My Science School

Nitrogen is crucial to plant life, and nitrogen-based fertilizers were essential for crops at the start of the 20th Century to produce more food. Even though there is limited supply of usable nitrogen on the Earth's surface, its atmosphere is an inexhaustible source that can be tapped into. Fixing nitrogen from air was a long-sought-after objective by chemists - something that was finally accomplished by German chemist Fritz Haber.

Born into a well-off German-Jewish family in 1868, Haber displayed an early inclination towards chemistry. Studying in several universities and earning a doctorate in organic chemistry in 1891, Haber went on to master physical chemistry during his time as an instructor at a polytechnic in Karlsruhe.

Growing anti-Semitism

By 1901, Haber had married Clara Immerwahr, a brilliant chemist and the first woman to obtain a doctorate from Breslau University. Even though she also converted from Judaism to Christianity like Haber, the couple were still subject to anti-Semitism (discrimination against Jews).

At the turn of the century, there was a growing murmur  especially among scientists, that the world wouldn't be able to cope with the increasing food demand of humanity's rising population. While it was well-known by this time that nitrogen-based fertilizers would be able to enhance crop-yield and thus meet the upcoming demand, fixing nitrogen from air was yet to be achieved.

Fixing nitrogen

Atmospheric nitrogen is rather inert, meaning that it doesn't react easily with other chemicals to form compounds. Nitrogen fixation is the process by which molecular nitrogen in the air is converted into ammonia or other related nitrogen compounds, either in the soil, aquatic systems, or even industrially.

It was Haber who came up with a method that let nitrogen gas directly react with hydrogen gas under high pressure and a catalyst to produce ammonia. On September 27, 1910, Haber received a U.S. patent for the production of ammonia.

"Bread out of thin air”

The ammonia thus produced could be put to industrial use creating huge amounts of fertilizers. The agricultural fertilizers stepped-up the crop yield to a large extent, putting to rest the fear of famines and producing enough food to sustain humanity's growing needs. "Brot aus luft, which literally meant "bread out of thin air, was the popular German catchphrase used at the time to refer to this miraculous turnaround.

Haber always wanted to prove his patriotism and he therefore threw his efforts behind the German cause during World War 1. He experimented with chlorine gas and developed a new weapon, poison gas, which he believed would shorten the war.

Haber supervised the first deployment of his methods at Ypres, Belgium in 1915 and he was promoted to captain in the German army. On the night he celebrated his promotion at a party in his home in Berlin, Clara, who condemned her husband's weapon works and was becoming frustrated with d life at home, died by suicide.

His wife's suicide didn't delay his deployment as he rushed back to the war front. But many others started voicing their opinion about Haber's wartime role and what they saw as the promotion of a barbaric weapon. When he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements, it naturally didn't go well with everyone.

Flees Germany

While Haber continued to strive patriotically, he could sense that he was still caught in the web of anti-Semitism. When the Nazis were growing in power, he was still perceived as a Jew and his position soon became untenable He fled Germany and went into exile, but was unable to find any work or a place to settle, dying eventually of a heart attack in 1934.

Apart from the poison gas.,Haber's research was also later developed into the Zyklon process This was used by the Nazis to kill millions of people in their concentration camps, including some of Haber’s own extended relatives.

Despite the importance of his work to produce ammonia, which still aids agriculture around the world, Haber left behind a complicated legacy, largely because of his efforts on the war front German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein summed up his friend's life and his relationship with his homeland in the following way: "Haber’s life was the tragedy of the German Jew- the tragedy of unrequited love."

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The need for cleaning, both ourselves and our surroundings, probably dates back to early humans. There’s reason to believe that even our earliest ancestors, residing in caves, used the branches of trees to tidy up their dwellings.

For centuries, brooms, the likes of which are still in use today, remained the most popular tools used by people to clean their homes. In fact, it was only in the 19th Century that some of the big breakthroughs began to appear in the cleaning industry.

The challenge of cleaning

With bigger households came carpet flooring, and it soon became the staple of middle and upper middle class families in Europe and the Americas. Even though these carpets lent good looks, they were more challenging to clean than bare floors. Brooms were largely ineffective and deep cleaning once or twice a year by beating the carpet outdoors was no easy task either.

