Innehållsförteckning för March 2021 från Muse: The magazine of science, culture, and smart laughs for kids and children

Cecilia clutched her best gloves, adjusted her earmuffs, and rushed to meet the other girls in the foyer of her dormitory. She did not want to risk being late and having to walk past the male students seated in the dining hall. She feared that the boys who stomped in time to her steps each time she attended physics class would do the same at tonight’s lecture. It would be a price worth paying to hear Arthur Eddington recount the details of his recent eclipse expedition, a scientific triumph that would surely make 1919 a turning point in the history of astronomy. But if she didn’t have to endure that humiliation, all the better. She was lucky to be going at all. Of the 500 tickets available, women received only…

“I think we are not alone,” says Avi Loeb. We haven’t found any alien life yet. But Loeb, an astrophysicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, thinks that alien life forms exist out there in the cosmos, somewhere. Many other experts agree. If life could arise here on Earth, it makes sense that a similar process would take place elsewhere (or elsewhen). The universe is so vast that it takes light 200,000 years just to cross our galaxy. And ours is one of millions of galaxies, each containing around 100 billion planets. That’s a nearly unimaginable amount of space in which life could potentially exist. The universe is also around 13.8 billion years old. If you imagine that time span as a single year, then humanity has only existed for…

1) Once it is pandemic-safe, Sara Seager recommends that you look for local telescope nights and star parties. These are often hosted at local universities. There are also star party listings on skyandtelescope.org under the Community tab. From local rooftop galas with telescopes and BBQ, to special public invitations to major observatories, events happen all over the country. 2) You don’t have to wait to participate in research on zooniverse.org. There are many projects in their SPACE category that need your help. You don’t need any special training, and you can contribute to real academic research. Researchers are collecting floods of information, and everyone can play a part in helping manage it. 3) Check out the Education offerings at the SETI Institute (seti.org), including the Stuck at Home Toolkit. You…

Scientists estimate there may be as many as 300 million planets in our Milky Way galaxy that hold the possibility of extraterrestrial life. These planets orbit stars that have similar age, temperature, and size to our sun, meaning they get around the same amount of light, heat, and energy as Earth does. With these conditions, they might have liquid water and other important chemicals for life on their surfaces. If a planet has all of these requirements in place, might we live there, too, someday? That’s a tricky question to answer. Before we can test out our ability to live on another planet, we need to figure out how to live through what will be the longest trip ever, perhaps taking a cue from certain members of the Animal Kingdom.…

ALTON SPENCER HELPED DISCOVER A NEW EXOPLANET—when he was in high school! And TOI-700d wasn’t just any exoplanet. It was the first Earth-sized one orbiting in the habitable zone of its star. Alton found it while helping to look through data gathered by TESS, a NASA space telescope that scans the sky for signs of exoplanets. “I’ve been interested in astronomy nearly my entire life,” says Alton. In eighth grade, he joined a citizen science project called Planet Hunters. (It’s now called Planet Hunters TESS.) The project trains regular people to look through space telescope data for evidence of exoplanets. “Citizen science is essentially members of the public contributing to the science,” says Alton. Space telescopes like TESS gather such a huge amount of data that human scientists don’t have…

My name is Halina, pronounced Huh-LEE-nah. Unlike many other Muse fans, I am not a dragon. I am not a queen or princess, either. I am simply a 13-year-old girl trying to get through life, a lot of times relying on Muse to get through it. You want to know more about me? Here you go: I have brown hair and brown eyes. I don’t think love is gross, in fact I enjoy reading romance. I am a complete nerd. I love the Harry Potter series and the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. I write stories and songs to help get me through life. I’m very much like Hermione Granger. There, now you know most everything about me. Now I’m going to explain why I chose to write to…

In 1879, Williamina Fleming was in immediate need of a job. She had left her native Scotland and arrived in Massachusetts with her husband less than a year earlier. Shortly after learning that she was pregnant, her husband had abandoned her. She was hired to be a housemaid by Edward Pickering, the director of the Harvard College Observatory (HCO). Pickering’s astute wife quickly realized their clever young housemaid had a talent for mathematics that was being wasted on dusting and ironing. At his wife’s urging, Pickering hired Fleming to be a human “computer.” Fleming and the other “computers” did the calculations astronomers needed to follow the motions of stars and planets, predict eclipses, and solve other problems. Before the invention of electronic calculators, most of the math had to be…

