New results from the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) suggest that gluons — the glue-like particles that hold quarks together inside protons — play a central role in conserving baryon number, an essential part of a particle's quantum identity.[1] The finding, published in the journal Science, challenges the long-held view that baryon number is carried solely by a proton's three "valence" quarks.[1]
The STAR team tested the idea by comparing the net baryon numbers seen in different RHIC collisions with how electric charge was redistributed in the same events. They found roughly twice as many baryons as the stopped quarks' charge could explain — and their answer is that the extra baryon number rides a three-pronged "junction" of gluons connecting the quarks.[1] The junction was predicted back in the 1970s; RHIC itself operated at Brookhaven National Laboratory from 2000 to early 2026.[1]
One of the Sun's enduring mysteries is why its corona — the outer atmosphere — is millions of degrees hotter than its surface, and how it stays that hot while eruptions constantly bleed energy away.[2] Astrophysicists in India now say data from Aditya-L1, the country's first solar observation mission, offer vital clues, in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters led by Prof R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.[2]
The team studied a "very energetic" coronal mass ejection of 5 August 2024 captured by Aditya-L1's Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (Velc).[2] They concluded that waves from the bubbling, boiling surface supply only 7% of the corona's energy requirement — the remaining 93% comes from the Sun's tangled magnetic field lines snapping and reconnecting.[2] Without some such mechanism the corona could not replenish the energy each CME carries away, and the Sun would eventually cool.[2]
Romania has shut down its only nuclear power station because of extremely low water levels in the Danube, caused by prolonged hot weather across much of Europe.[3] The Cernavodă plant — whose two reactors produce about 20% of Romania's electricity — is not expected to restart within the next 10 days: the second 706-megawatt reactor was disconnected just before midday on Thursday, and the first had already been shut down in July.[3]
Earlier in the week, authorities tried sinking barges loaded with rocks to push more water toward the plant's cooling intakes.[3] Neighbouring Hungary's Paks plant, which also uses the Danube, has so far avoided a shutdown — but the waters of Europe's second-longest river have fallen to their lowest levels for 30 years in several countries.[3]
[1] bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=122692 — Brookhaven National Laboratory — STAR data suggest gluons carry baryon number (2026-08-13)
[2] bbc.co.uk — Indian solar mission's new findings throw light on enduring Sun mysteries (2026-08-14)
[3] bbc.co.uk — Romania shuts only nuclear plant as heat causes huge drop in Danube River level (2026-08-13)