Latest news with #Apollo15
Hindustan Times
14-07-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Claudia de Rham: 'The notion of time is not absolute'
What motivated you to dedicate your life to gravity research? Physicist and author Claudia de Rham at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2025 (JLF) It was always clear in my mind. When I started writing the book, it became clear that there could never have been anything else. I think gravity is fun and almost teasing us, right? It's always there all around us, and because we know it's going to be something we can't avoid, it pushes us to challenge it. We all like to play with it by dropping things and seeing if we can prevent them from falling. From the point of view of theoretical physics, what I like about it is its beautiful symmetry. It's universal and affects everyone in the same way, which is beautiful at a fundamental level. What is the universality of gravity? In the book, you recall this through an interesting experiment done by Apollo 15 commander David Scott in 1971. When he went to the moon, he dropped a feather and a hammer, and both objects fell at the same rate... That's right. It's counterintuitive, and it forces us to think about gravity differently. I love that it's also part of teasing us. You realize there's nothing more beautiful, symmetric and perfect when gravity is not affected by size, texture, or weight in different ways. Gravity affects our motion in spacetime because it changes spacetime. It gives it some curvature. And so, what makes it very interesting is when we evolve through this spacetime, we are accommodating for the presence of the mass. What is very special about gravity is that it does that to everybody in the same way. So, if you imagine two cells of our body living in that spacetime, they live in the same spacetime and experience the same curvature and gravity. They are not going to be changed or affected differently. 226pp, ₹1911; Princeton University Press And yet gravity cannot be felt. Why? Think about how we hear something. Sound waves stretch in different directions in our eardrum in different ways, and that's how they affect our body. That's how we can hear each other. If you push me, you will affect me by putting pressure on my cells. Different cells will respond differently. This distinction between the different cells enables me to hear or feel this feeling of other things, of pressure. Yet, gravity is not going to do that differently for different cells. In a local body, the effect of gravity would be the same for everything, for everyone. It's this beautiful symmetry behind gravity, which we call the universality of gravity, which means that, locally, you can't distinguish between differences. There will not be any cell in our body that experiences gravity, per se. To experience gravity at a fundamental level, like a force, you need to experience gravity through gravitational waves. But you can imagine it took us 100 years to feel instruments sensitive enough to feel the first gravitational waves. And those instruments are kilometres wide, so there's not something present in our own body that will experience gravity, at least not anytime soon. What is gravity? Gravity is the manifestation of how different points in space and time are connected together. In sum, it is the curvature of spacetime. This definition allows us to make predictions verified with impeccable precision. The information about how we will be affected by gravity is very much encoded into how we are affected by our curved environment. If you imagine yourself in a curved environment, going in a straight line may look different compared to someone in a different environment. That's how we are affected by gravity. We are affected by the curvature of spacetime in which we live. How would you define 'spacetime'? Now, you are going into the notion of space and time. We don't have an accurate definition of time. To return to some era of time, we must return to some notion of thermodynamics in some flow of the entropy. Entropy captures information about how things get disordered and the order in nature. We know that there is direction towards which things always become increasingly disorganised. And you can associate this with the notion of the flow of time -- the evolution of the entropy in the universe. Deep down, the notion of time is a human way of appreciating things around us. What we know is that time is not universal. We feel an evolution of time, but this is us simplifying a more abstract concept. The notion of time is not absolute. Is gravity an abstract concept even though it feels tangible? Gravity is a force. When we explain science to the public, we sometimes emphasise what we don't know because we want to make it exciting. But we do understand gravity very well. We also understand that gravity, like electromagnetism, electricity and magnetism, is a force deep down. However, gravity is not just the instantaneous force expressed by Newton. That representation works well in some limits, but it's not very close to what is happening. We experience gravity through what we call tidal forces. We have detected the force of gravity through the tidal forces of gravitational waves as they pass through our instruments. The first signal was in 2015, exactly when we observed the effect of gravitational waves, and since then, there have been hundreds of events where we've seen that effect coming in. The thing about gravity is that it goes both ways. A mass has an effect on gravity by curving space and time around itself. And any mass does that. The fact that a mass, like the sun or the Earth, affects gravity by giving it a curvature means that if you take anything else like another mass, or even no mass, it will experience gravity. It will experience this curvature, and therefore, it will experience, through gravity, through the curvature, the presence of this mass. We feel the