Protect the Earth from asteroid impacts with solar wind

Illustration of protecting earth from asteroid by using reflector

Assuming the Earth will be hit by Asteroid and we must prepare everything that is needed to protect our live. The same version was explained by Hollywood movie titled Armageddon. Unfortunately, it was a giant asteroid that could have devastating impact on the Earth so they have to stop it before reaching the Earth. The mission for stopping it was sending the crews to plant nuclear bomb by drilling the asteroid so the asteroid is divided into two pieces. Meanwhile, the explosion also could change the direction of impact. But, this mission is too dangerous for human. So what are we going to do?

Near Earth Asteroids(NEAs) are considered as threat because it could have devastating impact to the planet. And since 1999, the list of near earth asteroids has been updated continuously to prevent unexpected situation although the risk currently is sufficiently low. Nevertheless, it is our duty to prevent everything including preparing the plan for protecting the Earth from Asteroids’ impacts.

There are many proposals that have been proposed by many scientists. Installing laser on the orbit of the Earth and the laser station could be controlled from the Earth, utilization of gravitational coupling between the asteroid and massive spacecraft also becomes promising idea since the use of nuclear or weaponry is not used. Idea that is not related to nuclear warhead are promising because it will not rise political issues among countries around the world. Meanwhile, another idea suggested called Kinetic Energy Impactor (KEI) which can deflect the trajectory of asteroid by sending spacecraft or projectile to collide.

Using kinetic energy impactor is considered as the most efficient methods for changing the direction of the asteroids because it uses solar radiation pressure to produce an acceleration[1]. Meanwhile, the use of solar sail could aid the spacecraft that is utilized to bring the equipment to perform high-energy orbit transfers [2]. Therefore, to accelerate the projectile that will be used for deflecting the asteroid could be regarded as a viable decision.

The scientists had performed the simulation of asteroid impacts and they found that the electric solar wind sail kinetic energy impactor was able to deflect the asteroids impacts. Based on their simulation which analyzed parameters such as deflection distance and impact velocity, they found that the trajectory of the asteroids could be disturbed and the sail kinetic energy impactor could alternate the trajectory into several kilometers before the asteroids reach the Earth orbit.

In overall, the solar sail kinetic energy impactor is efficient to become one of the Earth’s protector. However, the only main problem is to set up the instruments perfectly. The simulation which was conducted assumed the energy impactor having perfect characteristics of flat, square solar sail so it can perfectly reflect the area of asteroids impact.

References
[1] K. Yamaguchi and H. Yamakawa, "Electric solar wind sail kinetic energy impactor for asteroid deflection missions," Journal of Astronaut Science, no. 63, pp. 1-22, 2016.
[2] C. R. McInnes, "Solar sailing," in Technology, dynamics and mission applications, 1999, pp. 32-55.
[3] Image is downloaded from http://toughsf.blogspot.com

Goodbye Mars: It is safer in Titan for living

Illustration of Mars's surface which can be toxic for microbial life

In the last two decades, the Mars has been becoming the best solution for space scientists to perform research as it seems the most suitable planet in the future. Until now, many research has been conducting including sending the spacecraft to Mars for obtaining life supports. However, the recent discovery reported that Mars’s environment is dangerous for human being. Do we have to say goodbye to Mars?

Martian scientists did observation by performing radiation UV combined with perchlorates which were commonly found in the Mars. After performing experimentation, they found that the Martian’s environment could be dead bacteria. Surprisingly, the existence of perchlorates is not rare in these days since the previous spacecraft which were Viking 1 and 2 landed on Mars in 1976 were able to detect this compound.

The Martian surface has different condition to Earth. Mars comprises two common chemical components which are the iron oxides and hydrogen peroxide. These two chemical compounds will perform synergy act with ultra violet (UV) radiation so it increases the danger of the contamination. Study conducted with irradiated perchlorates caused a 10.8-fold increase in cell death comparing to the exposure of only UV radiation after one minute [1]. So, the dead bacteria found in Martian’s surface was caused by the irradiated of perchlorates.

