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Tuesday, 29 December 2015
Saturday, 26 December 2015
Do you actually know how our Sun works?
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| The Sun and solar flares to scale - NASA |
Don't you just love beautiful sunny days with warmth on your skin and rays of light through the trees! Do you ever stop and think about what the sun is? How big it is? The fact it's just an enomous ball of gas literally on fire?
I do, properly more then most people, because the process of fusion energy is pretty damn cool once you know how it works!
Fusion first begins when the core of dust/gas ball reaches 15 million degrees celsius. Majority of the gas in the core is hydrogen atoms, which begin the fusion process. Two hydrogen atoms fuse together undergoing weak interaction which transmutes one proton to a neutron. This forms a hydrogen 2 atom. This newly created hydrogen2 fuses with a
single hydrogen atom, emitting a gamma ray and creating Helium 3. Finally two Helium 3 fuse together emitting two normal hydrogen atoms and a Helium 4.
This process continues for millions of years
because of the continual creation of hydrogen atoms. The gamma rays that are
released from this process will go on to continually interact with electrons
and protons, creating the heat energy.
There you have it! Next time you walk outside into the Sun enjoy the beautiful process of nuclear fusion.
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Thursday, 24 December 2015
What's the deal with this Christmas asteroid?
Even chucks of space rock are heading over to earth for some Christmas pie today.
An 2km wide asteroid named 2003 SD220 (catchy name), will fly by Earth to say hi tonight, so get out your telescopes for a unique Christmas Day experience.
It will be travelling a little faster then Santas sleigh, moving at a massive 27km per second!
No need for doomsday preparations just yet however, the asteroid will be 10.6 million km from Earth, about 27 times Earth-Moon distance.
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Tuesday, 22 December 2015
Final Cassini Pictures of Enceladus
Cassini completed the final close-up flyby of Enceladus yesterday, and has send back some beautiful images for us to say goodbye! If you want to read more about the final flyby, and the final stages of the Cassini mission, click here.
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| Close up of Enceladus's icy surface |
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| Image of the ice structure and atmosphere |
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| Features of the Northpole |
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Why SpaceX's Rocket landing will let you go to space!
It look's like a scene from a blockbuster movie, a rocket gently touching down on the Earth's surface in perfect reusable condition. Excitingly it's not! SpaceX successfully launched their Falcon 9 rocket into low orbit and re-entered the atmosphere continuing to this graceful landing.
Now if a reusable self landing rocket wasn't exciting enough, what the Falcon 9 was carrying will be life changing. A module called the Blue Origin was fixed to the top and released in orbit, with it gradually falling back to Earth to make a safe landing using several parachutes.
Why is that exciting? Because the Blue Origin is designed for human space flight. As displayed in the short animation within the video, being aboard the module will allow humans to witness the breathtaking view of our planet Earth, while experiencing the weightlessness of space.
Now, are you ready for the most amazing part, you can subscribe to the waiting list for prices and launch information for when this becomes publicly available... Just click here.
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Monday, 21 December 2015
Largest Universe Simulation Created So Far
Take a moment to appreciate just being alive. This video shows over 400,000 galaxy's, each with an average of 300 billion stars!
And here we are, floating through space on our little planet around just one star in our galaxy. Life's problems seem so small don't they?
This is a super computer simulation created from the BOSS and Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, and is currently the largest sky map simulation ever created.
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What Space Facts Do You Want To Know?
'Exploring the universe, one post at a time'
What makes you curious? We want to answer all your questions!
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Why is Mars Red?
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| The Red planet - JPL image |
The Mars is the beautiful neighbouring planet to Earth, and it is known for its unique and striking red surface. Even as a little spot in the nights sky you can see the faint red glow of the Martian surface. So what causes this distinctive colour? Why is it so different to any of the other planets in our solar system?
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| John Klein Drill Hole Sol 182 - NASA image |
The colour of the surface is actually caused by something very common on Earth, rust! It turns out Mars is just one big clump of rock with a red rust covering.
This is a form of iron rust and is caused from iron rich soil reacting with oxygen in the atmosphere. However it isn't all red. The red dust covers only a few millimetres of the top soil, and everything beneath looks a little more familiar.
Once the thin red dust is removed, grey rocks are revealed. The surface is mostly comprised of volcanic basalt rock, rich in sodium, potassium, chloride and magnesium. The Mars rover Curiosity imaged one of its drill holes, and it shows just how different in colour the actual rocks are!
So there you have it! Mars is our beautiful rusty planet and it hides many surprises under the surface.
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Sunday, 20 December 2015
Get your dose of the universe daily!
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The goal of Physics Mix is the share the beauty and amazement of the universe. So like, follow and subscribe to learn fun facts and see the universes most beautiful images! We also want to hear things about the universe you would like to know more about, so send us any suggestions you have.
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Mars Curiosity at Namib Dune!
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| Mars - Nambi Dunes image was taken by Mastcam: Left (MAST_LEFT) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 1194 (2015-12-16 01:59:11 UTC). |
Curiosity's 1194th day on Mars ended with the beautiful image above. The rover is beginning to approach the steep hill at Namib dune at Gale Crater, getting closer every day to the target of Mount Sharp.
So far Curiosity has travelled approximately 8.6 Kilometres since its 2012 landing. This doesn't sound like very far, considering we could walk this in just a few hours, so why has it taken so long?
