Category Archives: Space Travel

A Chinese man wears a protective mask to prevent COVID-19 and protective glasses as he watches the ... [+] sun during the annular solar eclipse outside the Forbidden City on June 20, 2020 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Early on Sunday morning as much as 99.4% of the Sun was covered by the Moon for less than a minute as seen from parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Although few international eclipse-chasers could travel to witness the event, and many living near the 27 miles-wide path of the Moons shadow were also thwarted by COVID-19 travel restrictions, amateur astronomers were out in force for this rare annular solar eclipse.

The path of today's eclipse began in Africa and crossed into the Arabian Peninsula.

This special kind of partial solar eclipse was visible for just under six hours between 03:45 UTC and 09:34 UTC, from the Republic of Congo in Central Africa to Guam in the Pacific Ocean. From everywhere along the track solar eclipse glasses had to be worn.

Ethiopia was where some of the first images came from; heres an image from the iconicLalibelain Ethiopia, which is famous for its rock-hewn monolithicchurches:

Heres a great video from Ethiopia (scan to 23 minutes for the ring of fire):

Next was Yemen. Not much was seen online during the eclipse, but soon after this beautiful photo appeared on Twitter:

Next up was Oman. Heres a video (scan to 1 hour 43 minutes for the ring of fire):

While a massive swathe of the eastern hemisphere saw a partial solar eclipse, that delicate ring around the Moon was visible for between 38 and 82 seconds only from a narrow path through the Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, Oman, Pakistan, India, Tibet, China and Taiwan.

Heres that perfect circle moment from Quriyat, Oman:

Minutes later, it was Pakistans turn. In Sukkur, Pakistan, research astronomer Talha Moon Zia took this spectacular image (below) thatin my opinionis the definitive image of the entire eclipse; a ring of fire that shows the Suns pinkish chromosphere an even a few pink prominencesexplosions on the surface of the Sun (look on the lower-left where the ring is at its thinnest):

Heres what was going minutes later in Ahmedabad, India, which experienced a maximum 77% partial solar eclipse:

Meanwhile, a ring of fire was visible in northern Rajasthan, India, back along that narrow full eclipse path:

Can you see those broken rings on the images above? Those are Bailys beads. These beads of light are the Suns light coming through the mountains of the Moon. They were only visible for a few seconds before and after the ring of fire.

The path of today's annular solar eclipse.

From Dehradun, India the spectacle of Bailys beads was again briefly visible:

To the south, New Delhi, India saw a 93% partial solar eclipse:

The moon moves in front of the sun during an annular solar eclipse as seen from New Delhi on June ... [+] 21, 2020. (Photo by Jewel Samad / AFP) (Photo by JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images)

The word annular comes from annulus, a Latin word for little ring. An annular solar eclipse is caused when a New Moon is further away from Earth on its slightly elliptical orbit, so not big enough in our sky to cover the whole of the Sun.

After leaving India across the Himalayas, the ring of fire then crossed Tibet and China, with the last views of the ringfor about a minutein Xiamen, China and southern Taiwan.

Heres a photo from Tibet:

The annular solar eclipse is seen on June 21, 2020 in Ali Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of ... [+] China. (Photo by Jia Jiqian/VCG via Getty Images)

Macau then saw an 84% partial solar eclipse. Heres a great amateur video of it, which demonstrates just how useful cloud can sometimes be for eclipse-viewing:

Dont confuse an annular solar eclipse with a total solar eclipse, which occurs when a New Moon covers 100% or more of the Sun.The next total solar eclipse will happen next on December 14, 2020 as seen from a narrow path of totality through Chile and Argentina.

People gather to watch the partial solar eclipse along a promenade on June 21, 2020 in Hong Kong, ... [+] China. (Photo by Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Images)

The next annular solar eclipse will occur on June 10, 2021 and be visible from Canada, Greenland and Russia. It will be the first of three solar eclipses of some kind in North America inside just four years.

Solar eclipses are predicted using an ephemeris that accurately plots where the Sun and Moon are, with respect to Earth, where the Moons shadow is in space, and when its going to strike Earths surface. Spherical trigonometry has been used to plot how the Moon-shadow moves across the surface in 3D.

Science aside, you owe yourself a trip to see a solar eclipsebut make sure its a total solar eclipse you travel to. Annular solar eclipses make great photosas demonstrated herebut theyre not a patch on the experience of totality.

Disclaimer: I am editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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Best Solar Eclipse Photos And YouTube Videos Of The Solstice Ring Of Fire From Around The World - Forbes

Elon Musk is one of the many individuals that has played a crucial role in tech innovation. Musk is known all over the world for a number of companies and a variety of products.

Specifically, he is known as an engineer, industrial designer, technology entrepreneur and philanthropist. Tesla as his brain child has led the revolution of electric cars which have the potential to replace the polluting combustion engine-driven vehicles.

Tesla vehicles represent mans drive towards clean transportation; being able to move around without contaminating the air he breathes. In 2019, the company manufactured over 300,000 vehicles and generated about US$24.578 dollars. Thats a lot of money.