It means that the when the Mars’s surface is radiated by UV, the condition is too dangerous for human being. Hence, the plan colonizing the Mars is lower in term of harsh environment. Although the possibility of being Martian people is decreasing, it does not mean we could stop the plan. We have to move on to find a new place.

Therefore, scientists have moved on and suggested next planets after Mars. Saturn’s moon Titan is being examined and observed because the possibility of living there is more promising than in Mars. Unlike Mars, Titan less toxic chemical compounds even though it has lots of types of hydrocarbon. Ethane, methylacetylene, propane, hydrogen cyanide, carbon dioxide and monoxide are among of the compounds. As it is explained previously, the danger of these chemical compounds could be solved with the technology human has currently.

On the other hand, Titan’s environment is safer than the Mars. Although Titan’s location is far from the Sun which is needed for having stable temperature, the moon provides human with possibilities of in situ energy resources including nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower so these resources could be used to harvest everything need for supporting life [2]. In general, Mars is more toxic than the Titan and Mars is not as full as Titan in term of energy supporting resources.

References
[1] J. Wadsworth and C. S. Cockell, "Perchlorates on Mars enhance the bacteriocidal effects of UV light," Scientific Reports, no. 7, pp. 1-8, 2017.
[2] A. R. Hendrix and Y. L. Yung, "Energy options for future humans on Titan," Journal of Astrobiology & Outreach, vol. 5, no. 157, pp. 1-4, 2017.
[3] Image is downloaded from http://media-channel.nationalgeographic.com

Habitable earth-like planets: Is it important only to care about water availability?

With the growing number of human population, today many scientists argue that we must prepare our next home. Astronomers have been discovering many Earth-like planets in order to preserve our next destination. However, the findings are firstly on the water resources. Does it really matter about the water availability?

Earth-like planet must be discovered with the stable climate condition
(image is credited to www.nasa.gov)

Since the population of human has been growing in this millennia, overcrowding has been attacking the society. On the other hand, the increasing numbers of people also increases the use of vehicles which directly influences the production of carbon dioxide. This leads to the greenhouse effect which prevents the heat energy radiating back outside the atmosphere. Unfortunately, unstable carbon dioxide cycle affects the earth’s temperature increasing so that can endanger the living things within it.

As the solution for the un-habitable environment caused by the heating, many people believe we must begin the journey to the universe for seeking the next home otherwise we will go to extinction in the next few centuries. Sometimes, this solution is ridiculous since the exploration takes a very long time. However, in one hand, this could be the best solution as we already have enough technology. Whether it is good or not, something is certain that we must prepare everything for future generation.

Challenges to find new earth-like planets. One thing that is to be sure about finding our new home is the supporting aspects of life dependency in the new planet. For example, the movie titled “The Martian” teaches us about the needs of growing food resources in Mars while “Interstellar” suggests us to concern many aspects including the land, air and the atmosphere itself. For some reasons, these two movies predict the new habitats for human is not merely just water.

More importantly, the challenges in finding the new Earth-like planets are begun from the discovery of the water availability. It is a common thought that water is the source of living. Therefore, spotting the water resources in certain planets become the first step for scientists particularly for astronomers, astrophysics, astrobiologists. However, the space is never ending world with cold temperature and the possibility of looking new earth-like planets is low before the finding of stars.

Therefore, the first thing is to find the new planetarium system which is similar to our solar system. The main source of heat which is obtained from the nearest stars within the system is important to maintain the temperature. For example, our Sun acts to maintain the Earth’s temperature so living things could survive and live within it. Therefore, after finding the stars itself we must understand the movements of the planet in order to recognize the surface conditions.

Generally speaking, understanding the surface condition can guarantee the surface liquid water conditions of a planet because the existence of carbon-silicate cycle operating in the atmosphere (Menou, 2015). Throughout the paper, (Menou, 2015) suggested that in order to find the habitable earth-likes planet, stable condition of climate is crucial. Although water is important to support the life however, unstable climate cycles could affect the emergence and evolution of life which means colonizing new planet is nothing more than a visiting.

