10.18131/G33G77
Whittaker, Michael Lynn
Nano Nebula
Galter Health Science Library & Learning Center
2016
Image
Honorable Mention
Global warming is one of the biggest problems facing society today. One solution may be to remove the growing amounts of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. But how can we do that? In this image, carbon dioxide and water are reacting with the element barium to form a new, previously unidentified material. Surprisingly, as this new material forms, it looks like a nebula in outer space (despite being billions and billions of times smaller!). And like nebulae collapse to form stars and galaxies in space, eventually this swirling nano nebula will collapse into a single dense particle, too. Forming and collecting these dense particles from carbon dioxide may be a new way to remove it from our atmosphere, which may help us combat and reduce global warming.