Under normal conditions, gravity causes liquid to collect in the lower part of your stomach and gases to rise to the top. Since there is no gravity in space, astronauts have developed what is known as a "wet burp" (pardon the pun). A simple burp easily expels from the stomach all the liquid that gravity holds under terrestrial conditions. For this reason, carbonated drinks are not used. Even if they did, gravity would prevent the bubbles from rising as they do on Earth, so the soda or beer wouldn't go flat as quickly.
Speed
In space, a random piece of junk moves so fast that our brains can hardly imagine such speed. Remember those that fly around the Earth? They move at a speed of 35,500 km/h. At this speed, you will not even notice the approach of the object. It's just that mysterious holes will appear in nearby structures - unless, of course, you're lucky and you're not the one making the holes.
Last year, astronauts aboard the International Space Station photographed a hole in a huge solar array. The hole was almost certainly the result of a collision with one of these tiny pieces of debris (maybe a millimeter or two in diameter). In any case, NASA expects collisions like this one and shields the station's body to withstand a collision if the opportunity arises.
Alcohol production
Far in space, not far from the constellation Aquila, floats a giant cloud of gas with 190 trillion trillion liters of alcohol. The existence of such a cloud challenges much of what we thought was impossible. Ethanol is a relatively complex molecule to form in such volumes, and the temperature in space required for the reaction to produce alcohol to occur is also inconsistent.
Scientists recreated space conditions in the laboratory and combined two organic chemicals at a temperature of -210 degrees Celsius. The chemicals reacted immediately - about 50 times faster than at room temperature, contrary to all the scientists' expectations.
Quantum tunneling may be responsible for this. Thanks to this phenomenon, particles take on the properties of waves and absorb energy from their surroundings, allowing them to overcome barriers that would otherwise prevent them from reacting.
Static electricity
Static electricity sometimes does some really weird things. For example, the video above shows drops of water spinning around a statically charged needle. Electrostatic forces work over a distance, and this force attracts objects, similar to planetary gravity, placing droplets in a state of free fall.
Static electricity is much more powerful than some of us realize. Scientists are working on creating electrostatic tractor beams to clear space debris from orbit. In fact, this power can also give you unpickable door locks and futuristic vacuum cleaners. But still, the growing danger in the form of space debris flying around the Earth is more important, and this beam can capture a piece of debris and throw it into space.
Vision
Twenty percent of astronauts living on the International Space Station reported vision problems that began immediately upon returning to Earth. And still no one knows why.
We almost thought it was because low gravity increases the flow of fluid into the cranium and increases cranial pressure. However, new evidence suggests that this may be due to polymorphism. Polymorphism is an abnormality in enzymes that can affect how the body processes nutrients.
Surface tension
We tend to ignore surface tension on Earth because gravity always disrupts it. However, if you remove gravity, surface tension is an extremely powerful force. For example, if you wring out a washcloth in space, instead of flowing out, the water clings to the cloth, taking the shape of a pipe.
If the water doesn't cling to anything, surface tension collects the water into a ball. Astronauts are extremely careful when handling water to avoid ending up with myriads of tiny beads floating around them.
Exercises
You probably know that astronauts' muscles atrophy in space, but to counteract this effect, astronauts need to exercise a lot more than you think. Space is not for the weak, so you will have to train at the level of a bodybuilder if you do not want your bones to become the bones of an 80-year-old man. Exercise in space is the "number one health priority." Not protection from solar radiation, not dodging deadly asteroids, but daily exercise.
Without this regime, astronauts will not simply return to Earth as weaklings. They may lose so much bone and muscle mass that they won't even be able to walk when gravity begins to bear down on them. And while muscle can be built without any problems, bone mass cannot be restored.
Microbes
Imagine our surprise when we sent samples of salmonella into space and it came back seven times more deadly than it was. For the health of our astronauts, this news could be extremely alarming, but armed with new data, scientists have figured out how to defeat salmonella in space and on Earth.
