Doctor Who is not COMPLETELY fictional

Image from wikipedia.com

This article covers arguably one of my favorite topics to swoon over-Doctor Who.  I will be completely honest in saying that my intense interest in studying the solar system and beyond came pretty much single-handedly from watching Doctor Who (and maybe a teensy bit by my mom making me watch old Star Trek re-runs with her when I was a kid…).  So it’s been fun for me to gain a lot more “science-based” understanding of the universe that, in my mind crazy David Tennant-filled dreams, was filled with aliens from all over the universe both time and space-wise attacking our home planet of Earth.  Now that I now a bit more about astronomy, I was curious about how accurate my favorite show was in describing some scientific phenomena.  While I know that alien life hasn’t been discovered yet by scientists here on Earth, I was hoping at least some other aspects of the show were factual and not telling lies just purely for entertainment.

The article above confirms my hope!  Obviously, in a show that has aired over a span of 50 years, the science discussed on the show will advance as the knowledge astronomers gain increases/changes, but this article discusses some notable accuracies in the topics discussed in the series.  From discussion of the Big Bang, formation of our moon, and dinosaur extinction among many other topics, there is some serious science talk going on, which is accurate as far as scientists know!  This makes me feel a bit better about indulging in hours and hours of Netflix watching of my favorite shows, knowing that I am getting at least a bit of real science in the midst of a lot of science fiction.

Some pretty extreme(“ophiles”)

Image from wikipedia.com

That above picture is of a water bear, one of multiple really cool extremophiles discussed in this article.  The article makes a really cool comment about how we are lucky that water bears, and the same probably holds true for other extremophiles as well, are so small.  Otherwise, it is likely that these creatures would rule the planet.  They are nearly invincible it seems, being able to withstand such extreme conditions.  The water bear specifically can live without food or water for 120 YEARS.  Humans on average can’t even LIVE 120 years total, let alone go that long without food or water.  They can withstand pressures grater than six times those found in the oceans, can survive happily at temperatures just barely above absolute freezing, and can also withstand radiation to levels hundreds of times higher than humans can.  The article even says that these creatures can survive in the vacuum of space.  NOW I see why we wouldn’t want these creatures to be any bigger than the half a millimeter they are..without a doubt they would rule our world and possibly many other worlds in our solar system.

This was just the coolest and most extreme creature this article mentioned, but there are many more too!  Including ones that thrive in environments filled with sulfur and emit seriously acidic waste products.  Discovering creatures like these sure changes my view a LOT about how we define life and the possibility of finding it on other planets!

What would life be like on Pluto for humans?

photo from space.com

Above is an artist’s conception of what Pluto would look like if one could stand on one of the dwarf planet’s moons and stare back at Pluto.  But this article goes on to tell us what our experiences would be if we were to actually step foot on the surface of Pluto itself.  Firstly, hopefully no one that makes it to Pluto gets homesick, because even to send a MESSAGE back home to Earth (let’s not even get started on the time it takes to physically travel…) will take anywhere from four to six a half hours depending on where Pluto is in it’s orbit.  This is just one way too, so double that time to get how long it would take to send and receive a response.  If one was brave enough to leave the spacecraft and step on the surface of the planet, one should expect freezing temperatures well below anything we ever experience here on Earth, about negative 223 degrees Celcius, which is dangerously close to absolute zero…with atmospheric pressure being 3/1,000,000 of what we experience on Earth.  So, long story short…you wouldn’t stand a chance out there if you were to venture outside.  On top of the temperature and pressure extremes, these result in a virtual lack of atmosphere around the surface, so you would still manage to receive harmful UV rays from the Sun, granted they would be less than hit Earth due to the drastic difference in distance from the Sun…there would be absolutely nothing blocking them from hitting you.

Astronomers do hope to find out a lot more about the mysterious surface of Pluto in more detail than the little bit of information we can obtain by knowing its distance from the Sun and orbital patterns.  This will be accomplished later this year as the New Horizons probe will fly-by Pluto, allowing the first close-up visuals of the planet ever obtained by NASA.  While I don’t think this will change anything regarding what human life would be like on Pluto as I detailed above, it will tell us a lot more about its surface and active past, potentially adding more insight into its planetary status as well!

