Astronomy Rewind: March 2019
SpaceX and Nasa Collaboration, Reversing the time, high-speed pulsars and much more…
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot, and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”- Charles Dickens
“Blossom by blossom the spring begins.”
With the spring equinox and many ancient Roman observances, March is famous for hosting a large number of events. With recent advances in the field of space sciences, we bring you a curated list of all the hot news that happened in March. To begin the article, we present to you the Super Worm Moon, clicked on 20th of March through Nakshatra’s Newtonian Telescope.
Top Stories
- Crew Dragon scales new heights!
Sending humans into space is no easy feat. Even a tiny miscalculation can cost lives and set back the space program by years. Up until now, this technology was only accessible to governmental agencies. However, earlier this month, Elon Musk’s SpaceX got a step closer to launching Astronauts into space with the successful test launch of Crew dragon making it the first private agency ever to do so. Dragon docked on to the ISS on March 3rd carrying in supplies to the current residents of the space station. It also successfully undocked and returned to Earth on March 8th, as it splashed down into the Atlantic.
Being over 8 meters tall, with the ability to accommodate up to 7 astronauts, propelled by 16 Draco maneuvering thrusters and 8 SuperDraco engines, Crew Dragon is a beast in its own right. Beyond its services to NASA, its success opens up a new realm of possibilities in the modern space race for commercialization. It could someday be used for transporting private passengers to the futuristic space hotels and other destinations as a part of space tourism programs.
Later in July this year, Crew Dragon is scheduled to launch two US astronauts from the American soil, a feat that hasn’t been done since 2011 when the NASA’s space shuttle program has ended.
- Reality isn’t objective after all!
One of the most debated questions of human exploration is the objectivity of the reality we experience. But recently, the experiment done by Massimiliano Proietti at Heriot-Watt University put this to an end — at least at quantum levels. According to the experiment results, there does not exist any objective reality but only subjective reality. So, two different observers can experience two different realities, and there’s no point in asking which one is the real one.
The experiment was a thought experiment designed in the 1960s by Eugene Wigner; the idea was to have two different observers observe polarization of a single photon. Now, a photon can have either horizontal or vertical polarisation. But, before the measurements according to the laws of quantum mechanics, the photon exists in both polarization states at the same time — a so-called superposition.
Now with the recent developments, it was possible to take the experiment from theory to practice, and that’s what physicists did. One observer measured the polarisation of the photon, while the other observer who was far away and unaware of the measurements made by the first observer, performs an interference measurement to determine if the measurement and the photon are in a superposition. And the results of this experiment gave very shocking results. Both observers got the readings. But it shouldn’t be possible because according to the observer two, the measurement and photon are in superposition but observer one measured the polarisation. Thus, two different realities existed for both observers.
This created a buzz in the scientific community; the belief that there isn’t any universal reality puts many different things to question. We don’t know where we will go from here, whether we will be able to create bizarre realities or not, humans will always try their best to find an answer to their existence.
- Fourth nation enters into the league of Anti-Sat Missiles!
From taking down stationary targets to flying objects, today missile systems are quite advanced. But when it comes to shooting down satellites in orbit, only three countries, US, Russia, and China have achieved the feat until India join this elite set of nations with successfully testing an ASAT missile technology under codename Mission Shakthi.
Developed indigenously, the ASAT missile had successfully taken down a low earth orbit satellite. However, with success came criticism. It was pointed out that the explosion created a lot of space debris, reportedly being tracked by NASA. Space debris can prove to be extremely hazardous and stand as an obstacle to future missions.
- Supernova fires a Cannonball!
NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope observed a pulsar about 6500 light years away, moving at considerable speed, which is five times the speed previously seen for other pulsars. The pulsar was most likely thrown out by the supernova explosion of its predecessor star, and eventually surpassed the extended shell of dust and gas.
“Thanks to its narrow dart-like tail and a fortuitous viewing angle, we can trace this pulsar straight back to its birthplace,” Frank Schinzel, a researcher at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “Further study of this object will help us better understand how these explosions can ‘kick’ neutron stars to such high speed.”
