Navy's New Slab of Precision-Honed Granite--the World's Largest--Will Improve Microgravity Studies. Granite Slab This may look like a slab of rock sitting in a room. But it's actually an ultra-precise microgravity laboratory, honed for the U.S. Navy. It will be used to emulate the inertia of space in the lab, testing things like the Front-End Robotic Enabling Near-Term Demonstration (FREND) arm, seen here with the slab. U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Testing how objects act in microgravity is not limited to astronauts on the space station. On Earth, you could do it with the world’s largest air hockey table, made from a gigantic slab of rock .
The Navy just got a new 75,000-pound slab of granite, honed to near perfection at just plus or minus 0.0018 inches of irregularity across its entire 300-square-foot surface. It will help scientists emulate the motion of objects in space, which they’ll do by floating objects on air above its frictionless surface — similar to how an air hockey table works. One goal is to figure out how to capture and dock with free-floating spacecraft.
. [ U.S. Japanese Cubesat Will Flash Morse Code Messages in the Sky This Fall. Burn notice: NASA discovers that fireproof materials ignite in space. Still frames showing a piece of cotton-fiberglass, similar to the cotton civilian clothing worn by astronauts, burning from bottom-to-top during a space station experiment (Credit: Paul Ferkul/NASA/BASS). High above the Earth, astronauts aboard the International Space Station are playing with fire — very carefully. By lighting controlled fires and watching them burn, the Expedition 35 team is learning how to prevent accidental blazes from breaking out aboard the station and other spacecraft — a nightmare scenario that could put not only lives, but the very future of human spaceflight at risk.
"We can certainly make things not flammable on Earth, but in space, that changes," said Dr. Paul Ferkul, a NASA scientist whose experiment recently found that a fire-resistant fabric similar to astronaut clothing actually ignites in space. "in space, [fireproofing] changes. " "more dangerous or less dangerous in space? " "This type of situation could occur. " The Large Hadron Collider.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It first started up on 10 September 2008, and remains the latest addition to CERN’s accelerator complex. The LHC consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way. Inside the accelerator, two high-energy particle beams travel at close to the speed of light before they are made to collide.
The beams travel in opposite directions in separate beam pipes – two tubes kept at ultrahigh vacuum. They are guided around the accelerator ring by a strong magnetic field maintained by superconducting electromagnets. The electromagnets are built from coils of special electric cable that operates in a superconducting state, efficiently conducting electricity without resistance or loss of energy.
This requires chilling the magnets to ‑271.3°C – a temperature colder than outer space. Download the LHC guide [PDF] Earth Engine. Geoscience Australia — Earthquakes @ GA. Time-lapse footage of the Earth as seen from the ISS. Journal - Our world at your fingertips. Worlds: The Kepler Planet Candidates.
Mystery photo from Mars rover Curiosity explained. The mystery of the blotch on one of the Mars rover Curiosity's photos appears to have been solved. Engineers said Friday that the Curiosity rover happened to catch a picture of its own ride crash-landing on Mars — a blink-of-an-eye serendipity that some dismissed as a statistical impossibility, but appears to have been confirmed by a thorough review of landing data. The final seconds of Curiosity’s eight-month-plus journey to Mars called for a spacecraft to lower the rover to the surface using a “sky crane” — three ropes.
The ropes were then cut, and the last of the spacecraft, known as the “descent stage,” cast itself toward the horizon. It crash-landed, on purpose, about 2,000 feet away. A low-resolution photograph that Curiosity took seconds after landing Sunday night arrived immediately at La Cañada Flintridge’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managing the $2.5-billion mission for NASA. The photograph captured a pyramid-shaped blotch on the horizon.
