Supernova 2014J has brightened to 11th magnitude in M82 off the Big Dipper. It's visible in amateur telescopes during evening.
A surprise supernova has erupted in M82, the famous nearby irregular galaxy in Ursa Major. Observers are reporting it at about magnitude 11.3 as of Thursday, January 23rd, with a color on the orange side of white.
The supernova in M82 as imaged by Leonid Elenin (Lyubertsy, Russia) and I. Molotov (Moscow, Russia) on Jan. 22.396. It's located at right ascension 9h 55m 42.2s, declination +69° 40′ 26″. It was V magnitude 11.7 at the time. Image by Leonid Elenin. (Click Image To Enlarge)
A spectrum reported by Yi Cao and colleagues (Caltech) suggests that it may still be two weeks away from reaching its peak brightness. Spectra show it to be a Type Ia supernova — an exploded white dwarf — with debris expanding at 20,000 kilometers per second. It is reddened, and hence must also be dimmed, by dust in M82 along our line of sight.
The M81 Supernova before and after images (Click Image To Enlarge)
M82 is a near neighbor as galaxies go, at a distance of 11 or 12 million light-years. It's a favorite for amateur astronomers and researchers alike, with its thick dust bands, sprays of gas, and bright center undergoing massive star formation. The supernova is not in the central star-forming region but off to one side, 58 arcseconds to the west-southwest.
Remarkably, the supernova went undiscovered for a week as it brightened. Prediscovery unfiltered CCD images by K. Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan, show nothing at its location to as faint as magnitude 17.0 through January 14.5. But on January 15.57 is was magnitude 14.4; on January 16.64 it was 13.9; on January 17.61, 13.3; January 19.62, 12.2; and January 20.62, 11.9. Images.
This is the starburst galaxy M82 imaged by Hubble in 2006, with approximate location of the #supernova noted. (Click Image To Enlarge)
M82 is well up in the northeastern sky by 7 or 8 p.m. (for observers at mid-northern latitudes). The waning Moon doesn't rise until much later.
The new point of light received the name Supernova 2014J once its nature was confirmed. It originally went by the preliminary designation PSN J09554214+6940260.
Animation of the M81 Supernova. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Here's acomparison-star chart from the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). North is up, east is left, the chart is 1° wide, and stars are plotted to magnitude 13.5. If you want other parameters, or if the link fails, make your own chart using the AAVSO Variable Star Plotter. For the star name enter SN 2014J. The chart does not plot the galaxy.
The location of the M82 galaxy where the supernova occured is located near M81 just above the Big Dipper facing north. (Click Image To Enlarge)
A Flukey Find
The first people to recognize the supernova were a group of students — Ben Cooke, Tom Wright, Matthew Wilde and Guy Pollack, assisted by teaching fellow Stephen J. Fossey — taking a quick image at the University College London Observatory (within the London city limits!) on the evening of January 21st, at 19:20 UT.
"The discovery was a fluke, a 10-minute telescope workshop for undergraduate students that led to a global scramble to acquire confirming images and spectra."
Fossey says.
'The weather was closing in, with increasing cloud, so instead of the planned practical astronomy class, I gave the students an introductory demonstration of how to use the CCD camera on one of the observatory’s automated 0.35-meter telescopes. The students chose M82, a bright and photogenic galaxy, as their target, as it was in one of the shrinking patches of clear sky. While adjusting the telescope’s position, Fossey noticed a star overlaid on the galaxy which he did not recognise from previous observations. They inspected online archive images of the galaxy, and it became apparent that there was indeed a new starlike object in M82. With clouds closing in, they switched to taking a rapid series of 1- and 2-minute exposures through different colour filters to check that the object persisted, and to be able to measure its brightness and colour."
The original press release, and the BBC repeating it, claimed that this is the nearest supernova since Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. In fact SN 1993J in M81 was at essentially the same distance within the uncertainties, and two subsequent supernovae, SN 2004am and SN 2008iz (an obscured radio supernova), occurred within M82 itself.
Watch here for updates.
Courtesy of an article dated January 21, 2014 appearing in Sky & Telescope
3D concept illustration of NASA JPL's first lunar base (Click Image To Enlarge)
The first lunar base on the Moon may not be built by human hands, but rather by a giant spider-like robot built by Nasa that can bind the dusty soil into giant bubble structures where astronauts can live, conduct experiments, relax or perhaps even cultivate crops.
Shackleton Crater, the site of NASA JPL's proposed lunar base (Click Image To Enlarge)
Location and cutaway view of Shackleton Crater, the site of NASA JPL's proposed lunar base (Click Image To Enlarge)
We've already covered the European Space Agency's (ESA) work with architecture firm Foster + Partners on a proposal for a 3D-printed moonbase, and there are similarities between the two bases -- both would be located in Shackleton Crater near the Moon's south pole, where sunlight (and thus solar energy) is nearly constant due to the Moon's inclination on the crater's rim, and both use lunar dust as their basic building material. However, while the ESA's building would be constructed almost exactly the same way a house would be 3D-printed on Earth, this latest wheeze -- SinterHab -- uses Nasa technology for something a fair bit more ambitious.
Click Image To Enlarge
The product of joint research first started between space architects Tomas Rousek, Katarina Eriksson and Ondrej Doule and scientists from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), SinterHab is so-named because it involves sintering lunar dust -- that is, heating it up to just below its melting point, where the fine nanoparticle powders fuse and become one solid block a bit like a piece of ceramic. To do this, the JPL engineers propose using microwaves no more powerful than those found in a kitchen unit, with tiny particles easily reaching between 1200 and 1500 degrees Celsius.
Click Image To Enlarge
Nanoparticles of iron within lunar soil are heated at certain microwave frequencies, enabling efficient heating and binding of the dust to itself. Not having to fly binding agent from Earth along with a 3D printer is a major advantage over the ESA/Foster + Partners plan. The solar panels to power the microwaves would, like the moonbase itself, be based near or on the rim of Shackleton Crater in near-perpetual sunlight.
Click Image To Enlarge
"Bubbles" of binded dust could be built by a huge six-legged rClick Image To Enlargeobot (OK, so it's not technically a spider) that can then be assembled into habitats large enough for astronauts to use as a base. This "Sinterator system" would use the JPL's Athlete rover, a half-scale prototype of which has already been built and tested. It's a human-controlled robotic space rover with wheels at the end of its 8.2m limbs and a detachable habitable capsule mounted at the top.
Here's a video of it dancing, because science:
Athlete's arms have several different functions, dependent on what it needs to do at any point. It has 48 3D cameras that stream video to its operator either inside the capsule, elsewhere on the Moon or back on Earth, it's got a payload capacity of 300kg in Earth gravity, and it can scoop, dig, grab at and generally poke around in the soil fairly easily, giving it the combined abilities of a normal rover and a construction vehicle. It can even split into two smaller three-legged rovers at any time if needed. In the Sinterator system, a microwave 3D printer would be mounted on one of the Athlete's legs and used to build the base.
Click Image To Enlarge
Rousek explained the background of the idea to Wired.co.uk:
"Since many of my buildings have advanced geometry that you can't cut easily from sheet material, I started using 3D printing for rapid prototyping of my architecture models. The construction industry is still lagging several decades behind car and electronics production. The buildings now are terribly wasteful and imprecise -- I have always dreamed about creating a factory where the buildings would be robotically mass-produced with parametric personalisation, using composite materials and 3D printing. It would be also great to use local materials and precise manufacturing on-site."
He continued:
"It's good to realise that we have this unique chance to jump from our atmosphere and go to the next evolutionary level -- it's comparable with leaving the ocean and climbing down from the trees. I went to Strasbourg to study space architecture at the International Space University in France, where I formed the team with Ondrej Doule and Katarina Eriksson. Our friend there, Richard Rieber from Nasa's JPL, is one of the co-authors of the 3D printing system based on the Athlete robot. We were inspired by their invention and immediately started designing architecture that would use this technology."
Sintering is quite cheap, in terms of power as well as materials, and an Athlete rover should be able to construct a bubble volume in only two weeks, Rousek estimates. He said:
"It would have a very good cost-value ratio as you don't need to import as much material from Earth. The whole expandable module, with the membranes to cover the base when built, would be carried by the same rocket that would bring other modules of the outpost, but it can build a volume four times bigger than a rigid cylindrical module. Since we don't have the necessary transport capacity to the Moon at the moment, estimating a price now would be very inaccurate. As a comparison, the International Space Station has so far cost approximately $150bn (£99bn) but a lunar base could be designed much more cheaply with private companies."
3D concept illustration of NASA JPL's Sinterator moon crawler robot (Click Image To Enlarge)
Another benefit of sintering is that astronauts could use it on the surface of the Moon surrounding their base, binding dust and stopping it from clogging their equipment. Moon dust is extremely abrasive -- without natural weathering or erosion like on Earth, dust isn't ground down into smooth spheres. Instead it remains tiny yet jagged, perfect for getting into any exposed cracks, scratching lenses, wearing down airtight seals and becoming deeply embedded into human lungs. Former Apollo astronaut Harrison Schmidt has called the dust the biggest environmental issue on the Moon, even more so than radiation (which in SinterHab would be blocked by a combination of the Moon dust structure, "strategically located water tanks" and layers of inflatable polymers).
