Not exactly sure what to make of this, but it seems there is a Mandelbrot'ish like shape with little points of antennae in a Julia. Humm... Need to think a lot more on this.

https://plus.google.com/101799841244447089430/posts/A5fMU8vCkn4

This is a little hard to get a zoom. The list of Julia points that create this is:

__________________
point: (0.109253,-0.332311)
point: (0.261116,0.024305)
point: (-0.398318,0.251109)
point: (-0.136815,0.739626)
point: (-1.11552,0.0268403)
point: (-1.33243,0.0248003)
point: (-1.33243,-0.0248003)
point: (-1.11552,-0.0268403)
point: (-0.136815,-0.739626)
point: (-0.398318,-0.251109)
point: (0.261116,-0.024305)
point: (0.109253,0.332311)
__________________

Might turn out to be interesting. Not sure yet.

__
#Fractal #Math #Art #Space #Julia

Fly over the Egypt
(01:39)
View from ISS over the river Nile, the Egyptian Pyramids and Suez Canal, from Oleg Artemyev

YT:
https://youtu.be/fhiHqz8Ur24



#ISS #OlegArtemyev #Earth #Orbits #ESA #NASA #JAXA #Egypt #ViewFromSpace #Space #SpaceScience #Astronauts #Cosmonauts #RosCosmos #SolarSystem

Experiment puts pressure behind the Solar Wind
How does light shove matter around?

Quantum mechanics, the science of the smallest stuff, is famously kooky. Light is both a particle and a wave, electrons zip around and travel instantaneously, cats are both alive and dead — it’s hard for our human brains to comprehend. One phenomenon that sort of makes a little sense, if you think about it right, is that light alone can push things around.
https://phys.org/news/2015-03-particle.html
http://electron6.phys.utk.edu/phys250/modules/module%203/teleportation.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger%27s_cat

Formally known as ‘imparting momentum,’ the idea can also seem quantumly crazy. I go out in the sunlight all the time without feeling any pushing!

But here’s how I’ve heard it explained: Momentum is defined as mass times velocity, so even though photons (particles of light) have zero rest mass, their velocity is enormous (literally the speed of light) and they’re never really at rest, so they have a tiny effective mass.

That means they have a positive momentum, which can give a little kick to anything light crashes into. Plus, if you conceptualize light as a bunch of particles, it’s not crazy to imagine those things moving around matter as they bump into it.

Clearly, it’s still weird to think about, and physicists had never actually observed exactly how the process of light imparting momentum occurs. Until now.

Lasers and Mirrors
Since the effect of light’s momentum is so small — there’s a reason I can’t feel sunlight pushing on me, after all — sensitive enough equipment to capture it is only just becoming available. A Nature Communications paper out yesterday describes the ingenious experiment an international team of researchers came up with.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05706-3

The real trick is making sure any effects were really caused by imparted momentum from light, rather than just the side effects from heating the material as it absorbs light. To do that, the team constructed a mirror designed to absorb as little of the light as possible. Then they shot lasers at it.

The mirror, upon feeling the shove from the laser’s photons, should theoretically start to ripple as waves propagate outward from the light like a pond that had rocks thrown in it. The researchers had installed acoustic sensors designed to pick up on those ripples (since sound waves are basically just ripples in the air). These are tiny, tiny measurements, on the order of picometers, but the team picked them up.
https://www.universalclass.com/articles/science/what-are-sound-waves.htm
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/picometer

The best part is, when they compared the experimental results with predictions from computer models, the two lined up almost perfectly. It proved not just that the experimental setup worked and they really were measuring imparted momentum (not heating effects), but also that the current understanding of light momentum, which led to the models, is indeed correct.

Measuring Light’s Momentum
Great, so we understand light, and the quantum realm, just that much better now. But, unlike many particle developments, the finding may lead to various known applications.

