--------- #1337 - Our Milky Way Galaxy
- Attachment: M51 Whirlpool Galaxy
- Our Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral structure of 200 billion stars that stretches 100,000 lightyears long in a disk that is only 900 lightyears thick. Except the Bulge in the center of the galaxy. We are out on one of the spiral arms, the Sagittarius Arm, 26,000 lightyears from the center. There are two major arms in the spiral, the Scutum-Centaurus Arm and the Perseus Arm. Then there are two smaller minor arms, the Norma Arm and the Sagittarius Arm. Our velocity traveling arond the center of the galaxy is 537,000 miles per hour. It takes us about 220 million years to complete one trip.
- Our Sun is only one of 200,000,000,001 stars in the galaxy. And our Galaxy is only one of some 20 galaxies that are gravitationally connected in our Local Group of Galaxies. The Local Group occupies a sphere some 500,000 lightyears in diameter.
- The center of the galaxy is a bulge of a dense cluster of stars all of various ages. At the center of the bulge is a Blackhole that is 4,000,000 Solar Mass contained in a volume less that a few hundred AU’s across. An AU is an astronomical unit that is the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Our Solar System is some 100 AU across.
- The gas falling into the Blackhole emits 50 times more energy than hydrogen - helium fusion would. It is the in falling gas the we can see. It is the orbiting stars that we can use to calculate the mass of the Blackhole. We can not see the Blackhole itself it is only surmised from the gravitational data.
- The biggest thing we cannot see is the Dark Matter that surrounds our galaxy as a giant halo. Within this halo of Dark Matter is over 100 globular clusters of stars. These are old stars, 10 to 12 billion years old. They first formed very nearly the time of the Big Bang. Our galaxy is interacting with these Globular Clusters as well. Streams of stars are falling out of the Dark Matter and into our Milky Way Galaxy. Dwarf Galaxies are merging with the extended arms of our galaxy. When mergers occur a new crop of star formations occur inside the shockwaves.
- The Dark Matter Halo contains 80% of the mass of the entire galaxy. It is a complicated place with a lot of things happening. We can see streams of stars that mark the trails of mergers and interactions. New stars are forming amongst the old stars. Some stars are extremely metal-poor, meaning they do not contain the heavier elements above helium and lithium. This would indicate that they must be some of the first stars formed, a first or second generation in the earliest eras of star formation. In some of the stars the iron abundance is found to be less than 0.001% of the amount found in our Sun.
- Among the Local Group of galaxies ours is not an “ island universe”. Our galaxy is continuously interacting with other Dwarf Galaxies and streams of intergalactic gas. Some of the Dwarf Galaxies found are the most miniature of galaxies anywhere. In between all of this is an intergalactic medium that is full of Cosmic Rays. Cosmic Rays are charged particles that are hurled by the magnetic fields that also exist between the galaxies. The Cosmic Rays are charged nuclei, electrons, or protons, ions that are accelerated into a spiral path around the magnetic field lines.
- There are several more Reviews available that tell more about our home in the Cosmos. Request by number:
---------- #548 Our Milky Way
---------- #855 Calculations for the Milky Way’s Blackhole
--------- # 866 Learning about the Milky Way Part I
-------- # 867 Learning about the Milky Way Part II
--------- #938 Update on our Milky Way.
---------- #1058 Our Milky Way Galaxy
----------- #1124 What is inside out Milky Way Galaxy
----------- #1228 How many stars are in the Universe.
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707-536-3272, Wednesday, November 30, 2011
--------- #1341 - Optical Lattice Clocks Tell Time, Exactly
- Attachment: None
- We all need to punctual in this fast and furious world we live in. But, do we need a clock that would be within one second accuracy over the age of the Universe. There is such a clock under development. This clock would not loose more than one second in 30 billion years. How?
- The new clock is called an “optical lattice clock”. It works using laser beams to capture atoms and measure their vibrations at near Absolute Zero temperatures. The accuracies attained are 1 second in 10^18 seconds.
- The first clocks invented in the 1100’s were Chinese Water Clocks. A steady stream of water was used to turn wooden gears and obtain accuracies of about 10 minutes per day. This is accuracies of 600 seconds in 86,400 seconds. Or, 1 second in 144 seconds. ( 1 second in 10^2 seconds).
- Pendulum clocks came along in the 1600”s that were accurate to (1 second in 1,000 seconds).
- The first navigational chronometers in 1700’s were accurate to ( 1 second in 10,000 seconds). ( 1 second in 10^4).
- The quartz clock in the 1920’s used the vibrations of a crystal oscillating at 32,768 times per second. That gave clock accuracies to ( 1 second in 10^5).
- The first cesium atomic clock in 1949 attained accuracies of ( 1 second in 10^10).
- A modern version cesium fountain atomic clock has accuracies of ( 1 second in 10^15).
- The Optical Lattice Clock that you will learn about has accuracies of ( 1 second in 10^18). The Universe is 13.7 billion years old.
----------------- 13.7 * 10^9 years * 365 days * 24 hours * 60 minutes * 60 seconds = 4.3 * 10^17 seconds.
--------------- This Lattice Clock if started with the Big Bang would not have lost one second in the last 13.7 billion years. Now, that is punctual. Actually, that statement is too conservative. Really the clock should be accurate to 1 second in 10^18, which is 32 billion years.
- Accurate clocks do not just tell time. They can be used to create standards for many other types of measurements. For example: The GPS in your car now measures distances with triangulation to an accuracy of 10 feet. This is done measuring the time it takes for a radio signal to get to a couple of satellites. A change in time is a change in distance. Once these satellites have 10^18 clocks installed they can measure your changes in distance down to mere inches. Not just on Earth. This could be done on the surface of Mars with satellite receivers here on Earth.
- Time is now used to define the distance of 1 meter. A meter started out as being defined as 1 ten-millionth of the distance between the equator and the North Pole. Later that distance became the length of a metal bar stored in a vault in Paris, France. In 1983 the distance of 1 meter became the distance light could travel in a vacuum in 1 / 299,792,458th of a second.
- With these accuracies science can measure the shifts in distances due to the gravity changes as a satellite circles the Earth. This data can measure the interior of the Earth to locate mineral deposits. These accuracies can test natural constants like those affecting nuclear decay. And, many more applications to follow.
- The U.S. standard time clock in Bolder, Colorado, uses a laser-controlled fountain of cesium atoms cooled to near Absolute Zero. The atoms rise in clumps and fall back through a tunable microwave cavity. The microwave signal is tuned to the oscillations of the cesium atoms. The microwave signal gets an error voltage feedback that keeps it tuned to exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations per second. This clock is accurate to ( 1 second in 10^15).
- The U.K. has a modified version of this cesium clock that is accurate to ( 1 second in 10^16).
- The clock that will get us to ( 1 second in 10^18) uses a laser controlled lattice design that captures the oscillations of single atoms. The clock is constructed as a sphere of lasers aimed at a target of mercury, or strontium, atoms. Each set of lasers has a separate mission to accomplish. One set of lasers is used to slow the motion of atoms. This cools the atoms down to 1 millionth of a degree above Absolute Zero.
- Another set of lasers has cross beams that interfere with each other and create a lattice of standing waves. The lattice is like an egg carton with depressed nodes that trap a single atom in an energy well.
- Inside a vacuum that is only 100 micrometers thick other lasers are tuned to match the frequency at which the atom most easily absorbs and emits a photon of light. This light flicker is then locked to a laser optical comb. The comb laser has harmonics that spread over a wide frequency range. A lower harmonic in the microwave frequencies is locked to a microwave signal that is then synchronized to the clock laser. The clock will then stay accurate to ( 1 second in 10^18).
- In 2007 the first strontium based lattice clock was demonstrated to have an accuracy of ( 1 second in 10^16).
- In 2020 science plans to have a 10^18 Space Optical Clock installed in the International Space Station.
- Optical Lattice Clocks need not stop there. In the future lattice clocks could be built using ultraviolet of even X-ray light that would be more accurate than visible light lasers.
