Cubit

Erwin Schrödinger was born in Vienna on August 12, 1887 and was  awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics  in 1933. He is best known for his work regarding quantum theory, particularly about his  thought experiment involving a cat  in order to explain the flawed interpretation of quantum superposition. The  Copenhagen Interpretation  of quantum mechanics essentially states that an object in a physical system can simultaneously exist in all possible configurations, but observing the system forces the system to collapse and forces the object into just one of those possible states. Schrödinger disagreed with this interpretation. So what does this have to do with cats? Schrödinger wanted people to imagine that a cat, poison, a geiger counter, radioactive material, and a hammer were inside of a sealed container. The amount of radioactive material was minuscule enough that it only had a 50/50 shot of being detected over the course of an hour. If the geiger counter detected radiation, the

Planck Time The  Planck time  is the fundamental unit of time in the system of  Planck Units . It has the value: t p  = 5.39 × 10 -44  s In  SI units , measurements of time are made in seconds (usually given the symbol  s ). Although using seconds is convenient for everyday life, such as measuring the time it takes for an athlete to sprint 100 metres or the duration of a phone call, it becomes less practical when we discuss the sequence of events that happened in the very early  Universe (such as the onset of inflation that occurred 10 -35 s after the  Big Bang ). A consequence of using seconds to measure time is that the fundamental constants take on values that are not always convenient for including in equations: Speed of light c  = 299792458 m s -1 Gravitational constant G  = 6.673(10) x 10 -11  m 3  kg -1 s -2 Plank’s constant (reduced)  =  h /2π = 1.054571596(82) x 10 -34  kg m 2  s -1 Boltzmann constant k  = 1.3806502(24) x 10 -23 kg m 2  s -2 K -1 The P

         The Japanese spacecraft can now grab some asteroid dust from below the surface Hayabusa2 has successfully blasted a crater into the asteroid Ryugu. On April 25 Japan time, the spacecraft flew over the spot where it had  dropped a projectile three weeks earlier and took pictures of the impact ( SN Online: 4/5/19 ). “We have confirmed that an artificial crater was created,” JAXA, Japan’s space agency,  reports  based on a comparison of before and after images. “The size and depth of the crater are now under analysis.” The images showed an area about 20 meters wide had changed after the impact, which was bigger than the team expected. “A lively debate has been initiated in the project,” JAXA   tweeted . Confirmation took several weeks because, after dropping a two-kilogram copper cylinder, the spacecraft hid out behind the asteroid to avoid getting hit by any flying debris. The Hayabusa2 team hopes to use the spacecraft to pick up a pinch of asteroid dust from inside

Scientists said Tuesday they might have detected the first known seismic tremor on Mars in a discovery that could shed light on the ancient origins of Earth's neighbour. A dome-shaped  probe  known as SEIS landed on the surface of Mars in December after hitching a ride on NASA's InSight spacecraft. Its instruments measure surface vibrations caused by weather but are also capable of detecting movement from deep within the planet—so called "marsquakes"—or those caused by meteorite impacts. The French space agency Cnes, which operates SEIS, said it had detected "a weak but distinct seismic signal" from the probe. The team hopes to be able to gather information about the activity at the centre of Mars, hopefully providing insight into its formation billions of years ago. "It's great to finally have a sign that there's still  seismic activity  on Mars," said Philippe Lognonne, a researcher at Paris' Institut de Physique du G

Not long after the Big Bang, chemistry as we know it took its first baby steps CHEMICAL RELIC   The elusive helium hydride ion, thought to be the first type of molecule to form in the universe, has been found in the planetary nebula NGC 7027 (shown in infrared light in this Hubble image). WILLIAM B. LATTER/SIRTF SCIENCE CENTER/CALTECH, NASA, ESA Helium hydride ions, thought to be the first type of molecule to form in the universe, have finally been spotted in space. These charged molecules, each made of a neutral helium atom and a positively charged hydrogen atom, first emerged within about 100,000 years after the Big Bang. Back then, the universe was composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, and helium hydride was the only molecule that these two elements could create when they collided. Although researchers have seen helium hydride ions in the lab, these molecules have never been definitively detected in space. The  discovery of helium  

      SUPERMASSIVE SOURCE   The gases and stars in galaxy M87, shown in this composite image from the Chandra X-ray telescope and the Very Large Array, gave different numbers for the mass of the galaxy’s supermassive black hole.      The measure of a black hole is what it does with its stars. That’s one lesson astronomers are taking from the  first-ever picture of a black hole , released on April 10 by an international telescope team ( SN Online: 4/10/19 ). That image confirmed that the mass of the supermassive black hole in the center of galaxy M87 is close to what astronomers expected from how nearby stars orbit — solving a long-standing debate over how best to measure a black hole’s mass. The black hole in M87, which is located about 55 million light-years from Earth, is the first black hole whose mass has been calculated by three precise methods: measuring the motion of stars, the swirl of surrounding gases and now, thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope imaging pr

POCKMARKED PLANET   This enhanced-color image of Mercury, using data gleaned from NASA’s MESSENGER mission, reveals mineralogical differences in the rocks that make up Mercury’s crust. The mission, which ended in 2015, continues to yield new finds, including that Mercury has a giant solid inner cor e.      The smallest planet in our solar system has a massive solid inner core.         In its final trip around Mercury before crash-landing in 2015, NASA’s MESSENGER mission zoomed in close to the planet, enabling scientists to make detailed measurements of its gravity, spin and internal structure. Those data, researchers report April 10 in  Geophysical Research Letters , suggest Mercury has a solid inner core about  2,000 kilometers in diameter , making up about half of Mercury’s entire core.       Scientists already knew that  Mercury’s core was huge , taking up about 85 percent of the planet ( SN: 4/21/12, p. 8 ). In 2007, radar observations made from Earth  detected s