Earth-likes planets

Based on paper authorized by (Hobson & Gomez, 2017) there are several multiplanetary systems following the stars that organize them and more importantly about the compactness between the system and the size. However, as we mentioned earlier before that the process of finding the earth-like planets begun with the temperature, astronomers must discover it in a very precise colour – since color describes the temperature.

To conclude, the searching of terrestrial planets is based on the temperature because it explains the condition of the planet. However, finding the habitable earth-like planets is not only based on the temperature itself but also the water quantity and stable climate in addition to continue the process of evolution.

References
[1] Hobson, M. J., & Gomez, M. (2017). Multiple planetary systems: Properties of the current sample. New Astronomy, 1-12.
[2] Menou, K. (2015). Climate stability of habitable Earth-like planets. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 20-24.

Scientists predict infinite worlds

Like a quote states that either we live alone or not, the news is equally terrifying. The recent breakthrough in quantum mechanics suggested to humanity that there are many universes around us. Some of us coined them as alien, but could it be we were mistaken to interpret the data? Well, it does not matter anymore because the calculation is correct.

The world is interpreted by quantum methods

Living alone in the planet Earth has shown us about human’s existing. As we knew that in this solar system, the planet Earth is the only planet which can support the life existence. But in the reality perspectives, the supporting aspects are something that can be interpreted as physical. It means that reality or actuality is the reliable evidence in classifying something into “life existence”.

Intriguingly speaking, the “life existence” is not only to be translated as reality. In 2014, scientists have employed the quantum mechanics in predicting another world(s) – could be underworlds or above worlds --, because we still live in three-dimensional universes (de Ronde, et al., 2014). By using mathematical calculations, they predicted there are possibility of worlds in the classical and quantum formalism.

Predicting universes using quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics was established around 1900s when Planck stated that the sunlight is in discontinue state. It was not the same understanding like people understood at that time, therefore Planck suggested the quantum. As we know that quantum cannot be seen by “naked eyes”, some of the scientists at that time did not believe yet as the system may be changed. But, the quantum world has opened our perspective about there are discontinued events. This process led to new understanding that something cannot be seen by the eyes does not mean it does not exist.

So, how the formulation of world? It has to be physical? The world interpretation based on mathematical formula depicts numbers of universes based on time. One of the interpretations method, Copenhagen interpretation, suggested that the term of “world” also occurs in the smallest level of matter which means the quantum does not comprise merely particle and wave. With the Heisenberg principle of uncertainty, we can say that either we choose the states or not, neither we intended or not. It means, when choosing the state there is time segregation.

Theoretically speaking, the timeline during the deciding of the states is separated into several numbers which cannot be counted precisely. This infinite numbers of time imply infinite worlds as one of the properties of world is time.

References
[1]de Ronde, C., Freytes, H. & Domenech, G., 2014. Interpreting the Modal Kochen-Specker theorem: Possibility and many worlds in quantum mechanics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, Issue 45, pp. 11 - 18.
[2] Image is downloaded from https://societyofmodernastronomy.files.wordpress.com

Pluto: Is It a Dwarf Planet?

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) had classified Pluto as a non-object planet in solar system. This classification was based on the orbital aspect in accordance of the Sun. Subsequently, this definition had created many debates why the IAU categorized this planet into non-planet. Many scientists argue that Pluto is a planet, but the others suggested it is dwarf planet. However, many disagreed scientists believe that the reason of classification was merely not scientific as the perception of the orbital to the Sun. Was it a dwarf planet?

Image of Pluto as dwarf planet presented by NASA

Pluto was discovered was discovered by Tombaugh, an American astronomer, in 1930. It is located in the Kuiper Belt which forms a ring behind the Neptune. The name of Pluto was based on myth which has meaning the god of the underworld. The first person who coined the name was Venetia Burney who was a teenager in Oxford, England. Today, many debates have been occurred among scientists as this planet had been considered as dwarf planet. The arguing was happened because the IAU believe that it does not have criteria in revolution for the Sun.

What makes Pluto becoming the Dwarf Planet?

Well, the debates were started because of the definition of planet proposed by the IAU. Astronomers of the IAU believe Pluto does not orbit to our star which is the Sun. And even more, they suggested also Pluto has nothing do to in orbiting which means nor it is a rogue planet. The others scientists argued that this definition does not make sense as there is not objects in the universe including in our solar system have clear zone to do orbiting.

