The Science Blog Of Nick

Fact of the day: It takes over 16 hours for a signal travelling at the speed of light to get from earth to the voyager spacecrafts. I personally think that the things achieved in space exploration are the most remarkable achievements in the history of human kind. From the first (non-natural) satellite to orbit the earth, the Russian Sputnik 1 in 1957, to the spacecraft Voyager 1 eventually leaving the solar system in 2012. Having been to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and recently visited the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (both of which I would recommend to anyone to visit) I have really learnt to appreciate the significance of space exploration. When I was at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, the largest dish in the complex was communicating with one of the Mars rovers, but only a few hours later it would be communicating with Voyager 1, which isn't even in our solar system. I think that is simply mind blowing. (below) The largest dish in the Can...

Fact of the week: It would take you more than the age of the universe to get a reasonable chance at quantum tunnelling through a wall if you threw yourself at a wall every second. Quantum physics describes the world as a sea of probability. You cannot identify the position of an electron in an atom, as it is technically a cloud of probability around the nucleus of an atom. Quantum tunneling is an odd phenomenon where a particle breaks through a barrier, even when it does not have sufficient energy to do so. The probability of a particle, such as an electron, to quantum tunnel is quite high, but as the more massive the object gets, the lower the probability of tunnelling. Its like trying to go through a (closed) door, and you do not have a sufficient amount of energy to go through the door. The ball bounces back because it does not have enough energy to go through the door. Yet somehow it still manages to go, or tunnel, through the door. Quantum tunneling is very important, as i...

Fact of the day: The longest tail of a comet was of the comet Hyakutake, and was 3.3 astronomical units long. (above) A Comet from NASA. Comets are small balls of ice and rock, originating in the Oort Cloud and Kuiper belt, and have orbital periods that can range from tens of years to thousands of years. Comets have a very distinctive tail that is caused by the vaporisation of the nucleus of the comet. Comets are always seen with their tail pointing away from the sun, even when the comet is moving away from the sun, as the comets vaporisation is caused by the energy radiating from the sun. Comets have more than one tail, but the one that is the most visible is the tail of gas, and that is always pointing directly away from the sun as it is affected by the solar wind are than the other tails. The other tails are of dust, which are usually curved, and are less visible than the gas tails. Most comets have regular orbits, such as Halley's Comet, which returns to the Earth ...

Fact of the day: Over 15000 tonnes of meteorites fall to Earth each year. Meteors can be the most remarkable sight when viewed at night in a meteor shower. The bright streaks across the sky can be absolutely spectacular. A meteoroid is a rocky or metallic object that could enter the Earth's atmosphere to become a meteor, which can range from the size of grains of sand to one meter across. A meteor is a meteoroid that has entered the Earths atmosphere, and has started to burn up. This incredibly intense friction, or air resistance, usually ends up melting and burning the meteor and then it eventually disintegrates. A meteorite is a meteor that makes it to the surface of our planet. Meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites are usually fragments of various comets and asteroids that happen to be in the Earth's path. (below)* The 60 tonne Hoba meteorite. This landed in Namibia and is the largest intact meteorite known. * Author of the image attribution: By No machine-read...

Fact of the day: Ceres is the largest asteroid, with a diameter of 945 km. It is even classified as a dwarf planet . The asteroid belt lies between Mars and Jupiter. It is between 2.2 and 3.2 astronomical units away from the sun. The objects in it range from hundreds of kilometres wide to dust particles. The asteroids are composed mainly of rock, but some ice has been detected in and on some asteroids. The asteroid belt formed from the remains of the early solar system, and possibly the debris from the collisions of various planetoids. (below) Asteroid Eros from NASA.

Fact of the day: The dwarf planet Eris takes 558 Earth years to orbit the sun. Most dwarf planets are trans-neptunian objects, but some can orbit further inwards, such as Ceres, which orbits in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and mars. Most of the trans-neptunian dwarf planets have highly elliptical orbits, like Eris. The most famous of the dwarf planets is Pluto, as it was previously classified as a planet, but is now classified as a dwarf planet because it did not meet the criteria needed for it to be classified as a planet. These are the criteria: • The object must be in orbit around the sun. • The object has to be massive enough for it own gravity to form it into a round shape. • The object must have cleared the area in its orbit (anything that meets the above criteria but not this one is classified as a dwarf planet). There are five main dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake. Ceres Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt. It is around 9...

