On march 27th 2018, NASA announced that the scheduled launch of the James Webb Space Telescope moved from its previous expected launch window of spring 2019 to May of 2020. The spacecraft has been in development for over two decades. NASA says that it needs more time to tests the telescope's intricate systems and to make repairs to its sun shield. The James Webb Space Telescope is slated to become the replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.
Unlike Hubble, the Webb telescope will not be serviceable once it is launched. The Hubble Space Telescope orbited the Earth. The Webb telescope will go into orbit around the sun at a point that's a million miles away from Earth. Because of the very real need to get everything right before launch, it's possible that the Webb telescope may exceed its 8 billion development budget. NASA's partner on the project, the European Space Agency, says the spacecraft will be launched from French Guiana.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
A New Form Of Light Has Been Created
On February 15th 2018, scientists at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Harvard, announced in the Journal Science, that they have created a new form of light. According to Vladan Vuletic, the Lester Wolf Professor of physics at MIT and Mikhail Lukin of Harvard, who led the research team, groups of three photons were observed interacting with each other. They say that the photons were sticking together in a way that formed a new photonic matter.
Normal beams of light are composed of photons or tiny packets of energy, but those photons don't interact, they just pass each other. A way to picture this is to imagine shining two flashlights so as to make the beams touch each other. What you will see is the two beams passing each other by. However, when the research team shined a weak laser beam through a cloud of rubidium atoms, the photons interacted by binding together in pairs and triplets.
Photons, by nature, travel at 186,000 miles per second, but the researchers observed them traveling through the cloud at 100,000 times slower than normal. As the photons interacted, the resulting pairs and triplets gave off a phase shifted energy signature. The team worried as to whether these photon groupings would be stable. However, they discovered that a three photon grouping was more stable than two.
The team also found that the bond grows stronger as more photons are added. While the idea or possible use for this discovery may lead some to envision Star Wars like light sabers, the team wants to use the attractive and repulsive interactions of the photons to one day make light crystals. They believe that such crystals could be used to in quantum communication and quantum computing.
Normal beams of light are composed of photons or tiny packets of energy, but those photons don't interact, they just pass each other. A way to picture this is to imagine shining two flashlights so as to make the beams touch each other. What you will see is the two beams passing each other by. However, when the research team shined a weak laser beam through a cloud of rubidium atoms, the photons interacted by binding together in pairs and triplets.
Photons, by nature, travel at 186,000 miles per second, but the researchers observed them traveling through the cloud at 100,000 times slower than normal. As the photons interacted, the resulting pairs and triplets gave off a phase shifted energy signature. The team worried as to whether these photon groupings would be stable. However, they discovered that a three photon grouping was more stable than two.
The team also found that the bond grows stronger as more photons are added. While the idea or possible use for this discovery may lead some to envision Star Wars like light sabers, the team wants to use the attractive and repulsive interactions of the photons to one day make light crystals. They believe that such crystals could be used to in quantum communication and quantum computing.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Physicist Stephen Hawking Dies
Noted physicist and author, Stephen Hawking died Wednesday March 13th 2018, he was 76. According to his family he died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in the United Kingdom, as the result of complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Dr. Hawking was best known for his work in cosmology, specifically black holes and relativity and for authoring the hugely successful science book, "A Brief History of Time."
Dr. Hawking was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, when he was 22. Progression of the motor neurone disease eventually left Dr. Hawking confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. He did not however let that stop him from making significant contributions to science. When he was a graduate student at Cambridge University he and Roger Penrose of Berkbeck College of London were able to prove mathematically that black holes actually exist.
He later theorized the existence of mini proton sized black holes that he believed eventually evaporated. He then concluded that this meant that these black holes were essentially radiating away through what has become known as Hawking Radiation. A few years later, with the help of Dr, James Hartle form the University of California Santa Barbara, Dr. Hawking arrived at the assessment that our universe was a closed system and therefore is boundless like the Earth.
In the late 1980's, Dr. Hawking achieved real stardom when he wrote the science book, "A Brief History of Time." His book stayed on the Sunday Times best seller list for 237 weeks which won it a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Dr, Hawking won the Einstein Award, the Wolf Prize, the Copley Medal, and the Fundamental Physics Prize. In 2009, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2014 His life was made into a movie named, "The Theory of Everything," which won an Academy Award for Eddie Redmayne, the actor who portrayed him.
