May 17, 2021
Have you ever worn a dark T-shirt on a sunny day and felt the fabric warm in the Sun’s rays? Most of us know dark colors absorb sunlight and light colors reflect it – but did you know this doesn’t work the same way in the Sun’s non-visible wavelengths?
The Sun is Earth’s power source, and it emits energy as visible sunlight, ultraviolet radiation (shorter wavelengths), and near-infrared radiation, which we feel as heat (longer wavelengths). Visible light reflects off light-colored surfaces like snow and ice, while darker surfaces like forests or oceans absorb it.
This reflectivity, called albedo, is one key way Earth regulates its temperature – if Earth absorbs more energy than it reflects, it gets warmer, and if it reflects more than it absorbs, it gets cooler.
The UAE’s Hope Probe is arriving at Mars and will attempt to orbit it
The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars will arrive at the red planet on Tuesday and will attempt a tricky maneuver to place it in orbit.
The Emirates Mars Mission is known as the Hope Probe, and it is expected to arrive at Mars and send back a signal confirming it’s in orbit.
“The historic moment is here. The Delta V
thrusters of the #HopeProbe has been fired.
We are officially in the Mars Orbit Insertion phase,” according to a tweet from the mission’s Twitter account around 10:42 a.m. ET.
The UAE’s Hope Probe will be the first of 3 missions to arrive at Mars this month
The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars is almost ready for a rendezvous with the red planet.
The Emirates Mars Mission, known as the Hope Probe, will go into orbit around Mars on February 9.
The mission was one of three that launched to Mars from Earth in July, including NASA’s Perseverance rover and China’s Tianwen-1 mission. Hope will orbit the planet, Tianwen-1 will orbit the planet and land on it and Perseverance will land on Mars.
All three missions launched around the same time due to an alignment between Mars and the Earth on the same side of the sun, making for a more efficient journey to Mars.