Nicholos Wethington, Author at Universe Today

November 9, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

Camera Network Spies Anomalous Meteorite

A network of time-lapse cameras set up in the Nullarbor Plain desert of Western Australia has allowed researchers to track a fallen meteorite to the ground, and enabled them to determine its original orbit and parent body. The meteorite has a composition different than that of other meteors, leading researchers to believe that it originates from a different parent body than most meteorites that impact Earth. The Desert Fireball Network, a project coordinated by the Imperial College of London, was able to track the meteor when it entered the atmosphere, giving researchers an impact location and information on where it originated.

The Bunburra Rockhole meteorite – so named for the location where it was discovered – fell to the Earth on July 20th, 2007. The Desert Fireball Network cameras recorded the fireball produced when the meteor passed through the Earth’s atmosphere, and by studying the entry angle of the meteor, researchers from the Imperial College were able to locate it on the ground. It was found within 100 meters (300 feet) of where they had predicted it to be.

This meteorite weighs 324 grams (12 oz), and is composed of a rare type of basalt igneous rock. More specific information on the meteorite itself can be found on the Meteorological Society’s index. Most meteorites of this composition come from one parent body, the asteroid 4 Vesta. However, the Bunburra Rockhole meteorite likely came from a different asteroid with a different orbit, which means that the formation process for the asteroid happened in a different place in the Solar System than for 4 Vesta.

The researchers determined that the Bunburra Rockhole originated from an asteroid located in the innermost main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Because the Desert Fireball Network captured images on multiple cameras of how it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, the researchers were able to triangulate the position of the rock, and model its orbit backwards in time to determine its origins.

Dr Gretchen Benedix of the Natural History Museum – where the largest fragment of the meteorite is located – analyzed the mineral content of the meteorite. She said in a press release:

“It’s vital to have a meteorite with information about where it comes from in the solar system…. We’ve known for a long time that most meteorites are from the asteroid belt, but we don’t know exactly where. This kind of information helps us fit one more piece in the puzzle of how the solar system formed and evolved. The fact that this meteorite is compositionally unusual increases it’s value even more. It helps us to uncover more information about the conditions of the early solar system.”

The Desert Fireball Network monitors the Nullarbor desert in Western Australia, and has tracked a total of 7 meteorites, three of which have been recovered. The desert is an excellent location for this type of project, as observing conditions are clear many nights out of the year, and the sparse vegetation and monotone landscape make finding the meteorites easier than in other locations.

The results of the meteorite mineral and orbital study are published in Science, and two previous papers about the Bunburra Rockhole are available on the Desert Fireball Network site.

Source: Natural History Museum, Imperial College of London

November 9, 2009April 26, 2016 by Nicholos Wethington

Why did HAL sing ‘Daisy’?

Okay, so this may not be important breaking news about astronomy, but it may answer a burning question posed by most people who have watched or read “2001: A Space Odyssey”: that is, why does the computer HAL-9000 sing the song ‘Daisy Bell’ as the astronaut Dave Bowman takes him apart? Well, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke made HAL’s final act in the world this song as a tribute to HAL’s great ancestor, the first IBM computer to ever sing. Click below for more on this geeky topic!

In 1962 Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the novel – and co-wrote the screenplay for the movie – “2001: A Space Odyssey”, visited Bell Labs before putting the finishing touches on the work. There, he was treated to a performance of the song ‘Daisy Bell’ (or, ‘A Bicycle Built for Two’) by the IBM 704 computer. This evidently inspired him to have HAL sing the song as an homage to the programmers of the 704 at Bell Labs, John L. Kelly, Carol Lockbaum, and Max Mathews. Kelly and Lockbaum programmed the lyrics, and Mathews the accompaniment.

‘Daisy Bell‘ was originally composed in 1892 by Henry Dacre, and English composer. Upon coming to the U.S., he was charged a duty fee for his bicycle. A friend remarked that it was lucky that he didn’t bring a bicycle built for two, or he would have had to pay double duty. Taken by the phrase, he used in in a song to acclaim both before it became a smash hit with computers with a penchant for song, and after.

Here’s a recording of the 704 talking and singing the song. If you want to sing along karaoke style to the original singer, here’s a video of the 704 doing its ditty (ignore the different model name and year – the 7094 exists but can’t even sing backup):

And, of course, here is HAL-9000 in his death throes with a more maniacal version of the classic:

Source: Switched, MOG, Bell Labs

November 9, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

NASA and ESA Sign Mars Exploration Joint Initiative

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have officially agreed to combine their efforts in the exploration and study of Mars. The heads of both agencies, NASA administrator Charles Boden and ESA director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain signed an agreement that officially binds the two agencies together for upcoming orbiter and rover missions. Discussions of this cooperation began in December of 2008, and culminated in a meeting in June 2009, out of which came the official agreement signed last week.

