If we ask you what’s so special about October, you will probably say “Halloween”. Although we too love spooky decorations, toffee apples and trick-or-treaters’ tireless knocking on the door after dusk, there is more this month to remember and celebrate.
Here is October in historic space dates, famous astronomers’ and astronauts’ birthdays and upcoming events.
Happy October!
BSA space exploration merit badge requirement 2bhkemail
Boy Scouts of America (BSA) space exploration merit badge requirement 2
2 Design a collector's card, with a picture on the front and information on the back, about your favorite space pioneer. Share your card and discuss four other space pioneers with your counselor.
BSA space exploration merit badge requirement 2bhkemail
Boy Scouts of America (BSA) space exploration merit badge requirement 2
2 Design a collector's card, with a picture on the front and information on the back, about your favorite space pioneer. Share your card and discuss four other space pioneers with your counselor.
Space Pub Quiz #2 - The Contenders Strike Back - Vis Viva - February 12, 2014Society Vis Viva
Given the great success of our previous space pub quiz, we hosted round two of the event!
Would you have known the answers? We will post them later.
Check out the slides of the first edition here:
http://www.slideshare.net/visviva/the-questions-26374259
=======================
Questions by:
Ajay Prasad, Saish Sridharan, Frederik Bräuer
Follow us on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/SocietyVisViva
Potential Habitable Exoplanets: Interstellar Space Travel As Mankind's SalvationAhmad Afandi Nor Azmi
Humans are natural born explorers, we charge into unchartered territory to seek out the unknown, we have mapped nearly every inch of Mother Earth and left tracks on the moon. But to set foot on another planet, to travel beyond our solar system, that’s the dream of the future.
This presentation deals with quest of new worlds and the fate of humanity. Sounds like a job for explorers of tomorrow, but the search of another earth is happening right now. Although this sounds like a realm of science fiction, the aspects covered are rooted in real science.
Space Pub Quiz #2 - The Contenders Strike Back - Vis Viva - February 12, 2014Society Vis Viva
Given the great success of our previous space pub quiz, we hosted round two of the event!
Would you have known the answers? We will post them later.
Check out the slides of the first edition here:
http://www.slideshare.net/visviva/the-questions-26374259
=======================
Questions by:
Ajay Prasad, Saish Sridharan, Frederik Bräuer
Follow us on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/SocietyVisViva
Potential Habitable Exoplanets: Interstellar Space Travel As Mankind's SalvationAhmad Afandi Nor Azmi
Humans are natural born explorers, we charge into unchartered territory to seek out the unknown, we have mapped nearly every inch of Mother Earth and left tracks on the moon. But to set foot on another planet, to travel beyond our solar system, that’s the dream of the future.
This presentation deals with quest of new worlds and the fate of humanity. Sounds like a job for explorers of tomorrow, but the search of another earth is happening right now. Although this sounds like a realm of science fiction, the aspects covered are rooted in real science.
I can identify key technological advancements that helped in making our knowledge of space expand. My research will show the past, but I will also predict what future advancements may stretch our limits even more.
The size of our Milky Way Galaxy is about 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 kilometers.
The nearest galaxy to the Milky Way, Andromeda, is about 24 000 000 000 000 000 000 km away from the Earth.
Our star, the Sun, weighs about 2 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kilograms.
Satellite navigation and and how it works wonderdome
“You have reached your destination!” Many of us hear these words if not on a daily basis. Honestly, I don’t even want to look back at the times before the satellite navigation. Those were the times of hand-drawn maps, road atlases and being lost. A lot. Now everybody has a satnav device for their personal use. What’s even more important, trains, ships, planes and even robots use the satellite navigation too!
But how does the technology actually work?
The idea is beautifully simple:
Get a radio signal from a satellite on your receiver. The signal can include the time when it was sent and the location of the satellite. When you receive the signal, the distance to the satellite can be easily calculated as you will know how long it took for the signal to arrive to the receiver (and we know how fast the signal travels, right?). The distance to the satellite will give you the area of your possible locations. Not yet good enough! To narrow down your location area take the second satellite and repeat the process. And finally add the third satellite. Here you are!
With just 3 satellites you will know your position on the “mean sea level”. But at least 4 satellites are needed to determine your accurate location if you are up in the mountains. In practice, 6 satellites are usually visible from each location.
Nobel Prize in Astronomy? Nonsense, you will say, there is no such thing! And you will be right! Today I would like to talk about the Nobel Prizes in Physics awarded for the discoveries directly related to Astronomy. Of course, many scientific advances contributed to the modern understanding of Space. But let’s look at those few that achieved the highest scientific recognition.
