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WIn Universe Today, no.1 26.07.2020 a telescope deep space|earth|technology Exploration Universe T DAY Interview with an austronaut

3. Welcome Contents 4.News 5-7. Alcubierre drive 8-12. The Large Hadron Collider 13.Life in space Universe Today 14-15.Pick the right telescope 16. Recommended Products Issue No.1 2015 17.WIn a telescope Main Street Nr.22 18-19. Mars London. United Kindgom Tel:0712348234522 Mail: [email protected] EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Velid Mare Editor Kimbery Talbott Creative Editor Golden SIlvers Art Editor Jim Revels Chief Sub-Editor Adell Tingler Features Assistant Drema Holz Online Zola Hulett Tablet & Mobile Gwenda Vandine Pictures Johanna Kepler Contributors Nickolas Onan Benton Youmans Gilbert Neill Milford Crossno Ethan Juares Daron Eure Henry Cowans Michale Najarro Universe Today @UniverseToday 2 3

Welcome to News in our part of Universe Today the universe Nationse quodis as a que porit IT’S A BIG FIRST STEP TOWARD Gravitational Waves Detected by vendae. Um accatem elecerf erch- REUSABLE ROCKETS LIGO illesto ex exceriatur? Que volorer untotatemque natus et por molor a net quo vereiunti ut quia sinctur ressit erum harisita dolest volen- dam ipic tempe aliquam ad quis re dunti nobis dolores eritatem sunt ma consequo temquodio blam, velliciis ut quidebitatis et aliciis di il inum qui dolupta tureium ius molor accus, aut lam vel molupta tectore vendebitas rectore cuptur sequia- SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully tus acculpa doluptatquae laut ea landed upright on solid ground at Cape nissi doluptatios aute cuptatur? Canaveral, Florida this evening, after Astronomers have directly detected elu- Nulliquia et lantur, nim repernam traveling into space and back. It’s the sive gravitational waves, 100 years after the existence of these spacetime ripples apel et quid quasseque dolum vid first time SpaceX has been able to gently earibus ut occabor empero estiae touch down the Falcon 9 post-launch — was first proposed by Albert Einstein in plaborissi blacest inihitae. Et aut something the company has been trying his theory of general relativity. Scientists mincipit quis quibeatemod quam to do for the past year. It’s a big first step with the Laser Interferometer Gravitation- que veriatur sunt adis et aut utem toward reusable rockets. al-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the find in a news conference today (Feb. res des dolorrum elessum ut oc- cum ipictur, quae esed quia endae This launch was also the first time 11). DISCOVERY STORY: In Historic First, Einstein’s Gravitational Waves Detected SpaceX has flown since June, after one Directly / Video Explainer Dis pore nosam of its Falcon 9 rockets exploded en route faceatus non etur to the International Space Station. Now You can watch the gravitational waves modit enda nat. this return-to-flight mission has made science update live online here. Gravita- history — no one else has ever landed a Conet occusda rocket that has gone as deep into space tional waves are generated by the ac- ntusti bearum ut as the Falcon 9. celeration (or deceleration) of massive objects in the cosmos. There’s convincing eum fugit andant. indirect evidence that gravitational waves Boreruptae corerum As big as this is for SpaceX, it’s not the exist, but a direct detection had proven aut aut quia imoluptur, first time a vertical take-off rocket has elusive, until now. ut eum vellat rendaerro landed upright after launching into space. In November, Jeff Bezos’ private space- explic to inus aliciaturis flight company Blue Origin announced aut fugiate eatur arum that it had landed its rocket New Shepard illori blaccul liquaerio post-launch. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket iunditi tectend aectori is more complex than New Shepard: it’s doluptius repra nullendae- designed to go higher in space, and much ces ex exerehe nihiliquas faster. dolorpo risitia consequod 4 5