It was in such a climate that American businessman Melville Reuben Bissell invented his carpet sweeper. A serial entrepreneur, Melville had started out by setting up a grocery store with his father in 1862 at the age of 19. Melville married 19-year-old Anna Sutherland in 1865 and their entire family shifted locations in 1870, setting up a successful crockery and glassware store in the new place.

Even though mechanical carpet sweepers were available from late in the 1850s, these were far from able to do the job at hand. Melville set about making his own mechanical carpet sweeper. He fitted his device with hog head rollers that picked up even fine dirt from carpets and also added a small canister to it. The collected dirt was deposited in this container, which could then be easily emptied after use.

While these improvements might seem rather minor to us, they provided a marked improvement in the way carpets could be cleaned back then. Melville received the patent for his improvements on September 19, 1876, and soon set about selling these carpet sweepers.

Anna was a natural when it came to sales and marketing. Seeing the potential of the product in their hands and realising that it would change the way housekeeping is done, Anna made plenty of sales calls, convincing shopkeepers to display their device. It wasn’t long before the orders started trickling in, and the upper floor of their crockery shop soon turned into their manufacturing space.

Roller-coaster ride

Having built the Bissell company’s first manufacturing plant to roll out carpet sweepers in 1883, the duo faced a severe setback the following year when a fire burnt down the factory in 1884. Not ones to be deterred easily, Anna and Melville secured loans to finance its reconstruction, and the Bissells were soon on the way to dominating the field.

Just when it seemed like things couldn’t be better, tragedy struck the Bissells as Melville died of pneumonia in 1889, aged just 45. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind as to who should lead the company following his untimely demise. Now a mother of four children, Anna, who had been involved with the company’s business affairs right from the beginning, stepped in, becoming the first female CEO in the U.S.

Anna steered the company’s growth admirably in the decades that followed, defending their patents aggressively and taking their sweepers to Europe as well, apart from other parts of North America. Despite the company’s growing international reputation and her own status as one of the most powerful women in business of the time, Anna continued to be involved in the company’s day-to-day affairs and was known especially for her familiarity with all facets of the business.

Anna was a progressive employer for her time and their company was among the first to provide employees with pension plans and workers’ compensation. By the time she died in 1934, her company was one of the largest organisations of its kind in the world. Their company continues to be a privately owned, family-led company to this day, and remains a leader when it comes to home care products.

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As it turns out, Bluetooth is named after a 10th-century Scandinavian king. Harald "Blatand" Gormsson was a Viking king who ruled Denmark and Norway from the year 958 until 985.

The first consumer Bluetooth device was launched in 1999. It was a hands-free mobile headset that earned the "Best of show Technology Award" at COMDEX. The first Bluetooth mobile phone was the Ericsson T36 but it was the revised T39 model that actually made it to store shelves in 2001. In parallel, IBM introduced the IBM ThinkPad A30 in October 2001 which was the first notebook with integrated Bluetooth.

Bluetooth's early incorporation into consumer electronics products continued at Vosi Technologies in Costa Mesa, California, USA, initially overseen by founding members Bejan Amini and Tom Davidson. Vosi Technologies had been created by real estate developer Ivano Stegmenga, with United States Patent 608507, for communication between a cellular phone and a vehicle's audio system. At the time, Sony/Ericsson had only a minor market share in the cellular phone market, which was dominated in the US by Nokia and Motorola. Due to ongoing negotiations for an intended licensing agreement with Motorola beginning in the late 1990s, Vosi could not publicly disclose the intention, integration and initial development of other enabled devices which were to be the first “Smart Home” internet connected devices.

Vosi needed a means for the system to communicate without a wired connection from the vehicle to the other devices in the network. Bluetooth was chosen, since WiFi was not yet readily available or supported in the public market. Vosi had begun to develop the Vosi Cello integrated vehicular system and some other internet connected devices, one of which was intended to be a table-top device named the Vosi Symphony, networked with Bluetooth. Through the negotiations with Motorola, Vosi introduced and disclosed its intent to integrate Bluetooth in its devices. In the early 2000s a legal battle ensued between Vosi and Motorola, which indefinitely suspended release of the devices. Later, Motorola implemented it in their devices which initiated the significant propagation of Bluetooth in the public market due to its large market share at the time.