The new “letter of intent” outlines the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI), under which mission engineers will cooperate in the design and launch of rovers, orbiters and landers into the 2020s, with the ultimate goal of returning rocks from Mars to Earth for study. The first collaborative mission is a European-led orbiter that will also place a meteorological station on Mars planned for 2016. This will be followed by surface rovers to keep Spirit and Opportunity company (c’mon, you know they’ll still be ticking!) in 2018, and possibly a network of landers shortly after in 2018, one of which will include the ESA’s ExoMars Lander.

NASA will take care of the launching rockets for 2016 and 2018, and the ESA will cover the entry, descent and landing for the first mission in 2016.

The signing of this document makes official the talks held in Plymouth, UK this past June. Since the talks, most of the fine print has been worked out on the collaboration – this signing just seals the deal.

The ESA and NASA, both under financial constraints in their Mars exploration programs, envision this new union to allow both to to launch vehicles in the window that opens every 26 months for missions to Mars. NASA’s most recently planned mission to the Red Planet, the Mars Science Laboratory, missed the October 2009 window because of technical problems, so will have to be launched in 2011 instead. The same fate befell the ESA ExoMars lander, which has been postponed three times – until 2018 – from the initial launch date of 2009. This joint initiative aims at preventing such delays by sharing both engineering and financial responsibilities.

NASA’s associate administrator for science, Dr Ed Weiler, told the BBC back in July,”We have very similar scientific goals, maybe we ought to consider working together jointly on all our future Mars missions, so that we can do more than either one of us can do by ourselves.”

Hopefully, this collaboration will provide both administrations with the opportunity to get more science done for cheaper, and extend further the already amazing capabilities of proposed missions to the Red Planet.

Source: BBC, ESA

November 4, 2009August 21, 2023 by Nicholos Wethington

Going Up? Top Floor, Space Elevator Games 2009

BREAKING NEWS: LaserMotive successfully qualified for the $900,000 prize! Their official speed was 3.72 m/s. Way to go! See more below.

Though it’s unlikely that anyone will be pressing the elevator button labeled ‘Space’ on one of the competitors’ vehicles this year at the 2009 Space Elevator Games, there is hope that a winner will walk away with the $1.1 million prize. Three different teams will compete to see if any can send a laser powered vehicle up a thin but strong ribbon 1km (.6 miles) into the sky. Italian readers can bet on this game using any of the online casinos that offer these odds – many of which can be found on our recommended casino resource Stranieri.com. Stranieri offers the best online casino reviews for betting on things like markets and slots, as well as space events like this one as well as other Air Force events.

This is the 5th year of the games, which started in 2005. The games are part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program, which awards monetary prizes in the attempt to spur new technologies. This is a busy week for the program; as we covered earlier today, the Northrop Grumman Lunar X-prize announced two winners, and is part of the Centennial Challenge program.

To win the $1.1 million prize, one of the teams must propel their vehicle 1 km (.6 miles) into the sky at an average of at least 5 m/s (16.4ft/s). A second place prize of $900,000 will be awarded to any team that can go the 1km at an average of 2m/s (6.6 ft/s). The games this year will run from November 4th-6th, with each team getting the chance to launch their laser powered vehicles during a pre-determined 45-minute window for each day of the competition. The event takes place at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base near Mojave, California.

Three teams have qualified to enter this year’s event: The Kansas City Space Pirates, LaserMotive, and the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team (USST). The entire event will be live broadcast on Ustream, and updates will be provided on the official site.

For each test, a helicopter brings the elevator up the cable to a fixed starting point. The team is then given a go to calibrate their laser, and start beaming power to the craft. Each elevator uses small wheels to grip the ribbon, which is held aloft by a balloon tethered by three guy wires.

For a taste of what these elevators look like, check out this video:

Here’s a breakdown of what happened so far today: The Kansas City Space Pirates gave it three tries. In the first attempt, their elevator failed to take off. After fixing the problem, they were able to get the craft to move, but it then stopped. During the third, it started to climb the ribbon but they were unable to keep the laser locked on the elevator to power it, and it wasn’t able to climb the 1km to the top of the ribbon and brought back down.