Mathematically speaking, if an object must have a clear zone so it means differently. It is because the planet must have an exact pattern which is not alternate. Therefore, K. D. Runyon considered this definition is merely intuition so it does not have scientific and technical reasons. By quoting the Runyon’s definition, a planet is a sub-stellar mass body that has never undergone nuclear fusion that has sufficient shape adequately to assume a spheroidal shape adequately described by a triaxle ellipsoid regardless of its orbital parameters.

As we know that the orbital patterns will always change because of gravitational interferences or perturbations. Therefore, astronomers utilize the derivation of Newton’s Law of motion and gravitation universally and collectively. This paradigm leads us to systems which orbits classically – proposed by Kepler. In short sentence, the objects in space must have ellipse, parabola and hyperbola so that they could be classified as planets in term of two dimension. However, based on this assumption we avoid the interactions as if we neglect the Newton’s Law of universal gravitation. As we knew that planet’s gravity generated by its own rotation governs every object near to its.

Issues will come if the definition of planet as mentioned

The main issue is about the space exploration in identifying whether an object is a star, planet, dwarf planet, asteroid, comet or others. If we only classify an object only based on the orbit of the Sun, then we could categorize it as planet too which means comet, asteroid, and dead star which have perhaps orbiting the sun as planet. Therefore, Runyon proposed that a planet must follows these criteria based on his definition

1. It has a mass body
2. It never does fusion reaction on its nucleus
3. It has an obvious self-gravitation, which
4. Makes it a sphere form, which also
5. Has triaxial ellipsoid in accordance of its orbits

The main issue also leads us to confusion in defining the object as a planet. In other words, the definition proposed by Runyon is based on the geophysical and astronomical aspects which can be considered as complete characteristics. On the other hand, the IAU statements which are written in Runyon’s paper could show their inconsistency as they only employ giant, ice giant, and terrestrial to describe geological and geophysical aspects of a planet. This will produce confuse to both educators-students and practitioners.

Conclusion

Based on the geological and geophysical factors, a planet must not act similar with the stars – such as the Sun –, which does not employ nuclear fusion. It must have its own gravity which can affect the shape to become sphere and the gravity also affects the orbits into triaxial ellipsoid. Subsequently, throughout these classification, Pluto is absolutely a planet which orbits on the solar system.

Reference

A geophysical planet definition. K. D Runyon, S. A. Stern, T. R Lauer, W. Grundy, M. E. Summers, K. N. Singer. Lunar and Planetary Science XLVIII (2017)

The Impact of Space Debris Hitting the Spacecraft

For common people, space debris is only the unidentified and identified objects that rotate in the elliptical orbits of certain planets. However, for scientists and astronomers, they are the objects that are generated from the space-travel and they can cause big impact to humanity. For example, one of the debris could produce impact as the same size of meteor.

The Earth is surrounded by space debris

Debris are produced from the space travel during the launching of satellite which uses the rocket booster or launcher. After reaching the Earth’s orbits, the rocket will be unattached from the command controls or the pilot or automatically be released by the system. Unfortunately, during the un-attachment, big-sized-equipment could have been influenced by the gravity so it could fall on the atmosphere of Earth. But, for small-size equipment, they will stay rotating in the orbit which can cause many issues.

In fact, the small size of equipment has been hitting the satellites. It has been reported from European Space Agency (ESA) that the Copernicus Sentinel-1A was hit by millimetre-size particle in the late August 2016. Even though there was no major effect, this is the evidence that the satellite is in alert situation (Agency 2016).

The effect of space debris

The simulation model about space debris -- image is credite by the ESA

Based on NASA’s calculation, it is estimated that more than 500,000 pieces of space debris are flying around the orbits and their velocity are super (Garcia 2013). As physics have thought us about the momentum and objects that approach speed of light could produce high impact, hyper momentum could be produced with enormous energy. The relatively small size of objects is crucial because when they move, the speed could approach the speed of light nearly 28000 kilometers per hour. Currently, if we could imagine what is happening in the orbits, our earth is rained by lots of space debris.

