Back to the Beginning: The Big Bang

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Jonah
The different stages of the Universe following the Big Bang

The Big Bang. It was big and definitely was a bang, but many think that this event just happened and here we are in the same universe billions of years later. In reality, the Universe has been evolving, rapidly at first slowing over time, and it continues to evolve today.

The first stage of evolution was the Planck Era which lasted for about 10-43 seconds. There isn’t a theory sufficient enough to describe this time, but we know that the temperatures were extremely high and predict that there was a single, combined force that ruled over nature. Eventually, the temperature dropped allowing for one force, gravity, to separate from the combined forces which lead to the GUT Era (named after the grand unified theories). In this time, gravity and the other combined force (strong, weak, and electromagnetic) operated in nature. Again, there are many theories about this era as well, but we predict it ended when the strong and electromagnetic forces separated as the temperature continued to fall. It is also predicted that in this time, there was a great expansion of the Universe from an atomic nucleus size to that of a solar system.

After these two stages, there was the Electroweak Era where gravity, strong, and “electroweak” (electromagnetic and weak forces were still combined) forces were coexisting in the Universe. Eventually, the Universe cooled even more to about 1015 Kelvin which allowed the electromagnetic and weak forces to separate. This era is the first that we have direct evidence of what actually happened. Everything before was theorized with no direct evidence. Following the Electroweak Era was the Particle Era. During this time, very small objects called quarks, antiquarks, electrons, positrons, particles, and antiparticles participated in matter-antimatter collisions swapping masses. As the temperature continued to drop, these collisions slowed and matter, not antimatter, ended up being the winner of the battles since if there were an equal number of matter and antimatter, there wouldn’t be anything in the Universe.

At this point, the Universe is only 0.001 seconds old. The temperatures are still extremely high so fusion is occurring between protons and neutrons to form nuclei, but gamma rays are destroying them at the same time. This stage is known as the Era of Nucleosynthesis. As this went on, the temperature of the Universe was still decreasing and fusion eventually stopped leaving a hydrogen-abundant (75%) Universe with a significant amount of helium (~24.9999%). A smooth transition into the Era of Nuclei consisted of free-floating nuclei without electrons for about 380,000 years. After all of this time, the Universe had cooled enough to where these nuclei could finally capture and keep electrons and photons were able to travel across the Universe.

With fully-formed nuclei, the Era of Atoms began. The Universe was full of neutral atoms and gravity being the force that it is drew free-floating atoms to denser parts of the Universe. As time progressed, these turned into protogalactic clouds, or baby galaxies. About 600,000 years later when the Universe had reached its one-billion-year mark, the first galaxies appeared marking the beginning of the Era of Galaxies. Stars began to form over the billions of years and the Universe came to evolve to more of what we see today.

The Universe has come a long way to be in the Era of Galaxies and the truth is that it will continue evolve as it continues to expand. How? In truth, we do not know and will probably not be around long enough to see any changes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t imagine.

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One Strange Shield

Posted on March 16, 2020 by gatorsguidetothegalaxy

About a year ago National Geographic released a television series titled “One Strange Rock.” It can be found on Disney+. This series looks at how life on Earth survives and thrives. It is especially interesting because it tells this story through eight astronauts (and Will Smith!) who have spent about 1,000 days in space. An easier way to describe it is “if Michael Bay directed a nature documentary.” It’s very dramatic and has very well done cinematography and graphics. There are times when the Earth Scientist in me is a little upset at how they describe things, but overall it is very scientifically sound. One of the episodes is titled “Shield” and tells the story of how the Earth’s magnetosphere protects our planet.

A rendering from NASA/GSFC/SOHO/ESA in ScienceMag of Earth’s magnetosphere deflecting harmful radiation from Solar Winds.

Earth’s magnetosphere is one of the reasons that our planet can harbor life. As a reminder, a magnetosphere is an area surrounding a planet in which charged particles are affected by that planet’s magnetic field. A planet with an active interior creates a magnetic field, which deflects harmful cosmic radiation in solar winds. Earth’s magnetosphere is the reason we have kept our atmosphere. In space, astronauts are exposed to these harmful particles. Mars, which does not have an active core and magnetic field, lost its atmosphere long ago.

A video from NASA about the discoveries of the THEMIS mission in 2008. Continue reading to learn more!

The Sun also has a magnetic field, and it can be extended by solar winds, just as Earth’s magnetosphere is shaped by its interaction with solar winds. In 2008, the NASA THEMIS mission discovered that when the Earth is lined up as directly South or North of the Sun’s magnetic field, 20 times the amount of cosmogenic radiation gets past our magnetic field. Does this mean that Earth could eventually lose its atmosphere like Mars? Not anytime soon. Increased solar radiation can harm satellites, cause power outages, and more. With the information from the THEMIS mission we can better predict and prepare for these problems!