Fact of the day: Neptune is the furthest planet from the sun in our solar system. (above) Neptune from NASA Neptune is very similar to Uranus , in both colour, size and composition. Neptune is the last planet in the solar system, at 30.1 astronomical units (4.498 billion km) away from the sun. Neptune is around seventeen times more massive than the Earth, and has a radius of nearly four times that of the Earth's. It has the strongest winds in the solar system, at over 2200 kilometres per hour. That is (just under 1000km/h) faster than the speed of sound on Earth. It is also the coldest planet in the solar system, with temperatures in the atmosphere being at 51.8K (-221.35ºC). Neptune radiates over two times as much energy than it receives from the sun, despite its very cold temperatures. It takes Neptune 164.79 Earth years to orbit the sun, and takes 16.1 hours to rotate once in its axis. (below) This is an image of the approximate distances of the planets. The size ...

Fact of the day: Uranus has diamond rain. Uranus is the second to last planet from the sun, at an average of 19.2 astronomical units (2.871 billion km). (above) Uranus Uranus is known for both its name and that its axis is at a very large angle, 97.77º to be exact. No one knows how this occurred, but a reasonable hypothesis is that a dwarf planet collided with it in the early stages of its formation. Also, despite the fact that because of its rotation the poles receive more energy from the sun than the equator, the equator is still warmer. Uranus is composed of mostly hydrogen, helium, methane, and ammonia. Research suggests that in Uranus's mantle, the pressure breaks down the methane molecules, and the carbon from the methane then crystallises to form diamonds, with rain down like hailstones. Also, at the base of the mantle, research suggests that there is a diamond ocean. A year on Uranus is 84 Earth years, and it takes 17 hours and 14 minutes to rotate once on it...

Fact of the day: Saturn's rings are mostly only 10 metres thick, but some can be kilometres thick. Saturn is the fifth planet from the sun at 9 astronomical units (1.429 billion km) away from the sun. It is the second largest planet in the solar system. Saturn is famous for its ring system, which is made up mostly chunks of ice, varying from the size of grains of sand, to tens of metres wide. Saturn's rings extend over 120,700 km out from the planets equator. (below) Saturn and its rings. Saturn is made up of mostly hydrogen and helium, both in liquid and gaseous form. In its atmosphere it has a hexagon shape surrounding its north pole, but it is not currently known what actually causes the formation of this hexagon. Saturn takes 10,759 Earth days (about 29.5 Earth years) to orbit the sun once, and takes between 10 hours and 10 minutes, and 10 hours and 40 minutes to rotate once on its axis, depending on your latitude. (above) Saturn (below) Saturn's he...

Fact of the day: The 'Red Spot' storm on Jupiter is large enough to fit three Earths inside it. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, and the fourth planet away from the sun. It is 5.2 astronomical units (778.5 million km) away from the sun. (above) Jupiter. Jupiter is known for being the largest planet in the solar system, and for its ferocious atmosphere and storms, such as the 'Red Spot'. Jupiter's atmosphere is made up of various bands, moving at different speeds. Its atmosphere mainly consists of ammonia crystals, and this layer is only 50 km deep. Jupiter is made up of (from the surface inwards) its atmosphere, hydrogen gas, liquid hydrogen, a mix of helium and neon, a very thick layer of metallic hydrogen, and then its rocky and icy core. (below) Jupiter's stormy atmosphere. Jupiter has 67 moons, the four largest are: Ganymede, which is one of the largest in the solar system; Callisto, which has a diameter 99% that of Mercur...

Fact of the week: There are over 100 billion galaxies that are detectable with current technology, each with billions of stars in them, in the universe. I have chosen this as the fact of the week, as it, in my mind at least, is mind blowing. It is more the fact that our planet is only one among possibly hundreds of billions in our galaxy, than the number of stars and galaxies. (below) This is an image of very distant galaxies takes by NASA's hubble telescope, it shows a smiling face created by gravitational lensing. Images from NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html

Fact of the day: Mars has the largest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons at around 22,000 metres. (above) Mars. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, at 1.524 astronomical units ( 227.9 million km) away from the sun. Mars has a diameter that is just over half that of earths. Mars is known for its red appearance (hence the fact that it is occasionally called 'the red planet'), and that it has a potential to harbour life. Mars's suface is very dry and rocky. The surface is coated in dust and sand, and large rocks. The geology of the landscape suggests that water used to exist on its surface, such as the (extremely) large  valles marineris which could only have been formed by water erosion. The atmospheric pressure does not allow liquid water to exist of the surface of mars. (above) Mars's landscape taken from NASA's curiosity rover. It is also suggested that mars also had an extensive atmosphere, but due to its weak gravitational pull, was no...