To understand the impact, the European Space Agency set up an experiment using alumunium material. They used a sphere and rectangular object. The sphere was applied as a bullet which had speed approximately to 6.8 km/second. Then the simulation process is designed to make the sphere hit the rectangular object with 18 cm thick.

The results of experiment indicated danger situation. With only 1.2 cm of diameter, the sphere produced impact crater and depth for 9.0 and 5.3 cm respectively. This became big issue since the experiments limited the real condition such as pressure and temperature, the aerodynamic aspect of the debris, the amount and materials of the space debris.

What we could do for the space debris

Many suggestions have been reported from scientists around the world. From installing the laser protector either in the atmosphere or surface of the earth, to the spacecraft which is supported with weapons. However, one of the promising solutions which have been proposed are the laser protector installed in the atmosphere because of certain reasons. For example, constructing protecting station in the atmosphere could prevent the laser from reducing energy. it also reduces the disturbance created by the natural magnetic field which is generated from the earth’s core.

On the other hand, the location which is in the atmosphere could increase the accuracy of striking so it can effectively remove the debris. This also helps us to avoid uncertainties and distance since if we instal the laser stations in the surface of the Earth.

Remembering Vera Rubin: The Mother of Modern Cosmology

I never thought that the person who has pioneered in discovering the evidence of dark matter has passed away in December last year. So, in addition to praise all her work we intend to give one article for remembering her.

In article the race of searching dark matter, Vera's work had opened every eyes of astronomer about the discrepancy happened on galaxy. On the other hand, she showed a capability of a woman on her era can have prestigious work in the field of astronomy. Vera was known as the first woman who had been acknowledge from many astronomers in the United States including the association. She also became the first woman who received medal gold from royal society for astronomer.

Nevertheless, Rubin was a researcher and also a mother. She had helped many astronomers around the world to get doctoral on the related topic and even more she had successfully fulfilled her duty as a mother because of her raising method. All her four children had earned doctoral degree in natural sciences and mathematics including her astronomer-daughter, Judith S. Young.

Maybe some scientists around the world do not know her name because she worked as an astronomer. However, we as the aeglephyics board members tribute her works in high honour. Many thanks for your contributions Mrs Vera Cooper Rubin (23 July 1928 - 25 December 2016).

Solar Activity Could Trigger the El Nino and La Nina (ENSO)

One of the most important thing in talking the weather surrounded the Asia-Pacific is the El Nino. It is one of the cycling weather interaction which can affect the climate in some countries. The El Nino is cycled together with La Nina and both of them are famous with the name El Nino/ Southern Oscillation.

ENSO Schematic Credited by NOAA is downloaded from climatic.gov

These interactions actually are occurred by interfering of hot cycling temperature in cold temperature or the opposite. This phenomenon affects the ocean temperatures and possibly alters the weather patterns around the world. How it can be? It is because the ENSO produces temperature either warmer or cooler than the ocean so it generating the differences of pressure system, affecting the winds and moisture. Therefore, the water containing inside the weather is less when it is warmer so it creates hotter area which is less of raining. The same effect will be happening on the opposite situation.

The issue which is being talked today is in what occasion ENSO occurred? As we knew that ENSO will be happening if there are air pressure differentiation in the opposite directions of pacific oceans. If the cold air comes from western part which brings the low air pressure and it meets the hot air which has high air pressure in some parts in the pacific oceans, those air will fuse together. Consequently, it can cause the fusion of moisture or drying. However, recent study which is published on New Astronomy Journal conducted by *Qian Zhai of Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China suggested that the ENSO is influenced by the sunspot activity. The impact factor could be the cause in atmospheric anomalies in the pacific.

According to the study, it is illustrated that the sun activities have given positive influence on the existence of ENSO. It could be happened in low activity of level because during that time the sun creates minimum of sunspots or even more it does not create it at all for eleven years. During the solar minima, the sun subsides fewer solar flares and it radiates fewer of gas electrified onto the space. So, it means when some part of the earth was experiencing the solar activity, there could be changing patterns of weather in related area.

