Landing a rocket

Summary: In case your Twitter feed was not just lighting up as much as mine was, Space X just made space history. In the upgrade to their Falcon 9 rocket, the booster did more than just separate, it landed itself back on earth, right where it was supposed to.

In a beautiful video, I just watched a great ball of fire slowly descend to the landing pad and then fade out to reveal a booster rocket standing as straight as you please. Absolutely incredible. The whole of mission control was throwing a party. 

The rest of the rocket went on to deploy six more satellites to complete the constellation arrangement. 

I'll update this post with a link to the video of the launch and further details as I get them.

SpaceX launch video (I suggest starting at about 21:00)
The above link will also give more mission details.

Background on the launch

Long exposure of the launch and landing of the rocket

    
The booster rocket safely on the landing pad

LightSail Test Sucess

Summary: Launched on the 20th of May, the final step of preparation for the LightSail was launched. This was a test sail that would practice unfurling the sail and send back pictures to Earth. I am incredibly excited by this mission and have been ever since I saw the concept art nearly fifteen years ago as a possible design for futuristic spacecraft.

The LightSail is designed to work just like a sailboat; only instead of the wind filling the sail, it is light from the sun. Photons emitted from the sun will push the sail outward and the spacecraft will sail happily along. Even when it has passed beyond the reach of the sun's light, momentum will keep the craft going, even if not as fast.

This would not be a design intended for human travel since it is so slow, but more as a method of sending data gathering probes out into space with no power needed for propulsion beyond adjusting the sail. Furthermore, I believe this sail is not going to be able to tack and sail into the headwind. It will be a one-way mission.


Planetary Society

Using the Eye of Sauron to see Great Distances

Summary: Two of my geeky obsessions have overlapped at long last. And in an exciting way too. As we strive to learn more about the beginnings of our universe, astronomers need new ways to measure distances to distant galaxies. The galaxy NGC4151, nicknamed The Eye of Sauron, has provided that.
The method relies on measuring the size of the supermassive black holes found at the center of all big galaxies. These black holes swallow up a huge about of gas and end up spewing emissions back out to become an AGN. The hot dust becomes a ring around the black hole which the astronomers used for measuring distance. By measuring the time delay between the emission of light from very close to the black hole and the infrared emission of the dust ring, we are able to know the distance the light has had to travel from the black hole to the ring.
Knowing the physical size and the apparent size of the ring means astronomers have a new method of measuring distance with only a 10% uncertainty. Not the most precise method we have but it is one that can be easily applied to many other galaxies out there.


AlphaGalileo
Nature

Lonely Stars

Summary: Two missions in 2010 and 2012 saw a rocket launched for a ten minute look at the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) from above the atmosphere. What is the EBL? Professor Jaime Bock of JPL puts it this way: "It's very faint - but basically the spaces between the stars and galaxies aren't dark. And this is the total light made by stars and galaxies during cosmic history."

Having two separate data collecting missions that looked at different area of the sky allows the scientists to rule out fluctuations due to dust within our solar system. Even with this precaution, there was still extra light. The team believes that based on the brightness and blueness of the EBL, it shows that stars exist outside of galaxies. There might even be just as many stars outside galaxies as inside; it's that bright.

Of course other astronomers are skeptical of this conclusion. They concede it may be possible but are leaving their minds open for new and different possibilities.


BBC News
Science Mag

Conception art no longer

Summary: The Alma telescope has captured a first image of its kind. A picture of planetary formation. The star is HL Tau and here we can see the protoplanetary disk that has formed around the star. It is out of this that the planets are formed. The dark rings in the image are the paths carved out by new planets being formed. Astronomers were surprised by how quickly the process was taking place; HL Tau is only about a million years old. It was not expected to have planets forming yet. This adjustment in the timescale of planetary formation could have an impact on how we date our own solar system, and now that we know it forms faster than expected, we might train our telescopes on other stars around this age and hope for similar results.

BBC News

Backlog of Articles

I've been really busy with my studies but I have been still finding articles. These are no longer recent but for the sake of record keeping I would still like to post them on here for your reading pleasure.