READ ALSO: Elon Musk fires back at SEC on twitter

Musk is also the progenitor of The Boring Company, an American Infrastructural and tunnel construction company founded in 2016. We cant also forget Open AI, an Artificial Intelligence company dedicated to ensuring AI does not lead to human extinction. Elon with regards to Open AI, shares the idea that AI, if not controlled can broaden its ability to re-design and improve itself which can be inimical for man. Because of this, the company partners with other organisations and researchers in the field to ensure AI remains an extension of human intelligence and not necessarily a competitor.

A company that will be of interest to any is SpaceX officially known as the Space Explosion Technologies Corp., an American aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company. SpaceX is not just a representation of Elons desire for space travel, but the deeper vision of colonizing Mars.

In 2017, SpaceX unveiled the Interplanetary Transport System, a privately funded system.

In 2020, SpaceX in collaboration with NASA launched two astronauts into space, the first launch since the U.S. government retired its space program after a national tragedy. It was also the first collaboration between NASA and a private organisation. This, however, does not seem to be the last launch for Elons company as the next launch is scheduled for June 12.

READ ALSO: Disruptive Opportunities: Can developing AI and robotics stabilise the Naira?

SpaceX will among other things, be sending another 60 of its starling satellites into orbit. Elon Musks works do not in any way undermine the products, innovations, researches and actions of others in the tech field. But they unsurprisingly put him at the forefront of it all.

How this affects the tech space and the rest of the world?Elons companies and their products are causing ripple effects in their respective industries. They are giving the old way of doing things a run for its money. His inventions and innovations ordinarily represent the tools of the new era of tech.

At the same time, he is becoming a threat to competitors in the tech industry. Kanyes West words, how can one man have all that power?! resonates in the minds of competitors and businessmen who want a slice of Elons cake.

Be this as it may, without worthy competitors, Elon will be left to dominate and control the trends in Artificial Intelligence, Space travel among others. This is not strange in any way. Once upon a time, we had Steve Jobs at the forefront of innovation in tech.

For consumers, Elons dominance in the tech field might be a little troublesome. Having innovative tech is good for us, but having them from the same person does not cut it. If that is to happen, the tech market will be dominated by Elon Musk and his many tech companies which could in more ways than one, limit the variety of products in our lives.

READ ALSO: Tech group suspends Crowdfunded relief to Nigerians

Moreover, tech could become monotonous being that the concepts emanated from the same mind. Governmental policies could also be affected by Elons dominance of the tech industry.

SpaceX launches, as much as they have a record of firsts, it wont be wrong to say that either subtly or not, the company and Elon has impacted governments policies; specifically, as regards space travel.

On the whole, these dont mean Elon Musk is an overbearing capitalist, but we need the tech industry to step up to match his innovations specifically in these fields: artificial intelligence, space travel, automobile and car manufacturing.

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The amazon bond offering - Nairametrics

NEW DELHI :Following finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman's announcement last month that the space sector will be thrown open to the private sector, the government has said private companies will be allowed to launch satellites, start space-based services and even explore other planets and outer space.

"Private companies to be provided level playing field in satellites, launches and Space based services. Future projects for planetary exploration, outer space travel will be open for private sector," a government statement said.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said private sector will be allowed to use Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) facilities and other relevant assets to improve their capacities. Singh is the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office which takes care of the Department of Space and Department of Atomic Energy.

The private sector plays a critical role in ISRO's operations, but now more avenues have been opened for the non-government players in this strategic sector. By boosting private participation in space activities, the minister said Indian private sector will be a co-traveller in India's space sector journey.

Updating about India's first-ever Human Space Mission Gaganyaan to be undertaken by ISRO, Singh said the selection of the astronauts was accomplished and their training in Russia had also started but got interrupted because of the coronavirus pandemic. He said the project would be followed up soon.

The 10,000 crore mission is to be launched by 2022.

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Satellites, outer space travel to be open for private companies in India: Govt - Livemint

(CNN) Just eight people have reached Challenger Deep, the deepest point of the ocean. More than 550 people have visited space.

But only one person has done both: Kathy Sullivan.

On Sunday, the NASA astronaut and oceanographer visited Challenger Deep, which sits at a depth of 10,928 meters (35,853 feet) in the western Pacific Ocean, as part of the Ring of Fire Expedition organized by bespoke adventure company EYOS Expeditions and undersea technology specialist Caladan Oceanic.

Ahead of the expedition, EYOS invited three intrepid explorers, which they call "Mission Specialists," to venture to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, where Challenger Deep is located.

About 200 miles from the trench, Guam is the nearest land mass.

Sullivan is the first of the three explorers to finish the roughly 10-hour mission, with two more to follow this week.

"I know (Challenger Deep) as a bathymetric feature on a chart, a tectonic feature, and a seismic feature ... but that's all data-based understanding. To see it in person -- it makes all the difference in the world," Sullivan tells CNN Travel.

"No self-respecting marine biologist would be able to pass up an invitation!"

Leading up to the dives, the three explorers underwent full briefs on the mission, schedule and research initiatives.

But in terms of physical training, Rob McCallum, the co-founder of EYOS Expeditions and the Ring of Fire expedition leader, says it's not quite like climbing Mount Everest or training for a space voyage.

"These people are all adventurous, but you don't have to be an athlete to participate," McCallum tells CNN Travel. "This is something new, but not something to be feared."

A life of exploration

Ever since she was a young girl, Sullivan has been inspired by explorers.