NASA JPL's Sinterator moon crawler robot (Click Image To Enlarge)
London-based space architect Rousek, director of A-ETC, has continued working on SinterHab with Doule and Eriksson since first proposing the idea in 2010 at the International Aeronautical Congress as a way of taking advantage of the Sinterator system. The design -- now published in the journal Acta Astronautica-- is based on the equilibrium found in bubbles. You might have noticed, the last time that you had a bubble bath, the way that groups of bubbles join together naturally to form a more solid structure -- that's exactly what SinterHab will look like. A bunch of rocky bubbles connected together, with cladding added later. Rousek explained:
"The internal structure was selected to demonstrate how we can arrange the interior and create walls inside. The first version should probably have only a single volume to decrease the risk. Then we could think about a bigger module, which would use connected volumes."
A second version of SinterHab -- SinterHab 2.0 -- is "currently being developed under the leadership of Ondrej Doule from the Florida Institute of Technology," Rousek said.
"We plan to further develop the interior design, deployment and construction process and life-support system. We would like to also do research about possible spin-offs of such construction methods on Earth."
Nasa iskeen on figuring out a way to build a lunar base, and as one of several proposals being batted around inside the organisation it's been used in a proposal for further development of sintering technology -- and I, for one, welcome our new robo-spider space architect overlords.
COMMENTARY: Presently 3D printers are only able to print, if you can call it that, small objects like a cup, vase or head bust. The machines that perform the printing are relatively small, fairly expensive and difficult to operate. What NASA JPL is proposing would simply be amazing and on a much larger scale. Sinterator would have to do its work of building the lunar base completely autonomously and without human intervention. This presents tremendous technological challenges for NASA JPL scientists and engineers.
Since there is no water on the Moon, and transporting building materials there from the Earth would be very costly, it is obviously cheaper to use directly the Moon's resources in order to make water-free concrete. US scientists developed a method that would allow for substituting water with the sulfur found in lunar dust. The resulting concrete would be very solid and would dry much faster than the regular one obtained here on Earth.
The sulfur that would act as a binder for the Moon dust can be extracted directly from it. The sulfur must to be in a liquid or semi-liquid form to work as a binding agent. This would imply that the dust is heated to temperatures of about 130° to 140° C. After cooling, the mixture immediately becomes rock-solid, ultimate-strength concrete able to bear about 170 times the atmospheric pressure (approximately 17 megapascals). With normal concrete you have to wait seven days, in extreme cases even 28 days to get maximum strength.
NASA artist concept of asteroid 2012 DA14 (Click Image To Enlarge)
The best way for most of us to watch asteroid 2012 DA14 come within 17,200 miles of Earth on Friday, and then recede harmlessly into the cosmos, is to fire up your Web browser and watch the show online. Pictures of the space rock, which is about half the length of a football field, are already starting to roll in.
NASA's experts on near-Earth objects say that the time of closest approach will come at 2:25 p.m. ET, when the asteroid is zooming above the eastern Indian Ocean at a speed of almost 17,500 mph (7.8 kilometers per second). It'll be too dim to see with the naked eye, but observers in Australia, Asia and Europe might be able to follow it with binoculars or small telescopes if they know exactly where to look. (If you want to try it, follow the directions at the bottom of this item.)
Then there are the professionals: Astronomers around the world are tracking 2012 DA14 with optical telescopes and radar dishes to learn more about the asteroid's color, shape, spin and reflectivity. Such data could tell them what the object is made of, and perhaps provide insights into how similar objects could be diverted if they were on a threatening course. Which this one is not.
Experts estimate that asteroids the size of 2012 DA14 hit our planet every 1,200 years or so, exploding with the energy of a 2.5-megaton atomic bomb: The last such impactstruck a remote region of Siberia without warning in 1908, flattening 820 square miles of forest. If an object that big were to hit in just the wrong place, it could wipe out a city. Coincidentally, a much smaller meteoroid came down over Russia on Friday, sparking a fireball and a glass-shattering shock wave.
The size of the asteroid 2012 DA14 in comparison to a football field (Click Image To Enlarge)
Even though the 150-foot-wide (45-meter-wide) asteroid is the biggest object of its kind to be seen coming this close to Earth, its orbit is so well-known that NASA's Near-Earth Object Program can rule out any chance of collision in the foreseeable future. And even though 2012 will fly 5,000 miles closer than satellites in geosynchronous orbit, NASA says its mostly south-to-north orbital path goes through a "sweet spot" that keeps it far away from those satellites — as well as from other spacecraft that are in closer orbits, including the International Space Station.
Thus, astronomers don't expect to see anything go boom on Friday. But they could pick up on some subtler phenomena, such asseismic disturbances in the asteroid that are induced by Earth's gravitational kick, orcharacteristics of the asteroid's spin that are affected by radiation absorption and emission.
This animated set of three images shows 2012 DA14 as it was observed by the Faulkes Telescope South in Australia on Feb. 14 at a distance of 465,000 miles. The asteroid is the moving bright spot in the middle.NASA's website provides details. Credit: LCOGT / E. Gomez / Faulkes South / Remanzacco Observatory. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Radar readings provide the best way to get a fix on the asteroid's shape and spin, in part because observations from multiple radio telescopes can be combined to produce a clearer picture. During 2012 DA14's flyby, radio telescopes in California, New Mexico and Puerto Rico will be tracking the asteroid. NASA's 230-foot (70-meter) dish at Goldstone, Calif., is expected to collect radar imagery good enough to produce a 3-D movie mapping the space rock from all sides.
Graphic depicts the trajectory of asteroid 2012 DA14 on Feb 15, 2013. In this view, we are looking down from above Earth's north pole. Image credit of NASA-JPL-Caltech (Click Image To Enlarge)
Other telescopes, spread out from Australia to Israel to the Canary Islands to the U.S., will be gathering optical data — and the images from some of those telescopes will be shared on Friday. Here's the viewing schedule:
Noon ET: NASA plans to start streaming near-real-time imagery of the asteroid's flyby, as provided by telescopes in Australia and Europe, weather permitting. Watch JPL video on Ustream.
2 p.m. ET: To mark the time of closest encounter, NASA will present a half-hour program with commentary from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The show will feature computer animations as well as any live or near-real-time imagery that becomes available from telescopes in Australia. Watch video on NASA.gov or Ustream. (NBCNews.com also plans to stream the show.)
3:15 p.m. ET: The Bareket Observatory in Israel says it will air a three-hour webcast featuring imagery from the flyby. Static images of the asteroid and its celestial surroundings will be refreshed every 30 to 60 seconds. Watch Bareket's webcast.
5 p.m. ET: The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 will present live video of the asteroid flyby from a telescope in Italy, weather permitting. Video site: Watch Virtual Telescope Project's webcast.
9 p.m. ET: A video feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will be streamed for three hours. During the live-streaming event, viewers can ask researchers questions about the flyby via Twitter or the Ustream chat window. Watch Marshall's Ustream channel.
Got any other websites worth watching? Or any asteroid questions you're wondering about? Feel free to share them in your comments below.
COMMENTARY:
Courtesy of an article dated February 15, 2013 appearing in NBC News Cosmic Log and an article date February 12, 2013 appearing in Space.com and an article dated February 14, 2013 appearing in Space.com and an article dated February 15, 2013 appearing in NASA.gov
Picture of the meteorite as it explodes into a huge fireball and sends a huge shockwave and rains debris down on Chelyabinsk in the Russian Urals (Click Image To Enlarge)
Russia’s Urals region has been rocked by a meteorite explosion in the stratosphere. The impact wave damaged several buildings, and blew out thousands of windows amid frigid winter weather. Hundreds have sought medical attention for minor injuries.
Around 950 people have sought medical attention in Chelyabinsk alone because of the disaster, the region's governor Mikhail Yurevich told RIA Novosti. Over 110 of them have been hospitalized and two of them are in heavy condition. Among the injured there are 159 children, Emergency ministry reported.
Army units found three meteorite debris impact sites, two of which are in an area near Chebarkul Lake, west of Chelyabinsk. The third site was found some 80 kilometers further to the northwest, near the town of Zlatoust. One of the fragments that struck near Chebarkul left a crater six meters in diameter.
Servicemembers from the tank brigade that found the crater have confirmed that background radiation levels at the site are normal.
A hole in Chebarkul Lake made by meteorite debris. Photo by Chebarkul town head Andrey Orlov. (Click Image To Enlarge)
Police officers, environmentalists and EMERCOM experts examine small 0.5-1 cm pieces of black matter left by the meteorite at the site of a meteorite hit in the Chelyabinsk Region (Click Image To Enlarge)
Experts working at the site of the impact told Lifenews tabloid that the fragment is most likely solid, and consists of rock and iron.
A local fisherman told police he found a large hole in the lake’s ice, which could be a result of a meteorite impact. The site was immediately sealed off by police, a search team is now waiting for divers to arrive and explore the bottom of the lake.
Samples of water taken from the lake have not revealed any excessive radioactivity or foreign material.
Russian space agency Roskosmos has confirmed the object that crashed in the Chelyabinsk region is a meteorite:
“According to preliminary estimates, this space object is of non-technogenic origin and qualifies as a meteorite. It was moving at a low trajectory with a speed of about 30 km/s.”
According to estimates by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the space object weighed about 10 tons before entering Earth’s atmosphere.
A bright flash was seen in the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen and Sverdlovsk regions, Russia’s Republic of Bashkiria and in northern Kazakhstan.
