Tag: #space

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Quick and Easy Explanation of the Kuiper Belt

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An artist’s impression of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), located on the outer rim of our solar system at a staggering distance of 4 billion miles from the sun. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI).

Kuiper Belt–a donut-shaped collection of asteroids beyond the orbit of Neptune

Where is the Kuiper Belt located?

The Kuiper Belt orbits around the sun just beyond the orbit of Neptune. It covers a vast region of space starting about 2.7 billion miles (4.4 billion kilometers) from the sun. It stretches to about 9.3 billion miles (14.9 billion kilometers) away from the sun.

Here’s another way of thinking about it. The distance from the sun to the Earth is described as 1 atomic unit (AU). The Kuiper Belt stretches from 30 AU to 100 AU from the sun. That means the distance from the inside edge of the Kuiper Belt to its outside edge is much wider than the region inside the Kuiper Belt, the region from the sun to Neptune! (Compare that to the Asteroid Belt, which is only 140 million miles wide.)

If you have ever seen a model of the solar system, you know the eight planets all travel in the same plane around the sun. Their orbits–the paths they take–look like a disc (or flat plate) of rings around the sun. The Main Asteroid Belt also orbits around the sun, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, along this same plane. The Main Asteroid Belt is flat.

Artist’s concept showing the exploration of the Kuiper Belt so far. New Horizons became the first spacecraft to explore a Kuiper Belt Object—dwarf planet Pluto—up close in 2015. Image grab from Solarsystem.nasa.gov.

Unlike the Main Asteroid Belt, the Kuiper Belt is not flat. It is donut-shaped with icy bodies orbiting the sun above and below the plane or disc formed by the orbits of the planets.

[Compare the orbits of planets and the orbits of electrons in atoms!]

What can be found in the Kuiper Belt?

The largest object in the Kuiper Belt is the dwarf planet Pluto. Astronomers once called Pluto a planet, but in 2006 it was reclassified as a dwarf planet. Like other planets, it orbits the sun and it has enough mass to have formed a round shape, instead of the bumpy, irregular shape of an asteroid. But Pluto’s gravity has not cleared a path through Pluto’s orbit of asteroids and other bodies.

Most of the objects floating in the Kuiper Belt are small clumps of rock and ice. These are ancient remnants left over from the formation of our Solar System.

Asteroids in the Kuiper Belt and the Main Asteroid Belt come in many shapes and sizes. There is even a snowman-shaped asteroid in the Kuiper Belt named Arrokoth.

Image of the asteroid Arrokoth, which appears as two round lumps joined together, one lump slightly larger than the other.
Here is a photo of Arrokoth taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. Image grabbed from NASA’s website.

NASA has a great interactive web page dedicated to the Kuiper Belt.

Colonize the Kuiper Belt!

You finally have the ships, the fuel and your team in place to colonize this cold, distant part of the Solar System. What will you do there? How will you make a living?

  • Mine for metals?
  • Collect ice water for other space colonies?
  • Act as a guide for adventurous vacationers?

Please post your comments below.

Be stellar!

Matthew Cross

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Space Rave-curated by DJ Gatzby

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Image: Cover of What It Is--Zoogma. Text: Space Rave--Vibe to this list of space-themed music with lyrics--curated by DJ Gatsby

Vibe to some good Sci Fi-themed music

I asked my resident music expert, DJ Gatzby, to recommend some good, space-themed music to listen to while reading Sci Fi.  Or for just getting that good “outer space vibe.”

DJ Gatzby loves electronica and good energetic, upbeat music, so this is not your list of sleepy, echoing, deep-space sounds.  But he also has eclectic tastes, so you’ll see a bit of everything.

Today, I’m sharing his selections that have lyrics.  Some of these pieces have space-themed lyrics, some have a space-themed title, and some just have that Sci Fi vibe.  They should be available on major music streaming services.

[You may also enjoy DJ Gatzby’s instrumental picks.]

Space Rave!

So enjoy listening to DJ Gatzby’s space rave.

  • “Rocket Girl” by Lemaitre (feat. Betty Who) (I listed this one on top because it’s my favorite!)
  • “Shelter” by Porter Robinson
  • “Til the Lights Come On” by Sun Rai
  • “Best Clockmaker on Mars” by Sturgill Simpson
  • “Make Me Feel Good” by Zoogma

What recommendations do you have for listening to while reading Sci Fi?  Do you prefer instrumental, something with lyrics, or a bit of everything?

Please post your comments below.

Be stellar!

Matthew Cross

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Quick explanation of this week’s Perseid Meteor shower

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Meteors streaking across a starry sky
Photo of meteor shower by Prokhor Minin (unsplash.com/@len0xx43)

This week is the best time to watch for this year’s Perseid meteor showers.

From July 17 to August 24, the Earth is passing through the vast dusty path left from Comet Swift-Tuttle. But the peak of comet viewing will be this week, with the best views of comets likely in the early hours of Wednesday morning, August 12.

If you choose a dark viewing area any night this week–and if you are patient–you should be able to see some meteors. At its peak, the Perseid meteor shower could produce 100 meteors per hour.

Meteors are the pieces of debris that enter the Earth’s atmosphere. They pass through the atmosphere at high speed–37 miles per second!–burning up as they fall. They make bright streaks in the night sky. Most of the Perseid meteors are only the size of a grain of sand.

