The content of this post is based from an article on Space.com titled, “A Hungry Black Hole Devoured a Star, and Its ‘Burp’ Revealed How It Chowed Down”. So, yeah, this is about to be exciting.
In the cataclysmic event known as ASASSN-14li, a star passed too close to a black hole. The enormous gravity of the black hole tugged on the star, stretching and flattening it–eventually tearing it apart altogether. The stellar material fell into the accretion disk of the black hole, eventually consumed by the singularity.
Astronomers observed the event, carefully sifting through data from a variety of wavelengths to gather some insight about the process in which a black hole consumes matter. Two researchers eventually found a pattern in radio emissions that closely matched the X-ray signal from the moment of the star’s entry into the black hole. The burst of X-ray emissions was caused by material in the inner part of the accretion disk falling towards the center. The radio signal occurred two weeks later, established to have been caused by high energy electrons moving in a magnetic field–what remains unknown is the source of these high energy electrons. The researchers concluded that because of the close match between X-ray and radio wavelength emissions, the two must be causally related.
Then through some scientific calculations a few levels above my personal understanding, the researchers concluded that the amount of material absorbed by the black hole, or its accretion rate, affects the strength of the jet emitted as the black hole absorbs that material. One researcher stated, “this is telling us the black hole feeding rate is controlling the strength of the jet it produces. A well-fed black hole produces a strong jet, while a malnourished black hole produces a weak jet or no jet at all.”
I’ll admit, this doesn’t sound very exciting. And I will also admit, the title of the article was slightly more interesting than the conclusion. However, this discovery is indeed useful and important! Stars are produced in only very cold conditions, and these jets emitted by black holes heat the area around them. Near a developing galaxy, this can temporarily halt the growth of the galaxy by preventing the production of new stars. This is useful for–hopefully–creating more accurate models of the Universe. This discovery could aid in creating more precise simulations of the evolution of the Universe, and provide more answers its many mysteries.
I will soon be embarking on a family trip to Yellowstone, my first visit to this National Park. Yellowstone is geological hotspot and is home to a plethora of thermal features, including hot springs, geysers, and the massive volcano itself. The hot waters may seem incapable of housing life, but they are home to an array of extremophiles.
The images of the hot springs show a spectrum of colors, the Grand Prismatic Spring gets it name from its particularly beautiful range of colors. The thermophilic archaea that live in the springs can survive temperatures up to 92 degrees Celsius. The simple structure of the archaea leads scientists to believe that they have changed very little since they first formed on Earth. Not only are these microbes thermophiles, they are also acidophiles, surviving in pHs of 3 and lower.
There are also bacteria that call these waters home. Some of the bacteria use photosynthesis and even produce chlorophyll, giving the waters a greenish color. Scientists have even found unusual bacteria in the hot springs that can tolerate oxygen and still undergo photosynthesis. These bacteria are alkalophiles, thriving in very basic environments, with pHs greater than 9.
The image above shows a type of grass that grows near the hot springs. This plant survives the extreme heat because it is in a symbiotic relationship with a fungus. The fungus lives on the roots of the panic grass. It is only together that these two eukaryotic species can survive heats up to 65 degrees Celsius.
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No it’s… the end of the semester?
Well, I guess you heard it here first. This is going to be the last blog of the semester. I’ll even let you choose the topic since it’s the last time we’ll be together. I’ll give you three choices:
Well, assuming you are still here, I’m guessing you chose “How you can become an astronaut”. Congratulations!!! You’re today’s big winner. Your prize: the rest of this article.
Before we begin, let’s look at some odds. Every year, NASA gets approximately 2,000-6,000 applicants to become astronauts. Out of these thousands, 10 get the coveted position. That’s approximately a .17% chance. There are other avenues such as private agencies or other countries’ space programs, but let’s stay focused on NASA.