Curiosity is a $2.5 billion dollar, 1 tonne rover, which is over 2 years from Earth with no option of calling a tow truck if times get tough. So I don't blame NASA for wanting to take good care of her! The Martian surface is a rough and unpredictable mixture of sand, dirt, rocks and dunes. Each surface must be carefully manoeuvred slowly to insure minimal damage to the rover and its wheels.
Although the journey to Mount Sharp will be a long one, the images captured on the way will continue to give a first hand view at our neighbouring alien planet.
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Saturday, 19 December 2015
You Won't Believe How Big Our Galaxy Is!
The Milky Way is our home galaxy, it's our comfy little spot of the universe and I think it's fair to say it's a pretty good neighborhood!
So where are you in this giant mass of stars?
Well... there you and I are! The little blue dot contains our solar system and a few thousand others.
Now if that doesn't make you feel small, to get to the closest star to us, Alpha Centauri A, would take 4.3 years traveling at the speed of light (which we can't do).
Right so just about now you should feel like a pea in the bottom of the ocean. So unsurprisingly it would take an extremely long time to cross over the entire galaxy.
In fact, it would take 100,000 light years! Again, traveling at the speed of light.
BUT! If we were traveling at the fastest speed any spacecraft has gone, it would take 255,700,000,000 years.
Needless to say, we won't be taking a family road trip across the Milky Way, and our neighboring stars anytime soon.
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Friday, 18 December 2015
Beautiful New 'Earth Rise'
This is the breathtaking new photo of 'Earth Rise' taken from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and it is holding all that see's it in complete awe. The new photo's detail is impressive allowing vast details of Africa's shape peering through the clouds. A huge improvement from the original 'Earth Rise'.
There is no doubt however, that both photos will continue to inspire many generations to come.
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Seeing Into a Blackhole?
Blackholes are the silent and massive monsters amongst us in the universe, but why can't we see them?
Firstly let's recap, blackholes are indeed black... very black. Not even light, traveling at the fastest speeds in the universe, can escape their gravity.
They are created when a star comes to its violent death, imploding and pulling all of the close matter into its centre. The mass within the centre becomes so great, the fabric of Space Time it's self begins to bend under its pressure, contorting it's self into a (currently theoretical) single point deep inside the hole.
But here's a fun fact, They aren't actually holes, but spheres just like anyother star.
So with no light escaping their spherical surface, we physically can't see them though any forms of electromagnetic light!
But what we can see is the stuff around them. This stuff is usually massive dusty donuts of matter surrounding them, being gradually drawn into their gravitational field. However this galactic dust is very dense, which makes seeing anything more then the blackness of the dust walls incredibly difficult.
But there is hope!
Today the NuStar survey has penetrated and began examining the dusty donut around NCG 1068. Not a catchy name, but in months to come exciting research will begin, hopefully uncovering the secrets held by blackholes.
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Thursday, 17 December 2015
Final Chapters of Cassini
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| Enceladus - Cassini image |
The Cassini Mission began its adventure to Saturn in October 1997, and didn't begin to exploring the secrets of Saturn until orbital insertion in July 2005. It has been orbiting the gas giant for just over 10 years now, allowing scientists around the world to uncover the mysteries of Saturn and its Moons.
Sadly the mission is beginning to come to an end, and is expected that by 2017 the beloved spacecraft will be on its way to crash landing into the abyss of Saturn. With the mission beginning to decent closer to the planet, sadly the Moons are being passed for the last time one by one. Today its Enceladus's turn to wave goodbye.
Enceladus is small but mighty. Measuring only 500km across, the small Moon of Saturn could be hiding life beyond Earth under its icy crust. In only 2006 Cassini made the groundbreaking discovery that Enceladus's south pole was home to strong active jets. The jets are created from pressure under the crust, coursed by a vast global ocean under its crust.
So, are there little alien's swimming under the surface of Enceladus? Maybe, however with Cassini moving on from Enceladus, no spacecraft will be able to answer this for many years to come.
Pluto - The Ice Queen
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| Pluto - New Horizons Image |
After nine and a half years, and over 3,740,000,000 km travelled, the New Horizons space prob began its close approach to pluto. This small little space rock has captured the hearts of mankind since first discovered in 1930, as the ninth planet in our humble solar system. Even after being downgraded from prestigious status of planet, to only a dwarf planet title, millions were still eagerly awaiting to see the her close up appearance.
And finally, the first ever images of pluto's surface were received in mid July, detailing the intricate surface. However more stunning images were yet to come, delivering interesting findings with them.
With an orbit so far out from the sun, it's not surprising pluto's surface experiences extremely low temperatures, resulting in an icy crust. Although pluto was known to be an icy maiden before the New Horizons flyby, the characteristics of the ice layer were a mystery until only this month. Below is the latest high-resolution image of pluto's surface, revealing the several blocks of icy crust formed against the nitrogen-rich ice shores of nearby mountains.
So why are these images so important in investigating pluto's surface?
It is because the mountains themselves appear to show crushed materials which has been pushed up in-between the ridges. This could of been coursed by the blocks of icy plains moving back and forth, and presents many questions into this movement to be further explored, hoping to reveal the secrets within Pluto's icy heart.
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