"I was always following the early astronauts, Jacques Cousteau and the early aquanauts. They were inquisitive people. They were clever people that could figure out how to go make things happen," she recalls.

"That inquisitiveness, that sense of adventure, of curiosity that drives explorers. I could feel that resonating in me as I watched them."

A US Navy captain, Sullivan first learned about Challenger Deep and the Mariana Trench during college at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Though she originally intended to study Russian, she took a few science classes "quite against her will" that forever changed her perception of the ocean.

"Suddenly, there was so much history, so many stories of exploration, and then all the knowledge of how the ocean works geologically, the currents and the creatures. It all fascinated me."

Sullivan rode inside the 11.5 tonne DSV "Limiting Factor," the only certified vehicle in the world that can repeatedly dive to any depth in the world's oceans.

Reeve Jolliffe/EYOS Expeditions

Mesmerized by the ocean, Sullivan continued her studies at Dalhousie University, where she earned a PhD in geology, focusing her research on the North Atlantic.

"As I went through my studies, I found that I really liked the planning, design and execution of expeditions," she says.

So when she heard NASA was hiring, she jumped at the opportunity to become an expedition operator.

After graduating in 1978, she joined NASA, eventually becoming the first American woman to walk in space during a Space Shuttle Challenger mission in 1984.

Sullivan also partook in two other missions -- Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990 and Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992 -- during her NASA career.

She later served as the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and wrote a book, "Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention," amongst other contributions to the science community.

"We wanted the first woman to dive the Challenger Deep to be someone who would really use the opportunity for the benefit of the ocean," says McCallum.

"Kathy has an impeccable track record. She is only the eighth human being to do this -- it is genuine exploration."

Into the deep

Amongst his many accomplishments, Vescovo is the first person to have visited the top of every continent, both poles, and the deepest point of the ocean.

Before their departure, the EYOS team dispatched several scientific "landers" to the bottom of the ocean to understand the conditions -- like water temperature and salinity -- and establish references to aid navigation since the vehicle must travel in the dark.

Once the landers are in place, the crew adjusts the trim and ballast of the submersible to control the buoyancy, then prepares for the "drop" when the submersible begins its descent.

Prior to descent, the EYOS team dispatches scientific "landers" to the bottom of the ocean.

Enrique Alvarez/EYOS Expeditions

It's not the first time the Limiting Factor, as the square-shaped vehicle is known, has visited Challenger Deep.

Engineered by civil submarine producer Triton Submarines, the submersible vehicle carries its own life support and features a 90-millimeter-thick titanium sphere, which protects the explorers from the 2,200 metric tons of pressure amassed at the bottom of the ocean.

During each dive, the explorers also collect samples from the seafloor and aid in geographical research, as very little is known about the ocean at this depth.

"Terrestrial exploration is very advanced, but I think the ocean offers the opportunity to explore the last frontier. The ocean is untapped," says McCallum.

"We know so very little about life below 6,000 meters that we barely understand what questions to ask, let alone understand the answers. Almost every dive we do is yielding something new to science, be it biological or geographical or geological. We're essentially a pathfinder into the last frontier of exploration on Earth."

'A magic elevator ride'

As the submersible glided deeper and deeper, Sullivan and Vescovo sat side-by-side in a compact but comfortable cabin, with enough space to stretch their legs, pull on a sweater or do some seated yoga moves.

"It's kind of like a long-haul flight in Economy or Premium Economy," says Sullivan.

A few hours into the four-hour descent, Sullivan says it became much colder in the cabin but, otherwise, there were no notable physical changes.

"Two things are really distinctly different in the experience of going out into space or going down into the ocean. One is energy intensity. I mean, you're basically riding a bomb when you strap onto a rocket and launch off the planet. It's hugely energetic, loud, noisy, lots of acceleration."

But heading into the deep sea, she says, is like "a magic elevator ride."

"It's very, very serene, she says. "You're not in some clumsy spacesuit; you can basically be in street clothes if you wanted to. And it's this slow, smooth, steady descent."

On their way down, the pair watched the light dissipate while they dined on tuna salad sandwiches, a bag of chips and the ship chef's signature Apple strudel.

"Lunch at 31,000 feet below sea level. Doesn't everybody do that?" she quips.

An aerial view of the DSSV Pressure Drop, which serves as the expedition's purpose-built 'mother ship' and primary operations platform.

Courtesy EYOS Expeditions & Caladan Oceanic

Like her inflight meal, the view from the cabin was also memorable.

"The ocean is endlessly alive. Even as you're descending through the water columns, life forms scoot by. The immense array and variety of life in the ocean really entrances and fascinates me. And then, of course, at the seafloor, there really are fascinating geological features."

After about four hours, they finally reached the bottom of the trench and had about 15 minutes to check in with the surface ship, orient themselves, check their support systems... and then enjoy the moment.

"We then did a little giggle, a smile, a handshake and a moment of hooray," she recalls.

"I felt like I was flying over a moonscape as we went along the bottom. I think I was probably seeing in my mind's eye or remembering some of the Apollo images from those missions, flying over this austere landscape. But this amazing moonscape is at the very bottom of our ocean on my home planet."

Another space image flew into her mind, as the vehicle started exploring the trench.