What is Alcubierre Drive Warp Speed on it’s way? For those familiar with the effects of special The Alcubierre drive or Alcubierre warp drive (or relativity, such as Lorentz contraction and Alcubierre metric, referring to metric tensor) is a time dilation, the Alcubierre metric has some speculative idea based on a solution of Einstein’s apparently peculiar aspects. In particular, Al- field equations in general relativity as proposed by cubierre has shown that a ship using an Al- theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre, by which cubierre drive travels on a free-fall geodesic a spacecraft could achieve apparent faster-than- even while the warp bubble is accelerating: light travel if a configurable energy-density field its crew would be in free fall while acceler- lower than that of vacuum (that is, negative mass) ating without experiencing accelerational could be created. g-forces. Enormous tidal forces, however, would be present near the edges of the flat- Rather than exceeding the speed of light within a space volume because of the large space local reference frame, a spacecraft would traverse curvature there, but suitable specification of distances by contracting space in front of it and In 1994, Alcubierre proposed a method for the metric would keep them very small within expanding space behind it, resulting in effective changing the geometry of space by creat- the volume occupied by the ship.[2] faster-than-light travel. Objects cannot accelerate ing a wave that would cause the fabric of to the speed of light within normal spacetime; in- space ahead of a spacecraft to contract The original warp-drive metric and simple stead, the Alcubierre drive shifts space around an and the space behind it to expand.[2] The variants of it happen to have the ADM form, object so that the object would arrive at its desti- ship would then ride this wave inside a re- which is often used in discussing the initial- Mass–energy requirementIf certain quantum ine- nation faster than light would in normal space.[1] gion of flat space, known as a warp bubble, qualities conjectured by Ford and Roman hold,[19] and would not move within this bubble but value formulation of general relativity. This instead be carried along as the region itself may explain the widespread misconception then the energy requirements for some warp Although the metric proposed by Alcubierre is that this spacetime is a solution of the field drives may be unfeasibly large as well as negative. mathematically valid (in that the proposal is con- moves due to the actions of the drive. It was equation of general relativity.[citation need- For example, the energy equivalent of −1064 kg sistent with the Einstein field equations), it may thought to use too much negative energy ed] Metrics in ADM form are adapted to a might be required[20] to transport a small space- not be physically meaningful, in which case a drive until Harold Sonny White[5][6] said that the certain family of inertial observers, but these ship across the Milky Way—an amount orders of will not be possible. Even if it is physically mean- amount of energy required could be reduced observers are not really physically distin- magnitude greater than the estimated mass of the ingful, its possibility would not necessarily mean if the warp bubble were changed into a warp guished from other such families. Alcubierre observable universe. Counterarguments to these that a drive can be constructed. The proposed ring. interpreted his “warp bubble” in terms of a apparent problems have also been offered.[1] mechanism of the Alcubierre drive implies a nega- contraction of space ahead of the bubble tive energy density and therefore requires exotic Alcubierre metric and an expansion behind, but this interpre- Chris Van den Broeck of the Catholic University of matter. So if exotic matter with the correct prop- The Alcubierre metric defines the warp-drive tation may be misleading[9] because the Louvain in Belgium, in 1999, tried to address the erties does not exist then the drive could not be spacetime. It is a Lorentzian manifold that, if contraction and expansion actually refers potential issues.[21] By contracting the 3+1-dimen- constructed. However, at the close of his original interpreted in the context of general relativ- to the relative motion of nearby members of sional surface area of the bubble being transport- paper[2] Alcubierre argued (following an argu- ity, allows a warp bubble to appear in previ- the family of ADM observers. ed by the drive, while at the same time expanding ment developed by physicists analyzing travers- ously flat spacetime and move away at ef- the three-dimensional volume contained inside, able wormholes[3][4]) that the Casimir vacuum fectively superluminal speed. The interior of In general relativity, one often first speci- Van den Broeck was able to reduce the total between parallel plates could fulfill the negative- the bubble is an inertial reference frame and fies a plausible distribution of matter and energy needed to transport small atoms to less energy requirement for the Alcubierre drive. inhabitants suffer no proper acceleration. energy, and then finds the geometry of the than three solar masses. Later, by slightly modify- This method of transport does not involve ing the Van den Broeck metric, Serguei Krasnikov Another possible issue is that, although the Al- objects in motion at speeds faster than light spacetime associated with it; but it is also possible to run the Einstein field equations in reduced the necessary total amount of negative cubierre metric is consistent with Einstein’s equa- with respect to the contents of the warp the other direction, first specifying a met- mass to a few milligrams.[1][16] Van den Broeck tions, general relativity does not incorporate quan- bubble; that is, a light beam within the warp ric and then finding the energy–momentum detailed this by saying that the total energy can be tum mechanics. Some physicists have presented bubble would still always move faster than tensor associated with it, and this is what reduced dramatically by keeping the surface area arguments to suggest that a theory of quantum the ship. Because objects within the bubble Alcubierre did in building his metric. This of the warp bubble itself microscopically small, gravity (which would incorporate both theories) are not moving (locally) faster than light, the practice means that the solution can violate while at the same time expanding the spatial vol- mathematical formulation of the Alcubierre ume inside the bubble. However, Van den Broeck metric is consistent with the conventional various energy conditions and require exotic claims of the laws of relativity (namely, that matter. The need for exotic matter raises 6 7

The Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful parti- cle collider, the largest, most complex ex- perimental facility ever built, and the largest single machine in the world.[1] It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Re- search (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries, as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. [2] It lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in circumference, as deep as 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the France–Switzerland border near Geneva, Switzerland. Its first research run took place from 30 March 2010 to 13 Febru- ary 2013 at an initial energy of 3.5 teraelec- tronvolts (TeV) per beam (7 TeV total), almost 4 times more than the previous world record for a collider,[3] rising to 4 TeV per beam (8 8 9

Physicists hope that the LHC will help answer some of the funda- mental open questions in physics, concerning the basic laws govern- ing the interactions and forces among the elementary objects, the deep structure of space and time, and in particular the interrelation between quantum mechanics and general relativity, where current theories and knowledge are unclear or break down altogether. Data is also needed from high energy particle experiments to suggest which versions of current scientific models are more likely to be correct – in particular to choose between the Standard Model and Higgsless models and to validate their predictions and allow further theoretical development. Many theorists expect new physics beyond the Stand- ard Model to emerge at the TeV energy level, as the Standard Model appears to be unsatisfactory. Issues possibly to be explored by LHC collisions include Are the masses of elementary particles actually generated by the Higgs mechanism via electroweak symmetry breaking?[18] It was expected that the collider experiments will either demonstrate or rule out the existence of the elusive Higgs boson, thereby allowing physicists to consider whether the Standard Model or its Higgsless alternatives are more likely to be correct. The experiments found a particle that appears to be the Higgs boson, strong evidence that the Standard Model has the correct mechanism of giving mass to the elementary particles. Is supersymmetry, an extension of the Standard Model and Poincaré symmetry, realized in nature, implying that all known particles have supersymmetric partners?Are there extra dimensions,as predicted by various models based on string theory, and can we detect them? What is the nature of the dark matter that appears to account for 27% of the mass-energy of the universe? Other open questions that may be explored using high energy parti- cle collisions: It is already known that electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force are different manifestations of a single force called the elec- troweak force. The LHC may clarify whether the electroweak force and the strong nuclear force are similarly just different manifesta- tions of one universal unified force, as predicted by various Grand Unification Theories. Why is the fourth fundamental force (gravity) so many orders of magnitude weaker than the other three fundamental forces? See also Hierarchy problem. Are there additional sources of quark flavour mixing, beyond those already present within the Standard Model? Why are there apparent violations of the symmetry between matter and antimatter? See also CP violation. What are the nature and properties of quark–gluon plasma, thought 10 11