- Lattice Clocks may be designed to not just work off of electrons circling the atoms but of the vibrations of the nucleus neutrons and protons. Maybe a thorium -229 isotope nuclei that emits an ultraviolet photon can be synchronized to a laser frequency comb and fed into an electronic counter that would be the “ultimate clock“. What on Earth would we do with that accuracy? An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com/ Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Tuesday, November 29, 2011
--------- #1340 - Bone Repair in the Future
- Attachment: The Osteoblast
- This image was taken with a Scanning Electron Microscope. The creature in the center of the picture is an Osteoblast. An osteopath is a bone forming cell that lives in your body. In this picture it is latching on to a synthetic scaffold that will be wrapped around a broken bone.
- This is a hope for bone repair procedure in the future of medicine. The synthetic scaffold is made of calcium oxide, silicon dioxide, strontium and zinc. The broken bone is wrapped with this scaffold and the body sends in the osteopath cells to fill in the scaffold. The bone repair is speeded up by several weeks.
- This procedure is working in rats. Soon it will be used on humans.
- This picture is 23,000 nanometers wide. Using a Scanning Tunnel Microscope the image could be zoomed down to 100 nanometers wide. Technology can even go tinier. A 3D image using an APT Microscope can record layers that are only 0.2 nanometers thick.
- The APT Microscope uses a powerful electric field to pull off a layer of atoms. Detectors around the target record the location and arrival time of these atoms. A computer program is used to determine each atom’s element and its original location on the target. This is done layer - by - layer to build up a 3D image 0.2 nanometers at a time.
- These new technologies are helping science understand this tiny world with a whole set of insights. Expect many new discoveries to emerge from the nano-world. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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707-536-3272, Monday, November 28, 2011
--------- #1339 - Microscope’s View into the Tiny World
- Attachment: The Egg shell
- Microscopes are amazing with the new technologies we have today. We can learn to visualize a smaller and smaller world. This world of the tiny becomes a beautiful and intriguing place to visit.
- The picture attached is an egg shell. This is the cross section of the shell with the inside of the egg shell being at the bottom.
- This picture was taken with “ electron backscatter diffraction” microscope. Beams of electrons were fired at the edge of the shell and the pattern created by the electrons that bounced off was detected and recorded. The image was then created in a computer with each color representing different ways the atoms in the shell were positioned.
- The shell is 0.6 millimeters thick. And the strongest part of the shell is red color. These atoms were arranged up and down like Greek pillars that show up as red panels.
- Each type of bird egg has an unique shell pattern. The different color schemes created tell scientists which bird laid the egg. This particular egg was laid by a prehistoric flamingo between 5.33 and 23.03 years ago. It is an old egg.
- The image is a whole new way of seeing. You would have never identified this picture as an egg shell, right?
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707-536-3272, Sunday, November 27, 2011
--------- #1338 - Did Comets Bring the Water to Earth?
- Attachment: Comet
- Astronomers love to categorize stuff in the Universe. Galaxies, stars, planets, comets all get categorized. Comets are objects that are chunks of water ice a few miles wide with dusty debris mixed in. The were formed and live mostly outside the Solar System of planets in the Kuiper Belt of comets and beyond to include the Ort Cloud of objects.
- When an icy comet is in space its water ice cannot turn into a liquid. If it gets nearer to the Sun its ice turns to water vapor directly in a process called sublimation. When this occurs the comet forms a tail of vapor and dust pointing away from the Sun.
- Asteroids are objects that are chunks of rock, no ice. Asteroids vary in size from several feet wide to 600 miles wide. Asteroids are pieces of rock in the inner Solar System that never formed into planets. They are leftover orbiting debris in between the planet orbits. Most exist between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in what is called the Asteroid Belt. Most all the meteorites that hit the Earth are this asteroid debris.
- Categorizing has its limits and there are some surprises. For example: astronomers were studying a particular asteroid 7968 , named Elst-Pizarro, as its elliptical orbit inside the Asteroid Belt became closest to the Sun. When it reached a closer orbit it formed a tail. Asteroids are not supposed to form tails. Is this a misplaced comet? What’s going on?
- The Elst-Pizarro’s tail was changing structure and brightness over the 5 months it was being observed. It was spinning rapidly completing one rotation every 3.5 hours. The tail was composed of dust particles so small and fine they were more like smoke. Maybe the asteroid suffered a collision and the impact released dust and water ice from deep inside? Or, maybe this was just a comet that happened to get flung inside the orbit of Jupiter.
- My personal explanation is that the Universe is not black and white. The categorizing needs to make room for hybrid objects. Some objects formed at the margins could be half comet and half asteroid. Half rock and half ice. Astronomers try to figure this out by getting a “signature” of the proportions of the various elements found in the comet tails.
- An example used for a signature would be the ratio of heavy hydrogen to normal hydrogen. Heavy hydrogen is an isotope of hydrogen that has a neutron and is called Deuterium. Most comet tails had ratios that were rich in Deuterium and did not match the ratios found in the oceans on Earth. Because these signatures to date were such a bad match to our water it was unlikely that comets were the source of Earth’s water. When the planet Earth first formed it was so hot all the water would have vaporized and evaporated into outer space. Something had to have delivered the water after the planet had cooled down.
- A recent space probe discovered new data. The comet Hartley 2 residing in the Asteroid Belt had 50% the amount of heavy hydrogen of other comets. Its water signature closely matched that found in Earth’s oceans. Could these comets have been the source of Earth’s water.
- Let’s say during the early evolution of the planet, but a billion years after it was formed and cooled down, we were bombarded by showers of comet meteorites. Between 3,800,000,000 and 4,200,000,000 years ago a range of comets hit the planet. Comets that were smaller, say 2 kilometers wide landed every six months. Bigger comets that were 20 kilometers wide impacted every 600 years. Then there were a few really big comets, say 200 kilometers wide that impacted with devastation every 1,000,000 years. These were all balls of ice. Would they have been the source of the Ocean’s water?
- Today the Earth contains 1,330,000,000 cubic kilometers of liquid water. Ice expands and is 6 times the volume of liquid water. Could the ice balls of comets have enough water to fill the oceans?
- First calculate the volume of the 3 sizes of comets, Volume = 4/3 * pi * radius^3
----------- The volumes would be: 4.2 km^3, 4,200 km^3 , and, 4,200,000 km^3
- If these comets were delivering ice we would need 6 times ( 1.33 *10^9 km^3)
------------------ We need 8*10^9 km^3 of ice.
- If the comet storm hitting the Earth lasted 400,000,000 years we would need an average of 20 km^3 of ice delivered each year.
- Calculate the average ice delivery for each size comet per year:
----------------- 4.2 km^3 / 6 months = 8.4 km^3 / year
----------------- 4,200 / 600 = 7.0 km^3 / year
----------------- 4,200,000 / 1,000,000 = 4.2 km^3 / year
- This bombardment of comets does give us an average 20 km^3 of ice / year.
We need 8*10^9 km^3 of ice to fill the Earth’s oceans and if we received 20 km^/ year for 400,000,000 years that would do the job. The math works. The physics works with the comet tail signature match. Water on the Earth likely came from Kuiper Belt comets getting flung out of their orbits by the immense gravity of Jupiter at bombardment Earth for 400,000,000 years. The next time you look out over the ocean an new image might come to mind. A shooting star that turns out to be a giant ice ball splashing into the Earth. So we think.
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707-536-3272, Thursday, November 24, 2011
--------- #1335 - Light Spectrum
- Attachment: none
- Light is electromagnetic radiation that is emitted and absorbed by matter. Specifically by electrons up through ultraviolet light and by the nuclei of atoms in X-rays and Gamma Rays. It was in 1666 that Isaac Newton discovered the spectrum of sunlight using a prism.
- In 1802 the absorption lines were first discovered in the spectrum. Absorption lines are dark lines in the spectrum where frequencies are missing. In 1814 astronomers first used a spectra with a telescope. In 1835 science began to identify specific elements associated with specific absorption lines and emission lines found in spectra.
- In 1873 Maxwell’s equations first published the theory behind electromagnetic forces and the theory that light was an electromagnetic wave. In 1913 Neil’s Bohr published the theory of electrons occupying discrete energy levels in the atom orbiting about the nucleus. His theory allowed the absorption and emission lines for specific elements to exactly match the calculations for discrete energy levels in the electron orbits.
- When atoms absorb energy ( light) the electrons jump from a lower energy level to a higher energy level. Energy always seeks it lowest energy level. So, atoms emit the exact energy level when the electrons drop back down to their lower energy levels.
