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Rocket Launch as seen from the space station
division
square roots
dividing percentages
IT EVEN FOILS
beautiful.
The speed of light is just the maximum speed that the universe can render at
dude.
so international space station astronauts apparently dropped a tool bag during a spacewalk. and if you look outside when the ISS is in your region, you can see it with binoculars
The tool bag is now orbiting our planet just ahead of the ISS with a visual magnitude of around 6, according to EarthSky. That means it is slightly less bright than the ice giant Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun. As a result, the bag — officially known as a crew lock bag — is slightly too dim to be visible to the unaided eye, but skywatchers should be able to pick it up with binoculars. To see it for yourself, first find out when you can find spot the space station over the next few months (NASA even has a new app to help you). The bag should be floating two to four minutes ahead of the station. As it descends rapidly, the bag is likely to disintegrate when it reaches an altitude of around 70 miles (113 kilometers) over Earth.
she's fucking magnificent
Tunneling is a quantum mechanical effect. A tunneling current occurs when electrons move through a barrier that they classically shouldn’t be able to move through. In classical terms, if you don’t have enough energy to move “over” a barrier, you won’t. However, in the quantum mechanical world, electrons have wavelike properties. These waves don’t end abruptly at a wall or barrier, but taper off quickly. If the barrier is thin enough, the probability function may extend into the next region, through the barrier! Because of the small probability of an electron being on the other side of the barrier, given enough electrons, some will indeed move through and appear on the other side. When an electron moves through the barrier in this fashion, it is called tunneling.
Quantum mechanics tells us that electrons have both wave and particle-like properties. Tunneling is an effect of the wavelike nature.
The top image shows us that when an electron (the wave) hits a barrier, the wave doesn’t abruptly end, but tapers off very quickly - exponentially. For a thick barrier, the wave doesn’t get past.
The bottom image shows the scenario if the barrier is quite thin (about a nanometer). Part of the wave does get through and therefore some electrons may appear on the other side of the barrier.
Because of the sharp decay of the probability function through the barrier, the number of electrons that will actually tunnel is very dependent upon the thickness of the barrier. The current through the barrier drops off exponentially with the barrier thickness
Source: nanoscience.com | Images: x | x | x
In hopes of inspiring younger generations, NASA created this series of gorgeous retro travel posters that encourage you to imagine a future where common space travel is a legitimate possibility. Source
This image of Jupiter was taken by Juno on December 16 and then processed by citizen scientist David Marriott.
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / David Marriott