Monthly Archives: April 2013

This may be a little outside of the physics range, but I just thought it was cool.

Gallium is the 31st element on the periodic table. It was predicted to exist by Dmitri Mendeleev, and was discovered soon after by Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875. At the time, Gallium provided few if any practical applications. Things have changed though; but first, a little bit about how cool gallium is.

Gallium is a solid at room temperature – this is most times defined as twenty-two degrees Celsius, or something fairly close. Warm it up a few degrees, to 29.7°C (85.5°F), and it melts. This means that a block of gallium will turn liquid on a hot day, or even just in your hand.

 (this is not photo-shopped)

Or how about you try a spoon made out of gallium? I wouldn’t suggest using it to stir your coffee:

Warning: Don’t actually use a gallium spoon for anything except to make fun little gifs; although it is considered non-toxic, you don’t want that stuff in your food.

And if you want to see something very cool, get a coke can (empty or full, each will provide a slightly different result considering the full can is under pressure).

Aluminum is actually an extremely reactive element, which is strange because we encounter it in our everyday lives. The reason that we don’t encounter reactive aluminum is that solid aluminum actually forms layer of non-reactive aluminum oxide that protects the aluminum from reacting with other materials.

When gallium is placed on aluminum (and the oxide is scratched off for a better, faster reaction), gallium atoms invade the aluminum, resulting in an extremely fragile and brittle material.

There are a few practical uses of gallium too (not nearly exciting). It is used in thermometers in replace of mercury because gallium is much less toxic. It is also used in semi conductors, LED’s, and lasers. Hope you enjoyed this; go buy some gallium if you wanna have some fun.

Radiant is more commonly, and mistakenly, called static electricity. Recently, scientists have been investigating using this energy as a renewable energy; it could be a source of “free energy.” It is not that absurd of an idea. Multiple inventors and scientists have created devices that take advantage of radiant energy. Nikola Tesla created a magnifying transmitter, T. Henry Moray developed a radiant energy device, as well as Edwin Grata and Paul Baumann. Radiant energy has been used to operate a motive device and store static electricity.

Static electricity is different from the current that powers everything we know. Static is created by the collection of excess charge on a surface. The discharge of this charge is what transmits energy, but it is not like current electricity. Static electricity is described as “sound waves of electrified air” (Clear Tech). This means that the energy is traveling as a longitudinal wave rather than a transverse wave (electromagnetic radiation and electricity as well as magnetic fields are all transverse waves). Longitudinal waves vibrate in the direction of the traveling wave. This means that the pressure of the way changes, whether it is air pressure from a sound wave of electric pressure from static discharge.

The potential of radiant energy as a source of power is unfathomable. It can perform similar tasks as electricity for less than 1% of the cost. Some technology, like Edward Gray’s Electro-Magnetic Association Motor (Pulsed Capacitance Discharge Engine) have been created and successfully used. In search of renewable energy sources for the future, radiant energy might be an extremely viable solution. Plus, static electricity is fun.

Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars outside of our solar system. While they were theorized for many years, there was no confirmed detection until 1992. Being such a young field, astronomy with a focus on studying planets outside of our solar system is extremely dynamic. Recently, astronomers have discovered CFBDSIR2149, what seems to be a rogue planet.

CFBDSIR2149 is located in a cluster of stars called AB Doradus, 75 light years from Earth. While it is not the first rogue planet found, it is by far the closest. There is still debate, though, about whether this is truly a rogue planet. It seems to be traveling with the stars o the AB Doradus cluster, but is not orbiting any of these stars. There is a small chance that it is actually behind the AB Doradus cluster and is just seen as a member of the cluster. Scientists have used Doppler spectroscopy to find out more about this planet. Results show that it is about the same age as the surrounding stars of the cluster, leading scientists to be pretty confident (they say about 85%) that this rogue planet is part of the cluster.

Through their studies, astronomers have found some interesting qualities of CFBDSIR2149. First of all, it is massive; they believe it is anywhere between four and seven times as massive as Jupiter; so massive, in fact, that they believe it could be a failed star rather than a planet.These are called brown dwarf – a larger than planet object that is not quite hot or massive enough to produce internal nuclear fusion.

In the past few years, astronomers have discovered a large amount of rogue planets. They believe that these may actually be the norm, rather than planets revolving around stars. Some scientists contest this though, because exoplanets can be hard to find; the light of the nearby star masks us from seeing the planets. This is why a close rogue star, which could possibly be CFBDSIR2149, would be so important; astronomers are free to study this new planet unobstructed by the light of a local star. Further studying will lead to concrete information about the nature of this planet, whether it is a planet, and where it came from – scientists believe these planets were ejected from their original solar system. Studying a rogue planet up close (relative on an astronomical scale) can lead to further insights into the beginnings of our planet, our solar system, and our universe.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/14/astronomers_find_the_closest_rogue_planet_yet_in_a_cluster_of_stars_near.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/orphan-alien-planet-starless_n_2128848.html#slide=809200

http://www.space.com/17738-exoplanets.html