MARS - launch of Perseverance mission

-  2783  - MARS  -  launch of Perseverance mission.  -  NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is on its way to the Red Planet to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples to send back to Earth.  Humanity's most sophisticated rover launched July, 2020.

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--------------------------  2783 -  MARS  -  launch of Perseverance mission

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-   Perseverance will begin another historic mission of exploration of the 4th planet from the Sun.  This amazing explorer's journey will deliver incredible science and will bring samples of Mars home to mother Earth, the 3rd planet from the Sun.

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-  The Atlas rocket initially placed the Mars 2020 spacecraft into a parking orbit around Earth. The engine fired for a second time and the spacecraft separated as expected. Navigation data indicate the spacecraft is perfectly on course to Mars.

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-  Mars 2020 sent its first signal to ground controllers. However, telemetry spacecraft data had not yet been acquired at that point. Later a signal with telemetry was received from Mars 2020 by NASA ground stations. Data indicate the spacecraft had entered a state known as safe mode, likely because a part of the spacecraft was a little colder than expected while Mars 2020 was in Earth's shadow. All temperatures are now nominal when the spacecraft was out of Earth's shadow.

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-  When a spacecraft enters safe mode, all but essential systems are turned off until it receives new commands from mission control. An interplanetary launch is fast-paced and dynamic, so a spacecraft is designed to put itself in safe mode if its onboard computer perceives conditions are not within its preset parameters. 

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-   Today the Mars 2020 mission is completing a full health assessment on the spacecraft and is working to return the spacecraft to a nominal configuration for its journey to Mars.

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-  The Perseverance rover's astrobiology mission is to seek out signs of past microscopic life on Mars, explore the diverse geology of its landing site and demonstrate key technologies that will help us prepare for future robotic and human exploration.

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-  The “Jezero Crater” is the perfect place to search for signs of ancient life.  Perseverance is going to land there to make discoveries that cause us to rethink our questions about what Mars was like and how we understand it today.

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-   As Perseverance’s instruments investigate rocks along an ancient lake bottom and select samples to return to Earth, science well be reaching back in time to get the information they need to say if life has existed elsewhere in the universe.

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-  The Martian rock and dust that Perseverance's Sample Caching System collects could answer these fundamental questions about the potential for life to exist beyond Earth. Two future missions will work together to get the samples to an orbiter for return to Earth. When these samples arrive on Earth, they will undergo in-depth analysis by scientists around the world using equipment far too large to send to the Red Planet.

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-  While most of Perseverance's seven instruments are geared toward learning more about the planet's geology and astrobiology, the MOXIE , the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, has the job to focus on missions yet to come.

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-   Designed to demonstrate that converting Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen is possible, it could lead to future versions of MOXIE technology that become staples on Mars missions, providing oxygen for rocket fuel and breathable air.

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-  Also future-leaning will come from the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.  Ingenuity will remain attached to the belly of Perseverance for the flight to Mars and the first 60 days on the surface. A technology demonstrator, Ingenuity's goal is a pure flight test since it carries no science instruments.

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-  Over 30 sols (31 Earth days), the helicopter will attempt up to five powered, controlled flights. The data acquired during these flight tests will help the next generation of Mars helicopters provide an aerial dimension to Mars explorations, potentially scouting for rovers and human crews, transporting small payloads, or investigating difficult-to-reach destinations.

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-  The rover's technologies for entry, descent, and landing also will provide information to advance future human missions to Mars.  Perseverance is the most capable rover in history because it is standing on the shoulders of our pioneers Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity rovers.   The descendants of Ingenuity and MOXIE will become valuable tools for future explorers to the Red Planet and beyond.

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-  About seven cold, dark, unforgiving months of interplanetary space travel lay ahead for the mission.  There is still a lot of road between us and Mars, about 290 million miles of space before arriving at Mars on February 18, 2021.

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-  The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of America's larger Moon to Mars exploration approach that includes more missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. 

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-  NASA plans on sending the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024.   They will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028.

-   My kids will have to write that review.

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-  July 31, 2020                                                                             2783                                                                                                                                                 

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 ---------------------   Friday, July 31, 2020  -------------------------

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KUIPER BELT - Name the Tenth Planet?

-  2782  -  KUIPER  BELT  -  Name the Tenth Planet?  -  There are some conflicting opinions whether the 10th planet should be called a “planet”.  Maybe it should be called a large asteroid, or comet?  All the objects found beyond the orbit of Neptune are called Kuiper Belt Objects, KBO‘s .  Named after Peter Gerard  Kuiper, 1905 - 1973.  

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--------------------------  2782  -  KUIPER  BELT  -  Name the Tenth Planet?  

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-  Most people can name the 9th planet.  It’s Pluto. Ok, so Pluto got demoted to a “Dwarf Planet” But, It is still “my ninth planet“. Then there is a 10th planet that is even bigger than Pluto and has not yet been named.  It does have a number, 2003UB313. 

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-   Planet 10 was first discovered October 21, 2003 (Michael Allen Gallegos’ birthday), however, continued analysis and re-analysis of the data did not confirm it as a planet until January 8, 2005.  (That is Nathan Scott Rush’s birthday.  I think they should name the planet “Nathan”.)

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-   KBO’s were named after Peter Gerard  Kuiper, 1905 - 1973.  Born in the Netherlands he became a US citizen in 1937.  He discovered the moon of  Uranus, Miranda in 1948.  He discovered the moon of Neptune, Nereid in 1949.  He was the first to speculate the existence of a belt of comets beyond Neptune in 1950.

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-  The Kuiper Belt is the home to billions of these objects, mostly comets.  The difference between an asteroid and a comet is that asteroids are composed of mostly rock and metal (iron, nickel).  Comets are composed of mostly ice and dust.  It all has to do with where the object first formed in the accretion disk during the birth of the Solar System.

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-  The Sun first formed some 10 billion years ago.  The Sun was spinning and spinning with it was a large collection of dust and debris in what is called the accretion disk.  Heavier debris particles tended to be closer to the Sun due to its massive gravity.  Gases and lighter particles tended to be further out in the orbiting accretion disk.

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-  After some 5 billion years the planets formed as a collection of these particles bound together by their own gravitational attractions.  The four inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, are terrestrial planets made up of mostly rock and metal.  They retain an atmosphere of heavier gases such as carbon dioxide and oxygen. 

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-  Asteroids are made of the same material and lie in orbit mostly between Mars and Jupiter.  This “Asteroid Belt” would probably be another planet except Jupiter’s strong gravity keep pulling the asteroids apart and will not allow the pieces to coalesces into a planet

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-  Further out on the accretion disk the four giant, gaseous planets were formed, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.  These are mostly a mixture of the lighter gases, hydrogen and helium.  Beyond the orbit of Neptune which is 30 times the Earth-Sun distance, astronomical units, or 30 AU’s, are the Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). 

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-  An astronomical Unit AU, the Earth-Sun distance is 93,000,000 miles.

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- Pluto is one of these Kuiper Belt Objects and was thought to be the biggest until now.  Pluto has a more elongated orbit than the nearly circular orbits of the other planets.  Its orbit extends from 30 AU to 50 AU over a 250 year period.  

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-   It is too easy to put comets and asteroids in separate boxes.  However, there are asteroids that behave like comets and comets that behave like asteroids.  Comets are composed of dirty ice, or frozen mud around a rocky core.   Comet tails are vaporized ice and dust.  It is hard to tell a dead comet from an asteroid. 

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-  In turn, an asteroid surrounded by gas and dust must be a comet.  Pluto and Triton have the composition of comets and are believed to have formed by gravity crunching comets together.  It is equally difficult to categorize them according to their orbits because many collisions and near-misses with giant planets have scattered individual orbits all over the solar system.

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-The Kuiper Belt extends out to 500 AU and contains billions of comets.  Most of these comets still lie somewhat in the accretion disk or the ecliptic plane with some inclinations above or below the plane.

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-  Still further out to the far reaches of the Sun’s gravity there are billions more comets.  Between 500 AU and 100,000 AU is the “Oort Cloud” of objects that completely surround the Sun in a sphere of objects completing orbits in thousands of years. 

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-  This is our Solar System.  It was the astronomer, Nicolas Copernicus, who in 1543 moved the Earth and discovered our Solar System.  It was his revolutionary theory that the Earth was not the stationary center of the Universe, but moved around the Sun. 