"When we finally saw the first of our scientific landers, it was as if I was an astronaut on Mars and I discovered some deep space probe that had gotten there before me. It just sort of came up out of the darkness. It's was very otherworldly," she says.

The new age of exploration

After about 1.5 hours on the seafloor, Sullivan and Vescovo started their ascent.

Like any experienced long-haul traveler, Vescovo had a movie prepped on his phone and the pair watched a fitting adventure film, 1957's "The Man Who Would Be King," on their way back up to the surface.

"It's a slow rise, very peaceful. And it's not until the last hundred meters or so that you start to see the dark black that's been outside your viewpoint for hours turn to a deep rich blue, then a lighter shade," she says.

"In the last 30 feet or so, it's that beautiful tropical Pacific blue and then you're rocking around at the surface with your viewpoint still mainly underwater, which makes you feel like you're half in, half out."

Back onboard the mother ship, the DSSV Pressure Drop, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Sullivan made a surprising call.

Coordinated with help from a fellow astronaut, she arranged to speak with astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley who blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center on May 30 aboard the the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Sullivan visited Challenger Deep with Victor Vescovo, founder of Caladan Oceanic and a decorated explorer himself.

Enrique Alvarez/EYOS Expeditions

While the astronauts orbited the earth at the International Space Station, about 254 miles above Earth, the explorers swapped notes about their missions.

Both funded by private companies, the two expeditions have contributed to scientific and engineering advancements.

"We had a number of points in common. I mean, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew up to the space station in a new reusable space capsule," explains Sullivan.

"That took a whole lot of new innovations, ingenuity and private sector talents to make that happen. And we had just returned from the deepest point in the world's ocean in the world's only reusable submersible [the Limiting Factor].

"Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard first explored Challenger Deep in 1960. It took us 52 years before anybody got back there. And here we are. Now we are going three times in 10 days. That's a radical change."

Much like outer space and distant galaxies, the ocean is still relatively unknown to humans -- like the last frontier.

"It's important to believe in and celebrate the exploratory instinct in human beings. Exploring is not just about gadfly adventurers who want to go climb mountains or do exotic things," says Sullivan.

"Exploring is probing things we don't yet know or understand, and arriving at a deeper, better, wiser, more valuable insight about who we are, where we are, and how to live and thrive and survive."

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Former astronaut becomes first person to visit both space and the deepest place in the ocean - CNN

About 30 years ago, controversy raged in the Pacific Northwest over forestry practices on public lands. A bumper sticker popular among loggers played on the name of a radical environmental group. Earth First! the bumper sticker read. Well log the other planets later.

Fast forward about a third of a century. Our forest controversies are no longer nationally prominent, even as climate change brings new threats. Partly this is because annual timber harvest from federal lands in Oregon fell more than 80% on average from the 1970s to the 2010s. Also, employment in Oregons forest products industry has roughly halved since the late 1980s, while the tech sector has mushroomed. The burgeoning community of tech firms from Amazon, Microsoft and others in Seattle to start-ups in Portland and numerous others around San Francisco are now sometimes described as parts of a tech innovation ecosystem.

A number of billionaires spawned by the ever-growing tech sector are captivated by space travel. One of the most successful is Jeff Bezos, who founded Blue Origin, a space technology and service firm in 2000. Another is Elon Musk, who founded rival SpaceX in California in 2002.

In an extraordinary win for SpaceX on May 30, it successfully launched a rocket carrying two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. This was the first time astronauts blasted off from U.S. soil since 2011. It was also the first-ever launch of NASA astronauts by a private company. And this achievement came on the heels of NASAs April 30 selection of SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop a vehicle to send astronauts to the moon by 2024. (Alabama-based Dynetics also was chosen.) Part of the purpose of the moon mission is to help clear the way for the first human to visit Mars in subsequent years.

But for Bezos, Musk and many of their fellow (would-be space) travelers, any such giant leaps are pedestrian compared to their astronomical aspirations. And while Bezos and Musk advocate different space goals, they have much in common. Bezos would use extraterrestrial mines to create giant artificial space structures where a trillion humans could live in the coming centuries with boundless material abundance. Musk is focused on permanently colonizing Mars, in part so that humans would have a refuge in case Earth becomes uninhabitable.

On the surface, either vision may seem environmentally benevolent. Any kind of space colony supported by extraterrestrial mining could relieve pressure on Earths resources. Yet space colonization ambitions are disturbing given the current trajectory of what Buckminster Fuller (and others) called Spaceship Earth.

In the Pacific Northwest, climate change is making millions of acres of forest increasingly vulnerable to pests, drought and catastrophic fires. Similar challenges exist worldwide. SpaceXs May 30 flight launched from Floridas Kennedy Space Center, which faces increasing risk of chronic flooding due to climate-change-induced sea level rise. In this light, it is as if todays space pioneers have adopted the old logging slogan but in a literal way the loggers never intended. Later is here, and its time to log the other planets.

What technology visionaries seem to miss is that the problem of the environment is not primarily a problem of technology. Of course technology can enable positive change. Musk has shown this with Tesla, his other main venture that is revolutionizing electric vehicles, batteries and solar energy systems. But at its core, the problem of the environment is a problem of ethics. It is about accepting that the most important choices of mortal humans inherently involve limits and trade-offs. Admittedly, there is something admirable and human about resisting such limits. But too much resistance risks hubris, which can quickly eclipse our respect for the value of living systems larger than ourselves.

