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www.planck-magazine.it
Quadrim. n. 1 - January 2014 - Euro _
WHAT IS
? T H LIG
PHOTONS AND LASERS An
INTERVIEW with a
SCIENTIST EXPERIMENTS Make your own
CAMERA OBSCURA
TRIP! S C I COM
es of r u t n e v The ad ND MAX! A MARIE
ABOUT US My name is Petra, and I’m a Hi, my name is Anna! primary school teacher. I revise I’ve studied Foreign the contents of PLaNCK! In this Languages and Literatures picture, I represent Hypatia: a at university. I translate mathematician, an astronomer, the contents of PLaNCK! and a philosopher. She was into English. In this also one of the first female picture, I represent Rita teachers in Ancient Greece. Levi-Montalcini, who made important discoveries on how the brain works.
Hi, everyone! My name is Andrea, and I’ve studied Political Science at university. After graduation, I began my career as a journalist. I work for a newspaper. The scientist I’ve chosen is Albert Einstein, who discovered the Theory of Relativity.
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My name is Marta, and I’m a physicist! At university, I use electrons to build really small objects. In this picture, I represent Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, the first woman in the world to receive a degree.
Hi, my name is Stefano! I’m a mathematician with a passion for graphics. I manage PLaNCK!’s graphics and layout. In this picture, I represent Niccolò Tartaglia, an Italian mathematician known for the famous “Tartaglia’s triangle”.
My name is Gianluca, and I’m a materials scientist. I make light play with special crystals. I also write articles for PLaNCK! The scientist I represent is Richard Feynman, the father of nanotechnology.
Hi! My name is Bianca! I make animated cartoons for children. In this picture, I represent Maria Sibylla Merian, a German naturalist and illustrator. She loved drawing and painting, just like me!
Hello, my name is Maurizio! I’ve studied History at university. I write stories for PLaNCK! In this picture, I represent Zeno of Elea, a Greek philosopher famous for his paradoxes of motion.
My name is Agnese, and I’m a materials scientist. I build really small objects that can ‘capture’ DNA. In this picture, I represent Rosalind Franklin, a scientist who made important discoveries about DNA.
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X A M D N A IE R A M F O S E R THE ADVENTU
Meet our characters My name is Max, and I’m Marie’s brother! I’m six and a half years old. I like playing and experimenting with everything. Sometimes, I get into trouble, and I drive my sister crazy! I also play the piano, and I enjoy spending time with Planck, Grandma’s new little monkey. He’s very curious and playful!
Max and Planck Hi, my name is Marie! I’m eleven years old, and I’m curious about new discoveries. I like to understand how things work, and my intuitions often prove correct! My brother carries out experiments, but he often gets into trouble, so I must always keep an eye on him!
Marie sa Grandma Ro I am Marie and Max’s grandmother! Everyone in my family thinks I’m strange, solitary, and grouchy. In fact, nobody knows who I really am, and what my true passion is.
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GRANDMA’S SECRET MARIE AND MAX ARE PLAYING IN THE GARDEN, WHEN SUDDENLY...
OH, MUM, I DON’T WANT TO GO TO GRANDMA’S. I DON’T LIKE HER; SHE’S BORING.
BEHAVE, AND DON’T MAKE GRANDMA ANGRY! SEE YOU TONIGHT.
MARIE! MAX! GET READY... WE’RE GOING TO GRANDMA’S!
GRANDMA IS STRANGE AND SOLITARY. WE NEVER HAVE FUN AT HER HOUSE!
THAT’S NOT TRUE. SHE’S MYSTERIOUS BUT SHE’S REALLY NICE.
COME ON, MAX! STOP COMPLAINING. GRANDMA IS NICE.
WE ALWAYS BEHAVE, BUT GRANDMA GETS ANGRY ANYWAY!
OH, GRANDMA... YOU ARE SO HAIRY!
HAHA! OH, MARIE... THAT IS PLANCK, GRANDMA’S NEW LITTLE MONKEY!
E L B B U
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AMONG THE STARS TO STUDY THE UNIVERSE! Hubble is a telescope similar to the one Galileo used. Unlike Galileo’s device, Hubble is in space, and revolves around the Earth. From space, it can see planets, stars, and galaxies much better than any other telescope. Hubble is close to celestial objects, but this is not the reason why it can ‘see’ so well. This space telescope can ‘see’ so clearly, because it is situated above the Earth’s atmosphere. Our planet’s atmosphere behaves like fog: it distorts and obscures images. The name Hubble was chosen in honour of Edwin Hubble, a famous American scientist.
SOLAR ENERGY Hubble requires energy to function, and uses solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity. You can see solar panels on many house roofs, too. Solar energy is stored inside rechargeable batteries, so that Hubble can work in the dark, too. This is very useful, because the Earth’s shadow darkens half of the path travelled by Hubble as it revolves around our planet.
EVEN TELESCOPES BREAK DOWN! In order to upgrade and repair Hubble, five space missions were conducted between 1993 and 2009. During these missions, astronauts repaired and/or replaced damaged instruments with new ones. Only “space mechanics” can do that!
Photographs courtesy of http://hubblesite.org/
ASTRONOMICAL NUMBERS! Space Shuttle Discovery (see photo) carried Hubble into orbit on April 24 1990. Since then, Hubble has taken over 700 thousand photographs. Hubble is in an orbit about 560 kilometres above our heads. Just think that Mt. Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, is almost 9 kilometres in height! Hubble completes a rotation around the Earth in 97 minutes, moving at a speed of nearly 30 thousand kilometres per hour. It could travel from Milan to Rome in one minute! Hubble weighs 11 tonnes, measures 13 and a half metres in length, and is 4.2 metres wide.
EXTRAORDINARY IMAGES Nowadays, thanks to Hubble images, scientists know and understand many new interesting facts about the Universe. This way, scholars now know the answers to a lot of questions. They also know how stars are born and how they die, how galaxies evolve, and what black holes are. Thanks to Hubble, we also know that there are planets that revolve around stars really far away from us. (In the picture on the right you can see the Black Eye Galaxy, photographed by Hubble.)
A TELESCOPE WITH MIRRORS Unlike Galileo’s telescope, Hubble does not use lenses to magnify the objects it observes. Instead, it uses two concave mirrors that reflect light, and focus it into a ‘detector’. This ‘detector’ is a sort of special photo camera that captures images, and transmits them to a ground station with the help of a computer and antennas.