Salmonella can measure "fluid shear" (the turbulence of the fluid around it) and uses this information to determine its location in the human body. Once in the intestines, it detects high fluid movement and tries to move towards the intestinal wall. Once on the wall, it detects low movement and increases the rate of penetration into the wall and into the bloodstream. In conditions of weightlessness, the bacterium constantly senses low-level movement, so it switches to an active virulent state.
By studying Salmonella genes activated in low gravity, scientists determined that high concentrations of ions can inhibit the bacteria. Further research should lead to vaccines and effective treatments for salmonella poisoning.
Radiation
The sun is a giant nuclear explosion, but the Earth's magnetic field protects us from the most harmful rays. Current missions in space, including visits to the International Space Station, take place in the Earth's magnetic field, and the shields can cope well with the flow of solar rays.
But the further into space, the stronger the radiation. If we ever want to get to Mars or put a space station into orbit around the Moon, we'll have to deal with a high-energy background of particles coming from distant dying stars and supernovae. When such particles hit the shields, they act like shrapnel, and this is even more dangerous than radiation itself. Therefore, scientists are working on protection against such radiation, and until it appears, trips to Mars are ordered.
Crystallization
Japanese scientists observed how crystals formed in microgravity by bombarding helium crystals with acoustic waves in artificial weightlessness. Typically, once broken, helium crystals take quite a long time to reform, but these crystals became a superfluid—a fluid that flows with zero friction. As a result, helium quickly formed a huge crystal - 10 millimeters in diameter.
It seems that space is telling us a way to grow large and high-quality crystals. We use silicon crystal in almost all of our electronics, so knowledge like this could ultimately lead to better electronic devices.
Wine on the Moon... Whiskey on a space station... Reading as a child not the most children's books about space pirates, rangers and other daredevils, I never thought that drinking in space was not allowed. Indeed, space travel has a long and complicated relationship with drinking. Traveling thousands of kilometers from Earth into the gray abyss of the unknown is not so easy. Scary. Hard. Why don't astronauts relax at the end of the working day with a drink or two?
Alas, for those who love space and wet their lips with the strong stuff, the consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited by government agencies that send astronauts, for example, to the International Space Station. But soon an ordinary person will be able to go to the last frontier - for example, to colonize Mars. Obviously, booze should be allowed for such a long and painful one-way trip that will drag on for years? Or at least equipment for making your own alcohol on the planet?
Booze and outer space have a long and complex relationship. Let's see what can happen to an ordinary drinker who is an astronaut, and what can happen if we start sending ordinary drinkers into space.
It is widely believed that at high altitudes you feel dizzy and feel nauseous more quickly. Thus, it would be logical to assume that alcohol in orbit would have very strong effects on the human body. But this is not entirely true.
This myth was debunked back in the 1980s. In 1985, the US Federal Aviation Administration conducted a study that examined the behavior of people who drank alcohol at simulated altitudes while performing complex tasks and taking breathalyzer measurements.
As part of the study, 17 men were asked to drink some vodka at ground level and in a chamber simulating an altitude of 3.7 kilometers. They were then asked to perform a series of tasks, including mental calculations, tracking light on an oscilloscope using a joystick, and others. The researchers concluded that “neither the breathalyzer nor the performance assessment showed any interactive effect of alcohol and altitude.”
So it's a myth that you get drunk faster while flying? Dave Hanson, professor emeritus of sociology at the State University of New York at Potsdam, who has been researching and drinking alcohol for 40 years, thinks so. “I can’t imagine getting drunk in space any other way,” he says.
However, he also thinks that altitude sickness can mimic a hangover and also mimic intoxication. “If people feel inappropriate under pressure, they may also feel this way when they are intoxicated.” Conversely, people who claim to get drunk on airplanes faster than usual may simply be exhibiting a particular behavior. These people exhibit drunken behavior more when they think they are drunk rather than because they actually consumed alcohol.
"If people are on a plane and they think that for some reason alcohol is going to have an unusual effect on them, they will think that it is having an unusual effect on them," Hanson says.
It turns out that if there is no additional effect, you can sip a little strong drink on board the ISS? No you can not.