The Russian army has joined the rescue operation. Radiation, chemical and biological protection units have been put on high alert. Since the explosion occurred several kilometers above the Earth, a large ground area must be thoroughly checked for radiation and other threats.
According to preliminary reports, the worst damage on the ground in Chelyabinsk was at a zinc factory, the walls and roof of which were partially destroyed by an impact wave. The city's Internet and mobile service were reportedly interrupted because of the damage inflicted near the factory.
Chelyabinsk administration’s website said nearly 3,000 buildings were damaged to varying extents by the meteor shower in the city, including 34 medical facilities and 361 schools and kindergartens. The total amount of window glass shattered amounts to 100,000 square meters, the site said, citing city administration head Sergey Davydov. The ministry also said that no local power stations or civil aircraft were damaged by the meteorite shower, and that “all flights proceed according to schedule.”
Buildings were left without gas because facilities in the city had also been damaged, an Emergency Ministry spokesperson said, according to Russia 24 news channel.
The Emergency Ministry reported that 20,000 rescue workers are operating in the region. Three aircraft were deployed to survey the area and locate other possible impact locations.
The trail of a falling object is seen above a residential apartment block in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, on February 15, 2013.(AFP Photo - Oleg Kargopolov) (Click Image To Enlarge)
The regional Emergency Ministry denied previous unconfirmed reports by local media that the meteorite was shot by the military air defenses.
Witnesses said the explosion was so loud that it seemed like an earthquake and thunder had struck at the same time, and that there were huge trails of smoke across the sky. Others reported seeing burning objects fall to earth.
A spokesperson for the Urals regional Emergency Ministry center claimed it sent out a mass SMS warning residents about a possible meteorite shower. However, eyewitnesses said they either never received it, or got the message after the explosion had occurred. The Emergency Ministry has since denied sending out the SMS warning, and said the spokesperson that spread the false information “will be fired.”
Picture of windows damaged right after the impact of meteorite in Chelyabinsk (Click Image To Enlarge)
This picture taken by Pavel Berlet shows office damage in the city of Chelyabins (Click Image To Enlarge)
Classes for all Chelyabinsk schools have been canceled, mostly due to broken windows. Institute students have been dismissed until next Monday. Authorities also ordered all kindergartens with broken windows to return children to their families.
Police in the Chelyabinsk region are reportedly on high alert, and have begun ‘Operation Fortress’ in order to protect vital infrastructure.
Office buildings in downtown Chelyabinsk have been evacuated. An emergency message published on the website of the Chelyabinsk regional authority urged residents to pick up their children from school and remain at home if possible.
This picture shows exterior window damage to a building in Chelyabinsk. Photo courtesy Pavel Berlet (Click Image To Enlarge)
A man walks past a building with shattered windows after a meteorite shock wave in Chelyabinsk, Urals, Russia (Click Image To Enlarge)
The shockwave from the meteorite blast was so powerful that n some cases the entire window frames were torn from the windows (Click Image To Enlarge)
Those in Chelyabinsk who had their windows smashed are scrambling to cover the openings with anything available – the temperature in the city is currently -6°C.
Chelyabinsk regional governor Mikhail Yurevich said that preserving the city’s central heating system is authorities’ primary goal.
The governor said in and address to city residents.
“Do not panic, this is an ordinary situation we can manage in a couple of days.”
Background radiation levels in Chelyabinsk remain unchanged, the Emergency Ministry reported.
Local zinc factory was damaged the severest, some of its walls collapsing (Photo from Twitter.com user @TimurKhorev) (Click Image To Enlarge)
Screenshot from YouTube user Gregor Grimm (Click Image To Enlarge)
Residents of the town of Emanzhilinsk, some 50 kilometers from Chelyabinsk, said they saw a flying object that suddenly burst into flames, broke apart and fell to earth, and that a black cloud had been seen hanging above the town. Witnesses in Chelyabinsk said the city’s air smells like gunpowder.
Many locals reported that the explosion rattled their houses and smashed windows. “This explosion, my ears popped, windows were smashed… phone doesn’t work,” Evgeniya Gabun wrote on Twitter.
Twitter user Katya Grechannikova reported.
“My window smashed, I am all shaking! Everybody says that a plane crashed.”
Bukreeva Olga wrote on Twitter.
“My windows were not smashed, but I first thought that my house is being dismantled, then I thought it was a UFO, and my eventual thought was an earthquake.”
The Mayak nuclear complex near the town of Ozersk was not affected by the incident, according to reports. Mayak, one of the world’s biggest nuclear facilities that used to house plutonium production reactors and a reprocessing plant, is located 72 kilometers northwest of Chelyabinsk.
NASA scientists said that the incident is not connected to the approach of 2012 DA14, which measures 45 to 95 meters in diameter and will be passing by Earth tonight at around 19:25 GMT, at the record close distance of 27,000 kilometers.
Photo from Twitter.com user @varlamov (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY:
Another Tunguska event?
The incident in Chelyabinsk bears a strong resemblance to the 1908 Tunguska event – an exceptionally powerful explosion in Siberia believed to have been caused by a fragment of a comet or meteor.
According to estimates, the energy of the Tunguska blast may have been as high as 50 megatons of TNT, equal to a nuclear explosion. Some 80 million trees were leveled over a 2,000-square-kilometer area. The Tunguska blast remains one of the most mysterious events in history, prompting a wide array of hypotheses on its cause, including a black hole passing through Earth and the wreck of an alien spacecraft.
Trees were flattened from the blast and shockwave from the meteorite that exploded above Tunguska in northern Siberia in 1908 (Click Image To Enlarge)
It is believed that if the Tunguska event had happened 4 hours later, due to the rotation of the Earth it would have completely destroyed the city of Vyborg and significantly damaged St. Petersburg.
When a similar, though less powerful, unexplained explosion happened in Brazil in 1930, it was named the ‘Brazilian Tunguska.’ The Tunguska event also prompted debate and research into preventing or mitigating asteroid impacts.
Courtey of an article dated February 15, 2013 appearing in RT.com
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region at the far reaches of our solar system that scientists feel is the final area the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space.
Scientists refer to this new region as a magnetic highway for charged particles because our sun's magnetic field lines are connected to interstellar magnetic field lines. This connection allows lower-energy charged particles that originate from inside our heliosphere -- or the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself -- to zoom out and allows higher-energy particles from outside to stream in. Before entering this region, the charged particles bounced around in all directions, as if trapped on local roads inside the heliosphere.
The heliopause marks the outerost edge of our solar system's heliosphere before entering interstellar space (Click Image To Enlarge)
The Voyager team infers this region is still inside our solar bubble because the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed. The direction of these magnetic field lines is predicted to change when Voyager breaks through to interstellar space. The new results were described at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco on Monday.
Voyager spacecraft showing major subsystems (Click Image To Enlarge)
Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena said.
"Although Voyager 1 still is inside the sun's environment, we now can taste what it's like on the outside because the particles are zipping in and out on this magnetic highway. We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar space. Our best guess is it's likely just a few months to a couple years away. The new region isn't what we expected, but we've come to expect the unexpected from Voyager."
The Voyager cover protects the Gold Record ans is made from aluminum with an electro-plating of the isotope uranium-238, which has a half-life of 4.51 billion years.(Click Image To Enlarge)
Voyager's Gold Record is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth (Click Image To Enlarge)
Explanation of Voyager Recording Cover Diagram (Click Image To Enlarge)
Since December 2004, when Voyager 1 crossed a point in space called the termination shock, the spacecraft has been exploring the heliosphere's outer layer, called the heliosheath. In this region, the stream of charged particles from the sun, known as the solar wind, abruptly slowed down from supersonic speeds and became turbulent. Voyager 1's environment was consistent for about five and a half years. The spacecraft then detected that the outward speed of the solar wind slowed to zero.
The intensity of the magnetic field also began to increase at that time.
Voyager data from two onboard instruments that measure charged particles showed the spacecraft first entered this magnetic highway region on July 28, 2012. The region ebbed away and flowed toward Voyager 1 several times. The spacecraft entered the region again Aug. 25 and the environment has been stable since.
said Stamatios Krimigis, principal investigator of the low-energy charged particle instrument, based at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
"If we were judging by the charged particle data alone, I would have thought we were outside the heliosphere. But we need to look at what all the instruments are telling us and only time will tell whether our interpretations about this frontier are correct."
Spacecraft data revealed the magnetic field became stronger each time Voyager entered the highway region; however, the direction of the magnetic field lines did not change.
Data from Voyager 1 show an abrupt drop in solar ions (top) at the same time that the spacecraft detected an increased number of cosmic rays (bottom) from interstellar space (Click Image To Enlarge)
Leonard Burlaga, a Voyager magnetometer team member based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md said.
"We are in a magnetic region unlike any we've been in before -- about 10 times more intense than before the termination shock -- but the magnetic field data show no indication we're in interstellar space. The magnetic field data turned out to be the key to pinpointing when we crossed the termination shock. And we expect these data will tell us when we first reach interstellar space."
Voyager 1 and 2 were launched 16 days apart in 1977. At least one of the spacecraft has visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object, about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from the sun. The signal from Voyager 1 takes approximately 17 hours to travel to Earth. Voyager 2, the longest continuously operated spacecraft, is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) away from our sun. While Voyager 2 has seen changes similar to those seen by Voyager 1, the changes are much more gradual. Scientists do not think Voyager 2 has reached the magnetic highway.