--Scott Gold. Record-setting blast of gamma rays from a dying star | NASA said late in the day yesterday (May 3, 2013) that a record-setting blast of gamma rays from a dying star in a distant galaxy has wowed astronomers around the world. The eruption is a gamma-ray burst (GRB), one of the universe’s most luminous explosions, thought to take place when supernovae erupt in distant galaxies. This particular GRB is designated GRB 130427A. On April 27, NASA said, it produced the highest-energy light ever detected from a gamma ray burst. The animation above shows how the sky looks at gamma-ray energies above 100 million electron volts (MeV) with a view centered on the north galactic pole. The first frame shows the sky during a three-hour interval prior to GRB 130427A. The second frame shows a three-hour interval starting 2.5 hours before the burst, and ending 30 minutes into the event.
We have waited a long time for a gamma-ray burst this shockingly, eye-wateringly bright. Read more about the shockingly, eye-wateringly bright gamma ray burst from NASA. Mercury (planet) First planet from the Sun Mercury's sidereal year (88.0 Earth's day) and sidereal day (58.65 Earth's day) is in a 3:2 ratio. This phenomenon is called spin–orbit resonance and sidereal here means "relative to the stars". Consequently, one solar day (sunrise to sunrise) on Mercury lasts for around 176 Earth's day - twice the planet's sidereal year. This means that one side of Mercury will remain in sunlight for one Mercurian year of 88 Earth's days; while during the next orbit, that side will be in darkness all the time until the next sunrise after another 88 Earth's day. Combined with its high orbital eccentricity, the planet surface has widely varying sunlight intensity and temperature, with the equator regions range from −170 °C (−270 °F) at night to 420 °C (790 °F) during sunlight.
By having a very small axial tilt, the planet's poles are permanently shadowed. Nomenclature Physical characteristics Internal structure Surface geology Impact basins and craters Overhead view of Caloris Basin. 50th Anniversary of NASA. Awesome spaceship that discovered hundreds of new planets may soon be space junk. A recent cover from The Economist imagines prime minister Shinzo Abe as Superman .
Ok, Abe in a crimson lounge singer jacket is cringe-worthy; so is the “super yen” emblazoned on his chest. But still, the image captures a big misunderstanding about Abenomics: that it’s all about the weakening of the yen. The point of Abenomics is to beat deflation in Japan, not drive up exports to juice growth. Its seismic structural reforms aim to boost household and private sector wealth. In this context, the weaker yen isn’t that important, even though it does boost Japanese exports and stock prices.
Why? Because a weaker yen also makes imports more expensive. Right now, the bulk of those rising imports are probably goods that are priced in dollars—things like commodities, which make up around half of Japan’s imports by value. Some think that this amounts to “importing inflation”—a purported cure for deflation. Fixing Japan’s economy requires making Japanese households and businesses feel wealthier. Pulsar. The precise periods of pulsars makes them useful tools. Observations of a pulsar in a binary neutron star system were used to indirectly confirm the existence of gravitational radiation.
The first extrasolar planets were discovered around a pulsar, PSR B1257+12. Certain types of pulsars rival atomic clocks in their accuracy in keeping time. History of observation[edit] Discovery[edit] The first pulsar was observed on November 28, 1967, by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish.[1][2][3] They observed pulses separated by 1.33 seconds that originated from the same location on the sky, and kept to sidereal time. The word "pulsar" is a contraction of "pulsating star",[7] and first appeared in print in 1968: An entirely novel kind of star came to light on Aug. 6 last year and was referred to, by astronomers, as LGM (Little Green Men).
Milestones[edit] In 1974, Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr. and Russell Hulse discovered for the first time a pulsar in a binary system, PSR B1913+16. Nomenclature[edit] Jupiter. Structure Jupiter is composed primarily of gaseous and liquid matter. It is the largest of four gas giants as well as the largest planet in the Solar System with a diameter of 142,984 km (88,846 mi) at its equator. The density of Jupiter, 1.326 g/cm3, is the second highest of the gas giants, but lower than for any of the four terrestrial planets. Composition Jupiter's upper atmosphere is composed of about 88–92% hydrogen and 8–12% helium by percent volume or fraction of gas molecules.