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-  A Greek astronomer, Aristarchus of Samos, had the theory in 300 BC, but the theory was not accepted for 1000 years until Copernicus published the book, “ On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres” in 1543, the same year he died.  95% of his book was dedicated to providing convincing evidence to a few key ideas:  The planets orbit the Sun in the same direction. 

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-   The Earth is one of them spinning on its axis once a day and orbiting the Sun once every year.  In order of distance from the Sun, Mercury is the closest, followed by Venus, Earth and its Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn(9.5 AU). 

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-  Uranus was discovered in 1781 at 19 AU.  Neptune was discovered in 1846 at 30 AU.  Ceres was the first and biggest asteroid to be discovered in 1801, only 2.77 AU and having a 621 mile diameter.  It too was thought to be a planet at the time of its discovery.  

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-  Pluto was not discovered until 1930 at 40 AU, 1,429 mile diameter.  Pluto has been defined as a planet, but equal argument is given to the 9th and 10th “planets” being KBO’s, asteroids or comets.

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-  How do astronomers discover planets, comets and asteroids, and how do they know how big they are?

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-  To see the 10th planet (on July 31,2005 ) SB313, focus your telescope to a point high in the morning sky a few hours before the Sun comes up in the Constellation Cetus.  Cetus is a constellation of stars called the Sea Monster, or the Whale.  The constellations that surround it are Orion, Taurus, Aries, Pegasus (The Great Square) and Capricorn.  It lies between the variable star Mira and the galaxy NGC253.

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-  UB313 is found as a dim “starlight” that moves over time with respect to the background stars that appear stationary.  UB313 is just a dot of light through the telescope.  

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-  The telescope needs to look at the same spot for over 3 hours to see the dot of light move relative to the background stars.  Tracking it longer over time can determine its velocity, direction, and its orbit.  Once the orbit is defined the period can be calculated from the equation figured out by Johan Kepler in 1596:

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------------------------------  period^2  =  radius^3

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-----------------------------  561 years^2  =  68 AU^3

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-  It takes SB313 561 years to complete a single orbit.   SB313 average radius (actually its semi-major axis since its orbit is an ellipse not a circle) is 68 AU.  

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-----------------------------  68 AU^3 = period^2

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-----------------------------  314,432 AU^3 = 561 years^2

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-----------------------------  Pluto’s radius is 39.53 AU and period is 248.54.

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-----------------------------  radius^3 = period^2

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-----------------------------  61,772 AU^3  =  61,770 years^2

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-----------------------------   P^2 = r^3

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-----------------------------  248.54^2 = 39.53^3

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-----------------------------  61,772 = 61,770

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------------------------------  Johan Kepler figured this out in 1596

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-  To determine the size we measure the amount of sunlight it reflects.  The amount must be determined by its size and how reflective its surface is.  UB313 is now 9 billion miles away, 97 AU.  It takes over a day for sunlight to reach its surface and be reflected back to Earth.

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-    Sunlight travels 97 AU (9 billion miles) to reach SB313 bounces off and returns 96 AU to reach Earth.  Light is traveling 186,287 miles per second, 499 seconds to travel 1 AU, or 8.32 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to Earth.  To travel the 193 AU round trip to SB313 takes 96,351 seconds, or 26.76 hours. 

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-  SB313 is the 3rd brightest object we have seen in the Kuiper Belt.  So we do not know how big it is, but we do know how bright it is and brightness is due to two factors: how big it is and how reflective it is. 

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-   If it were all white snow and 100% reflective (nothing is 100%) then it must be 1,373 miles in diameter.  If it had the same reflectivity as Pluto (60%) then it must be 1,413 miles diameter.  If it is like Pluto’s moon, Charon (38%), then it must be 2,206 miles diameter.  Today’s best estimate is that it is one and one-half the size of Pluto, or about 2,000 miles diameter.  It is definitely a larger planet than Pluto (1,413 miles diameter).

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-  The surface temperature is estimated to be -405 F degrees.  Spitzer’s infrared telescope has tried to measure heat radiating from this surface.  To the limits of their instruments they get no readings which sets an upper limit on SB313’s diameter.  It must be less than 2,200 miles.

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-  The wavelength response in the 1 to 2.5 microns of the reflected infrared sunlight has exactly the same pattern as light reflected from Pluto.  This pattern is the signature of solid frozen methane, CH4 (1 carbon, 4 helium, atoms).  The interior of SB313 is likely frozen ice and rock but the surface is frozen gaseous methane.

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-  SB313 is a Kuiper Belt object that can be categorized as a large asteroid or comet.  If we choose to call it a planet, so be it.  Ceres is the largest “asteroid” that was discovered in 1801.  It is 600 miles diameter, 50% the diameter of Pluto.  It was called a planet when it was first discovered.  

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-  We have defined orbits of about 175,753 objects in our Solar System as of 2005.  (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo.html to see current orbiting data of these objects)  498 of these objects are considered potentially hazardous asteroids that approach Earth less than 4.6 million miles (.05AU, less than 5% of the distance between Earth and the Sun)

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-  530 of these identified objects orbiting the Sun are beyond the orbit of Pluto.  This is 530 out of a billion estimated to be in the Kuiper Belt. 100,000  of these comets are expected to be Pluto-like objects.  

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-   The Kuiper Belt extends from 30 AU to 500AU.  The 500AU is considered the end of the gravitational influence of our Sun.  Beyond that, 500AU to 100,000 AU, is the Oort Cloud of comets that contains several billion comets in a spherical distribution entirely around the Sun.  This cloud of comets extends to 20% of the way to the nearest star.

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-  Here are some of the 530 objects in the doughnut shaped Kuiper Belt so far identified after searching only 15% of the sky to date with our most modern telescopes as of 2005.  Many more discoveries are expected, and many new objects will be as large as Pluto:

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----------------------------  2003UB313:   2000 mile diameter,     561 year orbit,   

38 AU to 97 AU distance,     44 degree incline,     4th brightest object in the Kuiper Belt.

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----------------------------  Pluto:   1413 miles diameter,     258.5 year orbit,  39AU distance,        17.17 degree incline,     Brightest KBO.

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----------------------------  Charon:  770 mile diameter,     Pluto’s moon

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----------------------------  1998WW31:  , has its own moon

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----------------------------  2001KX76:  750 miles diameter,

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----------------------------  2000WR106:  523 miles diameter,

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----------------------------  Varina:  550 miles diameter,

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----------------------------  Ceres:  600 miles diameter,

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----------------------------  2003EL61:  700 miles diameter,      285 year orbit,     

35 to 52 AU distance,        28 degree incline,     The 3rd brightest KBO in the Kuiper Belt.

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----------------------------  2003VB12, Sedna:    995 mile diameter,    11,500 year orbit,     76 AU to 950AU,     The most distant object seen in our Solar System stretching from the beginning of the Kuiper Belt and extending into the Oort Cloud of comets.

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----------------------------  2002LM60, Quaoar:  800 mile diameter,         7.9 degree incline

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----------------------------  2003EL61:  932 mile diameter,

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----------------------------  2005FY9:  700 mile diameter,    307 year orbit,  

39 AU to 52 AU distance,    29 degree incline,        the 2nd brightest object in the Kuiper Belt.

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-  This Review was written  August 14, 2005.  Much more has been discovered in the last 15 years, but, this is a good starting point as astronomy reaches out beyond Pluto. 

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-   See Review 1660 for a more current update of Kuiper Belt Objects, in 2014.     

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-  See Review 2142 written in 2018.   Planets beyond Pluto.  -  Planets beyond Pluto are in the Kuiper Belt of comets, asteroids and sub-planets.  Our new Horizon spacecraft is exploring these objects and is due to reach them in January,2019.  This same spacecraft passed Pluto in 2006

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-  July 30, 2020                           543                                                  2782                                                                                                                                      

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 ---------------------   Thursday, July 30, 2020  -------------------------

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INFLATION - an expanding universe?

