Friday, August 31, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
5 Things You Don't Know about the Space Race
To finish up space month, here are the top 5 things you didn't know about the American/Russian space race.
1. On May 15, 1960, the Russians launched Vostok 1 into orbit over the earth. It was intended to orbit for four days, and then the retro rockets would fire, and it would re-enter earth's atmosphere. At least, that was the plan. What really happened was when the rockets fired, they were pointing in the wrong direction. When they fired, the spacecraft actually went into a higher orbit. The Russians were praised for their ingenuity on making the craft to extend its life in space. Naturally, the whole thing was a mistake that the Russians played off as if they meant for that to happen. The spacecraft that was intended to return in September 1960 didn't actually come back until October 1965.
2. When John Glenn was preparing for his space launch, NASA engineers were trying to figure out how he could take pictures with a 35mm camera in his space suit gloves. They tried everything from riggings to handles to levers, but nothing worked. There was a legitimate fear that they wouldn't be able to figure it out. Some time before the launch, Glenn went into town to get a haircut and pick up some items from a drugstore. In the drugstore, he spotted a new Japanese camera with a big shutter button and auto focus. He bought it for $45 and used it on the space flight.
3. The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova, obviously a Russian woman. Unfortunately, she was not ready for space flight, nor was she trained properly. Russian Premier Krushchev wanted the world to think that Russian engineering was so perfect that non-pilots could be sent by the Russians into space. While in space, her transmissions were mostly unintelligible and she was sick most of the time as well as slept too much. Doctors on the ground feared that she was becoming mentally unhinged during her flight. She safely returned to earth, but the rescue team found her sobbing and shaking. She was treated as a hero upon her return, but the truth of what actually happened wasn't released for many years.
4. The first Russian to walk in space was Aleksei Leonov; however, he was also the first space explorer who nearly didn't come back. His space walk lasted about ten minutes. When it was over, he made his way to the air lock, but panic set in when he realized he couldn't get back in. Was the door sealed? Could he not open the door? Nope. His suit had ballooned and wouldn't fit through the doorway. The oxygen in the suit was high pressure which had pushed the suit out too far to fit. The only thing he could do was release oxygen out of his suit to decrease the pressure. It began to work so he made his way back into the spacecraft. The problem then was that his backpack backup kicked in and it re-inflated the suit. So he had to turn his oxygen off and on and squeeze back into his spacecraft. It him longer to get back into the spacecraft than the entire time he spent outside of the spacecraft. When he finally made it back inside, pouring sweat, he wrote the following message: "I think that it is a bit too early to campare outer space with a place for an entertaining stroll."
5. On January 2, 1959, the Russians launched Lunik 1 (also known as Luna 1). Originally, the Russians had a plan to put an atomic bomb on the satellite and crash it into the moon, but they scrapped that idea. Instead, they put sodium particles in it to show when it was leaving earth's atmosphere. The plan was to take space measurements and at the end of the mission crash into the moon. The satellite had two metallic pennants with the Soviet coat of arms. The Russians, however, didn't tell people that the plan was to crash into the moon. When it came time, Lunik 1 was pointed to the moon, but it missed... by a long shot. In fact, it missed by 4,000 miles. The positive side was that Lunik 1 became the first artificial satellite to orbit the sun. It still orbits the sun in the realm of space that's between Earth and Mars.
So, as our month of space expendablenlightenment comes to a close, one can only be left in awe of what's really out there and be left with an appreciation for those who risked their lives in the exploration of it.
Bet you didn't know that!
1. On May 15, 1960, the Russians launched Vostok 1 into orbit over the earth. It was intended to orbit for four days, and then the retro rockets would fire, and it would re-enter earth's atmosphere. At least, that was the plan. What really happened was when the rockets fired, they were pointing in the wrong direction. When they fired, the spacecraft actually went into a higher orbit. The Russians were praised for their ingenuity on making the craft to extend its life in space. Naturally, the whole thing was a mistake that the Russians played off as if they meant for that to happen. The spacecraft that was intended to return in September 1960 didn't actually come back until October 1965.
2. When John Glenn was preparing for his space launch, NASA engineers were trying to figure out how he could take pictures with a 35mm camera in his space suit gloves. They tried everything from riggings to handles to levers, but nothing worked. There was a legitimate fear that they wouldn't be able to figure it out. Some time before the launch, Glenn went into town to get a haircut and pick up some items from a drugstore. In the drugstore, he spotted a new Japanese camera with a big shutter button and auto focus. He bought it for $45 and used it on the space flight.
