Energy Storage and Release Through the Solar Activity Cycle - Research Paper Example

Astronomy Question If the Earth shrunk to half the diameter, it is going to rotate at a high speed because of the principle of the angular momentum or motion. However, the orbit and the moon will not be affected since the gravitating bodies work as point masses at the center of the gravity, and that would not change. Moreover, the Earth’s heat would increase due to the increase of pressure and density that would eventually make the Earth a hard place to live and, therefore, all living organism would die. Furthermore, the surface of the Earth would reduce to quarter, and the ocean would be a lot deeper in fact covering the world. The gravity would decrease since as you come closer to the center of the earth there is the decrease in gravitational pull. Therefore, the gravitational force would be weak almost the same as the moon’s centrifugal force. The moon would move away from the earth’s atmosphere since there would be less gravitational strength to keep it within the earth’s atmosphere. Furthermore, the weight of everything will be less by half since the gravity will decrease by half. Because of the reduced gravity the fish and other sea creature will float on water easily and would have problem sinking because of the in density of the earth’s matter. Question 2: When the astronaut floats out of the international space station for him, to get back to the arm of the space station, he should throw away the set of tools he has. This concept applies the Newton third law of motion which states that for every action force there is the reaction force. So by throwing the tools away, the center of gravity of the set of tools and the astronaut will react against each other and, therefore, move in the opposite direction. This because the astronaut and the tools have the common center of gravity hence, they must remain the same. The tool set will move to the other direction as the body moves toward the space station. Hence, the astronaut will be able to rescue himself. The Newton third law is what works in aerospace engineering. It explains the generation of thrust by the rocket engine. Question 3: James Webb space telescope is the next big thing in the field of astrophysics. I support it because Webb’s telescope has a combination of large apertures, diffracted image quality and infrared sensitivity over an extensive wavelength range that is not available from the ground or spaced-based facilities. In addition, Webb’s telescope has broad collecting than Hubble’s, and it is capable of extending to longer wavelengths in the infrared. Moreover, it has greater sensitivity and finer angular resolution at wavelengths shorter than 28.5 microns. It capabilities will enable us understand the population of galaxies at the red shift from 6 to 10. For example, it will answer questions as to why we find early galaxies that are brighter and older than theoretical predictions. Finally, with its capabilities and features the telescope it is worth the price tag of 8.8 billion dollars. The project is destined to be the most expensive project in the NASA history. Question 4: Brightness is the energy emitted per time area. The bulb across the road appeared dimmer than the bulb on the porch I was standing below because the light spread over a large area. A Certain amount of energy is given off by the filament per second and that energy spreads out throughout the space. The concept is applicable to astronomers in the space concerning stars. This effect of the energy spreading out is called the universe square law. The law contends that the brightness decrease as the inverse distance is squared from the source of light. The stars’ brightness, as seen in the sky, is known as the apparent magnitude. The magnitude is what is measured by the telescope. The clear magnitude relies on the distance from the earth. This brightness or dimness of the stars can be used to measure the distance of the stars from the earth. Stars far away from the earth appear dimmer than star near the earth because the light travels longer distance hence spreading out energy over a wider area. Question 5: The sun extends from the center to about 0.25 of the solar radius. Moreover, it has a density of 150 g/cm3 and a temperature of about 13,600,000k.The sun produces heat by nuclear fusion of hydrogen to form helium. There is a large amount of hydrogen atom in the center of the sun. These atoms react together forming helium atom. The sun produces energy through nuclear fusion through series of steps known as proton chain (p-p) that convert hydrogen into helium. The energy then travels through many layers of the photosphere then escapes into space in the form of kinetic energy. The fusing of hydrogen into helium produces about 0.7% of the fused mass as energy. So the sun gives energy at the mass-energy conversion rate of 4.26 million metric tons per second. Nuclear fusion is the most primary form of energy in the universe. In fact, it is the energy that powers the sun. Moreover, nuclear fusion is worth pursuing because of its many advantages. It produces a clean and easy to control energy as opposed to nuclear fission. In addition, it has no chain reaction, therefore, easy to control. Nonetheless, it has no nuclear waste and have a low fuel cost. In addition, it has little nuclear waste. Finally, several efforts have been made to exploit the nuclear fusion. Human have successfully produced fusion reaction to produce electricity and even to make weapons such as the bomb. Countries such as the European Union, the USA, Russia, and Japan have undertaken fusion research projects with a view of the producing of electricity and production of sophisticated weapons (Marqué). Question 6: The Chicxulub Crater is a primordial force crater buried underneath the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. The crater measures more than 180 km in diameter therefore making it one of the largest confirmed space impact structures on Earth. Moreover, the rocks can be traced from the end of the Cretaceous period which is about 65 million years ago. For more discoveries, there is the need to study it. Therefore, the crater can be studied through digging down the rocks and then applying several methods such as data spanning of the field of paleontology, geochemistry, geophysics and sedimentology which deals with the study of rocks. Through the combination of all these methods then great discovery will be made about the crater formation and the effects it had on the earth. Work Cited Marqué, Christophe, and Alexander Nindos. Energy Storage and Release Through the Solar Activity Cycle: Models Meet Radio Observations. New York, NY: Springer, 2012. Print. Read More