-  2780  - INFLATION  -  an expanding universe?  -   The Universe is expanding.  Space is growing.  All the galaxies are separating away from each other.  The greater the distance between the galaxies the faster they are separating because there is more expanding space in between them.
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--------------------------  2780  -  INFLATION  -  an expanding universe?
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-  This repulsive force of space expansion is a very weak force, much, much weaker than the force of gravity.  The velocity of the expansion of space and therefore the velocity of the separation of the galaxies is only 0.047 miles per hour per lightyear separation. ( This is called the Hubble Constant = Ho = 70 km/sec/mega parsec ,  or also:  22,000  meters / second / million lightyears)
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-  This velocity equates to 248 feet per hour per lightyear distance.   Very slow, however, if two galaxies are 1 billion lightyears apart this small velocity translates to 47,000,000 miles per hour rate of separation.
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-   Light, and all electromagnetic radiation, and gravity travel at the constant speed of 670,633,500 miles per hour.  Therefore, the two galaxies are separating at 7% the speed of light.  The more they separate the faster they go.  Once two galaxies are separating faster than the speed of light they can no longer see each other.
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-  The force of gravity is much stronger but gravity only comes as a function of mass.  And, there is a lot more space out there than there is mass.
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-   Secondly, the attractive force of gravity falls off at the inverse square of distance.  The greater the distance the weaker the gravity.  This is not the case with the expanding force of the vacuum of space.  The repulsive force always remains constant ( 0.047 mph / lightyear) regardless of distance and wherever in the Universe.
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-  Astronomers do not understand what is causing the expansion, or what creates this repulsive force.  It is a form of anti-gravity.  It is going on now and it was going on even more rapidly in the early Universe.
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-   Up until a few years ago most astronomers believed that the expansion of the Universe would be slowing down due to the incessant  pull of gravity.  Now astronomers believe the Universe is dominated by the repulsive force and the Universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate.  They call it “Dark Energy“, the repulsive force in the vacuum of space that is accelerating the expansion of the Universe.
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-  Astronomers believe that expanding space at one time in the early Universe had a velocity greater than the speed of light.  This rapid inflation would account for the characteristics of homogeneity, uniformity, isotropy, and flatness that we observe in the current Universe. 
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-  This “Cosmic Inflation” is believed to have been caused by the “freezing” out of the Strong Nuclear Force from the Electromagnetic and Weak Nuclear forces.  Gravity had already “froze” out at 10^-43 seconds after the Big Bang at a temperature of 10^32 Kelvin. 
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-  The Strong Force at 10^-35 seconds and 10^27 Kelvin and the Weak Nuclear Force at 10^-12 seconds and 10^12 Kelvin.   The Strong Nuclear Force separation released enormous energy causing the Universe to expand in less than 10^-36 seconds.  Much faster than the speed of light to a factor of 10^30 times greater in size.
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-   1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times larger in an instant.  The idea here is that space went through a phase change like water changing from liquid to solid ice.  Super cooled water can crystallize to ice in an instant in every direction.  Inflation happened like that.
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-  Quantum fluctuations in the early Universe’s primordial soup of particles, waves and energies grew into denser regions and rarified regions in space as space expanded.  These denser regions with the help of gravity grew into Black Holes, stars, and galaxies. 
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-  In this way Cosmic Inflation explains the way we see the Universe today.  A tiny ripple in space smaller than the size of an atomic nucleus grew into a density wave the size of our Solar System.  Gravity pulled these denser regions into galaxies.
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-  Astronomers can see with their telescopes about 10 billion lightyears distance today.  Theoretically, astronomers can never see beyond 13.7 billion lightyears because that is when light was first created  and that is as far as light could have traveled up to this time.
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-  “Cosmic Inflation” explains the smoothness and uniformity of the Universe.  It explains why the observable Universe is the same density and the same temperature looking east
10 billion lightyears and looking west 10 billion lightyears while the two regions are 20 billion lightyears apart and could not be the same temperature unless they were once in contact and then separated faster than the speed of light.
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-  When Cosmic Inflation started the universe was 10^-35 seconds old, the two regions were 10^-35 lightyears away from one another.  Before Inflation started light could bounce between the two regions and equalize their temperatures and densities.  So that explains the uniformity of the Universe.
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-  Cosmic Inflation also explains why the Universe appears nearly “flat”.  The expansion rate is very small in Cosmic terms.  It is almost balanced with the Universe’s force of gravity attraction rate.  It is very near the balancing point. 
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-  The Universe contains nearly the “Critical Density” needed to balance gravity attraction with the Dark Energy’s repulsion.  If the density of the University were a little greater in the beginning the Universe would have collapsed back on itself due to gravity long ago.
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-   If the density were a little less in the beginning the Universe would have expanded so fast spreading matter so thin that galaxies would have never formed.  Somehow the Universe started with the density just right to form the galaxies as we see them today.
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-  Of course, there is still a problem.  All the matter that astronomers can find with radiation and gravity wave telescopes in the Observerable Universe can only account for 25% of the Critical Density.
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-    If the Universe is truly “flat” the additional density must be there, somewhere.  That is where astronomers come up with 75% of the Universe being made of Dark Energy, using Einstein’s equivalence of energy = mass times (speed of light)^2.  In order to get to a “flat “ Universe the total density of matter, including Dark Matter, and Dark Energy together must nearly equal the “Critical Density”.
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-  Confirmation of these ideas comes from studying the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation which has temperature differences of 1/100,000th of a degree around an average 2.73 degrees Kelvin separated by about 1 degree of arc.
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-    These measurements of the Universe’s radiation when it was 380,000 years old are consistent with a flat Universe , uniform yet with still enough structure to form the galaxies.  When the waves in the CMB were studied in detail the density of the Universe was put at 4.4% ordinary matter, 23% Dark Matter, and 73% Dark Energy.
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-------  Footnotes:
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-  (1)  How can you measure the expansion of space since it has to be expanding relative to something?   One thing we can use is to measure expansion relative to the CMB radiation.
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-  For example:  our Milky Way is moving 1,342,000 miles per hour relative to the CMB radiation.  To get to this you have to separate two types of motion.  The motion within the influence of gravity which can not exceed the speed of light.  And, the motion in the influence of the expansion of space which can exceed the speed of light. 
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-  Astronomers have to subtract the motion of the Earth orbiting the Sun, and the Sun orbiting the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and the Milky Way Galaxy gravity pulled toward the galaxy cluster.  The motion that is left is the motion due to the expansion of space moving us 1,342,000 miles per hour relative to the Cosmic Microwave Background.
-
-  (2)  The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way Galaxy are gravity bound and moving towards each other at 673,318 miles per hour.  But, the space expanding between the two galaxies is expanding at the rate of 0.047 miles per hour per lightyear.
-
-  Andromeda should be moving away at 131,520 miles per hour due to expanding space.  At the same time gravity is pulling the galaxies together at 673,318 miles per hour.  So, is expanding space slowing this closure rate down? 
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-  No.  The 673,318 miles per hour closure rate is with the expanding space.  The idea here is that gravity is much, much stronger attraction than expansion’s repulsion.  Andromeda is like a race car coming towards us and the velocity of the wind is blowing it backwards. 
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-  The velocity of the wind does not subtract from the velocity of the car.  The velocity of the wind has almost no affect.  The only way the repulsive force would be a factor is if the galaxies were much, much farther apart.  Gravity would be much, much weaker and a balancing point exists beyond which space expansion and repulsion would take over as the stronger force.
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-  So you live in an expanding Universe.  You will probably never notice it if you were not paying attention to this Review.  Now you know. 
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-  Also see reviews:
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-  2212  -  How the Universe began?   In 1980 the theory of Inflation was put forth by Alan Guth to explain the uniformity and isotropic nature of the Universe today.  In order for the Universe to be uniform when looking 13.8 billion light years in one direction and the same 13.8 billion light years in he opposite direction the universe must have expanded faster than the speed of light. 
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-  2144   - Cosmic Inflation is a theory to help astronomers explain the observations they have of the Universe.  The theory is that the Universe expanded faster than the speed of light very early in its evolution.  Galaxies began forming 600,000,000 years after the Big Bang and clusters of galaxies at 3,000,000,000 years after.  Our solar system and Earth started forming at 9,100,000,000 years after ( 4,600,000,000 years ago). 
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-  July 28, 2020                                849                                             2780           
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-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
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 ---------------------   Tuesday, July 28, 2020  -------------------------
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PLANCK - microwave background radiation

-  2779  -  PLANCK  -  microwave background radiation.  The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)  observed by the Planck satellite is a snapshot of the oldest light in our Universe.  It was imprinted on the sky when the Universe was just 380,000 years old. The imprint shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure that being the stars and galaxies of today.