3. The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova, obviously a Russian woman. Unfortunately, she was not ready for space flight, nor was she trained properly. Russian Premier Krushchev wanted the world to think that Russian engineering was so perfect that non-pilots could be sent by the Russians into space. While in space, her transmissions were mostly unintelligible and she was sick most of the time as well as slept too much. Doctors on the ground feared that she was becoming mentally unhinged during her flight. She safely returned to earth, but the rescue team found her sobbing and shaking. She was treated as a hero upon her return, but the truth of what actually happened wasn't released for many years.
4. The first Russian to walk in space was Aleksei Leonov; however, he was also the first space explorer who nearly didn't come back. His space walk lasted about ten minutes. When it was over, he made his way to the air lock, but panic set in when he realized he couldn't get back in. Was the door sealed? Could he not open the door? Nope. His suit had ballooned and wouldn't fit through the doorway. The oxygen in the suit was high pressure which had pushed the suit out too far to fit. The only thing he could do was release oxygen out of his suit to decrease the pressure. It began to work so he made his way back into the spacecraft. The problem then was that his backpack backup kicked in and it re-inflated the suit. So he had to turn his oxygen off and on and squeeze back into his spacecraft. It him longer to get back into the spacecraft than the entire time he spent outside of the spacecraft. When he finally made it back inside, pouring sweat, he wrote the following message: "I think that it is a bit too early to campare outer space with a place for an entertaining stroll."
5. On January 2, 1959, the Russians launched Lunik 1 (also known as Luna 1). Originally, the Russians had a plan to put an atomic bomb on the satellite and crash it into the moon, but they scrapped that idea. Instead, they put sodium particles in it to show when it was leaving earth's atmosphere. The plan was to take space measurements and at the end of the mission crash into the moon. The satellite had two metallic pennants with the Soviet coat of arms. The Russians, however, didn't tell people that the plan was to crash into the moon. When it came time, Lunik 1 was pointed to the moon, but it missed... by a long shot. In fact, it missed by 4,000 miles. The positive side was that Lunik 1 became the first artificial satellite to orbit the sun. It still orbits the sun in the realm of space that's between Earth and Mars.
So, as our month of space expendablenlightenment comes to a close, one can only be left in awe of what's really out there and be left with an appreciation for those who risked their lives in the exploration of it.
Bet you didn't know that!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Friday Song #7 - Electric Light Orchestra
"Ticket to the Moon" - Electric Light Orchestra, from the album "Time".
Released: 1981
Monday, August 20, 2012
Vastness of Space
One of the questions that astronomers are asked is how can they possibly comprehend the vast distances in space, and the answer is usually (if they are honest) that they really can't quite fully grasp it. The human mind has great difficulty in firmly being able to understand the distances between objects in space. If you were to fly around the world, you would go just under 25,000 miles. With cars that keep track of mileage in the hundreds of thousands of miles, the earth's circumference doesn't seem that large. But when you consider that the moon (the closest celestial body to the earth) is around 240,000 miles from the earth, you begin to see that if 240,000 miles is hardly any distance at all, then we will have a hard time understanding millions, billions, and trillions of miles.
The best way to understand how far away things are is to create scale models of sizes we can comprehend. So, here's a little thing for you to try: a scale model of the solar system.
First start by figuring out your scale. If you use a basketball (which is approximately 9.5 inches in diameter) to represent the sun, then you will come up with a scale of approximately 91,000 miles equals an inch. So if that's the case, then how far away would the planets be?
Mercury = 33 feet away and .034 inches in diameter
Venus = 62 feet away and .083 inches in diameter
Earth = 86 feet away and .088 inches in diameter
Mars = 130 feet away and .047 inches in diameter
(300 feet is 1 football field)
Jupiter = 445 feet away and .983 inches in diameter
(600 feet is 2 football fields)
Saturn = 820 feet away and .828 inches in diameter
(900 feet is 3 football fields)
(1200 feet is 4 football fields)
(1500 feet is 5 football fields)
Uranus = 1645 feet away and .351 inches in diameter
(1800 feet is 6 football fields)
(2100 feet is 7 football fields)
(2400 feet is 8 football fields)
Neptune = 2580 feet away and .337 inches in diameter
(2700 feet is 9 football fields)
(3000 feet is 10 football fields)
(3300 feet is 11 football fields)
Pluto = 3380 feet away and .016 inches in diameter
In case you're curious about the moon, it would be 2.64 inches from the earth in this model, and its diameter would be .024 inches.
