Magazine articles Essay

This paper summarizes two articles related to physics. One, written by Appell David, discussing the possibility of our planet Earth, being engulfed by sun, eventually. Second, is a news item, on the largest Neutrino Telescopic being built at the south Pole. Both articles have appeared in the magazine, ‘Science Daily’. In the first article, the writer claims that the scientific community believes that the sun is expanding making itself more brighter. After billions of years, it would expand so much that it would engulf earth. To be precise, â€Å"About 7. 6 billion years from now, the sun will reach its maximum size as a red giant: its surface will extend beyond Earth’s orbit today by 20 percent and will shine 3,000 times brighter. In its final stage, the sun will collapse into a white dwarf †. ( David Appell) This theory was disagreed on the basis that, as Sun expands, it will be loosing on its mass, and due that the gravitation force will also be reduced. Hence, as the gravitation force reduces, Earth will be drifting away from Sun, and hence, maybe able to escape the engulfment. However, recent calculations, based on the perturbation theory, released by Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics, by Lorenzo Lorio, tend to agree with this theory. The factor that tends credibility to his argument is not his number game, but his statement that as Sun loses mass and expands, its rotation must also slow down. This is known as angular momentum, in simple terms. Due to this angular momentum, there will be a huge tidal bow on sun’s surface, and its gravitational pull will engulf Earth. Hence, all celestial bodies, within a distance of 1. 5 AU will be engulfed. This article throws a new light on our futuristic cosmic vision, using principle of physics, which quite old. Now, the concept of angular momentum, can be used to depict the future of celestial bodies also. This was not the case so far. The second article is a news report, on work being done University of Delaware, in the South pole, regarding erection of world’s largest neutrino telescope. Neutrino, is one of the fundamental constituents of matter, they have no charge and interact very weakly, so they can travel millions of miles through space. They can pass through planets also. The working principle of this telescope is radically different from the conventional ones. â€Å"consists of kilometer-long strings of 60 optical detectors frozen more than a mile deep in the Antarctic ice like beads on a necklace. Atop each string of deep detectors sits a pair of 600-gallon Ice-Top tanks, each containing two optical detectors†. (Science news) The ice-top detectors measure the particles that are generated by the high-energy cosmic rays that are continuously being showered from the cosmos, towards earth. Whenever a flash of light is detected, the nearby laboratory receives the communication, and its genesis is traced. This genesis could be way an exploding star or a the black hole. The learning derived from this news report is the drastic pace at which research methods are changing and being innovated upon. This new research method, of mounting a telescope beneath the ocean, may change the definition of telescope also, because, conventionally. , a telescope is a instrument on the surface of Earth, facing the skies !!! It also reminds us of the never ending human thirst for acquisition of knowledge, in all spheres, including the terrestrial space. To quench this thirst, he constantly keeps on deriving and experimenting with new means and methods. Renaissance, and the subsequent development of subordinate equipment systems, ahs changed the very way we live our lives !!! References: 1) Appell David, ( September 2008), â€Å" The sun will eventually engulf Earth-maybe†, retrieved on 11 December 2008 from : < http://www. sciam. com/article. cfm? id=the-sun-will-eventually-engulf-earth- maybe> 2) Science news, ( 11 December 2008) Building world’s largest Neutrino Telescope at South Pole, Science Daily, retrieved on 12 December 2008 from: < http://www. sciencedaily. com/releases/2008/12/081209221746. htm >