How Does A Microgravity Garden Grow When There’s No Up Or Down? An Advanced Chamber, About The Size

Ep. 24 Airborne Infrared Astronomy - HD and the Void

I have spoken about radio astronomy, so it makes sense to move on to infrared astronomy. The method for gathering infrared data involves telescopes mounted in planes that can fly above Earth's atmosphere, and there is a rich history of airborne as...

Did you know that some observatories are not on the ground and not orbiting Earth, but are mounted on airplanes? I finally researched SOFIA, an infrared observatory in a repurposed plane, and discovered there’s a rich history of airborne astronomy. And by airborne astronomy, I mean a lot of people took pictures of astronomical phenomena from planes!

Below the cut, I have the glossary, transcript, sources, and music credits. If you have suggestions for topics I could cover, please send me a Tumblr message or tweet at me on Twitter at @HDandtheVoid, or you can ask me to my face if you know me. Please subscribe on iTunes, rate my podcast and maybe review it, and tell friends if you think they’d like to hear it!

(My thoughts on the next episode are Chuck Yeager, Stephen Hawking and his theories, the opposition of Mars, famous comets, recent developments and discoveries in the astronomer community, or an atmospheric phenomenon called ‘Steve.’ The next episode will go up April 30th, lord willing and the creek don’t rise!)

Glossary

absorption bands - the areas of the electromagnetic spectrum that are absorbed by atmospheric gases.

atmospheric windows - the areas of the electromagnetic spectrum where the atmosphere is transparent, or does not absorb the radiation of specific wavelengths. 

corona - the hot outer atmosphere of the Sun.

electromagnetic spectrum - the range of wavelengths or frequencies over which electromagnetic radiation extends. A photon transmits electromagnetic radiation at different frequencies, which are in a range that includes (from highest frequency to lowest) gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared, microwaves, and radio waves

frequency - the number of times a wave oscillates up and down per second.

hypoxia - insufficient oxygen in the blood. Symptoms include vertigo, nausea, weakness, hyperventilation, slowed thinking, poor coordination, dimmed vision, and increased heart rate.

photon - a type of elementary particle that moves in a wave. It transmits electromagnetic radition such as light. The more energy a photon has, the higher its frequency.

Script/Transcript

Sources

A map of every active satellite orbiting Earth via Quartz

Infrared radiation via Gemini Observatory (Feb 1999)

Absorption Bands and Atmospheric Windows via NASA

Gladys Ingle of the 13 BLACK CATS changes planes in mid-air via YouTube

Milestones in Airborne Astronomy: From the 1920's to the Present by Wendy Whiting Dolci (1997)

Limits to human performance: elevated risks on high mountains, by Huey, Raymond B. and Xavier Eguskitza. Journal of Experimental Biology (2001)

When Humans Fly High by Linda Pendleton (Nov 1999)

Dalton's Law tells us that the total pressure of any mixture of gases (with constant temperature and volume) is the sum of the individual pressures (also called partial pressure) of each gas in the mixture. Also, partial pressure of each gas is proportional to that gas's percentage of the total mixture. Because the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere remains constant at 21%, Dalton's Law lets us calculate the partial pressure of the oxygen in the atmosphere at any altitude. As we'll see shortly, the human body is affected by the pressure of the gases in the atmosphere. The partial pressure of oxygen (and to a lesser extent other gases) available in the surrounding air is important in determining the onset and severity of hypoxia.

Henry's Law states that the amount of gas dissolved in a solution is proportional to the partial pressure of the gas over the solution. A bottle of carbonated liquid demonstrates Henry's Law. When the bottle is uncapped, the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the mixture will slowly diffuse to the atmosphere until the pressure of CO2 in the liquid equals the pressure of CO2 in the surrounding air. The soda will then be "flat." A bottle of soda opened in an unpressurized aircraft at 10,000 feet will foam and overflow. The opposite will happen with soda opened at pressures greater than one atmosphere. A champagne cork won't pop in a diving bathysphere pressurized for deep ocean exploration.

Boyle's Law states that the volume of a gas is inversely proportional to the pressure on the gas as long as the temperature remains constant. A gas will expand when the pressure on it is decreased. This law holds true for all gases, even those trapped in body cavities. A volume of gas at sea level pressure will expand to approximately twice its original volume at 18,000 feet, nearly nine times its original volume at 50,000 feet.

Graham's Law tells us that a gas at higher pressure exerts a force toward a region of lower pressure. There's a permeable or semi-permeable membrane separating the gases, and gas will diffuse across the membrane from the higher pressure to the lower pressure. This will continue until the pressure of the gas is equal, or nearly equal, on both sides of the membrane. Graham's Law is true for all gases and each gas in a mixture behaves independently. It's possible to have two or more gases in a solution diffusing in opposite directions across the same membrane and, in fact, this is what happens to make oxygen transfer possible in the cells and tissues of the human body.

High-Altitude Hypoxia via Harvard (July 2012)

Kuiper Airborne Observatory via NASA (May 2005)

NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory via YouTube

SOFIA Science Center

Up all Night with SOFIA, NASA's Flying Observatory via YouTube

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: ‘A Bite Out of My Bed’ by The New Pornographers off their album Together.

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

Ep. 20 Challenger - HD and the Void

January 28th was the anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster, and while I do discuss what happened, I talk more about the American space shuttle program and what the repercussions of this disaster were for NASA as an agency. I have cl...

I had to skip last week to finish an article on STEM but it got me a really awesome intro to a very serious episode. Learn this week about 1) Sally Ride (a bit, just like the highlight reel on her) 2) NASA’s space shuttle program 3) the Challenger disaster that occurred January 28, 1986. It was the anniversary of this tragedy yesterday and I wanted to learn more about it and why it happened and what, ultimately, came out of that difficult time in the space shuttle program. 

I have a quick and easy way for you to cut out listening to the actual recap of the disaster if you don’t want to hear about it and just want to hear the fun space shuttle facts and the changes that NASA undertook in learning from Challenger’s destruction. Below the cut are my sources, music credits, a vocab list, and the transcript of this episode. I’ve bolded those sources I mention in the podcast, and I do have a trigger warning for the actual, live-coverage footage of the Challenger disaster. Please let me know what you think I should research next by messaging me here, tweeting at me at @HDandtheVoid, or asking me to my face if you know me. I’d love it if you would subscribe on iTunes (especially since I seem to have so many problems this month with consistent timing), rate my humble little podcast and maybe review it, and tell friends if you think they’d like to hear it!

(My thoughts on the next episode are national radio quiet zones, or I could go into the transit of Venus. The next episode will go up February 12th.)

Glossary

gimbaled - moveable. In a gimbaled thrust system for rockets, the exhaust  nozzel of the rocket can be swiveled from side to side, which changes the direction of that thrust relative to rocket’s center of gravity.

pitch - in flight, this is rotation around the side-to-side axis. If the object’s nose points upwards or downwards, this is changing its pitch.

roll - in flight, this is rotation around the front-to-back axis. If the object’s wings spin from horizontal to vertical, it’s rolling.

yaw - in flight, this is rotation around the vertical axis. If the pilot turns the object so they can see more to the left or to the right, with no change in the horizon’s position, this is changing its yaw.

Script/Transcript

Sources

Sally Ride (for K-4) via NASA

Sally Ride bio via NASA

Sally Ride via the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Sally Ride and her sexuality via Slates blog ‘Outward’ (May 2014)

Sexual Orientation Discrimination Policy via NASA

“Employees should expect to find a diversity of sexual orientations at NASA. In the past, it was common practice to fire or to refuse to hire suspected homosexuals in the Federal workplace. Employees have been physically threatened, verbally abused, and subjected to hostile working conditions. Laws and policies have changed, and all NASA employees need to be aware of their responsibility to prevent this form of discrimination and to ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals are an accepted and valued part of the diverse NASA workforce.”

Space shuttle era via NASA

1983-1986: The Missions and History of Space Shuttle Challenger via NASA Spaceflight

Space shuttle process via NASA (archived)

Space shuttle components via NASA

Gimbaled thrust via NASA

Roll, Pitch, and Yaw via the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Typical shuttle mission via NASA

Challenger via Space.com (Nov 2017)

Challenger disaster via History.com — contains an autoplay video

Challenger disaster live on CNN via YouTube (Jan 2011)—tw: destruction occurs at timecode 1:35

Challenger myths debunked via National Geographic (Jan 2016)

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: ‘Repent’ by Dreamend off their album And So I Ate Myself, Bite By Bite, which has cover art that scared the hell out of me when my friend gave it to me because I was on painkillers for a shattered radial head. Really good band, though.

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

Ten minutes till this happens! I can’t watch it live but I’m excited to see what happens in the aftermath…

In about 20 minutes SpaceX will attempt to reuse a rocket booster they’ve already used before. If they succeed it could be a very serious step forward in space exploration capabilities.

Go SpaceX. Pleassssse…

A Young star rebels against its parent cloud

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Andromeda [x]

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Ep. 19 Astronauts - Long-Term Space Living - HD and the Void

How to astronauts shower? How many astronauts are on the International Space Station right now? How do you pack enough food for them? What kind of comfortable housing options are available when orbiting Earth? What can you pack and not pack? All t...

I imagine most people wanted to be astronauts when they learned it was a job they could have - I certainly did! And then I thought about it and realized podcasting about outer space was much less scary and much more achievable than becoming an astronaut, with the bonus of not having to wonder how hard I’d panic in an enclosed-yet-surrounded-by-vastness space. There have been a lot of people braver than me who went to space, and some of them went to space on long-term missions lasting months or a year, living on the International Space Station (or the historical equivalent, depending on when in history this happened). Learn what resources are available to ISS astronauts, and what risks there are out there (apart from the obvious ones).

Sorry I missed last week, but it was New Year’s and I don’t feel very guilty. Get excited about more space podcasts in 2018, though! Below the cut are my sources, music credits, a vocab list, and the transcript of this episode. I bolded any videos or sources that I mentioned in the podcast, if you’re looking for those specifically. Go ahead and suggest what you think I should research next by messaging me here, tweeting at me at @HDandtheVoid, or asking me to my face if you know me. Please subscribe on iTunes, rate it and maybe review it, and tell friends if you think they’d like to hear it! 

(My thoughts on the next episode are more about astronauts, or I could go into the transit of Venus. I have a couple books about space I should really get into reading… The next episode will go up January 22nd.)

Glossary

free fall - the downward movement of an object that is due to the force of gravity alone.

gravity - the phenomenon which causes all things with mass to move towards each other. On the universal scale, this is caused by the warping of spacetime by objects with large mass, e.g. stars and planets, and is explained through Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

microgravity - the state of perpetual free fall in a gravity field.

orbit - the gravitationally curved trajectory of an object, e.g. the trajectory of a satellite around a planet.

Script/Transcript

Sources

Yuri Gagarin via NASA 

Microgravity via NASA (Feb 2012)

The history of astronaut life via the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

Menstruation in space via National Geographic (Apr 2016)

The Air We Breathe via the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Breathing Easy on the Space Station via NASA (Nov 2000)

Jay Perry: “the chemical-mechanical systems are much more compact, less labor intensive, and more reliable than a plant-based system.”

Astronaut’s Home Videos Show How to Cook in Space via Space.com (Mar 2013)

Astronaut Hygiene: How to Wash Your Hair In Space (Video) via Space.com (July 2013)

Interview with former astronaut Prof. Jeremy Hoffman via the University of Leicester

A day in the life aboard the International Space Station via NASA (2015)

Zvezda Module Overview via NASA

Food for Space Flight via Nasa (Feb 2004)

John Glenn via NASA (Feb 2012)

Crew From U.S., Russia and Japan Expands Space Population to Six via NASA (Dec 2017)

ISS blog with experiment updates via NASA 

Astronaut daily life via ESA (Nov 2012)

The Skylab 4 Mutiny, 1973 via libcom.org (Apr 2004)

Carr: “On the ground, I don’t think we would be expected to work a 16-hour day for 85 days, and so I really don’t see why we should even try to do it up here.”

‘Space Oddity’ by Chris Hadfield via YouTube

Interview with astronaut Chris Hadfield via NPR (Oct 2013)

Col. Chris Hadfield: “The contrast of your body and your mind inside … essentially a one-person spaceship, which is your spacesuit, where you’re holding on for dear life to the shuttle or the station with one hand, and you are inexplicably in between what is just a pouring glory of the world roaring by, silently next to you — just the kaleidoscope of it, it takes up your whole mind. It’s like the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen just screaming at you on the right side, and when you look left, it’s the whole bottomless black of the universe and it goes in all directions. It’s like a huge yawning endlessness on your left side and you’re in between those two things and trying to rationalize it to yourself and trying to get some work done.”

Excerpt from memoir by former astronaut Scott Kelly via the Sunday Morning Herald (Oct 2017)

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: ‘Major Tom’ by Shiny Toy Guns off their album Major Tom.

Background Music: ‘Leaves’ by Patients aka Ben Cooper, who primarily releases music as Radical Face but also has at least three other bands or band names he’s working with/has released music as.

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

Until I get this show rolling, I’m going to be posting some of the things I’ve collected over the years that might make for interesting things to do podcasts about down the line!

Io and Jupiter.

Stars Born in Winds from Supermassive Black Holes

ESO - European Southern Observatory logo. 27 March 2017 ESO’s VLT spots brand-new type of star formation

Artist’s impression of stars born in winds from supermassive black holes

Observations using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed stars forming within powerful outflows of material blasted out from supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies. These are the first confirmed observations of stars forming in this kind of extreme environment. The discovery has many consequences for understanding galaxy properties and evolution. The results are published in the journal Nature. A UK-led group of European astronomers used the MUSE and X-shooter instruments on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile to study an ongoing collision between two galaxies, known collectively as IRAS F23128-5919, that lie around 600 million light-years from Earth. The group observed the colossal winds of material — or outflows — that originate near the supermassive black hole at the heart of the pair’s southern galaxy, and have found the first clear evidence that stars are being born within them [1]. Such galactic outflows are driven by the huge energy output from the active and turbulent centres of galaxies. Supermassive black holes lurk in the cores of most galaxies, and when they gobble up matter they also heat the surrounding gas and expel it from the host galaxy in powerful, dense winds [2]. “Astronomers have thought for a while that conditions within these outflows could be right for star formation, but no one has seen it actually happening as it’s a very difficult observation,” comments team leader Roberto Maiolino from the University of Cambridge. “Our results are exciting because they show unambiguously that stars are being created inside these outflows.”

Artist’s impression of stars born in winds from supermassive black holes

The group set out to study stars in the outflow directly, as well as the gas that surrounds them. By using two of the world-leading VLT spectroscopic instruments, MUSE and X-shooter, they could carry out a very detailed study of the properties of the emitted light to determine its source. Radiation from young stars is known to cause nearby gas clouds to glow in a particular way. The extreme sensitivity of X-shooter allowed the team to rule out other possible causes of this illumination, including gas shocks or the active nucleus of the galaxy. The group then made an unmistakable direct detection of an infant stellar population in the outflow [3]. These stars are thought to be less than a few tens of millions of years old, and preliminary analysis suggests that they are hotter and brighter than stars formed in less extreme environments such as the galactic disc. As further evidence, the astronomers also determined the motion and velocity of these stars. The light from most of the region’s stars indicates that they are travelling at very large velocities away from the galaxy centre — as would make sense for objects caught in a stream of fast-moving material. Co-author Helen Russell (Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK) expands: “The stars that form in the wind close to the galaxy centre might slow down and even start heading back inwards, but the stars that form further out in the flow experience less deceleration and can even fly off out of the galaxy altogether.” The discovery provides new and exciting information that could better our understanding of some astrophysics, including how certain galaxies obtain their shapes [4]; how intergalactic space becomes enriched with heavy elements [5]; and even from where unexplained cosmic infrared background radiation may arise [6]. Maiolino is excited for the future: “If star formation is really occurring in most galactic outflows, as some theories predict, then this would provide a completely new scenario for our understanding of galaxy evolution.” Notes: [1] Stars are forming in the outflows at a very rapid rate; the astronomers say that stars totalling around 30 times the mass of the Sun are being created every year. This accounts for over a quarter of the total star formation in the entire merging galaxy system. [2] The expulsion of gas through galactic outflows leads to a gas-poor environment within the galaxy, which could be why some galaxies cease forming new stars as they age. Although these outflows are most likely to be driven by massive central black holes, it is also possible that the winds are powered by supernovae in a starburst nucleus undergoing vigorous star formation. [3] This was achieved through the detection of signatures characteristic of young stellar populations and with a velocity pattern consistent with that expected from stars formed at high velocity in the outflow. [4] Spiral galaxies have an obvious disc structure, with a distended bulge of stars in the centre and surrounded by a diffuse cloud of stars called a halo. Elliptical galaxies are composed mostly of these spheroidal components. Outflow stars that are ejected from the main disc could give rise to these galactic features. [5] How the space between galaxies — the intergalactic medium — becomes enriched with heavy elements is still an open issue, but outflow stars could provide an answer. If they are jettisoned out of the galaxy and then explode as supernovae, the heavy elements they contain could be released into this medium. [6] Cosmic-infrared background radiation, similar to the more famous cosmic microwave background, is a faint glow in the infrared part of the spectrum that appears to come from all directions in space. Its origin in the near-infrared bands, however, has never been satisfactorily ascertained. A population of outflow stars shot out into intergalactic space may contribute to this light. More information: This research was presented in a paper entitled “Star formation in a galactic outflow” by Maiolino et al., to appear in the journal Nature on 27 March 2017. The team is composed of R. Maiolino (Cavendish Laboratory; Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, UK), H.R. Russell (Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK), A.C. Fabian (Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK), S. Carniani (Cavendish Laboratory; Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, UK), R. Gallagher (Cavendish Laboratory; Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, UK), S. Cazzoli (Departamento de Astrofisica-Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid, Spain), S. Arribas (Departamento de Astrofisica-Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid, Spain), F. Belfiore ((Cavendish Laboratory; Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, UK), E. Bellocchi (Departamento de Astrofisica-Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid, Spain), L. Colina  (Departamento de Astrofisica-Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid, Spain), G. Cresci (Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy), W. Ishibashi (Universität Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland), A. Marconi (Università di Firenze, Italy; Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy), F. Mannucci (Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy), E. Oliva (Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy), and E. Sturm (Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany). ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”. Links: ESOcast 101 Light: Stars found in black hole blasts http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1710a/ Research paper in Nature: http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1710/eso1710a.pdf Photos of the VLT: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/ ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT): http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/ MUSE instrument: http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/vlt-instr/muse/ X-shooter instrument: http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/x-shooter/ Image, Video, Text, Credits: ESO/Richard Hook/Cavendish Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Cosmology University of Cambridge/Roberto Maiolino/M. Kornmesser. Best regards, Orbiter.ch Full article