forming planets around young stars.

Researchers/collaborators from the University of Maryland, the National Science Foundation National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, and Texas State University were also involved in the research.

Credit: David Brandin

Read more: 
Clemson grad student’s study sheds light on planet formation in infant stars | Clemson News