Submanyan Chandrasekhar received the Prize for his research “on the structure and evolution of stars”. His work helped us understand how stars age and die. Chandrasekhar calculated what we now call Chandrasekhar limit, which is equal to 1.4 Solar mass. Chandrasekhar showed that if the dying star has a mass of 1.4 Solar mass or less when it reaches the white dwarf stage, it stays a white dwarf forever. A heavier star will continue collapsing and eventually turn into a neutron star or a black hole. You can find more information about Chandrasekhar and his research in our post.
Research missions to launch in spring 2018 wonderdome
Three – Two – One …Blast off!
With two very exciting launches scheduled for this Spring, scientists are getting ready to learn more about our own and other planetary systems.
TESS orbiter is scheduled to take off on April 16, 2018 and the InSight lander might start its space journey as early as May 5, 2018.
The Annual Edinburgh International Science Festival took place in the Scottish capital last week. And our space dome team was lucky to attend a very interesting talk called “Celebration of women in Astronomy” by an Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell (the talk was based on the article that you can find here).
Learn about Space on May half term holidays!wonderdome
The countdown to May half term holidays has begun!
It is perfectly all right to jump on your garden trampoline and eat ice-cream all week long if you ask me. But if you feel a bit adventurous, have a look at these family friendly space themed events and activities across the UK. Some of them you definitely don’t want to miss!
How many planets can we see with a naked eye? Five! Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn can all be spotted from Earth without the aid of a telescope or binoculars. Though in principle all five are visible, some are easier to find than others. Mercury is the trickiest planet to observe thanks to its small size and proximity to the Sun. Telescopic observations of the planet face the same problem.
But it is not only difficult to observe Mercury from the ground. Sending robotic explorers to the tiny planet is also tricky. Mercury is very fast. It is very energy consuming to get a spacecraft into orbit around Mercury. The amount of propellant needed could have taken you all the way to Jupiter (though Jupiter is 12 times farther away from the Earth than Mercury). Another challenge is the radiation from the Sun. Any spacecraft daring to get so close to our star will have to have a one of a kind heat protection to operate!
Unsurprisingly, Mercury is the least explored terrestrial planet in the Solar System. Our knowledge of it is very patchy and far from complete. Still, Mercury is a very interesting object and we want to study it despite all the difficulties. Yes, it is not surrounded by a swarm of moons. There are no rings, And it is unlikely that we will find any living things there. But this little planet can tell us a lot about our Solar System and explain how planets orbiting close to their stars form and evolve.
Rings around gas giants in the solar system wonderdome
Whenever we ask our star dome visitors to name the Solar System ringed planets, a choir of voices immediately says “Saturn”. A few people mention Uranus and, occasionally, Neptune.
In fact, all the gas planet in the Solar System, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, have rings around them. Maybe not as spectacular as those of Saturn, but still very interesting and even puzzling for astronomers.
So let’s look at the less famous rings of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune and learn about their origin, structure and composition!
NASA scientists say that we are about to loose our favourite Dawn spacecraft that has been studying the Asteroid Belt largest objects Ceres and Vesta for the past 11 years. In the next few weeks Dawn will run out of fuel needed to keep the spacecraft’s antennas pointed to the Earths and instruments to the target. When it happens, Dawn will not be able to do any more science or talk to the ground control. It will continue silently orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres for quite some time, possibly for the next twenty years.
Imagine zooming through space propelled by nothing else but the light of the Sun and other stars. Science fiction? No quite!
The concept of light sailing, or solar sailing, has been around since the 17th century. No serious progress towards implementing this idea has been made until the 21st century, but now it is making its way to the science labs, simulation facilities and into space.
Light sailing technology is being developed and tested as we speak. Many scientist think that it might be humanity’s best, if not only, chance to “go interstellar”. So..
Celebrating the 49th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landingwonderdome
Today people around the World celebrate the 49th anniversary of the first Moon landing!
Humans have finally fulfilled their long-term dream when Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin touched down on the Lunar surface on July 20, 1969 at 8:18 PM UTC. The third crew member, Michael Collins remained in orbit around the Moon piloting the Columbia module. All the objective of this bold and daring first mission: to land on the Moon, to collect the samples and to return safely back to Earth were met!
