These past couple weeks have signaled the coming of autumn and with it, The Physics and Astronomy Club took to the woods for an enjoyable hike through Scott's Run Stream Valley Park. The park is located an hour drive north east of George Mason’s Main Campus where the club members got to experience a switch from physics and astronomy and had the opportunity to explore the majestic flora and fauna that is native to our Northern Virginia home. Several members displayed their creative side with their costumes, including a Zombie Red Riding Hood and a Bill Nye the Science Guy, to celebrate Halloween with a little bit of science. The walk total to just about an hour of discovery and club bonding. As a new member, I enjoyed getting to know the other members on a more personal level and look forward to enjoying future events with the club.
In our constant exploration space we take the ability of spaceflight for granted, but it wasn't until the early 20th century that rockets were able to reach suborbital altitudes. These upcoming weeks the Physics and Astronomy Club is planning to go back to one of the most exciting endeavors in engineering, considering that even till this day rocket launches still fail to send equipment into space. Apart from finding a location, the team of mostly physics and astronomy majors will use their distinct backgrounds and apply their problem solving skills to construct and launch a rocket. The Rocket is scheduled to launch around the time of Thanksgiving along with a club Thanksgiving feast before we head home for our break.
As always, current revolutionary developments are profoundly changing physics and astronomy. Just to name a few discoveries that have occurred since the semester began:
- A team of physicist at Princeton University have observed one of the most elusive particles that was primarily hypothesized in 1937 by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana. The Majorana fermion is a particle that is its own antimatter particle. In other words, most fundamental particles have a counterpart, or an antimatter particle. When these particles come in contact they annihilate each other. Intriguingly, the Majorana fermion has the quality of being both. Although the study is still not conclusive, it reveals information that may lead the development of quantum computing in the future.
- Hidden behind a thick cloud of interstellar gas, a new discovery in astronomy is clocking in data about planetary formation. The Chilean ALMA telescope was able to peer into a very detailed image the what is thought to be planets forming around a young star named HL Tauri, in the constellation Taurus. Not only does this give an insight into how our solar system formed but it but it also allows us to put the contemporary theories of planetary formation to the test.
- Finally, the Rosetta spacecraft is scheduled to land on the surface of Comet 7P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday (Nov. 12). This may be one of the most exciting missions of the year because it is an attempt to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the origin of the solar system. These icy comet are the leftovers of the solar system’s building blocks and hidden within them is the history of our planets origins. Apart from landing on the comet and drilling inside to determine its contents, the Rosetta Space Probe has already gathered crucial data such as the amount of water that is being spewed out of the comet, the optimal landing sites for study, and even what the comet smells like (Rotten eggs and horse stable). Just like the stone it was named after, the Rosetta mission will decipher unanswered question that have not been explored at this distance before.
Click on the links below to read the full story of these developments:
