Cosmology Club DTU

28/01/2023

Listen, there's something we must tell. We've never, never seen it so clearly.

"It is our curiosity to comprehend the wonders of universe. It is our joy to "dabble" in cosmology, in which we have "no business messing with". We do it for ourselves -- it's fun to learn, it's exhilariting to experiment and it's comforting to gaze at the night sky with your friends on a chilly night."

Come to B.R. Audi on 1st February at 2.00 pm and witness our experience first hand and take the step to become a part of it.

Join the WhatsApp link given below for more updates and recruitment process
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FiMXv3BBSJW92IwokLWuSs

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11/09/2022

The Fifth entry for , an online writing competition of Cosmic Conclave 3.0.
You can read the rulebook of Cósmica at: https://cosmicconclave.netlify.app/

Entry no. 5
"The Field Of Cosmology"
By Megha Agarwal
Indira Gandhi Delhi technical university for women

Researchers have discovered a galaxy candidate dubbed HD1 that they estimate is 13.5 billion light-years away, which they believe to be the furthest astronomical object yet discovered. That is astonishingly 100 million light-years farther away than the galaxy with the current record, GN-z11!!!!

• Cosmology is a field of astronomy concerned with the origin and evolution of the universe, from the Big Bang to the present and beyond. Cosmology is defined as "the scientific study of the vast scale characteristics of the cosmos as a whole" by NASA.

• The study of the universe's birth, evolution, and ultimate fate is known as cosmology. This involves establishing and improving the current model, the Big Bang hypothesis, examining the rate of expansion of the universe, and detecting radiation left behind from the Big Bang, known as the cosmic microwave background.

• Cosmologists are perplexed by exotic notions such as string theory, dark matter, and dark energy, as well as whether there is only one universe or many (sometimes called the multiverse). While other branches of astronomy deal with specific objects and occurrences or sets of things, cosmology encompasses the entire cosmos from birth to death, with a plethora of mysteries at each stage.

• The cosmological constant was a footnote to history for a while, but it was quietly making plans to reappear. To determine how much the universe's expansion was slowed down by gravity drawing matter inward, two teams of astronomers engaged in a competition in the late 1990s. They published their findings in 1998 and 1999, based on measurements of unique supernovae whose distances could be determined with extreme precision. The most distant of these supernovae turned out to be significantly further away and much fainter than anticipated. The expansion was really accelerating rather than slowing down. As a result of this worrying finding, three of the teams' leaders were awarded the Nobel Prize, and cosmologist Michael Turner came up with the phrase "dark energy" to describe the enigmatic force.

• The issue persisted even when astronomers understood that the cosmos' expansion was speeding up thirty years later. Even while it seemed stunning at the time, the acceleration was still small in comparison to what quantum theory predicted. Reviving the cosmological constant actually made the situation worse. Trying to come up with a reason why the constant might calculate to exactly 0 was one thing. It got harder to comprehend how it could be barely more than nothing.

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11/09/2022

The Fourth entry for , an online writing competition of Cosmic Conclave 3.0.
You can read the rulebook of Cósmica at: https://cosmicconclave.netlify.app/

Entry no. 4
"THE MYSTERIES OF DARK MATTER AND THE UNIVERSE"
By AAKHYAT BAGGA
Delhi Technological University

In our observable universe more is unknown than is known.
in the early 1990s, one thing was fairly certain about the expansion of the universe. It might have enough energy density to stop its expansion and recollapse, and it might have so little energy density that it would never stop expanding, but gravity was certain to slow the expansion as time went on. However, in 1998 Hubble Space Telescope observations of very distant supernovae came that showed the universe was expanding more slowly in the past than it is now. This means despite the presence of the pulling force of gravity in nature expansion rate of the universe was constantly accelerating. To account for this mysterious observation physicists came up with the conclusion that matter is not all that makes up the universe in fact it only makes up 5% of the observable universe! The rest of the universe is composed of dark matter and dark energy. The universe is made of 5% matter that we observe 68% dark energy and 27% dark matter both of which we cant observe but experimental data does show that it exists.

WHAT IS DARK MATTER?

As the name suggests dark matter is “dark” which means it does not interact with any kind of electromagnetic radiation, hence we can't observe it. Also, dark matter does not interact with the normal or “baryonic matter” the only thing through which we can observe dark matter is gravity dark matter is not antimatter, because we cannot observe the gamma rays that are produced when antimatter annihilates with matter. We can also say that dark matter is not a large galaxy-sized black hole on the basis of how many gravitational lenses we see. High concentrations of matter bend light passing near them from objects further away, but we do not see enough lensing events to suggest that such objects make up the required 25% dark matter contribution. Neither this can be neutrinos as neutrinos alone cannot explain the abundance of dark matter in this universe. Then what is it? Scientists have developed several theories which we will discuss later.

