Mathematics and the fundamentals of the Cosmos

The object, called E8, was originally discovered in the 19th century. It has required the combined effort of 18 mathematicians from America and Europe over 4 years to unravel. It’s effects could be so far-reaching, that scientists cannot even comprehend what they could be. It may be years before we can truly understand what, if any, effect this object could have on our understanding of the universe.

To further understand why this group of symmetries is so revolutionary, you have to look at nature. Interestingly, at the heart of E8, are different bits of physics. Of all the symmetries that mathematicians have discovered, it is still unclear why Nature chose this exceedingly complicated object to the basis.

For more on this, check out this article.

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Weather in space doesn’t mean exactly the same thing as your local 7 day forecast though.  Whereas you might be concerned with rain and how it will affect your picnic, scientists developing satellites must be concerned with how their machinery will stand up to solar winds, energy particles from eruptions on the sun, and geomagnetic storms.  Suddenly a little rain doesn’t seem like such a big deal.

To say nothing of the importance of keeping astronauts safe, many of these satellites have data on their onboard chips that simply cannot be lost.  Having a rogue electromagnetic storm wipe out one of NASA’s intelligence satellite could be a very, very bad thing.

There’s quite a bit more about NASA’s newly launched STEREO satellites in this article.

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