Todays most ardent rocket boosters may be right that other planets have exploitable material resources. And Mars may even be made to support human life in artificial bubbles. But what good is that? One thing we can never innovate or disrupt our way out of is the imperative to respect and protect the finite planetary home whose munificent habitability we currently enjoy. As contemporary climate protesters put it, in a fitting-if-unwitting rejoinder to the old loggers bumper sticker, There is no Planet B.

Alex Roth is a senior financial analyst and attorney. He lives in Portland.

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Guest View: Despite space flight, there is no Planet B - The Register-Guard

The fabric of expanding space means that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it appears to... [+] recede from us. However, that doesn't mean that galaxies are actually moving through the Universe at speeds faster than light; the fabric of space itself is continuously changing in properties.

One of the fundamental rules we all learn in physics set forth by Einstein more than 100 years ago is that there's an ultimate speed limit that everything in the Universe must obey: the speed of light. That fundamental speed, 299,792,458 m/s, is the speed at which all massless particles must travel through the vacuum of space. If you have mass, you can only approach (but never reach) that speed; if you travel through a medium instead of a vacuum, you can only travel slower than that ultimate cosmic limit. But if that's true, then how come we can see objects in our Universe, which began with a Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago, that are up to 46 billion light-years away? That's at the heart of Robert Lipinski's question, which asks:

Why does the fabric of space-and-time expand faster than the speed of light?

It's one of the most difficult concepts in all of physics to understand, but we're up to the challenge. Let's find out.

One revolutionary aspect of relativistic motion, put forth by Einstein but previously built up by... [+] Lorentz, Fitzgerald, and others, that rapidly moving objects appeared to contract in space and dilate in time. The faster you move relative to someone at rest, the greater your lengths appear to be contracted, while the more time appears to dilate for the outside world. This picture, of relativistic mechanics, replaced the old Newtonian view of classical mechanics, but also carries tremendous implications for theories that aren't relativistically invariant, like Newtonian gravity.

When Einstein put forth the notion of Special Relativity in 1905, it was as straightforward as it was revolutionary. It began by considering a phenomenon we've all interacted with: a light wave. For many decades, Einstein and his contemporary had known that light is an electromagnetic wave: an energy-carrying wave with oscillating, in-phase electric and magnetic fields. And, in a vacuum, it always moved at the same speed: the speed of light.

This last part was the most troubling to scientists. If you were on a train moving at 100 miles-per-hour (161 km/hr) and you threw a baseball at 100 miles-per-hour (161 km/hr) in the forward direction, that ball would move at 200 miles-per-hour (322 km/hr) from the perspective of someone on solid ground. But light didn't work that way; it always moves at the same speed through the vacuum of empty space, from every perspective imaginable.

If the arm lengths are the same and the speed along both arms is the same, then anything traveling... [+] in both of the perpendicular directions will arrive at the same time. But if there's an effective headwind/tailwind in one direction over the other, or the arm lengths change relative to one another, there will be a lag in the arrival times.

This was demonstrated to great precision in the 1880s by scientist Albert Michelson and his assistant, Edward Morley. In their experiment, they took a beam of coherent light (of the same wavelength) and passed it through a beam splitter: a device that splits the light into two perpendicular components. The light then travels down both paths of identical lengths until it strikes a mirror, reflects back, and gets recombined to create an interference pattern.

Now, here's the key point: if one path is shorter than the other, or if the light moves faster (or slower) in one direction than the other, the interference pattern will shift. This happens to enormous precision in the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors, where passing gravitational waves change the path length of the two different directions. But, even with the motion of the Earth relative to the Sun at ~30 km/s, the interference pattern seen in the Michelson-Morley experiment never changed.

The Michelson interferometer (top) showed a negligible shift in light patterns (bottom, solid) as... [+] compared with what was expected if Galilean relativity were true (bottom, dotted). The speed of light was the same no matter which direction the interferometer was oriented, including with, perpendicular to, or against the Earth's motion through space.

This taught us something incredibly important: the velocity of light is independent of any relative motion through space. No matter who you are, where you are, how quickly or in what direction you travel through the Universe, you will always observe all light waves traveling through space at that same universal speed limit: the speed of light in a vacuum. If you and the source move away from one another, the light's wavelength gets redshifted; if you mutually move towards one another, the wavelength gets blueshifted. But the speed of light itself never changes through the vacuum of space.

This idea was revolutionary when Einstein proposed it, with many professional physicists (wrongfully) resisting it for decades. The opposition made it no less true, however. But the big prize still remained: to incorporate gravitation into the equation.

Countless scientific tests of Einstein's general theory of relativity have been performed,... [+] subjecting the idea to some of the most stringent constraints ever obtained by humanity. The presence of matter and energy in space tells spacetime how to curve, and that curved spacetime tells matter and energy how to move.

Before Einstein, gravitation was a Newtonian phenomenon. According to Newton, space and time were absolute, rather than relative, entities. The gravitational force of attraction between any two masses had to propagate infinitely fast, rather than limited by the speed of light.

