The

Eclectic

Newsletter

Vol. 1, No. 4

Happy Thursday, everyone!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season, for whichever holiday you celebrate! Or just a great couple of weeks if you don’t celebrate holidays.

Planets in “Resonance”

The six planets of the HD 110067 system, shown in this artist’s depiction, orbit in a resonant chain that links their periods mathematically. Credit: © CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Thibaut Roger/NCCR PlanetS

I know… this sounds “new age-y” to me, too.

But it’s really a thing.

Resonance, in terms of planets, means that the orbital rotation around their star has a defined relationship.

This system, known as HD 110067, has six planets. They orbit the star in a distinct pattern.

For every three orbits the innermost planet makes, the next planet orbits twice. For every three orbits the second plant makes, the third planet orbits twice.

This is referred to as a 3:2 mean motion resonance.

This system has four planets in the 3:2 resonance. The outer two planets are in a 4:3 resonance.

This means that the outermost planet makes one orbital revolution for every six orbital revolutions of the innermost planet.

It’s a naturally occurring perfect mathematical ratio.

How awesome is that?

Mystery Whale

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

Would you spend 18 years following a sound across the ocean?

Some marine biologists have done just that in an attempt to “see” a whale they have only ever heard using underwater microphones.

The Cross Seamount beaked whale was named for the underwater mountain by scientists who first heard its song nearby.

Of course, since they’ve never seen it, they are unsure whether it’s a new species. It could be a whale that is identified but not fully understood yet.

Initially classified as a beaked whale due to the similarity of its voice to that of other beaked whales, that’s where the resemblance ends.

The behavior of this mystery whale is markedly different from other beaked whales.

Their echolocation pulse, recorded by hydrophones around the globe, is distinctive. They can be distinguished from the 24 known species of beaked whales.

The Cross Seamount hunts at much shallower depths than their marine cousins.

Further, the Cross Seamount whale forages mostly at night, based on almost 24,000 recorded echolocation pulses.

This differs significantly from other beaked whale species, which are mainly silent at night.

Their nocturnal activity contributes to the difficulty researchers have in making visual sightings of them.

Heating Space?

Not really.

However, researchers are working on a way to send heat into space in the form of longwave infrared radiation.

Radiative cooling takes advantage of a new cooling glass design and uses the atmospheric transparency window to redirect heat from buildings into space.

Ok. I know.

What the heck is the “atmospheric transparency window?”

I didn’t know either.

The electromagnetic spectrum has multiple “windows” that can pass through the Earth’s atmosphere. These include the optical, infrared, and radio.

The benefit of utilizing this infrared window is that the heat passes through the atmosphere without changing the atmospheric temperature.

Researchers have developed a coating for glass that reflects solar radiation, keeping buildings cooler.

That’s amazing all by itself, but it gets better.

This coating emits the heat in longwave infrared radiation that is then directed into space through the atmospheric transparency window without elevating the temperature in the air surrounding the building.

Technically, it has the same effect as the overnight cooling of the earth.

This iteration of cooling coating is environmentally stable, meaning it can withstand rain, sunlight, dirt, and even flames.

Best of all, this glass coating can be applied to various surfaces, including brick, metal, and tile.

We’ll see how the economy reacts when it becomes a publicly available product.

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