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| SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY |
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Sun snapped in stereo
Trends
Prof Yash
Pal
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Sun snapped in stereo
THE SUN in all its illuminating glory has for the first time been photographed on all sides at once in an historic image that could help to burning heart of our own star.A full 360-degree portrait of the Sun was released yesterday by Nasa, the US space agency, after two identical spacecraft were aligned in their solar orbits precisely opposite one another on each side of the star.
Scientists said that seeing both of the Sun’s hemispheres at the same time marked a turning point in humankind’s relationship with the ultimate provider of all life on the Earth — an image akin to the “earthrise” picture taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968. They believe that viewing the Sun in stereoscopic vision might enable them to predict dangerous magnetic storms on Earth caused by the immense solar flares that fling out billions of tonnes of matter through the solar system. The 3-D images were captured by ultraviolet-sensitive cameras on board the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (Stereo), a pair of spacecraft launched in October 2006 on the same orbital path around the Sun as the Earth, but with one moving progressively ahead of the Earth and the other trailing regressively behind. Yesterday marked the point when both spacecraft — known as Stereo Behind (B) and Stereo Ahead (A) — were exactly opposite one another on each side of the Sun, with the Earth positioned precisely midway between both space observatories. Scientists believe that being able to see both sides of the Sun simultaneously in 3-D will allow them to study and better understand how the vast coils of magnetic energy swirling around the solar surface interact with one another over vast distances — sometimes spanning two hemispheres. “For the first time we can actually take images of the entire solar disc. From this moment on we’ll be able to see everything going on around the Sun,” said Chris Davis, the British project scientist on the imaging equipment of Stereo. The solar surface is writhing with magnetic forces which twist and contort themselves into huge knots of energy that explode regularly, rather like a rubber band that has been wound up tightly before being suddenly released, Dr Davis said. “One of the things that Stereo is trying to predict is when these knots are going to fling things into space. We are moving towards an era when you can understand the processes you need to know about in order to make a solar weather forecast.” Britain’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the UK Space Agency, has played a critical role in the Nasa-led project. All of the cameras on board the mission were designed and built in Britain. Professor Richard Harrison, a solar scientist at the RAL, said that the data gathered from the two orbiting spacecraft — along with information collected by ground stations based on Earth — would give unprecedented insight into the mysterious forces that lead to sunspots, solar flares and the massive explosions of the solar atmosphere, called coronal mass ejections. “It’s not a novelty. There are some real reasons why we want to observe the Sun in its entirely. You can’t look at one little bit of the Sun and hope to understand it,” Professor Harrison said. “If you want to understand the Sun you’ve got to look at the big picture. “The Sun is a truly complex object which influences many aspects of our lives. In the same way that you would not expect to understand the workings of the brain by studying just a small part of it, global investigation into the nature of our star as a complete object is essential to understanding how it works,” he said. — The Independent Stereo Orbital Insertion Getting the Stereo spacecraft into orbit around the Sun was not simple. It involved using the Moon's gravity to "slingshot" the spacecraft in their proper orbits. Both spacecraft were originally launched together on a single Delta II rocket on October 26, 2006. Immediately after launch, they were placed into highly elliptical orbits which ranged from just a few hundred kilometres above Earth's surface out to a little beyond the distance of the Moon. Over the next few weeks the two spacecraft slowly separated from each other, and Nasa Mission Operations carefully adjusted the orbits of each to line them up for when both flew by the Moon a few minutes apart on December 15, 2006. The Moon's gravity grabbed both spacecraft, and flung Stereo-Ahead completely away from Earth into its orbit about the Sun. Stereo-Behind was also flung out, but not completely, and came back to swing by the Moon again on 21 January 2007, when it was then completely flung away in the opposite direction into its own orbit about the Sun. — Source: Nasa
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Trends
GENEVA: Scientists at the CERN research center seeking answers to key mysteries of the cosmos said on Wednesday they would be moving ahead cautiously this year to avoid any possible breakdown in their giant LHC machine. But they indicated that in 2012, if all goes well, they would step up the energy of particle collisions that most feel is vital to bring them near to finding the almost mythical Higgs boson and evidence for the existence of dark matter. House Republicans push energy and science cuts WASHINGTON: Scientific research, environmental protection and other priorities of the Obama administration would face steep cuts under a congressional Republican spending plan released Wednesday. More than 60 programs would be eliminated entirely, including Obama’s effort to build a network of high-speed passenger trains. More severe flu season combated with new antibodies HONG
KONG: Doctors hope to treat this year’s severe flu epidemic in Hong Kong by harvesting antibodies from patients who have recovered, medical experts said on Tuesday. The experts said they hoped to treat more than 70 severely ill flu patients with certain antibodies taken from patients who have recovered earlier from the H1N1 swine flu virus, now the most prevalent seasonal flu strain in Hong Kong. Russia-Canada voyage via North Pole planned MOSCOW: A Russian-led expedition aims to make the first ever crossing from Russia’s Arctic shore into Canada over the North Pole, a months-long voyage over precarious shifting ice floes. The expedition, set to begin on February 17, will serve for some of the first tests of Russia’s GLONASS satellite navigation technology, Moscow’s bid to challenge the dominant U.S. global positioning system (GPS). |
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THIS UNIVERSE
Does our movement on earth really create any kind of disturbance up in the space as it is said that the basis of origin, i.e., an atom, is same for everything, including the universe?
Let me try answering this question by first asking another one. What would you say if I asked you, ‘What would be the effect on the gait of an elephant if a fly were to come and sit on its back?’ After all, the elephant would become a little heavier. I am sure you would answer by saying that the elephant would not even know that the fly had landed on its back. But think, why you might even think about this. I believe that you are convinced that the force of gravitation that gives weight to the elephant must also act on the little fly. But you would also grant that the effect would be so small that the elephant would not even notice it. In the same way, we can wonder whether we can move the whole earth if all of us were to decide to jump in unison in one direction. This is because we push the earth down when we jump, and the combined push of everyone might be felt by the earth also. Yes, this would happen because you believe that conservation of energy and momentum is a universal law. I would be hard to measure this effect because it would be very small. This is the reason that we do not worry about this when we run or jump. Thus, my answer to your question is that what we do on earth must have an effect on whole of the universe, but generally the universe is so much larger that these effects would remain unrecognised. I am happy that you worry about such questions. But the fact that most material in the universe is made of atoms is not the basic cause of your concern. Your concern arises from the fact that all things in the universe are tied up in an interacting web and any shaking of this web might influence the whole. The effect of this shaking might or might not be detectable. Readers wanting to ask Prof Yash Pal a question can e-mail him at
palyash.pal@gmail.com |
THE SUN in all its illuminating glory has for the first time been photographed on all sides at once in an historic image that could help to burning heart of our own star.A full 360-degree portrait of the Sun was released yesterday by Nasa, the US space agency, after two identical spacecraft were aligned in their solar orbits precisely opposite one another on each side of the star.
