Article of the week

Do you know about NASA - CHIPS Mission. I bet you dont...

CHIPS (Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer) is an American (NASA) astrophysics spacecraft that was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB at 00:45 UT on 13 January 2003. The 60 kg, triaxially-stabilized spacecraft has a spectrograph covering the 9-26 nm wavelength band at a resolution of 0.1 nm, scanning the entire sky in chunks of 5 degree x 27 degree segments during each orbit. The targets are the hot and diffuse nebulae at about a million degrees temperature. The band covers several strong emission lines. Launch Date:   2003-01 13     Launch Vehicle:  Delta II Launch Site:   Vandenberg AFB, United States Mass:   60 kg  CHIPS carried out an all-sky survey of the diffuse background at wavelengths from  90  to 260 Å at a spectral resolution between about λ / 150 and λ / 40, and a spatial resolution of 5 to 15 degrees. CHIPS detected diffuse emission near 170 Å, but this turned out to be associated with the earth’s thin outer atmosphere or its int

Mystery Unlocked: Scientists reveal why we can simultaneously see and hear during meteor showers. The question which haunted scientists because light and sound can't travel at same speed

Astronomers and Cosmologists have reported about seeing and simultaneously hearing meteors whizzing overhead during meteor showers, which seems weird because light travels roughly 800,000 times faster than sound. This time Scientists have got an explanation for this weird and paradoxical phenomenon.

As the report committed :
The sound waves aren’t coming from the meteor itself, atmospheric scientists Michael Kelley of Cornell University and Colin Price of Tel Aviv University proposed it in his April 16, Geophysical Research Letters. As the leading edge of the falling space rock vaporizes, it becomes electrically charged. The charged head produces an electric field, which yields an electric current that blasts radio waves toward the ground. As a type of electromagnetic radiation, radio waves travel at the speed of light and can interact with metal objects near the ground, thereby generating a whistling sound that the people hear.

However as only 0.1 percent of the radio wave energy needs to be converted into sound for the noise to be audible as the meteor  passes by, which was the data, the researchers estimated. This same process could explain mysterious noises heard during the aurora borealis, or northern lights. Like meteors, auroras have been known to emit radio wave bursts.

Image credit : moheban-ahlebeit.com

Comments

Jessy dsouza said…
Well i dont know it, i think many of us wouldnt
Thanks for giving this remarkable knowledge
#learnersinfinite