Tag: space science

Should more money be spent on space exploration?

Poverty still rising all over the world, COVID-19 pandemic made it even worse. About 1.89 billion people, or nearly 36% of the world’s population, lived in extreme poverty. Nearly half the population in developing countries lived on less than $1.25 a day. Why should we spend money on space exploration when we already have so many problems here on Earth? Is it really that important? It’s like What if our ancestors thought that it would be a waste of time to figure out agriculture while we can do hunting? Or why should we spend so much time on exploring new lands while we have so many problems in our land? Each year, space exploration contributes to a lot of innovations on earth. It gave answers to many fundamental questions about our existence, and a lot of questions there to be answered if only we could increase our investment on space exploration. NASA’s annual budget is 23 billion dollars but, its only 0.1% of the total revenue. even if we were to increase the international budget 20 times it would only be a small fraction of GDP. isn’t our future worth a quarter of a percent?

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

Benefits of space exploration:

    Improves our day to day life

       Since 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to ever set foot on moon, our interest in science and technology has improved a lot. In 22nd February 1978, US space agency launched the first satellite for its program of global positioning system (GPS). Currently there are 31 global positioning system (GPS) satellites orbiting the earth.Space exploration helped us to create many inventions like television, camera phones, internet, laptops, LED’s, wireless gadgets, purifying system of water and many more that we are using in our day to day life. There are nearly 3,372 active satellites providing information on navigation, business & finance, weather, climate and environmental monitoring, communication and safety.

   Improving health care

       The international space station plays a vital role in health and medical advancements. The Astronauts who works on the ISS able to do experiments that aren’t possible on earth due to the difference in the gravity. The project of Exomedicine – the study of medicine and micro-gravity, gravity has an effect on a molecular level so working in an environment where it can be eliminated from the equation allows discoveries that would otherwise be impossible. Medical advancements due to space exploration include,

  • Diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cardiovascular diseases
  • Treatment of chronic metabolic disorders
  • Better understanding of osteoporosis
  • Improvements in Breast cancer detection
  • Programmable pacemakers
  • Laser angioplasty
  • NASA’s device with Space technology for Asthma
  • ISS plays vital role in vaccine development
  • Early detection of immune changes prevents shingles
  • Development of MRI s and CT or CAT Scans
  • And invention of ear thermometers
Proxima Centauri b is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri

Need for space colonization

       Overpopulation is one of the major crises in our planet. Currently we have 7.8 billion people alive on earth. Experts predict that there will be 9.7 billion people by 2050 and 11 billion by 2100, our earth can carry only 9 billion to 12 billion people with the limited food and freshwater resources. That means we have to find an exoplanet with suitable conditions soon. We already went to moon 6 times, we already sent a rover to Mars. Robotic missions are cost efficient, but if one is considering the future of human race we have to go there ourselves. Elon Musk announced that SpaceX is going to send people to Mars I 2022. NASA planned to make a colony on Mars by 2030. These missions are not something we need at this moment. But it may play an important role on our future. Proxima Centauri b is an exoplanet which is 4.24 light years away from us. With our current technology, it is impossible to reach it in our lifetime. But we should make it as an aim for interstellar travel over the next 200 to 500 years. Stephen hawking said that the human race has existed as a separate species for about 2 million years. Civilization began about 10,000 years ago, and the rate of development has been steadily increasing. If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before.

The day we stop exploring is the day we commit ourselves to live in a stagnant world, devoid of curiosity, empty of dreams. –Neil deGrasse Tyson

A Space Dream

Yesterday when I lay asleep, a magical force lifted me from my bed and I found myself floating towards the skies rapidly. I saw the pale blue sphere that I was leaving behind. Earth never looked so magical before. I took a spin around the moon and marveled at the craters. I passed through the rings of Saturn and played hopscotch on the red soil of Mars. I made a snowman on the icy surface of Neptune. I saw the Milky Way from afar and was awestruck by the vast expanse of our Universe. I rode on the meteors that went whooshing by and saw pulsars and quasars. I almost got sucked into a black hole but pull myself away in time.I danced on the glowing surface of Venus and visited mercury.I took a spin around the sun without a single hair singed.After witnessing all the beautiful sight,I started feeling homesick. I slowly drifted back to the pale blue planet that we call home.Full of memories from the visit,I hoped to take another trip soon.Soon I was laid back on my bed and I drifted back into sleep.

Do We Live in a Multiverse?

As far as we currently know, there is a single expanding blob of spacetime speckled with trillions of galaxies – that’s our Universe. If there are others, we have no compelling evidence for their existence.

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Amazing book about Multiverse

That said, theories of cosmology, quantum physics, and the very philosophy of science have a few problems that could be solved if our blob of ‘everything’ wasn’t, well, everything.

That doesn’t mean other universes must exist. But what if they do?

What is a universe?

It should be a simple question to answer. But different areas of science will have subtly different takes on what a universe even is.

Cosmologists might say it describes the total mass of stuff (and the space in between) that has been slowly expanding from a highly concentrated volume over the past 13.77 billion years, becoming increasingly disordered with age. 

It now stretches 93 billion light years from edge to edge, at least based on all of the visible (and invisible) stuff we can detect in some way. Beyond that limit, there are either things we can’t see, an infinite expanse of nothingness, or – in the unlikely scenario that all of space bends back around on itself – a round-trip back to the start across a hyperspherical universe. 

If we’re talking quantum physics, though, a universe might refer to all fields and their particles, and their combined influences over one another. As a general rule, a universe (like ours, at least) is a closed system, meaning it can’t suddenly lose or gain a significant sum of energy. 

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Telescope under 100

Philosophically speaking, a universe might be a discrete set of fundamental laws that governs the behavior of everything we observe. A universe would be defined by its own rules that set its unique speed for light, tell particles how to push or pull, or space how it should expand. 

What is a multiverse in cosmology?

A century of astronomical observations has told us a lot about the age, size, and evolution of galaxies, stars, matter and the four dimensions we sum up as spacetime. 