ENSO or El Niño and La Nina can affect weather in several pattern of area. Some studies including this study has shown the influences. The ENSO had been proven for influencing the changing of hydro climatic in the Rio de la Plata. This prove is based on several studies conducted in 1992, 1994 and 1998 respectively by Mechoso and Perez-Iribarren, Pisciottano et al., Caviedes and Waylen. The similar study which had been conducted by **Sathicq et al., investigated there was unstable condition on the population of phytoplankton in Rio de la Plata estuary.

In overall, the solar activity including sunspot is recently influenced the ENSO which can continuously trigger the climatic changing. However, it is still not proven yet that this solar activity is the main factors of ENSO. Furthermore, more investigations are needed to understand the El Nino/ South Oscillators phenomenon.

*Evidence for the effect of sunspot activity on the El Niño/Southern Oscillation

**Influence of El Niño Southern Oscillation phenomenon on coastal phytoplankton in a mixohaline ecosystem on the southeastern of South America: Río de la Plata estuary

Comet: Historical and Scientific Observations

Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) was observed in April 1997

Long time ago, comets were considered as a bad luck. For some civilizations, the existence of comets show death, prolonged plague, severe drought, the death of the King or Queen. Many of them in the past associated the coming of comets with something superstition. However, the breakthrough of astronomy has led us to reveal the secrets laid on comets.

Based on the recent research, many scientists attempt to do analyzing through the comets’ surface in addition to seek information through the composition of those. And the observations have assumed that the ice composition which has been freezing for million years contains unidentified and unobservable matter remained untouchable since the solar system existed. For astronomers, scientists and astrobiologists these untouchable matters are very precious because who knows those contain message or the code to understand the universe.

Compared to these modern days, the observation of comets was strictly neglected since it was considered as bad luck carrier. Until in 16^th century, a Danish astronomer, astrologer and alchemist name Tycho Brahe firstly demonstrated the comet existed and its location is far away from the Earth’s atmosphere. However, the observation of comets was very popular later a century after Brahe’s demonstration.

Edmund Halley in 1600s was the clerk of the royal society in England. He was an astronomer who dedicated himself for science. At that moment, he visited the southern part of the Earth and set up an observation by using large sextant – a navigation instrument which is able to measure the angle created by two objects – which was attached to telescopic sights so he was able to document the stars and their location in the southern hemisphere. Although it was not a pure telescope, he and his colleague Johannes Hevellius was questioned by Robert Hook because of its observation did not use the proper instrumentation.

Halley was the first scientist who is interested to prove the Kepler’s law of planetary motion. His curiosity led him to meet one of genius scientist name Isaac Newton. Through his cooperation with Newton, they published the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Based on this book, Halley was able to predict the Kirch comet orbit which was observed by Flamsteed although the year of existence was not accurately predicted. Interestingly, Halley observed one comet which based on previous information came to the Earth in 1456 and 1378. At that time, he was the only person who realized that comet was the same come which appeared in that year. And his prophecy about this comet, it will arrive frequently for 76 years.

Until that era, the observation of comets has been conducting in many countries. And the development of instrumentation for observing the comet has been developing. The Halley’s comet is the only comet which can be seen with our normal eyes as for as we know currently. And today, the Rosetta mission had able to land the space probe in the end of 2016 in comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Surprisingly, there are so many comets had been detected with several methods and one of those is by using the radio detector.

Overall, comets were considered as bad luck for many civilizations until the astronomy made those to become one of interesting object. Comet’s observations led us to the prediction aspect in science and technology which is in long time ago, many scientists never did that before. Furthermore, comet could contain essential matter which can help us to understand the universe because it is remained intact for millions of years.

The Ptolemaic System of Universe

A thousand and eight hundred years ago, a Greek mathematician proposed the planet moves with constant velocity in certain pattern of orbit. Whilst the center of the path rotates uniformly. Then, he mentioned the movement pattern as a small circle which the Earth is moved slightly to one side of its centre.

His proposal has been surviving for 1400 years and it was considered as the planet geocentric theory. The Almagest is the title of his mathematical book he wrote. Claudius Ptolemaeus which is also known as Ptolemy is the name of that Greek mathematician. Even though, most of Greek scientists during that era were doing argument and discussion instead of observation and experimenting, they were able to produce fundamental principle for the developing of astronomy.