Giant Black Hole at the Heart of a Dwarf Galaxy
Physics World

Leap Forward in Quantum Teleportation
Business Insider

First Images from India's spacecraft
BBC News

Complex Organic Molecules, Now Found in Space
BBC News

The Water-ice of Mercury
BBC News

Death Star Moon has confusing innards
BBC News

New Distance Record for Tractor Beams
BBC News

Water on a Neptune sized exoplanet
BBC News

India and US to collaborate on Mission
NASA

Hidden Valleys of the Moon
BBC News

Comets, Coming to a Printer Near You

Have you ever bemoaned your lack of a model of a comet? Feel your bedroom is incomplete without one? Worry no more; you can now 3D print your own. The ESA has released a model of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the duck shaped comet Rossetta will be Landing on.
BBC News

Nobel Prize to Blue LEDs
BBC News

A few Updates regarding Mars and Space Travel

Martian Fashion:
Because eventually humans may colonize Mars (despite that one Doctor Who episode that clearly warned us against it), NASA has begun planning what its astronauts would need to wear. And they are trying to make it fashionable. Personally, they look like Cybermen from the '70s but I suppose as long as they keep our scientists safe, I'm okay with it.

BBC News


Curiosity:
The rover has begun drilling into the surface of Mars again. Just as a test right now,  but this does mean more data is on its way down to us.

BBC News


The Future of Space Travel:
The UK government has backed plans that would expand its space industry four-fold. This includes possible plans of a bigger space tourism industry. Already the ESA have had a major part to play in outer space exploration, but with more money being available, their part should expand and more can be accomplished. It seems to be good news for everyone.

BBC News

The Secret of the Super Bright Supernova

Summary, almost four years ago, astronomers found a supernova, PS1-10afx, that was 30 times brighter than any other of it's class. They didn't see any abnormalities that would account of this huge magnitude difference and were confused. However, this mystery has now been solved. Then Dr Robert Quimby and his team had an idea that proved fruitful. They looked to see if we were seeing this supernova through a gravitational lens. As it turns out, there was an entire galaxy directly in from of the supernova that was bending the light around it and magnifying it. PS1-10afx is just a normal Type 1A supernova. 

This is will be useful knowledge for measuring cosmic distances since objects of known brightness like Type 1A supernovae are a good constant against which we can measure other objects in the night sky.


BBC News
Science

Infant Moon of Saturn

Summary: Hiding in the images of Saturn's outermost rings, a new moon is being formed. Or at least it looks like it might be a new moon. It's only a slight bump in the images but it does give hints of being a new moon. It's not inconceivable either. The rings are made up of many particles of ice and rock which can start to clump and form a new moon. While it has not been officially confirmed as the start of a new moon yet, the object has been nicknamed Peggy.

Astronomers hope that Cassini's final orbit in 2016 will be able to get higher quality images to verify if it is indeed the beginnings of a new moon. If so, we then just have to cross our fingers to see if it will survive it's infancy. If it stays within the rings, it will have a constant barrage or rocks that could break it apart while it is still forming. If it moves out beyond the rings, Peggy will have to dodge the larger moons.

Even if it does not end up becoming a fully fledged moon, it is still a great opportunity to observe the creation of a new celestial object.

BBC News

Cosmic Waves of Discovery

Summary: Scientists at the BICEP2 collaboration at the South Pole have detected signal that confirm theories of the rapid expansion of the universe immediately after the big bang. If validated by other experiments (which is likely to happen as the signal found is actually stronger than predicted) this confirms a super-rapid expansion within the first instants of the universe before "slowing down" to rapid expansion. What they found were twists in Cosmic Radiation Background that could have only been produced by gravitational waves.

So what does this mean? These signals tell astronomers that gravity was present during this time in which quantum effects dominated the, then very tiny, universe. This gives us greater hope that the Four Fundamental Forces can be one day combined into a unified Theory of Everything which could better describe conditions at the big bang.


BBC News
Minute Physics video explaining the discovery
Discussion on background and implications
Video of the founding scientists hearing the news
SciShow

Chasing Our Dreams

Summary: The replacement for the shuttles, now has a predicted launch date. The Dream Chaser, looking like a mini space shuttle, will liftoff on top of an Atlas V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on November 1st, 2016. The first mission will be an unmanned flight although the space craft is designed to carry seven astronauts into low-Earth orbit. This is one of three models being developed for future space travel and although it may not continue to be funded by NASA, the company says they will continue developing their design. Personally, I am excited and think it will do well, but I wish they were more creative in their design. It does look almost exactly like a mini shuttle.


BBC News

Smorgasbord of Articles

I have not had much time of late to write up, or even read some of these articles and while I hope to catch up over my break, I do not wish to deprive you of them any longer than necessary. So here are a bunch of potentially interesting articles.

Quantum 'world record' smashed
New invisibility cloak type designed
Physics probes 'splashback' problem
Freak space rock spins dusty trail
India Mars probe makes first burn
Olympic torch in first spacewalk
Laser ripping apart spacetime to create ghosts
New Super-Black Material
Superconducting video camera seeing in living color

Another Disappointment in Dark Science

Summary: One possible explanation for all of this Dark Matter that should be detected but isn't, is that Dark Matter could consist of relatively small black holes created in the early days of the universe. However, lack of data from Kepler supporting this theory has crossed of another possibility on our 'What in Sagan's Name is this stuff?' list.



American Physical Society

E-Sail: The Solar Sail for your Interstellar Needs

Summary: If I haven't mentioned it before, the solar sail is my favorite method for interstellar travel in the future. I've been excited about this nearly my whole life so I tend to jump up and down with excitement when new details are released. The most recent development is in the wires that would tether the sail to the ship without over loading it.



Physics Today

Lava World

Summary: The data from Kepler has revealed another planet that would be brilliant inspiration of any sci-fi novel you are trying to write. This planet, Kepler 78b, is mostly rock and iron but extremely close to its host star. This, paired with the theory that it is tidally locked, means that it is reasonable to assume that that side of the planet is completely molten. With that side of the planet being between 2,000C and 2,800C, it is obviously too hot to support life. It is uncertain what the temperatures on the other side of the planet might be or how far down the molten layer goes. This planet is also an enigma because "according to current theories of planet formation, Kepler 78b could not have formed so close to its star, nor could it have moved there." As a bonus, it is also doomed to be slowly pulled closer and closer into it's star which will proceed to rip it apart.


BBC News
Nature

The Universe's Violent Youth

Summary: Scientists at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology found new evidence to support the prevalent theory of the universe having a violent stage mare than 10 billion years ago that was responsible for the initial creation of heavy elements. Using the Suzaku satellite they saw an even spread of iron between the galaxies. This means that iron was present in the intergalactic gas even before the Perseus cluster was formed; an observation which they speculate holds true for more than just this cluster. This would put the creation of these elements between 10 to 12 billion years ago, during a time of intense star formation and energetic black holes. Most of this iron was created by Type Ia supernovae that then rocketed out their material into space.

Symmetry

Nature

One Step Closer to Mars

Summary: NASA's Orion spacecraft passed it's electronics test last week at Kennedy Space Center. This spacecraft is designed to carry a four-person crew to near-Earth asteroids and eventually to Mars. The first test launch will be in the fall of next year for a brief unmanned journey up into space before falling back down into the ocean.


Popular Science
Physics World

Space Sight

Summary: Another reason why I do not want to go into space. It changes your vision. One in five astronauts report vision changes due to the increased pressure inside your head because of microgravity altering the shape of of their eyeballs. Ick.


Popular Science

New Record for Furthest Galaxy

Summary: Your friend in another country may seem incredibly far away, but this latest discovery will put that in perspective. A new record has been set for the most distant galaxy. The Hubble Space Telescope has found the galaxy z8_GND_5296 to be about 30 billion light years away. We are seeing this galaxy as it appeared just 700 million years after the Big Bang. To determine the distance, they looked at the redshift of the galaxy. It has a redshift of 7.51 which beats the previous winner of 7.21.

BBC News
Popular Science
Physics World

Outer Space Plastics

Summary: Cassini probe has detected propylene on Saturn's moon Titan. NASA says that this is the first definitive detection of this plastic ingredient somewhere other than Earth. Because of this, we also know that many other interesting chemicals have formed. Other than the cool idea of plastic on Titan, I cannot figure out what the application of this knowledge will be.



BBC News