EXPERIMENTAL DATA SUPPORTS THE EXISTENCE OF DARK MATTER.

1) EXISTENCE OF GALAXIES AND LARGE-SIZED
CLUSTERS IN THE UNIVERSE
the existence of galaxies and large-sized clusters can be explained by the existence of dark matter. Galaxies move at a very rapid speed and the universe is expanding at unimaginable rates. At these rates, the presence of gravitational forces from the gases in the galaxy alone cannot support it. The mass of the hot gas between the galaxies is far greater than the mass of the stars in all of the galaxies. This normal matter is bound in the cluster by the gravity of an even greater mass of dark matter. Without dark matter, which is invisible and can only be detected through its gravity, the fast-moving galaxies and the hot gas would quickly fly apart.

2) AVERAGE TIME OF COLLISION BETWEEN TWO STARS IN OUR GALAXY
Any galaxy can be collectively thought of as a galactic disc
with a certain radius and no density. Applying this for milky
way galaxy and Using the concept of the mean free path we
can find the average collision between two stars in a milky way
the calculations have been mentioned in one of the photos below.
The average time of collision comes about to be 10^21 years
which is even far greater than the age of our observable
universe!! This shows that even in presence of gravitational
forces existing between stars in a galaxy they don’t very
often collide. This phenomenon can perhaps be explained by
the presence of a dark matter halo within the galaxy that
interacts with gravitational fields and prevents the collision.

3) EXPLANATION OF ROTATION CURVES USING DARK MATTER
The rotation curve of a galaxy tells us about the rotational speeds of spiral galaxies as a function of distance. The orbital speed of stars in a galaxy depends upon the gravitational pull of a galaxy's mass. The more strongly a star is pulled toward the galactic center, the greater it's radial acceleration, and the faster it needs to move to overcome that pull. The galaxy as has long been suspected has at its center a massive black hole, with an estimated mass of around 3 million suns. If the galaxy was held together by the attraction of that mass, and the motion around it was circular, then using Newtonian mechanics, we can say that:

GMm/r^2 = mv^2/r.

Or the rotational velocity is inversely proportional to the square root of radial distance from the galactic center. This implies that as we from away from the galactic center the rotational velocities should decrease. However, in the experimental curve, we obtain we observe that after achieving a peak velocity the velocity remains constant and there is a flattening of the curve most galaxies have a fairly flat rotation curve, meaning outer stars
move about as fast as inner stars. It indicates the presence of Dark Matter or unseen matter which interacts with stars at high radial distances through gravity and provides them with enough kinetic energy.

4)BULLET CLUSTERS AND DARK MATTER
The Bullet Cluster is composed of two clusters of galaxies that collided and moved past each other, though this is not clear when viewing the region solely in visible light. Multi-wavelength observations of the Bullet Cluster provided the first strong observational evidence that dark matter does not interact with normal matter, or with itself, and holds the majority of mass in a galaxy cluster. Astronomers use visible-light images to map the location of the clusters’ mass, based on how the light of background galaxies is warped. Most of that mass is dark matter. X-rays show that the majority of normal matter, in this case, gas, is in a different location than the dark matter of each cluster—it lags behind. This is because the normal matter of the two galaxy clusters collided, while the dark matter sailed through and kept going without interacting at all. Many mysteries remain as to the nature of dark matter, and the Bullet Cluster provides key evidence in a scientific investigation.

Currently there are lot of techniques through which scientist are trying to detect presence of dark matter. For example cryogenic detectors detect temperature change that can be caused by dark matter, gamma detectors are also installed at various laboratories to detect the presence of gamma radiation if dark matter annihilates itself. However, to date, no dark matter has been detected which raises even more questions about dark matter. What dark matter actually is and what it is made of? Scientists have come up with a lot of theories to answer this question. One school of thought categorizes it as W.I.M.P or weakly interacting molecular particles. another school of thought categorizes it under axion an elementary particle that solves the charge parity problem in quantum mechanics. Another major question that arises with dark matter is that can it be used to solve baryogenesis- the asymmetry between matter and anti-matter through which we are alive today. There are a lot of questions for the scientists to figure out but as I said in the beginning more is unknown than is known.

