The Week in Space and Physics
On time crystals, the James Webb and the Solar System, Comet Leonard and a new age of Russian space tourism
The very name sounds fantastical, almost magical, like some extraordinary contraption belonging to science fiction or the far future. Yet time crystals are, scientists have found, real things: quantum states that repeat endlessly, never losing energy or grinding to a halt. And they are, indeed, extraordinary – seeming, somehow, to defy fundamental laws of nature.
Crystals – the regular kind that is – are molecules that take on a regular and repeating structure. A crystal of salt, for example, is made of atoms arranged in neat patterns, all bonded to each other in a tidy and repetitive way. The repetition – the essence of a crystal – takes place in physical space but, unless something changes, is unchanging in time.
Almost a decade ago, Frank Wilczek – winner of the Nobel Prize – suggested that some quantum objects might repeat in time, rather than space. An arrangement of atoms could, for example, flip between two different patterns, over and over again. As in a crystal, this is a repeating structure – but unlike any normal crystal, the repetition happens in time, not space.
At first the idea was regarded with some scepticism. Time crystals sound rather like perpetual motion machines: imaginary devices that run forever, never losing energy or halting. In theory – should such a machine exist – we could generate endless energy, powering civilization for free. That runs contrary to the laws of thermodynamics; laws that physicists hold almost sacrosanct, unbreakable in any circumstance.
And yet a closer examination revealed a loophole: no energy can ever be gained from a time crystal. Thanks to the bizarre laws of quantum physics, time crystals exist in a ground state – the lowest possible energy a quantum system can hold. That makes it impossible for the system to lose energy – but it also means the crystal can run forever, almost frozen in time.
Real life time crystals soon started to turn up in laboratories. Physicists at the University of Maryland trapped atoms of Ytterbium in magnetic fields. By firing pulses of laser light at them they could make – briefly at least – the first time crystal. Other labs made more examples, created from diamonds or supercooled helium.
Earlier this year, according to a recent reports, researchers at Google created a time crystal using a small quantum computer. The qubits making up the computer – essentially the quantum representation of data – formed a repeating pattern in time, neither taking in nor giving out any energy. Though the crystals did not last forever – the quantum state gradually fades – researchers were impressed by the stability of their creation.
For now such time crystals are little more than curiosities: a loophole in the laws of physics with no obvious use. Researchers think, however, that they may one day act as a kind of quantum memory, allowing quantum computers to safely store data. They could, in other words, form a crucial part of the computers of the future – and perhaps help usher in a magical new era of technology.
James Webb: Watching the Solar System
With the James Webb Space Telescope now fully fuelled, engineers are moving to the final steps before launch. Over the weekend they fastened the telescope to the top of an Ariane 5 rocket, before placing it in the protective casing of the rocket. Mission planners will now do a full rehearsal of the launch, make last checks and then – should all go well - give the all clear for lift off on 22nd December.
Though we often picture the deep universe – nebula and distant galaxies – when thinking of big telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb, astronomers also turn their gaze on much closer objects. Hubble, for example, gave us the first clear images of Pluto and Charon, watched a comet smash into Jupiter and discovered several objects in the outer solar system.
The James Webb, of course, is an infrared telescope – making it well-suited to track the movements of heat around nearby planets. It can, too, pick out signs of molecules in their atmospheres, a technique that will let astronomers trace gases swirling through them.
Researchers will use these methods on the giants of our solar system. They will study clouds and storms around Jupiter, peer into the depths of Saturn’s icy atmosphere and learn more about the mysteries of Neptune and Uranus. Those last two giants, in particular, have been hard to observe in the past. Unlike Jupiter and Saturn no probes have ever visited them – except for the fleeting attention of Voyager 2. The James Webb may, then, give us a clearer view than ever before.
Plans, too, are in place to survey the outer reaches of the Solar System. The frozen worlds that linger there are dim and hard to see, reflecting little of the sunlight that reaches them. They do, though, glimmer in the infrared bands – making them ideal targets for the James Webb. Shortly after the telescope reaches its final orbit, mission planners will turn it towards a handful of these distant objects – chief among them Pluto, Sedna and Eris – and seek out their secrets.
A Christmas Comet
A comet may grace the Christmas skies this year. Astronomers spotted comet C/2021 A1, or Comet Leonard, earlier this year, noting it was heading towards the Sun. Though it is still faint – hovering on the edge of human vision – astronomers think it will brighten over the next few weeks as it moves closer to the Sun.
Just how bright it will get is hard to say. Some hints, indeed, suggest that it may actually be dimming instead – a sign that the comet is disintegrating under the fierce heat of the Sun. Should it survive, however, Comet Leonard is likely to be visible over the next few weeks, perhaps reaching a peak closer to the New Year.
After that Leonard will slowly fade from view and memory. Its orbit, which has carried it for millions of years through the Solar System, seems destined to hurl it into the depths of interstellar space. For Comet Leonard this is likely to be brief moment of warmth, before an eternity adrift in the cold void of space.
Russia Turns to Space Tourism… Again
For the past decade the Russian Soyuz capsule has played a vital role in ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station. America, with no human rated capsule of its own, was forced to buy seats from the Russians – an obligation which sometimes ran to over $200 million a year. Now, instead, NASA is directing that money to SpaceX.
That leaves a hefty hole in the Russian space budget – which annually totals a little under three billion dollars. To its credit, the Russian space agency is finding creative ways to plug this gap. Back in October they sent an actress and director to the International Space Station to film a movie. They also seem to be reviving a long dormant form of space tourism.
During the early 2000s, Russia sent a series of wealthy billionaires to the space station. These, indeed, were the original space tourists, travelling into orbit decades before Musk, Branson or Bezos got close. Over the past decade, as seats were occupied by American astronauts, this practice came to an end.
Last week, however, Russia sent two wealthy Japanese tourists to the space station. They will spend around two weeks there, carrying out a series of eccentric tasks – from playing golf to blowing bubbles – before coming back down to Earth. More tourists will follow over the next few years - perhaps, as Russia hinted, even carrying out the first touristic space walk.
If you enjoyed this post, then why not subscribe to our One Blue Planet newsletter or share it with a friend? If you subscribe, you’ll get a free email every week covering the latest news and findings from physics, astronomy and the space industry.