tr Life in space An Astronaut Reveals What Life in Space Is Really Like There’s no way to anticipate the emotional impact of leaving your home planet. You look down at Earth and realize: You’re not on it. It’s breathtaking. It’s surreal. It’s a “we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto” kind of feeling. But I’ve spent a total of 55 days in space, over the course of five missions for NASA, and I’ve learned that being out there isn’t just a series of breathtaking moments. It’s a mix of the transcendently magical and the deeply prosaic. It can be crowded, noisy, and occasionally uncomfortable. Space trav- el—at least the way we do it today—isn’t glamorous. But you can’t beat the view! Everyone imagines that when you’re sitting on the launchpad atop 7 million pounds of explosive rocket fuel, you’re nervous and wor- ried; but the truth is, there isn’t much to do for those two hours after you climb into the shuttle. Many astronauts just take a nap. You’re strapped in like a sack of potatoes while the system goes through thousands of prelaunch checks. Occasionally you have to wake up and say “Roger” or “Loud and clear.” But the launch itself is a whole other thing—from the pad to orbit in 8.5 minutes, accel- erating the entire time until you reach the orbital velocity of 17,500 mph. That is a ride. It turns out that once you’re actually in orbit, zero-g has some upsides. Without gravity, bodily fluids move toward your head. It’s a great face-lift. Your stomach gets flat. You feel long, because you grow an inch or two. (I thought, “Oh cool, I’ll be tall,” but of course everybody else was taller too.). But zero- g also has some disadvantages. As that fluid shifts north, you get an enormous headache. Your body compensates and loses about a liter of fluid in the first couple of days—you essentially pee the head- ache away. And a lot of people get nauseated. The way to feel better is to “lose up,” to convince your visual system that “up” is wherever you point your head and “down” is where your feet are. When you can do that, and go headfirst or earlobe-first wherever you want, then you’re getting adapted to zero-g. On each flight this adaptation happens more quickly—your body remembers having been in space. But it can take a few days before your stomach finally settles down and says, “OK, what’s for lunch?” I didn’t eat much on any of my flights. I don’t have a big appetite even on Earth, but between the lack of gravity and the shifting fluids, things The collider tunnel contains two adjacent parallel beamlines (or beam pipes) that intersect can taste different in space. I’d bring great chocolate with me and it at four points, each containing a beam, which travel in opposite directions around the ring. would taste like wax—it was very disappointing. But you don’t go to Some 1,232 dipole magnets keep the beams on their circular path (see image[33]), while space for the gourmet dining. There’s no way to cook, on the shuttle an additional 392 quadrupole magnets are used to keep the beams focused, in order to or on the ISS. Space food is already cooked and then either freeze- maximize the chances of interaction between the particles in the four intersection points, dried and vacuum-packed—so you add water and put it in the oven to where the two beams cross. In total, over 1,600 superconducting magnets are installed, warm up—or it’s thermo-stabilized, like a military MRE. With no refrig- with most weighing over 27 tonnes.[34] Approximately 96 tonnes of superfluid helium-4 erator on board, fresh food won’t keep. So on the shuttle we’d have to is needed to keep the magnets, made of copper-clad niobium-titanium, at their operat- eat anything fresh—usually fruit like apples, oranges, and grapefruit— ing temperature of 1.9 K (−271.25 °C), making the LHC the largest cryogenic facility in the early in the mission. world at liquid helium temperature. 12 13