The bigger revolution that Einstein brought to physics was the overthrow of this picture of gravitation. Sure, you could use Newtonian gravity as a very good approximation for almost all conditions, but in situations where matter or energy passed close to a large mass, Newton wouldn't give you the correct answers.

Mercury's orbit precessed more than Newton predicted. Light passing close to the Sun during an eclipse bent by a greater amount than Newton could explain.

The results of the 1919 Eddington expedition showed, conclusively, that the General theory of... [+] Relativity described the bending of starlight around massive objects, overthrowing the Newtonian picture. This was the first observational confirmation of Einstein's General Relativity, and appears to align with the 'bent-fabric-of-space' visualization.

As the evidence clearly showed, Einstein's General Relativity where mass and energy curved space and that curved space determined the motion of mass and energy had superseded Newtonian gravity. This new conceptualization of gravitation and of the fabric of space-and-time itself brought another revelation along with it: the fact that the fabric of the Universe, if it was full of roughly equal amounts of matter and energy everywhere, could not be static and unchanging.

Instead, as observationsas early as the 1920s began to definitively show, there was a systematic relationship between an object's distance from us and the amount that its light was observed to redshift. Sure, galaxies move through space relative to one another, but only at speeds up to a few thousand km/s. Yet when we view the actual redshifts of distant galaxies, they correspond to recession speeds much, much greater than those values.

The distance/redshift relation, including the most distant objects of all, seen from their type Ia... [+] supernovae. The data strongly favors an accelerating Universe. Note how the y-axis includes speeds that exceed the speed of light, but this doesn't tell the full story about what's actually going on with the expanding Universe.

The reason we're seeing these cosmic redshifts scale with distance, as scientists quickly came to realize, is because the fabric of the Universe itself is expanding. Just like raisins in a leavening loaf of raisin bread dough, the every galaxy in the Universe all see the other galaxies moving away from them, with the more distant raisins (or galaxies) appearing to move away at faster rates.

But why is this?

It isn't because the raisins are moving relative to the dough that they're embedded in, nor is it because the individual galaxies are moving through the fabric of space. Rather, it's owing to the fact that the dough itself just like the fabric of space itself is expanding, and the raisins (or galaxies) are just along for the ride.

The 'raisin bread' model of the expanding Universe, where relative distances increase as the space... [+] (dough) expands. The farther away any two raisin are from one another, the greater the observed redshift will be by time the light is received. The redshift-distance relation predicted by the expanding Universe is borne out in observations, and has been consistent with what's been known all the way back since the 1920s.

Meanwhile, because these objects are galaxies, they're filled with light-emitting stars. They emit light continuously from the moment they first turn on, but we can only observe them from the moment that light first arrives at our eyes after journeying through the Universe.

Not the Newtonian Universe, mind you: the expanding, Einsteinian one.

This means that there are galaxies out there whose light is only just now arriving here on Earth for the first time, after journeying through the Universe for more than 13 billion years. The first stars and galaxies formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, and we've discovered galaxies from as far back as when the Universe was just 3% of its present age. And yet, that light has been so severely redshifted by the expanding Universe that the light was ultraviolet when it was emitted, but is already far into the infrared by the time we can observe it.

This simplified animation shows how light redshifts and how distances between unbound objects change... [+] over time in the expanding Universe. Note that the objects start off closer than the amount of time it takes light to travel between them, the light redshifts due to the expansion of space, and the two galaxies wind up much farther apart than the light-travel path taken by the photon exchanged between them.

If we were to ask, from our perspective, what this means for the speed of this distant galaxy that we're only now observing, we'd conclude that this galaxy is receding from us well in excess of the speed of light. But in reality, not only is that galaxy not moving through the Universe at a relativistically impossible speed, but it's hardly moving at all! Instead of speeds exceeding 299,792 km/s (the speed of light in a vacuum), these galaxies are only moving through space at ~2% the speed of light or less.

But space itself is expanding, and that accounts for the overwhelming majority of the redshift we see. And space doesn't expand at a speed; it expands at a speed-per-unit-distance: a very different kind of rate. When you see numbers like 67 km/s/Mpc or 73 km/s/Mpc (the two most common values that cosmologists measure), these are speeds (km/s) per unit distance (Mpc, or about 3.3 million light-years).

The restriction that "nothing can move faster than light" only applies to the motion of objects through space. The rate at which space itself expands this speed-per-unit-distance has no physical bounds on its upper limit.

The size of our visible Universe (yellow), along with the amount we can reach (magenta). The limit... [+] of the visible Universe is 46.1 billion light-years, as that's the limit of how far away an object that emitted light that would just be reaching us today would be after expanding away from us for 13.8 billion years. However, beyond about 18 billion light-years, we can never access a galaxy even if we traveled towards it at the speed of light.

It might seem strange to consider all that this implies. Because we have dark energy, the expansion rate will never drop to zero; it will remain at a positive, finite value. It means that even though only 13.8 billion years have passed since the Big Bang, we can observe light from objects that are already 46.1 billion light-years away. And it means that beyond a fraction of that distance about 18 billion light-years no object launched today from Earthcould ever reach it.