11/09/2022

The Third entry for , an online writing competition of Cosmic Conclave 3.0.
You can read the rulebook of Cósmica at: https://cosmicconclave.netlify.app/

Entry no. 3
"Dark Matter"
By Shreya Biswas
Institute of Home Economics

"Our universe is Dark"

Reality hits dark

We all have darkness within us. It may sound creepy and you may not believe it but it's a fact. We all have dark thoughts, dark dreams that are buried deep within us that may or may not influence our everyday life. Our universe is no less, there is more to what we see and that invisible thing is what we are going to explore ahead

Do you know that 95% of our universe is Dark matter !

This dark matter is called dark because we can't see it with our eyes and it is invisible to us but it is present from the very start. Consider it just like a ghost that is present in your dark room. It's scary know?

We feel its presence

Scientists study dark matter by looking at the effects it has on visible objects. Scientists believe that dark matter may account for the unexplained motions of stars within galaxies. Computers play an important role in the search for dark matter information. They allow scientists to create models which predict galaxy behavior. Satellites are also being used to gather dark matter information.
In 1997, a Hubble Space Telescope image revealed light from a distant galaxy cluster being bent by another cluster in the foreground of the image. Based on the way the light was bent, scientists estimated the mass of the foreground cluster to be 250 times greater than the visible matter in the cluster. Scientists believe that dark matter in the cluster accounts for the unexplained mass.

Don't you think it's cool? Or Hot maybe?

These terms refer to the temperature of the particles, but to the speed at which the dark matter particles were moving when the galaxies began to form billions of years ago. According to computer models, there are two possibilities for how dark matter would have been behaving at that time depending on exactly how and when it formed. Cold dark matter would have been moving slowly by the time of galaxy formation; hot dark matter would still have been moving quickly.

Existence

Well, it was earlier considered Baryonic matter can make up dark matter if it were all tied up in brown dwarfs or in small, dense chunks of heavy elements. These possibilities are known as massive compact halo objects, or "MACHOs". But the most common view is that dark matter is not baryonic at all, but that it is made up of other, more exotic particles like axions or WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles).

Conclusion

The mystery of Dark matter is still a work in progress just like Dormammu in the MCU series. But what we do know is that Dark matter is very much prevalent and is affecting and influencing our universe in ways we can't even think about.

References:

https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question59.html

11/09/2022

The Second entry for , an online writing competition of Cosmic Conclave 3.0.
You can read the rulebook of Cósmica at: https://cosmicconclave.netlify.app/

Entry no. 2
"Auroras"
By Sejal Mansoori
Indraprastha College for Women

"In a world full of sunsets, be the Northern Lights”

Introduction

Aurora refers to the dazzling natural light present at the poles, also known as Polar lights shining in the Earth’s sky, primarily found in the region of high altitudes. Aurora is a Latin word, which means sunrise, is the personification of the goddess of Rome of the dawn sister of the sun and the moon, who traveled on her chariot east to west announcing the arrival of the sun, which is used to refer to the alluring light of the northern and southern hemispheres. In 1619, amazed by this dazzling phenomenon Italian astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei coined the term
Aurora Borealis for the luminous lights in the north pole, where Borealis is derived from the name of the ancient god of the north wind, Boreas, likewise, for the south, it is termed Aurora Australis, where Australis came from the name of the ancient god of the south wind. Auroras can traverse the entire sky with various shapes of astonishing light that seem like curtains, beams, spirals, or dynamic flickers.
Aurora mainly occurs in a band called the Auroral zone, which is naturally 3° to 6° wide in latitude and between 10° and 20° from the Earth’s geomagnetic poles and is most clearly seen at night. The aurora australis is visible mainly in areas of high southern latitudes such as Antarctica, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. The region that exhibits auroras is called the Auroral oval.

Mythology

There have been various folklores associated with aurora over time. Aurora was adored by Vikings in Norse mythology from northern Europe and the North Atlantic since they were considered to be earthly embodiments of God, whereas other people were frightened and saw them as a threat, forming superstition to protect them. In Finland, they are referred to as “revontulet”, which literally means firefox and according to one finish folklore, the lights are generated by a mystical fox waving his tail across the snow and releasing sparks up into the sky.