The Voyager spacecraft were built and continue to be operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
COMMENTARY: NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space. Data obtained from Voyager over the last year reveal this new region to be a kind of cosmic purgatory. In it, the wind of charged particles streaming out from our sun has calmed, our solar system's magnetic field has piled up, and higher-energy particles from inside our solar system appear to be leaking out into interstellar space. Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena said.
"Voyager tells us now that we're in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around our solar system. Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back. We shouldn't have long to wait to find out what the space between stars is really like."
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Although Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun, it is not yet in interstellar space. In the latest data, the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed, indicating Voyager is still within the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself. The data do not reveal exactly when Voyager 1 will make it past the edge of the solar atmosphere into interstellar space, but suggest it will be in a few months to a few years.
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After 35 years of space travel, the twin Voyager planetary probes are nearing the very edge of Earth’s solar system. They will become the first man-made objects to travel between the stars.
Voyager 2 was launched first, on Aug. 20, 1977. Voyager 1 followed on Sept. 5, 1977. This was done because Voyager 2 would travel on a shorter path and would arrive at each planet ahead of Voyager 1.
Each Voyager spacecraft carries a golden record attached to its hull. The record is a 12-inch (30 cm) gold-plated copper disc containing sounds and images of Earth. If the Voyagers are eventually found by alien life forms, a diagram engraved into the record cover explains how to play the record.
As of mid-2012, both Voyager space probes are on the outskirts of our solar system, in a region called the “scattered disc.” Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object at about 11 billion miles from Earth, twice as far as the dwarf planet Pluto. The Voyagers are expected to soon cross the heliopause, considered the boundary between Earth’s solar system and interstellar space. Both Voyagers continue to radio data back to Earth, and their nuclear batteries, though weakening, continue to provide electrical power.
An artist's illustratino of asteroids, or near-Earth objects, that highlight the need for a complete Space Situational Awareness system. Credit: ESA - P. Carril (Click Image To Enlarge)
Scientists are keeping a close eye on a big asteroid that may pose an impact threat to Earth in a few decades.
The space rock, which is called 2011 AG5, is about 460 feet (140 meters) wide. It may come close enough to Earth in 2040 that some researchers are calling for a discussion about how to deflect it.
Talk about the asteroid was on the agenda during the 49th session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), held earlier this month in Vienna.
A UN Action Team on near-Earth objects (NEOs) noted the asteroid’s repeat approaches to Earth and the possibility — however remote — that 2011 AG5 might smack into our planet 28 years from now.
The object was discovered in January 2011 by Mount Lemmon Survey observers in Tucson, Ariz. While scientists have a good bead on the space rock's size, its mass and compositional makeup are unknown at present.
Gravity Simulator image of 2011 AG5 passing the Earth-Moon system in February 2040. Earth is the blue dot, the moon’s orbit is gray, and 2011AG5 is green. Simulation created with JPL Horizons data. CREDIT: Tony Dunn
An asteroid desktop exercise
Detlef Koschny of the European Space Agency’s Solar System Missions Division in Noordwijk, The Netherlands said.
"2011 AG5 is the object which currently has the highest chance of impacting the Earth … in 2040. However, we have only observed it for about half an orbit, thus the confidence in these calculations is still not very high."
Koschny told SPACE.com.
"In our Action Team 14 discussions, we thus concluded that it not necessarily can be called a ‘real’ threat. To do that, ideally, we should have at least one, if not two, full orbits observed."
Koschny added that the Action Team did recommend to the NEO Working Group of COPUOS to use 2011 AG5 as a "desktop exercise" and link ongoing studies to the asteroid.
Koschny said.
"We are currently also in the process of making institutions like the European Southern Observatoryaware of this object. We hope to make the point that this object deserves the allocation of some special telescope time."
Non-zero impact probability
The near-Earth asteroid 2011 AG5 currently has an impact probability of 1 in 625 for Feb. 5, 2040, said Donald Yeomans, head of the Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
This impact probability isn't set in stone, however. So far, researchers have been able to watch the asteroid for just a short time — the first nine months of 2011 — and the numbers may change after further observation, Yeomans told SPACE.com.
Yeomans said.
"Fortunately, this object will be observable from the ground in the 2013-2016 interval."
He added.
"In the very unlikely scenario that its impact probability does not significantly decrease after processing these additional observations, there would be time to mount a deflection mission to alter its course before the 2023 keyhole."
Keyholes are small regions in space near Earth through which a passing NEO's orbit may be perturbed due to gravitational effects, possibly placing it onto a path that would impact Earth.
Video of a NASA Mission to intercept and deflect an asteroid
Prudent course of action
2011 AG5 may zip through such a keyhole on its close approach to Earth in February 2023, which will bring the asteroid within 0.02 astronomical units (1.86 million miles, or 2.99 million kilometers) of Earth. One astronomical unit is the average distance between Earth and sun, which is approximately 93 million miles (150 million km).
According to a JPL estimate, the 2023 keyhole — through which 2011 AG5 must pass in order for there to be a real chance of an Earth impact in 2040 – is roughly 62 miles (100 km) wide.
Yeomans noted, referring to the asteroid Apophis, which could threaten Earth in 2036 if it zips through a keyhole in 2029.
"Although this keyhole is considerably larger than the Apophis keyhole in 2029, it would still be a straightforward task to alter the asteroid’s trajectory enough to miss the keyhole – and hence the impact in 2040. The prudent course of action is then to wait at least until the 2013 observations are processed before making any preliminary plans for a potential deflection mission."
He added.
"Processing additional observations in the 2013-2016 time period will almost certainly see the impact probability for 2011 AG5 significantly decrease."
An artist's impression of a giant space rock slamming into Earth 65 million years ago near what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. A consortium of scientists now says this was indeed what caused the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. CREDIT: NASA/Donald E. Davis
Wanted: Higher-fidelity assessment
Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Near Earth Objects (NEO) Observations Program Executive in Washington, D.C. said.
"Yes, the object 2011 AG5 was much discussed at the AT 14 meetings last week, but perhaps prematurely."
Johnson said NEO watchers have flagged the asteroid "as one we should keep an eye on." At present, he said, while researchers have better preliminary orbit data for 2011 AG5 than for many other asteroids in the NEO catalog,
Johnson told SPACE.com.
"We have only medium confidence in the derived orbital parameters. Fortunately, we are confident our uncertainties in the current orbit model will be reduced when we will have good observation opportunities in September 2013 with the larger follow-up assets."
Observing opportunities are even better, he added, starting in November 2015 and for several months thereafter.
Johnson said.
"This, in turn, will enable us to better assess the likelihood of any ‘keyhole’ passage in 2023 and therefore a much higher fidelity assessment of any impact probability for the 2040 time frame. So, rather than a need to immediately jump to space mission solutions, the situation with 2011 AG5 shows the value of finding potentially hazardous objects early enough so that there is time for a methodical approach of observation and assessment as input to any need for an expensive spacecraft mission. A more robust survey capability would improve the data available to make such assessments."
A concept spacecraft could use gravity to tow asteroids away from a collision course with earth. CREDIT: Dan Durda - FIAAA / B612 Foundation
Decision challenge
Long-time NEO specialist and former Apollo astronaut Russell Schweickart played an active role in the dialogue about 2011 AG5. He represented the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) Committee on Near Earth Objects and presented to the Action Team an analysis of the situation with 2011 AG5.
Schweickart suggested.
"The space rock presents a decision challenge to the international community, in the unlikely chance that its current low, but significant probability of impacting Earth in 2040 continues to increase after additional tracking becomes available."
Schweickart spotlighted a rough Association of Space Explorers analysis of the options to deflect the asteroid in the future, in the unlikely scenario that the Earth impact probability continues to increase.
He also provided to the Action Team several new appraisals of options for deflection of asteroid 2011 AG5 to avoid a potentially dangerous Earth encounter in 2040.
The key moment of the Don Quijote mission: the Impactor spacecraft (Hidalgo) smashes into the asteroid while observed, from a safe distance, by the Orbiter spacecraft (Sancho). CREDIT: ESA - AOES Medialab
Delayed Deflection Campaign
A decision date for a keyhole deflection is very soon, if not now, Schweickart suggested. Asteroid 2011 AG5 represents an actual threat that underscores the need for a NEO hazard decision-making structure within the UN COPUOS, he said.
Based on the latest analysis, Schweickart reported, a deflection campaign delayed until after the 2023 close approach appears marginally possible, as long as a decision to commit is made immediately thereafter.
"Should a keyhole deflection campaign be foregone — for whatever reason — the international community may be faced with the difficult decision of choosing between an expensive multikinetic impactor or a nuclear explosive to prevent an impact should the NEO indeed pass through the keyhole."
The timelines that would be required to mount a successful deflection of the asteroid, Schweickart told SPACE.com, might be challenging.
But first things first — researchers stress that more study of the asteroid’s trajectory is called for. The next tracking opportunities of 2011 AG5 will occur in September 2013, and then again in November 2015.
NASA chief: We still have time
In response to a letter from Schweickart regarding 2011 AG5, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.
"2011 AG5 is high on NASA’s list of NEOs to monitor for impact hazard potential. We take these duties very seriously."
Bolden also noted the opportunities for highly accurate ground-based observations in the near future.
He said.
"Based on these observations, a more informed assessment can then be made on the need for any type of mitigation."
Bolden also remarked that the asteroid makes an apparition in 2015, more than seven years before the close keyhole passage in 2023 that could set in motion an Earth impact in the 2040 time frame.