How have clever planet hunters found more than 4,000 exoplanets? It’s a lot harder than just pointing a telescope at the sky and waiting for an exoplanet to show up. This guide explains the four methods that have bagged the most extrasolar worlds. 1 Transit Method: When an exoplanet passes in front of the star it is orbiting, it blocks out a tiny fraction of the star’s light. In this diagram, the blue planet is crossing (or “transiting”) in front of the red star. The brightness decreases at time 2, when the planet moves in front of the star. The star stays dimmer until the planet finishes its transit. Telescopes can detect this decrease in brightness. By measuring how much the brightness dips and for how long, astronomers can get…

It’s a glorious autumn Saturday afternoon in Tucson, Arizona, and the football stadium is packed! Arizona Stadium, home of the Wildcats football team, is rocking with about 30,000 cheering fans. But few of them have any idea what’s happening just below their feet. In a (not so) secret laboratory beneath the stadium, the search for exoplanets is just beginning. Take a winding metal staircase down three stories and the noise of the raucous football crowd slowly fades, replaced by the soft but relentless hum of machines working around the clock. Open a pair of heavy soundproof doors and you’ll find yourself in a room the size of an airplane hangar. It’s filled with enough gizmos and gadgets to make any mad scientist green with envy. This is the Richard F.…

Q: Does your sense of hearing, smell, and touch become better after you go blind? —Linus G., age 11, Pennsylvania A: In the past, some philosophers claimed that blind people had “supernormal” powers of hearing and touch. Today, it’s a common trope in stories to have a blind character with some kind of super-sense ability: one of the most famous is the blind superhero Daredevil, who hears pigeons fluttering whole city blocks away from him, and tracks evildoers with his super-smell. So maybe it’s no wonder that this is a common question, according to L. Penny Rosenblum, the Director of Research for the American Foundation for the Blind. But, she says, the answer is no: “People who have visual impairments do not have better hearing. Since they cannot rely on…

About 4.6 billion years ago, a cloud of dust and gas in space began contracting due to gravity. The cloud was mostly hydrogen gas with a little helium and traces of other elements, like carbon, oxygen, and silicon. As it contracted, it started to spin. The center of the cloud grew hotter and denser. Eventually the temperature and pressure at the center were so great that the hydrogen began smashing together, forming helium. This process is called nuclear fusion. These reactions produced enormous amounts of light and heat. A star was born. That star was our sun. Small clumps of dust and pebbles were left over, still spinning around the sun in the cloud. As the clumps spun, they bumped into other clumps. Because of gravity, the clumps often stuck…

The sleep-capsule looks like a metal coffin. “There’s nothing to be scared of, Emma,” says Mom. “I know.” I’ve been training on the ship Star Moth for four months. I definitely know all about frog-sleep, and a thousand other topics about space colonization meant to prepare me for a life circling Boreas, an ice-planet on the other side of the galaxy. I know that all the other kids on Star Moth are excited about this prospect. I know that I haven’t made any friends. I haven’t wanted to make any friends. I don’t want to leave Manchester Prime. I thought, perhaps, that if my parents saw how unhappy I am about leaving, they might change their minds. That hasn’t happened, though. I glance outside and see the fluttering solar sails,…

NEW CONTEST Charting a New World There are thousands of exoplanets out there—and you’re tasked with exploring one of them up close. What is it composed of, and what does it look like? What makes it special? Send us a map of your alien world, with important landmarks and features marked. And, of course, name your newly discovered world! We’ll publish all the particulars of the most extraordinary extrasolar planets. CONTEST RULES 1. Your contest entry must be your very own original work. Ideas and words should not be copied. 2. Be sure to include your name, age, and full address on your entry. 3. Only one entry per person, please. 4. If you want your work returned, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. 5. All entries must be signed by…