But what about father things? Well, in this model, the Oort Cloud would extend out approximately 16 miles from our 9.5 inch sun.
Also, the speed of light is slower: approximately 2 inches a second or 10 feet a minute. This means that it would take nearly 5 hours to reach Pluto. A light year in our model would be approximately 1,000 miles on earth. That means that in our model, one light year would be the distance of St. Louis to Boston.
So what about Proxima Centauri? This is the closest star to our own, and it's about 4.3 light years away. This means that in our model, Proxima Centauri would be over 4300 miles away (or the distance of Boston to Moscow).
To give you one more example, check out the size of the Milky Way galaxy. It is 100,000 light years in diameter. That means that in our example based on our sun being about 9.5 inches in diameter, that means that you would have to have about 100 million miles.
The universe is vast, and even some of the examples don't seem to really help understand the distances involved. But here has been an attempt to help you see how much space is really out there.
Bet you didn't know that!
The best way to understand how far away things are is to create scale models of sizes we can comprehend. So, here's a little thing for you to try: a scale model of the solar system.
First start by figuring out your scale. If you use a basketball (which is approximately 9.5 inches in diameter) to represent the sun, then you will come up with a scale of approximately 91,000 miles equals an inch. So if that's the case, then how far away would the planets be?
Mercury = 33 feet away and .034 inches in diameter
Venus = 62 feet away and .083 inches in diameter
Earth = 86 feet away and .088 inches in diameter
Mars = 130 feet away and .047 inches in diameter
(300 feet is 1 football field)
Jupiter = 445 feet away and .983 inches in diameter
(600 feet is 2 football fields)
Saturn = 820 feet away and .828 inches in diameter
(900 feet is 3 football fields)
(1200 feet is 4 football fields)
(1500 feet is 5 football fields)
Uranus = 1645 feet away and .351 inches in diameter
(1800 feet is 6 football fields)
(2100 feet is 7 football fields)
(2400 feet is 8 football fields)
Neptune = 2580 feet away and .337 inches in diameter
(2700 feet is 9 football fields)
(3000 feet is 10 football fields)
(3300 feet is 11 football fields)
Pluto = 3380 feet away and .016 inches in diameter
In case you're curious about the moon, it would be 2.64 inches from the earth in this model, and its diameter would be .024 inches.
But what about father things? Well, in this model, the Oort Cloud would extend out approximately 16 miles from our 9.5 inch sun.
Also, the speed of light is slower: approximately 2 inches a second or 10 feet a minute. This means that it would take nearly 5 hours to reach Pluto. A light year in our model would be approximately 1,000 miles on earth. That means that in our model, one light year would be the distance of St. Louis to Boston.
So what about Proxima Centauri? This is the closest star to our own, and it's about 4.3 light years away. This means that in our model, Proxima Centauri would be over 4300 miles away (or the distance of Boston to Moscow).
To give you one more example, check out the size of the Milky Way galaxy. It is 100,000 light years in diameter. That means that in our example based on our sun being about 9.5 inches in diameter, that means that you would have to have about 100 million miles.
The universe is vast, and even some of the examples don't seem to really help understand the distances involved. But here has been an attempt to help you see how much space is really out there.
Bet you didn't know that!
Friday, August 17, 2012
Friday Song #6 - Peter Schilling
"Major Tom (Coming Home)" - Peter Schilling, released on the album "Error in the System".
Released: 1983
Monday, August 13, 2012
The Solar System
Most of us have studied in our science classes that the solar system starts with the sun and then goes on with the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (even though Pluto isn't thought of as an official planet anymore). That's usually all we think of. But is that all? Is there more? There sure is!
The first collection of bodies other than the main planets is the asteroid belt. This sits conveniently between Mars and Jupiter. Within the asteroid belt sits the dwarf planet known as Ceres, which is slightly under 1000 km in diameter and large enough to be spherical in shape.