Ptolemy predicted that the movements of every space objects in one system is in an uniform condition. Those are including the speed of motion and the orbits. His description based on the system created by Aristotle which the universe is described as earth-centred system. It means that the use of geometry pattern in the movement of the system is carried the fixed stars, planets, moon and sun rotate the earth. He used the word of epicycles as the geometric models describing the combination of circular motion of those objects. However, the Earth's location is not exactly in the centre of the circle. In Ptolemaic system -- the term of universe created by Ptolemy -- was displaced from the centre of the big circular pattern and makes the planets around were able to interfere the others movements. Basically, in the real world the ptolemaic system allows the planets to increase of the possibility of collision.

The slightly location of the Earth inside the big circle is called as a deferent which makes the Earth does not moved at all in a pattern of orbit. So, the Ptolemaic system describes the Earth as pure rotation of movements. Interestingly, by taking the understanding of the epicycles system, we were able to make a mathematical principle from the radiant and surrounding. Overall, this theory helped scientists and astronomer to predict the location of many space objects including the Sun and the Planets several hundred years later. And the most interesting fact, by using the principle invented by Ptolemy, Copernicus presented the heliocentric theory.

The Space Object Arrives Too Fast

Asteroid collisions such as the one which struck in Chelyabinsk, Russia last several years ago in February may probably five times more ordinary than prior calculations have revealed.

It was in the morning at that moment, the skies above Chelyabinsk showed several fireballs. The balls emitted with light which is more shiner 30 times than sunlight. With high-speed movements, the balls started fractioning at certain altitude. Even more, as we know that the high-speed of matter can produce huge explosion which is the same as 500 kilotons of TNT. It was a very destructible balls of bomb. It also created another form of energy i.e. shock wave which can have injured thousands of people. The shock wave can be imagined like a transparent flying saucer.

However, the dangerous did not only occur from the shock wave itself. The additional issue was the asteroid collision could create a nuclear reaction because of the element containing inside the asteroid. Otherwise, many nations currently are in the middle of researching nuclear particle for energy particularly in Russia. So, the additional disaster can be happened if the asteroid strikes the related area. Until the United Nations monitored the movements by using the infrasound stations. The institution finally had announced that the nuclear activity was prohibiting at that time.

The instrumentation used by the United Nations also showed interesting facts. The infrasound stations can detect space objects throughout the principle of sound waves. As we know that human has hearing threshold started from 20 to 20,000 Hertz. It means, we will exactly not be able to hear lower or higher than the threshold. But, the asteroid impacts happened in Chelyabinsk, Russia generated lower frequency than the human hearing. Therefore, the instrumentation is not only used for detecting the incoming asteroids but also others objects outside the Earth. And the fact is the objects particularly the asteroids have higher opportunity to strike earth five times than usual.

The authorized stations told that the asteroid striking in Chelyabinsk was supposed to be happened once every 20 to 30 years. It makes the Earth will be striking by the space objects about five times more regularly than the previous decades. Thus, the astronomers calculated the chance of space objects nearby the earth by using the extrapolation method. they found that the asteroids which has size around 100 meters in diameter will strike the earth within 120 to 150 years. The result shows to us every asteroid which has size lower than 100 meters could be impacting the Earth. It suggests us about many smaller space objects nearby the planet are ready to impact and this is a biggest revelation.

The Race of Searching Dark Matter

In 1933, a physicist named Fritz Zwicky pointed something when he was observing one galaxy at Coma Cluster. It was a gaze phenomenon but something unusual happened and he noticed that the galaxies were in high speed for expanding.

Yes, the universe is ballooning and what are the causes? Zwicky was the one who was able to understand. At the first time he realized the expansion, he tried to add all the stars and clusters so he could see every object at Coma Cluster to determine whether it was occurred because of gravity. But, it turned out that galaxy would not make the speed in a fast movement. So, he made an assumption about the causes and went into an idea about there was something unseen about this causing. It was hidden from the view and he coined dunkle materie which means dark matter in German language.

