In this Feb. 22, 2019, file photo, this image released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows the shadow, center above, of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft after its successful touchdown on the asteroid Ryugu. Japan's space agency says its Hayabusa2 spacecraft will follow up last month's touchdown on a distant asteroid with another risky mission — to drop an explosive to make a crater and collect underground samples to get possible clues to the origin of the solar system.
TOKYO — Japan's space agency said Monday that its Hayabusa2 spacecraft will follow up last month's touchdown on a distant asteroid with another risky mission — to drop an explosive to make a crater and collect underground samples to get possible clues to the origin of the solar system.
Hayabusa2 made history on Feb. 22 when it successfully touched down on the boulder-rich asteroid, where it also collected some surface fragments.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Hayabusa2 is to drop a copper impactor the size of a baseball and weighing 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) on the asteroid on April 5 to collect samples from deeper underground where they had not been exposed to the sun or space rays.
The new mission will require an immediate evacuation of the spacecraft to the other side of the asteroid so it won't get hit by flying shards from the blast, JAXA said. While moving away, Hayabusa2 will leave a camera to capture the outcome.
The mission will allow JAXA scientists to analyze details of a crater to find out the history of the asteroid, said Koji Wada, who is in charge of the project.
Hayabusa2 will start descending toward the asteroid the day before to carry out the mission from its home position of 20 kilometers (12 miles) above. It will drop a cone-shaped piece of equipment containing explosives that will blast off a copper plate on the bottom. It will turn into a ball and slam into the asteroid at the speed of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) per second.
JAXA has previously planned to have Hayabusa2 briefly touchdown in a crater, but an agency researcher, Takashi Kubota, said they may not force it to prioritize safety for the spacecraft. Kubota said it would be the first time a spacecraft would take materials from underground a space object.
The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 900 meters (3,000 feet) in diameter and about 300 million kilometers (180 million miles) from Earth.
Who was the real Mileva Einstein-Maric, the wife of the famed physicist Albert Einstein? Trained alongside Einstein in physics and mathematics, what role did she play, if any, in the famous papers of her husband, which transformed contemporary physics? Was she an unsung contributor or even a co-author, a sounding board, the top fiddle, a glorified assistant, an unglorified housewife, the one who made it all possible?
What does it even matter? It matters, of course, because Einstein’s work and his theories of relativity, quantum theory, and atomic theory formed the foundations of contemporary physics. Without the true story of what really happened—how these fundamental theories came about—we cannot fully understand their historical significance. Moreover, we cannot bestow credit where credit is due for these achievements, especially when we recognize how often the contributions of women scientists, especially the scientific spouses and partners of celebrated male scientists, are overlooked, forgotten, and even suppressed.
Much has been written over the past decades in support of one or more of the above perspectives on Mileva Einstein-Maric, often with fervent certitude.
Albert Einstein et Arthur Compton professeur à l'université de Chicago, circa 1930 à Chicago, IL
It is well known that Albert Einstein, the world-famous scientist declared the “person of the century” by TIME magazine, was married. But until the 1990s, few people knew that he had two wives, the first of whom was trained in mathematics and physics. Einstein’s nonscientific second wife, Elsa, did become widely known, especially in the United States, when she accompanied her husband on several well-publicized visits during the 1920s, then settled with him in Princeton in 1933 (she died three years later). The two had married in 1919, the same year that the first public confirmation of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century, brought him worldwide fame.
But it was his first wife, Mileva Einstein-Maric (approximately pronounced Mar-itch), who accompanied and supported him intellectually and emotionally throughout the difficult early years of his rise from a beginning physics student in 1896 to the top of his profession by 1914. Little was known about her or his children with her — and there was little interest in finding out — until the discovery in 1986 of her correspondence with Einstein brought Mileva Einstein-Maric to widespread public attention. The letters had been in the possession of the Einsteins’ first son, Hans Albert Einstein, and his family in Berkeley, Calif.
Albert Einstein with his wife Elsa, State, War, and Navy building in background, Washington DC. Photographer Harris and Ewing. 1921 and 1923.
The story of Mileva Einstein-Maric encompasses many facets of great human and scientific interest related to the struggle of women in science as revealed by observing one woman’s struggle to realize her dreams for a scientific career and examining a married couple’s scientific and personal partnership that unfortunately did not succeed.
Widespread public recognition of the captivating story of Einstein’s wife Mileva Einstein-Maric emerged during the years following the publication of the first volume of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein in 1987. That volume, titled The Early Years, 1879–1902, documented young Einstein’s youth, education, and early career. Of special interest in the volume was the first publication of 51 of the then newly discovered Einstein-Maric letters in the possession of Hans Albert’s family. Subsequent letters have appeared in later volumes.
General Theory of Relativity
In his theory, Einstein had predicted the existence of gravitational waves on paper more than a century ago. The latest finding not only proves his theory but also opens up a new horizon for astronomers to understand black holes better.