One thing we know with great confidence is that everything we see now is expanding at an accelerating rate. This logically implies the Universe, at least the one we live in, used to be a lot smaller. 

big bang nasa infographic expansion(NASA/JPL)

We can theoretically squeeze all of the matter of the Universe down to a point where the concentration of energy reduces atoms to a soup of simpler particles and forces combine until we can’t tell them apart. Any smaller than that? Big shrugs.

If we go with what’s known as a cyclic model of cosmology, the parent universe preceded ours in some way. It might even be a lot like this one, only running in reverse compared with ours, shrinking over time into a concentrated point only to bounce back out for some reason. Played out for eternity, we might imagine the respective universes bounce back and forth in an endless yo-yo effect of growing and collapsing.

Or, if we go with what’s known as a conformal cyclic model, universes expand over trillions upon trillions of years until their cold, point-like particles are so spread out, for all mathematical purposes everything looks and acts like a brand new universe.

If you don’t like those, there’s a chance our Universe is a white hole – the hypothetical back end of a black hole from another universe. Which, logically, just might mean the black holes in our Universe could all be parents, pinching off new universes like cosmic amoebae.

What is a multiverse in quantum physics?

Early last century, physicists found theories that described matter as tiny objects only told half of the story. The other half was that matter behaved as if it also had characteristics of a wave.

Exactly what this dual nature of reality means is still a matter of debate, but from a mathematical perspective, that wave describes the rise and fall of a game of chance. Probability, you see, is built into the very machinery that makes up the gears of a universe like ours.

Of course, this isn’t our daily experience as vast collections of atoms. When we send a bucket of molecules called a rocket to the Moon as it zooms past 300,000 kilometres away, we’re not rolling dice. Classical old physics is as reliable as tomorrow’s sunrise.

But the closer we zoom in on a region of space or time, the more we need to take into account the possible range of measurements we might find. 

This randomness isn’t the result of things we don’t know – it’s because the Universe itself is yet to make up its mind. There’s nothing in quantum mechanics explaining this transition either, leaving us to imagine what it all means. https://www.youtube.com/embed/dzKWfw68M5U?ab_channel=PBSSpaceTime

In his 1957 doctoral dissertation, American physicist Hugh Everett suggested the range of possibilities are all as real as one another, representing actual realities – separate universes, if you like – just like the one we’re all familiar with.

What makes any one universe in this many worlds interpretation distinct is how each wave correlates with a specific measurement taken of other waves, a phenomenon we call entanglement.

What ‘we’ means, and why ‘we’ experience one entangled set over waves over another, isn’t clear, and in some ways presents an even bigger problem to solve. 

What is a multiverse in philosophy?

One of science’s most fundamental starting assumptions is that in spite of what your mother tells you, you’re not special. Nor is any other human, or our planet, or – by extension – our Universe.

While rare events occur from time to time, we don’t answer The Big Questions with ‘it just happened that way’. 

So why does our Universe seem to have just the right tug-of-war of forces that allow not just particles to appear, but to congeal for long enough periods into atoms that can undergo complex chemistry to produce thinking minds like ours?

Philosophically speaking, the anthropic principle (or principles, since there are many different ways to spin the idea) suggests we might have it backwards. Without these conditions, no minds would have arisen to consider the amazing turn of events. 

If just a single universe ‘just happened that way’ early one spring morning, it’d be one big coincidence. Too big really. 

But if there were infinite universes, with infinite combinations of forces pushing and pulling, some would inevitably give rise to minds that just might ask ‘are we part of a multiverse?’ 

Will we ever discover other universes?

Given the very definition of a universe relies on some kind of physical fence keeping influencing factors apart, it’s hard to imagine ways we might ever observe the existence of a sibling for our universe. If we did, we might as well see it as an extension of our own Universe anyway.

That said, there could be some cheats that could give us a glimpse.

Any experiment to find one would have to rely on that ‘fence’ having some holes in it that allow particles or energy to leak across, either into ours, or away from it. Or, in the case of universes existing in our past, monumental events that left enough of a scar that not even a rebirth could erase.

For now, we still have no good reason to think our blob of everything is anything but unique. Given we’re still learning how our own Universe works, the current gaps in physics could yet be plugged without any need to imagine a reality other than ours.

In countless other versions of this article scattered throughout the multiverse, however, the question of whether we are alone just might have a different answer.

ALL ABOUT CREEPY BLACK HOLE

WHEN WE HEARD ABOUT BLACK HOLE WE HAVE CERTAIN QUESTIONS IN MIND .LETS FIND OUT ANSWERS FOR SOME QUESTIONS DOWN BELOW.

1)What happens if a person goes into a black hole?

The gravitational attraction of a black hole is so strong that not even light can escape it. Even before you reach the event horizon – the point of no return – you would be spaghettified (sometimes referred to as the noodle effect i.e,like spagetti ) by the black hole‘s tidal forces.

2)What is inside a black hole?

HOST PADI BOYD: While they may seem like a hole in the sky because they don’t produce light, a black hole is not empty, It’s actually a lot of matter condensed into a single point. This point is known as a singularity.

3)Can a person survive a black hole?

The radial size of the event horizon depends on the mass of the respective black hole and is key for a person to survive falling into one. A person falling into a supermassive black hole would likely survive but it is not advisable since the tidal forces of black hole can strench you like sapagetti or even death by getting crushed in that hole.

4)Has anyone been in a Blackhole?

Yes, It’s Possible to Jump Into a Black Hole. Scientists say humans could indeed enter a black hole to study it. But the human in question couldn’t report their findings or ever come back.

5)Does time stop in a black hole?

Near a black hole, the slowing of time is extreme. From the viewpoint of an observer outside the black hole, time stops.

6)What happens if 2 black holes collide?

It is possible for two black holes to collide. Once they come so close that they cannot escape each other’s gravity, they will merge to become one bigger black hole. Such an event would be extremely violent.