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At about the same time the Apollo 11 astronauts were completing their historic first human moonwalk, Luna 15, a robotic space mission of the Soviet space programme, began its descent to the surface of the moon from lunar orbit. Tasked with the objective of gathering lunar samples and returning them to Earth, Luna 15 crashed on the lunar surface and was destroyed on impact.

Luna 15 was one among a string of failures in the Soviet space programme in its attempt to bring lunar samples back to Earth. They eventually succeeded with Luna 16, which became the first mission to retrieve samples from the moon’s surface without direct human involvement.

Two stages

The Luna 16 spacecraft consisted of two stages – an ascent stage and a descent stage. While the descent stage was mainly concerned with providing course corrections, lunar orbital insertion and the landing manoeuvre; the ascent stage was responsible for propelling the sample container back to Earth.

The descent stage, which had four legs to support the craft on the surface, acted as a launch pad for the ascent stage. The descent stage also housed fuel tanks and a landing radar, while the ascent stage held the radio equipment and the spherical sample return container.

Launched on September 12, 1970, Luna 16 travelled to the moon without incident, save for one midcourse correction. Entering orbit on September 17, it required two further orbital adjustments in the next two days to alter its altitude and inclination in preparation for descent to the moon. Luna 16 began its descent on September 20 by firing its main engine and six minutes later, it landed softly in its target area.

Drilling for samples

Less than an hour after landing, Luna 16 used an automatic drill to dig through the lunar surface. Seven minutes later, the drill reached a depth of 35 mm before hitting rock. The core sample was withdrawn and lifted to the top of the spacecraft, before the collected rocks were safely deposited in the small spherical capsule.

Having accomplished half of what it set out to do, Luna 16 now had to safely return its invaluable cargo back to Earth. A little over 25 hours after landing on the moon, the return stage’s rocket motor was fired and the spacecraft’s upper stage lifted off from the moon with its 105 g of lunar soil.

Over the next three days, the ascent stage traversed directly back to Earth, needing no midcourse corrections during its journey. Reentering the Earth’s atmosphere at a velocity of 11 km/second, the capsule then parachuted to the surface. It landed 80 km southeast of Zhezkazgan, a town in Kazakhstan, on September 24.

Completely automated

Even though Apollo 11 astronauts had retrieved lunar samples during their historic moonwalk in July 1969 and Apollo 12 astronauts had repeated the feat in November 1969, Luna 16 was special in its own right. This mission was not only the first time the Soviets had managed to collect rock and soil samples from the surface of the moon, but also the first time any nation had managed to bring back samples in a completely automated manner.

The lunar samples collected were then analysed by scientists, who found out in what way the rocks and soil were similar and different from those collected in the Apollo 11 and 12 missions. While the dark, powdery basalt material closely resembled the soil recovered by Apollo 12 from another lunar mare (large, dark, basaltic plains on our moon) site, Luna 16’s samples slightly differed from those collected by Apollo 11 in the levels of titanium and zirconium oxide.

Even though some Luna missions had failed as they either ended in crashes or failed to reach orbit, the programme as a whole was largely a great success. The programme achieved a series of firsts from the time Luna 1 managed the first lunar flyby in 1959. Luna 16 joined the list of successes by achieving the first robotic sample return.

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We take the views from the skies for granted these days. With passenger flights more common than ever before, the splendid sights that are on offer occupy our attention for not more than a few moments at a stretch. And yet, there was a time, not long back, when aeronautical expeditions were just taking flight.

It was in the second half of the 19th Century when ballooning had progressed to something of interest to scientists. And it was in this climate that English meteorologist, aeronaut, and astronomer James Glaisher, accompanied by accomplished English balloonist Henry Coxwell, broke the record for travelling higher than any others before them.

Astronomer turns aeronaut

The son of a watchmaker, Glaisher was born in London in 1809. A visit to the Greenwich Observatory in 1833 stoked his interest in scientific instruments, prompting him to join the Cambridge Observatory as an assistant to astronomer and mathematician George Airy.

After making a series of observations on Halley's comet in 1835, Glaisher followed his mentor to Greenwich Observatory. He joined the Royal Astronomical Society in 1841 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1849. By the time he had turned his attention to balloon flights, he had already made considerable contributions to science.

