Catching the strange strangelets, Halloween science, The first space flight

[Nostromics Newsletter]

Nostromics Newsletter

Nostromics science gifts product news, educational resources & science tidbits

Nostromics Newsletter, 6 October 2010 - You are welcome to share this mail

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Catching the strange strangelets, an educational AMS-02 video by ESA

Among the fundamental physics issues that CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator is investigating, is the search for the missing mass of the universe, in the form of dark matter and dark energy. A less known experiment, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02), is about to help complement LHC's research in a unique way, from space rather than underground. AMS-02 will be launched in early 2011 aboard the STS-134 Space Shuttle mission, which will permanently install it on the International Space Station.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has produced Catching the strange strangelets, a short educational video telling about AMS-02 and the science behind it. The video comes with lesson notes for teachers and includes closed captioning in 13 languages. Our friend Anna Maria Lombardi, an historian of physics and teacher, helped translate the video in Italian with her students.

Halloween science ideas

Halloween is often a quest for originality. You wish to wear unique costumes and apparel that also tells something about you and your interests. That's why we created science-themed Halloween apparel that will surprise your friends, provide occasions to talk about science, or just have fun.

See for example the Nostromics Math Not Scary Women's T-Shirt, the Physics Not Scary White T-Shirt (great if you are a teacher) and related products, or the Scary Astronomy Sweatshirt if you like stargazing. More ideas are available at the Halloween Science page of the Nostromics site.

More science gifts and products at Nostromics Store.

The first space flight

Under what political leader was outer space first reached? You may think of First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev. Or visionary American president John Kennedy. It may be embarrassing for humanity, but outer space may have been reached under Adolf Hitler.

On October 3, 1943, a German military group led by General Walter Dornberger, and including rocket scientist Wernher von Braun who would later play a major role in the US space program, successfullylaunched the first V-2 rocket. It flew a parabolic trajectory reaching an altitude of about 95 km and going as far as over 190 km from the launch site. The limit between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space, known as Karman line, is set at 100 km above the ground. That test flight effectively, but not formally, reached outer space.

The V-2 rocket was eventually used as a deadly weapon in later World War II.

-- Paolo Amoroso & Mauro Arpino (Nostromics), science educators - Milan, Italy

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Copyright (C) 2010 by Paolo Amoroso and Mauro Arpino