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SpaceX and Bassnectar – A Love Story

Posted on March 16, 2020 by alexsolarsystem

SpaceX Falcon 9 Dragon Resupply mission

Over spring break, a few of my pals and I got the incredible opportunity to see a SpaceX rocket launch in the distance as we danced to the booming music of Bassnectar at Okeechobee Music Festival 2020. It was really a once in a lifetime experience, and we would’ve completely missed it if a random person hadn’t shouted “Look!” right as the rocket came into view. As I looked up, I saw what initially seemed to be an explosion until I realized that it was the First stage booster rockets separating from the main Dragon spacecraft. The rocket needed the extra boosters in order to get the 4,300 pounds of experiments and supplies off the ground and out of the atmosphere.

All in all, this was a breathtaking feat to witness. I’ve always dreamt of seeing a real rocket in action and my dreams couldn’t have been more fulfilled. Next time, I want to be as close to the rocket as possible so as to fully appreciate the beauty of modern engineering.

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Juno – Spacecraft, Roman Goddess, and….Lego Minifigure?

Posted on March 16, 2020 by alexsolarsystem
The Juno Lego Minifigures: Jupiter, Juno, and Galileo

Currently orbiting Jupiter is a small satellite that goes by the name of Juno. This small spacecraft was launched in 2011 and was tasked with uncovering as much as possible about Jupiter and its mysterious history. Its main mission is to measure the composition, gravity field, and magnetic field of Jupiter while simultaneously looking for hints as to how the giant planet formed. Even though we have sent many probes to Jupiter in the past, none have survived long enough to tell us much about the planet’s core or its mass distribution. Essentially, Juno is NASA’s best attempt so far at breaking through the seeming impenetrable wall of Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Juno also carries with it a couple of interesting tributes and trinkets. Onboard the satellite is a plaque dedicated to the legendary Galileo Galilei who (among many other achievements) discovered the moons around Jupiter. Additionally, Juno carries with it three Lego minifigures that represent Galileo himself, the Roman God Jupiter, and the goddess Juno (Jupiter’s sister and wife). According to Roman mythology, Juno was the only one who could see through Jupiter’s veil of clouds in order to reveal his true nature. In a similar fashion, NASA hopes that the Juno spacecraft will finally be able to break through the haze and see into the massive planet, finally revealing the mysteries that lie within.

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We’re Not the Only Living Ones in the Universe, Kind Of

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Jonah
The various stages of nuclear fusion in a high-mass star

For ages, humans have been questioning the possibility of other life forms in the universe. There are many theories and ideas of evidence of other life forms. For example, there appears to be dry river beds on Mars. It is thought that Mars could at one point retain water on its surface and life could’ve been sustained. There are other similar theories but what many tend to overlook are the seemingly infinite life forms that “twinkle” in our night sky: stars. We may not look like stars but there are similarities. Like humans, stars are born except they’re born out of gas clouds from older stars. Like humans, stars develop and change as they get older as they get more food (energy). Like humans, stars eventually get old and can no longer sustain life. The main difference, and perhaps most important aspect about a star, is the process that it undergoes to remain alive: nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is the process of fusing atoms of an element together which gives off energy.

The type of life a star will live, and its nuclear fusion process is determined once the star is born based on its birthweight, or how massive the star is when it starts fusing. If the birthweight is less than 2M, or two solar masses (two times the mass of our Sun), then the star is what we call a low-mass star. The nuclear fusion these stars undergo start out with fusing hydrogen to create helium. Once all of the hydrogen fuel is burned, the star will collapse and then expand to start fusing helium. After all of the helium fuel is fused to create carbon, the core is now primarily carbon but there isn’t enough gravitational energy to start fusing carbon and the core collapses. The outer portions, everything except the core, is blown away in a planetary nebula while the remaining core is left exposed as a white dwarf star.

Any star with a birthweight above 2M will typically have a longer life as a high-mass star. These stars follow the same process of low-mass stars except they continue fusing past carbon. In fact, they fuse each element all the way up to iron. Just like carbon was a low-mass star’s limit, iron is the end of the nuclear fusion process for high-mass stars. Iron can’t fuse into anything because the fusion will not create energy like each preceding fusion did. So, what happens? A supernova! Gravity collapses the core and the temperature rises to billions of Kelvin and then the rest of the star collapse and bounces off the neutron core. The result is a supernova nebula that actually creates the rest of the elements due to the extreme temperatures and abundance of energy.

So stars may not live like humans, but they have life cycles that we can link to our lives in different ways. They are born, they live, they die, and they give birth to other stars and elements. While they aren’t aliens that many want to find, stars are another form of life in our universe that we should no longer overlook as such.

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Space Junk

Posted on March 16, 2020 by remieri
NASA

Space junk is a potential threat to human space exploration. In the frictionless vacuum of space, even a small particulate left behind by a past voyage can become deadly, fracturing seals and damaging the integrity of any spacecraft as it travels at extremely high speeds. So far, we’ve been relatively lucky—the sheer size of space enables us to mostly not worry about it yet. That said, certain highly contested orbits, such as geostationary orbits, may be at risk from space debris as development of space continues. As such, it is imperative that a solution be found to clear space and allow easy access to space. A few technological solutions exist that may be useful. First, there is the potential to use lasers to steer debris out of the path of orbits or vaporize it to the point it’s harmless. Nets may be used to capture debris, and harmlessly decelerate it out of orbit. However, more important than junk removal is junk tracking. The ability to tell where debris is and isn’t is invaluable, as it permits avoidance much more cheaply than the high-tech strategies. NASA and the DOD share responsibility for tracking every object in the night sky larger than a softball and are working to ensure space flights don’t aggravate the problem further. While space debris may not be a major issue yet, it’s critical we keep our eye on the problem.

