Different news

What can I do to catch you up with recent events? 

Some particle physics news: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-particle-physics-of-you

New views of Pluto and Charon: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-day-on-pluto-a-day-on-charon

I have made some progress with my telescope. My older one is a 5 inch reflector. It is all metal and has a sturdy stand but it needs attention from time to time. I bought an adapter unit so I could use my iPhone to take astronmical pictures (planets and star trails and things like that). I had to figure a way to balance the telescope when I added the adapter and my iPhone. One of my friends mentioned "why don't you put an extra weight on the other end?" That seemed like an easy change, so I bought some weights, a carabiner and a chain (from an id tag) so I can hang all of those things on when I use the adapter. It works very well.

Now I just need to take some pictures. 

Catching up

This has been a difficult time to do a lot of blogging. Last summer was much better. I wonder what accounts for the difference...


Anyway, I don't want this to be a place where I complain a lot, but I will. It has been BUSY.  A little bit has been taken off my plate lately, somewhat against my wishes. I will consider sharing more about that later.  At least it has diminished my responsibilities for the moment and that is alright with me.

Astronomy class continues to be great. Despite some hiccups (rare ones) my students have been up to the challenge and respond in thoughtful ways. Today we discussed a way to choose people for a fictional trip to another world. The premise is that the Earth is dying and we need to send a group to a new world (sounds like Interstellar).  There is no perfect way to choose people, but we made our own lists and then discussed how to make choices. I always like it when they come up with a new idea or new perspective.

Over time, I think I am getting less enthusiastic for teaching subjects in which there is one "correct" answer. Everyone accepts the answer and there is nothing to talk about (unless you can't figure out that answer and that can be frustrating). (I.e. Physics)

I noticed the beautiful alignment of planets earlier in October. I took this photo as I got in my car at home and was about to drive to school. So this is taken at about 6:45 am looking east. The moon is the easiest to see and a small dot to the lower left of the moon is Venus. As time went on in October, you could see Mars and Jupiter there as well. It was quite a sight to see!

So much blogging to do, so little time...

This year has been really hectic and busy. I am having a great time teaching astronomy for the first time, but,... the first time with any course means a lot of preparation.

Here are some new things in the news. I have been pleased to see so much news about not just New Horizons, but Mars, comets, exo-planets, black holes and other objects out there.

And while we're at it - take a look at the southern sky in the morning, looking east. You'll see a wonderful alignment of Venus, Jupiter and Mars, in order of brightness. You can't miss them. Here's a link.

Next up: New Horizons published first Pluto paper

Exoplanets! How do you spot an Exo-planet from Earth?

Your moment of Zen: Wonderful video from the ISS of water in space


I have to find some time to go see The Martian...

Hello astronomy

Well I had some time off at the end of the summer and now I am back at school. Alex and I had some good time to relax and do things that we wanted. It started off as a busy summer with me at NIST and Alex at camps, but ended very nicely with my friend Grzegorz's visit from Poland.

This year I am teaching astronomy for the first time and am having a great time. You never know when you start a new course or project, but this one is working out well. I have the background and the interest and everything is working out fine.

I have some links here to post from some brand new, and also ground breaking news regarding exo-planets (planets orbiting other stars).

Exo-planet "movie"

A comet on its way to hit the sun. This is kind of striking in its own way.


And finally, a group of people making a scale model of the solar system in the desert. Very nicely done.

Next week we will work on our equinox project, during which we will take measurements of the sun and the angle of the shadows that an object makes on the ground. We will share that data with some local teachers as well as a number of my friends from CERN!

Quickly- sign up now!!

A pair of researchers are developing a mobile phone app that will detect cosmic rays.

http://crayfis.io/beta/

(story from NPR) http://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/395800694/want-to-do-a-little-astrophysics-this-app-detects-cosmic-rays

Well this is interesting

If this is accurate, the Air Force has a very interesting vehicle at this disposal. 

http://m.space.com/30245-x37b-military-space-plane-100-days.html?cmpid=514648_20150814_50787526&adbid=632159827867791360&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856

Philae lander data

Here is an announcement of the results from the Philae lander from last November.

A little particle physics today

Time for a little particle physics today. I have been concentrating on Pluto lately, for darned good reasons, but I actually do have some other interests (see older posts.)

In the summer of 2014, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to study particle physics at CERN, outside of Geneva, Switzerland. I took part in a High School Teacher program that invited 50 teachers from across the globe (32 countries I believe). It was a fantastic experience and one I will never forget.

(Come to think about it, I should have blogged about it at the time...)