- When astronomers studied the spectrum of light coming from different objects in the Cosmos they could identify what elements were present at the source of the radiation. The frequency of the emissions also told astronomers the surface temperature of the source. Wien’s law is that the maximum wavelength of the source is approximately equal to 2,900,000 nanometers / temperature in Kelvin. Then, Stefan-Boltzmann’ s law states that the emitted power per square meter of surface area = (5.7*10^-8 ) * (temperature in Kelvin)^4. Power is proportional to temperature raised to the 4th power.
- If the spectrum is spread out, made broader, that indicates the presence of a magnetic field at the source. Spectrum also indicates if the source is coming towards us or away from us and how fast. It is the Doppler Effect with a “blue shift” indicating a velocity towards us. A “redshift” indicating a velocity away from us. The percentage of the shift indicates the magnitude of the velocity. The wavelength of radiation / (speed of light) = (the shift in wavelength) - (wavelength if measured at rest) / (wavelength if measured at rest). For example: In 1962 astronomers measured the spectral shift of hydrogen lines at 16% indicating that distant Quasars were moving away from us at 16% the speed of light.
- In 1800 William Herschel discovered infrared radiation at the edge of the spectrum of red light. In 1983 we launched the first infrared telescope discovering 350,000 energy sources in the Cosmos emitting infrared light. We had to wait that long to get above the atmosphere that absorbs this infrared radiation before it reaches the ground. In 1801 Herschel discovered ultraviolet light at the opposite edge of the spectrum of blue light.
- In 1887 Hertz discovered the radio waves portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. In 1933 Jansky discovered radio waves coming from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. In 1942 radio waves were discovered coming from the Sun. In 1946 radio waves were discovered coming from Cygnus A which became the first extragalactic radio source to be identified. Since then radio astronomers have discovered Pulsars, Quasars, and the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation.
- The newest spectrum being used in astronomy are X-rays and Gamma Rays. Each new part of the electromagnetic spectrum offers astronomers a whole new field of study.
- For example: Quasar APM 08279+5255 resides 12 billion lightyears away from us. It was found to contain the biggest reservoir of water known in the entire Universe. It has 140 trillion times the water in all the Earth’s oceans. This water vapor surrounds the Quasar for hundreds of lightyears distance. The water is relatively warm at -53 Celsius, compared to the surrounding background space at -270 Celsius. However, the water vapor is so spread out over this vast volume that it is 300 trillion times less dense than that found in our atmosphere. The Quasar’s Blackhole is 20 billion Solar Mass. This is an amazing water hole in the vast Cosmos. Who would have thought it?
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707-536-3272, Monday, November 21, 2011
--------- #1334 - Unusual Light from the Crab Nebula
- Attachment: X- Ray of Crab Nebula
- The very first object that astronomers put in their Messier Catalog was “M1” for the Crab Nebula. Astronomers were tracking comets and “M1” was identified as not a comet. It did not move. Astronomers had to stare at a object for a long time to determine if it moved. These Messier identifications allowed them to skip some objects they saw. This one was in the Constellation Taurus the Bull just 6,500 lightyears away.
- On July 3, 1054 our time, it was a star. One day later, on July 4,1054, it was a supernova that became as bright as the planet Venus in the night sky. It was so bright it could even be seen during the day for several weeks.
- Ever since this supernova explosion occurred the gas and material have been expanding outwards at 1,000 miles per second ( 360,000 miles per hour). Today we see it as the Crab Nebula occupying the left horn of Taurus the Bull.
- The Crab is an especially bright nebula but the source of its brightness is not starlight, not reflected light, not excited gas, not extreme temperatures, not even nuclear fusion. Its unusual bright light is synchrotron radiation.
- Synchrotron radiation occurs when electrons are forced to change directions, or accelerate, in a powerful magnetic field. The Crab’s magnetic field is 1 trillion times more powerful than Earth’s. The powerful magnetic field sends electrons into giant spirals at enormous speeds. The electrons emit their energy in the form of an eerie blue light of radiation.
- What causes this powerful magnetic field?
- At the center of the Nebula is a Neutron Star called a Pulsar. The rotating Neutron Star sends out a beam of energy every rotation at 33 times per second. The is how fast the star is spinning. The mass of the Pulsar is about 1 Solar Mass. It is a remnant of the giant star left over at the center 958 years ago.
- The Neutron Star is a spinning dynamo that produces a powerful magnetic field. The magnetic field acts as a drag on the spin that is slowing the rate down. Today it is spinning at 33 rotations per second. In the year 4000 it will have slowed down to 17 rotations per second.
- The Neutron Star is extremely dense and only 16 miles in diameter. To visualize the density start with the largest cruse ship on the ocean and crunch it down to the size of the ball in a ballpoint pen.
- This thought may amaze you! But, realize that the nuclei of every atom in your body is this same density. The surface of the Crab Pulsar is a kind of lattice of this same atomic structure. One-half mile beneath the surface of this impenetrable crust is a liquid that is even denser than the surface. In this case the dense liquid core is rotating at a different spin rate then the surface. This is the dynamo that is creating the powerful magnetic field.
- The Crab Nebula is a beautiful sight to behold. Now you know its glow is synchrotron radiation. Amaze your friends as you point t the left horn of Taurus the Bull and relay the story.
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(1) Synchrotron radiation is the electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle is rapidly accelerated. It occurs at ultra relativistic velocities near the speed of light. The magnetic field causes the charged particles to follow a curved path because the magnetic force is perpendicular to the direction of the particle’s travel. Changing direction is a form of acceleration. No acceleration would mean a constant speed in a straight line.
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707-536-3272, Monday, November 21, 2011
--------- #1333 - The Red Rectangle Nebula Explained?
- Attachment: Image of Red Rectangle Nebula
- In the Constellation Monoceros the Unicorn is a binary star. Surrounding the binary star is a ruddy rectangular nebula (HD44179). It is 2,300 lightyears away. It is extremely odd in astronomy to see astronomical bodies that are not circles, this is a straight lined rectangle. How is this possible?
- The Red Rectangle Nebula can also be described as a giant “X” with interconnecting ladder-like steps. The color is unusual too. Astronomers expect the red glow of energetic hydrogen. But, this rectangle’s color is orange- red created by fluorescing dust. The source has only recently been discovered to be organic carbon-rich molecules bathed in ultraviolet light..
- Normally you would find these type carbon-rich molecules (PAH’s) from burning fossil fuels. Here we have a nebula containing anthracene and pyrene molecules that are fluorescing in UV light.
- The giant “X” shape is probably explained as cone jets connected at their vertices. They look like a 2-dimensional “X” when viewed perpendicular to their broadsides. The ladder-like steps could be spherical gas ejections that hit the dust at 100 year intervals, again with the rings viewed edgewise.
- The two binary stars at the center orbit each other every 319 days. One is a hot star the companion a cool red star about the size of our Sun. The hot star pulls material off the companion at 300 miles per second. ( 1,080,000 miles per hour). Because the stars have eccentric orbit’s the most material gets pulled off when the 2 stars pass closest together. When the material is dispersed it glows like a planetary nebula due to the ultraviolet radiation from the hot star.
- Astronomers first found this Red Rectangle in 1915. The first images were not clear. Mostly just the binary system was identified. As better instruments revealed more of the electromagnetic spectrum to greater resolution than better theories evolved as to what was causing it all. The above are current theories. Leave it to the Universe to not be ordinary.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com/ Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Monday, November 21, 2011
--------- #1332 - Saturn’s Hexagon at the North Pole
- Attachment: Cassini image of Saturn’s North Pole.
- Astronomy can sometimes just baffle you beyond belief. How about flying over the North Pole of Saturn and looking down into the clouds and seeing a perfect hexagon. A straight lined, six sided geometric figure. The image is beyond belief. At the center of the larger hexagon is a smaller hexagon. What could possible cause this. Astronomers get the big bucks for coming up with the answers.
- The winds on the planet are clocked at 300 miles per hour. Three times hurricane force, could that have caused it? But, revisiting Voyager photographs that were 25 years old showed this same hexagon shape. Saturn’s Hexagon seemed to be similar to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Saturn has a thick atmosphere. Circular shapes and curves should dominate, not six sided figures.
- The Hexagon rotates with the planet every 10 hours and 39 minutes.