The Heaven-to-Eye Phenomenon

The phenomenon of Aurora is created due to the Sun, a hot ball of various gases, high-energy charged particles i.e ions, and the solar wind which is used to describe the ions that continuously emanate from the sun. Most of the solar wind is blocked by the Earth's magnetic field in the magnetosphere, or else the peaceful atmosphere would be lost preventing life. Even though the majority of solar wind is blocked but some ions get trapped in the ionosphere centered around the earth's geomagnetic pole. These energetic particles follow the earth's magnetic field directed toward the magnetic poles. In the ionosphere region near the poles, the ions collide with atmospheric gases like oxygen and nitrogen atom, which results in the emission of enchanting, colorful energy in the form of light in the sky at the poles called Aurora.
Basically, this heaven-to-eyes phenomenon occurs when high-energy charged particles radiated from the sun, collide with atmospheric atoms at high altitudes, which excite these atoms to emit photons, visible to us in the bluish-green color from the “visible region” of the electromagnetic spectrum leading to these mesmerizing lights in the skies of the Northern and Southern poles.

Interesting Properties

The pattern of the aurora is determined by where the ions originated from in the magnetosphere and what led them to precipitate into the atmosphere. Hence, we may view several shapes on the same night.
The color depends on the altitudes where the atoms are colliding with solar wind on the earth. In the region of high altitude when the ions collide with the oxygen, they produce red color which is a rare occurrence, while the most common color is green which is displayed when ions collide with the atoms of oxygen and red color at lower altitude. The color of the aurora varies on the gas that is being excited by the electrons and the amount of energy exchanged. Frequently, reddish and blueish light become visible at the periphery of the aurora due to high-energy charged particles colliding with the nitrogen, blue and purple color is produced when they hit helium and hydrogen atoms.
This mystical phenomenon is not only limited to earth. In the 1960s with the help of the Hubble telescope, we found that aurora is shown on other planets as well. With the help of NASA’s Cassini aircraft, it is shown that a similar curtain like aurora is displayed on Saturn with red at the bottom and purple at the top with the perspective of human eyes.

Recent Activities

Recently, there has been a video circulating that aurora explosion called substorm(link) in Alaska has become viral, where the aurora brightens for a brief interval of time and extends equatorward. Substorms mainly go through three phases, expansion, break up, and recovery. This majestic view results in a whole green sky.

Beginning with Earth’s magnetosphere protecting us from the solar wind, and making life possible on earth along with years of evolution. how we homosapiens as a species are lucky to be able to become part of this process, able to witness this surreal phenomenon by ourselves, Auroras, the gorgeous lights of north and south creating a grandiose view.

Reference

❖ https://www.academia.edu/11079477/AURORA_essay
❖ https://www.amnh.org/explore/videos/space/space-weather-storms-from-the-
sun/essay-auroras
❖ https://quornesha.com/2015/12/12/the-symbolic-meaning-of-aurora-6262/
❖ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora
❖ https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/aurora
❖ https://global.hurtigruten.com/inspiration/experiences/northern-lights/myths-
legends/
❖ https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/11658/jupiter-aurora/
❖ https://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/polar/telecons/archive/PR_E-PO/Aurora_flyer/aur
ora-flyer_p2.doc.pdf
❖ https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Solar-wind-magnetic-field-interacts-the-
Earths-magnetic-field-Credit-NASA_fig6_326622449
❖ https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChpPgAzlO7n/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig
_rid=7467f27f-d259-4b40-8b9f-d8f79308fc80
"

11/09/2022

The first entry for , an online writing competition of Cosmic Conclave 3.0.

You can read the rulebook of Cósmica at : https://cosmicconclave.netlify.app/

Entry no. 1
"Space Weather"
By Kirti Tomar
Indira Gandhi National Open University

Introduction:-

Did you ever hear the term space weather? Most of us might have no idea about this term. Let us try to decode and learn more about it Like we have different weather here on our Planet Earth, similarly, space does have weather too, but it is quite different from what we have here on the ground. Unlike here on earth, Space doesn't rain, doesn't snow but wait, Space has winds. What, What? Does Space have winds?
Well yes, Space does have winds, a flow of something really hot that can bake your pizza in just a few nanoseconds. You thought space weather is pleasant and astronauts can finally romance? Ha-ha...
So, we got to know that there is space weather but in the form of winds, any idea what are these winds or Where is it coming from? Well, these winds are nothing but million-degree hot Breeze comprised of high-energy charged particles or so-called plasma which creates a sort of weather in space that we all call as space weather.
These wind impacts are extremely strong enough to reach the Earth’s upper atmosphere to create beautiful auroras while a high-intensity wind can affect the technology systems like satellite-based positioning, high-frequency radio communications, navigation, electric power, and so on. Moreover, space weather can also come in the form of radio blackouts, geomagnetic storms, and solar radiation storms caused by the Sun.