Fact of the day: The first man stepped on the moon in 1969*. The moon was formed at around the same time as the Earth, and some theories suggest that the moon formed when a mars sized planet collided with the Earth and the moon formed from the debris. The moon is the fifth largest natural satellite in the solar system, and the largest natural satellite in relation to its host planet. Most people think that the moon is really close to the earth, but the distance is actually around 4 times the diameter of the earth. (above) The Earth and the moon taken from Mars. The moon always shows the same face to Earth as its orbit and rotation are synchronised by coincidence. It takes around 29.53 days to orbit the Earth and rotate once on its axis. It has no atmosphere, and as a result is covered with impact craters. The moon's noticeable effect on the Earth is the tides, but has many other effects, even effecting the weather. (above) The moon. *Some people think that this ...

Fact of the day: The earth formed 4.5 billion years ago. The Earth. A minute ball of mostly iron, oxygen and silicon, is our home. The Earth is the third planet from the sun, and has the largest natural satellite in relation to its host planet in the solar system. It is the only known (by us at least) place in the entire universe to harbour life. (above) The Earth taken from the ISS (International Space Station). The Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago, from the dusty remains of the formation of the sun. It is even safe to say that the earth has not finished forming yet as it is still geologically active. The Earth takes 365.256 days to orbit the sun and it takes 23 hours and 56 minutes to rotate once on its axis. (above) Sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico taken from the ISS. (below) The Earth at night. (above) Hurricane Mathew as seen from the ISS. (below) The aurora as seen from the ISS. Images from NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/image...

Fact of the day: The average temperature on Venus is 480ºC. Venus is the 2nd planet from the sun, at 0.723 astronomical units (108.2 million km) away from the sun. It is only very slightly smaller than earth. Venus it known for its extremely dense (the pressure on its surface is 92 times more than Earth's), carbon dioxide rich atmosphere. There is so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 96.5% to be exact, that it has the strongest greenhouse effect in the solar system. As a result of this, on Venus it is hot enough to melt some metals. The atmosphere also contains sulphur, which gives the atmosphere its distinctive colour, and can cause sulphuric acid rain. The surface of Venus is also very extreme. It is very rocky and volcanic. It has been mapped by both spacecraft and from earth. The spacecraft that has landed on its surface have had to be built to endure acid rain, and extremely high temperatures, and even then they have only still lasted for only a couple of hours. ...

Fact of the day: The temperature on Mercury ranges from 400ºC in daylight to -200ºC at night. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It is around 0.39 astronomical units away from the sun (an astronomical unit [am] is the distance from the earth to the sun) which is 57.91 million km. As a result of this, the planet endures extreme temperatures (as displayed in the title). The solar wind is so powerful there, that it has stripped away its atmosphere, so is very prone to meteorite impacts. (above) The surface of Mercury. The volume of craters is very large, even craters within craters, within craters. A year on Mercury is 88 Earth days, and a day on Mercury is 176 Earth days. This means that a day lasts for two years on Mercury. Also this planet is smaller than two of the largest satellites in the solar system, Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, and Titan, a moon of Saturn. Mercury's orbit is the most elliptical of all the planets in the solar system, and it is close to the...

Fact of the day: 1,393,684 km - The diameter of the sun. (above) The Sun The sun is the heart of the solar system. It contains 99.9% of the mass of the solar system. Every single living thing on our planet relies on its radiation. The sun is a yellow dwarf star and has an estimated lifetime of 10 billion years. The sun is around halfway through its lifetime. The sun creates its gigantic amounts of radiation by fusing hydrogen into helium. This is called nuclear fusion. It can only take place in very high temperatures (the temperature of the sun's core is more than 15,000,000ºC) and pressures, and because of this, scientists can make fusion reactors, but they need more energy to start the fusion process than it ends up producing. The radiation from the surface of the sun takes eight minutes to travel to the earth, however, the radiation takes up to 100,000 years from is's core to the surface of the sun. The sun is built up in layers: • Core - Where the highest tem...

Fact of the day: The solar system has a diameter of 50,000 astronomical units (an astronomical unit is the distance from the earth to the sun). (above) The planets of the solar system (size and distance are out of proportion). The solar system is a tiny speck of mostly nuclear fusion among billions in our galaxy. In this topic I will be posting about the solar system. Everything I think you need to know about our star and its tiny patch of the universe. The solar system is the place that we know the most about, besides our own planet. The solar system is a very extreme place, with temperatures rising to over 15 million degrees celsius, to temperatures only tens of degrees above absolute zero. From acid rain on Venus, to diamond rain on Uranus and Neptune, it will (probably) be covered. The sun is the centre of the solar system, and every single living thing on the Earth relies on it.