The explosion probably happened around 10000 years ago, and it propelled the pulsar across space, where it was further slowed down by the interstellar medium. The Pulsar flashes regularly, sending jets of gamma rays towards Earth, providing us with enough data to understand the situation better.
New Discoveries
- Evidence of blue core inside the red planet!
Mars is a planet of immense human interest not only in respect to its striking similarities to earth but also it is a potential habitat to earthlings in the future. Ever since the compelling evidence of water on Mars, (courtesy of Curiosity rover back in 2012) scientists and planetary geologists have taken a particular interest in the promising planet.
Recent snapshots taken by the ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter of 24 existing craters in the northern hemisphere of Mars suggest the existence of water on all of them. Every crater showed geological remnants of water flow at a depth of approximately 4000–4800 meters into the red planet. This led experts to believe the same underground water system may have connected the craters. And the geographic directionality of the flow suggests that the water was fed from bottom-up. This is conclusive evidence for a planet-wide groundwater system on Mars.
Identifying such geographic locations on the dusty planet is crucial when searching for remnants of past life. This discovery is also suggestive of liquid water existing in the planet’s core even today! Guess we may stay over at our neighbours after all!
- Spooky action reverses arrow of time!
The second law of thermodynamics is perhaps the law most embedded in the framework of our universe. Hence it is tough to bend the law, even on a quantum scale. Let alone disproving it. The 2nd law of thermodynamics is intimately related to the concept of an arrow of time, and it restricts the directionality of this arrow. But a recent quantum algorithm finally challenged this restriction.
From a quantum physicist’s perspective, the 2nd law of thermodynamics dictates the ever increasing entropy of the universe. What it means is that at a quantum level all particles are continuously and intricately entangling with all other particles. By entanglement, we mean the intertwining of quantum states of a particle. That is the state of one particle cannot be independently defined without the other. This phenomenon of quantum entanglement can be simplified to a 2-particle system. However, for a multi-particle domain, the mathematics behind it gets profoundly complicated.
The mathematical tool required to solve said complication is only possible when a super-system manipulates the quantum system in question. And that is exactly what was employed on the IBM quantum computer. Scientists tested the most straightforward 2-particle system subjected to electromagnetic fluctuations. The algorithm on the IBM quantum computer was set to work as an artificial super-system in this case.
The findings of the experiment suggest the dependence of time on reversal complexity of evolving quantum states. And although this statement proves hopeful for a future where the arrow of time can be reversed in a quantum scale, the dream of a perpetual motion machine or even a time machine remains farfetched.
- Hermes takes over the Aphrodite!
A recent shift in the methodology of calculating planetary distances confirms that travel God Mercury may indeed be the closest planet to earth. This disproves the long-held notion of Venus being the earth’s most intimate lover.
Three scientists of Los Alamos Observatory claim to have found a significant loophole in the method conventionally used to determine planetary distances. The distance of a planet is measured in terms of its position relative to the sun, taking the sun to earth distance as one astronomical unit. In that measurement, Venus comes out triumphant as closest to earth ( a mere 0.28 AU away). However, this method is oversimplified as pointed out in their research. The scientists proposed that a more accurate way of measurement would be average the distance between every point along one planet’s orbit and every point along the other planet’s orbit concerning the sun. They ran a simulation with this concept in check for planets with circular, concentric or coplanar orbits. And it turns out not only is mercury closest to earth but also it’s the closest planet to all other planets in the solar system.
Although the research is yet to be approved by the peer-review board, it surely gives a new introspection on our astronomical measurement techniques and why we should not take it for granted.
Space Missions
- Red planet’s Rocky surface causes troubles!
NASA’s latest rover on the Mars, Insight, started the first round of digging last month. Creating a new milestone, In a significant mission milestone, InSight’s Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument burrowed underground for the first time. After 400 hammer blows over four hours, the tool got between 7 inches and 19.7 inches beneath the red rocky surface, and then it hit some solid rocks, which slowed the progress.