Do we have any technology to forecast the Space weather?

Like we have been forecasting weather here on Earth, similarly, we have a forecasting system for space weather too. Let me introduce you to the technology called NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) which is the official source for space weather forecasts for the Nation. Well, they forecast solar storms, the same as National weather forecasts weather on Earth. The Space weather Prediction Center forecasters use mainly ground-based instruments and satellites to monitor the Sun, warnings, and alerts if anything happens in the future or dangerous space weather events.

How do we predict the Space weather condition?

Well, there are some Space Weather Scales for communicating the condition of space weather storms. To predict these storms, space weather forecasters continuously watch the Sun for solar flares and coronal mass ejections. We know, that Solar flares are massive explosions on the Sun's surface. They arise near sunspots and release a wide spectrum of photons such as X-Rays, visible light, and ultraviolet light. The biggest solar storms arise from coronal mass ejections or CME. It is an enormous release of plasma from the Sun and contains billions of solar particles as well as the magnetic field that binds them. The velocity of a coronal mass ejection can even exceed 5 million miles per hour!

Does the Space Weather affect Earth?

Well, the answer to this question is obvious, it does impact Earth in many forms. We do know that the Earth's magnetic field helps to protect us from the effects of solar storms and ultraviolet rays, but how can space weather affect the Earth? The Strong solar storms can cause the fluctuations of electrical currents in space which directly impact the power grid on Earth and energize electrons and protons trapped in Earth's varying magnetic field.
These disturbances can cause problems with radio communications, power grids, Global Navigation Satellite Systems such as (Global Positioning Systems -GPS), and satellites. We all are dependent on satellites like cell phones, TV, search, weather prediction, rescue, navigation, military surveillance, credit card, space travel, ATM transactions, and many more. What if all those satellites were damaged? We are becoming more and more dependent on technology so the need for space weather monitoring and forecasting becomes more important in this generation.
The communication from the ground to the satellite can affect by the Space weather which can reflect, refract, or absorb the radio waves. This includes radio signals from GPS satellites and makes them less accurate. It can easily affect the Earth’s surface and enhanced the currents. The currents can damage the electrical transformers causing the loss of power failures.
Let me tell you one thing, a storm in 1989 solar maximum caused a massive power outage in Canada when transformers failed in Quebec. This geomagnetic storm caused a nine-hour outage of the Hydroelectricity transmission system. It has been said that if a geomagnetic storm like 1859 hit today (the largest storm hit ever on Earth), then a large number of North American power grids could be disabled, and the estimated recovery times of months to years and financial losses of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Well, we can discuss a lot about this and can go too deep into that, but I guess first we need to understand the basic portion of the topic and what the storm is capable to do. Hope you like the article and learn many things.

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06/09/2022

Hola the astrophilics
“When I first looked back at the earth , standing on the moon , I cried 🥺”
With this feeling instilled in our mind , the *Cosmology Club & DEPTH* is coming up with its exciting activities in the arena of *Cosmic Conclave 3.0*

Cosmic Conclave is now bigger and better than ever with 5 gripping events and competitions waiting for you to knock on their door.

Don’t delay and miss the chance ,register yourself on our website given below and challenge your prowess : http://cosmicconclave.netlify.app/

**Certificates will be provided to all the winners along with exciting rewards and prizes worth 20k**

Stay tuned with the amaze of cosmic conclave 3.0 🌟🌟

03/09/2022

Heyo People!

"Remember to look up at the stars 🤫 and not down at your feet."

With this quote in mind Cosmology Club & Depth is coming up with it's first Offline Event - *Cosmic Conclave 3.0 💫*

Multiple fun activities await for your participation while we honour Teacher's week

You get a chance to win exciting prizes

08/04/2022

🌌The newsletter is here🌌
Hola!!,Cosmo-Geeks 👨‍🚀
The newsletter of March is here with all the enthralling news and facts about the cosmic world that will give you chills right from the start.
The newsletter includes :

1) Tiny stellar co**se
2) First image from the James Webb Telescope
3) Gaia's Discovery
4) A galaxy with two giant black holes in its centre
5) Mysterious structures in the Milky Way
6) Wormholes

Kindly enjoy the newsletter and keep stargazing🌠🌠
Until next month !!