---------------------  2779  -  PLANCK  -  microwave background radiation
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-  The Planck satellite launched in 2009 and completed its mission 4.5 years later in 2013. Data from the Planck satellite challenges our understanding of the Universe, suggesting that the Universe may be different on scales larger than those we can directly observe.
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-  Planck refines our knowledge of the Universe’s composition and evolution.
New maps provide excellent evidence for our standard model of cosmology
Planck dates the Universe at 13.82 billion years old
-
-  Most accurate values for the ingredients of the Universe puts normal matter contributing just 4.9% of the mass/energy density of the Universe and dark matter making up 26.8% which is nearly a fifth more than the previous estimate.
-
-  The first all-sky picture of the oldest light in our Universe, imprinted on the sky when it was just 380,000 years old is a cosmic microwave background radiation.   The CMB shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities at very early times, representing the seeds of all future structure that is  the stars and galaxies of today.
-
-  Planck’s measured power spectrum of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background shows the temperature fluctuations at different angular scales on the sky.
-
-   At angular scales larger than six degrees, there is one data point that falls well outside the range of allowed models. These anomalies in the cosmic microwave background pattern challenge the very foundations of cosmology, suggesting that some aspects of the standard model of cosmology may need a rethink.
-
-   Planck is helping us place the vital pieces of a jigsaw that could give us a full picture of the evolution of our Universe, rewriting the textbooks along the way.  The CMB temperature fluctuations detected by Planck confirm once more that the relatively simple picture provided by the standard model is an amazingly good description of the Universe. The properties of the hot and cold regions of the map provide information about the composition and evolution of the Universe.
-
-  Normal matter that makes up stars and galaxies contributes just 4.9% of the mass/energy density of the Universe. Dark matter, which has thus far only been detected indirectly by its gravitational influence, makes up 26.8%, nearly a fifth more than the previous estimate. Conversely, dark energy, a mysterious force thought to be responsible for accelerating the expansion of the Universe, accounts for slightly less than previously thought, at around 69%.
-
-  The Planck data also set a new value for the rate at which the Universe is expanding today, known as the Hubble constant. At 67.3 kilometers / sec / Megaparsec.  This equivalent to 49,300 miles per hour per million light years of distance.  it is significantly different from the value measured from relatively nearby galaxies. This somewhat slower expansion implies that the Universe is also a little older than previously thought, at 13.8 billion years.
-
-  The analysis also gives strong support for theories of “inflation”, a very brief but crucial early phase during the first tiny fraction of a second of the Universe’s existence. As well as explaining many properties of the Universe as a whole, this initial expansion caused the ripples in the CMB that we see today.
-
-  This high resolution of Planck’s map confirms that the tiny variations in the density of the early Universe match those predicted by inflation.
-
-  Because the precision of Planck’s map is so high, it also reveals some peculiar unexplained features that may well require new physics to be understood. Amongst the most surprising findings are that the fluctuations in the CMB over large scales do not exactly match those predicted by the standard model.
-
-  This anomaly adds to those observed by previous experiments, and confirmed by Planck, including an asymmetry in the average temperatures on opposite hemispheres of the sky, and a cold spot that extends over a patch of sky that is much larger than expected.
-
-  One way to explain the anomalies is to propose that the Universe is in fact not the same in all directions on a larger scale than we can observe. In this scenario, the light rays from the CMB may have taken a more complicated route through the Universe than previously understood, resulting in some of the unusual patterns observed today.
-
-  This new research from the Planck Mission is refining what we know about our universe, making more precise measurements of matter, including dark matter, and how it is clumped together.
-
-  One cosmic property appears to have changed with this new batch of data, the length of time in which our universe remained in darkness during its infant stages. A preliminary analysis of the Planck data suggests that this epoch, a period known as the “Dark Ages” that took place before the first stars and other objects ignited, lasted more than 100 million years or so longer than thought.
-
-  Specifically, the Dark Ages ended 550 million years after the Big Bang that created our universe, later than previous estimates by other telescopes of 300 to 400 million years. Research is ongoing to confirm this finding.
-
-  The Planck data supports the idea that the mysterious force known as Dark Energy is acting against gravity to push our universe apart at ever-increasing speeds.
-
-  The new Planck catalog of images now has more than 1,500 clusters of galaxies observed throughout the universe, the largest catalog of this type ever made.  These galaxy clusters act as beacons at the crossroads of huge filamentary structures in a cosmic web. They help scientists trace our recent cosmic evolution.
-
-  A new analysis of more than 400 of these galaxy clusters gives us a new look at their masses, which range between 100 to 1,000 times that of our Milky Way galaxy. In one of the first-of-its-kind efforts, they have resolved the cluster masses by observing how the clusters bend background microwave light. The results narrow in on the overall mass of hundreds of clusters.  This is a huge step forward in better understanding dark matter and dark energy.
-
-   Planck captured ancient light that has traveled billions of years to reach us. This light originated during a time when the flame of our universe cooled enough that light was no longer impeded by charged particles and could travel freely.
-
-  Planck’s splotchy maps of this light show where matter had just begun to clump together into the seeds of the galaxies we see around us today. By analyzing the patterns of clumps, scientists can learn how conditions even earlier in the universe, just moments after its birth, set the clumping process in motion.
-
-   The scientists can study how the ancient light has changed during its long journey to reach us, learning about the entire history of the cosmos.
-
- A big challenge for Planck scientists is sifting through all the long-wavelength light in our universe to pick out the signature from just the ancient cosmic microwave background.  Much of our galaxy gives off light of the same wavelength, blocking our view of the relic radiation.
-
-  But, what might be one scientist’s trash is another’s treasure. Light generated from within our galaxy, the same light subtracted from the ancient signal, comes to life gloriously in the new image. Gas, dust and magnetic field lines make up a frenzy of activity that shapes how stars form.
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-  The more we can see the more e can learn.
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---------------------------------  Other reviews available;
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-  2745  -  PLANCK  -   satellite measures an expanding universe?  Astronomers using X-ray data from these orbiting observatories studied hundreds of galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the universe held together by gravity, and how their apparent properties differ across the sky.
-
-   This new discovery flies in the face of one of the pillars of cosmology, the study of the history and fate of the entire universe.  Cosmology up to now maintained that the universe is ‘isotropic,’ meaning the same in all directions.
-
-  This previous Review 2745 lists 7 more reviews about Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
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-  July 25, 2020                                                                                  2779             
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--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------
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 ---------------------   Monday, July 27, 2020  -------------------------
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INFRARED ASTRONOMY - new discoveries from an airplane.