Based on spectroscopy, Saturn is thought to be similar in composition to Jupiter, but the other gas giants Uranus and Neptune have relatively much less hydrogen and helium.[21] Because of the lack of atmospheric entry probes, high-quality abundance numbers of the heavier elements are lacking for the outer planets beyond Jupiter. Mass Jupiter's diameter is one order of magnitude smaller (×0.10045) than the Sun, and one order of magnitude larger (×10.9733) than the Earth.
Internal structure Atmosphere Cloud layers. Les astronautes aussi aiment Star Trek - Gizmodo - NASA Brain Bites: Ask NASA. HSF > Living In Space. Black hole. A black hole is defined as a region of spacetime from which gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping.[1] The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole.[2] Around a black hole, there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that marks the point of no return. The hole is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits the horizon, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect black body in thermodynamics.[3][4] Quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit radiation like a black body with a finite temperature. This temperature is inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole, making it difficult to observe this radiation for black holes of stellar mass or greater.
Objects whose gravity fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace. History General relativity. The difficult road to mars (application/pdf Object)
Apollo Photographic Support Data. Students. Students K-4. Sunjammer spacecraft to 'sail' towards the sun. Phobos (moon) Phobos (systematic designation: Mars I) is the larger and closer of the two natural satellites of Mars. Both moons were discovered in 1877. Phobos has dimensions of 27 × 22 × 18 km,[1] and is too small to be rounded under its own gravity. Its surface area is slightly less than the land area of Delaware. Phobos does not have an atmosphere due to low mass and low gravity.[10] It is one of the least reflective bodies in the Solar System. Spectroscopically it appears to be similar to the D-type asteroids,[11] and is apparently of composition similar to carbonaceous chondrite material.[12] Phobos's density is too low to be solid rock, and it is known to have significant porosity.[13][14][15] These results led to the suggestion that Phobos might contain a substantial reservoir of ice.
The unique Kaidun meteorite is thought to be a piece of Phobos, but this has been difficult to verify since little is known about the detailed composition of the moon.[25][26] Nasa. Worlds: The Kepler Planet Candidates. Education Express -- Nov. 20, 2012. Check out the following NASA opportunities for the education community. Full descriptions are listed below. Global Precipitation Measurement Mission Launch — Educational ResourcesAudience: All Educators Launch Date: Feb. 27, 2014. Coverage begins at Noon EST Student Presentations to Stream Live From National Space Grant Directors’ Meeting Audience: Higher Education Faculty and Students Event Date: Feb. 27-28, 2014 Free Webinar Series — NASA STEM Mania: STEM in Sports Audience: K-12 Educators Next Webinar Date: Feb. 27, 2014, at 4 p.m. EST Free Education Webinar Series from NASA Educator Professional DevelopmentAudience: K-12 and Informal Educators Next Webinar Date: Feb. 27, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.
Free Lecture — Probing the Edge of RealityAudience: All Educators and 9-Higher Education Students Event Date: Feb. 28, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. 2014 Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental EducatorsAudience: K-12 Educators Application Deadline: Feb. 28, 2014 Check out the new #NASATeachableMoments. NASA - Home.
Visible Earth: Browse by Collection: Blue Marble. Star Size Comparison HD AudioV2. Astronomy & Space. Astronomy may well be the oldest science of all, seeking answers to questions such as: "Where did it all come from? " and "Are we alone? " But, today's astronomers are focusing on phenomena our forbearers never imagined—planets orbiting other stars, for example; black holes the size of our solar system; galaxies being driven apart by invisible "dark energy"; ripples in the fabric of space and time; and of course the big bang, where time itself began. Accelerators can probe artwork's origins The segment used real satellite data and six computational models to create a vision that is both beautiful and scientifically... In this week's episode we discover the oldest fossil evidence of modern, venomous snakes in Africa.
We discover what was... Students and amateur astronomers in small western U.S. communities help scientists measure Kuiper Belt objects out... Engineers have teamed up with a world-renowned origami expert to solve one of space exploration's greatest (and most... Dr.