Following up on the Hyperloop One update posted here several weeks ago, below is an interview with Shervin Pishevar, Executive Co-Chairman and co-founder of the company, about Hyperloop One‘s plans and projects, which include a full-scale demo system that will begin running next spring. (The video is from the symposium IGNITION 2016 “Future of Digital” held this week in New York City. You can find more videos of the symposium sessions at Business Insider – YouTube.)
Analysis of a giant new galaxy survey, made with ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope in Chile, suggests that dark matter may be less dense and more smoothly distributed throughout space than previously thought. An international team used data from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) to study how the light from about 15 million distant galaxies was affected by the gravitational influence of matter on the largest scales in the Universe. The results appear to be in disagreement with earlier results from the Planck satellite.
This map of dark matter in the Universe was obtained from data from the KiDS survey, using the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. It reveals an expansive web of dense (light) and empty (dark) regions. This image is one out of five patches of the sky observed by KiDS. Here the invisible dark matter is seen rendered in pink, covering an area of sky around 420 times the size of the full moon. This image reconstruction was made by analysing the light collected from over three million distant galaxies more than 6 billion light-years away. The observed galaxy images were warped by the gravitational pull of dark matter as the light travelled through the Universe. Some small dark regions, with sharp boundaries, appear in this image. They are the locations of bright stars and other nearby objects that get in the way of the observations of more distant galaxies and are hence masked out in these maps as no weak-lensing signal can be measured in these areas. [Larger images.]Hendrik Hildebrandt from the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie in Bonn, Germany and Massimo Viola from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands led a team of astronomers [1] from institutions around the world who processed images from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS), which was made with ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) in Chile. For their analysis, they used images from the survey that covered five patches of the sky covering a total area of around 2200 times the size of the full Moon [2], and containing around 15 million galaxies.
By exploiting the exquisite image quality available to the VST at the Paranal site, and using innovative computer software, the team were able to carry out one of the most precise measurements ever made of an effect known as cosmic shear. This is a subtle variant of weak gravitational lensing, in which the light emitted from distant galaxies is slightly warped by the gravitational effect of large amounts of matter, such as galaxy clusters.
This video shows the location of one of the five KiDS regions that were surveyed by the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This region (known as G12) covers a large area of sky along the celestial equator in the constellations of Leo (The Lion) and Virgo (The Virgin). The final colour dark matter density image reveals an expansive web of dense (light) and empty (dark) regions. This image reconstruction was made by analysing the light collected from over three million distant galaxies more than 6 billion light-years away. Credit: Kilo-Degree Survey Collaboration/H. Hildebrandt & B. Giblin/ESO/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org). Music: Konstantino Polizois (soundcloud.com/konstantino-polizois).
In cosmic shear, it is not galaxy clusters but large-scale structures in the Universe that warp the light, which produces an even smaller effect. Very wide and deep surveys, such as KiDS, are needed to ensure that the very weak cosmic shear signal is strong enough to be measured and can be used by astronomers to map the distribution of gravitating matter. This study takes in the largest total area of the sky to ever be mapped with this technique so far.
Intriguingly, the results of their analysis appear to be inconsistent with deductions from the results of the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, the leading space mission probing the fundamental properties of the Universe. In particular, the KiDS team’s measurement of how clumpy matter is throughout the Universe — a key cosmological parameter — is significantly lower than the value derived from the Planck data [3].
This map of dark matter in the Universe was obtained from data from the KiDS survey, using the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. It reveals an expansive web of dense (light) and empty (dark) regions. This image is one out of five patches of the sky observed by KiDS. Here the invisible dark matter is seen rendered in pink, covering an area of sky around 280 times the size of the full moon. This image reconstruction was made by analysing the light collected from over two million distant galaxies more than 6 billion light-years away. The observed galaxy images were warped by the gravitational pull of dark matter as the light travelled through the Universe. Some small dark regions, with sharp boundaries, appear in this image. They are the locations of bright stars and other nearby objects that get in the way of the observations of more distant galaxies and are hence masked out in these maps as no weak-lensing signal can be measured in these areas. [Larger images]Massimo Viola explains:
“This latest result indicates that dark matter in the cosmic web, which accounts for about one-quarter of the content of the Universe, is less clumpy than we previously believed.”
Dark matter remains elusive to detection, its presence only inferred from its gravitational effects. Studies like these are the best current way to determine the shape, scale and distribution of this invisible material.
The surprise result of this study also has implications for our wider understanding of the Universe, and how it has evolved during its almost 14-billion-year history. Such an apparent disagreement with previously established results from Planck means that astronomers may now have to reformulate their understanding of some fundamental aspects of the development of the Universe.
Hendrik Hildebrandt comments:
“Our findings will help to refine our theoretical models of how the Universe has grown from its inception up to the present day.”
The KiDS analysis of data from the VST is an important step but future telescopes are expected to take even wider and deeper surveys of the sky.
The co-leader of the study, Catherine Heymans of the University of Edinburgh in the UK adds:
“Unravelling what has happened since the Big Bang is a complex challenge, but by continuing to study the distant skies, we can build a picture of how our modern Universe has evolved.”