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How do we know the age of Earth?

Posted on March 16, 2020 by remieri
International Rivers

How do we know how old the Earth is? The age of the Earth was a relatively contested figure for a while, with early scientists struggling to date it with any level of precision. The first and most-well known way to set a lower bound on the age of the earth is through radioactive dating. Simply, find as many rocks as possible, look at radioactive isotopes within those rocks, and compare the quantity of radioactive source to the quantity of members of its decay chain. This method is useful for establishing a lower bound for age, since in theory, the rocks must have formed after earth did. Whichever rock we can find that is dated to the furthest past date is the lower bound for the age of the earth. There are a few problems with this. First, radioactive decay can be unreliable, especially as gases and such are able to escape. Second, it’s not able to easily establish an upper bound, since the rocks formed after earth did. Third, it is possible rocks may have been transferred to earth from asteroids or some other cosmic event, thereby making questionable some of the assumptions of the process. Beyond dating earth alone, scientists must turn outwards and examine both nearby and far away systems. By dating nearby systems such as the moon and mars, it is possible to ascertain that they formed around 4.5 billion years ago, similar to estimates from the earth. Similarly, by examining planets in different stages of their development, it is possible for scientists to determine how long the life cycle can take for similar planets. In this way, astronomy can lend significant insights to geology and the study of our own planetary formation.

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We’re All a Little Crooked, and That’s a Good Thing

Posted on March 15, 2020 by fermifurby

Over spring break I watched a movie called “The Dead Don’t Die” with my family. The movie starts out with Bill Murray’s and Adam Driver’s characters talking about how strange everything is, and is promptly followed up with an in-movie news channel featuring a debate on whether polar fracking is good or bad. In the movie, a growing global population has given rise to increasing energy demands, which in turn has driven energy companies to start During this debate, the fracking is connected with a change in the Earth’s axial tilt. Subsequently, the characters remark at how strange it is that the sun is still high in the sky despite it being 10 pm at night. When night does eventually come, the moon is shown to have an ominous aura (that is later hinted to be the reason for the dead to be coming back to life.)

The film’s events follow the disruption of the Earth’s axis

At this point in the movie, I had to pause the movie and explain to my family that the earth is off its axis would, in fact, alter our day/night cycle.  But more than this, a change in the Earth’s axial tilt would lead to a severe change in global climate, and could possibly lead to other terrible outcomes.

While the movie focuses on the rising of the dead, it could have taken a closer look at something that we are facing here in reality, which is the re-emergence of dormant contagions. In 2016, there was an anthrax outbreak due to global rising in temperatures where it was called a “zombie bacteria.” There are some things residing in permafrost that need to stay there, especially given our current circumstances. A study in 2014 discovered that a 30,000-year-old virus can be warmed up and still be infectious. Given these studies, it’s actually possible that a “zombie” outbreak could occur if the earth were to be thrown off its axial tilt of 23.5 degrees. So even though the Earth isn’t exactly “level” relative to our orbit with the sun, we can be thankful that it’s a little crooked. 

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Extreme Planet Discovered

Posted on March 15, 2020 by abbigailhughes
An illustrated picture of the exoplanet discovered.

Recently, astronomers discovered a new exoplanet that exists about 640 lightyears away from Earth which they are considering as having the most intense weather patterns they have ever observed. The planet has two sides — a cool side that remains in darkness, contrasted with a hot side that can reach temperatures up to 4,352 degrees Fahrenheit. The planet is so hot that iron condenses and the winds on the planet then blow the iron into the cooler side causing it to become a liquid and then it actually rains liquid iron from the sky. The planet also experiences lots of radiation. The name of the giant exoplanet is WASP-76b. The planet is a gas giant, like Uranus in our solar system. The tool used to discover this planet is called the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and it will continue to be used in order to search for other planets similar to Earth. However, it is really interesting to understand the extremities that other planets could be.

Source

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Is Space Exploration a Good Idea?

Posted on March 15, 2020 by andyyangdk
Organisms called Tardigrade can survive the extreme radiation and vacuum of space

The coronavirus is now spreading across the globe and has been declared to be a pandemic. If a virus like this is so dangerous to humans, viruses that may exist somewhere else in the galaxy or universe would be so much worse… One day our sun will most likely grow to a red giant and engulf the closer terrestrial planets, so if humanity still exists by then, we would have to have traveled far off to another solar system, unless we would live on a spaceship that just drifts through space. Viruses are not living creatures so it is possible that the radiation or vacuum in space would not have an effect on them. There is also very little data on viruses in space but if it is on Earth, one can only imagine that they exist elsewhere too, maybe on comets, meteors, planets, and moons. This brings me to question whether humans should try to explore space right now, when we can barely deal with the coronavirus. I think that the lack of preparation against viruses will prove to be fatal to humanity and be the ultimate downfall of humanity.

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