BLACK HOLES

Alpha Centauri, Star System Closest To Our Sun

Star Alpha Centauri very bright against a backdrop of extremely dense field of fainter stars and dust clouds.
Alpha Centauri is the third-brightest star in our night sky – a famous southern star – and the nearest star system to our sun. Through a small telescope, the single star we see as Alpha Centauri resolves into a double star. This pair is just 4.37 light-years away from us. In orbit around them is Proxima Centauri, too faint to be visible to the unaided eye. At a distance of 4.25 light years, Proxima is the closest-known star to our solar system.
Science of the Alpha Centauri system. The two stars that make up Alpha Centauri, Rigil Kentaurus and Toliman, are quite similar to our sun. Rigil Kentaurus, also known as Alpha Centauri A, is a yellowish star, slightly more massive than the sun and about 1.5 times brighter. Toliman, or Alpha Centauri B, has an orangish hue; it’s a bit less massive and half as bright as the sun. Studies of their mass and spectroscopic features indicate that both these stars are about 5 to 6 billion years old, slightly older than our sun.

Alpha Centauri A and B are gravitationally bound together, orbiting about a common center of mass every 79.9 years at a relatively close proximity, between 40 to 47 astronomical units (that is, 40 to 47 times the distance between the Earth and our sun).Must Watch Sky Events in 2021

In comparison, Proxima Centauri is a bit of an outlier. This dim reddish star, weighing in at just 12 percent of the sun’s mass, is currently about 13,000 astronomical units from Alpha Centauri A and B. Recent analysis of ground- and space-based data, published in 2017, has shown that Proxima is gravitationally bound to its bright companions, with a 550,000-year-long orbital period.

Proxima Centauri belongs to a class of low mass stars with cooler surface temperatures, known as red dwarfs. It’s also what’s know as a flare star, where it randomly displays sudden bursts of brightness due to strong magnetic activity.

In the past decade, astronomers have been searching for planets around the Alpha Centauri stars; they are, after all, the closest stars to us so the odds of detecting planets, if any existed, would be higher. So far, two planets have been found orbiting Proxima Centauri, one in 2016 and another in 2019. A paper published in February 2021 reported tantalizing evidence of a Neptune-sized planet around Alpha Centauri A, but so far, it has not been definitively confirmed.

Large-appearing bright star with 4 lens-effect bright spikes coming out from it.
Extremely dense star field with 2 brights stars and a small red circle around a much smaller one.

How to see Alpha Centauri. Unluckily for many of us in the Northern Hemisphere, Alpha Centauri is located too far to the south on the sky’s dome. Most North Americans never see it; the cut-off latitude is about 29° north, and anyone north of that is out of luck. In the U.S. that latitudinal line passes near Houston and Orlando, but even from the Florida Keys, the star never rises more than a few degrees above the southern horizon. Things are a little better in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, where it can get 10° or 11° high.

But for observers located far enough south in the Northern Hemisphere, Alpha Centauri may be visible at roughly 1 a.m. (local daylight saving time) in early May. That is when the star is highest above the southern horizon. By early July, it reaches its highest point to the south at nightfall. Even so, from these vantage points, there are no good pointer stars to Alpha Centauri. For those south of 29° N. latitude, when the bright star Arcturus is high overhead, look to the extreme south for a glimpse of Alpha Centauri.

Star chart with stars in black on white, of Centaurus with Southern Cross constellation.
The southern constellation Centaurus. Image via Wikimedia/ International Astronomical Union/ SkyandTelescope.com.

Observers in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere can find Alpha Centauri by first identifying the distinctive Southern Cross. A short line drawn through the crossbar (Delta and Beta Crucis) eastward first comes to Hadar (Beta Centauri), then Alpha Centauri. Meanwhile, in Australia and much of the Southern Hemisphere, Alpha Centauri is circumpolar, meaning that it never sets.

A telescope dome at in the foreground with Milky Way and bright stars in the sky.
In this image taken at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, the Southern Cross is clearly visible, with the yellowish star, closest to the dome, marking the top of the cross. Drawing a line downward through the crossbar stars takes you to the bluish star, Beta Centauri, and then to the yellowish Alpha Centauri. Image via ESO / Wikimedia Commons.

Alpha Centauri in mythology. Alpha Centauri has played a prominent role in the mythology of cultures across the Southern Hemisphere. For the Ngarrindjeri indigenous people of South Australia, Alpha and Beta Centauri were two sharks pursuing a sting ray represented by stars of the Southern Cross. Some Australian aboriginal cultures also associated stars with family relationships and marriage traditions; for instance, two stars of the Southern Cross were through to be the parents of Alpha Centauri.

Astronomy and navigation were deeply intertwined in the lives of ancient seafaring Polynesians as they sailed between islands in the vast expanse of the South Pacific. These ancient mariners navigated using the stars, with cues from nature such as bird movements, waves, and wind direction. Alpha Centauri and nearby Beta Centauri, known as Kamailehope and Kamailemua, respectively, were important signposts used for orientation in the open ocean.

For ancient Incas, a llama graced the sky, traced out by stars and dark dust lanes in the Milky Way from Scorpius to the Southern Cross, with Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri representing its eyes.

Dark-on-light shepherd, mother llama with baby, partridge, toad, and snake.
A plaque at the Coricancha museum showing Inca constellations. Coricancha, located in Cusco, Peru, was perhaps the most important temple of the Inca empire. Image via Pi3.124 / Wikimedia Commons.

Ancient Egyptians revered Alpha Centauri, and may have built temples aligned to its rising point. In southern China, it was part of a star group known as the South Gate.

Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the constellation Centaurus, named after the mythical half human, half horse creature. It was thought to represent an uncharacteristically wise centaur that figured in the mythology of Heracles and Jason. The centaur was accidentally wounded by Heracles, and placed into the sky after death by Zeus. Alpha Centauri marked the right front hoof of the centaur, although little is known of its mythological significance, if any.

Antique etching of half-man-half-horse in field of stars in black on white.
A depiction of the Centaur by Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in his atlas of constellations, Firmamentum Sobiescianum, sive Uranographia. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Alpha Centauri’s position is RA: 14h 39m 36s, Dec: -60° 50′ 02″

Bottom line: Alpha Centauri is actually two binary stars that are quite similar to our sun. A third star that’s gravitationally bound to them is Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun.

What is Astrophysics?

Hubble Snaps 'Monkey Head' Nebula
Astrophysics is a branch of space science that applies the laws of physics and chemistry to explain the birth, life and death of stars, planets, galaxies, nebulae and other objects in the universe. It has two sibling sciences, astronomy and cosmology, and the lines between them blur. 