It was while surveying Ireland, mapping its contours and highest peaks, that Glaisher decided to set his sights skywards. With the firm belief that these trips would help him understand the atmospheric forces that govern the weather on Earth, Glaisher managed to convince the British Association for the Advancement of Science to fund his trips.

Teams up with Coxwell

 Glaisher teamed up with Coxwell, an expert balloonist of the time. for these flights. They worked together and started from scratch, acquiring a new balloon to be used for their voyages. Unlike the hot air balloons of today, these balloons were filled with a light gas like hydrogen. This meant that even though they could rise "with the ease of an ascending vapour” (in Glaisher's own words), descending involved opening a valve to let some of this gas out of the balloon. Landing too was no easy feat as it needed releasing an anchor "that would hook into a tree or hedges and stop them being dragged along the ground".

Following some false starts, the duo had their first success on July 17 1862 when they took off from Wolverhampton in the morning. Even though most of their other flights departed from

Crystal Palace in London, they returned to Wolverhampton, for the flight on September 5, their most popular trip.

Accompanied by six pigeons intended to send out messages from the balloon, Glaisher and Coxwell set out on that day, venturing into the unknown. Even though the flight had been delayed by "unfavourable weather, they went ahead with their ride.

Uncontrolled ascent

 As it turns out, the flight on September 5 was not a controlled ascent with Glaisher describing that the balloon was "rising too quickly" and "going around too quickly". The fate of the pigeons should have indicated what was coming as Glaisher mentions that "a third was thrown out between four and five miles, and it fell downwards as a stone".

Glaisher's notes tell us that it was around 22,380 feet above sea level that he began noticing difficulties with his vision as he had trouble reading the many instruments that he had brought with them for the expedition. By 26,350 feet, Glaisher "lost himself, no longer able to read his instruments and drifting away from consciousness owing to the cold, the lack of oxygen and the pressure falling rapidly with the ascent.

While it was obvious by this point that they had to descend, and quickly, the balloon's valve-line had twisted and tangled itself with the other ropes as a result of the turning motion of the balloon. Coxwell, who himself was losing control of his limbs, climbed out of the safety of the basket to release the valve. In the end, he held the valve-line in his teeth and yanked his head many times, filled with relief when he finally succeeded in opening the valve, beginning their rapid descent.

When Glaisher came back to his senses, he quickly returned to his instruments, taking down notes and making all the observations that he could. Within no time, their near-fatal episode had come to a successful conclusion as they landed away from Northampton.

Weather-related discoveries

Glaisher and Coxwell estimated that they had climbed up to 37,000 feet in that ride, nearly 8,000 feet above the summit of Mt. Everest, reaching heights that had never been seen before. As for the pigeons, only one remained when they were back on earth and it was so

As for the pigeons, only one remained when they were back on Earth and it was so traumatised that it clung on to Glaisher for a full 15 minutes before eventually taking flight.

Unfazed by this near-death experience, Glaisher went on to make many more flights, making crucial observations that changed our understanding of weather. He discovered that the winds change speeds at different altitudes and also found out the way in which raindrops form and gather moisture as they head towards the Earth.

Glaisher's reports and writings were a treasure trove of sorts as he went into incredible detail with immense zest. He wanted his observations and recorded experiences to not only be of interest in the scientific circles. With a lucid and vivid writing style, he made sure that the common folks too shared the sense of wonder that he himself experienced. That sense of wonder is still not lost on humankind.

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Bluetooth technology was named after a 10th century Viking king, Harald "Blatand" Gormsson who ruled Denmark and Norway from 958 to 985. Gormsson was known for bringing people together through non-violent ways and excellent communication skills.

He had a nickname "Blatand" in Danish which translates to "Bluetooth" in English. It was reasoned that just as the king united Denmark and Norway under his rule, the wireless technology seamlessly united the PC and other cellular devices.

In 1996, three industry leaders, Intel, Ericsson, and Nokia, met to plan the standardization of this short-range radio technology to support connectivity and collaboration between different products and industries.

During this meeting, Jim Kardach from Intel suggested Bluetooth as a temporary code name. Kardach was later quoted as saying, “King Harald Bluetooth…was famous for uniting Scandinavia just as we intended to unite the PC and cellular industries with a short-range wireless link.”

Bluetooth was only intended as a placeholder until marketing could come up with something really cool.