Here are a few of the reasons it was so spectacular.  I made friends from different countries that I never would have otherwise met. One of those friends is coming to visit me soon. The other teachers were some of the most thoughtful, interesting people I have met. Also, as my first true international experience, I was thrilled to meet people with different ideas and different ways of doing things. I love those kinds of experiences and seek them out.

After three weeks, we had really become our own little community. We have our own Facebook group and have managed to stay in touch. A few of us even did an equinox activity and measured the length of shadows on the spring equinox. (With a small amount of math, you can determine the latitude of your location from the shadow. Pretty nice.)

Another aspect about the CERN scientists that impressed was not actually the incredible technology or the fact that they had found the Higgs boson two years prior (although it is pretty darned cool). What impressed me most was that they were so giving of their time. When they answered our questions (and there were many questions) no one was ever peeking at their watch, or saying "Oh, I'd love to stay and talk more, but..." A couple of them even came back for a second talk, or simply another question and answer session. They were giving of themselves and their time and showed how invested they are in their work.

Along those lines, I found some wonderful links from PHD comics, about the Higgs boson, dark matter and extra dimensions. Enjoy!


Okay, I can't help it, here is something cool about Pluto.

The icy plains of Pluto

More of the data from New Horizons is on its way to APL and Earth.  I am not even sure what to write about what has been found. Instead of a cold, dead, icy world, we have found a mysterious little world with very few craters, and well as flowing Nitrogen glaciers. Pluto's atmosphere has also finally had a close-up investigation.

I'll collect some of my thoughts about this new information, but I think it really shows how well prepared the New Horizons team was for the encounter, and it also validates the entire mission.

"The Frozen Plans of Pluto"

"Unofficially naming Pluto"

Good bye to the week of Pluto, but hello data

Things are only looking more exciting, as more and more data will be made available from New Horizons in the coming days and week.

News from BBC "What have we learned so far?"


With the incredible images that have already been made public, I am looking forward to seeing even more soon. I am guessing that we will get to see many close up images of both Pluto and Charon.

And on top of that, I am scheduled to teach astronomy at school (for the very first time I might add).  I told my teaching partner back in June that we should begin the year with Pluto.  Now, in June, I had no idea what we would find, but I knew that it would be wonderful.  I feel vindicated.

Next week I will be helping to manage the annual QuarkNet cosmic ray teachers workshop at Johns Hopkins University.  I have been involved with QuarkNet for 13 years now, and have taken part in all sorts of activities.  It is a regular event for me now. I'll write more about QuarkNet next week.

Now for a little bit with Charon

I think you could call much of this week "and now for something completely different..."


While many of us (including me) thought that we would find a little snowball without many surface features, we have, of course, been proven wrong. Mother Nature has a way of doing that, and that is one of the principal reasons that I find science so exciting.

To give you a little recap and maybe pique your curiosity, Pluto has a variety of surface features, and they appear to be geologically new.  That's really surprising. Its really far from the sun (duh) and really small, so what could cause geologic activity? WE DON"T KNOW.

Add to that a serious lack of cratering, and you have to think that something is remaking the surface. (Impact craters tend to disappear on Earth due to activity, and remain on our moon, due to lack of activity).


Another good article from Smithsonian (which is showing terrific scientific coverage of the flyby without being too technical).

New Horizon +1

I am still excited about Pluto.  It was tremendous to share the thrill yesterday.  I tuned in at 8 am as well as later in the day to see the news.  Around 9 pm on Tuesday, New Horizons communicated with scientists back on Earth and verified that all was well. The big show is yet to come, as it will be a few days until the data really starts to flow.

As someone who thinks that Pluto is a planet (and I will always consider it to be one) I found it particularly rewarding to see glimpses of a complicated world with varied terrain. Pluto, it turns out, is not such a dull place.  Move over Mars, there is another Red Planet.


Good article from Smithsonian.com about the mission

I am just going to turn this into Pluto week. Come back tomorrow!

We have made it to Pluto!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a wonderful day! I have been thinking about all of the things that had to go right to make this happen.

More information will be coming from the spacecraft tonight and in the days to come.

Link from BBC news

Best images of Pluto from before.

Best image from today.

The wait for Pluto is almost over!

I can say that tomorrow is a long-awaited day. I am sure that is true for many as we finally see New Horizons reach its encounter with Pluto.

(Oh, how I wish that New Horizons would settle in an orbit and remain around Pluto for a while).

I have very vivid memories of checking on the countdown clock for New Horizons, when it was at the level of multiple years.  And yet I have maintained my enthusiasm for the mission. Ok, it wasn't that hard to keep my enthusiasm. This has been something that I have wanted to see since I was about 9.  Some ideas don't get old.

Here is a link from Sky and Telescope "Countdown to New Horizons Encounter with Pluto".

And also some excellent views of Pluto and its never-before-seen topography.

