Tag: atmosphere

Diatoms – Microscopic size, single-celled algae

Diatoms - McMurdo Station, South Antarctica

Diatoms - Under Light Microscope

Diatoms - Under Light Microscope 40x

Diatoms - Lorella Kennedy Diatomea (silica algae)
 
 
 
Diatoms - Shell of the fossil diatom - Trinacria ariesStar stick diatomStephanopyxis grunow - Bottom view, under light microscopyWagon wheel diatom - NOAA

Diatoms – Microscopic size, single-celled algae

Diatoms – A component of the ocean plant plankton, diatoms are microscopic size, single-celled algae. The cell wall of these organisms is made of hard silica (noble opal, by the way), and forms a kind of box with a bottom and a lid. During reproduction by division, the new diatom takes with it a part of the “parent” shell and adds a smaller bottom to it. As a result, the next generations of these algae are getting smaller and smaller

However, the process does not last forever. When the minimum size limit is exceeded, the generally unarmored sexual generation (the so-called auxospore) appears in the sea. Which has the ability to grow unhindered – and then the cycle starts all over again …

We owe 25 percent of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere to diatoms that produce it in the process of photosynthesis. They also account for a quarter of the biomass of all seas and oceans.

Helicopter Ingenuity – Capable fly in Mars atmosphere

Helicopter Ingenuity - (25-05-2018)

Helicopter Ingenuity - (25-05-2018)

Helicopter Ingenuity - On the Martian Surface

Helicopter Ingenuity - Mars
 
 
 
Helicopter Ingenuity - Pasadena, California, USAMars Helicopter and its Mars Helicopter Delivery System were attached to Perseverance Mars roverPerseverance Mars rover - Kennedy-Space-CenterMars 2020 - Helicopter presentation - Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Pasadena, California, USA

Helicopter Ingenuity – Capable fly in Mars atmosphere

Helicopter Ingenuity – Capable fly in Mars atmosphere, hundred times rarer than Earthian. We already knew about the possibility of flight in thin Martian air in the 90s of the last century. The problem was technology. We needed super-light and durable materials, a miniaturization of electronic components on a scale impossible to achieve 30 years ago. And to significantly increase the computing power and memory of computers. For example, a desktop PC had 16 MB of memory back then, today the average phone has 32 GB, which is two thousand times more.

The idea of building a Martian helicopter returned about five years ago – and here’s Ingenuity is flying with the Perseverance rover to the Red Planet. We’ll know in a few months if it will go up there. It is scheduled to land on Mars on February 18, 2021.

In flight, they are even more united. Ingenuity with folded propellers and solar panels is hidden in a tray on the rover’s chassis. Large and heavy Perseverance protects the tiny helicopter during space travel.

It is a unit that is absolutely independent of the rover. Their activities on Mars are not correlated with each other, they are not complementary. The helicopter is to demonstrate technological capabilities and that’s it. All he has to do is unfold properly, charge the batteries. Show that it can take to the air and land.

Vehicle data:

Weight: 1,8 kg
Length: 49 cm
The spacing of the propellers comes to 120 cm

The propellers can move at a frequency of 2400 rpm
Can fly at a time for 90 seconds, (the first flight of the Wright brothers took only 12 seconds).
During this time it can travel 300 m , flying at height of 3-4 m.

Powered by solar batteries.
A completely autonomous control system equipped with two cameras, sensors supporting navigation and a simple computer.

Earth atmosphere – High layers emit music

Earth atmosphere - NASA

Earth atmosphere - Happy New Year planet Earth

Earth atmosphere - Planetatierra - (07-12-1972)

The Amazing Earth atmosphere

Earth atmosphere - Top Images from NASA
 
 

Earth atmosphere - Blue Marble Rotation

Earth - NASA-EPIC-Team

Blue Marble Eastern Hemisphere

NASA-Earth - 17-April-2010

Stringed instruments - Musical Instrument Museum

Earth atmosphere – High layers emit music

Earth atmosphere – High layers emit music – Sound waves appear in the atmosphere of our planet. Which are between 1,000 and 10,000 kilometers long. Able to run at speeds of up to 1000 km / h. When their speed and the altitude at which they appear are properly aligned. Such waves can stay above the Earth for more than 30 hours.
The atmosphere then acts like a sound box, creating a huge musical instrument the size of an entire planet. These waves are moving disturbances of density and pressure, and therefore we could hear them, were it not for their extremely low frequency, making them unattainable by our ears.