- Each side of the Hexagon is 8,600 miles long. The distance across the Hexagon is 15,000 miles. We could fit four Earths inside the Hexagon. The Hexagon shape extends at least 60 miles deep into the atmosphere.
- One theory is that the shape is created by some sort of standing wave. A resonance of a wave reinforcing itself in exact repetition. The South Pole of Saturn does not have any evidence of this same phenomena, just the North Pole. The standing wave could have something to do the planet’s magnetic field but we have no explanation of how this mechanism might work.
- We see hexagons created in nature in crystals and in snowflakes. But, not usually in fluid dynamics. Oxford University researchers took the idea that fluid dynamics have standing waves and was able to simulate the hexagon effect. They filled a tank with a glycol-water mixture. They put the tank on a turntable. They spun the tank in one direction. Then inserted a solid ring inside the tank and spun it in the opposite direction at a different rate. What emerged was a steady six-sided pattern in the fluid. Could this same effect be repeated on a planetary scale? Could this be what is happening in Saturn’s atmosphere?
- The rings of Saturn now have some competition for attention. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com/ Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Monday, November 21, 2011
--------- #1331 - How Neutron Stars become Pulsars?
- Attachment: image of Neutron Star
- Neutron Stars are leftovers after supernova explosions. These smaller stars are the remnant cores of bigger stars. Stars burn their nuclear fusion fuels for millions to billions of years. Big stars burn hotter and have shorter lifetimes, maybe 10 million years.. Smaller stars like our Sun will have a lifetime of some 10 billion years. When the Big Stars go supernovae they leave behind a Neutron Star that can range in mass from 0.7 to 2.7 Solar Mass. However, that mass is concentrated into a rotating sphere that is only 12 miles in diameter.
- When the Big Star starts out it can be 8 to 25 Solar Mass, maybe even as big as 150 Solar Mass. When it runs out of fuel and implodes into a spinning Neutron Star the collapsing outer layers of the star rebound into a titanic explosion hurtling material into outer space. The Neutron Star at the core spins faster in order to maintain the Conservation of Angular Momentum as it collapses to a smaller diameter. This rapid rotation generates a giant magnetic field, like an spinning electric dynamo. The magnetic field generates a current of charged particles that escape out the magnetic poles. Often the beam of particles are offset from the rotational axis causing the beam to rotate like a lighthouse beacon. When the beam flashes across our field of view we call it a “ Pulsar”.
- Only 8 supernovae explosions have been recorded witnessed by the naked eye. One was recorded in August 7, 1181 that lasted for 156 days before becoming too faint for the naked eye. This supernova was designated 3C58. Compared to the Crab Nebula supernova that was witnessed beginning July 4, 1054, 3C58 is 2,000 times weaker in the X-ray spectrum even though the X-ray nebula is several time larger than the Crab.
- It was difficult to find the point source Neutron Star at the center of the nebula. On March 28, 2001 astronomers finally measured the period of this Pulsar at 65.7 milliseconds. This is roughly twice the period of the Crab Pulsar witch is 30 milliseconds. The luminosity was measured at 100,000 Solar Luminosity. The magnetic field was 10 trillion Earth’s magnetic field ,but , about the same as the Crab’s.
- The spin rates of Pulsars slow down as the drag of the strong magnetic fields causes a loss of spin energy. The initial spin rate of the Crab was 19 milliseconds. For 3C58 it was 60 seconds.
- Our Sun’s nuclear fusion creates a surface temperature of 5,800 Kelvin. Temperature is the vibration of atoms and this temperature has a vibration emission wavelength of 500 nanometers, the wavelength of yellow light.
- Neutron Stars have a different source of energy since they no longer have nuclear fuel to generate sunlight. Their spinning magnets generate electric fields that are up to 1,000 trillion volts at the poles. The charged electrons and anti-electrons spiral around these electric field lines. The constant acceleration of charged particles creates a continuous radiation, called synchrotron radiation. In the beginning this energy crates a surface temperature on the Neutron Star of 1,000,000,000 Kelvin. The Neutron Star cools down as it radiates its energy away. After 100 years the surface temperature is still 3,000,000 Kelvin. Escaping neutrinos carry way energy as well as the synchrotron radiation. 3C58 is 820 years old and its surface temperature has cooled to 1,400,000 Kelvin.
- Neutron Stars are so dense because they are collapsed atoms. A hydrogen atom can be compared to a nuclear pea orbited by an electron 200 feet away. Most of the atom is empty space. When the Neutron Star is formed this empty space is collapsed as the electron collides with the proton at the nucleus forming a neutron. When the electrons and protons combine neutrinos are emitted carrying away energy. 80% of the star’s mass is these neutrons with maybe 20% remaining electrons and protons in the outer layers.
- The calculations for 3C58 observed temperatures do not match up with the scenario described above. Something else is going on. Possibly neutrons are breaking down into individual quarks. Possibly other particles are being created and need to be part of the calculations. Possibly particles are up-down-strange quarks creating “ lambdas”. Up-quarks and anti-quarks are creating “pions”. Up-quarks and anti-strange quarks are creating “kaons”. All of these exotic particle creations could increase the stream of neutrinos carrying off more energy and cooling the Neutron Star faster.
- More discoveries are needed to tell us what is going on inside the Neutron Stars. 3C58 has given us more data, but, we need more. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com/ Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Sunday, November 20, 2011
--------- #1330 - What is the Biggest Blackhole?
- Attachment: M87 Galaxy
- Our Milky Way Galaxy is one of 5,000 galaxies located in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. The Virgo Cluster is 53,500,000 lightyears away and at the center of this cluster of galaxies is a massive galaxy called M87. M87 is the largest galaxy in the Virgo Cluster and it has the biggest Blackhole astronomers have found to date.
- Rather than a spiral galaxy of stars M87 is a sphere of stars, up to several trillion stars. Our Milky Way has 1/10th that number of stars. Adding Dark Matter to his mass of stars makes M87 200 times the mass of our galaxy.
- The Blackhole at M87’s center is 6,000,0000,000 Solar Mass and has a diameter that is about the same as the orbit of Pluto. The Blackhole at the center of our galaxy is 4,000,000 Solar Mass. There are enormous Gamma Ray jets coming from M87’s Blackhole. The jets are deep blue in color that is caused by synchrotron radiation. The visible jets are 5,000 lightyears long and are produced by the strong electromagnetic forces created by matter swirling around the gravity drain of the Blackhole. These forces pull gas and magnetic fields away from the rotating body at its poles. The jets are narrow beams that contain shockwaves. These shockwaves create high energy electrons that spiral around the magnetic field lines. Approaching the speed of light the electrons radiate synchrotron radiation.
- There are also loops and bubbles in the hot, X-ray emitting gas that are the relics of small outbursts coming from the Blackhole. There are also narrow filaments of X-ray emission that are due to hot gas that is trapped by magnetic field lines. One of the filaments extends over 100,000 lightyears and beams in almost a straight line.
- M87 presents quite a picture. Our galaxy’s Blackhole is quiet. There is evidence that it may have been that active in the distant past. See review #1321 Milky Way Gamma Ray Bubbles to learn more about this theory. To see M87 use a backyard telescope aimed at the Constellation Coma Berenices. The Magnitude is 9.59 It is only 53 million light years away. There is little chance you will fall in the biggest Blackhole in our Observable Universe.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Sunday, November 20, 2011
--------- #1336 - The Mystery of the Fine Structure Constant
- Attachment: none
- As far as physics can tell us there are only 4 forces that control the entire Universe. (There may be a 5th if Dark Energy turns out to be a force). These forces are the same everywhere and always throughout time. Two of the forces control the nucleus of every atom, the Strong Nuclear Force and the Weak Nuclear Force.
- The other two forces are gravity and the electromagnetic force. The whole basis for the Theory of Relativity is that the laws of physics are the same everywhere and for every observer regardless of their relative motions. All observers see the speed of light as a constant 630,633,500 miles per hour ( c = 2.99*10^8 meters /second). This is always true regardless of how fast the observers are traveling. In order for this to be true, for velocity to remain constant, then distance and time must change. Velocity is the ratio of distance to time. As velocity increases faster and faster distances shrink and time slows down.
- This same basis for the Theory of Relativity assumes that Gravity is the same everywhere and for all time. The Constant of Gravity is 6.67412*10^-11 meters^3 / (kilogram * second^2) throughout the Universe.