LaserMotive had much better luck, despite a no-go on their initial attempt. Their elevator was lifted to the start by the helicopter, but failed to move despite repeated lasing attempts. After bringing it down for a tweak or two, the elevator was again placed at the start. It took off, making the first 300m (985ft) in a little under a minute, which met the 5m/s goal. The speed tapered off towards the top, but they bumped up against the 1km mark at approximately 4 minutes, making them the first to successfully claim the minimum 2km/s prize! While watching the live feed of this fantastic feat, I overheard a transmission from LaserMotive saying, “This is LaserMotive requesting permission to breathe.”

USST will not launch today, as there are no more open windows where satellites overhead will not be accidentally hit by the intense lasers used as power sources for the elevators. They will go tomorrow, November 5th, at 7am PST. Be sure to check back with us at Universe Today for more coverage, or head over to the official site for live streaming.

Source: Physorg, Space Games Live Feed

November 4, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

Mars Explorers May Use AI to Become ‘Cyborg Astrobiologists’

Future Mars astronauts. Image Credit: Patrick McGuire

Ever heard of a ‘Cyborg Astrobiologist’? Probably not. But I bet you’ll want to be one after learning that future exploration of Mars (and other planets, for that matter) may employ the use of artificial intelligence integrated into spacesuits to enhance the ability of astronauts in taking scientific data while exploring. The AI assistance could help future astronauts exploring planets to recognize differences in their surroundings as being due to the presence of life. Does this sound like something from 50 years from now? Well, a prototype model has already been tested, and has shown the principle behind this idea to be sound.

University of Chicago geoscientist Patrick McGuire and his team have developed the basic systems needed for such a spacesuit, using mostly off-the shelf technology. The system uses a Hopfield neural network to analyze data taken in by a either a camera phone or a microscope. The AI system employs a ‘novelty detection algorithm’ which analyzes images from either imaging device, and is able to identify features in images that are out of place.

The Hopfield system compares patterns against ones it has already seen, and learns from this process to correctly identify novel patterns that could be of interest. The full prototype spacesuit has a wearable computer that houses the AI system, which uses Bluetooth to receive data from a cell phone camera or is connected to a USB digital microscope.

The system was tested at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in the San Rafael Swell of Utah, which is maintained by the Mars Society. The MDRS is a semi-arid desert with “greenish, grey or light gray mudstone,
limestone, siltstone and sandstone, partially inter-bedded by white sandstone layers”. For the last two weeks of February 2009, two members of McGuire’s team tested the wearable technology, which was able to successfully learn to identify patches of lichen from a background of rock, and identify different color patterns that signified different rock formations.

Another test, conducted in September of 2005 at Rivas Vaciamadrid in Spain, utilized a USB digital microscope to image rocks with lichen on them. As you can see in the image below, the AI system was able to identify as uncommon the spores of the lichen, which are about 1mm in diameter.

There are still some bugs to be worked out, though, as the system detected cast shadows in rough terrain our low standing Sun as novel features, the researchers wrote in their paper, The Cyborg Astrobiologist: Testing a Novelty-Detection Algorithm on Two Mobile Exploration Systems at Rivas Vaciamadrid in Spain and at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, available on Arxiv. The researchers also tested a head-mounted digital microscope display, but instead opted for a tripod due to the blurriness associated with the head movement of the researcher wearing the suit.

Though it may be a while until there are any Martian astronauts utilizing such a system – let alone Martian astronauts with the title of ‘Cyborg Astrobiologist’ – the combination of the AI with imaging systems could start to prove very useful on future orbital surveyors of Mars. Additionally, these systems could be used to collect and analyze data outside of the visible light spectrum, which could be incredibly useful for both robotic and human explorers.

Source: Physorg, Arxiv

November 4, 2009April 26, 2016 by Nicholos Wethington

Rosetta to Make Final Earth Flyby Nov. 13th

The comet chasing spacecraft Rosetta will make its third and final swing by the Earth on November 13th to pick up more speed for the last part of a 10-year journey that lies ahead. Its mission is to place a lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and chase the comet for an entire year on its orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft will be visible to observers from the ground in certain locations on the Earth. This last flyby will increase the spacecraft’s speed by 3.6 km/s (2.2 miles/s) with respect to the Sun, giving Rosetta the energy it needs to boost it to the outer regions of the Solar System.

Rosetta was launched March 2nd, 2004, and will visit a host of targets on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta already paid a visit to asteroid 2867 Steins in September 2008. It will visit comet 21 Lutetia 10 June 2010, after which it will go into hibernation until it reaches its final destination in May 2014.