Every year a few of our little star dome visitors proudly tell us that their parents bought them a star (i.e. paid to name a star after the child) when they were born. Although it sounds beautiful, sadly it is not true. There are indeed commercial companies offering you “to name a star (visible in your area) after someone special”. Unfortunately those companies have nothing to do with the International Astronomical Union, the organization responsible for naming astronomical objects. Therefore if you pay to name a star, you WILL get a fancy certificate, that name WILL appear on that company’s list, but the scientific community will NEVER accept it. And another such company, with their own list, will probably sell the same star to somebody else.
Visit one of our inflatable dome stargazing sessions and we will show you how to find your way around the night sky. You will find out how to spot the constellations that dominate the sky in different seasons. And, of course, how to identify the brightest and the most famous stars. Like the the North Star! Although the North Star is only the 50th brightest star on the night sky, it is very easy to find. Just follow the two pointer stars, Dubhe and Merak, in the scoop of the Big Dipper in the constellation of the Big Bear and here it is, the North Star. Or Polaris.
Great disasters in the history of spaceflight wonderdome
This week in the anniversaries of three space disasters we are remembering the astronauts who have lost their lives pursuing our common dream for space exploration.
In March the observers in the Northern Hemisphere are saying goodbye to our favourite winter constellation Orion. But before the Great Hunter disappears from the view until the next Autumn, let’s take a close look at the stars that make up the famous hourglass shape.
Note: we will describe Orion as we see it from the Northern Hemisphere. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere will see Orion mirrored and upside down.
Asteroids that grow tails (or everything we know about active asteroids) wonderdome
Classification, i.e. putting things into groups based on their common characteristics, is a basic way of studying objects in many branches of science. Astronomy is, of course, no exception. That is why the question of Pluto being or not being a planet steered such a debate among planetary scientists.
How fast can an atmosphere travel round it's planet? "Normal" rotation on Ear...wonderdome
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live on a planet with a non-rotating atmosphere to be able to travel places by just jumping into the air and hovering long enough? Sounds fantastic, right? The problem is, when a planet turns and the air does not, things get really windy. As in “a thousand miles per hour wind speed “ windy.
Luckily for us, we don’t experience it here on Earth. The Earth’s atmosphere travels in sync with our planet and completes one turn around its axis in roughly 24 hours. Phew!
but…
(May 29th, 2024) Advancements in Intravital Microscopy- Insights for Preclini...Scintica Instrumentation
Intravital microscopy (IVM) is a powerful tool utilized to study cellular behavior over time and space in vivo. Much of our understanding of cell biology has been accomplished using various in vitro and ex vivo methods; however, these studies do not necessarily reflect the natural dynamics of biological processes. Unlike traditional cell culture or fixed tissue imaging, IVM allows for the ultra-fast high-resolution imaging of cellular processes over time and space and were studied in its natural environment. Real-time visualization of biological processes in the context of an intact organism helps maintain physiological relevance and provide insights into the progression of disease, response to treatments or developmental processes.
In this webinar we give an overview of advanced applications of the IVM system in preclinical research. IVIM technology is a provider of all-in-one intravital microscopy systems and solutions optimized for in vivo imaging of live animal models at sub-micron resolution. The system’s unique features and user-friendly software enables researchers to probe fast dynamic biological processes such as immune cell tracking, cell-cell interaction as well as vascularization and tumor metastasis with exceptional detail. This webinar will also give an overview of IVM being utilized in drug development, offering a view into the intricate interaction between drugs/nanoparticles and tissues in vivo and allows for the evaluation of therapeutic intervention in a variety of tissues and organs. This interdisciplinary collaboration continues to drive the advancements of novel therapeutic strategies.
Earliest Galaxies in the JADES Origins Field: Luminosity Function and Cosmic ...Sérgio Sacani
We characterize the earliest galaxy population in the JADES Origins Field (JOF), the deepest
imaging field observed with JWST. We make use of the ancillary Hubble optical images (5 filters
spanning 0.4−0.9µm) and novel JWST images with 14 filters spanning 0.8−5µm, including 7 mediumband filters, and reaching total exposure times of up to 46 hours per filter. We combine all our data
at > 2.3µm to construct an ultradeep image, reaching as deep as ≈ 31.4 AB mag in the stack and
30.3-31.0 AB mag (5σ, r = 0.1” circular aperture) in individual filters. We measure photometric
redshifts and use robust selection criteria to identify a sample of eight galaxy candidates at redshifts
z = 11.5 − 15. These objects show compact half-light radii of R1/2 ∼ 50 − 200pc, stellar masses of
M⋆ ∼ 107−108M⊙, and star-formation rates of SFR ∼ 0.1−1 M⊙ yr−1
. Our search finds no candidates
at 15 < z < 20, placing upper limits at these redshifts. We develop a forward modeling approach to
infer the properties of the evolving luminosity function without binning in redshift or luminosity that
marginalizes over the photometric redshift uncertainty of our candidate galaxies and incorporates the
impact of non-detections. We find a z = 12 luminosity function in good agreement with prior results,
and that the luminosity function normalization and UV luminosity density decline by a factor of ∼ 2.5
from z = 12 to z = 14. We discuss the possible implications of our results in the context of theoretical
models for evolution of the dark matter halo mass function.