- For this same basis the Constant for the Electromagnetic Force is always constant. Expressed as the Fine Structure Constant.
--------------- Fine Structure Constant = 0.0072973531 ( dimensionless with no units)
--------------- Fine Structure Constant is directly proportional to 3 other Constants. Fine Structure Constant is directly proportional to the electron’s charge squared ( e^2 ) and inversely proportional to Planck”s Constant of Action ( h ) and the speed of light ( c ).
----------------- Fine Structure Constant = e^2 / 2 * h * c * eo
------------------ “eo” is the permittivity of free space that we will discuss a little later.
-------------------- Fine Structure Constant = 1/137 to a close approximation.
- The Fine Structure Constant number measures the strength of the electromagnetic interaction. This equivalent number for the Strong Nuclear Force is 1.0000. This equivalent number of the Weak Nuclear Force is 0.0000000000001. Or, (10^-13). This equivalent number for the strength of Gravity is 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000001 . Or, (10^-38).
- You can see that the strength of Gravity is much, much weaker than the other forces.
- The Fine Structure Constant is a dimensionless number, 1/137. Therefore it is the same number regardless of what measurement system units are being used. An alien civilization on another planet would come up with the same number for the strength the electromagnetic force in an atom. The ratio of the mass of the electron to the mass of the proton is also a dimensionless constant number, 1 / 1840. Physics has no idea how or why these numbers are what they are. They are just nature’s constants and that’s that. (as far as we know).
- The Fine Structure Constant is called the Coupling Constant of Electromagnetism. The Coupling interaction between a proton and an electron inside the atom is a constant ratio between the velocity of the electron in the first circular orbit to the speed of light in a vacuum.
----------------- Fine Structure Constant = e^2 / 2 * h * c * eo
- It is the ratio of the maximum angular momentum allowed by Relativity for an electron in orbit to the minimum angular momentum allowed by Quantum Mechanics. The Fine Structure Constant is directly proportional to the electron’s charge squared ( e^2) and inversely proportional to the product of Planck’s Constant of Action (h) and the speed of light “c”. Any proportionality can be changed into an equality by using the correct Constant of Proportionality. In this case it is “eo” , the electric current permittivity of free space. It could just as well be the magnetic permeability of free space since there is no current flowing in free space to be measured and the product of permeability and permittivity = 1 / c^2.
------------------------ mo * eo = 1 / c^2
- When Maxwell saw this fall out of his equations he first realized that light was an electromagnetic wave.
- The next step is to calculate this and see if we get a dimensionless 1/137 out of this equation. You can skip to the last paragraph if you are allergic to math.
- Electric charge = e = 1.6 * 10^-19 Coulombs
- A Coulomb = an ampere * second
- Planck’s Constant of Action = 6.6 * 10^-34 kilograms * meters^2 / second
- Action in physics is = the product of Energy and Time
- The Speed of Light = c = 2.99 * 10^8 meters / second
- Permittivity of Free Space = eo = 8.85 * 10^-12 Coulombs^2 / Newton * meters^2
- Newton is the unit of Force = kilogram * meter / second^2
- Putting all this back into the equation for Fine Structure Constant
-------------- Fine Structure Constant = ( 1.6 * 10^-19 Coulombs)^2 / 2 * (6.6 * 10^-34 kilograms * meters^2 / second) * (2.99 * 10^8 meters / second) * (8.85 * 10^-12 Coulombs^2 / (kilogram * meter / second^2) * meters^2
---------------- Fine Structure Constant = 2.56 * 10^-38 / 351 * 10^-38
---------------- Fine Structure Constant = 0.007
---------------- Fine Structure Constant = 1/ 137
- OK, we got the dimensionless number that is the Constant 1/137 because all those units cancelled out. Now the big debate begins. Are all the Natural Constants really constant ( See Review # 938 “ The Universal Constants”). ? Or, do natural constants change with time and distance (space)? Is the Fine Structure Constant the same everywhere in the Universe and throughout all time?
- In 1998 there became the first evidence studying the distant Quasars that the Fine Structure Constant may not be constant. The light from the distant Quasar passed through hydrogen gas and the absorption lines in the spectrum revealed the value of the Fine Structure Constant was different in the distant past. It was measured as somewhat smaller than it is measured today. No one believed it in 1998.
- Now, in 2011, after studying 153 Quasars, astronomers found 1 part in 100,000 that the Fine Structure Constant was larger 10 billion years ago. This was seen looking in the southern sky. When telescopes were turned to the northern sky the Quasars there showed the Fine Structure Constant to be 1 part in 100,000 smaller 10 billion years ago. The Fine Structure Constant was different depending on what direction you looked. What goes?
- Does this mean that the Universe is not homogeneous and isotropic? Is Dark Matter and Dark Energy different in different parts of the Universe? Does the Universe have neighborhoods that are fundamentally different from each other ? Do we really live in a special place in the Universe?
- This is a mystery beyond belief. Some answers here could turn astronomy and physics on its head. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
------------------------------------------------------------
(1) 1 / Fine Structure Constant = 137.03599908451
-------- Fine Structure Constant = 0.0072973531
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com/ Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Saturday, November 19, 2011
--------- #1327 - The Fastest Spinning Star
- Attachment: Image of Neutron Star.
- Neutron Stars can spin! Our own star, the Sun, spins. Rather slowly, one rotation takes 25 days. This is the story about PSR J17482446 whose name will be referred to as Neutron Star henceforth. This Neutron Star is located in a Globular Cluster of stars in the Constellation Sagittarius the Archer ( the “teapot” in the southern night sky). It is 18,000 lightyears away. This star is spinning at 716 rotations per second.
- This Neutron Star is part of a binary system. Its companion is a Red Giant star that is 1/7 the mass of our Sun. The two stars orbit each other every 26 hours.
- The Neutron Star is spinning so fast it would fly apart except for the fact that its surface is solid and harder than a diamond. The density of the star is 50 trillion times heavier than the density of solid lead. Its magnetic field is a trillion times more intense than that of our Sun.
- A Neutron Star is a collapsed star that no longer has any more fusion fuel to burn. It remains a hot cinder. In this case a hot spinning cinder that can not offer any radiation or resistance to the gravity that is compressing it. For a normal collapsing star the size- of- our- Sun , gravity would compress it to the size of our Earth before a resistance could stop it. At this point compression would stop because the electron’s pressure to refuse to collapse any further would hold up the gravity. The star this size would remain a White Dwarf Star.
- However, if the size of the star was 40% larger than our Sun ( >1.4 Solar Mass), then the electron’s pressure would break down. The electrons would collapse into the protons in the nucleus and become neutrons. When this happens the star collapses from Earth-size to a ball 20 miles in diameter. A Neutron Star is 20 miles in diameter and still weighing more than the Sun.
- When this collapse is happening the spinning star is speeding up its rate of rotation. Just like an ice skater pulling in her outstretched arms speeds up her rate of spin. When a star’s diameter shrinks it spin rate goes up to maintain the equivalent Angular Momentum. This is the law of the Conversation of Energy, or , in this case the Conservation of Angular Momentum. This particular Neutron Star is spinning at 716 revolutions per second. ( See footnote 1 for some of the math and history)
- A kitchen blender on its highest speed is rotating a hundred revolutions per second. This 20 mile diameter ball is rotating 716 revolutions per second. The equator on the ball is traveling at 43,000 miles per second. If the Earth were doing this instead of a day taking 24 hours we would have 2 days per second. How time flies.
- Not only would you be spinning this fast standing on the equator, the gravity is so intense that your whole body would be crushed to the size of a protoplasm. You would spread across the surface of the star like a film of oil only one atom thick.
- It life were not difficult enough under these conditions the star would be releasing quick bursts of energy with every rotation. Each flash of radiation occurs across a wide range of wavelengths. The flashes are so fast that we can not see them. The star looks like a continuous source of light. Our eyes can not separate flashes that are faster than 30 times per second, let alone 716 flashes per second.
- The spin rate was not detected until 2004 when radio signals were analyzed. This radio signal became a flash along our line of sight because the beam axis of the jets is slightly off center from the rotation axis of the star. This causes the beam to rotate like a lighthouse beacon. Radio signals could be analyzed to pull up the repetition rate of 716 times per second.