Bolden said.
"As a point of comparison, NASA’s Deep Impact mission [the Deep Impact probe smashed into comet Tempel 1 in July 2005] was conducted in six years from selection to impact under much less urgency, demonstrating the adequacy of a seven-year period for any necessary response."
Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of last year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for SPACE.com since 1999.
COMMENTARY: Since 1999, NASA has developed more powerful space telescopes capable of searching into deep space and locating Near Earth Objects (NEOS) like asteroids and comets which could present a danger of colliding with Earth.
In a blog post dated September 24, 2011, I reported that NASA’s Near Earth Object Program, or NEO, celebrated a milestone earlier in 2011 by announcing that current search programs have discovered more than 90 percent of near-Earth objects more than six-tenths of a mile in diameter. A larger number of smaller objects have yet to be found, however. At the end of August 2011, NEO had discovered over 8,000 near-Earth objects. Over 450 of known near-Earth asteroids discovered to date are 1 kilometer in size or greater. The following graphs shows NEOs by year discovered, large asteroids and known NEOs.
Spacewatch, a program created to discover and track all large asteroids crossing the Earth’s orbit, discovered YU55 in 2005. This close approach had been expected since then, he said.
The majority of these NEOs do not present any eminent danger to Earth, but their discovery helps us keep track of them in case they ever do.
In a blog post dated June 25, 2011, I told you about near Earth object 2005 YU55, an astroid the size of an aircraft carrier that came within 201,000 miles of Earth on November 8, 2011. 2005 YU55 will return in 2028.
In a blog post dated November 8, 2011, Purdue University researchers determined what would've happened if 2005 YU55 had impacted earth. Let's put it this way, the asteroid that hit Earth near Flagstaff, Arizona and is the same size as asteroid 2011 AG5, created a Meteor Crater, a crater over 2.4 miles in diameter and 550 feet deep. If 2005 YU55 had hit Earth, it would've created a crater 4 miles in diameter and 1,700 feet deep.
Courtesy of an article dated February 27, 2012 appearing in Space.com and an article dated October 4, 2011 appearing in Space.com
Artist concept of GRAIL mission. Grail will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail.
A gravity-mapping spacecraft orbiting the moon has beamed home its first video of the lunar far side — a view people on Earth never see.
The new video was captured by one of NASA's twin Grail probesusing a novel camera called MoonKAM, which will eventually be used by students on Earth to snap photos of the lunar surface as part of an educational project. The two spacecraft have been circling the moon since they arrived in orbit over the New Year.
Maria Zuber, Grail principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, in a statement accompanying the video's release today said (Feb. 1).
"The quality of the video is excellent and should energize our MoonKAM students as they prepare to explore the moon."
Because the moon is tidally locked with Earth, it only presents one face to the planet's surface (the near side). The side of the moon that faces away from Earth is the far side. Only robotic spacecraft and Apollo astronauts who orbited the moon in the 1960s and 1970s have seen the far side of the moon directly. [New photo and video of the moon's far side]
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The new video is about 30 seconds long and shows the far side of the moon as a stark, scarred landscape. Dozens of craters are visible in the field of view.
As the video begins, the vast impact basin of Mare Orientale — which is 560 miles (900 kilometers) wide and straddles the near and far sides, is clearly visible in the lower third of the frame, according to a NASA description. To the left of the middle is the Drygalski crater, a 93-mile-wide (149 kilometer) basin that stands out because of the star-shaped formation in its center.
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While NASA released the lunar far side video today, it was actually recorded Jan. 19 by one of the Grail probes, which are now called Ebb and Flow. The Grail mission's name stands for Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory. Both spacecraft are equipped with their own MoonKAM (or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) cameras.
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The MoonKAM project is an effort led by former astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, to encourage student interest in science. It is the first set of cameras ever to fly on a NASA planetary probe that is completely dedicated to education and public outreach.
Under the program, thousands of students between fourth and eighth grade will be able to request targets on the moon to be photographed by the Grail probes via an operations center based in San Diego, Calif. Once the photos are taken, they will be sent to the students for further study, NASA officials said.
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Ride said, adding that the first moon photos taken by students will be recorded in mid-March
"We have had great response from schools around the country; more than 2,500 signed up to participate so far. I expect this will excite many students about possible careers in science and engineering."
NASA launched the $496 million Grail mission in September 2011 on a tag-team mission to map the moon's gravity field like never before. The two washing machine-size spacecraft are currently lowering their orbits around the moon and will eventually begin the science phase of their mission once they reach a target altitude of just 34 miles (55 kilometers) above the lunar surface.
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Grail mission scientists will use minute changes in the positions of the lunar orbiters as they fly in tandem to map variations in the moon's gravitational field.
COMMENTARY:
NASA Announces Names of GRAIL Moon Gravity Mission Twin Probes
NASA's twin gravity-mapping moon probes received their names on January 17, 2012, reflecting their mission to study the changing pull of Earth's natural satellite.
Now to be called "Ebb" and "Flow," the tandem Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (or Grail) spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit over the New Year weekend and were previously referred to simply as "A" and "B". Their new names were offered by fourth grade students in Bozeman, Mont., who were chosen as the winners of NASA's naming contest.
Maria Zuber, who as principal investigator leads the Grail probes' mission from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.
"The 28 students of Ms. Nina DiMauro's class at Emily Dickinson Elementary School have really hit the nail on the head. We were really impressed that the students drew their inspiration by researching Grail and its goal of measuring gravity."
Zuber said.
"Ebb and Flow truly capture the spirit and excitement of our mission."
NASA announced the new names in a press conference on Tuesday, January 17, 2012.
Last Manned Space Mission and Landing On The Moon
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned space mission in NASA's Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmidt, Apollo 17 remains the last manned Moon landing.
Apollo 17 lunar landing mission are: Commander, Eugene A. Cernan (seated), Command Module pilot Ronald E. Evans (standing on right), and Lunar Module pilot, Harrison H. Schmitt
The Reason Why NASA Has Not Returned Astronauts To The Moon
It's very strange that NASA ended all manned space missions to the Moon since Apollo 17. You would've thought by now that the U.S. would have a permanent space colony on the Moon and we would be ferrying tourist flights to the Moon and back. The lack of an atmosphere would make the Moon an excellent jumpoff point to other planets. According to a few former NASA employees, there's a good reason why we've never been back to the moon.
The reason why NASA hasn't sent manned space missions to the Moon, or established bases there, is because the moon's swarming with unfriendly extraterrestrial life forms who have warned us not to land there. It's even been alleged in NASA photographs taken by Moon orbiting satellites that massive alien bases and structures exist on the moon. EnigmaTV produced a video titled "The Truth -- Why NASA Has Never Returned To The Moon," which sheds some light on this subject.
The Truth - Why NASA Has Never Returned To The Moon - Part 1:
The Truth - Why NASA Has Never Returned To The Moon - Part 2:
The following video is a photo compilation of the anomalies on the lunar surface including an alien spacecraft, and alledged extraterrestrial biological entity known as "Mona Lisa" found inside the alien craft, purported alien bases and ufo's leaving its surface.
"What NASA did not tell the American people is that it discovered the remains of an ancient lunar civilization, and to this day, that data and those artifacts have been withheld from the American people."
The Hollow Moon Theory or The Moon Is An Artificial Object
Another interesting theory is that the moon is hallow. A few scientists have even suggested that the moon's an artificial object:
Carl Sagan, the late astrophysics and cosmologist said, "A natural satellite cannot be a hollow object." But meaning here that if it is hollow, it is not a natural satellite -- and therefore artificial.
Two members of the Soviet Academy of Science, former Soviet scientists, Mikhail Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov,have theorized that the moon is a huge, hollowed-out planetoid that was sent into orbit around our world billions of years ago. They believe that the moon was hollowed out artificially, which means that it was done by some intelligence.
Possibly the strongest evidence for it to be a 'hollow object' comes from the fact that when meteors strike the Moon, the latter rings like a bell. More specifically when the Apollo crew in November 20, 1969 released the lunar module, after returning to the orbiter, the module impact with the Moon caused their seismic equipment to register a continuous reverberation like a bell for more than an hour. The same effect occurred with Apollo 13's third stage which caused the Moon to ring for over three hours. So what's going on with the Moon?
NASA's GRAIL Moon Gravity Mission will measure the Moon's magnetic field. This could shed some light on whether the moon is a solid planetary object like our Earth, a hollowed out planetary object, or an artificial hollow object.
NASA - Some Unanswered Questions
After nearly 40 years, why is NASA returning to the Moon? They say GRAIL's mission is to measure the Moon's magnetic field, but is it for another reason? Will NASA release copies of all the photos taken by the GRAIL Moon Gravity Mission? Will those photos be unaltered? NASA has often "touched" up photos to hide anomolies located on the Moon that resemble intelligently-made towers, buildings, bridges, domes and bases of unknown origin. Will NASA release their actual magnetic field findings to the scientific community? Is this a prelude to a major extra-terrestrial disclosure? Will NASA use this opportunity to finally disclose the existence of alien extra-terrestrial bases on the Moon? How would you handle this news? The Vatican wants to know how the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial beings could affect the teachings of the Catholic Church, so in late 2010, they met with NASA scientists to discuss the subject of extraterrestrials.