Later, when it came time to select a serious name, Bluetooth was to be replaced with either RadioWire or PAN (Personal Area Networking). PAN was the front runner, but an exhaustive search discovered it already had tens of thousands of hits throughout the internet.

A full trademark search on RadioWire couldn’t be completed in time for launch, making Bluetooth the only choice. The name caught on fast and before it could be changed, it spread throughout the industry, becoming synonymous with short-range wireless technology.

Credit : Bluetooth.com

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Just like transuranium elements correspond to the chemical elements with atomic number greater than 92 (the atomic number of uranium).transfermium elements are those elements that have an atomic number greater than 100 (the atomic number of fermium). Even though transfermium elements are a subset of transuranium elements, which are all unstable and decay radioactively into other elements, the need for this classification stems from number of reasons.

Apart from the fact that none of the transfermium elements occur naturally and are all synthesised artificially.sometimes with great difficulty, they are also united in the fact that very little is still known about these elements, as only a few atoms of each have been produced so far.

Transfermium Wars

One other factor that is common to these elements is the well-documented tussle between the Cold War adversaries over the discovery priority and naming of many of the transfermium elements. Even dubbed as the Transfermium Wars, it draws attention to the furious bickering over these elements, mainly involving the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the U.S. and the Joint Institute of National Research in Dubna.

Founded in Darmstadt in what was then West Germany in 1969, the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy lon Research), which was the German nuclear research facility, emerged as a new player in synthesis of super-heavy elements. Led by German physicists Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Munzenberg, the team first tasted success in 1981 with the discovery of element 107.

A single atom of meitnerium

 And then, on August 29, 1982, they succeeded again when they produced a single atom of meitnerium. The element was synthesised by bombarding a target of bismuth-209 with accelerated nuclei of iron-58, yielding a single atom of what I came to be known as meitnerium. The isotope produced, meitnerium-266, had 157 neutrons in its nucleus along with 109 protons, which defines the element and gives it its atomic number.

Even though the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) had stepped in by this time to clearly state that scientists should avoid prematurely suggesting names for new elements that were then mired in controversy and disputes, meitnerium escaped unscathed as no other team claimed priority for its discovery. The GSI group named it after nuclear physicist

“Render justice”

Armbruster had described the naming as a way "to render justice to a victim of German racism and to credit in fairness a scientific life and work. For Meitner not only faced discrimination as a woman, but also as a Jew and had to flee Germany. What's worse, her instrumental role in the discovery of nuclear fission didn't receive due credit as she was marginalised by German chemist Otto Hahn, her long-term collaborator and someone she had seen as a friend.

While Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 "for his discovery of the fission of heavy nuclei", Meitner's contributions were neglected. Meitner herself described Hahn's behaviour in her biography Lise Meitner. A Life in Physics as "simply suppressing the past, before adding that "I am part of that suppressed past".

Meitner did receive some recognition for her works before her death in 1968 and her exclusion from the Nobel Prize is now widely considered as unfair. Her scientific contributions were forever immortalised when the name meitnerium was officially adopted for element 109 in 1997. After all, fewer chemists have an element named after them than those who have won the Nobel Prize.

Short half-life

While practical applications of meitnerium would probably make both the element and the woman it is named after more famous, it is clearly something for the future. The original method used to produce an atom in 1982 was repeated in 1988 and 1997, producing two and 12 atoms, respectively. While a number of other isotopes of meitnerium have also been reported, all of these have half-lives ranging from milliseconds to a few seconds at the most.

The limited availability of the element, both in terms of quantities and time, implies that studying it has been extremely difficult, even using experimental techniques that are collectively known as atom-at-a-time methods.

Even though the element's chemistry remains an unknown secret, there is scope for optimism as research has suggested the existence of isotopes with a longer half-life. When scientists crack the ways to produce atoms of those isotopes, the chemical and physical properties of meitnerium will finally move out from the realm of educated speculation.

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ATMS (Automated Teller Machines) doling out cash is a familiar sight in most cities and towns. But have you heard of a "Grain ATM'? The Haryana Government has recently set up its first ATM machine for dispensing food grains in Gurugram district. Let's find out more about it.

First of its kind

The country's first food grain ATM has come up at Farrukhnagar, and is named "Annapurti" (Automated, Multi Commodity, Grain Dispensing Machine). Installed as a pilot project -a small-scale implementation to test the viability of the project- the ATM as of now will provide three types of grains - wheat, rice, and millet. It is said that each machine can dispense 70 kg of grains in under seven minutes at a time.

