Studying the Early Days of the Solar System: What NASA's Recent Lucy Mission Might Teach Us
NASA's latest monumental launch will bring us evidence about the solar system's origins
Asteroids have fascinated humans for thousands of years. In the media, they're typically portrayed as the "bombs" of space, so to speak, the catalysts in events of large-scale destruction. The end of the dinosaurs and the moon's dented surface are two examples that might come to mind. To astrophysicists, however, they have another significance: they have been around since the dawn of the solar system, and their location and composition can tell us a lot about the solar system's beginnings. NASA's recent Lucy mission was launched in an aim to learn more about the dawn of the solar system by analyzing these rocky remnants.
Launched today (October 16th, 2021), the Lucy Mission will be exploring asteroids for the next 12 years. Named after the 3.2-million-year old human fossil uncovered in 2015, it's aim is to analyze the fossils of our solar system. It will explore the Trojan asteroids, two clusters of asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit. The Trojan asteroids are separated in two groups, so in order to explore both clusters, the Lucy mission will be returning to Earth's orbit 3 times for assistance in trajectory changes, making it the first spacecraft to ever return to Earth from beyond the asteroid belt.
Built by Lockheed Martin over the course of 14 months, the Lucy probe utilizes 3 heritage instruments: the L'Ralph, a camera that operates on the visible and infrared spectrums, the L'LORRI (Long Range Reconnaissance Imager), a telescopic camera used for taking pictures from afar that will provide details of craters and hills on the asteroid's surfaces, and the L'TES (Thermal Emission Spectrometer) which Lockheed Martin's page on the probe describes as "the world's most sophisticated thermometer", capable of taking temperature measurements at an asteroid's surface which it can then use to construct detailed images of an asteroid's surface properties. These technologies combined with the power of two massive solar powers and a set of 14 thrusters form a machine ideal for exploring the far reaches of our solar system.
The information collected by the Lucy probe will make or break our theories about the formation of the solar system and planets. "No spacecraft has visited so many objects before, and each is a potential window into the material and conditions of the early solar system", said astrophysicist Alan Duffy of the Lucy mission. The current most popular theory is that the planets bounced around for some time before settling in their final orbits. If it's found, for example, that the Trojans are similar in composition to our own moon, that would suggest that the moon and the Trojans originated as a single body and were separated and scattered to their current positions as a result of said "bouncing around", supporting our current theory. If, however, they share the composition of Jupiter's moons, our current theory would seem much less plausible.
These insights into the early days of our solar system are directly connected to the origin of life and, by extension, our own origin. Learning about the origin of our solar system and home planet is crucial to understanding how life might exist elsewhere in the universe. It's important that we continue to push the boundaries of space exploration in order to learn more about our own place in an incomprehensibly vast universe.
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By Isaac Shapi6 days ago in Earth
LUNCH
today on the meal prep series we're making sweet and sour chicken this is a high protein dish and tastes absolutely incredible starting out we're going to get our rice on I know I do Rice quite often on these meal preps and you can change it up which I'll leave a few details about in the description but we're gonna go with 300 grams of washed basmati rice 600 milliliters of cold water and a bit of sea salt flakes to taste give it a stir to break up any clums and then bring it to a boil place on a lid reduce the heat to low and then just let this simmer away for 14 minutes undisturbed the prep for the sweet and sour chicken is really simple we're going to need three bell peppers or capsicums for my Australian friends these can be sliced in half and then just pick out the seeds and the pith with your fingers give it a bang on the bench to remove any excess seeds as for these just give them a quick slice up rotate them 90 degrees and then dice into large chunks leaving us with all of this and this can just be placed in a bowl and mixed together next is one brown or yellow onion this is about medium size just slice off both ends slice it in half and then just peel off that skin you can save all of these scraps for a stock place it on a half moon position and then just thinly slice the whole way across laying it flat about three quarters of the way through just to continue slicing it safely the onion can also be added to the bowl with the bell peppers or capsicums and then just give this a good mix of your hands just to break up any of the layers of onion moving on we're going to need four cloves of garlic and 15 grams of Ginger both of these can be run along a fine Micro plane to create a paste and you can mix these together which is completely fine and I will also mention that all of the weight conversions are in the description as well now as for the protein I went for chicken breast it was a lot cheaper at the time you can definitely use chicken thigh for this recipe which I'll leave details about in the description this weighs 1.4 kilos and these are quite big breasts and we can just slice these into strips rotate them 90 degrees and then just dice into large even sized Pieces Just making sure that they are the same size that way they'll cook at the same time as for the sweet and sour sauce add 125 milliliters of light or low sodium soy sauce to a mixing bowl