Icy Science e-magazine is a free Astronomy, Science & Space digital magazine. In this edition we look at Saturn and two of its moons, Enceladus an icy world with a possible large body of liquid water under its susrface and Titan where a liquid flows on its surace. We look at evolution and gravitational waves.
Icy Science e-magazine is a free Astronomy, Science & Space digital magazine. In this edition we look at Saturn and two of its moons, Enceladus an icy world with a possible large body of liquid water under its susrface and Titan where a liquid flows on its surace. We look at evolution and gravitational waves.
Icy Science e-magazine is a free Astronomy, Science & Space digital magazine. In this edition we look at Saturn and two of its moons, Enceladus an icy world with a possible large body of liquid water under its susrface and Titan where a liquid flows on its surace. We look at evolution and gravitational waves.
SPRING 2014 2 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 3 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Writers This Month Alastair leith Julian Onions David Bood Zantppy Skiphop Henna Khan Joolz Wright Dan Lucs J L Kennedy Image Lef: Mike Greenham WELCOME Spring is here again and it is tme for another editon of Icy Science digital magazine. The magazine is a free community based EZine. Artcles are writen by people with a keen interest in science and the natural world. This month our main feature is Saturn, looking at the planet itself and two of its main moons. Titan and Enceladus. We also have a feature on Evoluton, the evidence for Darwins evo- luton is now overwhelming. More evidence for the Big Bang with a look at gravitatonal waves. For those who enjoy a spot of pho- tography Joolz Wright looks at cloudbows, and included are stun- ning images. Finally this editon is more interatve, with links and yes playing video. Take a look aroung the Tring Astronomy Centre, just run your mouse over the image and click. However you must view in Adobe Arobat Reader to get the full interatve experience.There is also a story for younger readers So enjoy..... Editor: Dave Bood Contact: E: dbood@icyscience.com TWITTER: @DavesAstronomy W: www.icyscience.com 4 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 In This Edition 6 Planetarium 9 Equations for Telescopes 16 In Saturns Rings 18 Saturn The Ring Bearer 29 A Sea on Enceladus, and a Robotic Mole 45 Titan 50 Interview with Valerie Klavans 60 Evolution 71 Chasing Cloudbows 78 The Importance of Gravitational Waves and the Formation of the Cosmic Microwave Background 82 Fuzzballs Kids Corner P 29 P 50 P 78 5 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 6 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 If there was an ideal way to get kids to see the stars no mater what the weather, a mobile planetarium is a must in my honest opinion. Over the years they have been used increasingly by outreach events as a means of inspiring children and indeed the more mature into science. I have delivered a fair few of these shows now to schools and public events, though without doubt it is hard work organisatng batches of up to 30 adults and children to come and sit into what I suppose amounts to and indeed looks like an infatable igloo to sit on the foor staring at the wall. Twitter: @alstronomy Alstronomy facebook page www.northampton-planetarium.co.uk powered by Immersive Theatres Alastair Leith 7 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 I must admit that from the moment they see the dome from the outside (many believing its a bouncy castle!) to when you give them the talk on how to enter the dome (makes it look like you are swimming) down to instructons on how and where to sit. You have them in a trance. Sitng in a dark room with either a space picture of project of stars over their heads ignites curiousity and the feeling of expecton straight of (you dont know what Is going to happen). As a general rule I try to use a nice NASA space picture, sometmes of the Earth as a means of at least providing some light for when people enter the dome. IF pitch black they cannot easily see where they are going. You try to advise them too that there is expensive equipment as they enter. To be honest you could buy a singing and dancing brand new family car for the cost of the setup. That said though the Moment the Planetarium sofware fres up and those stars are on the dome and start moving the wow factor starts to kicking in. Startng with the rotaton of the sky to show how the sky would look that night and whats up in the night sky. Begin then a tour of some of the 8 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 objects and the planets that are passing through. They simply love the wow factor of the Zoom it, to see up close the Planets. You tell them it can take several years to get there by space ship but we can zoom there in a few seconds and stll have them home in tme for tea. You then play a movie for them where they get to see a story being told. I have never met a child yet who has not emerged from the show dazed, gob- smacked, and hypnotsed by what they have seen. Many, including adults want to learn more, see more. For me as a presenter the job satsfacton, and it is taxing delivering one show afer another for 8 straight hours. But its worth it to see the look on peoples faces. You have had a part in inspiring the young and old alike and what you have done for them will remain with them tl the end. That has to be worth the stretch! By Alastair Leith FRAS Alastair Leith is a professional corporate trainer, adult educaton tutor, and free- lance planetarium presenter working with Immersive Theatres He has had a life- long interested in astronomy. He is also known for running the Online Astronomy Society and the Academy. Image Lef: Stellarium 9 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Equations for telescopes So what is the frst thing a relatve or friend will ask you when you get a new telescope? Oooh lovely, how many tmes does it magnify? 10x, 100x, 1000x? Its a tricky queston to answer, as you probably know, because its, well, its not important really. Well, I mean it is, the purpose of a telescope is to make small things bigger afer all. However, its prety easy to get it to magnify up to almost any power you like by putng the right lens in. So the magnifcaton is a straightorward equaton. Its the focal length of the objectve (thats the big lens or mirror) divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. Now the eyepiece usually has it writen on it. I ofen use a 26mm eyepiece, and my telescope has a 127mm main mirror. So I know f_ebut not f_o- but thats ok we can work it out. The f-rato of the telescope is the focal length of the objectve, divided by the diameter of the objectve. So we can work that out. 10 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 My telescope has an f-rato of f/15 - its writen on the tube, so 127 x 15 means the focal length of the objectve is 1905 mm. Now, where were we. Oh yes magnifcaton. So with a 26mm eyepiece, I have 1905/26 = 73. So I have 73x magnifcaton. If I put a 9mm lens in, I get 211x. My smallest lens is a 6.4mm one, which would therefore give 298x magnifcaton. All well and good, but I rarely use this eyepiece, and Im sure if you have similar you know why too. You get terrible results. The focusing is dreadful, balanced on a knife edge. The image is typically blurry, and when all is said and done, a star looks like a dot, no mater how much you magnify it. Interestngly I know people with 200mm objectves, much bigger telescopes. They have a focal length of 1000mm, so a 26mm lens on that would be 38x. So bigger mirror, more impressive size, less magnifcaton! Weird! I could get a 1 mm lens, and have it magnify 1900x - but it wouldnt be worth bothering with. You can get any magnifcaton you like, just like you can blow up a digital image to any size you like - but beyond Above: Airy disk - simulated, credit wikipedia Below: Airy disk from a laser passing through a pin hole - Wikipedi 11 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 a certain size, you start to see just pixels, so there is no gain. Yes you can magnify it a billion tmes, but the results will look horrible, and the same is true of telescopes. So - there must be another limit were hitng up against, and anyway why do people want bigger tele- scopes? Theyre always going on about the size of their mirrors, but as weve seen it doesnt really help magnify things that much. So why the aperture fever? The problem is that even with the best optcs in the world, and perfect seeing, light does not focus down to a single point, even from a point source like a star. What you actually get is a series of concentric circles. The middle is the bright and slightly fuzzy circular point, but then there are rings expanding outwards and So this is the limiting factor. If were trying to look at fne detail, well eventually fnd the two disks overlap, and what is two things blurs into one. Its caused by collision of light waves inter- fering with each other as they enter the tele- scope and are brought to a focus. So - can we do anything about it? Well, yes we can - you probably knew that was coming, and you probably can guess at the answer. The formula for how big this circle is, is given by Airys formula Airys formula 12 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 @julianonions Image Credit: Mock up of the E-ELT Mirror - credit ESO Article Words: Julian Oniions
13 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Woah, whats all that gibberish?? Well lets break it down a litle and see, its not so hard. sin- well this is the sin of the angle (which is the greek leter theta) of the frst ring. The angle is how big that fuzzy disk is going to be. Why - Im not sure, but angles in maths and physics nearly always use the greek leter for some no doubt historic reason. Do you remember sines, cosines and tan- gents? No - oh well never mind. One neat trick is that the sin of a very small angle is almost the same as the angle itself. It all goes wrong as the angle gets bigger, but it means that for small angles sinand the angles were looking at are typically very small. this just means approximately equal to - so maybe not to several decimal places, but generally good enough. 1.22 is just a number, Im sure youve met those before is the greek leter lambda, and is used in physics for wavelengths (in this case of light). and d is the diameter of the objectve lens/mirror. We can simplify this somewhat. Lets stck with green light, which is about in the middle of the visible band. This has a wavelength of around 550 nanome- ters, or 550x10-9 meters. So we can now simplify the equaton somewhat. 14 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 OK - so now we have an equaton with a bunch of numbers in that tell us how big the blurry spot will be. There are a bunch of things on the top line, but they are all constant. So there is nothing we can do about those (well we could go to shorter wavelengths, but we said well stck with visible green light). So the only thing we can play with is the value of d. If we make d smaller, the angle gets bigger. In case you cant see this, lets replace the numbers on the top with 10. Now if we have d of 5, then the angle is 2, a d of 2 makes an angle of 5, a d of 1 makes it 10. So you can see as d gets smaller the angle, and hence how blurry the image is, gets bigger. If we make the mirror bigger though, the angle gets smaller, and each star forms a smaller spot. So we can see more detail, split stars and so on. This is crucially why big mirrors are beter than small mirrors. When you magnify up the image, you can go further before it all becomes a mess. Its like having more megapixels on your camera! So that is why astronomers want ever bigger mirrors. However, if we go back to the equaton, and look at changing the wavelength, we can see something else. If we switch to radio waves, which are huge compared to light waves, we can see what happens. It explains why tele- scopes like the Jodrell Bank radio telescope are so big. If we write out the formula putng in the radio waves that a radio telescope generally looks at, for instance 10cm, what does that do? 15 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 How does this compare with my 127mm refector? Working out the relatve values, my telescope has about 300 tmes the resolving power of the 76 meter monster at Jodrell Bank, just because Im using shorter wave- lengths! Take that! Lef: Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope - credit wikipedia Of course there are other constraints. How stable the air is, the seeing. How much dust is in the air, how clean and per- fectly machined your mirror is, how good your eyepiece is, how much atmosphere you are looking through etc etc. Some of these you can change, but some youre stuck with. So - we dont talk about mag- nifcaton much with telescopes, but more about resolving power. So next tme your Aunt asks you how many tmes it makes things bigger, you can either a) launch into a diatribe about the relatve merits of resolving power versus magnifcaton, or b) smile sweetly and say oh - about 100x and silently grind your teeth! Words: Julian Onions Twiter @julianonions 16 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 In Saturns Rings is a large format movie about Saturn made exclusively from real photographs taken by spacecraf. Director Stephen van Vuuren used more than a million photographs and numerous flm techniques to create the efect of fying through space around Saturn and among its rings. CGI and 3-D modeling were not used in any capacity to create the realistc feel van Vuuren wanted for the viewers experience. Most of the photos were taken by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraf, which was launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. 17 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 18 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 19 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 SATURN THE RING BEARER 20 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Saturn- The Ring Bearer by D Bood Distnctve and impressive, Saturn is truly a wonder to be observed through a telescope. One of four gas giants and the second largest planet in our solar system, Saturn orbits out in a cold region of our neighbourhood. Saturn is the sixth planet out from the sun and has a very distnctve ring system. All the gas giants have faint rings; however the ices that make up Saturns rings make them highly refectve. There are four gas giants in our system, Jupiter the largest planet, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. However Uranus and Neptune are also known as the Ice giants. The ice giants have a less volatle compositon and contain less hydrogen than Jupiter and Saturn. The ice giants are composed mainly of ices and are thought not to have metallic hydrogen at their cores. Images: Above Saturn -NASA Opposite: Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune 21 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 22 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Saturn is a strange world, it has no solid surface, and its atmosphere bleeds into a liquid body. The planet is primarily made of Hydrogen and Helium. Making up the rest is water, ammonia and methane ices. Saturns clouds are composed of Hydrogen and Helium Gases with Methane, Ammonia and Water ice crystals. When you dive deeper into the planet the clouds become denser and pressure mounts. Eventually you will fnd yourself in a molecular hydrogen liquid. It is possible this liquid surrounds a rocky hot core. Conductve layers around the core are thought to produce Saturns magnetc feld. Images: Above Wikipedia, Botom: NASA Opposite: D Bood
Saturn Facts Saturn radiates 79% more energy than it receives from the sun. 23 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 24 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 A Day on Saturn It is complicated to determine a Saturn day; afer all, the entre planet is a ball of gas with no land features to mark a point and tme how long that point makes a full revoluton. The diferent layers observed, rotate at diferent speeds. Astronomers have devised a system to look at the diferent areas rotaton. It is called System 1, 2 and 3. However, a day on Saturn is roughly just over 10 hours. What is interestng is that both Saturn and Jupiter are stll evolv- ing, they are stll setling in gravitatonal terms. This means they are contractng which in turn created internal heat. Saturn radiates 3 tmes more heat than it receives from the sun. The Rings Saturns rings can be seen with a small telescope; however larger telescopes give you more detail. The rings are amazing to see. With a smaller telescope the rings appear more as one ring, larger scopes you can make out in more detail individual rings. The rings have been identfed and labelled in order of discovery and using a simple identfcaton system, (A,B,C to G). 25 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 26 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 The rings are mainly composed of water ice; they range from small partcles to larger lumps. Some of the material in the ring is rocky however this is mainly trace elements. Other planets have ring systems however Saturns are the most stunning We have found the rings vary in density and there are gaps in the system, we have also discovered moons embedded into the system. How were they formed? There are two main theories on how the rings were formed. One theory is that a moon moved inwards during its orbit, the tdal forces of Saturn ripped the moon apart and created the ring system. Theory two is that the ring system are the remains or lef overs from nebular material from which Saturn was formed. Other theories include a moon collision. The densest parts of the ring system are the A and B rings. There is a gap in between the rings called the Cassini division. This was discovered by Giovann Doenico Cassini in 1675. The C ring which makes up the main three rings was discovered in 1850. The main rings contain larger partcles. The other rings D,E,F,G can be described as dusty rings and are not as dense as the main three. D ring inner most very faint C ring wide and faint B ring largest and brightest of the rings A ring outer most of the large bright rings, its inner boundary is the Cassini division. F outer most ring, and the most actve. Its features change hourly. Janus/Epimetheus ring faint dusty ring, the moons Janus and Epimetheus orbit in this ring. Material in this 27 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 28 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 ring is ejected material from the moons; this would have been caused by impacts. G ring very thin ring and faint, positoned half way in between the F and the beginning of the E ring, its inner edges is in the orbit of the moon Mimas Methone Ring Arc faint ring discovered in September 2006, the moon Methone orbits within this ring Anthe ring faint ring discovered in 2007 Pallene ring a faint dust ring E ring, second most outer ring and is very wide. It starts at the orbit of Mimas and ends a Rhea. It consist of ices, silicates, carbon dioxide and ammonia. The partcles are mainly microscopic. Phoebe Ring in Oct 2009 the rings discovery was announced, it is just in the orbital plane of the moon phoebe. Saturns Moons Both Jupiter and Saturn are like mini solar systems, both have a wide ranging array of moons. From oddly shaped rocky moons to moons frozen and covered in ice and a strange moon with its own atmosphere. Some of Saturns moons or moonlets are no more than a 1 Km across, however Saturn does have the solar systems second largest moon, Titan. Saturn hosts two moons of partcular interest, Titan as mentoned before and the icy world of Enceladus. What is interestng about Enceladus is that a Liquid spews from 29 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 its southern pole which compositon could be Water mixed with dust and gases. The plumes could also con- tribute to Saturn ring system. Recently the Cassini spacecraf few over Enceladus and detected a gravitatonal signal consistent with a large body of water. The data suggests a large liquid volume lies about 40 Km below the moons icy crust. A Sea on Enceladus, and a Robotic Mole In a place that is otherwise barren, there is a place of warm ventng sea water, chimneys of encrustng minerals, methane made by the rocks and water, and consumed by microbes, and tny creatures who cling to their tny island of life. Its the Lost City hydrother- mal vent feld in Earths Atlantc ocean, and it is being studied as a strong analog for the environment within one of Saturns moons, Enceladus. This is Enceladus, a moon in Saturns E-ring. Before ever knowing of the icy jets of salty spray, a scien- tst could look at this picture and be able to tell that there was something interestng going on with that ice coatng the surface. Look at that sof, quiet, white and blue layer of ice that covers everything. Do you see those meteorite craters? They dont tend to be in the southern part of the moon. Its because those blue veins in the south are warm fractures involved with the processes that create the jets of ice. The liquid water The icy jets of Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute (below) Above Enceladus (Wikipedia,NASA) 30 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 and ice of the southern lattudes make up a physically actve zone that is always renewing itself. Credit: NASA/ JPL/Space Science Insttute The surface on Enceladus seems calm, and for a tny moon that seems at frst glance to be uterly frozen, thats what youd expect. Except that Enceladus is a moon of the gas giant planet, Saturn, and Saturns gravity pulls at Enceladus and warps its rocky and icy layers. Think of it like the way our moon pulls on our planet - we can see our oceans being pulled along with the moon in high and low tdes. Our moons gravity afects our rocky crust, too, we just dont really notce it. But in the case of Enceladus, the gravity pull from Saturn is so strong that it causes solid layers like ice, maybe even the rocky core, to stretch and push into each other. This heats things up and may be the main cause of the jets. Of course, Enceladus has its own gravity feld which can afect smaller objects like the Cassini spacecraf and alter its path. Physicists saw that the gravity measure- ments Cassini took over the moons south polar area were of from what would be expected if the moon were a solid ball of rock and ice. The denser some- thing is, the greater its gravity, and over the south pole, it looked like there was something denser than ice 31 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 about 20 miles beneath the surface. It could be a layer of rock, but the scientsts who are studying this say they are prety comfortable in thinking that it is probably liquid water - a sea that is 6 or 7 miles deep and covers at least the far southern part of the moon under the ice - maybe much more. Lef is Enceladus with a wedge taken out, so that we can see what Cassini scientsts think is the internal structure. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech If that denser-than-ice layer is in fact a sea, this picture shows how that sea could possibly be the source of the icy jets. Enceladus is covered by a layer of ice that is about 20 miles thick. Beneath this is the probable sea. And beneath that sea is a rocky core, thought to be based on the mineral silica, like bedrock on Earth. And if that is what is actually hap- pening on Enceladus, it is an absolute wonderland for astrobiologists. That sea and silicate rock would make chemistry that life could live in. On Earth, rock and liquid water react with each other in ways that marine biologists and geologists under- stand very well, because its what gives the oceans so much of its chemistry. Thats why our seas are so 32 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 salty - there are lots of ions from minerals dissolved in them. So much of the geology on Earth is from rock being changed by the way water afects it, but usually this happens slowly, too slowly for anyone to sit there and watch it happen. But there are a few more dramatc reactons that literally can be watched, at the hydrothermal (hot water) vent sites. Some of these vents, called black or white smokers, are in volcanic areas where water seeps down through cracks in the crust, gets super-heated, and boils up in jets. Black and white smoker vent areas are flled with life, very alien-seeming life. Most of the known deep-sea vents are so hot and acidic, with temperatures in the vent water up to around 300 degrees C, that the creatures making a living there are very specialized to deal with those conditons. In some parts of the vent system, oxygen is extremely low, too low for oxygen-using creatures to live. And most of the life in these communites depend on the basic energy not of sunlight, but of the chemicals in rocks, cap- tured by microbes. Normally, when thinking about life that may be elsewhere in the solar system, astrobiologists wouldnt use such alien-seeming Earth creatures . The prudent thing is to speculate on living systems that are well-known. Almost all of the life that we know of on Earth are part of a global food web that is based on the energy of sunshine, captured by plants, and an energy cycle that uses free oxygen released from the plants, and so photosynthesis is the energy process that most biologists know best. But Earth is the only place in the entre solar system where we have found liquid water on the surface, where plants can reach sunlight. There really doesnt seem to be any other place in our solar system where we could expect a food web to be based on plants, or their exhaled oxygen. But what about those worlds with hidden water? We have to consider life forms that can get their energy from rocks and dont need free oxygen to live, and hydrothermal vents are full of them. 33 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Jupiters ice-covered moon, Europa. Credit: NASA/JPL and Ted Stryk The idea of the black and white smokers as being possible analogs for extraterrestrial life has been debated very fercely. The arguments really took of afer Jupiters moon Europa was found to be covered with water ice, cracked like an eggshell where fssures seemed to leak up fuid from below. Yes these extreme-heat vents have amazing criters who dont need the rest of us or any of our relatons to live, who can just cling to rock in hot water and be perfectly happy. Its so easy to imagine a vibrant ecosystem of hydrothermal vents in an under-ice sea on Europa, fourishing and oblivious to life on Earth. The main problem with this idea is that the black and white smoker hydrothermal vents are very volatle, volcanic-based systems that may be around for only hun- dreds of years before the volcanic actvity ends there and moves to another spot. And when it begins in another 34 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 spot, it doesnt start out gently, but with very acidic water temperatures of 200-300 degrees C. The life at these vents are specialized to live there. If that kind of system is thought to be the main focal point of life on a small moon, it doesnt seem a very stable place for life to develop. But in terms of how life makes a living there? The rock-chemical basis for life is known to be on Earth and is ancient. Life started so quickly on Earth, based on the kind of energy channels already happening spontaneously and inorganically with hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, that those microbes can be seen as living extensions of the water and rock that made their home. And so the thinking has been, perhaps these kind of microbes could be on other wet and rocky worlds, if their environment is stable enough, and not so extreme as the volcanic vents. Lost City Hydrothermal System 35 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 A vent tower at Lost City, with the robots Hercules and Argus looking on. Credit: Deborah Kelley University of Washington, IFE URI-IAO, Lost City Science Party, NOAA In 2000, a new kind of vent community was found on the sea foor of the Atlantc Ocean. Its called the Lost City vent feld and it isnt based on volcanism, but on rock-water reactons that release energy as heat, raising the water temperature to just around 90-100 degrees C. This system has been in the same area for pos- sibly over 20,000 years, building vent towers of calcium carbonate rock - the same mineral that builds coral reefs and makes up the shells of many sea animals. One of the towers, named Poseidon, is taller than an 18-story building. These vents pour out water rich in hydrogen and methane and carbon dioxide. These chem- icals are part of a classic energy chain used by some archaea. Microbes that live in the vents eat the methane, making more complex carbon molecules that then feed other microbes. It is both a non-living and living cycle, interwoven and based on the chemistry of the rocks and water, with no sunlight needed. The carbonate towers build structures that are flled with life. The walls inside and out are covered in microbes, and some tiny, translucent-shelled animals like crabs live in the crevices. Credit: IFE URI-IAO, Lost City Science Party, NOAA 36 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 This is a close-up of carbonate rock at Lost City, with a robot arm investgatng. All those nooks are flled with life. Credit: University of Washington, IFE, URI-IAO, NOAA Meanwhile, back on Enceladus, the jets have been sending icy spray out into Saturns E-ring. Cassini has fown three tmes through the jets and has analyzed what kind of partcles make up the E-ring, and it looks like the jets of Enceladus are actually responsible for the material in the ring. Thats prety cool, but what is grabbing the atenton of astrobiologists is that in the jet ice are chemicals life could use to live. Ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, complex carbon molecules - what youd expect from the chemistry of water and silicate rock interactng. This means that all four of the basic ingredients thought to be needed for life are within Enceladus: water, nitrogen (ammonia), organic carbon (simple and complex carbon molecules - organic means that it is in a form that life can use), and a source of energy (heat, and probably hydrogen). There is some kind of strong heat happening, although researchers stll dont know if the resultng jets are from the rock reactons heatng the seawater, or if the jets come from parts of the deep ice layer above it. 37 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 It can be easy for people who are familiar with life making things like methane and ammonia to leap to the conclusion that all those chemicals found in the jets mean that life created them. Cassini isnt a life-search- ing robot so cant analyze things in that way. And we arent going to know for awhile yet. In its Science Plan NASA isnt planning a mission to Enceladus because it doesnt have the funding. In terms of planetary research, NASAs highest priority is all about Mars, with the intent on sending humans to Mars in the 2030s. Yet they dont have the money even for this, their highest priority. Politcs calls the shots and is using the economic crash as an excuse to not fund projects, some of which NASA had already started work on with internatonal partners. But fortunately, the European Space Agency, along with a few other space agencies, is working on the technology that will be needed for missions to Europa (Europa Explorer) and Enceladus (Enceladus Explorer). These two explorer missions are working in tandem since so much of the basic technology would be used on either moon. These missions will be in multple stages - frst, an orbiter whose focus will be its given moon, Enceladus or Europa, then a lander which will land on the icy surface and release the robotc rover, named the Ice Mole. The Ice Mole is being designed to melt and dig its way through the miles of ice, to hopefully reach a body of water like Enceladus sea or a kind of internal ice-pack pond on Europa, then work on detectng signs of life, and pack up a sample return to send back to Earth. This part of the project design is extremely chal- lenging because of how deep the seas on both Europa and Enceladus are thought to be. The robot needs to be atached to a cable so that it can communicate with the surface and the orbiter, which will relay the data back to Earth. But the sea on Enceladus is thought to be around 6 miles deep, which is shallow compared to Europas sea of maybe 60 miles, but in either case the sea foor is incredibly far away. And remember - before even reaching the sea, any cable used has to frst go down the depth of the ice layer, which on Enceladus is about 20 miles thick. So communicaton with the Ice Mole is a huge challenge that is being worked on. 38 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 An Earth mole. Credit: Michael David hill 2005 39 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Ice Mole melting a path for itself through a glacier in Switzerland. Credit: FH Aachen Once the technology allows a robot like Ice Mole to melt through miles of ice, swim miles to the sea foor, and send data through the sea up to the orbiter, it could look something like this. This is the robot explorer, Hercules, looking down at some carbonate spires of the Lost City hydro- thermal feld. Credit: IFE, URI-IAO, UW, Lost City Science Party, and NOAA 40 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 And this is Hercules photographing the IMAX tower at Lost City. Credit: IFE, URI-IAO, UW, Lost City science party, and NOAA Ice Moles primary mission is to look for chemical and physical signs of present or past life. The technology is def- nitely very challenging but will be solved. The main problem is funding, and it is really devastatng to outer planet research when politcians responsible for funding simply dont see how important these missions are. This work is burstng with the best minds creatng the new technology needed to explore Enceladus, Europa, and other outer-planet moons, but it is really driven by the heart. This kind of research is so profoundly human. With solid scientfc data showing that Enceladus could very well be habitable for microbes, and especially with the dis- covery of what is almost certainly a liquid, salty sea, astrobiologists are rallying around this moon, pushing for a 41 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 mission to happen - which means convincing people that it deserves the funding. The money is there and frankly, is being spent on some prety inane things like government golf courses. We all need to make sure that the people in our governments understand just how important these missions are to us. At least the wait will give astrobiolo- gists extra tme to ground their understanding of the types of environments that could be in these moons seas. In a way, though, for the feld of astrobiology it doesnt mater that we cant know yet if there is life in these moons. We have found on another world the same chemistries that happen on Earth in places like Lost City, and whether or not life is using these chemicals, or made them, or neither, weve stll extended the known potental habitats where life can potentally exist. Words: Zantippy Skiphop @ZantippySkiphop 42 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Run you mouse over the image to watch a tour of Tring Astronomy Centre 43 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Address: Unit 15 Old Silk Mill Trading Estate, Brook Street, Tring, Hertfordshire HP23 5EF Phone:01442 822997 Web: http://www.tringastro.co.uk/ @Tring_Astro Tring Astronomy Centre 44 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Titans Haze Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute 45 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 TITAN Saturns largest moon and the solar systems second largest moon is a unique satellite. Firstly, and strangely, Titan has a thick and dense atmosphere. Strange? Well a body of Titans mass, usually down to its gravity and the solar winds losses its atmosphere, as did Mars. Mars is a similar size to Titan. However it is all about Location, Location. Saturn orbits in a cold part of the solar system, so due to less infuence from the sun Titan is able to hold onto its gases. A planet or moons ability to retain an atmosphere is determined by its mass and temper- ature. Titan is cold so therefore its atmosphere gas molecules move slowly and not fast enough to escape Titans gravity. It may lose Hydrogen molecules because they are far lighter. Titan also never became hot when it formed, this enabled methane, ammonia and water ice to form on its surface. Water remained on its surface locked in ice . A mixture of ammonia and methane then formed the moons early atmosphere. Today the atmosphere is nitrogen rich. By a method called photochemistry, solar radiation broke down the ammonia (NH3) into Nitrogen (N2). .The conversion of NH3 to N2 occurs between 250 and 150K and lasted for a period of about 100 million years. The Surface Titans surface temperature is a chilly -178 degrees C (-280 F), water on Titan becomes rock like. However a liquid fows on the surface, this liquid is methane. Titans Haze Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute 46 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Other surface features include, dunes of hydrocarbons around the equator and low altitudes, these are moved about by winds. Titan also has volcanoes, which are known as cryovolca- noes. Unlike Earth,Titan does not have magma rising up through the ground and spewing out lava. On Titan the eruptions are volatiles such as water, ammonia or methane. Tidal forces produce the energy required for such eruptions. Weather On Titan In many ways Titan is similar to Earth. It has a liquid on its surface in the form of lakes and rivers; it also has seasons and weather systems. However this is all done at much lower tem- peratures than here on Earth. liquid on Titan is that of methane and ethane. On Titan there is a methane based weather system; it assumes the similar role as water does here on earth. The circulation system can be compared to Earths. Titan has also been described as tropical. Strange? This is down to Titans slow rotation (16 Earth Days) and the behaviour of methane. The seasons on Titan are long, lasting about 7 years, it receives about 100 times less sunlight than Earth; however clouds form in the methane-nitrogen rich atmosphere. The atmosphere responds much slower than here on Earth. The University of Granada and the University of Valencia have looked at data from Cassini and have found Titan has natural electrical activity. One of the elements for life is a spark (lightening) under the right conditions it may be pos- sible that life may evolve on Titan. Scientists at NASA working on the Cassini project monitored Titans atmosphere for 3.5 years, 47 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Other surface features include, dunes of hydrocarbons around the equator and low altitudes, these are moved about by winds. Titan also has volcanoes, which are known as cryovolca- noes. Unlike Earth,Titan does not have magma rising up through the ground and spewing out lava. On Titan the eruptions are volatiles such as water, ammonia or methane. Tidal forces produce the energy required for such eruptions. Weather On Titan In many ways Titan is similar to Earth. It has a liquid on its surface in the form of lakes and rivers; it also has seasons and weather systems. However this is all done at much lower tem- peratures than here on Earth. liquid on Titan is that of methane and ethane. On Titan there is a methane based weather system; it assumes the similar role as water does here on earth. The circulation system can be compared to Earths. Titan has also been described as tropical. Strange? This is down to Titans slow rotation (16 Earth Days) and the behaviour of methane. The seasons on Titan are long, lasting about 7 years, it receives about 100 times less sunlight than Earth; however clouds form in the methane-nitrogen rich atmosphere. The atmosphere responds much slower than here on Earth. The University of Granada and the University of Valencia have looked at data from Cassini and have found Titan has natural electrical activity. One of the elements for life is a spark (lightening) under the right conditions it may be pos- sible that life may evolve on Titan. Scientists at NASA working on the Cassini project monitored Titans atmosphere for 3.5 years, they observed over 200 clouds and found these clouds matched models on how they are distrib- uted around Titan. Titans northern hemisphere is entering its spring/summer season, this is interesting because on Titan most of the liquid is in the northern hemisphere. So far no waves have been detected on Titans lakes and very little wind. Current models indicate that the warming season could bring winds. A wind of 1 to 2 mph could produce waves or ripples in the methane lakes. Like Earth, Titan has rainfall. The rain is that of methane and due to Titans gravity it falls slowly. Much of the surface is kept wet by a light drizzle. The upper cloud layer is saturated with methane, this allows ice crystals to grow and form. They eventually precipitate out and begin to fall, the falling methane crystals start to melt as the go through the atmosphere. This forms light drizzle. Titan also has storms which can be quite powerful. There is also evaporation from the lakes and seas this contributes to the rainfall has it does on earth. Other mechanisms for weather is volcanic activity. Images NASA Words: Dave Bood @DavesAstronomy 48 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 49 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 50 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 THE INTERVIEW Valerie Klavans Admin and Owner of Titan Saturns Moon Image Processor and Social Media Leader for In Saturns Rings IC: Can you tell us about your interest in image processing? What are your favourite images to process? VK: In 2009 I made a Facebook page for Saturns largest moon, Titan, and began posting images of the moon as well as the latest news from the Cassini mission. As I dug deeper into the Cassini images I saw that the space- craft sends raw images (uncalibrated, untouched, monochrome images) back to Earth on a frequent basis. I learned that these raw, monochrome images can be combined into composites to show the true colour of the Saturn system. One day in 2012, I began to process these images and I found myself feeling like I was travelling along with Cassini. Whenever the latest images come back from the spacecraft I dabble in a new colour com- posite of one of the worlds in the Saturn system. My favourite images to process are of Titan specifcally the infrared frames that reveal Titans surface. In particular I love to process views of Titans north pole containing its largest seas and many lakes. I enjoy comparing them to previous views to see the diference in lake levels due to weather. (See my portfolio here.) 51 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Figure a: Above and Below Titans Atmosphere (LINK) IC: 2) Where does your interest in Titan come from? VK: Ive always loved astronomy, but it wasnt untl my undergraduate years that I realized what in par- tcular piqued my interest. One event in August 2008 made me love planetary science: The Great Planet Debate. There, I heard truly mind-blowing talks by important planetary scientsts. It made me realize we are in the golden age of planetary science. We are now just beginning to understand planetary objects, 52 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 and we are in dire need of a good classifcaton system for them. That same year, I began interning with the Cassini missions Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. I had an amazing tme, worked with amazing scientsts, and fell in love with Saturns largest moon, Titan, mainly because it stands out as a truly unique world in our solar system. IC: How important is it to study Titan, and what can we learn about our own planets early begins from Titan? VK: I personally think studying Titan is extremely important. It is a very complex world with a whole host of processes going on. Below Titans surface is an underground ocean of liquid water. Titan has an extremely thick atmosphere that has more constt- uents than other atmosphere we know of. But its uniqueness doesnt stop there. Titan is the closest analog to Earth in the solar system. Since one cannot build a tme machine to an early Earth, Titan is next best thing. Titans atmosphere resembles the atmo- sphere of early Earth. Titan also has weather. On Titan methane rain falls from clouds which flls lakes and seas on its surface. Vast sand dunes (their composi- ton is stll unknown) stretch across Titans surface similar to sand dunes on Earth. In Saturns Rings is a ground-breaking non-proft flm in producton where science meets art on the giant screen. The flm uses all real images from space and no CGI whatsoever. In partcular, the flm employs images from the Cassini spacecraf. The flm focuses on images of the Saturn system from the Cassini spacecraf but will show many images from all across our visible universe. The flmmaker, Stephen van Vuuren, uses an innova- tve technique where he animates stll images to make it feel like you are really fying through space. In 2011, the frst minute of footage of the flm went viral and thats how I found out about the flm. 53 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 IC Can you tell us about the work you do VK: I am a co-producer for In Saturns Rings. I am also an image processor for the flm and the leader of the flms social media team. In order to spread the word on the latest developments concerning the flm, I post and tweet to the flms Twiter and Facebook on almost a daily basis. I am also a volunteer planetary science communicator. Under my nom de plume of Titan Saturns Moon I post about Saturns largest moon as well as the latest from the Cassini mission. Titan has his own Facebook, Twiter and WordPress blog. On Facebook, I focus on the latest images from Cassini, specifcally Titan. On Twiter, I post what the spacecraf is doing on a daily basis. On WordPress, I post details on Cassinis latest fybys. I compose a majority of updates writng in the frst-person per- spectve, thereby giving the impression the moon itself is behind the account. IC: You have done features on some the USA networks, can you tell us about that experience. VK: On July 19, 2013, people from all around the world waved at the Cassini spacecraf orbitng Saturn. It took pictures of us, from Saturn orbit. As soon as the raw images came in, I immediately made color composites of those views. As a result, I kinda went viral! My images were featured on NBC News, FOX News, Daily Mail, io9, Business Insider, Yahoo! News, and many others. 