Courtesy of an article dated February 2, 2012 appearing in Space.com and an article dated January 17, 2012 appearing in Space.com
Bob Lazar stated that the “Sport Model” Flying Disc amplified the “Strong Nuclear Force” of Element 115 (UnUnPentium or UUP) to generate the gravity field for “Space-Time Compression.” Bob also stated that the U.S. Government had 500 pounds of Element 115 in their possession. The raw Element 115 was given to the U.S. Goverment at S4 by the Reticulan EBEs in the form of discs. The scientists at S4 sent the Element 115 discs through Groom Lake to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, to be milled for use in the Anti-Matter Reactor. The Los Alamos personnel were told it was a new form of armor. They simply followed orders, milled it in accordance with the following steps, and sent it back to Groom Lake. It was during this process that some of the Element 115 turned up missing. As you’ll see below, the machining process to form the Element 115 wedge produces a tremendous amount of waste.
UFO Anti-Matter Reactor
In the following video, physicist Bob Lazar explains the mysterious Element 115 and the sophisticated anti-matter reactor used for powering the anti-gravity propulsion system used in the flying saucers located a top secret U.S. research facility known as S-4:
Bob Lazar stated that the Element 115 used as the fuel and gravity source in the “Sport Model” Flying Disc was stable. On February 2, 2004, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia (JINR), announced that they discovered two new super-heavy elements, Element 113 and Element 115. The Isotope of Element 115, produced by bombarding an Americium-243 (95Am243) nucleus with a Calcium-48 (20Ca48) nucleus, rapidly decayed to Element 113. then continued to decay until a meta-stable isotope was obtained.
Cutaway of the Sports Model UFO
The following hypothetical reaction displays the maximum theoretical atomic mass of an Element 115 Isotope that could be produced from combining an Americium-243 nucleus with a Calcium-48 nucleus. The following reaction assumes no neutrons were liberated during the process of the reaction:
The following reactions are the actual reactions that took place in the laboratory by bombarding Americium-243 with Calcium-48, which resulted in the two Isotopes of Element 115, indicated below, being identified.
The maximum theoretical atomic mass isotope of Element 115 that could be produced in the reaction, above,115UUP291, would only have 176 neutrons in its nucleus. This isotope of Element 115 is shy 8 neutrons from containing the magic number of 184 neutrons. The two actual isotopes of Element 115 produced by this reaction, 115UUP288 and 115UUP287 contain 173 neutrons, shy 11 neutrons from the magic number of 184, and 172 neutrons, shy 12 neutrons from the magic number of 184, respectively.
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This latest scientific breakthrough, however, provides significant credibility to Bob Lazar’s claims rather than discrediting his claims. Bob Lazar’s Element 115 discs used to make the wedge for the “Sport Model” Flying Disc Anti-Matter Reactor would have to have been the isotope of Element 115 containing the magic number of 184 neutrons, therefore, having an atomic mass of 299. The nuclear configuration of this isotope of Element 115 would be identical to the nuclear configuration of the only known stable isotope of Element 83, Bismuth, 83Bi209, containing the magic number of 126 neutrons, except that the Element 115 isotope would have one more energy level completely filled with protons and neutrons. 82 protons and 114 protons are magic numbers for protons because 82 protons completely fill 6 proton energy levels and 114 protons completely fill 7 proton energy levels. The 83rd proton for Bismuth is a lone proton in the 7th proton energy level and the 115th proton for Element 115 is the lone proton in the 8th proton energy level. 126 neutrons completely fill 7 neutron energy levels and 184 neutrons completely fill 8 neutron energy levels. Refer to the Nucleon Energy Level Table for Bismuth and Element 115, below, for the nuclear configurations of Bismuth and Element 115. This stable isotope of Bismuth, Element 83, has very unique gravitational characteristics. Refer to the Henry William Wallace Patent: U.S. Patent 3,626,605, “Method and Apparatus for Generating a Secondary Gravitational Force Field.”
NOTE: Producing the theoretically stable super-heavy elements is very difficult because the reactant nuclei of these nuclear reactions do not have enough neutrons to result in a product nucleus with enough neutrons to obtain theoretical stability.
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COMMENTARY: On February 4, 2004, two superheavy elements, elements 113 and 115, were recently synthesized through a collaborative effort between scientists from the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and researchers from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at the Flerov Laboratory for Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Russia. Two isotopes of element 115 survived 30-80 milliseconds before decaying into isotopes of element 113 that survived approximately ten times longer prior to decaying themselves. Following a series of alpha-decays, the element 115 atoms decayed into long-lived isotopes (multiple hours) of element 105 (Db). The great-great-great granddaughter Db isotopes were also chemically identified in subsequent experiments.
Courtesy of an article titled "Element 115" appearing in GravityWarpDrive
The following is a brief examination of an extra-terrestrial (UFO) spacecraft allegedly housed and "back-engineered" at S-4, a Top Secret U.S. Military installation located on the Nellis Air Force Range, also known as AREA 51, Groom Lake / Papoose Lake, Nevada, approximately 160 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
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The Exterior
The craft is saucer-shaped and measures about 52 feet in diameter and 16 feet tall in the center. The Upper Deck Housing is about 10 feet in diameter and the base is flat, about 12 feet in diameter. The exterior skin is metallic and has a dull, unpolished aluminum finish.
In the above video, Bob Lazar, a former physicist working on alien UFO's at the super-secret air base known as S-4, located near Area 51, provides a very detailed description of the interior and exterior of a sleek-looking UFO he called the "sport model". Bob does an excellent job describing the propulsion system used by the UFO.
The InteriorNTERI
The interior of the craft is divided into three levels:
(a) Lower
(b) Central
(c) Top
The Lower Level
The Lower Level houses three gravity amplifier lensing and focusing mechanisms. The Gravity Amplifiers are independently positionable. Each can be moved from a vertical ("delta") configuration to an upward angled ("omicron") configuration via a 180 degree joint. These configurations determine the craft's mode of travel (see Propulsion System.) These Gravity Amplifiers are connected to three amplifier heads located on the Central Level.
The Central Level
The Central Level houses control consoles, three small seats seemingly designed for children only, a central column (waveguide) and a reactor.
The entire interior of the craft is like the exterior (a dull, unpolished aluminum). There are no sharp edges to be found anywhere; every corner has a radius, as if the entire interior was melted together as one piece. (It looks like one huge piece of seamless stainless steel.) There is a small hatch in the floor with a collapsing grid of hexagonal cells that when pushed aside (sideways) allows access to the lower level.
The interior wall (inner skin) of the disc slopes up to the center from the outer edges. The sloping inner skin has archways in it that go all the way around the interior of the craft. When the disc is energized, one of the archways becomes transparent, like a window. Outside visibility is possible. Simultaneously, one side of this same archway becomes transparent blue and a cryptic form of lettering unlike any script known on earth scrolls up like a Heads Up Display (HUD) screen.
Located in the middle of the Central Level, a central hollow column (waveguide) about 4" in diameter ascends to the top of the craft. The waveguide is where the gravity wave is channeled. This waveguide is connected to an "anti-matter" reactor on the floor, which is centered between the three gravity amplifiers in the Lower Level. The housing of the reactor is retractable for easy access.
Top Level
Our source and the eye-witness was not allow into the upper level; therefore, it can be surmised the Top Level contains the navigational and electronic equipment.
The Reactor
The Reactor is about the size of a basketball. It is fueled by an orange, "super-heavy" stable element comparable to Element 115* on the periodic table. (At this writing, the highest atomic number listed is 106.) This unknown Element produces a powerful gravity wave and is the source of anti-matter radiation (see Propulsion System.)
* Note: Element 115 does not exist on planet Earth and apparently it cannot be synthesized
The Propulsion System
The craft is propelled by an extremely powerful rotating and oscillating high-voltage electro-magnetic field that produces a gravity field. Apparently, it does not create an "anti-gravity" field but a field that is "out-of-phase" with the current one; in other words, the gravity field is "out-of-phase" with the same gravitational wave. (Note: phases vary from zero to 180 degrees.)
Gravity Amplifier and Core Plates
The Gravity Amplifiers focuses this mysterious gravity wave to cause space and time to bend / warp, similar to the intense gravitational field of a black hole.
, UFO Anti-Matter Reactor Dimensions
Inside the reactor, protons are bombarded into the nucleus of the Element 115 atom, transmuting it to Element 116. When this occurs the element decays and releases / radiates small amounts of antimatter which is released into a tube, protecting it from reacting with matter. This antimatter is then directed toward the end of the tube where the antimatter and a gaseous matter collide and annihilate, converting 100% of the matter into energy. This energy is then converted into electrical energy by a thermoelectric generator at 100% efficiency and is used to amplify the gravity wave.
When the craft is near a source of gravity, such as a planet or moon, the Gravity Amplifiers are positioned in an "omicron" configuration (only one Gravity Amplifier is used.) This allows the craft to travel short distances.
When the craft wants to travel long distances in more vacuous areas of the space/time continum (in other words, interstellar travel via hyper-space) the Gravity Amplifiers are positioned in a "delta" configuration (all three amplifiers are used and positioned in a vertical position) and are pulsed in a rotational pattern.
COMMENTARY: I ripped the following theoretical explanation by Paul E. Potter of Bob Lazar's description of the UFO's anti-gravity propulsion system and how it might work.