Dr. Hawking was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, when he was 22. Progression of the motor neurone disease eventually left Dr. Hawking confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. He did not however let that stop him from making significant contributions to science. When he was a graduate student at Cambridge University he and Roger Penrose of Berkbeck College of London were able to prove mathematically that black holes actually exist.
He later theorized the existence of mini proton sized black holes that he believed eventually evaporated. He then concluded that this meant that these black holes were essentially radiating away through what has become known as Hawking Radiation. A few years later, with the help of Dr, James Hartle form the University of California Santa Barbara, Dr. Hawking arrived at the assessment that our universe was a closed system and therefore is boundless like the Earth.
In the late 1980's, Dr. Hawking achieved real stardom when he wrote the science book, "A Brief History of Time." His book stayed on the Sunday Times best seller list for 237 weeks which won it a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Dr, Hawking won the Einstein Award, the Wolf Prize, the Copley Medal, and the Fundamental Physics Prize. In 2009, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2014 His life was made into a movie named, "The Theory of Everything," which won an Academy Award for Eddie Redmayne, the actor who portrayed him.
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
China's Tiangong-1 Space Station Is Falling
China's first space station, the Tiangong-1, is expected to fall back to Earth between March 24th and April 19th 2018. The Aerospace Corporation, a non profit R and D company has been tracking the Tiangong-1. They say the 8.5 ton space craft will likely re enter somewhere, over either the northern United States, parts of South America, northern China, the Middle East, central Italy, northern Spain, New Zealand, the south of Africa, or Tasmania in Australia.
The Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011. Its name means "Heavenly Palace," in English. It is a single module craft that is operated by the China National Space Administration. The Tiangong-1 was used for both maned and unmanned missions. It has been host to two crews of "taikonauts," which is Chinese for astronaut. The final crew of "taikonauts," left the Tiangong-1 in 2013. In 2016, China launched the Tiangong-2 spacecraft.
That same year, China admitted that it had lost control of the Tiangong-1. Jonathan McDowell an astrophysicist from Harvard said, that the Tiangong-1's has been speeding up and that it is now falling at a rate of 6 km a week. He believes that no one will know where it will actually fall until it reaches its final week. The Aerospace Corporation says, "When considering the worst case location... the probability that a specific person (ie, you) will be struck by Tiangong-1 debris is about a million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot."
The Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011. Its name means "Heavenly Palace," in English. It is a single module craft that is operated by the China National Space Administration. The Tiangong-1 was used for both maned and unmanned missions. It has been host to two crews of "taikonauts," which is Chinese for astronaut. The final crew of "taikonauts," left the Tiangong-1 in 2013. In 2016, China launched the Tiangong-2 spacecraft.
That same year, China admitted that it had lost control of the Tiangong-1. Jonathan McDowell an astrophysicist from Harvard said, that the Tiangong-1's has been speeding up and that it is now falling at a rate of 6 km a week. He believes that no one will know where it will actually fall until it reaches its final week. The Aerospace Corporation says, "When considering the worst case location... the probability that a specific person (ie, you) will be struck by Tiangong-1 debris is about a million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot."
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Scientists Discover Evidence Of The Earliest Stars
On February 28th 2018, scientists announced in the Journal Nature that a faint radio signal from deep in the universe has revealed evidence that the first stars were born 180 million years after the big bang. The discovery was made by researchers at the University of Arizona, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Science Foundation, using a radio telescope in the Australian outback.
The first stars were formed from primordial hydrogen and helium. The researchers formulated a theory that this early star formation might have caused a slight dip in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. According to their theory this dip in the light left over from the big bang should be detectable. The team designed and built a kitchen table sized antennae which they called Experiment to Detect the Global EoR (Epoch of Reionization) Signatures or EDGES,
They took their antennae to the Murchison Radio-astronomy (MRO) in western Australia. The radio quiet facility allowed the team to use EDGES to scan frequencies that overlapped the FM band. EDGES was eventually able to spot the dip in the CMB at about 78 megahertz, which turned out to be twice the intensity that the researchers had expected. They further theorized that this could be due to the early hydrogen being cooled down by the presence of dark matter.