In the most rigid sense:
Astronomy measures positions, luminosities, motions and other characteristics
Astrophysics creates physical theories of small to medium-size structures in the universe
Cosmology does this for the largest structures, and the universe as a whole. 

In practice, the three professions form a tight-knit family. Ask for the position of a nebula or what kind of light it emits, and the astronomer might answer first. Ask what the nebula is made of and how it formed and the astrophysicist will pipe up. Ask how the data fit with the formation of the universe, and the cosmologist would probably jump in. But watch out — for any of these questions, two or three may start talking at once!
Goals of astrophysics
Astrophysicists seek to understand the universe and our place in it. At NASA, the goals of astrophysics are “to discover how the universe works, explore how it began and evolved, and search for life on planets around other stars,” according NASA’s website.

NASA states that those goals produce three broad questions:

  • How does the universe work?
  • How did we get here?
  • Are we alone?

It began with Newton

While astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, theoretical astrophysics began with Isaac Newton. Prior to Newton, astronomers described the motions of heavenly bodies using complex mathematical models without a physical basis. Newton showed that a single theory simultaneously explains the orbits of moons and planets in space and the trajectory of a cannonball on Earth. This added to the body of evidence for the (then) startling conclusion that the heavens and Earth are subject to the same physical laws.

Perhaps what most completely separated Newton’s model from previous ones is that it is predictive as well as descriptive. Based on aberrations in the orbit of Uranus, astronomers predicted the position of a new planet, which was then observed and named Neptune. Being predictive as well as descriptive is the sign of a mature science, and astrophysics is in this category.

Milestones in astrophysics

Because the only way we interact with distant objects is by observing the radiation they emit, much of astrophysics has to do with deducing theories that explain the mechanisms that produce this radiation, and provide ideas for how to extract the most information from it. The first ideas about the nature of stars emerged in the mid-19th century from the blossoming science of spectral analysis, which means observing the specific frequencies of light that particular substances absorb and emit when heated. Spectral analysis remains essential to the triumvirate of space sciences, both guiding and testing new theories.

Early spectroscopy provided the first evidence that stars contain substances also present on Earth. Spectroscopy revealed that some nebulae are purely gaseous, while some contain stars. This later helped cement the idea that some nebulae were not nebulae at all — they were other galaxies! 

In the early 1920s, Cecilia Payne discovered, using spectroscopy, that stars are predominantly hydrogen (at least until their old age). The spectra of stars also allowed astrophysicists to determine the speed at which they move toward or away from Earth. Just like the sound a vehicle emits is different moving toward us or away from us, because of the Doppler shift, the spectra of stars will change in the same way. In the 1930s, by combining the Doppler shift and Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Edwin Hubble provided solid evidence that the universe is expanding. This is also predicted by Einstein’s theory, and together form the basis of the Big Bang Theory.

Also in the mid-19th century, the physicists Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) and Gustav Von Helmholtz speculated that gravitational collapse could power the sun, but eventually realized that energy produced this way would only last 100,000 years. Fifty years later, Einstein’s famous E=mc2 equation gave astrophysicists the first clue to what the true source of energy might be (although it turns out that gravitational collapse does play an important role). As nuclear physics, quantum mechanics and particle physics grew in the first half of the 20th century, it became possible to formulate theories for how nuclear fusion could power stars. These theories describe how stars form, live and die, and successfully explain the observed distribution of types of stars, their spectra, luminosities, ages and other features.

Astrophysics is the physics of stars and other distant bodies in the universe, but it also hits close to home. According to the Big Bang Theory, the first stars were almost entirely hydrogen. The nuclear fusion process that energizes them smashes together hydrogen atoms to form the heavier element helium. In 1957, the husband-and-wife astronomer team of Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, along with physicists William Alfred Fowler and Fred Hoyle, showed how, as stars age, they produce heavier and heavier elements, which they pass on to later generations of stars in ever-greater quantities. It is only in the final stages of the lives of more recent stars that the elements making up the Earth, such as iron (32.1 percent), oxygen (30.1 percent), silicon (15.1 percent), are produced. Another of these elements is carbon, which together with oxygen, make up the bulk of the mass of all living things, including us. Thus, astrophysics tells us that, while we are not all stars, we are all stardust.

Astrophysics as a career

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Becoming an astrophysicist requires years of observation, training and work. But you can start becoming involved in a small way even in elementary and high school, by joining astronomy clubs, attending local astronomy events, taking free online courses in astronomy and astrophysics, and keeping up with news in the field on a website such as Space.com. 

In college, students should aim to (eventually) complete a doctorate in astrophysics, and then take on a post-doctoral position in astrophysics. Astrophysicists can work for the government, university labs and, occasionally, private organizations.

Study.com further recommends the following steps to put you on the path to being an astrophysicist:

Take math and science classes all through high school. Make sure to take a wide variety of science classes. Astronomy and astrophysics often blend elements of biology, chemistry and other sciences to better understand phenomena in the universe. Also keep an eye out for any summer jobs or internships in math or science. Even volunteer work can help bolster your resume.

Pursue a math- or science-related bachelor’s degree. While a bachelor in astrophysics is the ideal, there are many other paths to that field. You can do undergraduate study in computer science, for example, which is important to help you analyze data. It’s best to speak to your high school guidance counselor or local university to find out what degree programs will help you.

Take on research opportunities. Many universities have labs in which students participate in discoveries — and sometimes even get published. Agencies such as NASA also offer internships from time to time. 

Finish a doctorate in astrophysics. A Ph.D. is a long haul, but the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics points out that most astrophysicists do have a doctoral degree. Make sure to include courses in astronomy, computer science, mathematics, physics and statistics to have a wide base of knowledge.

Natalie Hinkel, a planetary astrophysicist who was then at Arizona State University, gave a lengthy interview with Lifehacker in 2015 that provided a glimpse into the rewards and challenges of being a junior astrophysics researcher. She described the long number of years she has put into doing her research, the frequent job switches, her work hours and what it’s like to be a woman in a competitive field. She also had an interesting insight about what she actually did day to day. Very little of her time is spent at the telescope.

