China Completes World’s First Artificial Moon

Описание: XUZHOU, CHINA — China says it has built an artificial moon that can make frogs and pretty much anything else float in the air. Here are the details:

The South China Morning Post reports that China has built a research facility that simulates low-gravity environments like that found on the Moon.

Chinese scientists told the news outlet that the facility revolves around a chamber that is 60 centimeters wide.

The facility creates a vacuum inside the chamber, where strong electromagnets then create a magnetic field that pushes upward against objects that are placed in the chamber.

This allows scientists to recreate the lunar atmosphere by arranging dust and rocks that are similar to that found on the Moon, and then reducing their weight in the same way lunar gravity would reduce their weight.

Researchers can then test how different types of equipment will endure the temperatures and stresses of the real lunar surface. The system works by applying so much magnetic force to even non-metallic objects like frogs, that it changes the flow of electrons around the atoms of the object.

The electrons then rearrange themselves in such a way that they produce their own magnetic field to oppose the applied field. In this way, even animals have been made to levitate in the air.

The technology behind this new facility was first exhibited by researchers at the Radboud University in the Netherlands, who famously used powerful magnets to make a frog float in the air.

SOURCES: South China Morning Post, The Independent, ZME Science
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/scien...
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...
https://www.zmescience.com/science/ch...