Researchers have recreated #plasma that is thought to have existed during the #BigBang, when the #universe was formed. - http://clapway.com/2015/09/06/plasma-big-bang123/

Researchers at the University of Kansas, working in conjunction with an international team at the Large Hadron Collider, have managed to recreate a state of matter thought to have existed at the birth of the universe around 13.8 billion years ago. The small amount of quark-gluon plasma, dubbed “littlest liquid,” was discovered through a series of high-energy particle collisions conducted inside the supercollider’s Compact Muon Solenoid Detector, according to Science World Report.

The plasma, or QGP, is described as a “perfect liquid,” hypothesized to exist at extreme temperatures or densities most likely characteristic of the early stages of universal expansion. It can subsist for a short period of time before cooling and condensing into regular matter that forms the building blocks of life.

For some time now, physicists have been aware of the existence of QGP. In an effort to learn more about this “primordial state of matter,” experiments of a similar nature have been conducted in the past by colliding protons with lead ions. The procedure lead to the discovery of the same plasma back in 2013; however, results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), located in Upton, New York, now reveal that the “littlest liquid” also appears after colliding gold ions with helium-3 nuclei, reports Discovery News.

This is the first time that helium-3, a light ion, has been collided with heavy ions (in this case, gold). The successful collision reveals that quark-gluon plasma can be produced at lower energies than previously thought.

According to Berndt Mueller, Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear and Particle Physics at Brookhaven, “Physicists initially thought that only the nuclei of large atoms such as gold would have enough matter and energy to set free the quark and gluon building blocks that make up protons and neutrons. But the flow patterns detected by RHIC’s PHENIX (Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiment) collaboration in collisions of helium-3 nuclei with gold ions now confirm that these smaller particles are creating tiny samples of perfect liquid QGP.”

The results of the experiment yield important data for scientists seeking to understand the atmospheric conditions that were present during the Big Bang. The study is published in APS Physics.

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Plasma Present During The Big Bang Is Recreated

Can NASA"s New Rocket Design Get Us to Mars? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/14/nasa-new-rocket-design-orion-102/

Recently NASA successfully completed a 9 minute test of the engine slated to preside at the heart of the US Space Agency’s next gen super rocket, which will launch the next generation of astronauts to asteroids, Mars and other deep-space locales.

The rocket, called the RS-25, was engaged at Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.

NASA’S ROCKET TO LAUNCH NEW MANNED SPACECRAFT

The next major manned spacecraft, dubbed the Orion, will be powered by four of these RS-25 engines during its core launch stage of the Space Launch System (SLS). This new system is said to be capable of carrying astronauts to Mars.

The RS-25 fired its payload for 535 consecutive seconds, which is roughly the same amount of time the engines are expected to fire during a real SLS launch.

“There are probably some people in the control contre high-fiving, because that was a very successful test,” mentioned Gary Benton, RS-25 test project manager at Stennis Space Center once the engine’s performance had come to an end.

WHERE IS THIS ROCKET FROM?

The recent test was the sixth of seven hot-fire tests for the RS-25, which was formerly used as the main engine for NASA’s new-mothballed space shuttle fleet, noted ‘Space.com.’

OLD ROCKET, NEW DESIGN

This seven-test series is “designed to put the upgraded former space shuttle main engines through the rigorous temperature and pressure conditions they will experience during a launch,” explained NASA officials. They went on to clarify that “[t]he tests also support the development of a new controller, or ‘brain,’ for the engine, which monitors engine status and communicates between the vehicle and the engine, relaying commands to the engine and transmitting data back to the vehicle.”

“The controller also provides closed-loop management of the engine by regulating the thrust and fuel-mixture ratio while monitoring the engine’s health and status,” they added.

Orion and SLS are to be united in stellar pursuits for the very first time in 2018, on a flight dubbed Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1).

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Can NASA"s New Rocket Design Get Us to Mars?

New Horizons Finds That Pluto Has a Tail - http://clapway.com/2015/07/18/new-horizons-finds-that-pluto-has-a-tail426/

Recent new horizons images uncover never before seen features

Recent news about Pluto discoveries lit up the space science world as the New Horizons spacecraft approached Pluto. All the anticipation for the spacecraft reaching the dwarf planet reached a fever pitch until the first pictures taken by the New Horizons probe began to be transmitted. The new pictures were higher resolution than previous ones, so they allowed new features to be uncovered about what had once been the 9th planet in our solar system.

What’s new about pluto

The newer, higher quality pictures are to thank for recent discoveries. Everyone expected the newer technology to pay dividends, and it did. The announcement came from NASA yesterday in a press release.

The press release describes this strange find as actually being made of up ionized gas trailing thousands of miles behind Pluto, like a tail. But the exception was that this wasn’t any random trail. This trial was the atmosphere of Pluto being blown away by solar wind.

All the atmosphere that was being blown away escaped as well, and this isn’t a unique occurrence. Other instances of this atmosphere doing such a thing is seen on Venus and Mars.

A planet’s atmosphere blowing away isn’t something you see every day

Because of its small size in comparison to Earth, the atmosphere of the dwarf planet escaping gravitational pull is not surprising. Data from the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument tells scientists that the find was witnessed due to a slump of nitrogen ions. This is the tail, as mentioned before, that forms plasma. As of yet, the spacecraft hasn’t sent any information giving some indication of how far this tail trails.

NASA scientists await more information from the spacecraft to arrive. The cool thing is that the spacecraft actually got to fly through the trail in its orbit around Pluto. Not many can say they have flown through the gas tail of a distant mass in space.

Other information is pending as well that may have answers to how the tail was formed and the shape of it. But all hinges on the New Horizons sending more data back.

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New Horizons Finds That Pluto Has a Tail

Magnetosphere Looks Like Rolling Hills In Space - http://clapway.com/2015/07/11/magnetosphere-looks-like-rolling-hills-in-space678/

You those waves that you sometimes see in clouds? They look like the kind of waves surfers would love to surf. Or, they just look like rolling hills. Well, now they can be seen in space.

Who noticed the resemblance?

A paper was published back in May with Nature magazine, covering the idea of how solar wind plasma interacts with the magnetosphere, and how that can cause what is known as the Kelvin-Helmholtz waves. If you did not know, the magnetosphere is what helps protect us from solar winds and the like.

When solar plasma is released from the Sun and heads toward Earth, the magnetosphere is there as a defender, and dampens the wind around the planet, also forcing it to go around Earth without it affecting us too much. This time, however, it creates a rolling hill effect. Or, a wave effect, if you prefer.

Previous Knowledge of the rolling hills

What little is known about the waves was that they existed at the brink of the magnetosphere, but only show once in a blue moon on the scope. However, with this new surge, they reevaluated their thinking and estimated that the waves are more frequent about twenty percent of the time.

Also, the waves can come up pretty much at any time and in under any circumstances. The conclusions were taken from examining data from NASA’s ACE and THEMIS where the team on the study saw the rolling hills and measured them.

Other theories

However there are other suggestions for the cause of the waves. Another study that was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research fairly recently on the 26th of June suggested that the rolling hills are a result of a plume of plasma was extended toward the magnetosphere by the plasmasphere. This plume of plasma would make the magnetosphere thicker in a sense and thereby create waves, as other researchers have seen.

But whatever the theories researchers have about what exactly is causing the rolling hills effect, all parties agreed on one thing. Further research will be needed to understand space atmosphere and other potential threats, etc.

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Magnetosphere Looks Like Rolling Hills In Space