Observation of Io’s Resurfacing via Plume Deposition Using Ground-based Adapt...Sérgio Sacani
Since volcanic activity was first discovered on Io from Voyager images in 1979, changes
on Io’s surface have been monitored from both spacecraft and ground-based telescopes.
Here, we present the highest spatial resolution images of Io ever obtained from a groundbased telescope. These images, acquired by the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large
Binocular Telescope, show evidence of a major resurfacing event on Io’s trailing hemisphere. When compared to the most recent spacecraft images, the SHARK-VIS images
show that a plume deposit from a powerful eruption at Pillan Patera has covered part
of the long-lived Pele plume deposit. Although this type of resurfacing event may be common on Io, few have been detected due to the rarity of spacecraft visits and the previously low spatial resolution available from Earth-based telescopes. The SHARK-VIS instrument ushers in a new era of high resolution imaging of Io’s surface using adaptive
optics at visible wavelengths.
This pdf is about the Schizophrenia.
For more details visit on YouTube; @SELF-EXPLANATORY;
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAiarMZDNhe1A3Rnpr_WkzA/videos
Thanks...!
What is greenhouse gasses and how many gasses are there to affect the Earth.moosaasad1975
What are greenhouse gasses how they affect the earth and its environment what is the future of the environment and earth how the weather and the climate effects.
Seminar of U.V. Spectroscopy by SAMIR PANDASAMIR PANDA
Spectroscopy is a branch of science dealing the study of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter.
Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy refers to absorption spectroscopy or reflect spectroscopy in the UV-VIS spectral region.
Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy is an analytical method that can measure the amount of light received by the analyte.
2. October 3
(1935) Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke is born.
Charles Duke is a retired American astronaut and
pilot. He was a Lunar Module Pilot on the Apollo 16
mission. Duke spent over 3 days on the Moon and
completed 3 EVAs that lasted over 20 hours in total.
He also served as CAPCOM (spaceflight
communicator) for the historic Apollo 11 mission.
October 4
(1957) Soviet Union launches the first man-made
satellite Sputnik 1. This event marks the beginning
of the Space Race between the US and USSR.
Sputnik 1 was a very simple spherical satellite. It
orbited the Earth once every 1,5 hours and
transmitted a radio signal (the iconic beep-beep) for
three weeks until its batteries died. Sputnik 1
reentered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up
three months after the launch.
3. October 5
(1882) American rocket engineer Robert H. Goddard is born.
Goddard (1882-1945) was the first to design and test a rocket that used
liquid propellant, in that case gasoline and liquid oxygen. Although
Goddard’s rocket was nowhere near space, in fact it barely rose to the
height of a two storey house, it successfully demonstrated the possibility
of using liquid propellant in rockets. Goddard developed the theory of
rocket flight, worked on a multistage rocket and patented well over 200
inventions over the course of his life. NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center was named in his honour. Read more about Robert H.
Goddard here.
October 9
(1873 ) German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild is born.
Schwarzschild (1873-1916) gave the first exact solution to Einstein’s
field equations for the case of non-rotating spherically symmetrical
mass. The solution, known as Schwarzschild metric, determined
something called Schwarzschild radius. An object packed within a
sphere the size of its Schwarzschild radius will collapse to form a black
hole. Interestingly, Schwarzschild himself didn’t think that black hole
were real objects.
4. October 10
(1967) Outer Space treaty comes into force.
Outer Space Treaty is a document that provides basic guidelines for the
peaceful use of Space. It states, among other things, that there can be no
weapons of mass destruction in the Earth’s orbit and no military activities
on the Moon and other celestial objects. Over 100 countries are party to
this treaty and many others have signed but not yet ratified it.
October 11
(1758) German astronomer Heinrich Willhelm Olbers is born.