Pluto close-up


And a more comprehensive sit for news and images (including the whale and the donut)



I can't wait for tomorrow!

Update from NIST

This may be a short post from today.

I am undertaking a crash course in neutron scattering methods.  Neutrons are excellent tools to use to investigate the atomic nucleus.  Neutrons are neutral and don't interact with electrons, so they go straight to the nucleus and scatter, just like light scatters through a small opening.  So I have been able to use my background knowledge of waves and scattering which has been useful, to a point.

For the past few days I have analyzed data from my mentor's recent experiment. Much of what they analyze deals with intensity and scattering distances.  The raw data looks very much like scattered light from a star, and that 2d data is then mapped and transferred to a 1d graph.  There is something very much like magic going on with a stop called "data reduction" that I have been trying to learn. Very curious stuff.

So I have generated a lot of intensity vs length graphs in a software package called IGOR. The data is also graphed according to the particular model that is being used. A different-shaped molecule will scatter that light differently (much like a pinhole and a thin slit will scatter light differently), so different models are used according to what type of molecule you are investigating. (This group investigates a lot of soft matter; polymers and so forth).

So I have been reading the software manual, journal articles and "how to" papers from NIST to learn how to deal with all of this information. I am on a bit of an overload right now and will get back to it tomorrow.

News bytes

Some new (and not so new) releases from the world of science:

Forbidden atomic transitions: Controlling matter 1,000 times more precisely using high-resolution spectroscopy


A nano-generator from the power of rolling tires


How many meteorite craters are out there?



Aside from my news bites (bytes?) I have begun my internship at NIST (The National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  If you don't know much about NIST, you should. As a lab, NIST is comparable to Los Alamos and Oak Ridge.  My internship is part of a project called an RET, or Research Experience for Teachers, funded through the University of Maryland.

At NIST, I have joined the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) and will have the opportunity to use neutron diffraction to explore the nature of various materials.  A lot of their work (at least in this section) falls under what you would call "soft matter" as they experiment on materials such as polymers, metals, ceramics, magnetic materials, fluids and biological molecules.

As it happens when you join a new lab, the first few days are all about getting acquainted to the place and learning what is going on.  My mentors, Boualem and Cedric, (who have been incredibly friendly and accommodating) were finishing an experiment in which they measured the differences in neutron scattering on a biological sample as they changed the pressure on the sample.  One of my first tasks is to analyze the data from that experiment. So I am learning all about a software package known as IGOR to perform the analysis.

It is an exciting time, and I look forward to learning so much more.  I love to get outside of the classroom and the summer is the perfect time to do something like this.  I am not thinking about school or classes at all and just about the science.

I will be back often this summer to write about what is happening at NIST.

Which world is this?

Some fascinating articles have been written about friction at the nano-scale recently.  I know this area has received intense coverage, almost to the point of overkill, but it represents one of the next realms of scientific experimentation. Its not that the laws of physics are different at this level, but the way that atoms respond to laws can appear to be very different, when friction and gravity no longer dominate in the way that they usually do.

News about friction

I am always interested to hear more about quantum physics and how new ideas may lead to better understandings of different interpretations.  I hardly even knew about these interpretations until confronting some of them at CERN last summer.  The Copenhagen interpretation is the most common, but by no means the only one.  The "Many Worlds' interpretation is the most popular among science fiction enthusiasts. (Think of the 90's TV show 'Sliders'). The 'Pilot Wave' interpretation claims that particles are influenced by invisible waves, and the 'Collapse' interpretation claims that the act of observing makes the quantum waves of probability collapse at a certain point, due to the observation itself. Cool stuff.

Quantum weirdness and what is actually real?

Nano friction

Here are some updates on new developments:

Putting friction to the test.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2015/jun/05/ultracold-ions-put-friction-to-the-test

New insight on the double slit experiment.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2015/may/26/do-atoms-going-through-a-double-slit-know-if-they-are-being-observed

Update

I just noticed that it has been over a month since my last post. I have cleared a huge hurdle and completed my latest graduate course (which was applied biomedical engineering). It was very likely the most difficult course I have ever taken. I finished strong and am happy that it is over.

I am working on a program of Materials Science Engineering. I have two courses left; a mathematical methods course and very likely a course in medical imaging. I already teach about medical imaging at some level and have developed a unit on MRIs and CAT scans.  So I already have an interest in that and some background knowledge.

So hopefully, in May of 2016 I will be graduating from the program. From there, we shall see...

Direct detection of an exoplanet atmosphere

This article describes the first visible light directly detected from an exoplanet. This is something like seeing what color the sky is in New York is from Los Angeles. 