- For astronomy to date, this is the fastest spinning star in the Cosmos. It could not be crushed any denser without becoming a “Quark Star”. This phenomena is in theory only. Yet to be discovered. Theoretically, just as electrons give out and get crushed down to neutrons, the neutrons could get crushed down to their fundamental particles the Quarks. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) How does a law of conservation make a Neutron Star spin so fast? Emmy Noether proved mathematically in 1916, when she was 34 years old, that spatial symmetry ( a rotating sphere looks the same from any direction) required a law of conservation. That law was the Conservation of Angular Momentum. She also proved that time symmetry, time translation, ( the law that physics is the same no matter when you apply it) required the Conservation of Energy.
- Angular Momentum is the product of mass and velocity and radius of a rotating body. Mass stays the same so if the radius is reduced in order for the product to remain unchanged the velocity of rotation must increase.
--------------------------- L = m * v * r
- If the Neutron Star has a radius of 10 kilometers and it is spinning at 716 rotations per second how big was it to start with?
---------------- Circumference = 2 * pi * r = 2 * pi * 10 km = 62.8 kilometers
---------------- Completing 716 rotations per second is a velocity of 44,988 kilometers per second. ( 32 million miles per hour or 5% the speed of light.)
---------------- The mass of the Neutron Star is 2 Solar Mass = 2 * 6 * 10^24 kilograms
--------------- The Big Stars rotation was 57 days.
--------------- Angular Momentum = 12 * 10^24 kg * 4.5 *10^24 km/sec * 10 km
-------------- 57 days is 4,924,800 seconds
-------------- The velocity = 2 * pi * r km / 4.9* 10^6 seconds
-------------- The mass stays the same, and cancel out of the equation.
-------------- 4.5 *10^24 km/sec * 10 km = ( 2 * pi * r km / 4.9* 10^6 sec ) * r
------------------ r^2 = 35 * 10^10 km
----------------- r = 5.9 * 10^5 km
----------------- r = 367,950 mile radius
------------------ Our Sun’s radius is 432,292 miles.
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(2) Emmy Noether born 1882 to a math teacher in Nazi Germany. She was not allowed go to school or later to teach in Germany because she was a woman and a Jew. She learned on her own auditing her father’s classes. She wrote the laws of conservation in 1916. Albert Einstein helped to get her through immigration into the United States, out of Nazi persecution. She taught math at a girls school in Pennsylvania. Died in 1935 of ovarian cancer. She was one of the very first women scientists. She discovered one of the most powerful laws in all of physics.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Thursday, November 17, 2011
--------- #1327 - The Fastest Spinning Star
- Attachment: Image of New Supernova.
- Neutron Stars can spin! Our own star, the Sun, spins. Rather slowly, one rotation takes 25 days. This is the story about PSR J17482446 whose name will be referred to as Neutron Star henceforth. This Neutron Star is located in a Globular Cluster of stars in the Constellation Sagittarius the Archer ( the “teapot” in the southern night sky). It is 18,000 lightyears away. This star is spinning at 716 rotations per second. Instead of 25 days to complete one rotation this star does it in 1.4 milliseconds.
- This Neutron Star is part of a binary system. Its companion is a Red Giant star that is 1/7 the mass of our Sun. The two stars orbit each other every 26 hours.
- The Neutron Star is spinning so fast it would fly apart except for the fact that its surface is solid and harder than a diamond. The density of the star is 50 trillion times heavier than the density of solid lead. Its magnetic field is a trillion times more intense than that of our Sun.
- A Neutron Star is a collapsed star that no longer has any more fusion fuel to burn. It remains a hot cinder. In this case a hot spinning cinder that can not offer any radiation or resistance to the gravity that is compressing it. For a normal collapsing star the size- of- our- Sun , gravity would compress it to the size of our Earth before a electron resistance could stop it. At this point compression would stop because the electron’s pressure to refuse to collapse any further would hold up the gravity. The star this size would remain a White Dwarf Star.
- However, if the size of the star was 40% larger than our Sun ( >1.4 Solar Mass), then the electron’s pressure would break down. The electrons would collapse into the protons in the nucleus and become neutrons. When this happens the star collapses from Earth-size to a ball 20 miles in diameter. A Neutron Star is 20 miles in diameter and still weighing more than the Sun.
- When this collapse is happening the spinning star is speeding up its rate of rotation. Just like an ice skater pulling in her outstretched arms speeds up her rate of spin. When a star’s diameter shrinks it spin rate goes up to maintain the equivalent Angular Momentum. This is the law of the Conversation of Energy, or , in this case the Conservation of Angular Momentum. This particular Neutron Star is spinning at 716 revolutions per second.
- A kitchen blender on its highest speed is rotating a hundred revolutions per second. This 20 mile diameter ball is rotating 716 revolutions per second. The equator on the ball is traveling at 43,000 miles per second. If the Earth were doing this instead of a day taking 24 hours we would have 2 days per second. How time flies.
- Not only would you be spinning this fast standing on the equator, the gravity is so intense that your whole body would be crushed to the size of a protoplasm. You would spread across the surface of the star like a film of oil only one atom thick.
- It life were not difficult enough under these conditions the star would be releasing quick bursts of energy with every rotation. Each flash of radiation occurs across a wide range of wavelengths. The flashes are so fast that we can not see them. The star looks like a continuous source of light. Our eyes can not separate flashes that are faster than 30 times per second, let alone 716 flashes per second.
- The spin rate was not detected until 2004 when radio signals were analyzed. This radio signal became a flash along our line of sight because the beam axis of the jets is slightly off center from the rotation axis of the star. This causes the beam to rotate like a lighthouse beacon. Radio signals could be analyzed to pull out the repetition rate of 716 times per second.
- For astronomy to date, this is the fastest spinning star in the Cosmos. It could not be crushed any denser without becoming a “Quark Star”. This phenomena is in theory only. Yet to be discovered. Theoretically, just as electrons give out and get crushed down to neutrons, the neutrons could give out and get crushed down to their fundamental particles the Quarks. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
---------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com/ Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
or, use: “Jim Detrick” www.facebook.com, or , www.twitter.com.
707-536-3272, Wednesday, November 16, 2011
--------- #1326 - The Boomerang Nebula
- Attachment: Nebula image
- Just when you get used to seeing what a supernova nebula looks like the Cosmos throws a boomerang at you. This one is really different. The Boomerang Nebula is located in the Constellation Centaurus the Centaur. It is just 5,000 lightyears away and considered the coldest place in the Cosmos. It is a young planetary nebula which are thermonuclear explosions, how can it possible be the coldest place in the Universe?
- A planetary nebula is a Sun-sized star that runs out of hydrogen-helium nuclear fuel and begins expanding before it expires and collapses into a White Dwarf star. White Dwarf stars are hot cinders and the expanding gas emitting from the star is extremely hot. The Cosmos surrounding stars in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation that is at 2.725 degrees Kelvin. Within less than 3 degrees of Absolute Zero. How can something be any colder than that?
- At one time science thought that empty space was the coldest place possible, at Absolute Zero, zero degrees Kelvin, where all atoms cease vibrating and are frozen still. The atoms at Absolute Zero have stopped all motion except that existing in random quantum fluctuations that always exist regardless. Absolute Zero degrees Kelvin is
-273.15 degrees Centigrade where all atoms stop motion.
- But, since 1960 science has learned that empty space is not empty. Rather the Cosmos is bathed is a Cosmic Microwave Background radiation that is 2.725 degrees above Absolute Zero. Not exactly warm out there but not zero either.
- The Boomerang Nebula is colder than that. It is 2.00 degrees Kelvin. The colder temperature is created in the bubble of expanding gas that is being expelled by the star at a furious pace. The expanding gas is like discharging gas in a can of whipped cream. The can gets colder as the gas escapes and expands. The same thing is happening around the star that is discharging a gas bubble into the space around it.
- The Boomerang Nebula does not stop being unusual with its temperature. Its shape is also mysterious. It is the shape of a Bow Tie, but, the first astronomers to discover it thought it looked more like a boomerang. Their name stuck. We see it in 2 dimensions, but the image in 3 dimensions is probably 2 cones connected at their vertices. The Boomerang Nebula is streaming out 10 times the amount of material normally expected from planetary nebula we have studied. This solar wind is blowing at 300,000 miles per hour.
- Such extremes in expanding gas and solar winds can not last for long. Soon the star will grow much hotter. The gas bubbles will become spherical, more representative of the other planetary we have seen. Planetary Nebula normally exist in the planetary phase for about 10,000 years.
- In the meantime it is one beautiful nebula. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Wednesday, November 16, 2011
--------- #1329 - Most Important Math You Will Ever Learn?
- This is the most important math you will ever learn. It not only affects you personally it tells you how to understand the world:
- We will start with your refinancing your mortgage. It is 5% fixed for 30 years. To learn how soon you will double the amount of your loan in interest simply divide 5% into the number 70. 70 / 5 = 14 years. In 14 years from the start you will have paid double your loan. Will your home double in price in 14 years? Let’s say you pay $200,000 to the builder, if that is the amount of your loan you pay another $200,000 to the banker in 14 years, and he did not even get his hands dirty.
- The formula is simple. It is : Interest rate * years = 70
--------------------------------------- i * t = 70
- Let’s say you just read that we will double our national debt in 10 years. What rate of growth is the spending exceeding revenue?
---------------------------------- 70 / 10 years = 7% per year.
- The deficits added to the debt each year is growing at 7% per year. Is inflation growing that fast? Is productivity growing that fast? Are taxes increasing that fast?
- Where does this math come from? Growth rates and compound interest are an exponential function . The function is the slope of an exponential curve where something has constant growth over time. The curve is the function e^(i*t), the i*t is the exponent and we simply take the logarithm to find the value of the exponent. OK, that is too esoteric. Here it is again:
----------------------- 70 = 100 log to base “e” of 2
---------------------- 70 = 100 ln 2
----------------------- ln 2 = 0.693147
- We multiply by 100 because we are using percentage for interest or growth rates. 69 is close to 70. 70 is easier to divide with. But, you can use the number 69 if you want to be more exact. ln 2 is the natural log of doubling a quantity.
- Let’s say the population growth is increasing at 2% per year. How soon will it double? We have a world population today of 7 billion.
------------------- 70 / 2% = 35 years.
- In 35 years, in the year 2046 the population will be 14 billion unless we lower the growth rate.
- This math can work in amazing ways that should be easy for you to calculate:
Let’s say you want to save some money for Christmas shopping. You set a piggy bank on the kitchen counter and start by contributing 1 penny on December 1st. You are determined to double your contribution every day to go shopping on Christmas Eve. Here is how it will work
--------------------------------------------------- Pennies ------ Pennies
-------------------------------------------------- Contribution --- Total
-------------- 0 ------------- December 1 --------- 1 ------------ 1
-------------- 1 ------------- December2 --------- 2 ------------- 3
-------------- 2 ------------- December 3--------- 4 ------------- 7
-------------- 3 ------------- December 4 --------- 8 ------------- 15
-------------- 4 ------------- December 5 --------- 16 ------------ 31
-
-
-
-------------- x ------------- December( x +1) ----- 2^x ----- 2^(x+1) -1
-
-
-
-------------- 23 ------------- December 24 ------ 2^23 ---------- 2^24 -1
-------------- 23 ------------- December 24 ------ $83,886 ----- $117,772
- You can see that doubling every day is the same as 2 raised to the number of days. The first day is zero.
- So on the 23 day, Christmas Eve you have to contribute $86,886 to the piggy bank. You may have to have borrowed that from the Chinese.
- Also note that the next day’s contribution is the amount 1 more than the previous day’s total: 3+1 = 4, 7 + 1 = 8, 15 + 1 = 16, 2^(x+1) -1 is always the next total. On December 24 your will have $117,772 in the piggy bank. Congratulations you have over $100,000 to spend on Christmas. I hope I am on your Christmas list.
- This last point says that if the consumption of oil doubles every 10 years then the amount consumed in this decade is more than all the previous decades combined. The U.S. per capital consumption of resources is 30 times greater that those living in developing countries. We have an obligation to become more efficient. To conserve more. To develop alternative energy sources. It is in the math. What we are doing and spending is unsustainable. An announcement will be made soon, stay tuned.
- Using the formula : interest * time = 70 when doubling. We are doubling every day
Therefore the interest rate per year is 4,783% per year. If you get a piggy bank that can collect that fast, Keep IT!!!
- Thinking is hard, it tends to be very upsetting. But, the facts do not go away when you ignore them. We would rather embrace what is false because it is more comforting. The chief cause of problems is solutions.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Saturday, November 12, 2011
--------- #1328 - Colliding Galaxies
- Attachment: The Antenna Galaxies
- The Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) will begin colliding in another 5 billion years. The closing velocity between us is 70 miles per second. Yet, we are still 2.5 million lightyears apart. We can witness today what happens when galaxies collide. If you want a preview there are several in the works right now.
- The Antenna Galaxy, Arp 273 Galaxy, and M82 Centaurius A Galaxy are three examples. We think of collisions from meteors and asteroids and comets hitting planets and moons. But, it is hard to imagine what it would be like when stars collide. For one reason we have never seen such an event. Our Sun lies about 5 lightyears from the nearest other star. So, we can not likely see a collision with our neighbor stars with that much separation.
- What would it be like when galaxies collide and billions of stars are passing each other? Galaxies are typically 100,000 lightyears across and only separated by 1,000,000 lightyears. The separations are only 10 times the galaxy disk diameters. Therefore, galaxy collisions are expected to occur much more often than star collisions. Its ironic that stars almost never collide but galaxies regularly do. Every galaxy is likely to go through at least one collision during its lifetime.
- The Antenna Galaxies are 45 million lightyears away. NGC-4038 and NGC-4039 are spiral galaxies that have been colliding for the past 300,000,000 years. The telltale collision is visible in the tidal tails of gas and dust surrounding the galaxies. The cores of the two galaxies narrowly missed each other. They are now swinging around for another pass. They will collide again in another 400,000,000 years. Eventually the two spiral galaxies will merge into a giant elliptical galaxy.
- Merging galaxies merely pass through each other with their stars never ever touching. However, the interstellar gas will be whipped up into giant clouds. Some of the clouds will be the birthplaces for new stars. Billons of stars could form simultaneously creating giant blue superstar clusters amongst the colliding galaxies.
- See the image of the Antenna Galaxy. The blue spots are baby stars, the red spots are regions of ionized hydrogen gas. The yellow orange blobs are the cores of the two galaxies. What we can see in this image is only 20% of what is there. At least 5 times more material surrounds the galaxies in the form of Dark Matter.
- The M81 and M82 galaxies were first seen in 1774 . They are ½ way in between Polaris, the North Star, and the Big Dipper. They are 12,000,000 lightyears away. M82 is a long cigar shaped galaxy that resembles a galaxy seen edge-on. 600 lightyears from M82’s center are intense X-ray emissions coming from a Blackhole that is 200 to 5,000 Solar Mass. If you are looking through an infrared telescope M82 is the brightest thing you can see in the Universe.
- To make sense of the image of the 2 galaxies M81 and M82 they must be gravitationally whirling around each other and through each other in a giant galactic collision. Today there are 130,000 lightyears separating them, but, that is the width of one galaxy. It is estimated that the cores passed each other about 200,000,000 years ago. The collision has resulted in a star nursery where stars are being born at 10 times the rate of our galaxy.
- Only about one out of 100,000 galaxies in the Universe have been cataloged or given any kind of reference number. Within a billion lightyears of us there are at least 3,000,000 large galaxies. Within 100,000,000 lightyears of us there are at least 2,500 large galaxies. In addition, there are another 50,000 Dwarf Galaxies.
- Another colliding galaxy is the Centaurus A Galaxy that is the fifth brightest galaxy in the Southern Hemisphere. It was discovered in 1826 and was identified as NGC-5128 in 1949. When it was discovered it was identified as a powerful radio source. In 1970 astronomers found that it was also a powerful X-ray and Gamma Ray source, and a powerful infrared source. What is causing all of this? A super massive Blackhole?
- Yes, Centaurus A is the merger of a giant elliptical and a giant spiral galaxy. The Blackhole’s accretion disk at the center is emitting X-ray jets and solid particles that are traveling ½ the speed of light. The galaxy is receding away from us at 300 miles per second. The merger likely started about 200,000,000 years ago.