Bob Lazar
Bob Lazar worked at Area 51 (or Groom Lake) back in the late 1980’s on a back-engineering program that he claims began there in 1979. He says that an ‘exchange’ program with the ETs occurred in the 1970’s, which, resulted in the acquisition of nine UFOs so that their technologies could be researched. That there were indeed strange craft at Area 51 seems to be corroborated by David Adair’s visit there in 1971.
The following is an analysis of the way some types of UFOs travel, its the rubber sheet explanation of space-time manipulation by Bob Lazar.
“Assuming they‘re in space, they will focus the three gravity generators on the point they want to go to. Now, to give an analogy: If you take a thin rubber sheet, say, lay it on a table and put thumbtacks in each corner, then take a big stone and set it on one end of the rubber sheet and say that’s your spacecraft, you pick out a point that you want to go to - which could be anywhere on the rubber sheet - pinch that point with your fingers and pull it all the way up to the craft. That’s how it focuses and pulls that point to it. When you then shut off the gravity generators, the stone (or spacecraft) follows that stretched rubber back to its point. There’s no linear travel through space; it actually bends space and time and follows space as it retracts. In the first mode of travel - around the surface of a planet - they essentially balance on the gravitational field that the gravity generators put out, and they can ride a “wave,” like a cork does in the ocean. In that mode they’re very unstable and are affected by the weather. In the other mode of travel - where they can travel vast distances - they can’t really do that in a strong gravitational field like Earth, because to do that, first of all, they need to tilt on their side, usually out in space, then they can focus on the point they need to with the gravity generators and move on. If you can picture space as a fabric, and the speed of light is your limit, it’ll take you so long, even at the speed of light, to get from point A to point B. You can’t exceed it - not in this universe anyway. Should there be other parallel universes, maybe the laws are different, but anyone that’s here has to abide by those rules.”
Interestingly, recent research into Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) has found that by slowing down a body of atoms, to within a fraction of a degree Kelvin (near absolute zero), they coalesce into a “superatom” and when suitably excited by an oscillating field this BEC superatom propagates matter waves, now - its only at an early stage of development here on Earth but it is hoped that one day this technology will produce a tightly focused “matter wave beam” (much like that of the laser light beam) - what is so interesting here, is that if you look at the diagram above of the gravity generators of Lazar’s, its elements look exactly like the rings of optical lasers and magnetic traps used in BEC technology to slow down the atoms, and that these generators emit a beam - one of which is enough for the craft to ride upon - it could mean that the ETs use a system closely related to the propagation of such matter waves. Well, its food for thought.
“Inside the reactor, Element 115 is bombarded with a proton which plugs into the nucleus of the 115 atom and becomes Element 116, which immediately decays and releases, or radiates, small amounts of antimatter. The antimatter is released into a tuned tube which keeps it from reacting with the matter that surrounds it. It is then directed toward a gaseous matter target at the end of the tube. The matter and antimatter collide and annihilate, totally converting to energy. The heat from this reaction is converted into electrical energy in a near 100% efficient thermoelectric generator...”
“Element 115 is a superheavy element found probably on a planet of a binary star system. Supposedly the craft uses 223 grams, cut to a triangular shape, within the reactor structure (in a cloud chamber it was shown to alter, by gravitational forces, the paths of released alpha particles).”
My comment here is what happens beyond the "gaseous matter target?" What sort of energy field is established? Is it an electirc field (if so what polarity), or is it an electromagnetic wave propagation, or is it a gravitational wave that is being produced.
UFO Gravity Wave Guide
The thing about Lazar’s central tube assembly, which he doesn’t make mention of, is that it surely must be used as a circular cross-section waveguide for high-frequency waves. From his graphics it looks like an 80 mm tube and that would relate to an electromagnetic wave in the microwave region (especially if the tube terminated at the top at a smaller diameter). And whatever the target is, hitting it with these microwaves most probably causes the molecules and atoms of the target “gases” to resonate (as in electron spin resonance), the resonance then pulls the electrons up the energy bands and greatly increases their energy level.
My next comment is that, according to Bob Lazar, speaking about one of the propulsion systems used by the ufo he worked on, “the craft does not create an ‘antigravity field,’ as some have surmised: It’s a gravitational field that’s out of phase with the current one - it’s the same gravitational wave. The phases vary from 180 degrees to zero ... in a longitudinal propagation.”
So if, by analogy, we assume that the gravitational wave is similarly structured to that of a sinusoidal electromagnetic wave (there is some evidence to suggest that gravity waves are structured as an electromagnetic wave). What Bob Lazar seems to be saying is that by duplicating exactly this wave, and then propagating this duplicated wave back into the original, after altering its phase (so that - in relation to the existing gravity wave ‘force’ that is operating throughout this planet - the newly created wave matches it or differs from it) then the newly created gravity force can be made stronger or weaker than the existing one.
OK ... he is saying that if you created the same current-magnetic field combination for the gravity wave (at the same amplitude) but altered the phase to below 90º you would become lighter, and by altering the phase to between 90º and 180º you would be heavier ... Sounds interesting. Is this like selective constructive and destructive interference between two radiating waves maybe
Click Image To Enlarge
Note: The term used in the above illustration collocated structure is one I have coigned and refers to Lazar’s comment about there being no joints or sharp edges in the metal structure of the craft he worked on. Almost as if the whole craft was moulded together in one piece - a factor of UFO construction reiterated in the notes made by Lt. Col. Philip Corso about the Roswell craft he saw in 1947 where Corso says, “There were no seams on the UFO craft, or joint lines, rivets or weld joints.” This “alien” technology is again mentioned in David Adair’s Area 51 interview and is something currently undergoing much research through NASA and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S.
One more comment. Because it’s been puzzling me ever since I clapped eyes on his drawings, is that the “gravity wave generators” radiate some sort of energy beam below the craft THROUGH THE SHELL CASING. Now call me old-fashioned but on this speck of the universe engineers just don’t do that sort of thing ... Having said that however, if the shell was constructed not of plain metal but of an “artificial” metal (of an artificial metallized dielectric composition), and the electromagnetic waves being used were of small enough wavelength, radio waves of microwave length being particularly suitable, then just as Lazar has implied THE HULL OF THE CRAFT COULD BE USED AS A LENS for focusing the electromagnetic waves. Because with radio waves of very short wavelength it has long been established that they behave somewhat like lightwaves, in that they have what is termed “optical properties” meaning that these waves can be bent or flattened by a suitably constructed “lens.” Such a lens for a radio micro-wave is made not of glass but of metallized plates inter-spaced certain distances apart, which in this case would equate to around 10 - 50 mm apart. In this way the hull could be used as a very efficient waveguide, not merely to focus the beams but more advantageously to regulate their shape or to give a predetermined delay between one beam and another.
Click Image To Enlarge
This is how it could be done: Whereas normal dielectrics have microscopic particles and interfaces, the “artificial dielectric” can be made to have metal strips (or rods or spheres) of macro-scopic size constructed into it in the form of a lattice. With this technique comes the added advantage that the strips or particles can be aligned to the orientation of the required electric fields. Of the two main types of structured “metallic lens” the M-plane alignment retards the em wave, and the E-plane alignment accelerates the wave (in the E-plane structure the metal strips are parallel to the plane of the electric field of the wave - as shown in the figure above). Further, if the spacing between these parallel strips or plates is exactly one-half wavelength the wave is greatly accelerated. A honeycomb structure in the artificial “metal” would be ideal for this purpose.
Click Image To Enlarge
If you look at the figure, above, you will see three sections of the bottom of the hull, each having their own unique curvature. Each of these curved sections are uniquely curved because they have different spacing from the wave generators, resulting in a different “focal length” (to use a photographic term) for the wave propagation. At different focal lengths, the wave’s shape will be different as it enters the dielectric waveguide lens. The resultant wave produced by that lens-waveguide, when that wave passes through it, will also be different. Couple to this the fact that for every different angle that the waves pass through the dielectric hull a different effect of refraction will occur to the wave. Consider next that if this craft uses the two outer generators to focus their two microwave-beams at some finite point in the distance, it would follow that to approach that same point in space, the two beams will have traversed through a different thickness of the dielectric lens, at a different angle, meaning that the two beams will be shaped slightly differently. If, then, it can be controlled how the two waves are shaped, then it will also be possible to control their constructive and destructive interference pattern - and hence the strength or weakness of the electric field at the area where the two beams approach each other. And as you already know the stronger the electric field the stronger the repulsion - the stronger the acceleration.
1The above Bob Lazar quotes are taken from “Alien Contact” by Timothy Good (1993) page 183 and page 181, respectively.
The quote below was taken from an old webpage of Bob Lazar’s - and for more detailed information see his Reactor and Microwave Analogy webpage if you can.
“The disc is one of nine, given to the American government in an ‘exchange’ program in the early 1970’s. The makers of the craft and providers of the fuel were from the Zeta Reticuli star system. What we exchanged for the technology is not known. A back engineering program began in 1979 of the remaining hardware and technology.”
Courtesy of an article titled, "An Alien Spacecraft Unveiled" written by Rick Richards, an article titled, "Bob Lazar's Gravity Generator" written by Paul E. Potter and an article dated May 5, 2005, witten by Steve Quayletitled, "Have Scientists Just Proven Bob Lazar Right on Alien Anti-gravity System?"
Particles collide at an exhibit at CERN, whose scientists hope to discover the Higgs boson, a theoretical particle that could explain how the universe is built.
