Worshipping Sol
Posted: October 26, 2010 Filed under: American Astronomical Society, astronomers, Astronomical Societies, astronomy, entertainment, European Space Agency, European Space Agency (ESA), Goddard Flight Center, Hinode spacecraft, International Astronomical Union, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japanese spacecraft, John Hopkins University, Magnetosphere, NASA, National Solar Observatory, Royal Astronomical Society, Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Sol, Space Agencies, space history, star evolution, the heliosphere, the solar corona, the solar system, the solar wind | Tags: ancient star gazers, astronomers, astronomy, heliosphere, Sol, Sumerians, the corona, the Hinode spacecraft, the solar corona, the solar system, the Sun, the suns magnetic field, Utu Leave a comment »
Three separate instruments aboard Hinode will study Sol
The original source of energy for all life on Earth, Sol has always ruled the lives and minds of human beings in many ways. The ruler of the day time sky in ancient times and still today, Sol was worshipped by ancient humans of many cultures, and will always be a major force in the life of every human being on Earth. The Sumerians worshipped Utu as their sun god over two thousands years in the past and modern humans worship the sun in their own way. We send spacecraft toward Sol, to study the lifecycle and physical and chemical characteristics of our sun, and determine everything we can about the sun.
The Hinode (Solar B) is one spacecraft humans have sent out toward Sol in an attempt to delve deeper into the mysteries of the sun. A highly sophisticated observational satellite equipped with three solar telescopes, the Hinode has recently revealed that the solar corona isn’t quite as static as solar scientists were first thinking. Hinode has surprised solar scientists of late with views of complex structures in the solar chromosphere, solar scientists use to think were static, but now believe to be dynamic structures flowing in time. This is making solar scientists rethink some of the previous ideas they had about the heating mechanisms and dynamics of the active solar corona.
What questions will solar scientists working with Hinode try to answer next? They’ll be looking into why a hot corona exists above a cooler atmosphere? The origins and driving forces behind solar flares and the Sol’s magnetic field? The changes that the release of solar energy in its many forms has on interplanetary space in our solar system and life on Earth? The answers to these questions could be a key to eventually answering many of the questions the first star gazers and all humans have been asking for thousands of years. Solar scientists are also interested in knowing how magnetic changes near Sol’s surface effect the heliosphere, the outer atmosphere of Sol that extends beyond Pluto, and how severe changes in the heliosphere can cause satellites to malfunction and electrical blackouts on Earth.
Mankind’s Next Great Step into the Cosmos
Posted: October 7, 2010 Filed under: Astronomical Societies, astronomy, astronomy equipment, Canadian space agencies, entertainment, European Space Agency, Hubble Space Telescope, Johnson Space Center, NASA, Neptune, Saturn, Space Agencies, telescopes, the Big Bang, The Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope, the planets | Tags: astronomy, Canadian space agencies, European Space Agency, Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Johnson Space Center, Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time, NASA, space, space scientists, space telescopes, the Big Bang, the Big Bang theory, the Earth, the planets 2 Comments »The James Webb Space Telescope Takes Mankind to the Edge of Infinity
The James Webb Space Telescope Journeys to the Beginning of Space and Time
These mirror segments are currently undergoing testing by NASA technicians
Once on location at L2, the James Webb Space Telescope will fully deploy its 18 hexagonal, gold-coated mirror segments to form a primary mirror with an effective diameter of 6.6 meters (259 inches). This is a full 6 times the light-collecting area of the Hubble Space Telescope, but the designers and engineers have also added systems driven by software that will analysis the in-coming image, and allow astronomers to fine tune the view by controlling the mirrors overall shape.
Out orbiting L2, the James Webb Space Telescope will be far from problematic heat sources, and with a tennis-court sized sunshade shielding the telescope from Sol, the heat-sensitive instrumentation of the telescope will cool passively in the cold darkness of space and time, to the required operating temperature of -388 degrees Fahrenheit (-233 Celsius).
Astronomers believe the first stars created after the Big Bang possessed as much as 100 times Sol’s current mass, shined millions of times brighter than Sol, but only lived a few million years, before exploding in the first supernovae. The James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of allowing mankind to Journey to within about 180 million years after the Big Bang, if astronomers are correct, and possibly view the first moments of the universe in space terms. Astronomers will also use the James Webb Space Telescope to view celestial objects that have been exciting the human imagination since they were first discovered in the time of the first star gazers. Astronomers are currently preparing for the beginning of the era of the James Webb Space Telescope. They’ll soon be proposing all kinds of Journeys to the Beginning of Space and Time that will hopefully provide a few answers to these questions that have been exciting mankind since the first time a human looked upward into the night sky.
Thousands of people have contributed to the designing, engineering and eventual launch into orbit of the James Webb Space Telescope