-  2778 -  INFRARED  ASTRONOMY  -  new discoveries from an airplane.   Ten years ago, NASA’s telescope on an airplane, the “Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy“, or SOFIA, became operational. Since May, 2010, SOFIA’s observations of infrared light, invisible to the human eye, have made many scientific discoveries about the hidden universe.
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----  2778  -  INFRARED  ASTRONOMY  -  new discoveries from an airplane.
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-  SOFIA’s “first light,” in the infrared,  observed heat pouring out of Jupiter’s interior through holes in the clouds.  Next it peered through the dense dust clouds of the Messier 82 galaxy to catch a glimpse of tens of thousands of stars forming. The observatory was declared fully operational in 2014, but , it began making discoveries even while completing the testing of its instruments and telescope.
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-  The modified Boeing 747SP flies a nearly 9-foot diameter telescope up to 45,000 feet in altitude, above 99% of the Earth's water vapor to get a clear view of the infrared universe not observable by ground-based telescopes.
-
-   Its mobility allows it to capture transitory events in astronomy over remote locations like the open ocean. Because SOFIA lands after each flight, it can be upgraded with the latest technology to respond to some of our most pressing questions in science.
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-  Scientists detected the universe’s first type of molecule in space, unveiled new details about the birth and death of stars and planets, and explained what’s powering supermassive black holes, and how galaxies evolve and take shape, among other discoveries. Here are some of SOFIA’s top discoveries of the last decade:
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-  SOFIA found the first type of molecule to form in the universe, called helium hydride. It was first formed only 100,000 years after the Big Bang as the first step in cosmic evolution that eventually led to the complex universe we know today.
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-  The same kind of molecule should be present in parts of the modern universe, but it had never been detected outside of a laboratory until SOFIA found it in a planetary nebula. Finding it in the modern universe confirms a key part of our basic understanding
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-  The stellar wind from a newborn star in the Orion Nebula is preventing more new stars from forming nearby as it clears a bubble around it. Astronomers call these effects “feedback,” and they are key to understanding the stars we see today and those that may form in the future. Until this discovery, scientists thought that other processes, such as explo 
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-  SOFIA found that the wind flowing from the center of the Cigar Galaxy (M82) is aligned along a magnetic field and transports a huge amount of material. Magnetic fields are usually parallel to the plane of the galaxy, but the wind is dragging it so it’s perpendicular.
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-  The powerful wind, driven by the galaxy's high rate of star birth, could be one of the mechanisms for material to escape the galaxy. Similar processes in the early universe would have affected the fundamental evolution of the first galaxies.
-
-  The planetary system around the star Epsilon Eridani is the closest planetary system around a star similar to the early Sun. SOFIA studied the infrared glow from the warm dust, confirming that the system has an architecture remarkably similar to our solar system. Its mat
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-  Magnetic fields in the Cygnus A galaxy are feeding material into the galaxy’s central black hole. SOFIA revealed that the invisible forces are trapping material close to the center of the galaxy where it is close enough the be devoured by the hungry black hole. At the same time these magnetic fields in other galaxies may be preventing black holes from consuming material.
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-   SOFIA detected magnetic fields, known as streamlines, that may be channeling the gas into an orbit around the black hole, rather than directly into it. This may explain why our galaxy’s black hole is relatively quiet, while those in other galaxies are actively consuming material.
-
-  “Kitchen Smoke” Molecules in Nebula Offer Clues to Building Blocks of Life
SOFIA found that the organic, complex molecules in the nebula evolve into larger, more complex molecules when hit with radiation from nearby stars.
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-  Researchers were surprised to find that the radiation helped these molecules grow instead of destroying them. The growth of these molecules is one of the steps that could lead to the emergence of life under the right circumstances.
-
-  SOFIA discovered that a supernova explosion can produce a substantial amount of the material from which planets like Earth can form. Infrared observations of a cloud produced by a supernova 10,000 years ago contains enough dust to make 7,000 Earths.
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-  A supernova’s  powerful blast wave passes through its outer ring before a subsequent inward shock rebounds. SOFIA found the material produced from first outward wave can survive the second inward wave and can become seed material for new stars and planets.
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-  SOFIA captured an extremely crisp infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Spanning a distance of more than 600 light-years, this panorama reveals details within the dense swirls of gas and dust in high resolution, opening the door to future research into how massive stars are forming and what’s feeding the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s core.
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-  What Happens When Exoplanets Collide?  A double-star system that is more than 300 light years from Earth likely had an extreme collision between rocky exoplanets. A decade ago, observations of this system gave the first hints of a collision when they found debris that was warmer than expected to be around mature stars that are at least one billion years old.
-
-   SOFIA’s observations discovered the infrared brightness from the debris has increased by more than 10%,  a sign that there is now even more warm dust and that a collision occurred relatively recently. A similar event in our own solar system may have formed our Moon.
-
-   Ten years ago, scientists speculated that the warm dust in this system was a result of a planet-to-planet collision. Now, SOFIA found even more warm dust, further supporting that two rocky exoplanets collided. This helps build a more complete picture of our own solar system’s history. Such a collision could be similar to the type of catastrophic event that ultimately created our Moon.
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-  July 21, 2020                                                                                    2778           
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-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------
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 ---------------------   Saturday, July 25, 2020  -------------------------
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EYE - a prosthetic eye for artificial vision?

-  2777  -  EYE  -  a prosthetic eye for artificial vision? -  In 2005 a medical team invented a prosthetic eye, artificial vision, for the blind.  Many people are blind due to a medical condition where the eye has deteriorated photo sensors in the back of the retina.   In 2020 bionic eye technology is in its infancy but it will do more than prosthetic eyes.  Bionic eye implants work inside the existing eye structures or in the brain. They are designed to achieve functional vision.
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--------------------------  2777  -  EYE  -  a prosthetic eye for artificial vision?
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-  This Review covers the development of artificial vision for the blind that will someday be artificial eyesight for robots.  From 2005 to 2020 we are fast approaching the vision where robots have vision much like humans.  What next?
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-  In 2005 a prosthetic eye, artificial vision, was deigned tp bring vision to the blind.  In 2005,  30 million people were blind with a medical condition where the eye has deteriorated photo sensors in the back of the retina.  The cones and rods are dead, even though the neuron cells are working fine and can send signals to the brain, the photo detectors are gone, so no signal gets started.  There is no cure for this disease.
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-  In 2005 we have an ear implant that provides hearing for the deaf.  There have been over 50,000 implants by 2005.  A wire of electrodes is inserted into the ear’s spiral cochlear canal.  The wire and a wireless radio are implanted under the skin behind the ear.
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-   A radio receiver is mounted on the outside of the skin behind the ear.  The microphone picks up the sounds, amplifies them and sends them into the electrodes implanted in the ear.  The person’s brain learns how to make sense out of what she hears.  Its amazing.
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-  The Stanford medical team thinks they can do the same thing for the blind with their prosthetic eye.  There are 1,100,000 blind people in the United States.
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-   Stanford has installed the device in rats and pigs. The  process implants electrodes on the retina at the back of the eye.  It uses the neurons in the eye and the optic nerve to send signals to the brain.