“On its way into the depths, the mole seems to have hit a stone, tilted about 15 degrees and pushed it aside or passed it,” HP3 principal investigator Tilman Spohn, of the German Aerospace Center.
The objective of the mission is to dig as deep as 10 to 16.5 ft, to measure the variation in the temperature as it moves inside, which will tell us a lot about the heat flow on the surface of Mars. Insight is designed to run for 687 Earth days, and the equipment needs to be cooled down for 2 Martian days to start again. The team hopes that rover will overcome the rough patch with its ability to push aside the rocks, even if it takes a lot of time.
These rovers are our only hope to have a manned mission to the red planet.
- Hubble captures a two-tailed Asteroid!
Hubble space telescope captures the gradual self-destruction of a small asteroid. The images sent by the HST shows two long comet-like tails of debris streaming from the asteroid Gault. Even with more than 80000 asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, the occurrence of this event is sporadic, around once a year. The longer tail stretches more than 800,000 kilometres and is roughly 4,800 kilometres wide, providing the asteroid with a spectacular ambiance.
But Why did it start disintegrating?
In their orbits, when an asteroid gets heated up by the sunlight, the infrared radiations escaping the surface carries off the angular momentum as well as heat, this causes little torque, which in result put the asteroid in a spinning motion. Now. During this motion, when the centrifugal forces exceed the gravitational, the asteroid becomes unstable and starts drifting dust and rubble in the space at a speed of couples of miles per second. For asteroid Gault, researchers estimate that it might have been slowly spinning for more than 100 million years.
Why capturing this image is so important to us?
To study an asteroid, astronomers usually have to send a spacecraft to sample them, but in this case, it is not needed, because capturing the image of dust stream and zooming on it will give us the sorted idea of dust grains by the size. All the big particles will be near the object while smaller ones will be away due to pressure from sunlight, thus giving us a general idea of the properties of the asteroid.
Not only disintegration of the asteroid provides us with a spectacular view, but it also tells us about the properties of the asteroid itself, without spending millions of dollars on spacecraft.
- Trident to be sent to Poseidon’s moon!
With hope to find life somewhere else in the solar system, NASA presents a new project to be sent to the Neptune’s moon Triton. Many scientists believe that Triton might be an ocean world and thus might have a high probability of harbouring life on its wet surface!
The spacecraft that is going to be called ‘Trident,’ will verify whether the moon Triton holds life or not. The mission is not only for the Neptune’s moon. On its way, Trident will also stop by Venus and then Jupiter’s moon lo.
NASA is also aiming to have this mission in a meagre budget, to make space exploration cheaper and more accessible. Hopefully, the mission gets approved, and we can explore the far stretched worlds.
- Kepler’s first Exo-planet gets confirmed!
It’s been months now, the last data, Kepler Space Telescope sent was in November 2018. Since then, scientists have been trying to revise the data and confirm the Exo-planets captured by the telescope. One of these was Kepler-1658B, the first confirmed Exo-planet.
Kepler-1658B is a so-called Hot Jupiter, which is roughly 1.1 times the size of Jupiter (Apparently Zeus has competition now). The exciting thing about the planet is its closeness to its parent star (0.5 AU), and the revolution period of 3.85 days.
“Confirming that Kepler’s first exoplanet candidate is a planet is a wonderful legacy result, which brings things full-circle, now that Kepler has finished taking data,” said University of Birmingham’s Professor Bill Chaplin.
The initial estimates of the Kepler-1658B were way off. So it was marked as a false positive for a planet and then again scored as a false positive for a star. But with recent developments in the analysis of stellar sound waves collected by the Kepler to characterize the Kepler-1658, they found out that both the planet and star were three times the size previously thought, thus confirming the status of both the objects.
The Kepler Space telescope was up there for more than nine years, collecting data from galaxies far away, being our beacon of hope.
Treat for Space Enthusiasts!
The sounds of Human curiosity!