So, what does it take to become an astronaut? NASA requires its astronauts to have at least a bachelor’s degree in biological science, engineering, math, or physical science. The majority of astronauts have a masters or PHD in their respective field. NASA also requires three years of related and responsible professional experience.Alternatively, you can have 1,000 hours of pilot in command time in a jet aircraft.
Candidates must also pass a physical with 20/20 vision, a blood pressure less than 140/90 when sitting, and a height between 5’2 and 6’3. This is in addition to psychological interviews to determine if you are mentally capable to become an astronaut.
Wow! You fit all the requirements of becoming an astronaut and were lucky enough to be one of the few chosen? Congratulations, you now have two more years of basic astronaut training followed by years of training and waiting so that you may someday, get the opportunity to have an opportunity to go to outer space. Good luck!
Twilight Zone, one of the favorite t.v. series growing up. My favorite episode, the one that really stuck with me, was “To Serve Man”. In this episode, Aliens come to Earth with seemingly peaceful and helpful intentions. They just want to help and serve man. Plot twist: they were serving man alright… for dinner. This was my first memory of aliens in pop culture and instilled a fear of other life in our universe for the majority of my childhood. As I began to grow up, my curiosity for life on other planets began to grow, leading me to this blog here today: Is there other life in the universe?
Yes. No. Maybe so? We honestly do not know right now and cannot point to a definitive yes or a definitive no. Our only answer is probably. Well, NASA hopes to soon change this with a new interdisciplinary project led by Tony del Genio.
The first stage of this project looks at answering two questions:
What planets should we focus our efforts at looking for life?
What are the signs of life?
To answer this question, we must look inward and see what qualities encourage life on Earth. NASA’s conclusion: water. Every living organism known to man which are able to live without sunlight require water to live in. With this in mind, NASA has begun looking for oceans and other bodies of water in space. The main technique so far has been calculating a star’s habitable zone, or the area where liquid water can exist in a solar system.
Not many planets have been found though which fit all the criteria needed to support life. While this may dismay many scientists, there is still hope as detection methods continue to improve. We also have a few potential candidates in our own solar system. Andrew Rushbyfrom the NASA Ames Research Center currently thinks our best bet is to explore water moons in our solar system such as Europa or Enceladus.
On April 16th, NASA is scheduled to launch a new satellite that will give us much more information about the planets that orbit the stars near ours. Since 2009, the Kepler mission has provided us with information about thousands of planets in our galaxy. While that data has been incredibly useful, this new satellite nicknamed TESS (short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) will bring about a new era in the investigation of far-away planets.
An artist’s depiction of TESS scanning for far-away planets.
This satellite will travel a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth that goes out almost to the Moon. This orbit will take the planet 13.5 days, exactly one half the length of that of the moon. This slow orbit will give the satellite the ability to deliberately scan almost every swath of the sky. During the orbital phase that brings the satellite close to the Earth, all the information from the previous cycle will be beamed back to Earth.
The MIT astrophysicists who designed this satellite hope that it will provide much more information about smaller planets and planets that are farther from their stars. If the satellite’s mission is successful, we may begin to gather information about man’s first destinations outside of our solar system, though such expeditions will of course be many decades from now.
Posted inPhysics|Taggedastro2110, blog6, TESS|Comments Off on NASA Soon to Learn Much More about Nearby Planetary Systems
Two prevalent and salient questions and goals surround our red neighbor. The first is the appreciable discovery of liquid water on Mars’s surface, which opens the door to the possibility of discovering life. The other is the goal of both NASA and private aerospace companies such as SpaceX to colonize Mars and establish a permanent human presence and colony. Though these seem unrelated, they may actually be in conflict. By a process known as interplanetary contamination, machinery and equipment that is shipped from Earth bring with it tiny microbes and microorganisms. This could be potentially harmful and deadly for any microorganisms on Mars (both past and present). If we are to prioritize discovering life on other planets, then we would have to hold off on sending humans and colonizing equipment. If we prioritize colonization and end up wiping out the life on Mars, then we would lose any and all progress towards studying actual extraterrestrial life. NASA scientists claim that they are doing everything they can to mitigate the effects of contamination, yet they cannot completely control the properties and behavior of microscopic earthlings who want to go to Mars. A potential solution is to give all attention for 5-10 years on scanning and probing for biomarkers and signs of life, and colonizing afterword if there is no risk of contaminating anything. This is hard to pitch, however, because of how supportive and gung-ho people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump are about getting to Mars. Regardless of which initiative we prioritize, I hope that we are able to reconcile both the search for life and the desire to colonize the solar system.