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-   A German team, the Dobelle Group,  had a different approach.  They implant the electrodes directly on the back of the brain, the visual cortex.  They implant inside the skull.
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-  Another approach is being tried where there is a bed of nails approach.  They pound these spikes of electrodes through the back of the skull.  But in 2005, 19 people already had his operation.  One person had been seeing with it for 12 years.
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-   One of their patients was driving a car with this device.  The patient has a camera mounted in on eye goggles. He has a fanny pack of computer and power supply. He has a cable going to the back of his head that connects to 64 electrodes on a 3 x 3 centimeter plate implanted on the surface of his brain’s cortex.  And, he can see.  It’s amazing.
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-  What does he actually see?  The image processing detects edges, so he can see the frame of a door.  But cannot see smooth images.  He had to feel for the door handle on the car, for example.  He sees all shades of gray, no color.  He judges distance by the relative size of things since there is not parallax.  Yet, the brain can figure these senses out and the blind person can see.
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-  A healthy retina is 150 microns, or 150 micro meters, or 150*10^-6 meters, .0000015 centimeters thick.  It’s rods and cones photo detectors are equivalent to a 100 mega pixel digital camera.  The rods detect light gray  to dark gray, the cones detect red, green, and blue light.  The retina has 6% cones and 94% rods.  The 100,000,000 pixels image down to 1,000,000 axons that transmit the signals through the optic nerve to the visual cortex of the brain.
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-  The electrodes are photo-diodes that are implanted by the eye surgeon on the back of the eye.  The electrodes can not have much voltage or current or they will damage the eye.  So the electrodes must be very close to the neuron cells.
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-  To accomplish this the electrodes are mounted on pillars and chambers that are 10 microns diameter and 70 microns tall, remember the retina wall is 150 microns thick.  The cells migrate around the pillars and into the chambers just like a wound would heal.  This puts the electrodes at the proper depth in the retina wall to stimulate the proper cells.
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-  The damage threshold for the electrodes is 150 millivolts.  The stimulation threshold is 15 millivolts.   150 to 15 mv will give a dynamic range of 10 to 1, or 10 different shades of gray to the vision.   A 1 millisecond voltage pulse is used so as to not heat up the eye.  Every 7 milliwatts of electric energy will raise the temperature of the eve 1 degree centigrade.
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-  The electrode array of 18,000 pixels will give a 10 degree window of 20/80 vision acuity.  20/400 is legal blindness for driving in California.  20/20 is perfect vision.  The array has 2,500 pixels per square millimeter.  Each pixel is 20 microns diameter.  Each electrode is 10 microns in diameter.
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-  Once the photo detection is complete by this artificial means there is still a lot of image processing to be done.  The eye is constantly moving so it is scanning across different photo sensors all the time.
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-    The visual goggles used have infrared scanners that cause movement across the photodiodes to simulate the eye movement.  A photovoltaic power supply is mounted around the lens of the eye because the photodiodes need 1000 times more power to work than do the eyes healthy photo sensors.
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-   A bright day produces 1 microwatt per square millimeter on the eye.  The photo diodes need 1,000 microwatt to operate.  Remember 7,000 microwatts will raise the temperature of the eye 1 degree Centigrade.  So, the power to the photodiodes is kept at 1/10 that amount of power.
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-  The image processing is a long chain of interpretations starting at the retina, the neuron axons, the optic nerve and finally the brain itself.  A great deal of this product is the software that simulates the brains interpretation as naturally as possible.
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-  Stanford hopes to have human patients with this prosthetic eye in 2006.
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-  In 2020 there were nearly 40 million people suffering from blindness worldwide and another 124 million affected by low vision.
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-  Bionic eye scientists have one common goal to develop technology that's as effective for visual disabilities as cochlear implants have become for auditory ones.  In 2020 bionic eye technology is still in its infancy compared with cochlear implants for hearing loss.
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-  Several bionic eye implants are in development with one is available in the United States that is suitable only for blindness caused by specific eye diseases.
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-  Bionic eyes do more than prosthetic eyes.  Bionic eye implants work inside the existing eye structures or in the brain. They are designed to achieve functional vision goals.
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-  The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System consists of a tiny eyeglasses-mounted camera and a transmitter that wirelessly sends signals to an electrode array that is implanted onto the damaged retina of a blind person.
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-  Just as there is no single cause for blindness, there's likewise no one cure. To determine whether a bionic eye could help you see, it's important to know the reason for your vision loss.
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-  The process of sight begins when light enters the eye. The cornea and lens focus light onto the retina at the back of the eyeball. Light-sensitive cells in the retina then convert the focused light into electrical energy, which is transported to the brain via the optic nerve.
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-  In blind people, part of this process doesn't work. In some cases, the cornea or lens are damaged or diseased, or the retina can't perceive light. In others, the signal is lost somewhere along the visual pathway in the brain.
-
-  Different bionic eye models take aim at different target areas in the visual pathway. Currently, retinal implants are the only approved and commercially available bionic eyes, though cornea transplants and cataract surgery can replace the cornea and lens if these structures are clouded or are incapable of focusing light for other reasons.
-
- The FDA has approved just one commercially available bionic eye system. The device, called the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, was developed by a California-based company called Second Sight.
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-  The Argus II has been used to restore some level of visual perception to hundreds of individuals with severe retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that affects one in 5,000 people. The Argus II also is being tested for people with a much more common condition, age-related macular degeneration.
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- It is a two-part system that includes a small camera that is mounted on a pair of eyeglasses and a tiny array of electrodes that is implanted in the back of the eye, on the retina.
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-  Whatever the camera sees is converted into signals that are transmitted wirelessly to the retinal implant. In response, the chip's electrodes stimulate the retinal cells, causing them to send the incoming information to the optic nerve so it can be processed by the brain.
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-   Although this system enables people to discern light, movement and shapes, it does not yet restore sight to the extent some might hope. This limitation is largely due to the fact that the current implant has only 60 electrodes. To see naturally, you'd need about a million electrodes.
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-  However,  users can function well enough to read large-print books and cross the street on their own. And the company plans to add more electrodes in future models.
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-  Another limitation is that it doesn't enable users to perceive colors.  Future iterations will likely feature advanced implants with higher numbers of electrodes that are capable of producing sharper, more functional vision for people who are blind from retinitis pigmentosa and other retinal diseases, including macular degeneration. It's possible future implants may also be able to produce some degree of color vision.
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-  Researchers in 2020 are testing devices with even more electrodes, as well as devices that bypass the retina and stimulate the brain directly.  Teaching the blind to see.  Robots will soon be next to be able to operate on their own with vision feedback just like us.  Let’s hope they don’t learn to overpower us.
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-  July 20, 2020                         566                                                     2777           
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-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------
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 ---------------------   Tuesday, July 21, 2020  -------------------------
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Magnetism – from Atoms to Stars

