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| Artist's rendition of the newly-discovered planet orbiting nearby Alpha Centauri. (Photo used with permission from ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger.) |
This has been an interesting week in astronomy! Answer some or all of the questions in the comments section.
- Which of these news stories is most exciting to you? Why do you feel that way?
- Does Baumgartner's jump make him the fastest human to ever travel through the air without being enclosed in a vehicle? Explain.
- Halley's Comet orbits the Sun once every 76 years. How often does the earth travel through the remnants of Halley's Comet?
- Alpha Centauri is quite different from the Sun because it is a binary system--there are actually two (or three if Proxima Centauri is included) stars gravitationally bound to each other. How would these two stars appear from the surface of the newly-discovered planet? Would they look like twin suns?
1. I am most interested in Baumgarther's jump from space. I think it is very interesting that someone can be in the edge of space without being injured.
ReplyDelete3. The earth travels through the remnants of Halley's comment once every 76 years.
When the comet passes near the sun, some of its matter is "blown" off and is left as a "trail" in the inner solar system. Accordingly, the Earth encounters this trail much more often than once every 76 years.
Delete1.)The most interesting story for me was the leap from space also.
ReplyDeleteI find this the most intriguing because it seems completley un-real to me that anyone would even come close to being able to accomplish this!
2.) Based on information that i found online (web address is listed below), Felix jumped from a large balloon that was over 24 miles up in space. When Felix jumped from this ballon he was wearing a space suit that kept his pressures and temperatures in check. The speed of sound is approximetley 690 miles per hour and Felix's jump was recorded to be somewhere around 734 miles per hour. Felix broke four records,(1) highest manned balloon flight,(2) freefall from highest altitude,(3) Supersonic speed in freefall, and(4) longest freefall time. So, to answer the question above, yes Felix's jump did make him the fastest human to ever travel through air without being enclosed in a vehicle.
All information from: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/137521-the-tech-behind-felix-baumgartners-stratospheric-skydive
1. Like rachel and lauren i also found Felix Baumgarther's skydive from space the most interesting accomplishment. It fascinates me that a human could jump from almost 24 miles in space, beginning in the stratosphere, and land safely on earths surface only 9:09 minutes later. I would be very interested in learning more about the reasoning, science, and physics as to why Felix's jump was a possibility!
ReplyDelete2. Yes, Felix Baumgarther's jump from space does make him the first human ever to travel through air without being enclosed in a vehicle. Like rachel said, Felix broke four world records with his jump. According to the official website dedicated to his jump (redbullstratos.com) one of these records is being the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall, Felix reached a max speed of 833.9 mph, the speed ofof sound is 761.2 mph. This feat was achieved exactly 65 years after the sound barrier was first broken by Chuck Yeager in an experimental rocket powered airplane. If Felix is the first man ever to break the sound barrier without a vehicle, it certainly makes him the fastest human ever to travel through air without being enclosed in a vehicle.
i like how scientists found an earth-like planet. there may be life there that can be discovered and compared to life her on earth.
ReplyDeletethe two suns would probably rise and set at different times causing a longer day. but they would most likely be one larger than the other if you were to view them from the planet because of the difference in distance.
1)The discovery of another planet similar in size to earth orbiting Alpha Centauri is the most exciting piece of news to me because it might be a possible planet that humans could inhabit because the gravity there would be similar to earth's gravity.
ReplyDelete2)Yes Baumgarther's jump made him the fastest human to travel through the air without being enclosed in a vehicle because he was the first human to break the sound barrier (approximately 761 mph) without being enclosed in a vehicle so therefore he must have traveled the fastest.
3)Earth travels through the remnants of Haley's comet once every year.
1. I would most definitely agree with Alana and Rachel that the "jump" accomplished by Felix Baumgartner was the most exciting to me out of the rest of the events. I feel like this event was the most exciting out of the three because, like they stated, I think that it is absolutely miraculous that it was possible for Felix to accomplish this without being even remotely injured in the process. Also, I am flabbergasted at the technology of the suit that he was wearing, like Rachel said. I am just amazed that the suit he was wearing was able to protect him when he was falling fast enough to break the sound barrier.
ReplyDelete1. I think that the skydive from the edge of space was the most interesting thing to me because honestly i didn't believe that it a possible action from a professional skydiver. Also, as Noah stated, his suit was incredible! Think of all the time and tests it took to make a suit that could keep Felix safe. How did they test the suit though? They had to make sure Felix would be as safe as possible while smashing records because to think without these tests the headline about Felix would be quite different. And if i were to put myself in Felix's shoes as he stood at the edge of space about to jump... it wouldn't have been pretty.
ReplyDelete1)The earth-sized planet orbiting Alpha Centauri is the most exciting to me because there may be life on that planet that we are unaware of, and a lifeform on that planet may have just found a planet orbiting their suns next door neighbor.However the planet orbits extremely close to Alpha Centauri so the temperature is about 1000 K which unless the lifeforms are radically different than earths my excitement is short lived. But usually where there is one planet there are more so maybe their is a second earth sized planet!
ReplyDelete2)No Felix Baumgartner Jump does not make him the fastest human to ever travel through the air without being enclosed in a vehicle because he was in an enclosed vehicle (HIS SUIT). The Definition of vehicle is :a means of carrying or transporting something
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vehicle
:any means in or by which someone travels or something is carried or conveyed; a means of conveyance or transport: a motor vehicle; space vehicles.
Source http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vehicle
His suit is a method of transport because he would have died without it.
3)I would take a guess that it would be impossible to tell how many times the earth has passed through the remnants of Halley's comet because remnants does not specify particle size so theoretically we may have passed through microscopic remnants of the comet several times and not known.
4)The stars would look like twin suns, Alpha Centauri B would appear extremely large since the planet is so close to it. Alpha Centauri A would appear far away it would only be about ten to fifteen times as big as Jupiter looks in our sky.
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com
DeleteThanks for all the interesting comments this week.
ReplyDelete