How an atomic clock measures time
The design of atomic clocks contains a quartz crystal: it contracts and
To understand how this works, you need to rememberstructure of the atom. In the center there is a nucleus that is positively charged: around there are negatively charged electrons, each in its own orbit. Moreover, each of them is at a specific energy level, that is, it has a certain amount of energy due to attraction to the nucleus.
This level can be changed by sendingmore energy to the electron, for this you can, for example, heat the atom. Then the electron will return to its level again and give up the excess in the form of radiation. Everything is built on this radiation: it has a certain frequency and resembles a pendulum in a clock.
Today, atomic clocks can work on atoms of rubidium, strontium, hydrogen: the principle does not change from this.
The design of atomic clocks is constantly being improved, for example, a mechanism was invented that lags behind by one second every several hundred billion years.
Without an atomic clock, there will be no navigation on Earth and in space
The atomic clock is needed primarily for navigation:GLONASS and GPS, since these systems determine the distance in time for a signal to travel from a point on Earth to a satellite and back. A watch is used to measure the distance between objects based on how long it takes for a signal to travel from point A to point B.
Currently, navigation uses refrigerator-sized atomic clocks on Earth to pinpoint the location of a spacecraft.
It may take more than an hour for the signal to reach the spacecraft and return to Earth.
From this data, coordinates and instructions are calculated: they are sent back to the spacecraft.
If the spacecraft has its own clock on board, it will be able to calculate its own trajectory. This will allow you to travel further and safely transport people to other planets.
Find out the distance between planets using atomic clocks
But the main customer of atomic clocks is astronomers. They use atomic clocks to measure vast distances in space and determine how far away we are from a particular planet or asteroid.
To do this, they send a signal and record the time of its return. If the error is even for a second, then you can lose about three hundred thousand kilometers in accuracy.
How an atomic clock can help you find dark matter
Dark matter may affect ourordinary matter and this must have consequences. One of them may be a change in the fine structure constant, one of the fundamental physical constants.
The fine structure constant is the ratio of the speed of rotation of the electron in the first orbital to the speed of light, and it is approximately 0.007.
Scientists previously believed that this constant is always equal to the same value, but, as recent discoveries have shown, it can vary slightly.
According to one theory, dark matter is topological defects in space that arose during the Big Bang. They can affect the constant.
Scientists have used several atomic clocks, soHow topology defects should act on distant objects in space must act differently on different clocks separated in space.
To improve accuracy, the authorscombined clocks to improve accuracy into a network of four devices, each located in one of the countries: Poland, USA, Japan and France. Data from all devices is combined to analyze topological effects.
Ultra-precise atomic clock will be able to measure the distortion of space-time
Scientists are confident that a sufficiently accurate atomic clock can serve as a tool for measuring how objects, due to gravity, distort the surrounding space.
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder used lasers and created a makeshift trap for atoms: it looked like several very small cups.
Thousands of ytterbium atoms fill these cups when exposed to a laser beam of the correct frequency, and electrons in orbit move one energy level.
In such a system, electrons will do morequadrillion transitions. As soon as the laser is tuned to the "ideal" frequency, the translation of information from the frequency of the laser radiation into a signal that can be received and deciphered by an electronic device, that is, the very clock, begins.
Scientists were able to tune the laser so that now the data obtained will help determine the effect of gravity on space-time itself.
Atomic clocks are an important measurement toolsuch an ephemeral quantity as time. Without it, it will not be possible to track the slightest changes in Earth time or measure the distance to neighboring planets and galaxies.
And in the future, atomic clocks will become indispensable for the colonization of planets and the study of dark matter.
But they are unlikely to ever become a household gadget.
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