But no object is actually moving through the Universe faster than the speed of light. The Universe is expanding, but the expansion doesn't have a speed; it has a speed-per-unit-distance, which is equivalent to a frequency, or an inverse time. One of the most surprising facts about the Universe is that if you do the conversions and take the inverse of the expansion rate, you can calculate the "time" that you get out.

The answer? Approximately 13.8 billion years: the age of the Universe. There isn't a fundamental reason for that fact; it's just a fascinating cosmic coincidence.

More:

Ask Ethan: How Does The Fabric Of Spacetime Expand Faster Than The Speed Of Light? - Forbes

Theres a bittersweet nostalgia to the idea of space travel. It still comes foil-wrapped in the imagery of the 1960s: remember the future, how shiny it used to be?

The recent SpaceX launch inspired worldwide headlines partly because manned missions have become a rarity. These days, if we want to see the universe, it makes more sense to send our eyes ahead of us.

To study Saturn, for instance, the Cassini probe travelled almost five billion miles, sending back nearly half a million images before reaching the end of its 20-year life in 2017. Life is, of course, the wrong word. But its tempting to imagine that something of our adventuring spirit did live in that little gatherer of science, indifferent photographer of the dark sublime, as Ella Frears calls it here.

A burial sermon for a bit of soulless tech could seem silly, just as a prayer in faith of the evidential might sound like a contradiction in terms. But in the hands of Frears whose first collection was this week shortlisted for a Forward Prize its strangely moving. Science and spirituality are often set at odds, but this poem captures the way the grandeur of space can inspire a feeling akin to religious awe.

The poems form (prose tightened into a thin rocket of a column), and its prayerlike voice are both daring choices, yet precisely engineered to fit its subject. I cant imagine a better send-off.

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Poem of the week: Sermon (for the Burial of Cassini) by Ella Frears - Telegraph.co.uk

According to this study, over the next five years the Space Tourism market will register a 16.6% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ 1180 million by 2025, from US$ 550 million in 2019.

Space tourism is defined as space travel for leisure, recreation, and business purposes. Space tourism is likely to be an emerging trend owing to the increased expenditure on travel and tourism globally. Adventure tourism involves a higher degree of risk and it is high in demand for the enthusiasts towards space tourism. Reduction in the cost of expenditure of space tourism is likely to gain traction for the space tourism market over the forecast period. Space tourism is an emerging concept wherein an optimal spaceflight is developed that will facilitate passengers to travel to outer space, Mars and the Moon.

Global Space Tourism Market Research Report gives complete knowledge, forecast and statistical analysis on past, gift and forecast Market situations. The dangers and growth possibilities related to global enterprise are highlighted in this have a look at. The Market study will force investment selections and strategic business plans for a successful and sustainable commercial enterprise.

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The major players in the Space Tourism market are-

Key factors of this Space Tourism Market document range from industry outlook along with critical Market success factors, enterprise dynamics or marketplace definition in terms of drivers and restraints, Market segmentation and fee chain evaluation, key possibilities or developments, utility and generation outlook, local or country level analysis to competitive landscape

This Space Tourism Market report is the detailed observe and analyses of the marketplace trends, market position and market strategies. This Market file has been installation by analyzing a gift and upcoming market scenario. This record is evolved with the high-quality and advanced gadgets of collecting the data, recording, evaluating and studying the market data. Space Tourism Market file gives data about the statistics related to any subject within the area of advertising and marketing for enterprise with the detailed examine of the market.It offers better mind and answers in phrases of product trends, advertising strategy, future products, new geographical markets, destiny events, sales strategies, patron moves or behaviors.

Space Tourism Market segment by Type, the product can be split into

Space TourismMarket segment by Application, split into

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The supply-demand aspect of Global Space Tourism Market is analyzed through the information accumulated from paid number one interviews and via secondary resources. The secondary research strategies contain the Space Tourism information gathered from enterprise reports, patron surveys, Government databases, economic and demographic data sources. Also, product resources like sales facts, custom group information and case research are analyzed.

In This Study, The Years Considered To Estimate The Size Of Space Tourism Market Are As Follows:

History Year: 2015-2018

Base Year: 2018

Estimated Year: 2019

Forecast Year 2019 to 2026

There Are 8 Sections In Space Tourism Market Report As Follows:

Section 1:Objectives, Definition, Scope, Global Market Overview, Market Size Estimation, Concentration Ratio and Growth Rate from 2019-2026

Section 2:Global Industry Segmentation by Type, Application and Research Region

Section 3:Top Regions of Global Space Tourism Market (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, South America) with the Production Value and Growth Rate

Section 4:The Changing Global Space Tourism Market Dynamics, Growth Drivers, Limitations, Industry Plans & Policies, and Growth Opportunities are Explained.

Section 5:Industry Chain Analysis, Manufacturing Base, Cost Structures, Production Process, Marketing Channels, and Downstream Buyers.

Section 6:The Top Space Tourism Players, Market Share, Competition, Market Size and Regional Presence is Specified.

Section 7:Forecast Market Trends, Consumption, Value, Production Forecast and Growth Estimates are Analyzed

Section 8:Lastly, Vital Conclusions, Research Techniques, and Data Sources are Listed.

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Impact of COVID-19 on Space Tourism Market to Garner Astounding CAGR of 16.6% by 2025 Including Top Key Players- Space Adventures, EADS Astrium,...