“I spend the vast majority of my time programming. Most people assume that astronomers spend all of their time at telescopes, but that’s only a very small fraction of the job, if at all. I do some observations, but in the past few years I’ve only been observing twice for a total of about two weeks,” Hinkel told Lifehacker. 

“Once you get the data, you have to reduce it (i.e. take out the bad parts and process it for real information), usually combine it with other data in order to see the whole picture, and then write a paper about your findings. Since each observation run typically yields data from multiple stars, you don’t need to spend all of your time at the telescope to have enough work.”

Astronomers Detect a Lurking Cosmic Cloud, Bigger Than The Entire Milky Way.

In the yawning vacuum of intergalactic space, something large is lurking.

Not a galaxy, although it’s of a comparable size: A vast cloud of hot, faintly glowing gas, bigger than the Milky Way, in the space between galaxies congregating in a huge cluster.

Scientists believe this cloud may have been unceremoniously stripped from a galaxy in the cluster, the first gas cloud of this kind we’ve ever seen. Even more surprisingly, it hasn’t dissipated, but has remained clumped together for hundreds of millions of years.

This not only tells us something new about the environments inside galaxy clusters, it suggests a new way to explore and understand these colossal structures.

“This is an exciting and also a surprising discovery. It demonstrates that new surprises are always out there in astronomy, as the oldest of the natural sciences,” said physicist Ming Sun of the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Galaxy clusters are, as the name suggests, groups of galaxies that are bound together gravitationally. The galaxy cluster where our ‘orphan’ gas cloud was found is called Abell 1367, or the Leo Cluster, around 300 million light-years away. It contains at least 72 major galaxies, and makes up part of a larger, supercluster complex.

Such environments often have a lot going on, and astronomers like to peer into them to try and figure out how our Universe is connected. In 2017, astronomers using Japan’s Subaru Telescope spotted what appeared to be a small, warm cloud in Abell 1367; since its origin was unclear, they went back with more instruments to take a closer look.

A team led by astronomer Chong Ge of the University of Alabama in Huntsville used the ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray telescope and the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope, in addition to Subaru – and, to their surprise, they found X-ray emission showing the cloud was larger than they first thought.

Much larger, in fact – bigger than the Milky Way galaxy, with a mass around 10 billion times that of the Sun. And it didn’t seem to be associated with any known galaxy in the cluster. It was just drifting there. But the wealth of data allowed the researchers to take the the temperature of the gas, in turn providing clues as to its provenance.

The cloud’s temperature ranges between 10,000 and 10,000,000 Kelvin – consistent with gas that can be found within galaxies, the interstellar medium. The much more tenuous hot gas of the intracluster medium (the space between galaxies in the cluster) is hotter still, at around 100 million Kelvin.

This suggests that the cloud of gas was stripped from a galaxy as it moved through space.

“The gas in the cloud is removed by ram pressure of the hot gas in the cluster, when the host galaxy is soaring in the hot gas with a velocity of 1,000 to 2,000 kilometers [620 to 1,240 miles] per second,” Sun said.

“It is like when your hair and clothes are flying backward when you are running forward against a strong headwind. Once removed from the host galaxy, the cloud is initially cold and is evaporating in the host intracluster medium, like ice melting in the summer.”

This is fascinating, but kind of weird – because the researchers couldn’t find any nearby galaxies that could account for this occurring recently. Yet, if the gas had been ripped from its galaxy hundreds of millions of years prior, as this lack of proximity suggested, how had it not been diffused into the intracluster medium?

To work this out, the team performed calculations, and found that a magnetic field could hold the gas cloud together against the instabilities that ought to otherwise tear it apart, for long periods of time.

Given the high mass of the cloud, the team has inferred that the parent galaxy from which it was torn was a large and massive one. This could help them track down which galaxy it was; another clue could be traces of gas that extend from the cloud, which might point in the right direction.

In addition, now that one lonely cloud has been identified, scientists have a set of data that will help to identify other such clouds in the future. This will provide valuable information about intracluster dynamics, and the distribution of matter in galaxy clusters.

Plus, we now have observational evidence that the intracluster medium can divest galaxies of their gas.

“As the first isolated cloud glowing in both the H-alpha spectral line and X-rays in a cluster of galaxies, it shows that the gas removed from galaxies can create clumps in the intracluster medium, and these clumps can be discovered with wide-field optical survey data in the future,” Sun said.

WORMHOLE-That helps you to teleport

Wormhole theory

Wormholes were first theorized in 1916, though that wasn’t what they were called at the time. While reviewing another physicist’s solution to the equations in Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Austrian physicist Ludwig Flamm realized another solution was possible. He described a “white hole,” a theoretical time reversal of a black hole. Entrances to both black and white holes could be connected by a space-time conduit.

In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory of general relativity to elaborate on the idea, proposing the existence of “bridges” through space-time. These bridges connect two different points in space-time, theoretically creating a shortcut that could reduce travel time and distance. The shortcuts came to be called Einstein-Rosen bridges, or wormholes.

“The whole thing is very hypothetical at this point,” said Stephen Hsu, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Oregon, told our sister site, LiveScience. “No one thinks we’re going to find a wormhole anytime soon.”

Wormholes contain two mouths, with a throat connecting the two. The mouths would most likely be spheroidal. The throat might be a straight stretch, but it could also wind around, taking a longer path than a more conventional route might require.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity mathematically predicts the existence of wormholes, but none have been discovered to date. A negative mass wormhole might be spotted by the way its gravity affects light that passes by.

Certain solutions of general relativity allow for the existence of wormholes where the mouth of each is a black hole. However, a naturally occurring black hole, formed by the collapse of a dying star, does not by itself create a wormhole.

Wormhole

Through the wormhole

Science fiction is filled with tales of traveling through wormholes. But the reality of such travel is more complicated, and not just because we’ve yet to spot one.

The first problem is size. Primordial wormholes are predicted to exist on microscopic levels, about 10–33 centimeters. However, as the universe expands, it is possible that some may have been stretched to larger sizes.

Another problem comes from stability. The predicted Einstein-Rosen wormholes would be useless for travel because they collapse quickly. 