Once Rosetta arrives at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, it will deploy its Philae lander on the comet’s nucleus, and continue to orbit and study the comet for an entire year during its closest orbit of the Sun. This is the first mission ever to orbit and land on a comet, and promises to return a wealth of data on cometary interaction with the Sun. Comets also contain mostly undisturbed materials from the formation of the Solar System in their nuclei, so studying their composition gives scientists an look into how our Solar System developed.

During the flyby of Earth in November of 2007, Rosetta took the breathtaking image of the Earth pictured here. This next flyby will give observers on the ground a chance to take a look back at Rosetta. The closest approach will occur on November 13th at 8:45 Central European Time (07:45 UT).

Unfortunately, the spacecraft will only be visible from parts of Europe, South America and Africa, as can be seen in the image below. If you are in these regions during the approach, and have favorable conditions, there is a wealth of observing information on the Rosetta blog, specifically on the posts Tips for Sky Junkies I and Tips for Sky Junkies II. They will also be closely following the flyby on the blog, so you can check there for updates on the eve of the event if you are outside the observable range of the spacecraft.

As always, you can check back with us on Universe Today for more coverage of Rosetta’s journey!

Source: ESA

November 4, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

Masten wins $1 million X-Prize on Last Possible Day

Masten won the $1 million Northrop Grumman Lunar X-Prize challenge with their lander, Xoie.

The X-Prize competition for building a lander vehicle capable of making a simulated landing and liftoff on the Moon has come to a close, with the 1st place, $1 million award going to Masten Space Systems for their vehicle, Xoie (pronounced like the name ‘Zoey’). Armadillo Aerospace came in a close second, and received $500,000 for their Scorpius rocket. The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X-Prize challenge was initiated to spur development of lunar landing vehicle by a privately funded institution. The last of the challenge flights occured Friday, October 30th, and the competition came down to the wire, as Masten encountered problems on Wednesday and Thursday challenge windows that delayed their final flight to the last day of the challenge.

The challenge was divided into two categories, Level 1 and Level 2. Here’s the rules for the two categories, as taken from the X-Prize Foundation website:

Level 1, requires a rocket to take off from a designated launch area; climb to a low, fixed altitude; and fly for at least 90 seconds before landing precisely on a different landing pad. The flight must then be repeated in reverse. Both flights, along with all of the necessary preparation for each, must take place within a two and a half hour period. $500,000 in prizes was initially allocated to Level 1.

The more difficult course, Level 2, requires the rocket to fly for 180 seconds before landing precisely on a simulated lunar surface constructed with craters and boulders. The minimum flight times are calculated so that the Level 2 mission closely simulates the power needed to perform a real descent from lunar orbit down to the surface of the Moon. A $1 million First Place and a $500,000 second place prize remain to be claimed by the winners of Level 2

Xoie experienced communications and leakage issues on Wednesday and Thursday. A leak on Thursday afternoon caused a small fire, but the team spent the night fixing the problem, and the craft flew wonderfully on Friday., October 30th. Xoie is a lighter and more powerful version of Masten’s Level 1 vehicle, Xombie. (Wouldn’t it have been more fitting if Xombie flew the day before Halloween, though?)

Both teams met the qualifications for the Level 2 prize, but Masten had an average landing accuracy of 19 cm (7.5 in), while Armadillo Aerospace acheived an accuracy of 87 cm (34 in). This means that Masten beat out Armadillo on the very last day of the challenge by little over two feet! What an exiting space race!

Masten and Armadillo qualified for the Level 1 prizes earlier this year, with Armadillo claiming the first prize of $350,000 and Masten second place with $150,000. An awards ceremony will be held for the winning teams on November 5th.

Here’s a video of the winning flight:

Neither company plans to rest on their laurels after these victories, though. Masten said in a press release, “We are building up a good head of steam. Next year is going to be full of bigger, faster, and higher. Winning contests is fun, but we won’t rest until we’re flying a fleet of vehicles into space carrying all sorts of commercial payloads.” They have been awared a Department of Defense Small Business Innovation and Research contract to use their vehicles in network communications testing. Masten also has a program that will fly payloads into space for $250 a kilogram.

Armadillo Aerospace has flown a vehicle in every X-Prize cup so far, and company founder John Carmack said after their Level 2 challenge flight on September 14th, “Since the Lunar Lander Challenge is quite demanding in terms of performance, with a few tweaks our Scorpius vehicle actually has the capability to travel all the way to space. We’ll be moving quickly to do higher-altitude tests, and we can go up to about 6,000 feet here at our home base in Texas before we’ll have to head to New Mexico where we can really push the envelope. We already have scientific payloads from universities lined up to fly as well, so this will be an exciting next few months for commercial spaceflight.” See our coverage on Universe Today of Armadillo’s qualifying test flight for more information and cool videos.

