Tag: orbit

The Reason the Earth Becomes Colder When Closest to the Sun

Leave a comment

The Earth orbits the Sun in an elliptical path, meaning the distance between each body constantly fluctuates. Perihelion is the specific point in this orbit at which the Earth is closest to the Sun with this phenomena occurring near January 3rd annually. In contrast to this, aphelion, is when the Sun is at its farthest distance from the Earth, which occurs in July each year. Interestingly and counterintuitively, the Earth is coldest during its perihelion phase (when the sun is closest to the Earth) and warmest during aphelion (when the sun is furthest from the Earth). This paradox occurs because of the struggle between orbital distance and the 23.5 degree axial tilt of the Earth. Whilst the Earth is slightly closer to the Sun during the perihelion phase in early January, receiving 6% – 7% more solar energy than in July, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun which forces sunlight to strike the Earth’s ground at a more shallow angle, therefore spreading the light over a larger surface area and filtering it through more of the atmosphere. This reduction in heat overrides the slight shift of the Earth and Sun being closer or further away, as it is the tilt of the Earth, not the orbital proximity of the Sun which dictates both the 4 seasons as well as the perihelion/aphelion paradox. It should be noted, global temperatures peak in July because the Northern Hemisphere Continental Crust heats more rapidly than the Southern Hemispheres oceans

The Reason Mercury’s Orbit Around the Sun Appears Retrograde From Earth

Leave a comment

Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity can be proven because of how Mercury orbits the Sun. Isaac Newton correctly explained how and why planets orbit the Sun, but because Mercury is so close to the Sun, it orbited its center star 7% faster than it should have therefore Mercury is close enough to the Sun that its space-time path is warped because of the mass of the Sun and this warping causes Mercury to orbit faster than planets further away. For many decades scientists hypothesized there was another planet, unseen yet, which gave Mercury an extra push. This additional planet was prematurely named “Vulcan”, which was in vain because no such planet ever existed. It was also theorized that cosmological dust gave Mercury its extra boost or that an unseen asteroid or asteroid field was helping Mercury along. It wasn’t until Albert Einstein proposed that all matter cuts through both space and time, following a curve, that the catalyst could be definitively proven. If a sphere rolled along a table and suddenly hit a dip, it would speed up and change its trajectory. This is essentially what occurs within space-time and is the reason Isaac Newton’s Universal Laws of Gravitation don’t quite fit with Mercury. Mercury is close enough to the Sun that its space-time path is warped because of the mass of the Sun and this warping causes Mercury to orbit faster than planets further away. It is not only Mercury which does this; any planet or body near its host star will orbit slightly faster than planets or bodies further away. Although it is impossible to visually see the curvature and bending of space-time, it can be definitively proven because of the way large bodies of matter affect smaller bodies of matter due to the mass of each body

The First Person to Theorize How Stars are Situated Within the Universe

1 Comment

Prior to the 16th century, it was believed that the Earth was the center of the universe with a belt of stars which rotated around it, exactly the same way in which planets orbit the central star of any solar system. These stars were believed to be fixed in their position as the constellations observed upon Earth do not alter greatly in their position or intensity in terms of what the human eye can perceive. Thomas Digges was the first person to propose that the stars are placed at different distances and in different positions, not in a ring of stars which stayed fixated, but rather in an infinite universe as distant points of light. Digges built upon the work of Nicolaus Copernicus by changing Copernicus’ original visual sketch of the planets and their orbital paths in that he removed the stellarum fixarum meaning “fixed stars” in Latin, and built a model in which stars were completely different in their distance relative to the Earth, with brightness controlled by how far or close a particular star was in proximity

The Artificial Black Hole Created by U.S. Scientists

1 Comment

In Menlo Park, United States of America, in May of 2017, scientists working at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center National Accelerator Laboratory (often abbreviated as “SLAC”) fired the world’s most powerful X-ray laser at individual molecules. The reason for this experiment was to observe what would occur when an atom with a lot of electrons is hit by high energy X-ray radiation to observe whether or not those electrons could be knocked out of orbit producing an atom which instead of having many electrons has very few electrons. This system behaved highly unusual and very differently than what scientists expected as it created a miniature black hole like object for 1/1,000,000,000,000,000 (1 quadrillionth) of a second, sucking all remaining electrons into it and exploding the molecule in a dramatic paroxysm

The Rationale as to Why Scientific Fact is Often Referred to as “Scientific Theory”