Jupiter’s Ocean moon, Europa has been the subject of many works of fiction, as its oceanic surface of liquid water may be sustainable for life–either existing there today or humans in the future. One of NASA’s missions, the Europa Clipper, is set to launch in 2020 and should provide very detailed reconnaissance of the moon, and is hoping to be able to detect any existing life and to evaluate the potential for human colonization. Oxygen stored in the ocean could be used for oxygen in a potential terraformed atmosphere, the flow of water could provide hydroelectric power, and the ocean water could be desalinated and made drinkable. Potential problems that come with colonizing Europa include high levels of radiation, cold surface temperatures, and an unstable surface (there has been demonstrated geological activity). Regardless, Europa could be a beneficial outpost for human colonization as we venture farther towards the edge of our solar system. Europa could act as a midway point between us and Uranus or Neptune, for example. As we look to explore and make our mark across the Universe, we should definitely invest in making our way towards Europa.
Space. There is quite a bit of it. In the room I live in, there is 264 sq ft of it. On Earth, there is 196.9 million sq miles of it. But in space, it is seemingly infinite, or at least so it seems. With the Hubble constant still undetermined, and the shape of the universe undetermined, it seems as though the universe can go on forever. Or maybe, the universe is a conical shape and is expanding conically. With this theory, one could travel in a straight line and end right back up in their original destination. In actuality, this process would take many billion years to prove if it can physically be proven at all, and that is if our probes are travelling at exactly the speed of light.
These are three theories on what the shape of the universe may be. The top one is what I described, the middle one is similar to a bent sheet of paper, and the bottom image represents an infinitely expanding plane. Sourced from Space.com
I suppose what I am trying to say is that so many questions exist that still not have been answered in my lifetime and may never be answered in my lifetime. Heck, just two years ago (2016) the existence of gravitational waves was confirmed by LIGO, VIRGO, and all others organizations that work in unison just to detect gravitational waves. There exist so many mysteries concerning the properties of these gravitational waves, but so many other mysteries exist as well. What is dark matter, and why the proportion of dark matter to baryons (normal particles we can see) high enough that it allows for galaxies to uniformly rotate? Do other dimensions exist in the universe? What other properties besides Earth-like properties should we be looking for when attempting to detect the presence of a possible alien-civilization?
Most importantly, where is the support to answer these question?
This is what it looked like when the first gravitational waves were detected. The technology created to do this can detect movements less than the size of a proton. It’s an incredible effort and a reason why more people should not be afraid of science. But this is a topic for another day. Sourced from Wikipedia
On a talk that famous astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson had with Sam Denby, a popular education Youtuber and mind behind Wendover Productions, he discussed how the incentive to go into space will come from commercial industry. He says that the most exciting and interesting quests that humans have at the current moment, such as colonizing Mars and sending more probes into deep space is only possible as a vanity project for a couple of billionaires to fund. You can go ahead and watch this talk here. Beyond the talk, he brings up a good point about the current state of space travel and space expenditure: economics.
To access space one must understand the fundamentals of supply and demand. The macroeconomic concept is simple: as the demand for some type of product or service increases, the supply of that product or service increases. Now, note that demand doesn’t solely or simply depend on public demand for a service or product. Rather, the demand has to be money backed and the public has to be willing to fund the purchase of the product or service that is in demand.