“You would need some very exotic type of matter in order to stabilize a wormhole,” said Hsu, “and it’s not clear whether such matter exists in the universe.”

But more recent research found that a wormhole containing “exotic” matter could stay open and unchanging for longer periods of time.

Exotic matter, which should not be confused with dark matter or antimatter, contains negative energy density and a large negative pressure. Such matter has only been seen in the behavior of certain vacuum states as part of quantum field theory.

If a wormhole contained sufficient exotic matter, whether naturally occurring or artificially added, it could theoretically be used as a method of sending information or travelers through space. Unfortunately, human journeys through the space tunnels may be challenging.

“The jury is not in, so we just don’t know,” physicist Kip Thorne, one of the world’s leading authorities on relativity, black holes and wormholes, told Space.com. “But there are very strong indications that wormholes that a human could travel through are forbidden by the laws of physics. That’s sad, that’s unfortunate, but that’s the direction in which things are pointing.”

Wormholes may not only connect two separate regions within the universe, they could also connect two different universes. Similarly, some scientists have conjectured that if one mouth of a wormhole is moved in a specific manner, it could allow for time travel. 

“You can go into the future or into the past using traversable wormholes,” astrophysicist Eric Davis told LiveScience. But it won’t be easy: “It would take a Herculean effort to turn a wormhole into a time machine. It’s going to be tough enough to pull off a wormhole.”

However, British cosmologist Stephen Hawking has argued that such use is not possible. [Weird Science: Wormholes Make the Best Time Machines]

“A wormhole is not really a means of going back in time, it’s a short cut, so that something that was far away is much closer,” NASA’s Eric Christian wrote.

Although adding exotic matter to a wormhole might stabilize it to the point that human passengers could travel safely through it, there is still the possibility that the addition of “regular” matter would be sufficient to destabilize the portal.

Today’s technology is insufficient to enlarge or stabilize wormholes, even if they could be found. However, scientists continue to explore the concept as a method of space travel with the hope that technology will eventually be able to utilize them.

“You would need some of super-super-advanced technology,” Hsu said. “Humans won’t be doing this any time in the near future.”

Additional resources:

MESSIER 87-The Galaxy that gives Hope

M87
The elliptical galaxy M87 is the home of several trillion stars, a supermassive black hole and a family of roughly 15,000 globular star clusters. For comparison, our Milky Way galaxy contains only a few hundred billion stars and about 150 globular clusters. The monstrous M87 is the dominant member of the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies, which contains some 2,000 galaxies. Discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier, this galaxy is located 54 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It has an apparent magnitude of 9.6 and can be observed using a small telescope most easily in May.
This Hubble image of M87 is a composite of individual observations in visible and infrared light. Its most striking features are the blue jet near the center and the myriad of star-like globular clusters scattered throughout the image.
The jet is a black-hole-powered stream of material that is being ejected from M87’s core. As gaseous material from the center of the galaxy accretes onto the black hole, the energy released produces a stream of subatomic particles that are accelerated to velocities near the speed of light.
At the center of the Virgo cluster, M87 may have accumulated some of its many globular clusters by gravitationally pulling them from nearby dwarf galaxies that seem to be devoid of such clusters today.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of M87, see:
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2008-30
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2000-20
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2013-32
locator star chart for M87

SPACE DEBRIS

Space debris is the combination of natural(meteoroid) and artificial(man-made) particles. Natural debris orbits around the sun and artificial debris orbits around the earth. Hence they are called Orbital Debris. This can be any man-made object in the orbit moving in the earth’s orbit. Such debris includes nonfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicle stages, mission-related debris, and fragmentation debris.

In this article, we are going to focus on Artificial Debris, the Reason for its cause, and its prevention.

Space debris

What is Artificial space debris?

Any non-functional man-made object in space is called Artificial debris. 

They come from 

  • Satellites and spacecraft which are failed.
  • Satellites whose life has ended.
  • Rocket dismantle stages during the launch.
  • Hardware like nuts, bolts, payload covers, etc.
  • Solid propellant slag.
  • Cast aways during space activities like human wastes.
  • Fragments due to battery explosions, collisions, etc.

When two satellites collide they produce thousands of particles that are dangerous and can cause further destruction which makes Earth’s orbit unfit for satellite launches.

Artificial means man-made satellites

The number of satellite and rocket launches as of April 2021 is given below:

Number of rockets launched(excluding failures) since 19575560
Number of satellites carried by rockets launched11139
Number of satellites still in space7389
Number of satellites still functioning3170

Let’s have a look at the number of satellites launched only in 2020 and 2021(April)

Satellites launched in 20201283
Satellites launched in 2021 (April)853(65% of 2020)

History

In the year 2009, 19,000 debris over 5 cm in size were tracked. 

In July 2013, more than 170 million debris smaller than 1 cm(0.4), around 670,000 debris of 1 to 10 cm in size, and approximately 29,000 larger debris were detected.

By July 2016, nearly 18,000 artificial debris were orbiting the earth.

In October 2019, nearly 20,000 artificial objects including 2,218 were tracked.

The speed with which the debris travel is more than 28,000 kph(23 times the speed of sound).

Have you heard of Kessler syndrome?

NASA scientist Donald Kessler in 1978, proposed that more launches could increase the junk around the earth which results in the chain reaction of collision of objects in space and further making the earth’s orbit unfit for satellites.

This situation would be extreme, but some experts worry that a variant of this could be a problem one day, and precautionary steps should be taken to avoid the problem.

How do they track space debris?

The USA and Russia have set up tracking networks to monitor the orbital space object population. The European Union is also starting to develop its ways to track debris.

Powerful lasers are used to measure the distance of these objects, like radar or sonar. When a laser beam hits the debris and bounces back to Earth, ground crews can measure how long it takes to figure out where they are and where they are going it alerts the ground stations in case of collisions. But usually, laser technology is used to detect the movement of satellites and if the same technique is used to detect the debris then continuous monitoring should be there since debris are found randomly in space.

Detection of objects through laser technology

India’s status on tracking debris

NETRA(Network for space Objects, Tracking, and Analysis)

Till now, ISRO was dependent on NORAD(North America Aerospace Defense Command) data,

which is available in the public domain, to keep track of space debris and monitor our active and passive satellites. However, this global data is not accurate but NORAD keeps accurate data available for those who are members of its network. Therefore, ISRO cannot access the data.