A doctor by day and a stargazer by night, Olbers (1758-1840) is the
discoverer of the asteroids 2 Pallas and 4 Vesta as well as a number of
comets. In the paper Olbers wrote in the 1820s he investigated the
question why the sky is dark at night. He proposed that the interstellar
medium absorbs the light from distant stars (and therefore our night sky is
dark instead of being lit by the light of billions of distant stars). Although his
conclusion was wrong, the question he raised became known as Olbers’
paradox, or the night sky paradox. You will find an excellent paper on
Olbers’ paradox here.
5. October 12
(2019) WonderDome mobile planetarium runs family space shows
at Morley Town Hall as part of the Morley Art Festival.
October 15
(2003) China becomes the 3rd nation after the USSR and USA to
send an astronaut into space.
Zhenzhou 5 was the first crewed mission of the China National
Space Administration. It was launched atop Chinese Long March
2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gobi Desert.
The spacecraft carried one taikonaut (that’s what Chinese
astronauts are called), Yang Liwei, into orbit. Liwei spent over 20
hours in Space and completed 14 orbits around the Earth.
6. October 18
(1989) Galileo spacecraft is launched aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Galileo was NASA mission to study Jupiter and its moons. For almost 8 years the spacecraft
explored Jupiter’s rings, atmosphere, magnetosphere as well as the planet’s biggest moons,
Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto. Galileo discovered, among other things, volcanoes on
Io, magnetic field around Ganymede and water on Europa. The spacecraft also carried a
small Galileo Probe. The probe was deployed and sent on a one-way trip into Jupiter’s
atmosphere. At the end of the mission in September 2003, after completing 35 orbits around
the gas giant, Galileo probe itself was sent on a crash course into Jupiter.
October 19
(1910) American-Indian astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995) is born.
Chandrasekhar made a massive contribution to the theory of stellar evolution. He calculated
the “Chandrasekhar limit”, the critical mass of a supernova remnant. A remnant with a mass
up to the limit will remain a white dwarf whereas a heavier one will continue to collapse and
become either a neutron star or a black hole. Chandrasekhar received a Nobel Prize in
Physics in 1983. You can learn more about the scientist and his discoveries in our blog
post Great astronomers of the 20th century: Chandrasekhar.
7. October 20
British aerospace scientist Kenneth Gatland is born.
Gatland (1924-1997) is the author and editor of many books and
articles about space and spaceflight including “The illustrated
Encyclopedia of Space Technology: A Comprehensive History of
Space Exploration”. Gatland was president of the British
Interplanetary Society in 1973-1977.
October 22
American radio engineer Karl Jansky is born.
Jansky (1905-1950) was a radio engineer at Bell Labs. While he
looked for sources of radio static that could potentially interfere
with transatlantic transmission, Jansky found a new type of signal.
It turned out he discovered radio waves from the Milky Way!
8. October 25
(1945) American astrophysicist, particle physicist and
cosmologist David Schramm is born.
Schramm (1945-1997) was the World leading expert on the
Big Bang theory. He is well known for studying how the lightest
elements were formed after the Big Bang. He also calculated
how much regular matter there is in the Universe and predicted
the existence of “dark matter”.
October 27
(2019) Daylight Saving Time ends.
Every year on the last Sunday of October at 2AM we set the
clock 1 hour back. From that moment until the end of March
(when British Summer TIme, or BST, begins) UK is
on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
9. October 29
(2018) Parker Solar Probe sets a new record.
Launched on August 12, 2018, Parker Solar Probe is a NASA mission to study the
solar atmosphere and solar wind. On October 29, 2018 Parker Probe became the
closest man-made object to the Sun. And it keeps getting closer with every orbit! You
can learn all about Parker mission in our blog post Parker Probe: the mission to solve
the mystery of the Sun.
October 30
(2018) End of the Kepler Space Telescope mission.
Kepler telescope was a NASA mission to search for planets orbiting other stars. It was
launched in March 2009. During the 9.5 year long mission Kepler discovered nearly
3000 exoplanets. On October 30, 2018 the planet hunter ran out of fuel and NASA
announced the end of the programme. The spacecraft remains in orbit.
One of the exoplanets discovered by Kepler, planet K2-18b, made the headlines last
month when astronomers found water vapor in its atmosphere.
10. October 31
(1930) American astronaut Michael Collins
is born.
Michael Collins is a retired astronaut and
test pilot. He is most famous for being “the
second man on the Moon” as a Command
Module Pilot on Apollo 11 mission. Three
years prior to Apollo 11, Collins served
as Gemini 10 pilot. During Gemini flight he
spent 3 days in orbit and completed
2 EVAs. Michael Collins was one of the
CAPCOMs for the Apollo 8 mission.