This is far from the last challenge that the X-Prize foundation has come up with. The Google Lunar X-Prize will award $30 million to the first privately funded team to send a robot lander to the Moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit videos and data back to the Earth. There are X-prize competitions in areas other than exploration and astronomy, including the life sciences, energy and the environment, and education and global development.

Source: SatNews, X-Prize Foundation

November 4, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

New CMB Measurements Support Standard Model

The measure of polarized light from the early Universe allowed researchers to better plot the location of matter - the left image - which later became the stars and galaxies we have today. Image Credit: Sarah Church/Walter Gear

New measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – the leftover light from the Big Bang – lend further support the Standard Cosmological Model and the existence of dark matter and dark energy, limiting the possibility of alternative models of the Universe. Researchers from Stanford University and Cardiff University produced a detailed map of the composition and structure of matter as it would have looked shortly after the Big Bang, which shows that the Universe would not look as it does today if it were made up solely of ‘normal matter’.

By measuring the way the light of the CMB is polarized, a team led by Sarah Church of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University and by Walter Gear, head of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom were able construct a map of the way the Universe would have looked shortly after matter came into existence after the Big Bang. Their findings lend evidence to the predictions of the Standard Model in which the Universe is composed of 95% dark matter and energy, and only 5% of ordinary matter.

Polarization is a feature of light rays in which the oscillation of the light wave lies in right angles to the direction in which the light is traveling. Though most light is unpolarized, light that has interacted with matter can become polarized. The leftover light from the Big Bang – the CMB – has now cooled to a few degrees above 0 Kelvin, but it still retains the same polarization it had in the early Universe, once it had cooled enough to become transparent to light. By measuring this polarization, the researchers were able to extrapolate the location, structure, and velocity of matter in the early Universe with unprecedented precision. The gravitational collapse of large clumps of matter in the early universe creates certain resonances in the polarization that allowed the researchers to create a map of the matter composition.

Dr. Gear said, “The pattern of oscillations in the power spectra allow us to discriminate, as “real” and “dark” matter affect the position and amplitudes of the peaks in different ways. The results are also consistent with many other pieces of evidence for dark matter, such as the rotation rate of galaxies, and the distribution of galaxies in clusters.”

The measurements made by the QUaD experiment further constrain those made by previous experiments to measure properties of the CMB, such as WMAP and ACBAR. In comparison to these previous experiments, the measurements come closer to fitting what is predicted by the Standard Cosmologicl Model by more than an order of magnitude, said Dr. Gear. This is a very important step on the path to verifying whether our model of the Universe is correct.

The researchers used the QUaD experiment at the South Pole to make their observations. The QUaD telescope is a bolometer, essentially a thermometer that measures how certain types of radiation increase the temperature of the metals in the detector. The detector itself has to be near 1 degree Kelvin to eliminate noise radiation from the surrounding environment, which is why it is located at the frigid South Pole, and placed inside of a cryostat.

Paper co-author Walter Gear said in an email interview:

“The polarization is imprinted at the time the Universe becomes transparent to light, about 400,000 years after the big bang, rather than right after the big bang before matter existed. There are major efforts now to try to find what is called the “B-mode” signal” which is a more complicated polarization pattern that IS imprinted right after the big-bang. QuaD places the best current upper limit on this but is still more than an order of magnitude away in sensitivity from even optimistic predictions of what that signal might be. That is the next generation of experiments’s goal.”

The results, published in a paper titled Improved Measurements of the Temperature and Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background from QUaD in the November 1st Astrophysical Journal, fit the predictions of the Standard Model remarkably well, providing further evidence for the existence of dark matter and energy, and constraining alternative models of the Universe.

Source: SLAC, email interview with Dr. Walter Gear

November 2, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

Two ESA Satellites Launch Successfully

UPDATE: Information about both SMOS and the Proba-2 satelite are on ESA Television. The program loop is embedded at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

Last night at 2:50 am Central European Time, two European Space Agency (ESA) satellites were successfully launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia. The Rockot launch vehicle was carrying both the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, and the Proba-2 satellite. SMOS will monitor the moisture exchange of the Earth between the ocean, air and land as well as the salinity of the oceans and the moisture of the soil in an effort to better understand how these factors influence the climate of our planet. Proba-2 will test out various instruments, including a small wide angle optical camera, and instruments for monitoring the plasma environment in orbit and the Sun’s corona.