The area beyond Neptune is called the "Trans-Neptunian Region" and it remains mostly unexplored; however, there are many interesting things out there. The second collection of bodies other than the main planets is the Kuiper Belt. This collection of debris is similar to the asteroid belt, but differs in one important area: the asteroid belt is mainly made up of rock and metallic substances, whereas the Kuiper Belt is mostly ice. It's in this Kuiper Belt that you'll find Pluto and its "moon" Charon (although it's more agreed upon now that Pluto and Charon are more of a binary planet system, meaning they revolve around each other). Other dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt include Eris (which is actually more massive than Pluto), Haumea, and Makemake. Past the Kuiper Belt, there is also Sedna. Not much is known about Sedna. Many speculate that it's a dwarf planet, but it hasn't been officially categorized yet.
But is that it? Not quite. Out past the Kuiper Belt is a hypothetical (which translates into scientists believe it to be there, but haven't proven it yet) area called the Oort Cloud. It is estimated to be between 1 to 1.87 light years from the sun. It is supposedly made up mostly of ice like the Kuiper Belt, but much farther out. The Oort Cloud is thought to be where long range comets come from.
Is there anything else? The short answer is that we really don't know. There are still vast amounts of the solar system that haven't been mapped yet. Believe it or not, astronomers are still looking at the area between the sun and Mercury for objects. If we haven't found all the objects that are that close, who knows what wonders lie a light year away.
So what exactly is the boundary of the solar system? That depends on who you talk to. Some say it's just the distance of the planets, and others say it's the distance of the Oort Cloud, and others say it's the distance that the sun's gravity can affect, and still others say it's as far as the solar wind (charged particles from the sun) can reach. Either way, it's a very long way from earth (from the billions to the trillions of miles).
Bet you didn't know that!
The first collection of bodies other than the main planets is the asteroid belt. This sits conveniently between Mars and Jupiter. Within the asteroid belt sits the dwarf planet known as Ceres, which is slightly under 1000 km in diameter and large enough to be spherical in shape.
The area beyond Neptune is called the "Trans-Neptunian Region" and it remains mostly unexplored; however, there are many interesting things out there. The second collection of bodies other than the main planets is the Kuiper Belt. This collection of debris is similar to the asteroid belt, but differs in one important area: the asteroid belt is mainly made up of rock and metallic substances, whereas the Kuiper Belt is mostly ice. It's in this Kuiper Belt that you'll find Pluto and its "moon" Charon (although it's more agreed upon now that Pluto and Charon are more of a binary planet system, meaning they revolve around each other). Other dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt include Eris (which is actually more massive than Pluto), Haumea, and Makemake. Past the Kuiper Belt, there is also Sedna. Not much is known about Sedna. Many speculate that it's a dwarf planet, but it hasn't been officially categorized yet.
But is that it? Not quite. Out past the Kuiper Belt is a hypothetical (which translates into scientists believe it to be there, but haven't proven it yet) area called the Oort Cloud. It is estimated to be between 1 to 1.87 light years from the sun. It is supposedly made up mostly of ice like the Kuiper Belt, but much farther out. The Oort Cloud is thought to be where long range comets come from.
Is there anything else? The short answer is that we really don't know. There are still vast amounts of the solar system that haven't been mapped yet. Believe it or not, astronomers are still looking at the area between the sun and Mercury for objects. If we haven't found all the objects that are that close, who knows what wonders lie a light year away.
So what exactly is the boundary of the solar system? That depends on who you talk to. Some say it's just the distance of the planets, and others say it's the distance of the Oort Cloud, and others say it's the distance that the sun's gravity can affect, and still others say it's as far as the solar wind (charged particles from the sun) can reach. Either way, it's a very long way from earth (from the billions to the trillions of miles).
Bet you didn't know that!
Friday, August 10, 2012
Friday Song #5 - Pink Floyd
"Interstellar Overdrive" - Pink Floyd, released on the album "A Piper at the Gates of Dawn".
Released: 1967
Monday, August 6, 2012
Light Years
We've all heard the term 'light year', and may even know it as 'the distance light travels in a year'. Which is exactly true. End of story? Not quite.
The distance of a light year had been developed for a long time.The first appearance of it used as measurement of distance was in 1838 by Friedrich Bessel. Since then, there are all sorts of other measurements using light, such as the 'light-month' (distance light travels in a month), the kilolight-year (1,000 light years), the megalight-year (one million light years), and the gigalight-year (one billion light years).