NASA recently took the sound-sharing platform, Soundcloud to showcase the world everything that mankind has been able to achieve together as a species! They released hundreds of recordings and numerous podcasts, ranging from the first step on the moon to the message sent far away on Voyager spacecraft. Check all of them on this link — SoundCloud.com/NASA.
The link contains playlists of sounds from several missions like Juno, Cassini, and Apollo, in addition to that the podcasts uploaded covers the science, history, astronaut training programmes. And the good thing about this is, all the content is under Creative Commons license, which allows us to share and adapt the data, as long we give credits and not use it for commercial purposes.
As a treat for you here is the link to “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
This gesture by NASA not only tells us about the achievements of mankind but also about our collective efforts in finding our place in the Cosmos.
GLORY AT ITS BEST!
SPECULOOS planet-hunting array in Chile made up of four 1-meter telescopes, captured the Lagoon Nebula in its full glory, have a look at the spectacular view of a vast cloud of gas and dust, around 5000 light years away.
Wonder Junkie this month — Sir Roger Penrose
Numbers behind the Black Holes!
“Sometimes it’s the detours which turn out to be the fruitful ideas.” — Roger Penrose
At the heart of physics lies the iron foundation of mathematical rigour. It is upon the tools of mathematics on which the universe stands. Sir Roger Penrose is one extraordinary contributor to this foundation. Penrose revolutionized the very mathematical tools that physicists use to analyze the fabric of spacetime. The genius of Penrose was evident early on, while still a student at Cambridge, Penrose discovered the tribar ( A triangle which looks like a 3-dimensional solid object but isn’t ) This went on to become the famous Penrose-triangle, popularized as the perfect impossible object.
And that was just the beginning of a long journey that he began. With that, he went on to give theories and equations which revolutionized the way we understand the relativity. Penrose’s epoch-making paper “Gravitational collapse and space-time singularities” not only presented a new idea that Gravity can reach the limits where it creates singularity but also gave rise to the most notable theory of our time ‘The big bang theory,’
Penrose also has several of his works published which highlighted the laws of physics in correlation to the human (or animal) consciousness. In 1994, one of the most famous debates happened between Hawking and Penrose, where both presented their understanding of the relation of human consciousness to that of the laws of physics.
At the beginning of this debate, Stephen said that he thinks that he is a positivist, whereas I am a Platonist. I am happy with him being a positivist, but I think that the crucial point here is, rather, that I am a realist. Also, if one compares this debate with the famous debate of Bohr and Einstein, some seventy years ago, I should think that Stephen plays the role of Bohr, whereas I play Einstein’s role! For Einstein argued that there should exist something like a real world, not necessarily represented by a wave function, whereas Bohr stressed that the wave function doesn’t describe a “real” microworld but only “knowledge” that is useful for making predictions.- Sir Roger Penrose
For his revolutionary works in defining the new era of geometrical mathematics of space-time curvature, He was awarded a lot of awards, mainly Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Society Royal Medal, Wolf Foundation Prize for Physics, Dirac Medal, Albert Einstein Medal and many more. He was also Knighted for his services to the field of sciences in 1994.
Whoever said that it would be tough to fill the void that Einstein left behind, probably never met Sir Roger Penrose.
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
Bonus news!
Raptor is hopping a ride to Mars on Starship!
SpaceX’s next-generation engine for the Starship, the Raptor is all ready to be mounted on the vehicle for the test flights!
The Starship is to be paired up with the SpaceX’s new Super Heavy rocket, which will have 31 Raptor engines attached to it. But for the initial flight tests, few engines will be used, in case it blows up. SpaceX is all ready to take the things to the next level, and there’s no stopping them. At this pace, the dream of a manned mission to Mars by 2030 isn’t that impossible.
“We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.”
― Ray Bradbury
Stay tuned for the next edition of Astronomy Rewind and do follow Nakshatra to join us in our exploration of the cosmos. Looking Beyond The Stars!
Manasvita Goswami and Aditya_XQ co-wrote this article.