"Alcohol is prohibited for consumption aboard the International Space Station," says Daniel Huot, a spokesman for the Space Center. Johnson. "The use of alcohol and other volatile components is monitored on the ISS due to the impact their components can have on the station's water recovery system."
For this reason, astronauts on the space station do not even receive products that contain alcohol, such as mouthwash, perfume, and shaving lotions. Spilled beer on board can also pose a serious risk of equipment damage.
There also remains the question of liability. We don't allow drivers or fighter jet pilots to get drunk and drive, so it's no surprise that the same rules apply to astronauts inside a $150 billion space station floating around the Earth at warp speed.
However, in 2007, an independent panel created by NASA studied the health of astronauts and concluded that there were at least two astronauts in the agency's history who drank large amounts of alcohol immediately before a flight but were still allowed to fly. A subsequent review by NASA's safety chief found no evidence to substantiate the claims. Astronauts are strictly prohibited from drinking 12 hours before a flight, as they are required to be fully present in mind and body.
The reason for these rules is clear. In the same 1985 FAA study on the effects of alcohol at altitude, scientists concluded that every milligram counts. Regardless of the height at which the subjects drank, the breathalyzer readings were the same. Their performance also suffered equally, but those who took the placebo at altitude performed worse than those who took the placebo at sushi level. This suggests that altitude, independent of alcohol consumption, may have little effect on mental performance. The study concludes that this provides a reason to further limit alcohol consumption at altitude.
There is another reason to avoid foamy drinks like beer - without the help of gravity, liquids and gases accumulate in the astronaut's stomach, leading to unpleasant effects.
However, despite strict regulations, this does not mean that people in space will never come into contact with fermented liquids. There have been many experiments on board the ISS involving alcohol, but not excessive drinking, so no one really knows exactly how the human body will react.
“We are studying all possible processes of change in the bodies of astronauts in space, including at the microbial level,” says Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokeswoman. "And we have a very robust nutrition program that ensures astronauts' bodies have everything they need to stay healthy."
As part of the Skylab program, astronauts were given sherry with them, but it performed poorly during flights in microgravity.
And perhaps the most amazing thing is that the first liquid that was drunk on the surface of the Moon was wine. Buzz Aldrin said in an interview that he drank some wine while taking communion before leaving the lunar module in 1969. The ceremony took place during a communications pause, so it was not transmitted to Earth.
And although NASA has long imposed strict restrictions on alcohol consumption in space, Russian cosmonauts in the past could afford to relax. The astronauts aboard the Mir orbital station could afford some cognac and vodka. I wonder how they agreed to fly to the ISS with its prohibition.
In 2015, the Japanese company Suntory sent some of its best whiskey to the space station. This was done as part of an experiment to observe “the manifestation of taste in alcoholic beverages during use in microgravity.” In other words, since booze gains strength differently in microgravity, it will taste better and develop faster.
And a few years ago, from September 2011 to September 2014, NASA conducted an experiment to study the effect of microgravity on whiskey and charred oak wood, which helps the drink in the process. After 1,000 days in space, the tannins in the whiskey remained unchanged - but the space wood chips released higher concentrations of their aroma.
So even though astronauts are prohibited from drinking alcohol, even in space they continue to work on improving the taste of the alcoholic beverages we drink here on Earth. As for the Martian missions, which will last for years, it will definitely not be possible to do without alcohol.
Experts like Hanson, however, see no harm in further limiting alcohol. Besides practical safety considerations, there may be other concerns. Hanson believes that the many sociocultural differences of Earthlings living in a confined space for many years in a row will make drinking much more difficult.
“This is politics. This is culture. But this is not science,” he says. What happens if you find yourself among Muslims, Mormons or teetotalers? Harmonization of cultural perspectives in limited space will be a priority from the very beginning.
Therefore, astronauts who want to cheer up their spirit will have to enjoy the view from the window, and not the view at the bottom of the glass. But we'll leave some champagne for them when they come back.
Scientists still do not know the real size of the black hole. Some believe that its area is comparable to a small town, others believe that the hole is gigantic, no smaller in size than Jupiter.