In space, the distances are so vast that miles just don't seem to work as a valid measurement. To show you what I mean, take the sun. It's close enough that miles seem to be just okay as a measurement: it's approximately 93 million miles away (93,000,000). That's a long way. It's so far that if the light of the sun would vanish, it would take eight minutes for us to notice here on earth. To give you another example, the farthest (accepted) planet from the sun is Neptune, which is approximately 2.8 billion miles away (2,800,000,000), and just the distance from the sun in one direction and not the whole orbit. But what about the next closest star? The next closest star is called Proxima Centauri. How far is it? It's around 24 trillion miles away (24,000,000,000,000). And that's the closest star. How many zeros would it take if they were farther away? Many, many, many more zeros. And that's one of the reasons we have the light year.
To get a simple distance of the light year, you must first take the distance light travels in a second, which is 186,000 miles, then you multiply up. You multiply 186,000 times 60 (for seconds in a minute), then another 60 (for minutes in an hour), then 24 (for hours in a day, then 365 (for days in a year). I'll save you the trouble of figuring it out: it's just under 6 trillion miles (6,000,000,000,000). So how far away is Proxima Centauri in light years? It's about 4.22 light years. Doesn't seem far at all now. However, you have to keep in mind that it means that if you were traveling at the speed of light, it would take you 4.22 years to reach Proxima Centauri.
Once you grasp how large a light year is, then you begin to understand the vast distances that exist in space. The Milky Way galaxy (our own) is approximately 100,000 light years across. The closest galaxy out of the range of our own is the Large Megallanic Cloud, which is about 180,000 light years away. The closest spiral galaxy to our own is the Andromeda Galaxy, which is 2 million light years away (2,000,000).
So what's the farthest objects seen? The farthest confirmed galaxy is called IOK-1, and it is 12.9 billion light years away (12,900,000,000). However, in 2009, what appeared to be another galaxy even farther away was found. It's called Abell 1835 IR1916, and it's about 13.2 billion light years away (13,200,000,000). However, there is a lot of speculation and controversy as to whether or not this latest discovery is actually a galaxy or not.
Bet you didn't know that!
The distance of a light year had been developed for a long time.The first appearance of it used as measurement of distance was in 1838 by Friedrich Bessel. Since then, there are all sorts of other measurements using light, such as the 'light-month' (distance light travels in a month), the kilolight-year (1,000 light years), the megalight-year (one million light years), and the gigalight-year (one billion light years).
In space, the distances are so vast that miles just don't seem to work as a valid measurement. To show you what I mean, take the sun. It's close enough that miles seem to be just okay as a measurement: it's approximately 93 million miles away (93,000,000). That's a long way. It's so far that if the light of the sun would vanish, it would take eight minutes for us to notice here on earth. To give you another example, the farthest (accepted) planet from the sun is Neptune, which is approximately 2.8 billion miles away (2,800,000,000), and just the distance from the sun in one direction and not the whole orbit. But what about the next closest star? The next closest star is called Proxima Centauri. How far is it? It's around 24 trillion miles away (24,000,000,000,000). And that's the closest star. How many zeros would it take if they were farther away? Many, many, many more zeros. And that's one of the reasons we have the light year.
To get a simple distance of the light year, you must first take the distance light travels in a second, which is 186,000 miles, then you multiply up. You multiply 186,000 times 60 (for seconds in a minute), then another 60 (for minutes in an hour), then 24 (for hours in a day, then 365 (for days in a year). I'll save you the trouble of figuring it out: it's just under 6 trillion miles (6,000,000,000,000). So how far away is Proxima Centauri in light years? It's about 4.22 light years. Doesn't seem far at all now. However, you have to keep in mind that it means that if you were traveling at the speed of light, it would take you 4.22 years to reach Proxima Centauri.
Once you grasp how large a light year is, then you begin to understand the vast distances that exist in space. The Milky Way galaxy (our own) is approximately 100,000 light years across. The closest galaxy out of the range of our own is the Large Megallanic Cloud, which is about 180,000 light years away. The closest spiral galaxy to our own is the Andromeda Galaxy, which is 2 million light years away (2,000,000).
So what's the farthest objects seen? The farthest confirmed galaxy is called IOK-1, and it is 12.9 billion light years away (12,900,000,000). However, in 2009, what appeared to be another galaxy even farther away was found. It's called Abell 1835 IR1916, and it's about 13.2 billion light years away (13,200,000,000). However, there is a lot of speculation and controversy as to whether or not this latest discovery is actually a galaxy or not.
Bet you didn't know that!
Friday, August 3, 2012
Friday Song #4 - Electric Light Orchestra
"The Bouncer" by Electric Light Orchestra, released as the UK B-side to the single "Four Little Diamonds".
Released: 1983
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