Io’s crazy volcanoes!

photo from space.com

So, we all know that Io is notoriously the volcanic moon of Jupiter, but apparently a couple of years ago it randomly got…MORE volcanic? According to this article, in August of 2013 three large eruptions occurred on Io.  To put it in perspective, this is the number of large eruptions that we would normally see over a span of six to seven years, but for some reason they all happened in a short span of only two weeks, with one of the three being the brightest ever observed on the moon.  While astronomers aren’t exactly sure what caused this sudden bursts, they took advantage of this opportunity to obtain really awesome images like the one seen above.  Those are a series of images taken over a series of twelve days during the eruption.  Not only was the event useful for obtaining cool pictures, but it was also a learning experience for astronomers.  They got watch an amazingly volcanically active moon and use this to formulate better ideas as to what the terrestrial planets like Earth and Venus were like during their early, volcanically active days.  So, who knows why this happened, but I guess if it’s gonna happen, we’ve got to take advantage of it and learn as much as possible!

Is Venus correcting its rotation?

Photo from space.com

It may not be politically correct to say…but I think we can all admit that Venus is doing it wrong.  Venus is the only planet rotating in the exact opposite direction from the rest of the planets-what we describe as a 180 degree axis tilt.  It spins clockwise, while the rest of us spin counter-clockwise-the same direction that we orbit around the Sun, which is no coincidence!  So how did Venus end up this way?  Most theories take it back to some sort of massive collision that occurred long ago, causing Venus to get “knocked over”, but believe that Venus was once following the same patterns of motion as the rest of the planets.

What is really fascinating to see now though is that Venus is slowing down!  As this article states, Venus has slowed its rotation by 6.5 minutes in just the last 16 years.  For those playing at home…this is a time period that has occurred in our own lifetime!  Could you imagine the drastic effects of our day getting 6.5 minutes longer in just 16 years?  Scientists believe that this is due to the fact that Venus is rotating in an opposite direction of its orbit around the Sun-an unnatural arrangement.  The gravitational pull of a body orbiting Venus slowing it down is not an option since it has no moons, so this seems like a reasonable answer.

What is even more interesting is that some believe that, if this slowing continues as it has been, that Venus may eventually begin rotating counter-clockwise like the rest of the planets.  Granted, it would still be “upside-down”, but no one would even know it then!  I’m not sure exactly what the physical requirements are to reverse the spin, but it will sure be interesting to see if this pattern continues.  If it does, that just shows how wonderful nature is and how it always seems to have a way of correcting itself!

A trip to Venus?

video from phys.org

It seems like all of the talk in the field of space travel these days has been too focused on a trip to one single location…Mars.  But noticing while studying these past few chapters that Venus is actually a bit closer to Earth than Mars, that brought up a question in my mind: has it ever been considered to work on a mission to Venus?  The answer is YES.  Although there are some pretty obvious disadvantages to a trip to Venus, one of which being that you can’t actually land on the surface due to the blazing hot temperatures, there has been some talk lately about working on a mission.

This idea of this mission is HAVOC, or a high altitude Venus operational concept, basically meaning that the ship would hover above the atmosphere of Venus rather than land on the surface.  As we’ve learned in class, and as this article mentions, the temperatures and pressures on the surface on Venus are far too high for our spacecrafts to handle, and the storms and clouds of sulfuric acid within the thick carbon dioxide-filled atmosphere are far too dangerous to risk the trip. BUT it has been found that at a height of 50km from the surface, it would experience only atmospheric pressure and a hot, but not unbearable, 75 degrees Celsius temperature.  These conditions are actually much more feasible for designing a mission around than those on the surface of Mars!

There are some unanswered questions for me here though: how much useful information can we get from just hovering above Venus?  It seems like a lot more information would be obtained by doing a surface trip to Mars.  Can that much more information really be obtained at 50km above the surface than what we can obtain from further-out unmanned flyby missions?  These are questions that will hopefully be answered soon as further research is conducted on the possibility of a mission to Venus, but it sure is exciting and a pleasant change from all the Mars talk!

Weight is just a number!

picture from storejpg.com

Weight IS just a number-it’s simply the product of the mass of an object and the force put on that object due to gravity!  Since the number is dependent on gravity, it’s totally logical that, since the force of gravity from the Sun is different in different locations in the Solar system and mass remains the same (close enough, imagining that the object could be at all these places in the universe at the same time), the weight of these objects will also change.  This change is proportional to the gravitational force on the planet, with the proportionality constant being the object’s mass!  This site is a lot of fun for seeing what you, or your favorite object that you know the mass of, would weigh in various other locations in the Solar system.  It’s interesting to see the effects of both distance from the Sun and mass of the solar body on the gravity there, and thus the effect on weight!  For example, a 200 lb person on Earth would weigh only 75.6 lbs on Mercury and 472.8 lbs on Jupiter.  This may be opposite of what one would initially think since Mercury is so close to the Sun and Jupiter is further away, so it seems like you should feel a lot more force due to gravity on Mercury, but you cannot forget to factor in the masses of the two objects! Jupiter is more than 5700 times more massive than Mercury, explaining the huge difference in gravity and the further object actually experiencing more gravitational force from the Sun.  Overall, I had a lot of fun playing around on this site, and it definitely helped me understand a lot more about how the effects of both distance AND mass factor into the force of gravity on each of these solar bodies!