Leave a comment

The term “theory” placed behind suffixes of large theories like gravity, evolution, and special relativity (e.g. the Theory of Gravity, the Theory of Evolution, the Theory of Special Relativity etc.), doesn’t mean “theory” in the traditional sense. During the 20th century, Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion began to break down within the theories own borderlines as physics progressed further and further to answer continually larger and more complex questions. As a direct result of this, a grander, more encapsulating law was required to explain certain phenomena (e.g. the reason the sun has a corona of light bend around it during a total solar eclipse) which is why Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is so immensely important, as it explains such phenomena after which Newton’s laws begin to break down (e.g. Newton’s ability to predict planetary orbit but not explain why such a function occurs in nature etc.). Eventually the international scientific community unanimously agreed that laws should not be named as such because they may not remain laws in the long term, as there may be concepts outside of them which help explain both the supposed law itself as well broader phenomena outside of the suppositional law. The term “theory” was utilized to replace the term “law” because something scientific which can change over time, is not or was not truly a law to begin with. The term “theory” is used in the connotation of an idea which accurately describes a phenomena and empowers an observer to accurately predict what they have yet to observe. An idea isn’t genuinely a “theory” until it’s supported by empirical evidence, before which time it remains as a “hypothesis”

The Advent of Parallax Distance to Measure Immense Distances in Space

Leave a comment

Stellar parallax is a measurement technique developed by Friedrich Bessel to measure far away objects in deep space. The process of stellar parallax involves measuring an object from two separate vantage points hinging upon the fact that the object being observed will appear to move a lot more than objects further behind it (e.g. if an observer closes one eye and views their finger in front of a building, and then repeats this act with their second eye closed and the first eye open, the observers finger will appear as though it has moved much further left or right, relative to the other objects behind it). Because Bessel developed a method of calculation to take advantage of this phenomena, astronomers now have the ability to map grand distances with relative accuracy. Bessel worked out that if an observer took an image of a star when the Earth was at either side of its orbit around the sun, it would be possible to observe the star shifting in its position. By knowing how much a star shifts, it is possible to calculate the distance the star is from its observation point on Earth. Bessel surmised that the relatively close star 61 Cygni must be 100,000,000,000,000 (100 trillion) kilometers away from the Earth because of his parallax distance method. This technique unfortunately is severely limited as the diameter of the Earth’s orbit is only 300,000,000 (300 million) kilometers which means that the parallax method can only measure objects up to a factor of 1,000,000x (1 million) the Earths orbital rotation, allowing for a maximum distance of 300,000,000,000,000 (300 trillion) kilometers which is only a tiny fraction of the size of the Milky Way Galaxy or the universe as a whole

The Early Formation of Earth 

Leave a comment

During the early days of the solar system, dozens of planets orbited the sun. It is thought that these planets collided and with this collision came intense heat which melted and welded rocks and minerals together. It is theorized that Mercury was only hit once hence it’s small size, Mars not at all, Venus 8x, and Earth 10x primarily because Earth it is the largest of the rocky planets. The last impact towards Earth is thought to have occurred 4,500,000,000 (4.5 billion) years ago which gave Earth its iron core; the lighter debris floated back above Earth and rotated around it which gave Earth rings similar to Saturn. Scientists now know that Earth was hit by rocks which came from Mars. It is thought that primitive microbial life would be able to withstand the journey from Mars to Earth. Earth had enough gravity to hold its oceans which allowed for constant changes in weather. It is thought that life began on Earth 4,300,000,000 (4.3 billion) years ago and that life became sophisticated 2,800,000,000 (2.8 billion) years ago. Despite the Earth being hit 6x catastrophically which was once thought to have sterilized all life, primitive life forms lay dormant in suspended animation within the salt rock which was produced from the immense heat during each catastrophic event. The microbes lay waiting until conditions became more favorable at which time they started reproducing and thriving. Scientists tested this first hand by drilling into salt rock which was created during a catastrophic event to release 200,000,000 (200 million) year old sea water which held tiny microbes called asilospermians which were reanimated when left within a nutrient rich solution for 4 months

The Global Achievement of the International Space Station

Leave a comment

The International Space Station is approximately the size of a football field, orbits the Earth at over 28,000 kilometers per hour, and is situated 400 kilometers above sea level. The International Space Station is made up of 15 separate modules which come together and function as a single unit, with one end belonging to the United States of America and the other to Russia. Every piece of payload which is sent into space to be stored upon the International Space Station is weighed carefully, all the way down to the ounce

Sputnik: The First Satellite

Leave a comment

Sputnik which means “traveling companion” in Russian, was launched in 1957 and was the first satellite in space. Today, there are over 1200 satellites orbiting the earth, 50% of which are owned by the U.S. Sputnik was first observed by the Americans on October 4, 1957 and because of this, 1 year and 1 week later, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was formed. The U.S. was acutely aware of the consequences which would follow if they were to allow the Russians, and therefore the ideology of Communism, to win the Space Race during the Cold War. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was initially set up with a large budget which at its peak reached 4.41% of the U.S. federal total budget. Today that value is approximately 0.5% of the total U.S. federal budget