for that nice Umami flavor 80 milliliters of store-bought pineapple juice don't use fresh for this recipe the enzymes in the fresh pineapple will break down the corn flour and won't allow it to thicken 80 grams of Honey to add sweetness a lot of recipes use sugar but I'm going with a healthier option instead 40 milliliters of Worcestershire sauce for an increased depth of flavor and a really nice Umami touch to increase the acidity add 40 milliliters of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar if you can't consume alcohol we're then going in with 40 milliliters of tomato sauce this is going to add a really nice Tangy flavor and a nice little subtle sweetness and then finally our thickening agent which is 12 grams of corn flour and you can use cornstarch as well with that all together we can then give this a whisk for those flavors that become friends just ensuring we break up the corn flour or starch and then just pop this aside going back to the rice that was doing its thing whilst we were prepping all the other stuff this can then be turned off the heat but leave the lid on for a final four minutes then we're going to remove the lid and then fluff this up with a fork or spatula just to break up all the individual grains making sure nothing's stuck together and then remove it from the stovetop like always this is the macros or the nutrition for the basmati rice including the portion weights as well moving on we're going to make the sweet and sour chicken place a large pan or pot over a high heat we're going to add in 30 milliliters of grapeseed oil or any neutral flavored oil of your choice add in the onions and bell peppers sprinkle of sea salt flakes to taste and then we're going to a this for about four minutes moving it around regularly during this time we're going to get a nice color onto this the bell peppers are going to add that nice Smoky flavor that they add and the onions will start to caramelize then we can remove this from the stovetop and then just transfer it into a plate placing the same pan or pot back over a high heat added another 20 milliliters of grapeseed oil or any neutral flavored oil add in the chicken when the panel pot is nice and hot along with a nice pinch of sea salt flakes to taste and then spread this out just so the chicken's not sitting all on top of one another if your pounder pot is too small I recommend doing this in batteries as well and this can then just be seared for three minutes to get a nice brown color on the outer edges after three minutes this can be given a good mix around and we're just going to continue cooking for another three minutes the color doesn't matter too much because the sauce will add a really nice color to it also you might get a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan if this does happen I do recommend draining it off otherwise the chicken will Steam and then it will become like rubber like I said you can use chicken thighs which I'll leave all of the details about in the description after six minutes in total add in the garlic and ginger paste and mix this around to cook for 45 seconds all we need to do here is just break up that making sure that it's not clamped up just to get the infusion into the chicken next add in the or stir-fried veggies mixing it again for another 30 to 40 seconds just to get the flavor of those veggies mixed into the chicken or in other words the flavors can become friends with that all done we can then add in the sweet and sour sauce making sure to give it a little whisk before we add it in because the corn flour can sit at the bottom then we're just going to bring this to a boil and cook for two minutes which will make the corn flour or starch react thickening it up really well and getting everything coated in that delicious sauce there's not a whole lot to this it's really really simple just mix and stir until the sauce is thickened up lastly this is completely optional just add in a couple of sesame seeds honestly I didn't even weigh them it's probably about a tablespoon's worth just give these a quick mix through until everything's mixed really well and then we can turn this off the heat and remove it from the stovetop and like always the sweet and sour chicken macros as well as the portion sizes as for serving up you would have seen in the macro cards throughout the video I did actually put the portion weights in there but if you want to make your life easier just portion everything by five if you have a little bit of leftover sauce make sure to top it off between the five and then we can garnish with spring onion or scallion chili or even more sesame seeds it's up to you but we're then left with these absolutely delicious sweet and sour chicken and that soft fluffy basmati rice the macros offer the complete dish you can see the whites and all the calories fats carbs and proteins storage on these they will last up to four days in the fridge and four months in the freezer if you're using the meal prep containers that I have they do come with a vacuum pump and this will actually extract the air reducing oxidization and it will last an extra day in the fridge which is really cool I'm not trying to sell you something but there is a link in the description if you are interested I just want to help you guys out once all of that's done we're then left with the best part and we can then dig in you'll probably never guessed this but it is actually sweet and sour this is a really good recipe tastes really really nice it's super easy to make and it's quite cheap as well and will last you the week or the weeks ahead depending on how you store it once again I just want to thank you all so so much for all of the love and support we hit 500 000 subscribers it is literally a dream come true for me every single day and I can't thank you all enough so thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one
By Timothy Mwitiabout 14 hours ago in Earth
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