If I was in charge

The first thing I would do is start a resident only lotto. Each time it hits a million dollars it would be split by 10 tickets, $100,000 per ohana to spend.

Then it starts again and again soaking the pockets of our people with much needed cash. Can you imagine how that could change everything overnight? We could give it a try for three to five years, and see how it goes.

No need to worry about tourism for a bit, the cash would flow around like a tide pool at high tide nursing us all.

We may have to do it privately, quickly donating A/C and iPads to each school. Then we rebuild them, followed by roads then the hospital and so on. Just a thought, have you got any ideas to help us survive?

David O. Baldwin

Keauhou

Patience is preferred to complaining

In reference to Ms. Melendezs letter on June 4 regarding the First Amendment and her Constitutional rights being violated. She specifically states that it is our unalienable right to peaceful assembly, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are being violated. How so Ms. Melendez? Please explain. I see no one in this state or county stopping peaceful demonstrators from assembling and certainly although the coronavirus has gotten in the way of life, all in all,people are complying and not complaining as they know this will end in the near future. P

Personally, I am very happy and so is everyone I know. These rules have nothing to do with Constitutional rights, instead they are for the greater benefit of all citizens to protect us from this virus. Its a health decision and in my view has nothing to do with ones rights because it is also my right to stay healthy and protected from people who may be carrying the virus. Yes, its a hassle but Im wondering where she is getting her information regarding mask-wearing in general. This is precisely why Japan has lower rates of the disease and they have been known to wear masks a lot, especially when traveling, in case you have never noticed. This too shall pass. Also, running ones business has nothing to do with the First Amendment. She should read the First Amendment because basically and simply it states: The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and right to petition. She is certainly exercising her freedom of speech press and and thats fine but it is also my right to try and stay healthy by complying with what our local government deems necessary to keep all citizens safe.

Exercising a little patience is preferred to complaining as this is just a temporary inconvenience to everyone.

Kathy Awai

Waikoloa

Inspirational socialism

Dave Crismans Sunday screed against the Democratic Party ends with a shout-out to entrepreneurial capitalism. He asks if anything good has ever come from socialism?

If he means to say that government never fosters the private sectors success, how about the airline industry? The Post Office literally couldnt get off the ground in 1911 when this government agency handed pilot Earl Ovington a mailbag to squeeze between his legs. After a brief demonstration flight, he pushed the mail out of the plane where the postmaster picked it up for local delivery. From this, government inspiration was born what became our civilian air transportation industry.

A Google search reveals seemingly endless consumer benefits of civilian government and military research and development. Without such inspirational socialism we wouldnt have the internet, GPS, microwave ovens, frozen juice concentrate, Silly Putty, synthetic rubber, Super Glue, Duct Tape, aerosol spray, the Jeep, dark glasses, feminine hygiene products, and yes, even undershirts!

Crisman is just wrong when he says that private enterprise, not the government, gave society jet travel, space travel (what about NASA?), and smart phones.

Niel Thomas

Waimea

Letters policy

Letters to the editor should be 300 words or less and will be edited for style and grammar. Longer viewpoint guest columns may not exceed 800 words. Submit online at http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/?p=118321, via email to letters@westhawaiitoday.com or address them to:

Editor | West Hawaii Today

PO Box 789

Kailua-Kona, HI 96745

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Letters to the Editor: June 12, 2020 - West Hawaii Today

In what could be a boon for deep space travel and quicker recoveries from bodily injuries, scientists have discovered the trigger in brains of mammals that can induce hibernation.

According to two different studies published in the journal Nature, teams of researchers from the University of Tsukuba in Japan and Harvard Medical School have identified particular neuronsthe snooze buttonin the brains of rodents that can be artificially activated to drive the animals into a hibernation-like state.

Known as Q neurons, they can trigger long-lasting reductions in body temperature and metabolism, which is similar to hibernation.

This natural sleeping state was also induced in rats, animals that usually do not go into hibernation, according to the Japanese scientists.

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Since we humans possess a similar set of brain cells as the mice and rats involved in this particular study, it may be possible in the future to induce similar hibernation-like states.

The team said such advancements in utilizing suspended animation could improve recovery rates from surgeries and transplants and make years-long space travel safer.

In the U.S. study, scientists identified certain brain cells that are able to control torpor and revealed that stimulating these brain cells induces torpor in rodents like mice. On the other hand, blocking these brain cells prevents torpor, the authors noted.

Certain animals are known to hibernate because food supplies become scarce during the winter months. By going into a long deep sleep, these animals are able to skip this difficult period completely and wake up when food becomes more plentiful.

Such hibernating animals include bears (though not true hibernators), some mice and bats, chipmunks, woodchucks and certain species of ground squirrels. At least one bird is known to be a hibernatorthe poorwill, which lives in western North America.

Scientists believe that a compound in the blood known as HIT (Hibernation Induction Trigger) lets these animals know when it is time to prepare for hibernation. Shrinking food supplies, shorter days and colder temperatures all appear to influence HIT.

During hibernation, an animals body temperature plunges, and its respiration and heart rate decrease dramatically. The effect can be so extreme that, in some instances, the animal may appear dead.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters

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Have Scientists Found a Hybernation 'Button' for Humans? - The National Interest