Is there life in our solar system?

Universe evolution recreated in lab

An international team of researchers has created the most complete visual simulation of how the Universe evolved.

The abstract of the research, as published in Nature, give us more details:

Previous simulations of the growth of cosmic structures have broadly reproduced the ‘cosmic web’ of galaxies that we see in the Universe, but failed to create a mixed population of elliptical and spiral galaxies, because of numerical inaccuracies and incomplete physical models. Moreover, they were unable to track the small-scale evolution of gas and stars to the present epoch within a representative portion of the Universe. Here we report a simulation that starts 12 million years after the Big Bang, and traces 13 billion years of cosmic evolution with 12 billion resolution elements in a cube of 106.5 megaparsecs a side. It yields a reasonable population of ellipticals and spirals, reproduces the observed distribution of galaxies in clusters and characteristics of hydrogen on large scales, and at the same time matches the ‘metal’ and hydrogen content of galaxies on small scales.

With thanks to the BBC - visit to see the simulation.

LOL

Space Design Competition

Congratulations! National champions. 

After a hardworking weekend Nonsuch students were part of the successful team to win the National Space Competition finals at Imperial College London.

Three students will now travel to the Kennedy Space Centre in July as part of the 12 member team to represent the UK in the international finals.

Impressive work girls.

Today we honour these women...

... On International Women's Day

A trip like no other

http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk/yoursay/schools/11046494.A_Trip_Like_No_Other/

Ayoung reporter from the school tells us all about our trip to the Northern Lights. You can now download images from the trip at http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/auroraflights/S14/20140221_LGW.html

A selection are below.

 

Thanks to the physics department for their organisation and support.

Auroral storm

Kp value of 7. Aurora visible all across UK. Not here overlooking city of London. Everywhere though! 

Scotland

Norwich

Aurora borealis

Last night 143 students and teachers witnessed an amazing auroral show. This first picture shows the greens, pinks and yellows. More to come.

Science Week at Nonsuch

Get out your planner... 

Book in Friday 1.05pm on the 21st March for a keynote speech from Dr. Nick Achilleos from the UCL Centre for Planetary Sciences. He has been working on the Cassini probe around Saturn and is currently designing a mission to Ganymede - the largest moon in the Solar System orbiting Jupiter every seven days. 



Artists's Conception of Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion




Image of Ganymede's anti-Jovian hemisphere taken by the Galileo probe. Lighter surfaces, such as in recent impacts, grooved terrain and the whitish north polar cap at upper right, are enriched in water ice.

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucapnac/
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/search.php?q=Cassini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganymede_(moon)

Maunder Minimum link to the Little Ice Age?

There is still a very poor understanding of the correlation between low sunspot activity and cooling temperatures. During the period 1645–1715, in the middle of the Little Ice Age, there was a period of low solar activity known as the Maunder Minimum.


The Spörer Minimum has also been identified with a significant cooling period between 1460 and 1550. Other indicators of low solar activity during this period are levels of the isotopes carbon-14 and beryllium-10.

On the other hand, in a 2012 paper, Miller et al. link the Little Ice Age to an "unusual 50-year-long episode with four large sulfur-rich explosive eruptions and notes that "large changes in solar irradiance are not required."

What do you think?


More at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/frost-fair-of-london

Solar Activity

Using helioviewer.org our Y10 students imaged the Sun in multi-frequencies last week. We're looking out for solar activity, hopefully a CME heading our way, ready for our trip to seek out the Northern Lights in two weeks.

Yasmin shared this video:

We are hoping for good solar activity and the magnetic field Bz aligning south. More at http://rossellet.com/aurora_tracker.htm

Water on Ceres

Scientists using the Herschel space observatory have made the first definitive detection of water vapor on the largest and roundest object in the asteroid belt, dwarf planet Ceres.

"This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere," said Michael Küppers of ESA in Spain, lead author of a paper in the journal Nature.

More at http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/january/herschel-telescope-detects-water-on-dwarf-planet/