5 Awesome things carried in space

There have been many instances where astronauts have carried many things in space. Here is the list of five strange things carried into the space.

Lego mini figures in Juno.
On August 5th 2011, NASA launched Juno space probe to reach Jupiter. It will reach Jupiter by 2016. The most interesting thing is that it carries three Lego figurines representing Galileo, Roman God Jupiter and his wife Juno. These figurines are made of Aluminum to sustain extreme conditions of spaceflight. According to myth, Jupiter veiled cloud around himself to hide his mischief. But from Mount Olympus, Juno was able to see through clouds and reveal his nature.
The Lego Juno holds a magnifying glass as a sign for searching for the truth and her husband holds a lightning bolt. The third LEGO crew member, Galileo Galilei, has his telescope with him on the journey and miniature Jupiter in his other hand. The Lego has spent $15,000 to make these mini figurines.  Also along with these, Juno carries Plague dedicated to Galileo. It was provided by Italian Space Agency and made of Flight Grade Aluminum.

Light-saber with space shuttle.
In honor of 30th anniversary of the movie Star Wars, NASA sent Light-saber prop (used by Mark Hamill in the 1983 film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedialong) with Discovery's STS-120. It was launched on 27th October 2007. On 28 August 2007, Chewbacca from the Star Wars films presented the light-saber to NASA officials from Space Center Houston, in an official ceremony at Oakland International Airport. The light-saber was then flown to Houston, where it was greeted by Stormtroopers. STS-120 mission lasted for 15 days. Clearly, The force was with it.

Golden record
The Voyager 1 and 2 are is the farthest man made object in space. Both of the probes are contain a Golden record portraying the diversity and culture on earth. It also contains a Golden phonograph record and a record player. The record is constructed of gold-plated copper. The record's cover is aluminum and electroplated upon it is an ultra-pure sample of the isotope uranium-238 with hopes that the advanced civilization who find it may be able to determine the age of the record. It contains images and sounds of planet such as animals and thunder and rains. It also contains greetings in 56 languages. The musical selection is also varied, featuring artists such as Beethoven, Guan Pinghu, Mozart, Stravinsky, Blind Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry and Kesarbai Kerkar. Probes also contains diagram about playback of the record.

Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear
Again in 2008, NASA carried something awesome after 'Light Saber' in 2007. This time it was Buzz Lightyear, the astronaut action figure of the Toy Story films. It was carried on Discovery mission STS-124. It lived at the International Space Station for more than 450 days before landing back on earth on Sept. 11, 2009. It then received a ticker-tape parade at Walt Disney World alongside space icon Buzz Aldrin. The action figure "ate" dinner with the 10 astronauts and cosmonauts and was seen peering out a window aboard the ISS. The action figure stayed aboard the space station for a period of six months as part of a NASA toys-in-space educational program.

Golf Club and Balls
Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard famously took a golf ball along with him to the Moon, making him the first person to play golf on another world.Toward the end of his walk on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission, astronaut Alan Shepard informed NASA's Mission Control that he "happened to have" a six-iron golf club, which he had attached to the handle of a lunar scoop. He also had some balls. After a few unsuccessful swings, he was able to drive one of the balls as he said, "for miles and miles and miles." The golf club was donated to U.S. Golf Association by Shepard.

Chasing North pole

Most of us have used compass. Compass is an instrument that shows directions with the help of magnetic needle that always points the North. But did you know that the compass may mislead you if you are hiking in Canada? The magnetic needle in compass may point towards east misleading you to think that its north.

Stanley compass | Wikimedia commons

Before I proceed its important to know the difference between the North pole and the Magnetic North.
North pole is the axis around which the earth rotates. It is located in Arctic and the point where all longitude lines intersect. The needle on the compass doesn't points the North pole but it points the Magnetic North.

The Earth's magnetic North is located in Canada, and is slowly moving at the rate of 40 Km per year. In fact all magnetic compasses point towards Canada This is the reason extra precautions are needed to be taken if you re hiking in Canada. Approximately the Magnetic north (or the pole at which the needle in compass point) is located at 82.3 degrees North Latitude and 113.4 degrees West Longitude. So if you are at the west of this point the needle inside compass will point East, misleading you to think its North.
The interesting thing about magnetic north is that if you stand over it using compass the needle dips down!