But now, ISRO has decided to set up telescopes and radars in four corners of the country to get accurate data and avoid unwanted collisions of the satellites.

In September 2019, India launched the early warning system NETRA to secure satellites and other assets in space.

Can satellites be protected from space debris?

There are two ways in which the satellites and spacecraft can be protected:

  • Computer programs can search for possible collisions between large debris. This system is used in the International Space Station to detect. These operations are expensive and can disturb delicate experiments. Space tracking networks can only track objects more than 100 mm in size. Even a 10 mm object can cause big trouble this cannot be called 100% effective.
  • A debris shield can be designed to provide additional protection for a spacecraft. One way is to increase the thickness of the craft but that can increase the mass of the craft/satellite. Hence, a specially designed shield called the Wipple shield was used. It was made of two thin walls separated by some space. It was observed that this wall was more resistant to debris. The outer layer absorbs a lot of debris energy so that the inner wall is not punctured.
Protection of satellites through shields

Space debris Removal

Removing space junk, especially larger pieces before they fragment is not easy. The best way to do this is retarding the force and deorbiting the junk. When it drops in altitude less than 400 km above the earth it is burnt.

For years NASA, ESA, and other space agencies are studying debris removal technologies. Some of the ideas include the usage of nets to gather junk and robotic arm. Japanese are now developing a type of satellite that uses magnets to catch and destroy the debris. Last year, UK has successfully cast a net around a dummy satellite.

Clearspace one

Clearspace-1 will be the first space mission to remove debris from the Earth orbit, it was planned to launch in 2025. The technology demonstration satellite was first developed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. 

Clearspace one

Many countries are trying to invent new technologies to reduce the threat of debris. Russia invented a Self Destroying Satellite. Australian researchers are developing the Hunter-Killer satellite to neutralize space junk. Finland has developed a Wooden Satellite and planning to launch this year.

  • Hunter-Killer Satellite
  • Finland’s wooden satellite
  • Wooden Satellite(japan)

credits to the right owners of the pictures used.

TIME DILATION-That makes you age faster

Dark energy explained by relativistic time dilation? – Astronomy Now

Time Dilation

It turns out that as an object moves with relativistic speeds a “strange” thing seems to happen to its time as observed by “us” the stationary observer (observer in an inertial reference frame). What we see happen is that the “clock” in motion slows down according to our clock, therefore we read two different times. Which time is correct??? well they both are because time is not absolute but is relative, it depends on the reference frame. Let’s look at the following classic example. There is a set of twins, one an astronaut, the other works for mission control of NASA. The astronaut leaves on a deep space trip traveling at 95% the speed of light. Upon returning the astronauts clock has measured ten years, so yhe astronaut has aged 10 years. However, when the astronaut reunites with his earth bound twin, the astronauthe sees that the twin has aged 32 years! This is explained due to the fact that the astronaut’s twin is traveling at relativistic speeds and therefore his “clock” is slowed down.

Let’s see how we can calculate the time “difference”. The equation for calculating time dilation is as follows:

t = t0/(1-v2/c2)1/2

where: t = time observed in the other reference frame

t0 = time in observers own frame of reference (rest time)

v = the speed of the moving object

c = the speed of light in a vacuum

so in our problem we will let v = .95c, t0 = 10 years and we will solve for t which is the time that the earth bound brother measures.

t = 10/(1- (.95c)2/c2)1/2

t = 10/(1- .952)1/2

t = 10/ .312

t = 32 years
(the time the earth bound brother measures)

Now let’s have a closer look at the equation and determine just what impact the speed of the object has on time dilation. We can see that is the velocity is small compared to the speed of light the quantity v2/c2 approaches 0 and the equation simplifies t0: t = t0/1 which is simply t. So at relatively slow speeds (our everyday speeds) time dilation is not a factor and Newton’s Laws are still applicable. Now let’s look at high speeds (close to the speed of light), from the equation that as velocity increases the quantity v2/c2 approaches 1 (but will never quit reach it), causing the quantity(1-v2/c2)1/2 t0 become smaller and smaller….therefore causing the time measured by the other observer t0 become greater thus making our time appear slower (refer back to the example). I know its so confusing!!! read it again, think about it, then study the graph below. As one can see in the graph time dilation starts t0 “show up” between .4c and .5c. Also notice that the closer one gets to the speed of light the greater impact speed has on time dilation (notice how steep the curve gets towards the end)..

AGNI:THE FAMILY OF BALLISTIC MISSILES

The name Agni(meaning fire) was given after one of the 5 elements in nature(Agni, Vayu, Prithvi, Akash, Jala). Agni missiles are medium to intercontinental-range ballistic missiles, developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, INDIA. The family of missiles consists of AGNI I, AGNI II, AGNI III, AGNI IV, AGNI V, AGNI P, AGNI VI. And here is a brief description of each one of them.

India night-tests Agni-I missile

Agni I:

Agni I is an intermediate-range ballistic missile, it is 14.8 m long, with a diameter of 1.3 meters, and weighs 22,000 kgs. With a maximum payload of 1,000 kgs, the missile could extend its range up to 1,200 km of distance. Agni I is used by the SCF of the Indian Army. It is made of all-carbon composite materials to protect the payload during its re-entry stage. It is designed to be launched from Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL) vehicles, either by road or rail-mobile through transportation. The development of this missile began in 1999, and was first tested in January 2002 from a TEL vehicle at the Interim Test Range on Wheelers’ Island of India’s eastern coast. This missile has relatively high accuracy, simplicity, and due to its combination of an inertial guidance system with a terminal phase radar correlation targeting system on its warhead. 

Agni II missile

Agni II:

Agni II is a medium-range, two-and-half-stage solid propellent ballistic missile, and is 20 m long, with a diameter of 1 m, and weighs around 26,000 kg. With a payload of 820-2,000 kgs, the missile could extend its range from 2,000 to 3,500 km. Agni II was first tested on 11th April 1999 at the Wheelers’ Island of the Odisha coast using IC-4 launch pad, over the range 2,000 to 2,200 km. The Agni II uses a combination of inertial navigation and GPS in its guidance module as well as dual-frequency radar correlation for terminal guidance. The 20-meter-long, two-stage ballistic missile has a strike range of 2,000 km to 3,000 km during the night trail of a nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missile on 16th Nov 2019.

