Anomaly
Anomaly employs a technique called
Scanimation. Each page is a marvel that
brings static images to life. Each page
brings the exciting motion of outer space; featuring 6 of its known wonders. From
a blackhole to space-time itself. This book
is aimed primarily at children to get
them captivated about books and space.
Some childrens favourite focus is on rockets and alien races, so I thought it be
interesting to see if I could get children
to be more interested in the science and
the math that governs the place that
they dream of exploring.
The book is big, really big (see banana for reference). Space is
big, really big! Though space itself is mind-bogglingly big, I could
only make the book so big. Big is one of the most basic and also
one of the most important components to this book. Black was
also an obvious choice, and white text by contrast makes it the
most readable colour, which overall gives it a strong presence.
By volume, space is also mostly empty. Though there are at
least 100 billion galaxies - each home to around 100 billion stars
and lots of galactic dust, the universe is so vast that there are huge
tracks of space, so it made sense to leave huge tracks of space on
most of my pages containing text.
It was difficult to compliment the immense distances within
the pages of this book, but I couldn't ignore some of the more
common, but interesting, cool and totally surprising facts about
space that has fascinated and inspired generations, much is my
aspiration with this book.
Bottomless Well
The formation of a blackhole is expected to be the gravitational collapse of heavy
objects such as stars. Gravitational collapse occurs when an object's internal pressure
is no longer sufficient to resist the object's own gravity.
Once a blackhole has formed, it begins to absorb surrounding matter such as gas and
interstellar dust. These sufficently massive objects deform the space-time fabric, forming
a gravitational well.
The greater the distortion of space-time, the greater the force of gravity. A blackhole
distorts the space-time fabric to such an extent, that even light cannot escape.
Exerting Forces
Gravity is described as two forces exerting on one another. Every object in the universe
that has mass exerts a gravitational pull, or force on every other mass.
The size of the pull depends on the masses of the objects. You exert a
gravitational pull on the people around you, but that force isn't very strong, since
people aren't very massive.
The Earth is a very large mass. The gravitational force between the Earth and the
molecules of gas in the atmosphere are strong enough to hold the atmosphere close to
its surface. Smaller planets with less mass like Mars, are unable to hold onto their
atmosphere.
The Biggest Optical Illusion
The moon looks bigger on the horizon. There is an optical illusion, which makes the
moon appear larger the lower it is in the sky.
The apparent magnification is not caused by our atmosphere; it is more of a mind
trick. When the moon is closer to the horizon, it is closer to objects like buildings and
trees, which by comparison makes the moon appear bigger.
Big & Quiet
Sound is a kind of energy created when something vibrates. When this vibration
reaches your ear, it is translated into what we recongnise as a sound. For sound to
vibrate, it must travel through matter, which is generally air.
When you speak, the molecules in the air vibrate and travel to and from. Think of these
molecules like a row of dominos, where the sound is carried from one domino to the
next. Sound can also travel through other matter such as water, but sound cannot travel
in a vacuum.
Space is a vaccum; an area without air, or any other molecule. Sound cannot travel
through space because there is no matter for vibrations to work in.
Space in Motion
The universe is not static, but expanding. The galaxies outside of our own are moving
away from us.
However, these galaxies are not moving through space, they're moving in space,
because space is the thing that is moving. Like a ripple along the surface of a lake, a
really big lake, there is a ripple occuring in space-time, carrying everything on the
surface of it, closer and closer to shore. However, the universe has no center; everything is moving away from everything else.
If you imagine a grid of space with a galaxy every million light years or so apart, after
enough time passes, this grid will stretch out so that the galaxies a further million light
years and so on, possibly into infinity.
Warps in Space-time
In the same way when a large ball is placed on a elasticated cloth, space stretches and
sags around planets and stars. According the Albert Einsteins general theory of relativity,
matter and energy distort space-time, curving space around themselves.
In the late 1950's, The Gravity Probe B project was conceived and launched in 2004.
One of NASA's most complicated satellites, the satellite used ultra-precise gyroscopes
to detect minute distortions in the fabric of our universe. GP-B determined the effect
with unprecedented precision of the warping of space and time around a gravitational
body by pointing at a single star (IM Pegasi), while in polar orbit around Earth.