SMOS is part of the ESA’s Earth Observation Envelope Program, an initiative to study in scientific detail from space the ongoing changes of the Earth. The GOCE satellite launched earlier this year to study the Earth’s gravity field and ocean circulation is another part of this program.

SMOS is the first satellite designed with the intent of measuring ocean salinity from space. To do this, it will implement a multi-part microwave antenna to monitor the oceans at a wavelength of about 23cm. At this frequency, an antenna of 5-10 meters (15-30 feet) is needed to make the measurements. This is too large to fit into a standard rocket payload bay, so the mission engineers employed what is called ‘synthetic aperture synthesis’. This is a technique used in radio astronomy that strings together separate antennae in different places, allowing the antennae to act as one larger antenna. A perfect example of this is the Very Large Array in New Mexico. The SMOS antenna has three foldable arms that are 3 meters (6 feet) long apiece, and extend to form a Y shape. Along the arms are 69 small antennae that all act together to take measurements as if they were one larger antenna.

Volker Liebig, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programs said in an ESA press release:

“The data collected by SMOS will complement measurements already performed on the ground and at sea to monitor water exchanges on a global scale. Since these exchanges – most of which occur in remote areas – directly affect the weather, they are of paramount importance to meteorologists. Moreover, salinity is one of the drivers for the Thermohaline Circulation, the large network of currents that steers heat exchanges within the oceans on a global scale, and its survey has long been awaited by climatologists who try to predict the long-term effects of today’s climate change.”

The other satellite piggybacking on the SMOS mission launch is the suitcase-sized Proba-2, part of a series of missions in the ESA’s General Support Technology Program to test out new technology in space for further development on other ESA missions. Proba-2 is carrying a digital sun sensor, a high-precision magnetometer, and dual frequency GPS space receiver among other instruments for a Belgian study of solar physics and Czech study of plasma physics.

Both satellites arrived in their sun-synchronous orbits, and initial systems checks indicate that both are operating as expected. SMOS will orbit at 760 km (472 miles) above the Earth, and Proba-2 at 725 km (450 miles). SMOS, once calibrated, will reach full operational status in about six months, and Proba-2 will become fully operation in two months.

Source: ESA, Eurekalert

November 2, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nicholos Wethington

How Fast is the Speed of Light?

You may think that a lot of things are fast, like speeding bullets and Superman and the passage of time when you are having fun. But all of these things are nothing compared to the speed of light, which is the fastest that something can travel through the Universe. The speed of light is sometimes referred to as the “cosmic speed limit”. Light travels in a vacuum at 186,282.4 miles per second or 299,792,458 meters/second. For simplicity, it is often said that these numbers are 186,000 miles per second, and 3.00 x 10^8 meters per second.

How fast is this in normal terms? Well, the record for the fastest aircraft is held by the Boeing x-43 scramjet. Scramjets are single-use unmanned aircraft designed to go at hypersonic speeds. The x-43 traveled at 12,144 km/h (7,546 mph), or Mach 9.8, on November 16th, 2004. That is .000405% of the speed of light. And this is a jet that can travel from New York to Los Angeles in 20 minutes. While it takes photons about 8 minutes to travel the distance from the Sun to the Earth – at its furthest, 152 million km (94.4 million miles) – this scramjet traveling at its maximum speed would take about 522 days!

The speed of light is really fast, and at this speed some bizarre things start to happen. First off, photons can only travel this speed because they have zero rest mass, meaning that if you were to somehow trap a photon and put it on a scale, it would have no mass. It’s virtually impossible for something with mass to travel this speed, because as you get faster and faster, it takes more and more energy to get you to the speed of light, which makes you heavier, which requires more energy, etc. Time also changes when you get to these speeds. If you left the Earth going the speed of light, then came back around and landed, you would perceive time as moving normally, but when you returned it would seem as if time sped up for everybody on the Earth, and all of your friends and family would be much, much older.

The speed of light is not constant in all materials, though, and can be slowed down. Here’s an excellent article on how researchers can slow down the speed of light by passing it through different materials, with the slowest speed being 38 miles per hour!

To learn more about the speed of light – and there is a lot, lot more to learn, check out the Astronomy Cast questions shows from October 26, 2008, June 4, 2009 and September 26, 2008, or the Physics section in the Guide to Space.

Sources:
Wikipedia
NASA