Agni-3 ballistic missile successfully launched by India’s Strategic Forces Command (SFC) from Wheeler Island, off the coast of Odisha on September 21, 2012.

Agni III:

Agni III is an intermediate-range, two-stage solid propellent ballistic missile, it is shorter (17 m and wider and 2 m in diameter) compared to other missiles (Agni I and Agni II), and weighs up to 44,000 kg. With a payload of 2,500 kg, Agni III could extend its range from 2,000 to 3,000 km. It is made using advanced carbon composite materials, while the second-stage booster is made of iron-based steel alloy. Agni-III was first tested on 9th July 2006 from Wheeler Island on the coast of the eastern state of Odisha, by Rail-mobile, possible road-based TEL( Transporter-Erector-Launcher). It was again tested on 12th April 2007 successfully, again from Wheeler Island. The third successive trail-test was fired on 7th May 2008 from Wheelers island, which had a range of 3,500 km, taking a warhead of 1.5 tonnes. It is the most accurate strategic ballistic missile which increases the “kill efficiency” of the weapon. It was reported that with a low payload Agni III and hit a target of over 3,500 km.

Agni IV missile

Agni IV:

Agni IV is an intermediate-range, two-stage nuclear-capable ballistic missile, it is 20 m long, with a diameter of 1 m, and weighs up to 17,000 kg. It was previously called as Agni II prime. Agni IV was first tested on 15th November 2011 and on 19 September 2012 from Wheeler Island(Abdul Kalam Island) off the coast of the eastern state of Orissa. It could reach the target up to the range of 3,500–4,000 km with a payload of 800–1,000 kg. On 20th January 2014, that is during its third test, the missile was lifted off from the launcher and after reaching an altitude of over 800 km, and impacted near the target in the Indian ocean with a remarkable accuracy carrying a payload of 900 kg. Agni IV is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, that include indigenously developed ring laser gyro and composite rocket motor.

Agni V missile

Agni V:

Agni V is an intercontinental-range, three-stage solid-fuel ballistic missile, it is 17 m long, with a diameter of 2 m, and weighs up to 50,000 kg, developed by the Defense Research and Development Organisation of India. It could reach a target of more than 5,500 km. It was first test-fired on 19th April 2012, from Abdul Kalam Island formerly known as Wheelers Island off the coast of Odisha. It is a canister launch missile system and ensures that it has the requisite operational flexibility and can be swiftly transported and fired from anywhere. The second test launch of Agni-V was completed on 15th September 2013 and the canisterized version was launched in January 2015.

Agni P missile

Agni P:

Agni prime is a medium-range, two-stage solid-fueled ballistic missile, it is half of the weight of Agni III, developed by the Defense Research and Development Organisation, India. Both the first and second stage of the missile was made of composite materials. It could extend its range up to 1,000-2,000 km. As per DRDO, Agni-Prime is a new generation advanced variant of the Agni family, launched on 28th June 2021. “Being a canister-launched missile, Agni-P will give the armed forces the requisite operational flexibility to swiftly transport and fire it from anywhere they want. The test at 10:55 met all mission objectives with a high level of accuracy,” says DRDO. This missile has followed the Textbook trajectory with a great level of accuracy.

Agni VI under development

Agni VI:

Agni VI will be a four-stage intercontinental ballistic missile, currently in the hardware development phase and expected to have a Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicle(MIRV) as well as a Maneuverable Reentry Vehicle(MaRV). It is expected as the latest and most advanced version among the Agni Missiles.

References:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-successfully-testfires-agni-i-ballist/715859/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-successfully-test-fires-new-generation-agni-p-ballistic-missile/articleshow/83914848.cms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni_(missile)

https://frontline.thehindu.com/dispatches/india-successfully-test-fires-agni-prime-missile/article35022926.ece

credits to the right owner of the images used.

SPACE-TIME-GRAVITY

Gravity is the curvature of space time-

According to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, gravity is no longer a force that acts on massive bodies, as viewed by Isaac Newton’s universal gravitation. Instead, general relativity links gravity to the geometry of spacetime itself, and particularly to its curvature.

In classical physics, time proceeds constantly and independently for all objects. In relativity, spacetime is a four-dimensional continuum combining the familiar three dimensions of space with the dimension of time.

To account for gravity in relativity, the structure of this four-dimensional spacetime must be extended beyond the rules of classical geometry, where parallel lines never meet and the sum of a triangle’s angles is 180°. In general relativity, spacetime is not ‘flat’ but is curved by the presence of massive bodies.

This artistic representation visualises spacetime as a simplified, two-dimensional surface, which is being distorted by the presence of three massive bodies, represented as coloured spheres. The distortion caused by each sphere is proportional to its mass.

The curvature of spacetime influences the motion of massive bodies within it; in turn, as massive bodies move in spacetime, the curvature changes and the geometry of spacetime is in constant evolution. Gravity then provides a description of the dynamic interaction between matter and spacetime.

Laundry in Space

Cleanliness is the half your health. But sadly this does not go well in space. Astronauts say they run through a pair of T-shirts and socks on a weekly basis. There’s no scope for laundry in space.

This unhygienic practice is not only affecting the astronaut’s health but also making a huge trash of cloths which are burnt up in the atmosphere. NASA has taken an initiative in order to bring a change in this. They have teamed up with Procter and Gamble Co. to find out the best remedies in cleaning astronaut’s cloths in space.

The company has assured to send a pair of a Tide detergent and stain removal experiments to the space station. As weight is a big issue in rocket cargoes, P & G is planning to send up some customized detergents in December to see how the enzymes and other ingredients will react to the six months of weightlessness. After getting approval from scientists they will send the stain removal pens and wipes in the May. The company is also trying to design a washer-dryer combo that will operate in space using minimal amount of the recyclable laundry water and detergent. Officials expressed high hope in this diverse research.