[Konrad Kuijken (Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands), who is principal investigator of the KiDS survey concludes: ]
“We see an intriguing discrepancy with Planck cosmology at the moment. Future missions such as the Euclid satellite and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will allow us to repeat these measurements and better understand what the Universe is really telling us,”
Notes
[1] The international KiDS team of researchers includes scientists from Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Australia, Italy, Malta and Canada.
[2] This corresponds to about 450 square degrees, or a little more than 1% of the entire sky.
[3] The parameter measured is called S8. Its value is a combination of the size of density fluctuations in, and the average density of, a section of the Universe. Large fluctuations in lower density parts of the Universe have an effect similar to that of smaller amplitude fluctuations in denser regions and the two cannot be distinguished by observations of weak lensing. The 8 refers to a cell size of 8 megaparsecs, which is used by convention in such studies.
The First Enterprise In Space Competition to Tackle Space Debris Launched by Enterprise In Space & Kepler Space Institute
Washington, DC – December 6, 2016: Enterprise In Space (EIS), a non-profit program of the National Space Society (NSS), and the Kepler Space Institute have partnered with Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) to launch the “Orbital Debris Mitigation” competition. In order to drive innovation forward in technology to remove the space debris orbiting Earth, EIS and its partners are offering university student teams a chance to propose experiments for space debris mitigation.
To enter the contest, university student teams may submit a white paper in either one of two competition categories. Category one is to design an experiment that fits on a CubeSat to detect, track or collect orbital debris. The second is to design an experiment to help evaluate the performance of GAC’s Gossamer Orbit Lowering Device (GOLD) that will de-orbit a CubeSat.
“Currently, there are over 500,000 pieces of space debris orbiting the Earth and traveling up to 17,500 miles per hour, potentially causing serious damage to any satellite or spacecraft,” said Kerry Nock, President of GAC. “At GAC, we have invented a device for removing this debris called the Gossamer Orbit Lowering Device, or GOLD. GOLD uses a lightweight, continuously inflated envelope to increase the drag area and accelerate the natural orbital decay process of antiquated satellites and large orbital debris by orders of magnitude.”
Up to three members of the grand prize winning team will receive complimentary registration to present their white papers at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference® (ISDC), May 25-29, 2017 in St. Louis, Missouri. Grand prize winners will have their experiment results paper will be published in Ad Astra magazine and an industry trade journal for orbital space debris mitigation and remediation. One member of the grand prize team will also receive an R.S. Kirby Memorial Scholarship, valued at $5,000, from the Kepler Space Institute to be applied towards a full certificate program. The R.S. Kirby Memorial Scholarship aims to encourage space advocates the world over.
To learn more about the Orbital Debris Mitigation Competition or to enter, visit the contest page at enterpriseinspace.org/space-debris and become a part of NewSpace future.
About Enterprise In Space: The National Space Society’s Enterprise In Space (EIS) is the world’s first NewSpace education program. EIS provides access to STEAM education to all through the open online EIS Academy and an artificial intelligence tutor under development named Ali. The program’s first Academy-wide project is the design, launch, and retrieval of a 3D-printed spacecraft carrying 100+ active and passive experiments from K-postgrad student teams from all around the world.
About Kepler Space Institute: Kepler Space Institute (KSI) is dedicated to providing educational programs, research solutions, and publications to the public, industry, and governmental organizations in support of continuing Space Exploration, Commercialization, and Colonization. Through cutting edge research, exploration and development of space resources, KSI helps facilitate the expansion of human civilization from Earth into Space, with the primary goal of benefiting humans everywhere on Earth and beyond.
About Global Aerospace Corporation: Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) was founded in 1997 by former NASA/JPL engineers and scientists as a commercial research and development firm. GAC maintains its corporate office in Irwindale, California, where it develops prototypes and works its projects in a 4,300 sq. ft. R&D office/industrial space. These facilities are used to conduct task engineering work, assembly, integration, and testing of hardware as it is prepared for flight, as well as project meetings and report writing. Our facilities meet Federal, California, and Los Angeles County environmental laws and regulations. Our corporate activities include technical analysis and research, aerospace mission and system concept development, aerospace technology research and development, deep ocean systems research and development, and system design, prototyping, and demonstration. Our corporate team is highly qualified with over 400 years of cumulative aerospace experience.
About the National Space Society: NSS is an independent nonprofit educational membership organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen’s voice on space, with over 50 chapters in the United States and around the world. The Society publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space. To learn more, visit www.nss.org.
A few years ago, Google released the Timelapse Earth Engine that used historical remote sensing imagery as seen with Google Earth to show how parts of the earth had changed over time. Google has now released an updated version of the Engine. They have processed quadrillions of image pixels and used advanced image analysis techniques to expand and improve the Timelapse Earth Engine such that you can display a sequences of sharp looking images for most any spot on earth for each year over a span of more than three decades.
The full size version allows you to enter a location and the engine will zoom in on that place. Fun to see how one’s local area has changed over 30 years.
