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SITING in a drain bathtub and watching a vortex of swirling water in the sewers is one of the simplest joys of childhood (and adulthood for those who avoid showers and opt for the bathtub). Now, this fascinating pleasure can help astronomers to open the mystery of how planets are formed from massive rotary discs of gas, speckled with space dust.
Researchers in Germany have taken a break with a complex, but imperfect mathematical modeling, to create an analog simulation of the cosmic process of planetary formation using a simple configuration which reproduces not only the birth of the worlds but the end of the bath. The tornado of laboratory water imitates a gravitational field drawing on gas and dust in orbit around a central object, and it follows most of the physical laws established for a long time (thank you, Johannes Kepler and your brightness from the beginning of the 17th century) which govern the planetary orbits.
The device that the researchers built consists essentially of two stacked and connected connected cylinders filled with water, the top wide and the lower lower. A socket in the lower cylinder provides the “gravity” while an aquarium pump pushes water through two nozzles in opposite directions to create the whirlwind. In the vortex, scientists – the University of Greifswald and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg – inserted tiny plastic pearls to simulate floating dust on cosmic currents. Using high -speed cameras, the researchers followed the movement of pearls and found that their trajectories generally corresponded to two of the Kepler laws: the orbital speed being the highest near the central object generating the gravitational field and a close relationship between the period and the orbital size.
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In short, the prototype was decently predictive of the behavior of dust particles in at least some of the protoplanetary discs which turn through the cosmos and the birth planets. The research team, which published its results in the Monthly opinion from the letters of the Royal Astronomical SocietyNow turns to the optimization of the device to model the astronomical process more closely. “The current results of this analog experience are impressive,” explains Mario Flock, who conducts computer studies on planet training disks at MPIA, in a press release. “I am convinced that with a few modifications, we can refine the water tornado model and bring it closer to the scientific application.”
Perhaps the latest moments of your own or the next bath of your toddler remind you that the secrets of the universe can sometimes be found in the least likely.
Image of lead: This photo shows the upper part of the water tornado model. The acrylic glass tank has a diameter of 50 centimeters and is illuminated with LED strips. Water forms a vortex whose surface shape reproduces the profile of a gravitational field. Analysis has shown that water movement closely resembles the behavior observed in the protoplanetary discs. Credit: T. Müller (MPIA / HDA)