The first navigational tool

Image from kaloujm.com

People have been using the sky as their source of navigation for years, and one of the first tools made for the purpose of aiding in navigation (that wasn’t a body part!) was the kamal.  The exact date is unsure, but it’s estimated that this tool came into use around the fifth or sixth century.  While it looks simple, made of just a piece of wood and some string with strategically tied knots along its length, it was highly effective at measuring relatively small angles, allowing ancient navigators to determine their latitude.  It’s used by placing one end of the string between your teeth and extending out the wooden portion attached to the other end of the string an appropriate distance from your face such that the horizon is along the bottom of the wooden board and the star of interest (usually Polaris) to use for navigation is along the top of the board.  The angle is then measured by counting the number of knots which are tied into the string, and this number corresponds to a certain degree of latitude.  There were clear limitations to this tool, as it had a limit with it’s size and that it could only measure a set (pretty small) amount of angles, so it was only very useful in equatorial regions where Polaris remained very near the horizon.  While we have come a long way in navigational tools over the last several centuries, it’s really awesome to see how something so simple can be such a powerful tool when resources and knowledge are limited.

Historical Astronomers in Context

Johannes Kepler is arguably one of the most important astronomers in history.  Kepler was born on December 27, 1571 and died on November 15, 1630.  During his lifetime he was an apprentice to the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe, continuing Brahe’s work after his death. During this time Kepler developed his three laws of planetary motion, which are still prevalent and taught in astronomy classes like ours to this day.  These laws describe the orbit of the planets around the Sun, including the shape of the orbit, the speed throughout different parts of the orbit, and the average time to make a full orbit around the Sun relative to other planets.

During Kepler’s lifetime, there were some other famous historical events going on.  One of which is the Long War between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans in Hungary caused by territorial debates.  This war lasted 15 years from 1591-1606.  Another famous event (that is very near and dear to our hearts) is the founding of Jamestown, Virginia as the first permanent British settlement in North America on May 14, 1607.

Another historical figure who lived during this time is famous sea captain and navigator Sir Francis Drake.  Drake lived from 1540-1596 and is most famous for being only the second explorer (the first British explorer) to circumnavigate the world in one expedition.  This trip took him three years to complete from 1577-1580.

It’s so interesting to note as I looked through what are considered to be “important events” of the time, and this truly was a time of rapid growth and expansion.  All of the key events include discovering new land (*cough* and soon after fighting over who gets to own this new land…*cough*), some new invention, some change in law in the Church.  This was a time when knowledge was growing at a pace faster than we may have ever seen it before.  This is true for astronomy too.  Looking at all of these great astronomers who made so many HUGE advancements in our scientific knowledge and seeing that they all lived within this span of a couple hundred years is just incredible.

The oldest recorded solar eclipse!

After talking about solar eclipses in class yesterday, I got super nerd-ily excited about reading more about them!  A quick wikipedia search (since that is totally acceptable and awesome!) links to tons more wikipedia pages that list the exact date, time, type, location, and path width, among other details.  The oldest recorded one listed on these pages July 10, 1 AD.  So this then got me wondering what the OLDEST recording of a solar eclipse was and how exactly they recorded it.

What I’ve found is that the oldest recordings go way back to a solar eclipse that occurred on November 30, 3340 BC at Loughcrew Cairn L. Megalithic Monument in Ireland.  It’s believed this this particular eclipse obscured nearly 100% of the solar disc. The recordings are made on three separate stones in the location where the eclipse was viewed.  The code that was used to track astronomical discoveries during this time was deciphered by modern astronomers and uses the symbol of overlapping concentric circles to indicate a solar eclipse.  Below are a few really awesome images that the folks at astronomy.ca have created to depict the findings on the stones, as well as what the drawings correspond to in terms of the eclipse (what they believe would have be seen during this eclipse).  It’s crazy to think that these simplistic drawings were possibly the start of the study of solar eclipses that we are still studying today!  I doubt much has changed with the way eclipses work, but I think we have come a long way in how well we are understanding them.

Stone 1:

Stone 2:

Stone 3: