Team-BHP > Shifting gears


Reply
  Search this Thread
89,585 views
Old 19th May 2018, 09:52   #121
BHPian
 
sparky@home's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: KL08/KL46
Posts: 433
Thanked: 1,689 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

World's 'Most Advanced' Camera Will Hunt for Alien Worlds

A new type of camera developed by U.S. researchers will allow astronomers to directly image planets around nearby stars in the search for another Earth.
The camera, called DARKNESS (the DARK-speckle Near-infrared Energy-resolved Superconducting Spectrophotometer), relies on extremely sensitive superconductor detectors to gather light from distant worlds.
According to physicist Ben Mazin, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, who led the team developing the camera, current optical and near-infrared telescopes use cameras with semi-conductor detectors — the same type that can be found in cellphones and digital cameras. [How Do You Spot an Alien Planet from Earth? (Infographic)]

But semiconductor sensors, Mazin said, have certain limitations that make it difficult for this technology to image faint objects — such as distant stars and planets in their vicinity — a problem that he hopes the novel technology in the DARKNESS camera, based on super-conducting detectors, will solve.

"When a single photon with the energy of more than 1 electron volt hits a semiconductor detector, it frees one electron," said Mazin. "In a superconducting detector, it frees something like 5,000 or 10,000 electrons. And since there are many more electrons to measure, we can do things that you can't do with the semiconductor detector."

DARKNESS' new technology, called microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs), works at extremely low temperatures, only a tenth of a degree above absolute zero, said Mazin. The superconductor, made of platinum silicide, acts like an inductor, an electrical component that stores energy in a magnetic field, and works in conjunction with a capacitor, which stores energy in the form of an electric field, to form an oscillator, an electric circuit that can detect signal at a particular frequency.

When a photon hits the superconductor, it "shifts the resonance frequency of the oscillator," said Mazin. "We measure this shift to determine when a photon comes in and how much energy it had."

Thanks to its sensitivity, the 10,000-pixel DARKNESS camera enables the direct imaging of planets in the vicinity of nearby stars by detecting the light they reflect. The famous exoplanet hunter the Kepler telescope relied on an indirect method, called the transit technique, which detects the dip in the star's brightness as a planet passes in front of it.

"The transit technique is great, but you need to have a perfect alignment of the planet and the star to see it transit," said Mazin. "Only about 1 percent of stars show transits. They are very rare."

Another indirect technique for detecting exoplanets measures changes in the radial velocity of the star — its tiny wobbles — and the influence of an orbiting planet.

The direct-imaging technique used by the DARKNESS camera, could, Mazin said, be the most versatile planet-finding process.

"It actually takes a picture of the star and the planet," said Mazin. "You can [even] get a spectrum of the planet, but it's extremely technically challenging."

The camera has so far been tested in four runs on the 5-meter (16 feet) Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego. Mazin said the biggest obstacle the instrument needs to overcome is the Earth's atmosphere, which causes the twinkling seen in stars.

"We are trying to look for a tiny, little point of light right next to a bright light, and the atmosphere just blurs it all into one giant blob," said Mazin. "We are using an adaptive optic system, which is a rubber mirror and a wave-front sensor, which measures the atmosphere and changes the mirror 2,000 times per second to take out that atmospheric distortion."

Later this year, the researchers plan to deploy an even larger, 20,000-pixel camera on an 8-m (26 feet) telescope at Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

"Going from a 5-m to an 8-m telescope is a big improvement in what you can see," said Mazin. "Mauna Kea is the best site in the world for this kind of work, and we hope that the 8-m telescope in combination with a very powerful adaptive optic system will allow us to start finding more planets and for the first time start seeing planets in reflected light."

Mazin said he hopes the technology will be used in the future 30-m (98 feet) telescopes, which will be powerful enough to read the spectrum of the reflected light from exoplanets around nearby stars and look for signatures of life in those worlds' atmospheres.

Super-conducting detectors have previously been used in sub-millimeter telescopes and telescopes measuring cosmic microwave background; however, scaling them up has so far been challenging, said Mazin.

The new work was detailed in April in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

source : https://www.space.com/40600-most-adv...n-planets.html
Attached Thumbnails
The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia-safe_image.jpg  

sparky@home is offline  
Old 28th May 2018, 12:44   #122
BHPian
 
sparky@home's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: KL08/KL46
Posts: 433
Thanked: 1,689 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

NASA’s INCREDIBLE VIRTUAL PLANET SIMULATOR

NASA has made this incredible virtual planet simulator. The Exoplanet Travel Bureau drops you into vastly different star systems to explore distant worlds. we can enjoy the virtual sights thanks to NASA - apparently these even work in one of those fancy virtual reality headsets. The whole thing is imaginary, but wonderful.

Go here : https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-wo...el_bureau=true
sparky@home is offline  
Old 29th May 2018, 08:57   #123
Distinguished - BHPian
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Delhi-NCR
Posts: 4,042
Thanked: 63,675 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Quote:
Originally Posted by sparky@home View Post
NASA’s INCREDIBLE VIRTUAL PLANET SIMULATOR
Go here : https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-wo...el_bureau=true
Thank you for keeping this thread alive. I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts and gems of knowledge. One day hopefully not only will we find life on other planets and heavenly bodies but also it may be in a form we cannot comprehend right now - bubbles of gas and liquids swirling. On another note - are we I mean our human body merely a spaceship with the chormosones the real life who move from one spaceship (mother) to another (child)....!!
V.Narayan is offline  
Old 2nd June 2018, 10:04   #124
BHPian
 
sparky@home's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: KL08/KL46
Posts: 433
Thanked: 1,689 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Tour of the Moon in 4K

The footage dubbed as “virtual tour of the moon” in breathtaking 4K has been collected by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft over a span of nine years.