Light pillar – Sun pillar – Optical phenomenon in atmosphere

Light pillar - Sun pillar (1) - NOAALight pillar - Sun pillar and Sun dog (parhelion) - NOAALight pillar - Sun pillar forms as the sun rises over the Arctic plain - NOAALight pillar - Sun pillar - (NOAA Photo Library)Light pillar - Sun pillar - Optical effect march sunset - NOAALight pillar - Sun pillar - Halos, arcs and sundogs - Antarctica, South Pole Station, 1981(NOAA Photo Library)Light pillar - Sun pillar - Illuminated Clean Air Facility - NOAALight pillar - Sun pillar - December sundog - NOAA
 
 
 
Light pillar - Sun Dog and Turbo TrainLight pillar - Sun pillar (2) - NOAALight pillar - Sun pillar (3) - NOAALight pillar - Sun pillar (4) - NOAALight pillar - Sun pillar (5) - NOAALight pillar - Sun Dog - Ice crystals formed in the stable morning airLight pillar - Sun pillar - Lake LucerneLight pillar - Sunset at the port of Plouhinec Pors Poulhan in Brittany
 
 
 
Light pillar - Sun pillar - Seen when the sun is still behind the horizon - False SunriseLight pillar - Sun pillar - Susak, island in Croatia, view from the islandLight pillar - Sun pillar - Seen when the sun is still behind the horizon - False Sunrise (parhelion)

Light pillar – Sun pillar – Optical phenomenon in atmosphere

Light pillar is an optical phenomenon. That arises in very cold weather when there are ice crystals in the shape of tiles in the air. They are also visible in clearly illuminated parts of cities. They are typical of the clouds of the high floor, but in the big cold they form at earth. They reflect then light from strong sources such as lanterns or fireworks on new year’s eve. As a result of such a source of light, the observer can see high light. Most often you can see them just before sunrise, or soon after his west. Another name of the whole phenomenon is a solar pillar.

Our planet composition – What is inside the Earth?

Our planet composition - Earth crust - cutaway

Our planet composition – What is inside the Earth?

Our planet composition – Crust, mantle and core. In this abbreviated way one could characterize three layers of Earth, which were created at the beginning of its existence.

  • Lithosphere – Top layer of Earth, which is in direct interaction with other terrestrial spheres, such as the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere.
  • Crust – It consists of the oceanic and earth’s crust. The thickness of the earth’s reaches up to 70 kilometers. The oceanic is thinner and its thickness varies between five and ten kilometers.
  • Conrad’s discontinuity – Horizontal surface of the discontinuity in the earth’s crust that forms the transition between the upper and lower layers. Its depth varies in different types of crust from 5 to 30 km.
  • Mohorovićic’s discontinuity – A layer that geologically defines the passage of the earth’s crust and upper mantle. Occurs in 20-90 kilometers deep under continents, and 10-20 kilometers under the oceans.
  • Earth’s mantle – Layer consisting of upper and lower mantle. The upper reaches the depth of 90 kilometers. The lower one is assigned a depth of 650 km to the Earth’s core, and therefore approximately 2,900 km.
  • Repetti’s discontinuity – The area between the upper and the lower mantle.
  • Gutenberg’s discontinuity – Part of the Earth’s envelope, which is assigned at depth of 2,900 kilometers. Below it is the core of the Earth.
  • Core – Geosphere, located in the center of the Earth. It starts at depth of 2,900 kilometers below the surface and covers approximately 31% of the Earth’s mass, with iron and nickel being the largest part of it. The core is twice as heavy as the Earth’s mantle and consists of a semi-internal inner core, which, among other things, creates the Earth’s magnetic field.

KEPLER-442b – Stony exoplanet in superearth class

KEPLER-442bKEPLER-442b - Comparison of exoplanets from the Kepler system to EarthKEPLER-442b

KEPLER-442b – Stony exoplanet in superearth class

KEPLER-442b – Stony exoplanet in superearth class, which the parent star is the orange dwarf.

ESI: 0,84
Size: 1,3 Earth
Mass: 2,3 Earth
Equivalent temperature: -65°C

The planet KEPLER-442b, from which light has been running for 1115 years, belongs to the so-called Super-Earth. In this way, rocky exoplanets are determined whose mass does not exceed tenfolds Earth. The parent star of this planet is an orange dwarf. The star larger than a red dwarf, but smaller than a yellow dwarf, which is the Sun. This type of star has calmer youth, and therefore does not send its planetary children too much UV. In addition, the planet is in the ecosphere, so it can not be ruled out that the ocean is splashing on its rocky surface. If it has a more complex atmosphere, it does not have to be at the same time a kingdom of cold. According to some calculations, it is the smaller superearth that are most suitable for life, even more than our own planet.