54 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 On October 10, 2013, Cassini took some incredible up-close images of Saturn from above. I produced color com- posites of 2 of these views. My images were featured on NBC News, Discover Magazine, Gizmodo, Daily Mail, and many others. TOP LEFT: Earth from Saturn BOTTOM LEFT: Saturn and Earth TOP RIGHT: Earth and Moon from Saturn 55 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 On October 10, 2013, Cassini took some incredible up-close images of Saturn from above. I produced color com- posites of 2 of these views. My images were featured on NBC News, Discover Magazine, Gizmodo, Daily Mail, and many others. TOP LEFT: Earth from Saturn BOTTOM LEFT: Saturn and Earth TOP RIGHT: Earth and Moon from Saturn 56 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4
Staring towards Saturns north pole Saturn and Earth 57 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 IC: Are there any other plans to land probes on Titan? VK: Sadly, nothing is in the works for the next few decades. There was a recent proposal for a Titan lake lander called the Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) that would have accomplished the frst nautcal exploraton of an extraterrestrial sea. Unfortunately, NASA chose to fund a Mars mission instead. IC: Do you get tme to observe through a telescope? VK: Occasionally I get tme to observe. I dont have the best telescope but I enjoy going to local star partes. My favourite objects to observe are planets and nebulae. I was never really into stargazing untl one trip I took in college to Arizona. I visited Lowell Observatory in Flagstaf, Arizona I saw an amazing view of Saturn. I also went on top of the Grand Canyon at night. The sky was the darkest I had ever experienced. Born and raised in Washington, DC, I thought a nightme sky looked dark blue. I fnally realized how black it truly can be standing on top of the Grand Canyon without the urban light polluton. It was the most amazing view I had ever seen the band of the Milky Way was visible, meteors every few seconds, and so many stars! IC: Do you think there may be a possibility of microbe life on Titan? VK: There is a possibility of microbial life on Titan. It is supported by the fact that Titan is the only known satellite in the solar system with a thick atmosphere containing complex organic compounds which include the chemical precursors of life. Some models in scientfc literature have suggested that non-water based life may exist in Titans lakes and seas. For example, some scientsts have suggested that conditons for the existence of methanogenic bacteria present on Earth also exist on Titan. Titans sub-surface ocean consistng of water and ammonia may also be an environment for some forms of microbial life. IC: Where else in the solar system do you think there could be life, from simple cell structures to more complex life forms? VK:The best places to look for life in the solar system other than Titan are Enceladus and Europa since they have warm water oceans beneath their surface. If life exists there, it may be similar to microbial life found in Earths deep oceans. 58 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 IC: Can you tell us about your future projects? VK: My career goal is to inspire as many people as I can about planetary science. I am pursuing a career in planetary science communicaton. I want to bridge the gap between scientsts and the public. I would love to work on making museum displays, TV shows, and movies focusing on planetary science. I am currently unemployed but am looking for new opportunites in planetary science outreach all the tme. I am currently working Connect with Val on: about.me Facebook Twiter LinkedIn Flickr Google+ 59 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 60 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 EVOLUTION It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelli- gent that survives. It is one that is most adaptable to change. Charles Darwin All life on Earth can be traced back to the Last Universal Common Ancestor, which is estmated to have lived about 3.5 to 3.8 billion years back on Earth. These earliest organisms have evolved into the diversity of life on Earth we see today. Yes, we are distant cousins of the Sunfower, the beetle and the blue Whale. 61 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Organisms adapt to be beter suited to their external environment. When the adaptatons are carried by an organ- ism long enough, they may form an entrely new species. We see examples of evoluton all around us, either natural or artfcial. We know about bacteria becoming resistant to antbiotcs. Humans have been able to breed wolves into diferent 62 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 species of dogs in just thousands of years. Polar bears have naturally evolved from grizzly bears to adapt to their harsh environment. We have artfcially modifed various food products wild mustard, corn, and various fruits and fowers. Source: htps://sites.google.com/site/selectvebreedingofplants/ 63 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 So how does Evoluton work? Evoluton is responsible for the remarkable similarity we see between all organisms (development of eyes, limbs, respiraton) and for the amazing diversity between animals too. So how do the cells in our body know how to adapt to the surroundings beter? The basic idea behind evo- luton is genetc mutatons upon which natural selecton works. 64 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Genetc Mutaton: In order to understand how mutatons occur in organisms, we need to frst take a look at our DNA. All life on Earth uses only 4 DNA bases Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, Cytosine. 65 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 The sequence of these bases in a DNA strand represent instructons about an organism, for example a partcular sequence of three bases may be an instructon for making a specifc kind of amino acid. DNA replication happens with remarkable accuracy. One human cell takes only a few hours to copy the entre 3 billion base sequence in a human DNA. However, some- tmes errors do occur; less than 1 error per billion bases. The wrong base pair can get atached, or an extra base pair may be added or deleted. It is these errors which form the basis of evoluton. Source: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_14 66 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Consider a group of beetles which is predominantly bright green in colour. However due to mutaton in their genes, some beetles end up being brown in colour. Brown colour gives a natural advantage to the beetles as they are camoufaged beter. They pass this trait to their ofspring. Over tme, the rato of brown to green beetles changes as brown beetles are beter suited to survive than green beetles. This is how natural selecton works and ensures that species which are more adapted to their surroundings survive, while others become extnct. Human Evoluton: Each human is unique and a result of 3.5 billion years of evoluton on Earth. We are primates. Our ancestors lived in the trees and many of our traits are adaptatons to tree life excellent hand-eye coordinaton, eyes in front to measure depth, limber arms and dexterous hands. 67 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Source: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_03 68 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Contrary to common belief, humans have not evolved from Chimpanzees (even though our DNA matches 98%). The species separated about some 6 to 7 million years back. Humans have co-existed with at least two other human species - the Neanderthals and the Hobbits of Indonesia. IMAGES: TOP RIGHT- Neanderthals MIDDLE- Hobbits BOTTOM- Homo Sapiens When we look at the advantages of intelligence from an evolutonary point of view, we realise it is but a natural outcome. Several other species have also demonstrated intelligence Crows, Whales, Octopus. So are we stll evolving? Our genome is difcult to distn- guish from the genome of a human from 40,000 years ago. But we have and shall contnue to change dramat- cally in terms of culture and technology. Is Evolution a Fact or a Theory? In 1971, scientsts introduced 5 adult pairs of the Italian Wall Lizards to a tny island of the coast of Croata. In just a few decades they had evolved features more suitable to them for their new habitat larger heads, harder bite and a new gut structure. 