When a meteor is large enough to make it all the way to the ground without burning up, we call it a meteorite. When meteors are still in space, the pieces of debris are called meteoroids.

[What is a comet?]

Comet Swift-Tuttle, a large comet, is the largest object to regularly pass close to the Earth. Its nucleus is 16 miles wide. That is twice as big as the object that some scientists think struck Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs.

Comet Swift-Tuttle orbits the sun, taking 133 years to complete one round-trip journey. The last time it was closest to the sun was 1992 and it won’t get that close to the sun again until 2125.

In the year 3044, scientists predict the comet will make one of its closest passes by Earth, when it will be close to 1 million miles away.

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Orbits–Giant solar systems and tiny atoms both contain orbits. Let’s explore giant and microscopic worlds!

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Old model of the solar system. Text: Orbits--Giant solar systems and tiny atoms both contain orbits. Let's explore giant and microscopic worlds!

The solar system is made of giant, orbiting bodies: planets

Eight planets orbit the sun, forming our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Asteroids also orbit the sun in the Main Asteroid Belt and the Kuiper Belt. The planets and the Main Asteroid Belt orbit the sun in a flat plane, like an invisible plate in space where the planets pass mainly through the plate. Sometimes they rise higher than the plate, sometimes they travel a little lower, but not by much.

The planets are very large objects. The sun, at the center, is the largest object in our solar system.

Tiny atoms are made of microscopic bodies that orbit each other

Cover of The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene

Next, let’s look at some of the very smallest objects in our universe: atoms. According to physicist and author Brian Greene, in his book The Elegant Universe, the ancient Greeks believed that “the stuff of the universe was made up of tiny ‘uncuttable’ ingredients that they called atoms.” The ancient Greeks thought the atom was the smallest building block of all matter. They said the atom was not made of anything smaller and could not be divided.

In the nineteenth century, scientists found that oxygen and carbon were made of the smallest pieces that could be recognized. “[F]ollowing the tradition laid down by the Greeks, they called them atoms. The name stuck,” Greene writes.

But it was later learned that oxygen and carbon atoms, and atoms of all the other elements, were made up of even smaller pieces. “Far from being the most elementary material constituent, atoms consist of a nucleus, containing protons and neutrons, that is surrounded by a swarm of orbiting electrons,” Greene writes.

Writers create new ideas by converting large to small or small to large

Sci Fi writers create fascinating creatures by turning something very small in the real world into something very large in their story. Consider the lowly worm. Frank Herbert turned the worm, a creature of a few inches, into his gigantic and fearsome sandworms of Arrakis in Dune.

Today, let’s do the reverse. Let’s take something very, very large–our solar system–and imagine it as small as an atom. If a sun were the nucleus of an atom, and if each electron orbiting around that nucleus were a planet, what kind of solar system can you imagine?

Build your mini-system!

Imagine your miniature solar system.

  • Would your planets be inhabited? Would the third planet–like Earth–support life?
  • Would travelers cross the vast distances between atoms to visit?
  • Where would your atom-sized solar system be floating? Would it be safe?

Please post your comments below.

Be stellar!

Matthew Cross

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Space Pirates vs. Smugglers–Smugglers use guile to ship illegal goods; pirates take by brute force

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Gold skull superimposed over whole moon
Images: Full moon photo by Mana5280 (unsplash.com/@mana5280) and skull photo by Luke Southern (unsplash.com/@lukesouthern).

In Kristyn Merbeth’s space opera Fortuna, the Kaiser family uses their ship, Fortuna, to smuggle goods–especially weapons–between the planets, which makes them outcasts in the system. The pirate crew of the Red Baron harries the Fortuna between planets, set on taking by force the goods the Kaisers smuggled off planet.

The boarding of Fortuna

Cover of Fortuna by Kristyn Merbeth

“I sway on my feet as the floor rocks beneath me. That must be our ship making contact with the Red Baron. We’ve been through this enough times that I know what to expect. It’s illegal to outfit ships with weapons, and no planet will let you land with them, but the Red Baron has found a technically legal way to launch an assault with those magnetic grappling hooks. They’ll keep us pinned to their side and hack our security pad to force the ramp open directly into their ship’s loading zone, leaving our cargo bay vulnerable and waiting to be plundered.

“Right on cue, the high-pitched whine of machinery starts on the other side of the ramp. That would be them plugging into the hatch and accessing our security system, which means we have only a couple of minutes before they’re inside. The twins take their spots on either side of the ramp, backs pressed against the wall and guns at the ready. I lift my borrowed blaster and position myself near the supply closet door.

. . . .

“My response is swallowed by the metal-on-metal screech of the cargo ramp ripping fully open, leaving the belly of Fortuna exposed to the Red Baron and its occupants.

“The Red Baron‘s crew is a bunch of strays from all over the system–much like ours, but bound together by greed rather than blood. My family might be smugglers, but the Red Baron crew can’t even keep their smuggling half-honest. Instead, they’re pirates, stealing from other ships like ours.”

Choose sides!

In the battle for riches, would you choose to be a smuggler or a pirate?

  • Who is smarter?
  • Who is more dashing?
  • Who is the greater scoundrel?

Please post your comments below.

Be stellar!

Matthew Cross