The first stars were formed from primordial hydrogen and helium. The researchers formulated a theory that this early star formation might have caused a slight dip in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. According to their theory this dip in the light left over from the big bang should be detectable. The team designed and built a kitchen table sized antennae which they called Experiment to Detect the Global EoR (Epoch of Reionization) Signatures or EDGES,
They took their antennae to the Murchison Radio-astronomy (MRO) in western Australia. The radio quiet facility allowed the team to use EDGES to scan frequencies that overlapped the FM band. EDGES was eventually able to spot the dip in the CMB at about 78 megahertz, which turned out to be twice the intensity that the researchers had expected. They further theorized that this could be due to the early hydrogen being cooled down by the presence of dark matter.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Archaeologists Discover Ancient Mayan City
On February 1st 2018, archaeologists in Guatemala announced that they have discovered the ruins of a previously undetected Mayan city. Their findings have yielded evidence of at least 60,000 unknown structures. Their discovery is being hailed as a, "major breakthrough," in Mayan archaeology, that reveals the pre-Colombian civilization as a more connected and complex society than most Mayan scholars had believed.
The discovery was made possible through the use of Light Detection and Ranging or LiDAR. The archaeologists made aerial surveys of over 800 square miles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. The LiDAR system fires as many as 150,000 pulses of light a second when it scans a surface. Repeated scans gave the researchers the ability to create a topographical map of the region.
From the data that was retrieved, the archaeologists were able to determine that the region supported a civilization that was equal to that of the ancient Greeks or the Chinese. Francisco Estrada-Belli, an archaeologist from Tulane University said, the area was more densely populated than previously believed. He said, "It's no longer unreasonable to think that there were 10 to 15 million people there."
The discovery was made possible through the use of Light Detection and Ranging or LiDAR. The archaeologists made aerial surveys of over 800 square miles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. The LiDAR system fires as many as 150,000 pulses of light a second when it scans a surface. Repeated scans gave the researchers the ability to create a topographical map of the region.
From the data that was retrieved, the archaeologists were able to determine that the region supported a civilization that was equal to that of the ancient Greeks or the Chinese. Francisco Estrada-Belli, an archaeologist from Tulane University said, the area was more densely populated than previously believed. He said, "It's no longer unreasonable to think that there were 10 to 15 million people there."
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Successful Launch Of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy
On February 6th 2018, SpaceX successfully launched it Falcon Heavy rocket into space. The rocket lifted off at 3:49 pm eastern time from launch complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Florida. With its launch, the Falcon Heavy became the most powerful rocket since the Saturn 5, which was used to lift the Apollo missions to the moon. It also made SpaceX the first private company to launch a vehicle of the Falcon Heavy's size and payload capacity.
The Falcon Heavy stands 23 stories tall. It uses three boosters that are based on Falcon 9 rockets that have 27 Merlin engines. These boosters can produce a combined 5 million pounds of thrust at lift off. The Falcon Heavy has a low Earth payload capacity of 140,700 pounds. It is also capable of carrying 58,900 pounds to geostationary orbit, or it can carry 37,000 to Mars. The latter is the stated objective of Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX.
On Its maiden flight, Mr Musk decided to send a red Telsa Roadster as its demonstration payload. The car was eventually placed into an orbit that will eventually take it into the asteroid belt. Meanwhile, the two main rocket boosters both returned to Earth for a synchronized landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The Falcon Heavy stands 23 stories tall. It uses three boosters that are based on Falcon 9 rockets that have 27 Merlin engines. These boosters can produce a combined 5 million pounds of thrust at lift off. The Falcon Heavy has a low Earth payload capacity of 140,700 pounds. It is also capable of carrying 58,900 pounds to geostationary orbit, or it can carry 37,000 to Mars. The latter is the stated objective of Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX.
On Its maiden flight, Mr Musk decided to send a red Telsa Roadster as its demonstration payload. The car was eventually placed into an orbit that will eventually take it into the asteroid belt. Meanwhile, the two main rocket boosters both returned to Earth for a synchronized landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
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