A Group of astronomers using NASA's satellite, named as- transiting exoplanet survey satellite have discovered a star GJ 357, which is present in the Hydra constellation. This star is nearly 31 light years away from the Earth. Researchers have found a planet orbiting this star in the outer limits of the star's habitable zone. The name of the planet that has the potential to support life is- GJ357d. The planet gets the same amount of energy that is received by the planet Mars from the Sun, in our solar system. The study's co-author, Diana kossakowski said- "if the planet has a dense atmosphere, which will take future studies to determine, it could trap enough heat to warm the planet and allow liquid water on its surface." According to Lisa Kaltenegger, one of the study's co-authors, "This is exciting, as this is humanity's first nearby super- Earth that could harbor life- uncovered with the help from TESS, our small, mighty mission with a huge reach."
Super Earth by NASA TESS Video
It is estimated that, the planet has a mass 6.1 times that of the earth and orbits its star GJ 357, in every 55.7 days. The planet GJ 357 d has an equilibrium temperature of minus 64 degrees, assuming, there is no atmosphere there. However it is not clear, what GJ 357 d is comprised of and what is its real size. If it were rocky, It is estimated that the size of the planet would likely be between, one and two times the size of the earth. Scientists have also discovered two other planets of this star GJ357. Names of these planets are GJ357b and GJ357c. Here it is worth mentioning, that the exoplanet GJ357b is described as a "hot Earth" as its surface temperature is nearly 490 degrees Celsius. In the same way, the planet GJ 357c, has a surface temperature that may approach upto 260 degrees Celsius. So both of these planets are unlikely to support life. So let's hope for the possibility of alien life on the Super earth planet GJ357d. Go to HOME PAGE Universe Origin Theories, Beginning, Evolution and Future of the Universe (BIG BANG Theory, Steady State Theory and Pulsating Theory)
The Hubble Space Telescope also known as HST or Hubble is a Space Telescope. It was launched into low Earth orbit in April 1990. Hubble's launch and deployment marked the most significant advance in Astronomy since Galileo's telescope. The Hubble Telescope was built by NASA with contributions from the European space agency. Now you may think- why we have placed it in the space, not on earth's surface? The answer is, the space is above the distortion of the atmosphere, far above rain clouds and Light pollution. So it can provide clear images of the universe without any environmental obstructions.
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Video
The Hubble Telescope is named after an american astronomer Edwin Hubble.
The Hubble telescope has been used to observe the most distant stars and galaxies along with the planets in our solar system. Now let's have an idea about how big the Hubble Telescope is -
It's weight is nearly 10,886 Kgs, with a length of 13.2 metres and maximum diameter of 4.2 metres. Now I will tell you some interesting facts about the Hubble Telescope - The Hubble Telescope takes pictures of distant stars, galaxies and planets while revolving around Earth at about 17,000 miles per hour.The pointing accuracy of Hubble Telescope is unbelievably high. The Hubble Telescope has to be extremely steady and accurate in order to take images of distant and faint objects. The telescope is able to lock onto a target without deviating more than 0.007th of an arc-second, or about the width of a human hair seen at a distance of 1 mile. Hubble has made more than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990.
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Telescope has been one of the most productive scientific instrument ever built, as the astronomers have published more than 15,000 scientific papers using data obtained from the Hubble Telescope and those papers have been cited in other papers 738,000 times. Hubble has gone more than 4 billion miles circling Earth at an altitude of about 340 miles.The Hubble Telescope transmits nearly 150 gigabits of raw science data every week. With the Help of Hubble Telescope, we have been able to see back into very distant past, to locations that are more than 13.4 billion light years away from Earth. Hubble Features a 2.4 metre mirror and it's four main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible and near infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Many observations made by hubble Telescope have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining the rate of expansion of the universe. Hubble is the only telescope that has been designed to be maintained in the space by astronauts. Five space shuttle missions have repaired, upgraded and replaced systems on the telescope. Do You know that Hubble has no thrusters. It uses Newton's third law by spinning its wheels in the opposite direction to change angles. When launched, the Hubble space Telescope carried 5 scientific instruments these were- the wide field and planetary camera, high speed photometre, Goddard high resolution spectrograph, faint object spectrograph and faint object camera. The Space Telescope science institute is responsible for the scientific operation of the telescope and the delivery of data products to astronomers. Within weeks of the launch of the hubble telescope, it got a serious problem with its optical system. This was indicated when the scientists observed the images sent by the telescope. They found that the best image quality was drastically lower than expected. After analysis, it was concluded that the cause of the problem was - that the primary mirror had been polished to the wrong shape. After the problems with Hubble's mirror were discovered, the first servicing mission assumed greater importance, as the astronauts would need to do extensive work to install corrective optics. For this mission a team of seven astronauts was made and they were trained to use about a hundred specialised tools. The mission was one of the most complex performed up until that date. It involved 5 long extravehicular activity periods. On January 13, 1994, NASA declared the mission a complete success and showed the first sharper images. It was a gift of NASA to the whole world of astronomy.
The discussion about the hubble Telescope is incomplete without discussing its contribution to the astronomy and important discoveries made by it. Hubble has helped resolve some long standing problems in Astronomy while also raising new questions. Some results have required new theories to explain them.
Important Discoveries by Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
Age of the Universe
Hubble Telescope helped in measuring the rate at which the universe is expanding, which is related to its age. According to the hubble, the estimated age of the Universe is now about 13.7 billion years.