- The next merger is called the “ Rose Galaxy”. It is Arp273 and 300,000,000 lightyears away where 2 galaxies are in a merger that started 200,000,000 years ago. UGC-1813 and UGC-1810 are both spiral galaxies. Their spiral arms today are full of hot, new , blue stars. In another 500,000,000 years the 2 spirals will have merged into on single elliptical galaxy.
- The Rose Galaxy image has orange blobs that are the cores of the 2 galaxies. The visible part of this image is only 20% of the material that is actually there. At least 5 times more material in the form of Dark Matter surrounds the 2 galaxies. All of these galaxy mergers are seen as massive destruction. But, in this destruction of structure there is a creation of new stars. Even the Cosmos appears to have a circle of life. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Friday, November 11, 2011
--------- #1325 - The Tarantula Nebula
- Attachment: Nebula image
- The most famous nebula and easily the most recognized nebula with the naked eye is the Orion Nebula in the Constellation of Orion the Hunter. The Nebula serves as the sword at the waist of this great warrior. The Orion Nebula is 30 lightyears across.
- In another galaxy, a neighboring galaxy, the Large Megellanic Cloud, lies the largest nebula within our part of the Cosmos. It is 160,000 lightyears away and it is 700 lightyears across. The luminosity of the Tarantula Nebula is so great that if it were as close as the Orion Nebula it would cast shadows on the surface of Earth.
- The Nebula is a wide expanse of hydrogen gas that is being excited by a fierce emission of ultraviolet light coming from a very active star cluster at the center. The mass of this star cluster is 450,000 Solar Mass. It is 35 lightyears across inside the 700 lightyears diameter Nebula. The central cluster is occupied by at least 39 massive stars. These stars are big, between 37 and 76 Solar Mass each. And, one of these stars appears to be more massive than astronomers thought was possible. Astronomers usually put the limit on how big a star can be at 150 Solar Mass. But, this one is calculated to weigh 265 Solar Mass. This massive star shines with an intensity of 10 million Suns.
- Astronomers also theorize that a massive star shining this bright can not live very long. Maybe only a couple million years before it burns all its fuel and explodes as a Supernova. Wait and see. This may be another supernova we get to witness. In 1987 at the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula we witnessed the latest naked-eye supernova since the year 1604. See Review # #831 to learn about the 1987 Supernova. See #1318 to learn about Kepler’s Supernova of 1604. See #510 “ Supernova You Can See” about 6 of these supernova .
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Wednesday, November 9, 2011
--------- #1320 - Supernova Sn1006
- Attachment: See image of Sn1006
- When Supernova Sn1006 first explode in the year 1006 it was brighter than the planet Venus in the night sky. It was even visible during the day for several weeks after the explosion even though it was 7,000 lightyears away.
- Today astronomers are studying the remnants, the debris that is still escaping the original explosion. What they conclude is that it was a Type1a Supernova. (See Review #1318 Kepler’s Supernova to get more explanation of what causes this type of supernova).
- The tell tale signs of a Type1a is the large amounts of the element iron in the debris. This heaviest of elements in a star would have been at the core and the core is blown away. The other sign is that there is no Neutron Star or Blackhole left at the core of the explosion. When a super massive star explodes it leaves a core behind, this explosion did not. A 1.4 Solar Mass supernova explosion evaporates everything.
- The image that is attached is a composite picture taken by 4 different telescopes.
------------------- The X-ray image is in blue
------------------- The visible light image is in yellow
------------------- The radio frequency image is in red
------------------- The Hubble Space Telescope image is of the bright ribbon in the upper right corner where the expanding shockwave is smashing into surrounding gas.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Tuesday, November 8, 2011
--------- #1323 - Other Gamma Ray Sources and Mysteries?
- Attachment: Gamma Ray image
- What we “see” in our Universe is very limited, extremely limited. Our eyes can detect that part of the electromagnetic spectrum from about 400 to 700 nanometers wavelength. That is the wavelengths from blue light to red light and all the colors in between. We can use our radio receivers to detect the really long wavelengths. TV receivers, Microwave receivers detect other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Using only our eyes we are limited to the light form the Sun and the stars and the reflected light of the Moon and all that is around us in natural emitted and reflected light.
- Of course, technology has brought us many other man-made source of light. It all comes from electrons changing energy levels in atoms and emitting or absorbing electromagnetic radiation in return. The very shortest wavelengths are X-rays and Gamma Rays that are mostly emitted and absorbed by the nuclei of atoms rather than the electron shells of atoms. Technology has also brought us detectors that can “see” this part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
- Today we have a satellite in orbit that can detect Gamma Rays. It is the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. If we could “see” using these new detector’s eyes we would see flares spewing out from the surface of the Sun. We would see the accretion disks of high energy matter circling Blackholes. See Review #1321 to learn about the Gamma Ray Bubbles that came from the center of our galaxy.
- The telescope has identified 1,873 Gamma Ray emitting objects to date. Half of these are from active galaxies that have massive Blackholes at their centers. As these Blackholes swallow matter they emit massive amounts of high energy radiation. Many of these sources can not be seen with other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is a mystery. Usually other parts of the spectrum are part of the emission, not just Gamma Rays. Other objects include Pulsars, Supernova remnants, Globular Star Clusters, and the center of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Still 1/3 of the catalog remains a mystery.
- Here are the top 5 sources that are found inside our Milky Way Galaxy.
-------------------- (1) The Crab Nebula in the Constellation Taurus the Bull. It is the remains of a supernova that exploded in 1054. It is 6,500 lightyears away. The original core of the star is now a super-dense neutron star called a Pulsar that spins and pulses 30 times per second. In the last 3 years the Gamma Ray emissions from the nebula has faded by 7%. Short lived Gamma Ray flares have been observed that are hundreds of times higher energies that the X-ray varieties. To account for this super-energy level the electrons near the Neutron Star must be accelerated to energies 10^15 times greater than visible light. That is 1,000 trillion times greater!
---------------------- (2) W44 is another supernova remnant thought to be 20,000 years old. It is located 9,800 lightyears away in the Constellation Aquila the Eagle. The Gamma Rays being detected are coming from the supernova shockwave that is colliding with surrounding gas clouds. Theory has it that high energy Cosmic Rays, which are accelerated protons, may be generated within the magnetic fields and then colliding with the shockwave. Because the protons are positive charges their paths get scrambled by these magnetic fields masking their origins. Astronomer are studying W44 to see it they can confirm this theory and the origins of the Cosmic Rays.
------------------ (3) V407 Cygni is a binary system with a White Dwarf star and a Red Giant star. The Red Giant is 500 times the size of our Sun. The binary is 9,000 lightyears away in the Constellation Cygnus the Swan. Gamma Ray flares are detected from the surface of the White Dwarf when gas from the Red Gant gets ripped away and explodes as it hit’s the super hot surface of the Neutron Star. The most recent explosion detected on March, 2010. This was totally unexpected as a Gamma Ray source by astronomers.
----------------- (4) Pulsar PSRJ0101-6422 in the Constellation Tucana the Toucan. This Pulsar is blinking in Gamma Rays at 400 times per second. Pulsars are Neutron Stars that are so dense that have the mass of the Sun in the size of Washington D.C. Lighthouse-like beams of radiation powered by the pulsar’s rapid rotation and strong magnetic field sweep across the sky with every spin. Astronomers have to be in the beam’s direction if it is to be detected. The pulses from this Pulsar are rotating at 400 times per second. This is as if Washington D.C. were spinning the fastest speed of a kitchen blender. Somehow it makes sense to visualize that.
------------------------ (5) 2FGL J0359.5+5410 is another Pulsar in the Constellation of Camelopardalis the Giraffe. These pulses have not been detected yet, probably because we are not in the beam path. Pulses at other wavelengths have not been detected either. However, the Gamma Ray spectrum resembles that of a Pulsar. We need more evidence so this source remains a mystery.
- Summarizing the Fermi Catalog to date, after 2 years of collecting Gamma Rays:
------------------------ 57% are Blazars
------------------------ 6% are Pulsars
------------------------ 4% are Supernova Remnants
----------------------- 1% are Non-Blazar Active Galaxies
----------------------- 1% are Globular Clusters, high mass binaries, and Normal Galaxies
------------------------ 31% are mysteries.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
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707-536-3272, Monday, November 7, 2011
