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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
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RAINER WEISS A college dropout who discovered Gravitational Waves

Rainer Weiss was born on 29 September 1932 in Berlin, Germany. Due to Nazi’s they fleed to United States where rest of his life was spent in New York City. Rainer was a Street smart Child.

He studied at MIT and then dropped out of college in his junior year from whete he returned to get his Bachelors degree and then finally his P.hD from Jerrold Zacharias.

Even after being a College dropout,he didnt lost his hope and finally began reasearching on gravitational waves.

Weis worked on two fundamental physics theories ie. characterization of the cosmic background radiation, and interferometric gravitational wave observation.

He made pioneering research work in the field of the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and then was co-founder and science advisor of the NASACOBE (microwave background) satellite.

Weiss also invented the interferometric gravitational wave detector, and later co-founded the NSF LIGO (gravitational-wave detection) project.

Both these were the two most major breakthrough in the understanding of Physics of the Universe. These work laid the pathway for future projects on Gravitational waves and Understanding Physics of Cosmological Phenomenon 

In February 2016, he attended the press conference for the announcement that the first direct gravitational wave observation had been made in September 2015.

Awards and Recognitions

Rainer Weiss has been awarded with numerous of fame for his works. These include 

In 2006, he and John C. Mather and the COBE team received the Gruber Prize in Cosmology.

In 2007, with Ronald Drever, he was awarded the Einstein Prize for his work.

After the groundbreaking detection of gravitational waves , in 2016 he received:

The Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics,

Gruber Prize in Cosmology,Shaw Prize,Kavli Prize in Astrophysics

The Harvey Prize together with Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever.

The Smithsonian magazine’s American Ingenuity Award in the Physical Science category, with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish.The Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics, 2017.Princess of Asturias Award (2017) (jointly with Kip Thorne and Barry Barish).

Rainer has also written the Thesis like Stark Effect and Hyperfine Structure of Hydrogen Fluoride.


And in 2017 , Finally Rainer Weiss has been awarded the most prestigious Award ever to be given, The 2017 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS for his works in proving existence of Gravitational Waves as predicted by Einsteins General Theory of Relativity.

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