Voyager at the edge of the solar system

I have followed the Voyager probes with interest since I was a kid. It made a great impression on me and taught me about the importance of all sorts of things (planetary science, rocketry, propulsion, communication, exploration,...)

After a period of debate, it now appears that Voyager 1 has left the solar system. Scientists have debated exactly where the edge of the solar system lies, until now it seems. Between the shift of magnetic fields (from solar to galactic) and the change in flux of particles (fewer from the sun and more from elsewhere) Voyager appears to now be in a region of space where nothing from Earth has ever gone.

What is weather like on exo-planets?

I find this topic particularly fascinating. Not only can we detect the presence of exo-planets (planets orbiting stars other than our own) we can search for evidence of their atmospheres. And this article is particularly well-written. 

http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/01/29/exoplanet-weather/

How smart are smart materials?

Materials that know how to bend and respond to conditions. How smart are they?

Is quantum mechanics spooky for you?

I think the authors have a point here: are we doing a disservice to quantum mechanics (and the understanding of q.m. by the general public) by emphasizing the "spooky" behavior? Is any news good news? Or are we essentially calling quantum mechanics some kind of pseudo science when we do this?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/physics/2014/09/whos-afraid-of-quantum-mechanics/

Who runs CERN?

Inside the control room(s) at CERN.

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/march-2015/inside-the-cern-control-centre

What exactly is an asteroid anyway?

An asteroid-comet hybrid??

http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/asteroid-comet-hybrid-found-with-surprise-ring-system-15031.htm?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Mythbusters&hootPostID=1b49302613d566cf70599e493e7b3d67

I also want to recognize my hard-working astronomy club students, who are hard at work at building an electromagnet.

Yes or no?

I can't decide if I like this idea for quantum computing or not. Hmmm....

In a slightly related way, graphene has been a material of intense interest in the past few years for its incredible collection of properties (incredibly thin - one atomic layer, incredibly strong - graphene sheets are one of the strongest material known, and they are nearly transparent in the single sheet form.

This video link does a good job describing those properties and the hopes for what graphene could be used. Graphene has been called the "wonder material" for these properties. Who knows what it will be used for in 10 or 20 years?

Spring equinox

My students and I have a lot planned for Friday, March 20th this year. Of course, it is all dependent on the weather. Right now they are predicting snow and/or rain, and that is troublesome. But what can you do?

A couple of my friends from CERN have agreed to measure the length of a shadow on the spring equinox. This should enable us to determine not only our own latitude, but the latitude of the other participating schools (two in Poland and one in Nepal).  Of course, you need to be able to SEE the shadow to do this.  If we can't measure it on Friday, we will pick another day in the immediate future.

I got this idea from reading about the Eratosthenes project (from Greece, of course) and their global effort to connect schools and measure the globe. I have signed us up for that as well.

Finally, the astronomy club is not only going to take measure the globe, but we are planning to use the telescopes that night, up in Frederick County, Maryland, where the skies are a bit darker.

Check out these sky maps to see what is visible this time of year.

Look up now

At the present time, the ability for automated telescopes to view the heavens is vastly greater than our ability to sort through those images. 

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/march-2015/a-telescope-that-tells-you-when-to-look-up

Spotlight on Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking seems to be everywhere these days.  Some recent videos have popped up, all worth your time,

"Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking". It focuses on the Big Bang and the formation of stars and galaxies.

"Hawking 2013" - more of a biography with a close look at Stephen and his life today.

And finally, from the way back machine, Hawking, Carl Sagan and Arthur C. Clarke (!) all together in a talk show-type format from 1988, just after the release of "A Brief History of Time". It's incredible to see all of them together, and as a bonus, you get to see how Stephen operated his voice-generating computer, albeit one he no longer uses.

Exciting times

It has occurred to me what exciting times we are living in, regarding news of scientific discoveries. Over the past two weeks I have heard about breakthroughs in nanotechnology, gravity, astronomy, astrophysics and quantum physics. And those are just the topics to which I am paying attention.

Some more news...

Light observed to show both wave and particle properties at the same time (wow).

Chandra finds a mid-size black hole.

New ideas about how the sun might be trapping dark matter. Prepare to see many articles about attempts to observe dark matter in the coming months.

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is preparing for its 2015 restart. They will be spending a lot of time and energy in Switzerland trying to observe dark matter and perhaps verifying supersymmetry.

Physics news

I am using this space to share some links for my students so they can find articles and references all in once place.
Today I shared some of these in class.




From Smithsonian, a scientist accidentally discovered a type of materials for sunglasses that could help people with a certain type of color blindness. Imagine seeing black and white your entire life, and then looking through these glasses!



Next up, researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope have imaged a supernova by means of a gravitational lens.



Last one for today - a link to the physics behind the movie Interstellar (from Wired).