This is the supply and demand “curve”. It basically shows that as demand increases supply will increase. The point where they intersect is a market equilibrium, where the supply and demand are sustainable. Anything above this point is considered a surplus, and anything below is a shortage. Sourced from everyone’s favourite website, Chegg.
I would also like to note that the curves aren’t like conventional x and y curves. You can have high demand (all the way to the right) and low supply (all the way to the left in the yellow). If you would like to learn more about this economic concept, I highly suggest you watch this video by ACDC economics teacher, Mr. Clifford.
But, now you ask, why do I include the economics lesson? Because it is important to convey that the current future of space is not just dependent on the public’s desire to explore the outer reaches of the universe, but rather the demand that is encapsulated by those that have the millions and billions of dollars to pay for what seems to me as vanity space explorations. I don’t want to sit here and bash the commercial space industry. Rather, I would like explain the caveats that exist within it.
One of the more prominent companies that is responding to existing demand for cheaper access to space is SpaceX. SpaceX itself is involved in sending satellites and different technologies for the government utilizing their Falcon and, recently, the Falcon Heavy rockets. SpaceX has done well in reducing the cost of launching rockets carry some kind of payload into space. However, Elon Musk has noted that the ultimate goal of SpaceX is colonize Mars. Moreover, as soon as he significantly reduces the cost of launching rockets, he’s is planning on using them for intercontinental flight.
SpaceX’s proposed intercontinental transportation rocket. Sourced from BBC.
Another company that is making a significant impact in this space is Bigelow Aerospace. You may not have heard of this company based out of the Nevada desert, but their goal is to create livable and sustainable inflatable space habitats that will be much more cost effective than the current materials being used on the International Space Station. In fact, in 2016 they launched one of the inflatable prototypes to test as a viable living and laboratory environment. Bigelow’s current plans are to create commercial space stations, or “space hotels” in which individuals go to space for tourism. In the far future they plan on incorporating these inflatable habitats to withstand the environments of other worlds such as Mars.
The concept for Bigelow Aerospace’s Commercial Space Stations, a.k.a. Space Hotels. Sourced from Business Insider
I don’t mean to overload with information, but the information provided is essential to understanding my point. There is so much about space that we do not know and cannot know because there is little tangible demand and funds to support efforts to explore deep space. Today, we hear news stories about SpaceX’s successes and companies that plan on flying us into space and allowing us to be tourists in our own orbit, on the Moon, and maybe on Mars. I believe that it is good that the public is captivated with space, but I think that we are misleading the public with the potential to experience space for ourselves.
We are selfish beings and our biology wires us this way. The potential for the masses to believe that they can see space for themselves, with their own eyes is tantalizing, but I think is too tantalizing. Companies like SpaceX, Bigelow Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, and many other organizations are capitalizing on capturing the public’s attention by giving them the vision of being able to experience what I believe are vanity services. Yes, the technologies we will develop along the way will help us reach out further into the deep unknown, but at the same time I believe we are coming to an era of space exploration where we are dreaming too close. We admire these marvels of technology that bring us physically closer to space, but I think it is essential for us to remember our roots.
In our short history, our ancestors had many unsolved questions that were answered with observation and the ability to ponder for long periods of time. Today, society functions at the whim of the economy, leaving little time for philosophers. I am afraid we are reaching a point where looking further into space will only happen when people demand to physically go further out. I am afraid this is reducing our ability to learn more about the heavens and understand before we begin to talk about venturing out of Earth. I am afraid that we have turned marvels of machinery into goals that we idolize. I think it is good for us to remember that our roots began with naked eye observations and pondering to understand the heavens. Only when we understand can we truly approach something and be greatly successful at it. If we fail to follow these simple steps, we will encounter great difficulties: difficulties we will overcome, but avoidable consequences.