From our planet it is quite possible to see other galaxies, not just one or two, but several thousand. The most sensational of them are the Andromeda galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. It is impossible to count how many galaxies there are in space. We can only say that there are millions of them. It is also unknown how many stars there are in our Universe.
- Is it possible to survive in space without a spacesuit?
The sun will also “die” someday, but this will not happen very soon - it will have at least 4.5 billion years. To understand how huge the star is, imagine that it alone makes up 99% of the weight of our entire solar system!
The twinkling of a star is nothing more than the refraction of its light as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere. The more cold and warm layers of air the rays pass, the more they refract and the brighter the flicker appears.
Even if spaceships reach all the planets in the solar system, landing on some of them will be very problematic. If Mercury, Venus, Pluto and Mars are solid bodies, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn are huge accumulations of gases and liquids. True, they have their own moons, on which astronauts may well land.
A clear sky is always visible from the Moon because it has no atmosphere. This means that from there you can observe the stars much better than from Earth.
The aggressive red color of Mars appeared for completely peaceful reasons: the planet has a high level of iron. As it rusts, it acquires a reddish tint.
Despite all the efforts of ufologists, the existence of aliens has not yet been proven. But if even in our solar system there are organic substances (for example, on Mars), why shouldn’t some forms of life be found in other galaxies?..
Can a meteorite falling to Earth kill a person? Theoretically, yes, and practically, too. There is a known case when a meteorite fell on one of the autobahns in Germany. Then a random motorist was injured, but survived. Let's hope these bodies don't fall to the ground as often as lamp posts and houses...
You've probably noticed that some stars do not “hang” at one point, but move slowly across the night sky. These are not stars, but artificial satellites of the Earth.
Who among us did not dream of becoming an astronaut as a child? In fact, this is incredibly difficult: you need to at least get a specialized higher education and be actively involved in one of the related sciences. The skill of flying an airplane will also be very useful. When you achieve all this, submit an application for admission as a candidate to the Training Center. If your candidacy is approved, you will receive numerous training sessions. Many potential cosmonauts spend their entire lives in them without ever seeing “living” space.
In addition to seasickness, there is also space sickness. The symptoms are the same: dizziness, headache and nausea. But space sickness “hits” not the vestibular apparatus, but the inner ear.
Will the Universe expand forever or will it eventually collapse back into a tiny speck? Published in June, the study finds that, according to basic physics, infinite expansion is impossible. However, new evidence has emerged that an ever-expanding Universe cannot yet be ruled out.
Dark energy and cosmic expansion
Our Universe is permeated by a massive and invisible force that seems to counterbalance the force of gravity. Physicists call it dark energy. It is believed that it is she who pushes space outward. But the June paper implies that dark energy changes over time. That is, the Universe will not expand for eternity and is capable of collapsing to the size of the Big Bang point.
Physicists immediately found problems with the theory. They believe that the original theory cannot be true, since it does not explain the existence of the Higgs boson, identified in the Large Hadron Collider. However, the hypothesis may be viable.
How to explain the existence of everything?
String theory (the theory of everything) is considered a mathematically elegant but experimentally unproven basis for unifying Einstein's general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics. String theory suggests that all particles in the Universe are not points, but are represented by vibrating one-dimensional strings. Differences in vibration allow one particle to be seen as a photon and the other as an electron.
However, to remain viable, string theory must include dark energy. Imagine the latter as a ball in a landscape of mountains and valleys. If the ball stands on the top of a mountain, it can remain motionless or roll down at the slightest disturbance, since it is deprived of stability. If it remains unchanged, it is endowed with low energy and located in a stable Universe.
Conservative theorists have long believed that dark energy remains constant and unchanging in the Universe. That is, the ball is frozen between the mountains in the valley and does not roll from the top. However, the June hypothesis suggests that string theory does not take into account the landscape with mountains and valleys above sea level. Rather, it is a slight slope where a ball of dark energy rolls down. As it rolls, the dark energy becomes less and less. It could end up with dark energy pulling the universe back to the point of the Big Bang.