69 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 (Read the story here: htp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080421-lizard-evolution.html) Source: projectorefront.blogspot.com 70 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 To summarize the observed facts of Evoluton: Matching of fossils of extnct animals to that of modern animals. Examples of natural selecton of species adaptng to their surroundings. Survival of the ftest is a biological mechanism. Birds will occasionally kill their young if they are weak so the surviving ones have more food. When a Cheetah makes a kill, its the prey which runs the slowest which gets killed. This also explains why 99% of all life which has lived on Earth is now extnct. Examples of artfcial selecton (Wolves to Dogs) No two individuals are exactly alike. Resources: 1. Life in the Universe By J. Bennet, S. Shostak 2. htp://evoluton.berkeley.edu/ WORDS: Henna Khan @henna_khan Astronomy/ Science Communicator, Skeptic, Travel Freak, Proponent of Disrupt Education 71 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Chasing Cloudbows I have always been obsessed with anything in the sky, whether it is astronomical or meteorological. I probably wouldnt go as far as saying I was a plane spoter, but I also have a keen interest in military aircraf so I would describe myself as a sky- watcher. So when everyone else was moaning about the thick fog outsideI was busy packing my camera equipment and tripod. The kids were rather intrigued as to why I was bringing this along on the school run on such an awful day. They are generally used to me having a quick glance out of the window, abandoning my current actvity (usually their dinner, much to their disgust) and running outside with my camerabut there was no sunrise, sunset, clear sky, Moon or sound of a jetjust a blanket of grey. I was hoping the reason for my excitement would be revealed when we reached the school bus stop. As we drove up the steep lane from the house the fog was stll like pea soup and I squealed with delight! When we reached the pull in at the top of the lane to wait for the bus the fog was just startng to clear, it was becom- ing daylight and the reason for my excitement was evident. A clear sky! I should probably explain my reasons on why this morning was partcularly dif- ferent. It is all to do with locaton. We live at about 700f on the side of a west facing hill. When I look out of my window and see fog it can be a good thing or a bad thing. It is normally determined when driving up to the top of our access lane (some may call it a drive but that to me means smooth, coifured home entrance). This is a potholed, weather beaten track which leads to the top of the hilland civilisaton! Usually at the top (around 900f) the fog can usually be identfed as Stratus- the bad thingor radiaton/ valley fog- the good thing! Stratus is when the 72 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 fog basically goes on and on into the sky with no end: a claustrophobic low cloud that is dismal at its very best. Radiaton/ valley fog (a low lying Stratus) for us on the side of the hill is quite spectacular, as you can see from this photo. Perhaps not so good for the people living in the village enveloped within itbut for a cloud spot- tng photo opportunist this was heaven! Valley fog forms where cold dense air setles into a valley condensing and forming fog. It is ofen the result of a temperature inversion, with warmer air passing above the valley. We quite ofen see it. This par- tcular day was even more excitng. Usually when the valley fog is present we are just about on the fog line at the house, or it is well below us in the valley, as in the photo above. (The photo was taken from halfway up our track). With the sun about to rise and plenty of fog below I had the perfect conditons to try and capture two of my sought afer optcal phenomena A fogbow and a glory. Armed with my camera and tripod I drove 73 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 back into the fog and waited for the sun to rise above the hill behind me. As the sun appeared behind the trees on the top of the hill I had some great opportunites to capture some corona. This was a spectacular sight! 74 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 A corona is produced when light is difracted by small partcles. These can be water droplets, dust partcles, even pollen. In this case it was the small water droplets caused by the fog. You ofen see this efect when the Sun or Moon passes behind a thin cloud. The fog was drifing up and down the hill at this point so it was perfect for playing with diferent efects! It wasnt long before the Sun had scaled the trees behind and the fog started to retreat down the hillsidethis was my chance. Fogbows, or cloudbows, are prety much formed like rainbows and are created when light passes through water droplets when you are facing opposite the sun. The diference is that water droplets in rainbows are much larger so light is refracted when entering a droplet of water, then refected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. In a fogbow the water droplets are much smaller so when light hits them they are too small to refract light so light is difracted by the tny droplets themselves to form a much broader and paler bow. Light merges into white instead of being separated into the colours. To observe a fogbow you need to have the light source (the sun) behind you. The fogbow is then seen at around an angle of 35 to 40 degrees from your shadow -this is called the antsolar point. The fog has to be below you with the sun strong enough to break through the fog behind. This was why I was so excited to have the fog so high up the hill. I could stll have the sun behind and the fog just below, instead of it being right down in the valley! I drove halfway down the track and waited for the sun to break through the fog. I wasnt disappointed. The fogbow was every bit as beautful as I imagined it to be. It was an eerie feeling with the fog drowning any sounds. Complete silence, cold damp air and what looked like the ghost of a rainbow in front of me. 75 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Next came the real challenge- trying to capture a glory. The fog was rolling up and down the hill so it seemed an age with much scrambling up and down walls, machinery, tree branches and mounds of earth to try and get the best positon...it wasnt easy! Glories are one of the most amazing optcal phenomena, in my opinion, and look like rainbow halos around the observers head. Although glories look similar to rainbows, the way light is scatered to produce them is slightly diferent; Rainbows are formed by refracton and refecton, whereas glories are thought to be formed by backward difracton. To see them, you have to be directly between the sun and the water refractng droplets (in this case fog) with your shadow facing into the antsolar point. A glory is sometmes 76 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 seen from an aeroplane when the sun is directly behind. The glory can be seen surrounding the aeroplanes shadow which is cast on the clouds below. The formaton of glory is not completely understood, but it is known that the light is somehow scatered backwards by water droplets in the fog around a shadow, cast at the antsolar point. That shadow is ofen elongated and ghost like. This is called a Brocken Spectre, named afer Brocken, the highest peak of the German Harz Mountains, where climbers saw it at the summit, cast into the clouds below. I didnt have a mountain to stand onbut a dry stone wall was equally challenging for me, especially as I had to balance with my camera whilst I was up there! But I fnally managed to capture it and it was a fabulous moment! A glory is unique to its observer. That is if a group of people were standing on that drystone wall with me they would only be able to see their own glory around their own shadow and not each others. So this was my glory and my special moment and I was so glad I chased it. So if ever you fnd yourself halfway up a hill in thick fog make sure you aim for the top, reach for the sun and fnd your own glory! I promise you wont be disappointed. 77 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Article Joolz Wright: @farmerswifee 78 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 The Importance of Gravitational Waves and the Formation of the Cosmic Microwave Background In March 2014 one of the most ground breaking discoveries in modern Astrophysics was made. That was the discovery of gravitatonal waves within the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Confrmaton of this discovery will all but prove infaton took place in the wake of the Big Bang, creatng the Universe as we know it. But in order to understand gravitatonal waves, frst we must look at the CMB and how this relates to infaton. The CMB is ofen described as the echo of the Big Bang. A form of electromagnetc radiaton, it flls the entre Universe with equal intensity in all directons. This phenomenon was discovered in 1968 completely by accident by two Scientsts Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson whilst studying the intensity of radio waves emited from our galaxy. In order to show that the radiaton they were detectng was being emited by the Milky Way, they frst had to test for background radiaton which they believed would be negligible. Unfortunately for them, this wasnt the case. No mater where they pointed their antenna, they found a faint background noise outside our galaxy. Afer looking at some calculatons and talking with colleagues they realised they had discovered a blackbody spectrum of around 3.5K being emited in all directons in the Universe. They had discovered the CMB. So we know a litle about the when, the where, and the who with regard to the CMB but what actually is it? How was it formed, and what does it have to do with gravitatonal waves and our early Universe? 