First off, this type of setup can help scientists better characterize different materials, since different stuff will have ripples that move in different ways. Study their waves, and you’ll have an insight into their material makeup. And it makes sense to imagine it’ll help make better solar sails, which had already shown that light can impart momentum, but not exactly how.
http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/what-is-solar-sailing.html

But even more futuristically, the paper’s authors also suggest their work can “further advance optical tweezer technology.” Get a good enough handle on how light waves interact with matter, and you have an incredibly powerful and delicate means to manipulate individual particles.
https://www.nature.com/articles/lsa201739

Quantum mechanics may be kooky, but it gets results.

By Bill Andrews



Image:
Solar sails rely on radiation pressure from the Sun to propel spacecraft.
By Kevin Gill
Via Astronomy



#SolarWind #SolarSails #TheSun #Earth #Planets #QuantumMechanics #LightsMomentum #Physics #Light #Electrons #Science #Space #Picometer

Making space exploration real – on Earth
You are on a rock speeding through space. On this rock called Earth every single mineral tells you something about planetary formation. This week astronauts and space engineers will unlock the mystery of those minerals as they start an ESA geology field training course to prepare for future exploration of the Moon, Mars and asteroids.

The third edition of the Pangaea campaign – named after the ancient supercontinent – will help participants build their understanding of planetary geology, collect and document interesting rock samples, and assess the most likely places to find traces of life on other planets.

Leading European planetary geologists will equip astronauts with a geologist’s eye to see, feel and understand the building blocks of our Solar System.

From collecting samples to interpreting satellite images and working with robotic tools, the crew will learn how to best explore uncharted worlds.

"We want to equip future explorers with the best geological skills. But, even more importantly, we want to help them take informed decisions, simplify their work and qualify them to provide valuable data and samples to the scientists,” explains Loredana Bessone, Pangaea’s project leader.
“Each year we do more and better. We are developing and testing new tools to support spacewalk operations during geological sorties,” she adds.

Three sites, three worlds
Background lessons are followed by field trips to unravel lunar, martian and asteroid-like features on Earth. This year’s edition starts in the Ries crater, in Germany, providing greater relevance to impact cratering – a key topic for lunar geological exploration.

Next week, the crew will move to the Italian Dolomites to study layers that reveal a past characterised by an abundance of running water. The veins in the terrain are similar to those found on Mars and suggest sedimentary processes on the Red Planet.

Pangaea’s last stop will be the alien landscapes of Lanzarote, Spain, in November. This is one of the best areas on Earth to understand the geological interactions between volcanic activity and water – two key factors in the search for life.

“We integrate science and operations, and try to find the right balance for missions in the near future,” says course director Francesco Sauro.

“We will implement live feedback and real time data sharing between astronauts and scientists allowing for a fast decision-making process. The geologic traverses will be also similar to future lunar missions,” he adds.


Credit: ESA

Course participants include veteran ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and ‘Spaceship EAC’ lead Aidan Cowley.

To read more about this campaign as it happens, follow the Pangaea blog.
http://blogs.esa.int/caves/

More informations:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Caves/What_is_Pangaea


See also video at: (03:21)
http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2018/09/Pangaea_geology_training_for_space_exploration




Image:
An expedition of astronauts, planetary scientists and engineers collect samples in a lava tube in Lanzarote, Spain.
Like on Mars and on the Moon, some of the caves are large enough to accommodate streets. Being underground structures, they are good shelters from radiation. They may contain subsurface water, and therefore be interesting in the search of extraterrestrial microbial life.

_Pangaea-X is a test campaign that brings together geology, high-tech survey equipment and space exploration. For five days in November 2017, the course mobilised 50 people, four space agencies and 18 organisations in five different locations. _

Copyright: ESA–R. Shone





#Space #Earth #ESA #ESO #PlanetaryFormation #Geology #Moon #Mars #Asteroids #SolarSystem #Astronauts #EuropeanPlanetary #PangaeaX #RedPlanet

#But, #Door, #Entry, #Good, #HalfRound, #High, #Is, #Let, #Light, #Preserve, #Privacy, #Small, #Space, #Still, #Table, #That, #This, #Use, #Want, #Windows