Clues From Geneva's Collider Suggest Existence of Higgs Boson, Fabled Particle Key to Presence of Stars, Planets, People
Scientists are making tantalizing progress in the hunt for the elusive Higgs boson, a theoretical particle that could explain how the universe is built, though their data aren't robust enough yet to claim a conclusive discovery.
On Tuesday, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, near Geneva, Switzerland, said that data from two independent experiments had narrowed the range of the would-be particle's likely mass.
Large Hadron Collider at CERN (Click Image To Enlarge)
The Higgs boson is the only particle that the standard model of physics says should be there but hasn't been observed in an experiment. The model describes how matter is built and particles interact.
Scientists claimed progress in the search for the Higgs boson - colloquially known as the 'God particle' - which is considered the basic building block of the universe, Gautam Naik reports on digits. Photo: Getty Images.
Proof that the particle exists would help explain a big puzzle: why some objects in the universe—such as the quark, a constituent of protons—have mass, while other objects—such as photons, the constituent of light—possess only energy.
By extension, its discovery would help explain the presence of stars, planets and humans, and thus rank as one of the biggest coups for modern-day physics.
"The Higgs is the missing piece" in the current theory of matter, said Stefan Soldner-Rembold of the University of Manchester, England, who has been on a decade-long quest for the particle, though he wasn't involved in the recent LHC experiments. The latest data may be far from definitive, but "we're going in the direction that it is there," he added.
In 1964, three groups of physicists independently proposed the existence of the Higgs boson. It was named after one of the scientists, Peter Higgs, now an emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Thousands of scientists have since tried to chase down the fabled subatomic particle.
Because nobody knows what the mass of a Higgs boson might be, the particle must be hunted indirectly, typically in giant machines that propel particles to near-light speed, then smash them together and generate an array of other subatomic particles.
The hope is that one such particle would be the Higgs itself, though it would almost instantly decay into different combinations of other particles. Finding it would then involve looking for statistically significant "excesses" of those particles.
The latest experiments at LHC, which is overseen by the European particle-physics laboratory CERN, found modest excesses of this sort in the data, a promising sign. One of the experiments, known as Atlas, suggests that Higgs could have a tiny mass, in the range of 116 to 130 gigaelectronvolts, or GeV. The other experiment pegged the particle's mass at 115 to 127 GeV.
On an individual basis, none of these excesses is any more statistically significant than tossing a die and ending up with two sixes in a row. However, physicists are encouraged, because multiple independent measurements indicate that the Higgs may be lurking in the region of 124 to 126 GeV.
CERN researcher Fabiola Gianotti of the Atlas experiment, suggesting a mass about 125 times that of a proton, said.
"Over the last few weeks, we have started to see an intriguing excess of events around 125 GeV. This excess may be due to a fluctuation, but it could also be something more interesting. We cannot conclude anything at this stage. We need more study and more data."
How might the Higgs boson confer mass to particles? Physicists have suggested that as the universe cooled after the Big Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago, a force known as the Higgs field formed, along with the particle.
The video "The ATLAS Experiment - Mapping the Secrets of the Universe," was produced by ATLAS in two parts and describes the creation of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang, the Standard Model of Elementary Particles and forces making up matter, and the idea behind the creation of the ATLAS Experiment:
Part I:
Part II:
Under this scenario, the Higgs field permeates the universe, and any particles that interact with it are given a mass through the Higgs boson. The more they interact, the heavier they become. Particles that don't interact with the Higgs field are left with no mass at all.
CERN scientists say they plan to refine their analysis and won't be able to offer a definitive conclusion until sometime next year.
It's been an eventful year for the esoteric field of particle physics, especially at CERN. In September, for example, an experiment there reported ghostlike particles known as neutrinos apparently traveling a tiny bit faster than light, an apparent breach of the cosmic speed limit set down by Albert Einstein.
Yet, like many physicists, Dr. Soldner-Rembold of the University of Manchester isn't necessarily eager for the Higgs to be found.
He said.
"It would perhaps be even more exciting if it isn't where it's supposed to be. Then we'd have to come up with something else."
COMMENTARY: BREAKING NEWS: CERN physicists held a seminar on December 13, 2011 providing the latest update on the findings of research being done by the ATLAS Experiment to find the Higgs boson particle. The seminar was in two videos:
Part I:
Part II:
The ATLAS Experiment
The ATLAS Experiment is a particle physics experiment that is exploring the fundamental nature of matter and the basic forces that shape our universe. ATLAS has begun the search for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy. ATLAS is one of the largest collaborative efforts ever attempted in the physical sciences. There are 3000 physicists (Including 1000 students) participating from 174 universities and laboratories in 38 countries. Visit http://atlas.ch
The ATLAS Detector
ATLAS is one of two general-purpose particle detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN.
The job of ATLAS is to record and visualise the explosions of particles that result from the collisions at LHC. The information obtained on a particle includes its speed, mass, and electric charge, and this information helps physicists to work out the identity of the particle.
ATLAS will investigate a wide range of physics, including the search for the Higgs boson, extra-dimensions, and particles that could make up dark matter. ATLAS will record sets of measurements on the particles created in collisions - their paths, energies, and their identities.
The following view shows ATLAS under construction beginning in 2003 through animations and time lapse images and video clips:
The following two-part video series (a must view) of The ATLAS Experiment explains the inner workings of the ATLAS Detector, how CERN physicists using the LHC collide protons together to create the sub-atomic particles of matter (See The Standard Model of Elementary Particles below) and how those sub-atomic particles are detected, tracked and measured:
Part I:
Part II:
This is accomplished in ATLAS through six different detecting subsystems (Innter Detector, Electromagnetic Calorimeters, Hadronic Clorimeters, Muon Detectors, and Particle Identification Detectors) that identify particles and measure their momentum and energy.
Another vital element of ATLAS is the huge magnet system that bends the paths of charged particles for momentum measurement.
The interactions in the ATLAS detectors will create an enormous dataflow. To digest these data, ATLAS needs a very advanced trigger and data acquisition system, and a large computing system.
ATLAS is about 45 meters long, more than 25 meters high, and weighs about 7,000 tons. It is about half as big as the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and weighs the same as the Eiffel Tower or a hundred 747 jets (empty).
Various images of the ATLAS Detector (Click Images To Enlarge)
To view a comprehensive list of images of the ATLAS Detector through its various phases of construction click HERE.
To view the videos produced for the ATLAS Experiment YouTube channel click HERE.
If you would like a more thorough and technical description of the ATLAS Detector, Columbia University has published the following technical paper. You can download it by clicking HERE.
ATLAS Schedule
Late 2009 -- Startup of LHC and first event collisions at a total energy of 0.9 TeV and later at 2.36 TeV (above the previous world record).
March 2010 -- Event collisions at a total energy of 7 TeV. This led to about eight months of data taking before a few weeks of heavy ion collisions and the usual winter shutdown. Many papers with early results have come as a result of the 2010 run.
March 2011 -- Event collisions at a total energy of 7 TeV. Two years of much more intensive data taking. There will also be a few weeks of heavy ion collisions and a winter shutdown (Dec. 2011 - Feb. 2012).
2013 -- A long shutdown to prepare for an increase of the total energy towards 14 TeV.
Next 15-20 years -- Continued data taking with publication of results on an ongoing basis.
Make-Up of ATLAS Scientists
ATLAS is a virtual United Nations of 38 countries. In this troubled world, it is inspiring to see people from many lands working together in harmony. International collaboration has been essential to this success. These physicists come from more than 174 universities and laboratories and include 1000 students. ATLAS is one of the largest collaborative efforts ever attempted in the physical sciences.
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
The protons are accelerated in opposite directions in the Large Hadron Collider, an underground accelerator ring 27 kilometres in circumference at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Crashing together in the center of ATLAS, the particles will produce tiny fireballs of primordial energy. LHC recreates the conditions at the birth of the Universe -- 30 million times a second. Relics of the early Universe not seen since the Universe cooled after the Big Bang 14 billion years ago will spring fleetingly to life again. The LHC is in effect a Big Bang Machine. (Portions of this text are paraphrased from an article written by Dennis Overbye in the New York Times on May 15, 2007, with permission.)
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest energy particle accelerator (17 miles in circumference) located at the CERN facility in Switzerland (Click Image To Enlarge)
The Standard Model of Elementary Particles
The Standard Model of Elementary Particles (simplified version) classifies sub-atomic particles into three familes:
Quarks, coming in six flavors (u, c, t, d, s and b) and three colors (red, green and blue)
Leptons, of the charged (electron-like: e, u and t) and uncharged (neutrino-like: Ve, Vu, Vt) variety.
Force-carrying particles: the photon (y), the eight gluons (g), and the very heavy weak bosons (responsible for radioactive decay: W± and the Z0).
All told, these particles and the way they interplay with one another fundamentally and successfully explains every phenomenon ever observed, with the sole exception of gravitation.
The Higgs boson (H) is the last particle predicted by the Standard Model that has yet to have been found. The Higgs is predicted to be the reason everything in the universe has mass. It is also supposed to break the Electro Weak symmetry: the fact that the EM boson is massless while the Weak bosons have mass.
The following Standard Model of Fundamental Particles and Interactions (expanded version) chart was prepared by the Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP) by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Livermore in 2000 and provides more detailed descriptions of each sub-atomic family and the individual particles within each family. This chart does not make reference to the Higgs boson particle which according to theoretical physicists is predicted to exist, but is yet to be discovered.
I hope you have enjoyed this blog post as much as I have enjoyed putting it together for you.
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