Do not view this as an attack against large corporation, but rather a call to shift our vision from the myopia of what we may see one day to a cerebral vision of what we may learn. Knowledge has and always will be our greatest asset. Let’s not squander it.
Poster for the movie ‘The Titan’ with the tagline, “Evolve or Die” – image provided by Teaser-Trailer.com
This past weekend I watched a new movie on Netflix called ‘The Titan’. The plot of the movie revolved around the idea that Earth was becoming uninhabitable and the solution that scientists came up with was to use experiments of forced evolution on former soldiers to create a type of ‘new human’ that could survive on Titan, one of Jupiter’s moons that has an atmosphere. The movie’s science seemed interesting, and prompted me to wonder, how much of these things that they were saying about Titan were true? How much did the movie get right? Are these things actually possible?
Here are some of the ‘facts’ that the movie highlights about Titan, let’s see if they’re true:
This is false. Plenty of other planets have atmospheres as we have learned in class. It is, however, one of three bodies in our solar system with a thick atmosphere, “There are only three bodies in the solar system with thick atmosphere: Earth, Venus and Titan” (TechRadar). It is also the only known moon with a dense atmosphere (Titan (moon)). However, to say it is the only other place in the solar system with an atmosphere is false.
According to Techradar.com, this information is apparently false. The nitrogen ratio in the air of Titan is actually 95%, not 90%, and when they say “oxygen is less than five” the truth is oxygen isn’t readily available at all (TechRadar). While the movie implies that with some slight adjustment, just a shift to breathing more nitrogen and less oxygen, we would be fine to survive on Titan, the truth is “…there’s [also] a lot of carbon dioxide and methane [in the atmosphere]. So it’s not breathable” (TechRadar).
Titan is in fact, the largest moon of Saturn’s 62 moons, as well as the second largest moon in our solar system (Moons of Saturn) after Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede which measures in at 5262 km (Worldatlas). Titan, which measures in at 5,151 km, is, in fact, larger than Mercury (Moons of Saturn). These particular facts appear to check out.
This appears to be only partly true. According to Titan’s Wikipedia page “The climate—including wind and rain—creates surface features similar to those of Earth, such as dunes, rivers, lakes, seas (probably of liquid methane and ethane), and deltas, and is dominated by seasonal weather patterns as on Earth.” (Titan (moon)). Therefore, there are rivers that would probably cause the spread of ammonia and nitrogen. Wikipedia also goes on to verify the idea that the nitrogen, which is heavily present in Titan’s atmosphere, can be used to help produce food: “Nitrogen, methane and ammonia can all be used to produce fertilizer for growing food” (Colonization of Titan). However, it is water, not nitrogen that can be used to help generate breathable oxygen, according to techradar.com.
Overall, it appears like most Sci-Fi movies, ‘The Titan’ got some things right, some things wrong, and exaggerated the rest to create a more convincing and interesting plot. All in all, a cool movie idea, but unfortunately, also not very realistic.
A little over a month ago, astronomers in Western Australia detected the signals of stars that formed within the earliest epoch of the Universe. This discovery marks the detection of the oldest signals ever to be received, and with it, evidence for the presence of dark matter at a time when the lights of the Universe were first being ignited, only 180 million years after the Big Bang.
The signals come from hydrogen’s fingerprint on cosmic background radiation as it absorbed some of this primordial light from the first stars, and hint that the early Universe was colder than astronomers previously predicted. This discrepancy has given rise to the theory that dark matter may have had an influence even in these early times, siphoning off energy from these initial stars. This has profound implications not only in the detection of dark matter in ways other than gravitational anomalies, but cosmology, given that dark matter’s presence at this point in time would suggest its presence in a time when simple gases were just beginning to condense to form stars. This would mean dark matter must be composed of something yet to be recognized, and through further study with future projects such as the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) and the Owens Valley Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA), more insight may be gained as to what it is that really composes 85% of our Universe.