-  2341  -  Magnetism is one manifestation of the electromagnetic force, which is one of the four forces known in the universe.  All material that we know of is magnetic at some level. The electrons spin about the atom and the electrons themselves spin so that each atom becomes a tiny atomic magnet.  To go from the smallest to the very largest magnetic fields we need to go from atoms to stars. 

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-----------------------------  2341  -  Magnetism – from Atoms to Stars
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-  Magnetism is one manifestation of the electromagnetic force, which is one of the four forces known in the universe.  Light is another manifestation of electromagnetic energy that propagates through space with electric waves and magnetic waves switching back and forth at right angles to each other, traveling through space at a constant speed of 670,633,500 miles per hour.
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-   The speed at which the electromagnetic waves switch back and forth determines how we observe the energy.  If this speed, or frequency, is faster than light wave frequencies than we observe ultraviolet, x-ray, then gamma ray energy.
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-   If the switching speed is slower than we observe microwaves, and radio waves. The frequency is how fast the energy is switching through time.  The electromagnetic wave’s speed through Space is constant, 300,000,000 meters / second. 
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-  The frequency of yellow light is 500,000,000,000 switches / second.  The frequency of radio is 300,000,000 switches / second.
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-  In 1831 Michael Faraday first showed the relationship between magnetic and electric energy.  Faraday demonstrated that a bar magnetic passed through a coil of wire generated an electric current in the wire.  Motion through space, with the magnetic lines of force cutting across the wire set up the electric current. 
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-  The motionless magnet has no electric affect.  In reverse, the coil of wire around an iron core can create a magnetic field, as long as the electrons are in motion as current through the wire.
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-  But, what about a stationary permanent magnetic that has a magnetic field without any electric current or motion involved?  There are still electrons in motion. Magnetism is a property of the atom itself.
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-  In that sense all material that we know of is magnetic at some level. The electrons spin about the atom and the electrons themselves spin so that each atom becomes a tiny atomic magnet.
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-  In most materials these atomic magnets are oriented in random directions and there is no net magnetic affect that we can easily detect.  However, some materials such as iron and nickel have the capacity to orient their atomic structure in such a way that the poles of the tiny magnets are lined up in the same direction.
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-  Permeability is the measure of magnetic strength of material.  A vacuum is given a permeability of 1.00.  Ordinary material with weak magnetic properties may have a permeability of 1.01.
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------------------------------------------  Permeability:
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---------------------------------------      Iron        =  1000
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---------------------------------------      Nickel =  40
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---------------------------------------      Cobalt  =  55
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-  In these stronger magnetic substances there are magnetic domains 0.001 to 0.1 centimeters in diameter where the tiny atomic magnets are oriented in the same direction reinforcing each other and creating an overall strong magnetic field.
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-  Because the Earth has an iron core it was once thought that the Earth was a giant permanent magnetic because of the magnetic field that completely surrounds the Earth.
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-  The Earth has an iron core but it cannot be a permanent magnetic because it is molten and iron loses its strong magnetic properties at 1033 degrees Kelvin. The higher temperatures and vibrating atoms destroys the magnetic domains.   The Earth’s core is 6500 degrees Kelvin  ( For example, the Sun’s surface is 5,800 degrees Kelvin ).
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-  However, the Earth’s core is in two parts, an inner solid core and an outer molten core.  The inner core is iron and nickel, while the outer core is molten iron, nickel and sulfur.  These two cores do not rotate at the same speed.  The inner core rotates faster while the outer molten core is slowed down by friction of the mass and weight above it.
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-   It is this rotating metallic core that creates the magnetic field around the Earth.  The strength of the field is currently weakening.  It will continue to weaken and eventually it will reverse North-South polarity, then strengthen again.
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-   By studying the crystal alignment in rocks we can see that older rocks were magnetized in the direction opposite to Earth’s present magnetic field.  In fact, the Global Rift on the ocean floor shows magnetic reversals occurring every 50,000 to 20,000,000 years with the pattern on one side of the rift mirror-imaged on the other side.
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- The Earth has switched its polarity nine times over the past 4 million years. The last polarity switch occurred 780,000 years ago.  Since then the magnetic strength has weakened and strengthened several gauss fourteen times without a polarity reversal.  If we drill core samples out of the ocean sediment we can identify 171 polarity reversals during the last 78 million years.
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-  The smallest magnets are used in computer memory disks.  These disks have a metallic surface film that stores digital information in small magnetic domains.  These tiny regions of magnetic material can span only tens of atoms on an edge. 
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-  In the magnetic storage material, each atom acts as a minuscule bar magnetic due to the property of spin.  In the storage media of each magnetic domain, almost all of the atoms have the same one of two possible spin orientations.  These two possibilities serve as the ones and zeros of digital information.  The most advanced magnetic disks use magnetic domains comparable in size to a large virus, 200 nanometers by 10 nanometers in area (nanometer = 10^-9 meters).
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-  Theory is that magnetic domains smaller than 10 nanometers on a side will be unable to maintain their spin orientation to store these ones and zeros unless the media is chilled well below room temperature.
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-   Scientists have used Scanning Tunneling Microscopes to detect atomic spins in less than 10 nanometer wide domains.  These tiny domains were in ultrathin films of iron deposited on a tungsten backing cooled to 16 degrees Kelvin.  Scanning Tunneling Microscopes may someday serve as the reading head of future disk drives.
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-  To go from the smallest magnets to the largest we need to compare the relative strengths of magnetic fields using the unit of measurement for magnetic flux density, the gauss:
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-    Despite the fact that magnetic lines of force have no material existence, it is often convenient to picture them in a literal fashion in order to describe a magnetic field.  The strength of a magnetic field is described as the number of lines of force passing through an area of unit size.
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-  This is called the magnetic flux density.  The flux density measures how closely the lines of force are crowded together.  The more closely they crowd, the higher the flux density and the stronger the magnetic field at that point.  We define one line of force as one Maxwell. And, the unit of flux density as one Maxwell per square centimeter as one gauss.
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---------------------------------------------------------------  Gauss
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-----------  Weakest sustainable in the lab             0.00000000008
-----------  The brain’s magnetic field             0.00000002
-----------  Interstellar galactic space             0.000001
-----------  Produced by the human body 0.000003
-----------  Refrigerator 0.001
-----------  Electric lamp 0.01
-----------  Household wiring 0.1
-----------  The Milky Way 0.2
-----------  Earth’s field at the poles             0.6
-----------  Sun’s magnetic field 2.0
-----------  Jupiter’s magnetic field             4.3
-----------  TV set 5
-----------  Electric shaver 10
-----------  Hairdryer 25
-----------  Typical refrigerator magnet 100
-----------  Sunspots 3000
-----------  Largest man-made permanent magnet 50,000
-----------  Strongest sustainable in the lab           387,000
-----------  Strongest found in normal stars         1,000,000
-----------  Strongest for < second in lab       10,000,000
-----------  Magnetic white dwarf star      200,000,000
-----------  Surface of atomic nucleus 10,000,000,000
-----------  Normal neutron star        5,000,000,000,000
-----------  Magnetar neutron star 1,000,000,000,000,000      10^15 gauss
-----------  Strongest field possible in theory                                  10^53 gauss
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-  To go from the smallest to the very largest magnetic fields we need to go from atoms to stars.  The Magnetar produces the strongest magnetic fields known in the Universe.  It is a star that is 30 to 100 times the mass of our Sun.
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-  These massive stars do not live very long, 1 to 10 million years, before they burn all their hydrogen, then helium, then carbon, then oxygen, then silicon fuel.  The next fusion is iron and it cannot generate energy with further fusion. So, the outward pressure stops and the star collapses under the force of gravity.  The center of the star becomes so massive it collapses itself into a black hole.
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-  The material feeding the black hole forms a disk of high speed particles spinning at light speeds.  In 10 seconds after the collapse begins the spinning disk generates magnetically confined jets that explode out the poles of the star in cone shaped shock waves.  These concentrated energies aim magnetic fields in the two directions, ex: north and south.  The jets are only 2 to 5 degrees wide.
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-  As the shock waves blast through particles from the star gamma rays are produced.  As the jets slow down from plowing into interstellar material lower energy radiation is also produced in the form of x-ray, optical, and radio afterglow’s that last from minutes to months.
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-  Astronomers observe one of these events each day on average, coming from all directions in the Universe.  Because the beams are only two to five degrees wide that means there are 1000 bursts invisible to us because they are pointing in another direction.  Statistically that means we average 1500 supernova bursts of this magnitude occurring every day.
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-  The magnetic strength of a magnetar neutron star is powerful enough to rip at kitchen knife out of your hand from a distance that is half way to the moon.  Not only could it erase your credit cards, it could pull the iron out of your blood.
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-  We know that an asteroid struck Mexico 65 million years ago annihilating the dinosaurs that ruled the Earth at that time.  There was another devastating mass extinction at the end of the Ordovician period 440 million years ago.  During the Ordovician period all life on Earth was aquatic, and fossil records show that species living in deeper water fared better than shallow-water dwellers.
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-  One possible explanation is that a magnetar neutron star focused its radiation at Earth breaking apart the atmosphere molecules that protect us from the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation.  This would explain the death of creatures near the water’s surface.  The same phenomena could explain a similar mass extinction that occurred to start the Cambrian period 544 million years ago.
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-  Most of these gamma ray jets pass by unseen, but ocassionally one is pointed right at us, as if we were sitting at the end of a gun barrel.  Let’s hope the gun is not too close. 
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-  The metric unit of magnetism is named after Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss who was born in 1877 in Brunswick, Germany.  His father was a gardener and his mother a servant girl.  Johann was a genius in mathematics at a young age.  At three years old he could correct math mistakes and keep all sorts of numerical records in his head.
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-   He became one of the world’s three greatest mathematicians, Archimedes and Isaac Newton being the other two.  At age 22 he received his Ph D from Gottingen University.  As a student he calculated the orbit of the asteroid, Ceres, to allow it to be located after it was lost.  Johann also worked out the location of the planet Neptune to allow it to be discovered in 1846. 
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-  In 1842 he devised the set of units of measuring magnetism and the unit for magnetic flux density was eventually named the gauss.  His work with terrestrial magnetism allowed him to calculate the location of the magnetic poles on Earth, which proved to be remarkable accurate.
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-  Johann even constructed an electric telegraph in 1833, about the same time Joseph Henry invented the telegraph in the United States.
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-  April 24, 2019.                                                                                32
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---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------
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 ---------------------   Sunday, July 19, 2020  -------------------------
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MARS - 4th rock from the sun.