The machine has been installed under the UN's World Food Programme, which works closely with several countries to address issues of food scarcity and hunger.

Why has it been set up?

The purpose of the Annapurti ATM, according to Haryana's Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, is to make the process of distributing grains at government-run ration shops easy and hassle-free. On successful completion of the pilot project at Farrukhnagar, the government plans to install these machines at all ration shops across the State.

How does it function?

The grain ATM has a biometric system with a touch-screen, where the beneficiaries have to enter their Aadhaar or ration card number to get their grains. This is to ensure the right quantity of grains reaches the right beneficiaries. As it is an automatic machine; the scope of error in measurement is said to be negligible. On biometric authentication, the machine will dispense the foodgrains the bags placed under the machine. Besides helping prevent pilferage, the system is expected to bring in greater transparency in the public distribution system and reduce waiting time of beneficiaries.

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If we are asked to name a planet in the solar system that has rings around it, our answer would be Saturn, perhaps nine out of 10 times. Even if we are asked to just imagine a planet with rings, most of us would likely be thinking of Saturn. This is because we strongly associate Saturn with its rings.

This doesn’t mean, however, that Saturn is the only planet in the solar system that has rings. On the contrary, every gas giant in the solar system – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – has a ring around it.

Historic Neptune flyby

Among these, it was Neptune’s rings that were the last to be discovered. While scientists suspected for some years that Neptune must have rings around it, it was only when Voyager 2 made its flyby that it was proven beyond any doubt.

Launched in August 1977, Voyager 2 took 12 years to get to Neptune, having observed Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus along the way. And then, in a matter of weeks, Voyager 2 discovered six new moons and four rings around Neptune.

Even though Voyager 2 had completed five planetary encounters before heading to Neptune, the big blue planet posed certain specific challenges. Thirty times farther from the sun than Earth is, and receiving just one-thousandth the amount of sunlight that Earth does, there was low light in this region.

Light and distance

This meant that Voyager 2’s cameras required longer exposure to get good quality images during the flyby. Long exposures, however, would have made the images blurry as the spacecraft reached speeds up to 90,000 kmph relative to Earth. To counter this, Voyager 2’s team programmed the spacecraft to fire its thrusters gently during close approach, enabling it to keep the camera focussed on its target, without compromising on the spacecraft’s speed and direction.

Apart from the lighting, the huge distance meant that radio signals reaching Earth from Voyager 2 were weaker than those from other flybys. Voyagers (both 2 and 1), however, communicated with Earth via the Deep Space Network (DSN). The DSN made use of antennas in Madrid, Spain; Canberra, Australia; and Goldstone, California, the U.S.

While the three largest DSN antennas were 64m wide during Voyager 2’s encounter with Uranus in 1986, the dishes were expanded to 70m to assist communication during the Neptune flyby. Other non-DSN antennas were also employed as an auxiliary measure, ensuring that the spacecraft could send back more pictures in a reliable manner within any time-frame.

Daily updates

With no Internet to allow the entire world to see the pictures at the same time, the images were available in real time in only a few locations. As the excitement was palpable world over regarding the Neptune flyby, the team behind Voyager 2 decided to provide public updates as often as possible, leading to daily press conferences from August 21-29, 1989.

On August 22, 1989, Voyager 2 provided the images that serve as the definitive discovery of Neptune’s rings. A few days later, the spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune. After successfully completing another planetary encounter, Voyager 2 headed off on its interstellar exploratory voyage.

Five main rings

We now know that Neptune has at least five main rings and four prominent ring arcs. Starting from the ring nearest to the planet, these are named Galle, Leverrier, Lassell, Arago, and Adams.

While the rings are currently thought to be short-lived and relatively young, the arcs are clumps of dust that are peculiar to Neptune’s ring system. The outermost ring, Adams, is where four prominent arcs Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and Courage can be found.

Even though the laws of motion predict that these arcs would be spread out evenly, they actually stay clumped together, making them unusual. While we don’t yet know for certain, scientists suggest that the gravitational effects of Galatea, a moon just inward from Adams, is probably what stabilises these arcs. There’s this, and more, to find out and learn from the rings of Neptune.

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