Finding Black Holes
The Hubble Telescope helped in finding the relationships between galaxies and their Central black holes. The work Conducted with the Hubble space Telescope shows that black holes are found at the centre of almost all galaxies. The Hubble programs established that there is a close relationship between the masses of the nuclear black holes and properties of the galaxies.
In determining the mass and size of the Milky Way
In March 2019, observations from Hubble telescope and data from the European space agency's Gaia space observatory were combined to determine the mass and size of the Milky Way. It has been found that the total mass of the Milky Way galaxy is nearly 1.5 trillion solar units and it has a radius of approx 129,000 light years.
Discoveries within our solar system
The Hubble Space Telescope has also played very important role in finding many new things in our solar system. It has been used to study objects in the outer reaches of the solar system like dwarf planets Pluto and Eris. It also discovered a tiny fifth moon orbiting around Pluto. The Hubble found a large ocean of salty water on Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons. The Hubble showed that Ganymede has a subsurface ocean, which is nearly 100 kilometres deep.
Other notable discoveries by the Hubble Space Telescope include-
Our universe has been expanding since the beginning of time, almost 14 billion years ago following the big bang. But recent Hubble Space Telescope findings suggest that the universe is expanding much faster than previously thought. So, is the end of time nearer than expected? Actually Gravity is responsible for binding everything together in the universe. In a place having lots of matter, the attractive forces of gravity are much greater in comparison to the repulsive forces of dark energy. But in Mostly Matter free space, the repulsive forces because of the dark energy are more significant than the attractive forces of gravity. So because of this mysterious dark energy, the rate at which our universe is expanding has been increasing. The latest data obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope suggests that the expansion rate of the universe is 9% faster than expected. A team from SH0ES (supernovae, H0, for the equation of state)- at Johns Hopkins University has obtained this important data after performing some measurements. For this they analysed light from 70 stars in a nearby Galaxy known as the large Magellanic cloud. On the basis of their observations they calculated how fast these stars are moving away from us. A group of stars known as Cepheids was particularly analysed by the team. Cepheids brighten and dim at regular intervals.
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The team used a technique of measurement known as DASH. DASH is an acronym for Drift and Shift. With the help of this technique of measurement they could focus on more than one star at once. On contrary to this, images obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope are result of one star observed every 90 minutes. This makes the process more time consuming in comparison to the DASH technique. Scientists compared the results obtained from the standard Hubble measurements and the DASH measurement. After Comparison, some discrepancy was found in terms of, how bright the Cepheids actually were. Actually the brightness of a star depends on its closeness. Closer the star, more brighter it appears. On the basis of these results scientists concluded that our universe is expanding at a faster rate than expected, as the stars were slightly farther than they thought.
Adam Riess, Bloomberg professor of Physics and astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University, Nobel Laureate and the project's leader, said: "This is Not just two experiments disagreeing. "We are measuring something fundamentally different. One is a measurement of how fast the universe is expanding today, as we see it. “The other is a prediction based on the Physics of the early universe and on measurements of how fast it ought to be expanding. "If these values don't agree, there becomes a very strong likelihood that we are missing something in the cosmological model that connects the two eras." So does It mean that the end of the universe is nearer? The universe will continue to expand until matter and energy are evenly spread throughout. It will cause the temperature of the universe to cool down to absolute zero. Researchers think, when the repulsive forces of dark energy will overtake the attractive forces of the gravity, the rate of expansion of the universe will increase to very high level, untill it's pace reaches the speed of light. Although the universe is expanding at much faster rate and the end of the universe is nearer than previously thought but you need not to worry, as it would still take trillions of years to happen. So friends what do you think? What will be the Ultimate fate of our universe? Will eventually, the expansion rate of the universe, reach to the speed of light. How long will it take the universe to end? You can share your valuable ideas in the comment section of this video. Source and credits: Go to HOME PAGE Universe Origin Theories, Beginning, Evolution and Future of the Universe (BIG BANG Theory, Steady State Theory and Pulsating Theory)
Scientists in the United States are building an equipment that will allow them to solve the mystery of parallel universe. This experiment is being conducted by the researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Eastern Tennessee. There is no doubt that this would be the biggest scientific discovery in the human history, if this experiment becomes successful. They have developed a portal like instrument that will help them Prove, that the parallel universe is a reality. With the help of this experiment scientists are hoping to access a mirror world. They call it the 'Mirrorverse'. In this mirror world, virtually everything is mirrored, right down to subatomic particles. Physicist Leah Broussard, is leading this experiment.
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They are building a 50 feet long tunnel to conduct the experiment. A beam of subatomic particles will be fired down this tunnel. The Beam will pass a powerful magnet and hit an impenetrable wall. A Neutron detector will be placed behind this impenetrable wall. If this experiment is successful, particles will transform into their mirror images, allowing them to pass right through the impenetrable wall. As the wall is impenetrable, particles should not be detected by the neutron detector on the other side of the wall. But If the the neutron detector finds traces of the particles, this could mean that the neutrons oscillated through the wall, in doing so, the neutrons entered a parallel universe to become mirror neutrons. Only the ones that can oscillate and then come back into our universe can be detected. If this experiment could prove the existence of parallel universe, it will change the laws of conventional science, as the parallel universe might follow completely different laws of Physics. So let's hope for the success of this groundbreaking experiment. Go to HOME PAGE Universe Origin Theories, Beginning, Evolution and Future of the Universe (BIG BANG Theory, Steady State Theory and Pulsating Theory)