“The tour visits a number of interesting sites chosen to illustrate a variety of lunar terrain features,” Ernie Wright of NASA’s Space Visualization Studio explained in a blog post. “Some are on the near side and are familiar to both professional and amateur observers on Earth, while others can only be seen clearly from space.”

sparky@home is offline  
Old 9th June 2018, 11:09   #125
Senior - BHPian
 
ajay_satpute's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Pune
Posts: 1,955
Thanked: 1,704 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by sparky@home View Post
Tour of the Moon in 4K
This one is truly amazing. Thanks a lot for sharing. My 9 year totally loved it.

Last edited by ampere : 15th July 2018 at 11:00. Reason: Removed video link from quoted post
ajay_satpute is offline  
Old 15th July 2018, 10:40   #126
BHPian
 
sparky@home's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: KL08/KL46
Posts: 433
Thanked: 1,689 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Because a fact seems strange to you, you conclude that it is not one. ... All science, however, commences by being strange. On reading this CIA document which was released for public viewing, does prove truth is stranger than fiction. This is an old one which I am posting here, I could not find any threads similar to this, and therefore posting here.

Link : https://www.cia.gov/library/readingr...00760001-9.pdf

Video :

Mods : Kindly delete if not suitable.
sparky@home is offline  
Old 30th July 2018, 05:56   #127
BHPian
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Auckland, Chd
Posts: 116
Thanked: 87 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Quote:
Originally Posted by sparky@home View Post
Because a fact seems strange to you, you conclude that it is not one. ...
Wow! This is incredible. There are many such mysterious stories that are unsolved. I just got hold of a documentary series "NASA: unexplained files" that talks about many unexplained phenomena. Worth a watch!
KomS_CarLog is offline  
Old 3rd August 2018, 15:50   #128
BHPian
 
sparky@home's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: KL08/KL46
Posts: 433
Thanked: 1,689 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Quote:
Originally Posted by KomS_CarLog View Post
Wow! This is incredible. There are many such mysterious stories that are unsolved. I just got hold of a documentary series "NASA: unexplained files" that talks about many unexplained phenomena. Worth a watch!
Seeing your interest in space, you can check out this video. This is sort giving a glimpse if mankind has to colonize the galaxy, we will have to spend long times on board equally huge spaceships. To move thousands of people, and our ecosystem, to distant planets, will require not only giant ark-like star ships but entire fleets of them. Cheers.

sparky@home is offline  
Old 4th September 2018, 15:39   #129
BHPian
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Auckland, Chd
Posts: 116
Thanked: 87 Times

Thank you Sparky. I am yet to watch the video you suggested. Surely will do.

There is a very good documentary by Neil DeGrasse Tyson - "Cosmos". Wonderful 👍 I would recommend this for a watch.
KomS_CarLog is offline  
Old 15th September 2018, 08:47   #130
BHPian
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Auckland, Chd
Posts: 116
Thanked: 87 Times

A nice moon shot that I managed to take a few days ago. Planning for some more shots as the moon passes its phases
Attached Thumbnails
The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia-1536981371734.jpg  

KomS_CarLog is offline  
Old 29th September 2018, 20:46   #131
BHPian
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Mumbai
Posts: 116
Thanked: 212 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Figured this would be a good place to plug a few Milky Way time lapses I shot last month in Nubra Valley...

caffeineAM is offline  
Old 30th September 2018, 12:12   #132
Distinguished - BHPian
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Delhi-NCR
Posts: 4,042
Thanked: 63,675 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Quote:
Originally Posted by caffeineAM View Post
Figured this would be a good place to plug a few Milky Way time lapses I shot last month in Nubra Valley...

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=vMQ1u2jd6Ps
Thank you. Beautiful. Helps on realize we are but a speck of dust on a speck of dust.
V.Narayan is offline  
Old 30th September 2018, 12:20   #133
Distinguished - BHPian
 
BoneCollector's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: BIHAR
Posts: 3,196
Thanked: 10,797 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Quote:
Originally Posted by caffeineAM View Post
Figured this would be a good place to plug a few Milky Way time lapses I shot last month in Nubra Valley...
Wow. I'm speechless. Please upload more such videos. I was taken back to my school days (Nainital) where we could see such clear night sky nearly everyday.
BoneCollector is offline  
Old 30th September 2018, 12:37   #134
BHPian
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Mumbai
Posts: 116
Thanked: 212 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Quote:
Originally Posted by V.Narayan View Post
Thank you. Beautiful. Helps on realize we are but a speck of dust on a speck of dust.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BoneCollector View Post
Wow. I'm speechless. Please upload more such videos. I was taken back to my school days (Nainital) where we could see such clear night sky nearly everyday.
Thank you, glad you liked it! I had been there a decade back but only had a compact with me. This was my first ever Milky Way session, so was unsure how it would all turn out, so didn't stay out too long, regretfully. I've just got some software to clean up the noise. Will re-edit and upload a new one, not before next weekend though I'm afraid.
caffeineAM is offline  
Old 1st October 2018, 10:38   #135
BHPian
 
sparky@home's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: KL08/KL46
Posts: 433
Thanked: 1,689 Times
Re: The Astronomy Thread: FAQs, News & Trivia

Japan's intrepid, hopping asteroid rovers have sent back footage and high-resolution imagery from the surface of Ryugu, a kilometer-wide asteroid that has been visited by the agency's Hayabusa spacecraft, according to tweets from Japan's space agency.

"Rover-1B succeeded in shooting a movie on Ryugu's surface! The movie has 15 frames captured on September 23, 2018 from 10:34 - 11:48 JST.

Enjoy 'standing' on the surface of this asteroid!"



sparky@home is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks