The fate of four galaxies
(I posted a variant of this as a
comment below an article about breakfast cereals that appeared on the
New Statesman website. The spoilsports marked it as spam, so it's
going here on my blog instead)
On the 21st March, 2011,
'Kibo,' the Japanese Experiment Module on the International Space
Station took delivery of the Taneda Lab: A closed zero-G environment
in which the contents of a 255g box of Rice Krispies (each puffed
grain meticulously named and catalogued) were allowed circulate in a
state of perpetual weightlessness. The purpose of the experiment was
to increase human knowledge of the movement and behaviour of
celestial bodies. The larger Rice Krispies assumed the identity of
planetoids, while the
ground-up dust at the bottom of the packet took on the role of space
debris. The transition of every object within the artificial galaxy
was mapped by a pair of computers that were also able to influence the
environment by producing effects that mimicked the space weather
being observed by the ISS and by other unmanned space probes and
telescopes.
Through
this research scientists have gained an improved understanding of
galactic dominance where objects in a vacuum assume a pecking order
based upon their size, their relative position, and the 'alliances'
they make with neighbouring objects. The data has also been
instrumental in developing a model of galactic sedimentation which
describes how layers of matter arrange themselves within a star
system.
Experiment
supervisor, Himura Ko, remembers the arrival of the lab:
“It costs a small fortune to send
Rice Krispies into space. I was under strict orders not to let my
colleagues eat a single one of them.”
Each
cycle of the Taneda chamber lasts approximately nine months after
which the equipment must be scrupulously cleaned - a process that
usually takes 40 days. The lab is currently hosting its fourth galaxy
(Tōrō nagashi). At the time of
writing there are tentative plans to release it into space at the
conclusion of the simulation, if it is thought that this can be done
safely.
TN's
three predecessors have all been boxed up and returned safely to
earth. Of these only one survives:
The
first (prosaically named 'Galaxy One') was sold last year at a
charity breakfast in Tokyo, where it was consumed with milk by the
winning bidder and their guests.
The
second (Aomori - so called because the Rice Krispies
were treated with a protein harvested from phosphorescent algae which
caused it glow bright blue) continues to be the focus of study on
earth. Himura hopes to eventually turn it into a reading lamp for his daughter.
The
third (Shomyo-daki - named after the cereal formed itself into a pair
of cascading spirals meeting near the bottom of the chamber where
they formed a v-shape) was intended for display at The Japanese
Museum of Space in Osaka, but was eaten by vermin.
“It
was like the conclusion of an ancient mythological saga where the
world is consumed a giant mouse,” recalls Himura. “It sounds
ridiculous but who's to say that our universe isn't made up of
somebody's breakfast cereal floating around in a lab somewhere?”
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