Pick the right Telescope for your needs Levenhuk 80mm Ra Triplet OTA Orion XT8 8/14/14 3/20/16 (8” f/6 Dobsonian Newtonian, many Takahashi FC76 Celestron NexStar 8i (2003 version) (80 mm f/6 triplet apochromatic re- different configurations from Orion 3/10/14 12/2/13 fractor OTA , hard case, $779 street) starting around $349, check current (76 mm f/8 apochromatic doublet fluo- (8” f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain on sin- rite refractor, OTA only, NLA) prices as they vary) gle sided arm NexStar mount, red dot Not long ago, I lamented the lack of finder, 10 mm, 25 mm eyepieces, was “middle-class” scopes - stuff that Ever have this happen to you? Your A local club member has a saying that $1599, now NLA and replaced by Nex- an enthusiast could appreciate, but rig is up and running, and it’s really goes something like this: “Ed, if some- Star 8se @ $1099) still within reach of a working stiff. I humming. The views are just snapping thing interesting is going to happen to shouldn’t have worried. We are living for you. In your enthusiasm, you call someone, it will happen to you.” It’s hard to believe these NexStar in a golden age of equipment. There your friends over for a look. scopes have been around for ten are so many nice telescopes out It reminds me of the ancient Chinese years already. I remember when they there at attractive prices that I’m hav- Then the third guy, with the giant “Q” curse: “May you live in interesting first came out in the early 2000s - ing trouble keeping track of them all. plastered on the front of his T-shirt, times.” While my adventures in astron- they seemed like such a bargain for Enter this fine refractor from Leven- refuses to even look through your tel- omy have given material for this web what you were getting. Well, it’s ten+ huk. The triplet promises better color escope because “it isn’t a Questar.” site, sometimes I wish I could live a years later, and the new “se” versions correction than your run of the mill normal existence like some of my local of these NexStars cost 50% less, are Orion ED80-class scope, at a modest What’s going on here? The guy with astro club members. Take, for exam- more versatile, and do more. Still, increase in price. Now anyone can be the apo won’t tolerate anything less ple, this Takahashi FC76. I’d wanted these older gray-tubed NexStar “i” a big shot, for less than $1000. than perfect, razor-sharp images. The one of these ever since I saw Sam’s series scopes do show up on the used sample about a decade ago. Some grass-chewing hillbilly with the big Dob experiences stay with you. The best market at a fraction of their original The Levenhuk 80 packs a lot of per- isn’t used to looking through anything list prices, and I’m often asked for my formance in a tiny package. When I less than a giant light bucket, so eve- view I’ve ever had of the Lagoon Neb- opinion of them. It just so happened borrowed the scope from club mem- rything looks dim to him. And the guy ula, for instance, was through Sam’s that one of these 8i models got donat- ber Mike T, my first reaction upon see- with the Questar? He doesn’t think FC76 with an OIII filter on it. This is an ed to the club recently, new in its origi- ing the case was, That’s it? That’s the reality looks as good as the views odd combination for this object, but nal box and unopened. Thus, it was whole thing? It’s so cute! I’d expected through his beloved Maksutov. there it was. I’ve never forgotten that possible to duplicate what an owner something about the size of an Orion view, and have never forgotten that might have experienced ten years ago. ED80. What I got was something FC-76. In late 2013, I decided to do It was like opening a time machine. more along the lines of an Orion Short something about that memory. I put Tube 80. Yes, it’s that small. The case out a WTB ad on Astromart and within measures a mere 17.5” X 9.75” X 7.25.” a day, a very nice man from the south responded. 14 15

Win a telescope! All you have to do is to send an sms to 1444 with 1 2 the text “telescope” for a chance to win *normal sms rates apply 3 1. Celestron NexStar 130 2. Zhumell Z10 Deluxe 3. Celestron AstroMaster SLT Computerized Dobsonian Reflector 70 EQ Refractor Telescope Telescope Telescope $124.98 $399.98 $549.00 16 17

Colony on mars? Is it possible? Astronaut Selection and Preparation The global search has begun for the first humans to set foot on Mars and make it their home. In an extensive training pe- riod, candidates will learn the skills they will need on Mars and on their journey there. The combined skill set of each astronaut team member will cover a very wide range of disciplines. In 1000 years, everyone on Earth will still remember who the first humans on Mars were. More than 200,000 men and women from around the world responded to the first call for astronauts. landing systems and launch capability on Mars. Permanent Settlement The most complex, expensive, and risky part of a mission to Mars is the return trip. It requires developing bigger rockets that need a larger Permanent settlement is not easy but it is far less complex and requires much less infrastruc- ture sent to Mars than return missions. Mars One has already started contracting established aerospace companies to work on the required systems. All systems require design, construc- tion, and testing, but no scientific breakthroughs are required to send humans to Mars and to 18 sustain life there. 19

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