Our Planet

NASA’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) about Van Allen Probes

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 24, 2019
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Van Allen Probes (artist imagination) Originally slated for a two-year mission, the spacecraft flew through the Van Allen belts - rings of charged particles trapped by Earth’s magnetic field - to understand how particles were gained and lost by the belts. The spacecraft made major discoveries that revolutionized how we understand our near-Earth environment. With instruments measuring electromagnetic fields and charged particles, the Van Allen Probes explored the invisible phenomena shepherding particles in and around the belts. It made discoveries about the architecture of the belts and the forces shaping them. Just as ocean storms on Earth can create giant waves, space weather, caused by the Sun, can create plasma waves, where seas of particles are tossed by electromagnetic fields. The Van Allen Probes pioneered new explorations into the dynamics of these waves and their effects on our near-Earth environment.

On October 18, 2019, NASA held an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit. Scientists from the space agency answered questions about Van Allen Probes, two robotic spacecraft that were used to study the Van Allen radiation belts that surround planet Earth.

Solar System Astronomy Earth from Space Space Exploration

NASA’s Solar System and Beyond Poster Set [You can download and print for free!]

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 23, 2019
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NASA Solar System and Beyond poster set — This NASA poster set showcases the beauty of our solar system and beyond. The posters are best printed on 11''x17'' paper. The full set of posters includes 21 deep space destinations and the planet Earth (with a variety of views and download options). To download and print (free!) all the posters and see all the download options, visit solarsystem.nasa.gov

You can download and print NASA’s “Solar System and Beyond” Poster Set for free. The posters are best printed on 11”x17” paper.

Physics Science Fiction Space Exploration

“Impossible Engine” – it is impossible

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 22, 2019
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VASIMR spacecraft — The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) is an electrothermal thruster under development for possible use in spacecraft propulsion. It uses radio waves to ionize and heat an inert propellant, then a magnetic field to accelerate the resulting plasma, generating thrust. It is a plasma propulsion engine, one of several types of spacecraft electric propulsion systems. Please see the article titled "The VASIMR Hoax" on the Space News website

A good rule of thumb: if you see a headline saying something “breaks the laws of physics” (i.e. the “Impossible Engine”) the headline is flat-out wrong.

Space Exploration

Roscosmos Publishes Declassified Documents from the Space Race

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 21, 2019
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Yuri Gagarin — Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (9 March 1934 - 27 March 1968) was a Russian pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961. After being the first human in the space, Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation's highest honor. Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash: on 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky Air Base, he and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI crash near the town of Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and the ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin on Red Square in Moscow.

Russian space agency Roscosmos started to publish declassified documents from the Space Race, a 20th-century arm-wrestling to achieve firsts in spaceflight capability between two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (US).

Space Exploration

First-ever all-female spacewalk performed by NASA astronauts

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 19, 2019
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NASA astronauts and ISS Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Christina Koch and Jessica Meir have completed the first-ever all-female spacewalk in the history of space exploration. The spacewalk was broadcast live on NASA TV (see the video below).

Astrobiology Astronomy

Habitable Zone explained by astrophysicist

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 18, 2019
No Comments on Habitable Zone explained by astrophysicist

Habitable Zone of a Star — The circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), or simply the habitable zone, is the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressure. To find another planet like Earth, astronomers are focusing on the 'habitable zone' around stars--where it's not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface. Image: NASA.gov

Elizabeth Tasker (@girlandkat on Twitter), the UK astrophysicist working at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the author of the popular science book “The Planet Factory” (see notes 1) says “the habitable zone is the worst name ever in the history of naming anything” in her perfect doodly she published on Twitter.

Astronomy Solar System

The best view yet of 2I/Borisov, the first confirmed interstellar comet by the Hubble Space Telescope

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 17, 2019
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Hubble image of 2I/Borisov, originally designated C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), and popularly known as the Borisoc comet, the first observed interstellar comet and the second observed interstellar interloper after ʻOumuamua. This image was acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope on October 12, 2019.

On October 12, 2019, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provided astronomers with their best look yet at the first confirmed interstellar comet – the 2I/Borisov (originally designated C/2019 Q4).

Astronomy Solar System Space Exploration

10 lesser-known space facts

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 10, 2019
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Milky Way. Photo by Oliver Griebl - Imported from 500px. CC BY 3.0, Link

Did you know that the Moon and space itself have a smell? Space has a lot of surprises. Here are the 10 lesser-known space facts.

Physics

Why we can stop worrying and love the particle accelerator

Post author By Aeon Magazine
Post date October 2, 2019
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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It first started up on 10 September 2008 and remains the latest addition to CERN’s accelerator complex. The LHC consists of a 27 km (16.8 mi) ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way. Inside the accelerator, two high-energy particle beams travel at close to the speed of light before they are made to collide. The beams travel in opposite directions in separate beam pipes – two tubes kept at ultrahigh vacuum. They are guided around the accelerator ring by a strong magnetic field maintained by superconducting electromagnets. The electromagnets are built from coils of special electric cable that operates in a superconducting state, efficiently conducting electricity without resistance or loss of energy. This requires chilling the magnets to ‑271.3°C – a temperature colder than outer space. For this reason, much of the accelerator is connected to a distribution system of liquid helium, which cools the magnets, as well as to other supply services. housands of magnets of different varieties and sizes are used to direct the beams around the accelerator. These include 1232 dipole magnets 15 meters in length which bend the beams, and 392 quadrupole magnets, each 5-7 meters long, which focus the beams. Just prior to collision, another type of magnet is used to "squeeze" the particles closer together to increase the chances of collisions. The particles are so tiny that the task of making them collide is akin to firing two needles 10 km apart with such precision that they meet halfway. All the controls for the accelerator, its services and technical infrastructure are housed under one roof at the CERN Control Centre. From here, the beams inside the LHC are made to collide at four locations around the accelerator ring, corresponding to the positions of four particle detectors – ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb. Image and text: CERN

What would happen if you stuck your body inside a particle accelerator? The scenario seems like the start of a bad Marvel comic, but it happens to shed light on our intuitions about radiation, the vulnerability of the human body, and the very nature of matter. Particle accelerators allow physicists to study subatomic particles by speeding them up in powerful magnetic fields and then tracing the interactions that result from collisions. By delving into the mysteries of the Universe, colliders have entered the Zeitgeist and tapped the wonders and fears of our age.

Solar System Astronomy Planet Earth

Ancient Distance and Apparent Size of the Moon [Video]

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date September 30, 2019
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Ancient Moon — According to the giant impact hypothesis, a widely accepted theory, the Moon was created as a result of a catastrophic impact between Earth and a Mars-sized planet (called Theia) about 4.5 billion years ago. The Moon had orbited much more closely in the past and it is drifting away from the Earth since its formation. This drifting was also confirmed by American and Soviet experiments, using laser ranging targets placed on the Moon.

Today, on average, the Moon is 384,400 km (238,000 miles) away from the Earth. But that was not always the case. Our satellite was much closer in the past. Now, Dr. James O’Donoghue (@physicsJ on Twitter) created the animation below showing the ancient distances and apparent size of the Moon.

The animation also includes the current distance and apparent size of the moon in the Earth’s sky.