-  2776  -  MARS - 4th rock from the sun.   Mars is the forth rock from the Sun and is the easiest planet for us to get to.  Since 2007 we have 3 satellites orbiting Mars and 2 robots roving around the surface.  The robots take pictures and run tests on the soil sending the data up to the satellite overhead to be relayed back to Earth. 
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--------------------------  2776 -  MARS  -  4th rock from the sun. 
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-  In 2020, see Review 2774,  “MARS  -  the first helicopter flight?”    This review is about the helicopter that is hitching a ride and will deploy when Perseverance / Rover lands on the planet in February, 2021.
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-   Review 2772  -  “MARS  -  several steps to Perseverance“.  The Mars Perseverance rover mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The Mars Perseverance mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key questions about the potential for life on Mars. 
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-  Review 2760  -  “MARS  -  Perseverance Rover in 2020 launch?”  The mission is timed for a launch opportunity in August 2020 when Earth and Mars are in good positions relative to each other for landing on Mars. It takes less power to travel to Mars at this time, compared to other times when Earth and Mars are in different positions in their orbits.   This Review lists 7 more reviews about Mars.
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-  In 2007, one of the Rovers, named Opportunity, descended into a deep crater, named Victoria Crater, to observe a bright band of rock about 40 feet down.   Astronomers believe this rock may represent an ancient surface of Mars and analysis might tell them more about what the early climate was like.
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-  Mars is a cold, dry desert with frequent dust storms and high winds.  About 2 months ago a big dust storm covered the rover’s solar cells and it had to go into hibernation so as not to run down its battery.  Fortunately, the wind later blew most of the dust off the solar cells and Opportunity is back to 325 watts of power, and back on mission.
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-  When the rovers landed on the surface of Mars it was a nice day, 70 F.  Shirt sleeve weather.  But that was a high temperature for Mars that has an average of -114 F and a low of - 220 F.  At those temperatures we would immediately freeze our fingers, toes and eyeballs. 
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-  Worse than that we could not breath Mar’s atmosphere because it is so thin.  Only 0.6% the density of Earth’s atmosphere.  That is not enough air pressure for our lungs to work.
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-  And, then there is no magnetic field on Mars to deflect the Solar Wind from the surface.  Visitors need protection from this radiation.  The Solar Wind is also responsible for blasting the atmosphere away.
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-  Mars is smaller than Earth and has lower gravity.  Because it is smaller it cooled down quicker than Earth and it no longer has a molten iron core to create a magnetic field for the planet.
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-  The atmosphere is so thin that any water has evaporated and left the atmosphere for outer space.  However, there is still water ice at the poles which are in continuous darkness,  and possibly there is water under the surface at lower latitudes. 
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-  In fact, there is enough ice on the poles that if it melted it could cover the entire planet 36 feet deep.  Of course, if it melted it would soon evaporate into the thin atmosphere and be lost forever.  Some of the minerals that the Rovers have analyzed indicate that they were formed in the presence of water.
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-  Mars has some amazing features.  It has the highest mountain, 16 miles high.  Mount Everest is only 5.5 miles high.  It has the largest canyon in the Solar System.  2,480 miles long and 4.35 miles deep.  Our Grand Canyon is 277 miles long and 1.24 miles deep. 
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-  Mars is ½ the radius of Earth, but only 1/10th the mass.  Its entire surface area is about the land mass surface area of Earth.  The planet is red in color because much of its surface is covered in iron oxide, that is rust.
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-    The volcanoes on Mars have been inactive for millions of years.  The lava planes were created 1,800,000 years ago.  Plate tectonics stopped 4,000,000,000 years ago.  There are over 43,000 craters on Mars that are over 3 miles wide.
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-  Mars has two moons that are orbiting straight over the equator, orbiting in perfect circles.  Astronomers believe they originated as captured asteroids.  Their names are Deimos and Phoebes.
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-  Mars has an eccentric elliptical orbit that takes 687 days to orbit the Sun.  It has a 24 hour day and a seasonal tilt of 25 degrees.  The closest it gets to Earth is 0.37 AU, 34,400,000 miles.  Starting November 2007 to January 2008 Mars will appear to be moving backwards in the night sky, moving from Gemini to Taurus.
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-   Google Mars at http://www.google.com/mars/   It is totally amazing and let your imagination go.  Imagine having a remote control model car with a video camera on it.  Now, instead of operating your model car in the cul de sac, imagine you are operating it on Mars.  See Review 2774 to learn about the first helicopter flight on Mars.
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---------------------------  Other Reviews about visits to Mars
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-  2608  -  MARS  -  cosmic rays seen on Mars?   NASA is using the ‘InSight lander” to look for meteors on Mars.  From a glance at the images, the search seems straightforward.  But, the images show mostly ghosts, the invisible made visible and the visible drowned out amid the illusions.  Here is a summary of the data from sky watching on Mars.
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-  2276  -  Mars is our forth terrestrial planet from the Sun. See Review 2275 for the current information on the latest missions and what we learned.  This review is some of the earlier history and the math used to learn before our space ships could get there.
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-  2275  -  After 15 years, the mission of NASA's Opportunity rover has come to an end, but its successes on Mars have earned it a spot in the robot hall of fame.   The Mars Exploration Rovers mission featured two identical, golf-cart-sized, solar-powered rovers named Spirit and Opportunity. Spirit landed on Jan. 4, 2004. Opportunity landed on the opposite side of Mars on Jan. 24, 2004.
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- 1905  -  Mars Explorations.  Over 40 missions have been sent to Mars.  20 were successful in studying the Red Planet.  This year the missions will get closer to the answer” “ Is there evidence of life on Mars? “
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- 1877  -  What can we earn from Oxygen?  Burn some in your brain and see if you can learn where oxygen came from.  Can we find some of this life giving oxygen on Mars?
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-  1860  -  Discoveries are coming fast in astronomy.  Space missions to Mars and Ceres collect enough data to keep astronomers working for decades.
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-  July 18, 2020                                            827                                 2776             
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-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com ----- 
--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------
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 ---------------------   Saturday, July 18, 2020  -------------------------
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LIGHT - why the constant speed?

-  2775 -  LIGHT -  why the constant speed?  The speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second.  But why does it have the value that it does? Why isn't it some other number? And why do we care so much about some random speed of electromagnetic waves? Why did it become such a cornerstone of physics?
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--------------------------  2775 - LIGHT -  why the constant speed?
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-  The first person to realize that light does indeed have a speed at all was an astronomer by the name of Ole Romer. In the late 1600s, he was obsessed with some strange motions of the moon Io around Jupiter.
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-   Every once in a while, the great planet would block our view of its little moon, causing an eclipse, but the timing between eclipses seemed to change over the course of the year. Either something funky was happening with the orbit of Io.
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-  After a couple years of observations, Romer made the connection. When we see Io get eclipsed, we're in a certain position in our own orbit around the sun. But by the next time we see another eclipse, a few days later, we're in a slightly different position, maybe closer or farther away from Jupiter than the last time.
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-  If we are farther away than the last time we saw an eclipse, then that means we have to wait a little bit of extra time to see the next one because it takes that much longer for the light to reach us, and the reverse is true if we happen to be a little bit closer to Jupiter.  The only way to explain the variations in the timing of eclipses of Io is if light has a finite speed.
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-  Continued measurements over the course of the next few centuries solidified the measurement of the speed of light, but it wasn't until the mid 1800s when things really started to come together. That's when the physicist James Clerk Maxwell accidentally invented light.
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-  Maxwell had been playing around with the then-poorly-understood phenomena of electricity and magnetism when he discovered a single unified picture that could explain all the disparate observations.
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-   Laying the groundwork for what we now understand to be the electromagnetic force, in those equations he discovered that changing electric fields can create magnetic fields, and changing magnetic fields can create electric fields.
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-  This allows waves of electricity to create waves of magnetism, which go on to make waves of electricity and back and forth and back and forth, leapfrogging over each other, capable of traveling through space.
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-  When he went to calculate the speed of these so-called electromagnetic waves, Maxwell got the same number that scientists had been measuring as the speed of light for centuries. He then concluded that light is made of electromagnetic waves and it travels at that speed, because that is exactly how quickly waves of electricity and magnetism travel through space.
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-  Einstein came along a few decades later and realized that the speed of light had nothing to do with light at all. With his special theory of relativity, Einstein realized the true connection between time and space, a unified fabric known as space-time.
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-   But as we all know, space is very different than time. A meter or a foot is very different than a second or a year. They appear to be two completely different things.  So how could they possibly be connected?
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-  There needed to be some sort of glue, some connection that allowed us to translate between movement in space and movement in time.  We need to know how much one meter of space, for example, is worth in time. What's the exchange rate? Einstein found that there was a single constant, a certain speed, that could tell us how much space was equivalent to how much time, and how much time was equivalent to how much space?
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-  Einstein's theories didn't say what that number was, but then he applied special relativity to the old equations of Maxwell and found that this conversion rate is exactly the speed of light.
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-  This conversion rate, this fundamental constant that unifies space and time, doesn't know what an electromagnetic wave is, and it doesn't even really care. It's just some number, but it turns out that Maxwell had already calculated this number and discovered it without even knowing it.
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-  That's because all massless particles are able to travel at this speed, and since light is massless, it can travel at that speed. The speed of light became an important cornerstone of modern physics.
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-  But still, why that number, with that value, and not some other random number? Why did nature pick that one and no other? What's going on?  Well, the number doesn't really matter. It has units after all: meters per second.
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-  In physics any number that has units attached to it can have any old value it wants, because it means you have to define what the units are.
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-  For example, in order to express the speed of light in meters per second, first you need to decide what a meter is and what  a second is. And so the definition of the speed of light is tied up with the definitions of length and time.

-  In physics, we're more concerned with constants that have no units or dimensions.  That is constants that appear in our physical theories that are just plain numbers.
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-  These appear much more fundamental, because they don't depend on any other definition. Another way of saying it is that, if we were to meet some alien civilization, we would have no way of understanding their measurement of the speed of light, but when it comes to dimensionless constants, we can all agree. They're just numbers.
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-  One such number is known as the “fine structure constant“, which is a combination of the speed of light, Planck's constant, and something known as the permittivity of free space. Its value is approximately 0.007.
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-  0.007 of what? Just 0.007. It's just a number.
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-  So on one hand, the speed of light can be whatever it wants to be, because it has units and we need to define the units. But on the other hand, the speed of light can't be anything other than exactly what it is, because if you were to change the speed of light, you would change the fine structure constant.
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-  But our universe has chosen the fine structure constant to be approximately 0.007, and nothing else. That is simply the universe we live in, and we get no choice about it at all. And since this is fixed and universal, the speed of light has to be exactly what it is.
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-  Why is the fine structure constant exactly the number that it is, and not something else? We don't know.  See several other Reviews about the Find Structure Constant and ow it got defined.  Interesting huh?
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----------------------------------   Other Reviews about light:
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-  2751  - LIGHT  -   Interferometers? The light wave interferometer is one of the most accurate instruments known.  The new comb generators will make them more accurate then today’s atomic clocks.  Light interferometers and atom interferometers are ultra-precise measurements that will be used to discover many new things. 
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-  This Review lists eleven more reviews about Light:
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-  July 16, 2020                                                                                    2775           
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-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com ----- 
--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------
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 ---------------------   Saturday, July 18, 2020  -------------------------
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