mass of the Earth because the Earth curves the spacetime around itself, and we're living in that spacetime. And so that's how we feel the gravitational attraction of the earth. What breakthroughs are happening in gravity research, and how are they affecting our lives? All the progress made in understanding gravity in the past 200 years, we are using it right now, like your phone. This understanding affects the technologies that your phone uses to communicate with satellites. It incorporates the small corrections in the curvature of spacetime perceived by the satellites in orbit above our heads and accommodates the difference between what we feel here on Earth. These are differences from our understanding of the curvature of spacetimes through Einstein's laws of general relativity. We couldn't use any device if we didn't account for such a difference. So, we already use this understanding in all technologies you use daily. Wherever you drive or the transport or telecommunication system you use, you're using our understanding of gravity at a level beyond our imagination. Now, of course, trying to understand gravity at an even more fundamental level, you may ask, have we got what we wanted out of it? Do we need to go deeper? But really, who is to tell how much and how do we know? Because when Einstein came up with the theory of general relativity, he didn't have in mind that people would be using it for mobile phones or satellites and all sorts of technologies; it came from understanding the laws of nature at a more fundamental level. Nowadays, it's very important to keep exploring the world around us, not just with the finality of us using it for a particular problem that we have today. We don't know what problems we will have tomorrow, and we don't even know how to address them. So, we must keep looking for different patterns in our understanding of nature. From that, we'll be able to apply them to all of the problems that will come tomorrow, all of the problems of quantum technology and quantum computing that we are developing today. Can you explain how your research is fundamental in understanding the Big Bang Theory? Yes. For instance, when we're trying to understand how to make sense of the laws of gravity in our quantum regime at the very centre of black holes, it challenges our understanding of space and time. We need to have a description that is beyond the notion of space and time in very, very curved environments where the curvature scale, the temperature, if you want, is very, very high. And those kinds of environments at the very centre of black holes is very similar to what happens at the very beginning of the universe. At the Big Bang, the Universe was born. We believe it was an explosion of spacetime, where all of spacetime in all of space in all of its infinite infinity was created. Understanding how gravity behaves in those environments would allow us to understand how gravity behaves at the very beginning of the universe, what goes beyond the very notion of time, and being able to understand what is beyond our universe, and what is beyond the very origin of the universe. That's so mind-altering. As a woman scientist who is a leading theoretical physicists, what challenges have you faced? The challenges are not necessarily when there are some outspoken biases; you can then deal with them, be upset, address them, and move on. I think it's more the unspoken rules. I think it's more of these constant, slight power games, which is very difficult to address because they're not outspoken, are not out there, and are not tangible for everybody. If you do something to a given level, be it as a man or a woman, it means the same. It doesn't matter. But when whatever you do bears the flag of you being a woman doing it, then it becomes a challenge. I try to separate myself from it and do the best I can because I am a person doing science, not just a woman. Kanika Sharma is an independent journalist.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘One-of-a-kind exhibition' in Columbus chronicles astronaut's space missions
A new exhibition in Columbus offers a glimpse into space through the eyes of an astronaut who went there and did that not once but three times. Photographs from retired NASA astronaut Dave Scott's three space missions are on display at the Columbus State University Bo Bartlett Center through Aug. 2. The exhibition, titled 'Images from Space that Fire the Imagination' features images from Scott's missions aboard Gemini VIII, Apollo 9, and Apollo 15. 'Americans have always been explorers. They've always been cutting edge. They've always thought out of the box,' Tina Cross, coordinator of external funding at Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center told the Ledger-Enquirer, 'and these astronauts led the way to finding things that are just Earth-shaking or Moon-shaking, as the case may be.' Included in the exhibition are photographs taken by Scott, including one he took of Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin working on the Moon near the Lunar Rover. The show is a collaboration between the Bo Bartlett Center and the Coca-Cola Space Science Center, featuring items from Scott's personal collection that have been donated to the CCSSC via Scott's brother, Tom Scott, who worked with the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce. 'He was familiar with the Space Science Center from its initial stages,' Cross said, 'and so, about eight or nine years ago, he started bringing things from Dave to us. And the first pictures he brought are here.' The Bo Bartlett Center is at 921 Front Ave. in downtown Columbus. It is open Tuesdays-Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
All about the abandoned Apollo capsule in 'The Last of Us' (Season 2, Episode 6)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Whether you are a fan of space exploration history or of the game on which the series is based, "The Last of Us" has just delivered a real blast from the past. In the penultimate episode of the second season, which premiered Sunday night (May 18) on HBO Max, the story briefly visits the Wyoming Museum of Science and History. Warning: If you have not yet watched Season 2, Episode 6 of "The Last of Us," you may want to stop reading here, as there are minor spoilers ahead. If you have never seen the series or played the game, for the purposes of this article you only need to know that it is about Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor of a global pandemic that has destroyed civilization, and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a teenage girl who Joel has taken charge of and who may be humanity's last hope. As part of the episode, Joel is shown surprising Ellie with a visit to the museum. Inside, they enter the space and astronomy hall to Ellie's delight (her interest in flight and what it represents — escape and being able to control her own destiny — is a recurring theme in both the game and the television adaptation). The two find a working, floor-to-ceiling solar system orrery, historic spacesuits on display and, at the center of the main hall, an Apollo command module. "Is it real?" asks Ellie, almost in a whisper. "It is real," replies Joel. "That one went up and back, Apollo 15 in 1971." After picking out a helmet to wear (the type worn by Gemini astronauts), Ellie climbs into the capsule, followed by Joel, who closes the hatch behind him. Ellie immediately starts flicking switches, making sound effects and calling out commands to accompany each click. Joel then surprises her with a tape cassette. "Happy birthday, kiddo," he says. "This is something that took a mighty effort to find. Play it." Ellie inserts the cassette into her Walkman and, following Joel's suggestion, closes her eyes as the audio begins to play. "Thirty seconds and counting," says a man's voice. "The astronauts report it feels good. T-minus 25 seconds..."What Ellie (and those watching the episode) are listening to is the actual audio of NASA public affairs officer Jack King counting down to the launch of Apollo 11, the first mission to land humans on the moon, on July 16, 1969. As King continues to narrate, the sounds of the spacecraft come alive and the lights grow dim. At nine seconds and "ignition sequence start," Ellie starts to rattle side to side in her seat. The light from the engines igniting pours through the window, lighting up her face as she begins to shake more rapidly. "Liftoff, we have a liftoff, 32 minutes past the hour..." The sound and motion of the launch are soon replaced by the serenity of what Ellie imagines it is like being in space. The light from the sun dances across her face until she slips back into reality with a wide smile. End scene. The real Apollo 15 command module, which its crew named "Endeavour," is on display today at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, and, unlike the spacecraft in the show, it is exhibited without its interior control panels and equipment. It also does not have vines growing all over it. Otherwise, the two might be twins. Well, almost. "Interestingly, it was 110% of the real thing. We bumped it up just slightly [in size] for all sorts of reasons," said Don Macaulay, the production designer for this season of "The Last of Us," in an interview with "We tried to stick pretty true to the game in terms of how we shot that and how it was lit. That is so much easier to do in a digital set than on a real set." The scene in the series was directly inspired by a segment in "The Last of Us Part II," a game released for Sony's PlayStation 4 in 2020. To achieve the desired look, Macaulay and his team began with a softball-sized, 3D-printed model of the command module that they used to work out what pieces they needed to be removable so they could insert cameras and lighting. They then advanced to a full-scale foam version, so they could test the lighting and views. "And then, yeah, we built a complete interior and exterior," said Macaulay. "We shot them separately, but it was all one set. We took the module to a separate stage to shoot the interior, and then we brought it back to the museum to shoot the exterior of it, but it was all one set." In addition to having the game, Macaulay also referenced the drawings and diagrams of the command module that NASA has posted online. He took the same care when recreating the orrery from the game, which worked just as shown. (He admitted, though, that he had to look up the word "orrery" when he first found out he had to build one; Macaulay has led the production for a number of science fiction projects ["Tomorrowland", "Star Trek Beyond"], but this was his first to be based on real space exploration and astronomy.) The spacesuits were rented from a prop house. Macaulay wanted to mach the look of the game, so he also arranged for a full-scale lunar rover, a display of scale rockets and built a model of the moon, although only the latter made the final cut. "It's one of those things where we provided a ton and then, just based on how it's shot and edited, some of it doesn't make it on screen. In fact, we built and shot an entire dinosaur exhibit [inside the museum] and it didn't make it into the show," he told collectSPACE. The television series often veers far from what was seen in the game, which is why, Macaulay said, sets like the space museum were so important to get right. "It's so iconic in the game that we do try to be fairly true to it. I mean, we can never take the [virtual] models they used in the game and just build from them. Their sets are usually way over scaled, and we build sets specifically for the action required. So getting the essence of the set is more important in this case," he said. "There was the iconic image of [Joel and Ellie[ standing in front of the capsule, so, that was something — and the capsule itself — we tried to replicate as best we could," said Macaulay. Related stories: — The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon — The best sci-fi TV shows of all time — Apollo 15: The moon buggy debuts So that leads up to an obvious question: After all of that attention to detail and care to get the look just right, what becomes of a command module that was abandoned in the context of the show's (and game's) plot, and now is no longer needed in terms of the production of the show? "We still have it," said Macaulay. "I don't know if there's a lot of demand, but someone could want it for their prop house, or maybe HBO Max will keep it for use on some other show down the line." Follow on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Belgian artist of 'Fallen Astronaut' figurine on the moon dies at 99
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck (right) presents Apollo astronaut Michael Collins, director of the National Air and Space Museum, with a replica of the "Fallen Astronaut" figure in 1972. . | Credit: Smithsonian A Belgian sculptor credited with the "Fallen Astronaut" figurine left on the surface of the moon in 1971 has now fallen himself. Artist Paul Van Hoeydonck died on Saturday (May 3) at his home in Wijnegem, Antwerp in Belgium, according to a statement released by his family. He was 99. "Paul went home peacefully this afternoon," read the note on his Facebook page. A close-up view of the "Fallen Astronaut" figurine and plaque left on the moon in memory of 14 astronauts and cosmonauts. | Credit: NASA On Aug. 2, 1971, as NASA's Apollo 15 astronauts wrapped up their third of three excursions out onto the lunar surface, the mission's commander David Scott placed a small aluminum figure and its accompanying plaque near where he had parked their lunar rover for the last time. Although Scott did not make mention of it while he was on the moon, he revealed the "Fallen Astronaut" statuette once he and his crewmates, Jim Irwin and Al Worden, were back on Earth. "We left a small memorial on the moon about 20 feet north of [the lunar rover] in a small, subtle crater," said Scott. "There's a simple plaque with 14 names, and those are the names, in alphabetical order, of all of the astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the pursuit of the exploration of space." "Near it is a small figure representing a fallen astronaut," he added. Three years earlier, Van Hoeydonck came up with the idea of the mini monument to celebrate "humanity rising into space." After making adjustments to the sculpture to meet NASA requirements and its purpose being recast as a tribute to the space explorers who made the ultimate sacrifice, Van Hoeydonck met with the Apollo 15 astronauts to hand over his creation a month before their launch. Related stories: — The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon — Apollo 15: The moon buggy debuts — NASA honors fallen astronauts with 'Day of Remembrance' ceremony "I didn't think it would ever happen. Of course I was interested in all this, but being an artist, who would have thought it possible of having one of my statuettes put on the moon?" said van Hoeydonck in a 2015 interview with the British Interplanetary Society's Spaceflight magazine. Complying with NASA's requirement that the statue not be commercialized, Scott did not disclose the name of the artist. It was not until a replica of the "Fallen Astronaut" was requested and put on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. that Van Hoeydonck's role in the tribute first became public. Van Hoeydonck's plans to sell replicas of his statuette were deferred after Scott and NASA expressed concerns over the exploitation of the memorial. (Van Hoeydonck, in partnership with the Breckner Gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany, recreated the artist's original 1969 idea for the statue and marketed a limited run of 1,971 signed and numbered pieces in 2019.) In 2021, Scott rebuked Van Hoeydonck's involvement, writing in a memorandum that the "Fallen Astronaut" figurine that he left on the moon had been "fabricated by NASA personnel." He said that the design "was based on standard 'stick-figures' that had been universally accepted in the late 1960s as location symbols for bathrooms." Scott wrote that before the mission there was "absolutely no contact or knowledge outside these limited NASA personnel regarding this project." Whether of not Van Hoeydonck is properly credited with the "Fallen Astronaut" on the moon, his other space sculptures have been exhibited in Milan, Tokyo and at the Guggenheim in New York City. He was also the focus of the 2020 documentary "The Fallen Astronaut," about "a sculpture that died on its way to the moon." Born on Oct. 8, 1925 in Antwerp, Belgium, Van Hoeydonck studied at the Institute of Art History in his home town and at the Institute of Art History and Archaeology in Brussels. Follow on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
The Star
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Belgium's Van Hoeydonck, first artist to exhibit on Moon, dies
Van Hoeydonck is best known for 'Fallen Astronaut', an aluminium sculpture left on the moon in 1971 by Apollo 15, in tribute to fallen astronauts. Photo: Studio Paul Van Hoeydonck Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck, who made what was for decades the only work of art on the Moon, died on Saturday aged 99, his family said on Facebook. Born on Oct 8, 1925, Van Hoeydonck was a prolific artist whose works spanned sculpture, painting, drawing, collage and graphic design. He is best known for Fallen Astronaut , an aluminium sculpture left on the moon in 1971 by the crew of the Apollo 15 spacecraft, in homage to their fallen colleagues. It was the first and, for decades, the only work of art on show on the Moon's surface. In February 2024, Fallen Astronaut was joined by 125 miniature sculptures by the American artist Jeff Koons. - AFP