Several years later, the universe still going to expand and yet we are still not able to detect this so called Dark Matter. In 1970, the similar phenomena happened to Zwicky was repeatedly occurred but the mystery remained unraveled. Vera Rubin, an astronomer, observed the Andromeda Galaxy and found there was one single stars that acted uncommon. The stars rotated the galaxy so fast and it excluded from the void but close to the orbit. And this phenomenon existed again when in 1980 she observed another 100 galaxies.

What is a dark matter itself? Well, every scientist around the world is still looking the answer throughout theories and experiments. Many of them believe that this matter is very important since the Higgs-Boson particle had discovered. You may find the answer on my previous article about dark matter reveals the hidden secrets.

The race of searching dark matter has moved the scientists from any surface laboratories to the outer or deeper the Earth. For example, the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) is located deeper below the planet. This facility is supported by liquid xenon installed in a tank with temperature around 100 Centigrade below zero. And it is in the middle of detecting the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS) which are currently passing through the planet.

The work of this facility is when the atom from the cosmic ray emitted to the Earth, it will pass the tank and causes the atom to be separated. The collision among them will cause the separated-particles to begin the fluorescence flashes. But honestly, it is not something easy to catch. The hunt is not finished yet for may be several hundred years later.

Among physicist around the world, this facility is not the only one which hunts the dark matter. One team of researchers had installed the facility IceCube – it is literally not the name of American Rapper – which literally speaking is an underground facility located 2.5 kilometers below. Amazingly, it is located in the north pole so the temperature is so freeze. The frozen atmosphere creates the facility to detect the dark matter in sensitive situation. The facilities located in the Antarctic continents is controlled from far away. It is remotely well-functioned and it is able to detect the WIMPS from the Sun-ray.

Another facility is located hundreds of kilometres above our head. In 2011, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) was moved to the International Space Station and it had been installed in the same year to detect the neutrino which is generated from collision or separation of WIMPS. The works of AMS gave good result in 2013 when it detected the particles called positrons in high numbers in the space. However, it is not yet able to help in understanding of dark matter.

In conclusion, the search of dark matter is very important in understanding of universe because this so-called particle is believed to cause the rotation among planets, stars and galaxies. Moreover, the search has invited many countries to collect many related data to reveal the hidden secrets of universe.

Dark Matter Reveals The Hidden Secrets

Particle Accelerator Is Used for Finding Dark Matter

At first, human thought that the universe was created from the dirt, wind, fire and water. Those four fundamental things -- which the Avataar showed on the television --, were coined by the Greek civilization. Until thousands of years later, we decided that atoms were the basic concept of creating the universe. Did we choose the best answer?

Well, apparently our decision about atoms was not fully correct. And even more, it was correct for only 5 per cent by the total. We moved out and changed our understanding about the universe was not merely created by the atoms. So, what is it? What is our next destination in understanding of the universe?

The understanding began its way from two experts in astronomy. Both of them realised something happened to our universe in 1930s and 1980s. By observing the space objects such as stars and planets in some sort of galaxies, they noticed that the space objects including the galaxies were rotating so fast. Interestingly, they found the objects was moving without any factors. It did not move because of the gravity from other objects. So, what happened? Unseen force beside gravity? Then one of the two experts coined dunkle materie, Fritz Zwicky Mumbled.

Dark matter? A matter that has a black colour? Well, actually it was not literal. It meant about a matter that unseen by our normal eyes or other sophisticated instrumentations that have ever built several years ago. The understanding was based on something that bothered us about what made the stars, galaxies, have been affected to move in such speed.

This unseen energy could be created from the particle which is not yet classified in the world of particle physics. But, it can produce a big energy and affect the enormous object to move. Since we have the general relativity published by Einstein hundred years ago, we have been modelling and today we are able to detect the gravitational waves happened to the outer of the Earth. The dark matter currently is not detected by any imaging instrumentation yet. But, the search of dark matter has been starting since the coining words began.

Overall, the search of dark matter has begun to race and it invites many theoretical, experimental physicists and engineers around the world. And its breakthrough could reveal the universe's secrets.