TRAPPIST-1d – Representative of TRAPPIST-1 sys

TRAPPIST-1d - Artistic impression of exoplanetTRAPPIST-1d - Statistics tableTRAPPIST-1d - Comparison of the sizes of TRAPPIST-1 planets with Solar System bodies

TRAPPIST-1d – Representative of TRAPPIST-1 sys

TRAPPIST-1d – One of representatives of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system

ESI: 0,91
Size: 0,8 Earth
Mass: 0,3 Earth
Equivalent temperature: 15°C

The relatively small weight of this planet indicates that its surface can be flooded by a deep ocean.
According to some speculations, here is 250 times more water than in the Earth’s oceans.
The first measurements showed that the planet is moving outside of the living zone, but now it seems that it will enter it safely. Exoplanet can boast a dense atmosphere and is so close to its star that it circulates in four days. It only drops by 4.3% more light than on Earth. Although TRAPPIST-1d circulates its star in synchronous rotation, a dense atmosphere in which there should be a lot of water vapor helps in thermal exchange. The difference between the illuminated and the dark hemisphere is not like that of other celestial bodies.

TRAPPIST-1e – Exoplanet from system TRAPPIST-1

TRAPPIST-1eTRAPPIST-1e - Planetary system orbitsTRAPPIST-1e

TRAPPIST-1e – Exoplanet from system TRAPPIST-1

TRAPPIST-1e – The stony exoplanet of the TRAPPIST-1 system, according to physical properties, is the “e” from the planetary system TRAPPIST is the most similar to Earth.

ESI: 0,85
Size: 0,9 Earth
Mass: 0,8 Earth
Equivalent temperature: -22°C

It moves in the middle of the ecosystem of the entire collection, but there is the least water here. TRAPPIST-1e has a smaller size than Earth, but it has a larger mass. Possible inhabitants would have to be smaller in height and more important to cope with the pressure of local gravity. Red dwarfs, to which the TRAPPIST-1 star belongs, do not emit as much light and heat as the Sun. This means that the ecosphere, in which liquid water can sustain in proper conditions, is located in much closer orbits than in our solar system. A year on the planet TRAPPIST-1e lasts six ordinary earth days.
The planet probably also has a compact atmosphere where hydrogen is lacking. This type of atmosphere can also be found on the rocky planets of our solar system. Hydrogen is also a greenhouse gas, if it was a large amount in the local atmosphere, the surface of the planet would be uninhabitable.

TRAPPIST-1f – Rocky exoplanet the size of Earth

TRAPPIST-1f - Artistic impression of exoplanetTRAPPIST-1f - Comparison of the data of the stony planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system with the planets of the solar systemTRAPPIST-1f - Planetary system around the red dwarf TRAPPIST-1

TRAPPIST-1f – Rocky exoplanet the size of Earth

TRAPPIST-1f – Rocky exoplanet, from the planetary system around red dwarf TRAPPIST-1

ESI: 0,68
Size: 1,1 Earth
Mass: 0,9 Earth
Equivalent temperature: -65°C

Around the star, 40 light-years away from us, are seven stony planets. The sixth in turn has very similar sizes to Earth. But its density is generally lower. The composition is close to the ice or water worlds of the moon Jupiter – Europe or the moon of Saturn – Enceladus. The first measurements determined that not a small part of the mass of the planet is ice, and that under the surface perhaps liquid water. The atmosphere here is not the densest, so the equivalent temperature probably does not differ from the proper one.

CME – Coronal mass ejection – Eruptions on the Sun

CME - Coronal mass ejection - Eruptions on the SunCME - Coronal mass ejection - Eruptions on the SunCME - Sun in X-Ray

CME – Coronal mass ejection – Eruptions on the Sun

CME – Coronal mass ejection – Every second the Sun emits around two million tons of particulate matter – or at least that’s usually the case. In the atmosphere, however, sometimes there are enormous eruptions from the corona (Coronal Mass Eruptions, CME). These types of hurricanes are among the most spectacular phenomena in our part universe . In the process, the Sun loses much more weight than usual. The speed of winds reaches even 10 million / h. CME is a cloud of gas built of electrically charged particles (physicists call it plasma gas). Plasma hurricanes can reach Earth and call the so-called geomagnetic storms that affect electronic devices, causing short circuits and equipment damage.

It is impossible to predict how dangerous it can be for satellites. The Internet and computer-controlled objects, such as nuclear power plants. The last really strong solar storm took place in the telegraph age, i.e. long before the appearance of PCs. Although astronomers are constantly observing the behavior of the Sun, they can anticipate it only slightly ahead of time. This means that in the future we will have at least 24 hours to disable all sensitive systems (even those in nuclear power plants) and secure computers. But geomagnetic storms are not the only problem facing us by the most important star …