Planet Eureka # 01 - AstroSat & ancient galaxy; wonder material Graphene; Saving Arctic Ice
Indian satellite discovers an ancient galaxy; Limitless electricity from Graphene; Saving Arctic ice using glass.
Welcome to the first edition of the “Planet Eureka” newsletter.
On this day 53 years ago (4-Oct-1957), the Russians launched a technological marvel called Sputnik. There is no better day to launch the first edition of the Planet Eureka newsletter.
Science shouldn’t be too hard and in reality it isn’t. Newtons and Einsteins are not made overnight. Let us make the journey a little bit easier with weekly doses of easy to digest science news.
First, Weekly Quiz # 01
A simple question to start. What is this? This is not a ‘vada’ or a fried donut. Post your answer in the comments section.
Limitless power from Graphene
A wonder material called graphene
If there is one wonder material that was discovered by mankind, then it should be graphene. It is just an allotrope (different structure) of Carbon, in which the atoms are arranged in a single layer and in a 2-dimensional hexagonal lattice.
Graphene was first lab produced only in 2004. The scientists who created in the lab were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010.
Name any desirable property and graphene excels in it. It is thin, super light, stronger than diamond, stiff, thin, highly elastic, best conductor of heat and electricity. You can stretch it to more than 20 times the original size.
Limitless electricity?
Now a team from University of Arkansas formed an electrical circuit using graphene, that will, in theory, provide limitless amount of low power electricity. The circuit will capture the thermal motion (heat movement) and convert into electricity.
Other than limitless power, research is also underway to use this material in desalination process (Converting sea water to drinkable water). Incredible, isn’t it?
ISRO’s AstroSat discovers one of the ancient galaxies
What is AstroSat?
Other than Chandrayaan-1 & 2 and Mangalyaan-1, ISRO’s under rated achievement is a small satellite launched in 2015 called AstroSat. Consider it as a ‘telescope in the sky’ that is capable of seeing different type of visible or invisible lights.
It has recently completed 5 years reading stars and galaxies. Though not fancied like Chandra and Hubble, AstroSat has made 1166 observations of 800 objects across space.
AstroSat’s important discovery
Recently, AstroSat discovered one of the most ancient galaxies located in one of the remote corners of the Universe. AUDFs01 (AstroSat Ultr-violet Deep Field) is 9.3 billion light years from earth. Studying this ancient galaxy will provide clue about how the galaxies are created in the formative years of Universe and how extreme UV rays came into being.
Plan to save Arctic ice by spraying glass?
The Arctic ice sheets are melting fast. No doubt about that. An organization called Arctic Ice Project has come up with an idea to scatter a thin layer of powdered reflective glass beads over certain parts of the Arctic.
How will this save the ice?
Reflective glass beads that are made from silica (found in common sand) reflect heat that will prevent the ice sheet from melting and help ice grow back. The glass beads are hollow and will float in water. The idea is to scatter the glass beads in the most vulnerable areas. Here is a small video of how the glass beads will look.
Will this idea work?
A previous experiment in a pond in the state of Minnesota, USA worked. When one area of the pond without glass beads saw ice melted away, the area with the glass beads still had one feet of ice.
But, there is a possibility that the glass beads may be eaten by fish and enter the human food chain. Also, the dissipated heat may interfere with the photosynthesis process of planktons under water.
Fingers crossed.
Hope you liked this edition of newsletter. Next week we will cover Plastic eating enzymes and more.
Please let us know your comments and feedback. If you like this edition of newsletter, please share it with others.
— Team Planet Eureka
Blackhole.
Black Hole image by Event Horizon Telescope.