So compass may mislead but its not the only way to find North. Hold your watch and point the Sun. Imagine an angle formed between a line passing through 12 O'clock and the hour hand and divide the angle exactly half. This intersection line diving the angle in half will point South if you are in Northern Hemisphere. This is Location of True North. In southern hemisphere point twelve o'clock towards sun and bisect and between the hour clock and twelve to get North pole.
However this method wont work near arctic regions because of midnight sun. Also it is important that your watch has shows the correct time.

Method to determine East and West

Another method is to place the stick upright on the surface and mark the tip of the shadow. Wait for another 15-20 minutes and mark the new location of the shadow. Join the points and draw a perpendicular line to it. The first marking you made is the west and new marking you made after 15-20 minutes is the East. Manipulate and find the North and the South.

North Star or Pole star ( Click to Enlarge) | Wikimedia Commons

These methods work well during the day, but at night you may use stars to navigate. For example the North star helps you find the North pole. One misconception about north star is that its the brightest star. Actually it isn't the brightest.

Crux | Wikimedia commons

In southern hemisphere however, North star isn't visible and we may use the Southern cross constellation or Crux to find the South pole. View the picture above. On left of the image the cross is shown. The line which is almost parallel to horizon helps us finding the South pole. Imagine extending that line till the horizon. The point where this extended line meets the horizon is the South pole.

There are many other ways to find directions like using the moss, ants hills, tree's orientation but without proper knowledge about the geography, they can mislead.

So we may conclude that there is no ONE reliable life-hack to know the true north. But yes we do have GPS. Happy hiking. :)

Weight of the light

Light is something which makes object visible. Light is so common that we hardly wait and wonder what its made of. Here are some facts about Light.

Rays of light at Chicago union center (1943) | Wikimedia Commons

Light is simply the electromagnetic wave falling under certain range of frequency which our eyes have learned to sense and differentiate with colours. A typical human eye will respond to wavelengths from about 390 to 700 nm. In terms of frequency, this corresponds to a band in the vicinity of 430–790 THz. Also light is the fastest moving object in whole universe. (Atleast, until we find something more faster than light) Light does not require and medium to travel, though is speed is affected by the medium.

Light exhibits properties that both of particle as well as wave. Light shows Doppler effect just like sound wave, which results in red shift and blue shift. The light of object moving towards you at considerable higher speed will appear blue (Blueshift) and when it is moving away from you, it will appear red (Redshift). This is how we came to know that the nearest Galaxy Andromeda is moving towards us. Also Light is affected gravity just like particles!

Doppler effect on Light illustration | Wikimedia commons

Light has weight though negligible, it has. It isn't rest mass though. In fact all forms of energy has weight. Light weighs more than the empty box. If we could measure something as large as Metro City, it will weigh 100 Kg more in Day than it will at night. It is because of weight of light has momentum and exerts pressure on it. Also, spaceship may be pushed as much as 1000 miles from its destination say Mars, because of Light pushing it. This phenomena is called Light Pressure.

Light is affected by gravity. The velocity of light in vacuum is 299 792 458 m/s. Gravity affects the path of light the same way as matter, but the result is too insignificant to be seen. The effect can be observed on something which is very huge and very far away from the observer, for example distant object in space like cluster of stars or galaxy. Another example which proves that light is affected by gravity is Black hole. It is said that the Gravity of Black hole is so strong that even light cannot escape it.

Refraction | Wikimedia Commons

Refraction is caused by sudden change in speed of light when it changes the medium. Also, due to refraction the path of light may get diverted Prism uses refraction to form spectrum of colours. Lens also work on same principle to magnify the image of the object.
Other examples are Formation of mirage, appearance of sky as bluish and the pencil or pen dipped in glass of water appears broken.

Prism forming Light spectrum | Wikimedia Commons

So in short, Light is awesome!Physics is Awesome and so is Science and the whole Universe!