But there is a problem. Scientists have shown that such unstable mountain peaks must exist, because there is the Higgs boson. It was also experimentally possible to confirm that these particles can be located in unstable Universes.
Difficulties with the stability of universes
The original hypothesis faces problems in unstable universes. The revised version points to the possibility of mountain peaks but abandons stable valleys. That is, the ball should begin to roll, and the dark energy should change. But if the hypothesis is wrong, then dark energy will remain constant, we will remain in the valley between the mountains, and the Universe will continue to expand.
Researchers hope that within 10 to 15 years, satellites measuring the expansion of the Universe will help understand the constant or changing nature of the Universe.
Read: 0
Space is fraught with many mysteries, and we have only just begun to study it. And one of the problems that needs to be solved in the future is gravity.
What's wrong with her, you ask? But she’s not there! Or rather, not like that. Gravity is always there, we experience it from the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, other stars and even the center of our galaxy. But the force of attraction that suits us exists only on Earth. And when we fly to other planets or roam space, what about gravity? It needs to be created artificially.
Why do we need a certain gravitational force?
On Earth, all organisms have adapted to a gravitational force of 9.8 m/s^2. If it is greater, then plants will not be able to grow upward, and we will constantly experience pressure, which is why our bones will break and our organs will be destroyed. And if it is less, then we will begin to have problems with the delivery of nutrients in the blood, muscle growth, etc.
When we develop colonies on Mars and the Moon, we will face the problem of reduced gravity. Our muscles partially atrophy, adapting to the local force of gravity. But upon returning to Earth, we will begin to have problems with walking, dragging objects, and even breathing. That's how much everything depends on gravity.
And we already have an example of how this happens - the International Space Station.
Astronauts on the ISS and why there is no gravity there
Those visiting the ISS must exercise on treadmills and exercise machines every day. This is because during their stay their muscles lose their “grip”. In conditions of weightlessness, you don’t need to lift your body, you can relax. This is exactly what the body thinks. There is no gravity on the ISS, not because it is in space.
The distance from it to the Earth is only 400 kilometers, and the force of gravity at this distance is only slightly less than on the surface of the planet. But the ISS does not stand still - it rotates in Earth's orbit. She literally constantly falls to the Earth, but her speed is so high that it prevents her from falling.
This is why astronauts are in a state of weightlessness. But still. Why can't gravity be created on the ISS? This would make the life of astronauts much easier. After all, they are forced to spend several hours a day on physical exercise just to stay in shape.
How to create artificial gravity?
The concept of such a spaceship has long been created in science fiction. This is a huge ring that must constantly rotate around its axis. As a result, the centrifugal force "pushes" the astronaut away from the center of rotation, and he will perceive this as gravity. But problems arise when we encounter this in practice.
First, you need to take into account the Coriolis force - the force that arises when moving in a circle. Without this, our astronaut will constantly get motion sickness, and this is not very fun. In this case, you need to speed up the rotation of the ring on the ship to 2 revolutions per second, and this is a lot, the astronaut will feel very bad. To solve this problem, it is necessary to increase the radius of the ring to 224 meters.
The ship is half a kilometer in size! We're not far from Star Wars. Instead of creating Earth's gravity, we will first create a ship with reduced gravity, in which the simulators will remain. And only then will we build ships with huge rings to maintain gravity. By the way, they are just going to build modules on the ISS to create gravity.
Today, scientists from Roscosmos and NASA are preparing to send centrifuges to the ISS, necessary to create artificial gravity there. Astronauts will no longer have to spend a lot of time on physical exercise!
Problem with gravity at high accelerations
If we want to fly to the stars, then traveling to the nearest Alpha Centauri A at 99% of the speed of light will take 4.2 years. But to accelerate to this speed, enormous acceleration will be required. This means huge overloads, approximately 1000-4000 thousand times greater than gravity. No one can withstand this, and a spaceship with a rotating ring must be simply gigantic, hundreds of kilometers away. It is possible to build this, but is it necessary?
Unfortunately, we still don't fully understand how gravity works. And we have not yet figured out how to avoid the effect of such overloads. We will explore, check, study.