• Question: is there anything suspicous in space ?

    Asked by sinead18 to Colin on 11 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Colin Johnston

      Colin Johnston answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      I don’t really get the question. Apart from dozens of admitted spy satellites the US, China and Russia all have a few satellites up there for unknown (to the public) reasons, presumably all for some kind of snooping mission.

      The American Air Force’s X-37, a tiny winged craft, is particular odd as it stays up for years at a time then comes back. What it does up there is unknown outside the Pentagon.

Comments

  • Photo: Colin

    Colin commented on :

    A Faraday cage is basically a hollow metal box or cage. Metals are conductors of electricity with freely moving electrons in them.
    If an external object with a positive electrical charge approaches the cage, the negatively-charged electrons are drawn to that external object. Electrons with the same charge towards the external object are repelled and move away from the object. Or if the external object has a negative charge the electrons are repelled by it. This movement of charges is called electrostatic induction.
    With the external charged object present, one side of the cage ends up with a negative charge and the opposite side with a positive charge. The result is an opposing electric field that cancels out the field of the external object’s charge inside the cage. The net electric charge inside the cage is zero.
    The opposing electric field does have the important effect of shielding the inside of the cage from exterior static electric charges and also from electromagnetic radiation, like radio waves and microwaves, if the conductor is thick enough and any holes are significantly smaller than the radiation’s wavelength.
    Faraday cages are very important in testing electronic devices as they block radio, wifi and cell phone signals from interfering with the device under test.

    I hope this helps you.

  • Photo: Abi

    Abi commented on :

    I really like astronomy but I find it scary!! I would like the world to live forever and not be hit by a random meteorite…

  • Photo: Supersteve

    Supersteve commented on :

    Don’t worry. The chances of being hit by a meteorite is very slim

  • Photo: fedora_bloke

    fedora_bloke commented on :

    also if u die from it at leaast youll be ded