79 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 History of the Universe - gravitational waves are hypothesized to arise from cosmic infation, a faster- than-light expansion just after the Big Bang (17 March 2014).source wikipedia IMAGE BELOW: SCISTAND.COM The early Universe is ofen talked about in terms of the frst three minutes. Now this may not sound like a long tme, but it is basically the tme when Scientsts believe everything happened. First up came the Plank, or Superstring Epoch, which describes the frst 10-43seconds. Dominated by radiaton, the Universe was too hot for anything to form. The quantum efect of gravity was also much stronger throughout this stage leading Scientsts to believe it was intertwined with the other fundamen- tal forces (electromagnetc, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear) creatng a single unifed force dominat- ing the Universe. Next came the Grand Unifcaton Epoch. This period of tme relies upon the accuracy of the Grand Unifcaton Theory (GUT) which suggests that if partcles collide at energies above 1014GeV, the strong nuclear force will be combined with the weak nuclear and electromagnetc forces and at 80 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 even higher energies even gravity would be indistnguishable. At energies this high, the Universe would have been so hot and dense no one force could have been separate. This stage ended afer 10-35seconds when the Universe underwent a bout of infaton allowing temperature and energy levels to drop enough for the forces to begin to separate. Afer this period of rapid expansion came the Hadron Epoch. As the name suggests, during this period of tme the Universe was flled with hadrons such as protons and neutrons. During this phase the Universe cooled to an extent where the frst elements could begin forming out of the lighter hadrons. The Universe would have been a violent place at this tme as along with partcle formaton, antpartcles were also created causing collision and annihilaton between partcle and antpartcle pairs. The last of the four unifed forces also separated, creatng a very diferent Universe to how it had been previously. The next period in the development of the Universe the Lepton Epoch lasted untl 102seconds afer the Big Bang. A Lepton is a partcle of light, so it was during this phase that the frst electron and positron pairs were created. As in the Hadron Epoch, a period of annihilaton followed untl an equilibrium was reached and the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons became stable. It was now that nucleosynthesis could begin, allowing the frst heavy elements to form. The Nuclear Epoch followed and lasted for the next 1,000 years. With temperatures cooling from 109K to around 3,000K during this tme, it became cold enough for nuclear fusion between protons and neutrons to occur. Collisions at these temperatures allowed for the creaton of a heavy form of Hydrogen known as Deuteron plus an energy release which was used to fuse another proton to the Deuteron nucleus pro- ducing Helium-3. Temperatures and radiaton levels at this tme were stll too high to allow the formaton of anything heavier, but soon became too low to form new elements. This fxed the make-up of the Universe at 75% Hydrogen, 25% Helium, and trace amounts of Deuteron, Lithium, Beryllium, and Boron. 81 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Afer the Nuclear Epoch came Recombinaton. This is where a proton captures an electron, allowing the frst neutral atoms to form. Although no light was yet being emited, recombi- naton would have lifed the veil on the early Universe allow- ing it to become clear and visible for the frst tme. Radiaton was also now being forced to decouple from the mater it had always been paired with which allowed gravity to take over as the dominatng force in the Universe. Gravity then began forcing partcles of elements together, which was the beginning of all gas, star, and planet formaton which we see today. It is the lefover radiaton from this process that we see today as the CMB. So if the discovery of the CMB was the trigger of proof needed to suggest that the idea of infaton shortly afer the Big Bang was correct, gravitatonal waves could be the smoking gun. The amplifcaton of gravitatonal waves through infaton causing polarizaton of the radiaton emited from the CMB could be the proof we needed to usher in a new era in par- tcle physics. WORDS: DAN LUCAS Photo: Stefen Richter/Harvard University @dan__lucas 82 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 k i d s C o r n e r FUZZBALLS AND THE BANANA MOON by J L Kennedy Twinkle was in the Control Room looking for his magic wand. He had searched every other room in the Space Base Last night, all the Fuzzballs watched the flm, Harry Poter and The Philosophers 83 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Stone, and now Twinkle wanted to play at being a wizard, just like Harry. But how could he be a wizard without his wand? URGENTTHE MOON IS DISAPPEARING. LAST WEEK IT LOOKED LIKE A FOOTBALL - TONIGHT IT LOOKS LIKE A BANANA! PLEASE CAN YOU SAVE IT? FROM JACK & MILLIE JONES, CARDIFF, WALES. (TWINS, AGED 6) THANKS FOR MESSAGE. WILL LOOK AT PROBLEM IMMEDIATELY. TWINKLE. (YOUNGEST FUZZBALL IN SPACE BASE) 84 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Twinkle stared out of the window. Jack and Millie were rightthe Moon did look like a banana! And he was sure it had looked like a football not long ago. Something must be seri- ously wrong. Twinkle spun round in panic. Maybe if he could just fnd his wand he could sort the problem out with a magic spell... He searched under the chairs and beneath a pile of books, but had no luck. 85 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Drew will know how to get the Moon back, mutered Twinkle to himself. He lef a note on his fathers desk, Gone to Moon with Drew, love Twinkle, then fed down the Fuzz Flume to fnd Drew, the Chief Space Engineer. Drew was servicing one of the Comet Rockets. Emergency! gasped Twinkle. We need to fy to the Moon! Why? Whats happened? asked Drew. 86 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Twinkle sat behind Drew in the cockpit, and seconds later they were weaving between the stars. So, Twinkle, why are we fying at full speed towards the Moon? asked Drew. Well, weve had an urgent request for help from two children in Wales. We must save the Moon. Twinkle, you arent making any sense, said Drew. Look - were nearly there. The Moons in front of us now - I dont think it needs saving from anything
Drew, last week it looked like a
football - now its a banana! Somethings eatng it or blowing it up or Drew laughed and laughed until tears were running down his furry litle face. Twinkle, you can tell the twins that the Moon isnt shrinking or changing. Its just that they cant always see all of it. Let me explain. The Sun only lights up the side of the moon facing it. Sometmes we can see all of the bright side thats a Full Moon -like a football. But most of the tme we can only see part of it. At the moment the sun is only shining on a small porton of the Moon - we call that a Crescent Moon. As you say, it looks like a banana. Sure? Positve! replied Drew. And to prove 87 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 it, well fy around the Moon so you can see that its all there. Thank you for letng me know. Ill have hot chocolate and cupcakes ready for you. Yummy! Oh, Twinkle, before you go I found your magic wand in my mixing bowl what was it doing in there? Thats where I lef it! I remember now - I was trying to make fairy cakes appear by magic. So, what happened? Nothing. The magic didnt work. I couldnt get any cakes to appear let alone ones with fairies on the top. His mother tried not to laugh. Dont worry, Twinkle, Ill explain how to make fairy cakes when you get back. 88 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 Twinkle sighed. Thanks, Mum, but I think Ive had enough explanatons for one day, my heads spinning, Ill just eat your cakes and go to bed. See you later. I must send a message to Jack and Millie now tell them the Moons not turning into a banana! Bye! FUZZBALLS AND THE BANANA MOON Copyright 2014 J L Kennedy. All rights reserved. More short stories on our website: www.fuzzballs.co.uk 89 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4 90 I CY SCI ENCE | QT R 2 SPRI NG 2 0 1 4