Nuclear Power
Although Einstein never worked on atomic or nuclear technology, his theory of mass energy equivalence played a significant role in establishing a relation between mass and energy — laying the foundation for the first atomic bomb.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
One of the papers submitted by Einstein about Brownian motion helps in understanding the random motion of particles suspended in a fluid. The liquefaction of gases, or the change of gas into liquid by the reduction in its molecular energy levels, is the only reason we have been able to compress and transport LPG easily.
Global Positioning System (GPS)
The theory of relativity is used in many of our modern electronics, including GPS systems, which are made up of three components: the control component, the space component, and the user component. The space component consists of satellites that are placed in specific orbits. The control component consists of a station to which all of the data from the space component is sent. Many relativistic effects occur in GPS systems. Since each of the components is in different reference frames, all of the relativistic effects need to be accounted for so that the GPS works with precision. The clocks used in the GPS systems need to be synchronized. In GPS systems, the gravitational field of the Earth has to be accounted for. There are relativistic effects within the satellite that is in space that need to be accounted for too. GPS systems work with such precision because of the Theory of Relativity.
Digital Cameras
A digital camera absorbs light and channels it through a lens onto a sensor which has tiny photosites (pixels) that are sensitive to light. As light falls on these pixels, electrons are released by a photoelectric effect, which then helps generates a picture.
That first volume of Einstein’s Collected Papers also brought to public attention a previously little-known but subsequently highly influential biography of Mileva Einstein-Maric by the Serbian science professor Desanka Trbuhovic-Gjuric, Im Schatten Albert Einsteins: Das tragische Leben der Mileva Einstein-Maric (In the Shadow of Albert Einstein: The Tragic Life of Mileva Einstein-Maric). Originally published in Serbian in 1969, it went through two German editions and four printings as well as one French translation from 1982 to 1995, but it has never been published in English translation. Nonetheless, her biography (through its intermediaries) has helped more than any other work so far to shape the dominant public story of Mileva Einstein-Maric and her personal and scientific relationships with Albert Einstein. While tracing Mileva Einstein-Maric’s life story, Trbuhovic-Gjuric argued, often without source citation or solid evidence, that Maric was a brilliant mathematician who surpassed Einstein in mathematics, if not physics. Moreover, owing to her expert collaboration with Einstein, Maric was allegedly an unrecognized co-author of her husband’s famous relativity paper of 1905. If true, such claims would mean that once again, as so often in the past (and present), the contributions made by the wife of a great man have been sadly overlooked by the public, forgotten by history, and apparently even suppressed by her husband.
Einstein, Albert - physicist, Germany/USA *14.03.1879-18.04.1955+ - Albert Einstein at a railway station at his return to Berlin - Photographer: Herbert Hoffmann - Published by: 'Tempo' 15.03.1931 Vintage property of ullstein bild
On Feb. 18, 1990, nearly three years after the publication of the first volume of Einstein’s Collected Papers, a session on “The Young Einstein” during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in New Orleans brought Mileva Einstein-Maric and her marriage with Einstein to widespread public attention. Most of the speakers at the AAAS session presented scholarly reevaluations of Einstein’s early biography, cultural environment, and philosophy. But two of the speakers, both of whom were without any prior work on Einstein studies, seized upon the opportunity to create a full-scale interpretation of Maric and her scientific relationship with Einstein for English-speaking audiences.
Drawing upon Trbuhovic-Gjuric and the Einstein-Maric letters for their individual papers, they forcefully argued the startling conclusion that Mileva Einstein-Maric made substantive contributions to Einstein’s early work.
Einstein, Albert - physicist, Germany/USA *14.03.1879-18.04.1955+ - the hands of Albert Einstein - 01.01.1927 - Vintage property of ullstein bild
The sweeping and surprising assertions about Mileva Einstein-Maric and her husband drew enormous public and media interest, as well as an outpouring of books and articles on the apparent injustices suffered by “Einstein’s first wife.” She seemed to be the most prominent and most blatant example of how history has forgotten, even deliberately so, the contributions female scientific spouses and partners made to the great achievements of male scientists. The early history of contemporary physics thus required immediate correction. Many of the resulting popular works unquestioningly repeated, and even embellished, the claims of their predecessors, in some cases without apparent regard for common standards of nonfiction writing. Over the years what might be called the “Mileva Story” emerged and entered the public domain as the generally accepted account of Mileva Einstein-Maric’s unrecognized collaboration with her former husband and her contributions to his work. But at the same time, on closer examination, Einstein scholars have generally rejected most of this story on the basis of the available documentary evidence. As the physics historian Alberto Martínez wrote, “I want her to be the secret collaborator. But we should set aside our speculative preferences and instead look at the evidence.”
Albert Einstein,Albert Einstein (*14.03.1879-18.04.1955+) , Physiker, Deutschland/USA, Porträt, - vermutl. um 1950
Historians’ objections to the Mileva Story have gained increasing support in the years since 1990 with the abundance of new documentary material and information made available about Maric, Einstein, and their relationship. In view of the mounting primary and secondary material, it seems appropriate at this time, nearly three decades since the public emergence of the Mileva Story, to reevaluate the many elements of such an important historical assertion on the basis of all of the available evidence, new and old.
This approach reveals how far one can go wrong when standards for historical and nonfiction writing are not carefully followed. But more importantly, it reveals the very human, real story of a fallible, yet brave and determined young woman who, for various reasons, was not able to fulfill her dreams for the career and marriage she had hoped for. This more realistic and compelling story of Mileva Maric offers a far greater service to her—and to readers’ appreciation of her international pioneering role in helping to open science and science education to female students—than any exaggerated or unfounded assertions regarding her activities.
The chief executive of Volkswagen has apologised for evoking a Nazi slogan to describe the importance of boosting the group's profits.
Herbert Diess was put in charge of VW last year
Herbert Diess used the line "Ebit macht frei" at a company event on Tuesday.
The phrase echoes the maxim "Arbeit Macht Frei" - meaning "work sets you free" - which was famously emblazoned in wrought-iron on the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Ebit is a commonly used acronym for "earnings before interest and taxes".
The slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps
In a statement, Mr Diess said he was sorry for what he described as "definitely an unfortunate choice of words".
He explained that he was referring to the freedom afforded to VW brands in strong financial health, and added:
"At no time was it my intention for this statement to be placed in a false context. At the time, I simply did not think of this possibility."
The German chief executive also acknowledged his company's "special responsibility in connection with the Third Reich".
Volkswagen was founded in 1937, as part of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's vision to enable German families to own their first car. During World War Two, the Wolfsburg-based firm manufactured vehicles for the German army, using more than 15,000 slave labourers from nearby concentration camps.
The Nazi aim was that by saving a few marks a week, every German family would be able to afford to buy a car
Although popularised by the Nazis, "Arbeit Macht Frei" was coined by the 19th Century linguist, ethnologist and author Lorenz Diefenbach.
Politicians in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s used the phrase to promote employment policies.
The inscription appeared at the Dachau concentration camp, set up by Heinrich Himmler in 1933 to use dissidents as slave labour, and later became part of the Nazis' deception for the real use of the concentrations camps.
The apology from Mr Diess came after the German car giant Volkswagen said it would cut 7,000 jobs, as it shifts its focus to electric cars, which require fewer workers to build.
Earlier this week, the company announced annual profits of €12bn (£10bn), despite having to pay out large sums to compensate for the Dieselgate emissions scandal
A true color panorama of Perseverance Valley. Images were taken between May 13 and June 10, 2018.
NASA officially bid farewell to Mars rover Opportunity in February, but the little robotic explorer is still delivering the goods.
On March 12, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) revealed a set of glorious 360-degree panoramas nabbed by Opportunity in Perseverance Valley, right on the western rim of a huge Martian crater known as Endurance.
And sure, we've seen some remarkable Mars panoramas before, including those captured at Gale Crater by Opportunity's younger sister, Curiosity. But this one feels a little more special, considering Opportunity has come to rest in this very spot -- with this immaculate view -- until humans (or other sentient beings) are able to retrieve it.
The color panorama was built via a sequence of 354 images snapped by the rover's Panoramic Camera between May 13 and June 10, 2018. It shows a number of interesting features of Perseverance Valley, in addition to the pristine, unexplored floor of Endurance Crater. The black-and-white frames at the image's bottom-left are a result of the rover not having time to snap the location with its filters before a planet-wide dust storm encircled Mars.
"This final panorama embodies what made our Opportunity rover such a remarkable mission of exploration and discovery," said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at JPL.
You can view the finer details of the huge panorama at NASA's JPL website.
Although the panorama provides one last look of Opportunity's resting grounds, the rover's very last image tells a slightly bleaker tale. That incomplete image, seen below, shows the approaching dark that would eventually end Opportunity. The noisy image, with a large black bar, makes it seem like Opportunity was cut-off, mid-sentence, as she sent one final communication home. I got pretty emotional about it.
NASA declared the rover dead -- and its mission complete -- on Feb. 13. Originally designed for a three-month mission, Opportunity continued to persevere over 15 years, expanding our knowledge of the Red Planet and providing the foundations for humanity to one day visit our cosmic neighbor and follow in its tracks. Perhaps, in some not-too-distant future, we may even find it half-buried within the Martian soil, and get ready to bring it home.
NASA landed the solar-powered Opportunity rover on Mars in 2004 and it outlasted its original three-month mission timeline by many, many years. The space agency officially declared Opportunity's mission over on Feb. 13, 2019 after last-ditch communication efforts failed. Opportunity snapped this mosaic in 2011 after winds cleaned dust off its solar panels. The dust turned out to be problem for Oppy in June 2018 when a global dust storm caused it to go silent, leaving NASA out of touch with its longest-lived Mars rover.
