--------- #1367 - Miranda - moon of Uranus
- Attachment: Miranda image
- Uranus’s biggest moons are medium- size, smaller than our Moon. There are 27 moons total. Here are the big 5:
---------------------------------------------------DIAMETER -------- Compare to Moon
----------------------- Miranda --------------- 293 miles ---------------- 27%
----------------------- Ariel ------------------- 719 miles ---------------- 67%
----------------------- Umbriel ---------------- 726 miles ---------------- 67%
----------------------- Titania ------------------ 980 miles ---------------- 91%
----------------------- Oberon ------------------ 956 miles ---------------- 88%
- There are also 13 smaller inner moons and 9 outer irregular moons. The outer moons are mostly captured objects, several are orbiting in the opposite direction.
- Miranda is the smallest of the medium- size moons. Voyager 2 spacecraft made a lucky flyby on its way to Neptune. In 1986 it came within 19,000 miles and got this picture. Astronomers expected to find a cratered ice ball. Instead images found the surface to have tremendous tectonic features and relatively few craters. The cliff walls of the canyons are higher than the Grand Canyons. Some are 12 miles deep versus the Grand Canyon’s 1 mile deep cliff.
- Astronomers speculate that Miranda had episodes of tidal heating billion of years ago.
- Other astronomers speculate the Miranda survived a massive collision that shattered it into pieces. The pieces reformed from the chunks that were left behind. This comes from what appears to be an incoherent thrown together surface.
- This was a fortuitous flyby with no plans for a repeat visit. It is hard to learn more in the meantime. It takes 9 years for a spacecraft to reach Uranus. Miranda’s secrets are safe for quite a while. An announcement will be made someday, stay tuned.
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707-536-3272, Friday, December 30, 2011
--------- #1362 - Enceladus - Saturn’s moon
- Attachment: Enceladus image
- Saturn’s moon Enceladus was first discovered in 1789. It is only 311 miles in diameter, 1/7th the diameter of the Moon.
- The surface of Enceladus is water ice. In 1980 Voyager 2 spacecraft photographed Enceladus’ craters, narrow valleys, groves and ridges. It found sharp-edged canyons 120 miles long, 5 miles wide, and ½ mile deep. All later to be discovered as water ice.
- Enceladus orbits Saturn n the densest part of the “E” ring 148,000 miles away from Saturn. Enceladus is so small the escape velocity needed to leave its gravity is only 500 miles per hour. It reflects nearly 100% of the sunlight that hits its surface. Our Moon reflects 7%. Enceladus absorbs so little sunlight its average temperature is -337 F.
- When the Cassini spacecraft arrived in 2005 it found geysers were erupting from the surface. The geysers were mostly water vapor and ice particles but they spewed 300 miles high above the surface. Enceladus is only 311 miles in diameter, the geysers are just as tall.
- Enceladus orbits Saturn is 32.9 hours and has a 2 to 1 orbital resonance with the inner moon Mimas. It also has a 2 to 1 resonance with the outer moon Dione. These resonances create tidal forces on Enceladus that push and pull its surface, similar to how the Moon pushes and pulls the oceans on Earth.
- In 2008 Cassini completed a flyby passing just 35 miles above the surface. As it flew through a geyser ejection it measured water, nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, ammonia and solid particles. It found hydrocarbons propane, ethane and acetylene. Ammonia is a potent anti-freeze that could keep water in a liquid state down to -136 F.
- In 2011 astronomers detected an electric current of high-intensity electrons surging between Enceladus and Saturn. The electric charges create an aurora over Saturn.
- There is more to learn. 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, December 30, 2011
--------- #1361 - Europe - Jupiter’s Moon
- Attachment: Europa image
- Europa is one of 4 moons you can easily see with binoculars as they orbit the planet Jupiter. The 4 moons are in perfectly synchronous orbits. Io , the inner moon orbits 4 times, to Europa’s 2 times, to Ganymede’s 1 time.. With a brightness Magnitude of 5.0 some people claim to even see Jupiter’s moons with the naked eye. Most of us need a brightness Magnitude of 6.0 for naked eye viewing.
--------------------------------------------- Diameter ----------------- Compare to Moon
--------------------- Io ----------------- 2,262 miles ----------------- 210%
--------------------- Europa ------------- 1,944 miles ----------------- 180%
--------------------- Ganymede -------- 3.272 miles ----------------- 300%
--------------------- Callisto ------------ 2,985 miles ----------------- 277%
- Europa’s surface has ever changing boundary lines of floating ice sheets with water oozing though the cracks from the salty oceans below.
- Io has more tidal forces to deal with Jupiter’s immense gravity because it is closest. Its surface changes with non-stop volcanic action. Europa is 1,940 miles in diameter, a little farther away, and its dynamics are not volcanoes but water-ice geysers.
- Europa has no atmosphere to carry water vapor. The sunlight is 25 times less than we receive on Earth. Its surface temperature averages -300 F. How can liquid water exist there?
- Floating ice on the surface provides the pressure to the liquid below. The ice cap also separates the liquid water from the vacuum of space above. The tidal forces of Jupiter’s gravity constantly twist and distort the mantel below the liquid water. The flexing and friction generates a constant internal heat to keep the water liquid.
- Water pools have been detected that are under the surface and the size of the U.S. Great Lakes. Warm, pure ice rises through the surface crust reaching a contaminated layer one mile below the surface. That dirty layer then thaws forming a lens-shaped lake that cracks the weakened ice below. Water pushes up through the cracks, fracturing, and rearranging the surface ice. Eventually the pocket refreezes raising the terrain above surrounding the area with expanding ice.
- Astronomers expect Europa’s icy crust to host many of these enormous lakes below the surface. The lakes are actively sending materials from the surface seeding depths below with compounds from comets. The same compounds needed for life on Earth. Hydrothermal vents may also be heating the oceans from below.
- Jupiter is 318 times more massive than Earth It is constantly attracting comets which collide with its moons. Over 4 billion years these comets have delivered elements to Europa’s oceans much the same as comets delivered elements to our oceans. Conclusion: Other than Earth, Europa may be the likeliest place to harbor life in our Solar System.
- More space exploration of Europa is bound to bring some surprises. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other reviews:
- #1152 - Europa, Jupiter’s Moon Supports Life?
- #812 - The Icy Moons of Jupiter
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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, December 29, 2011
--------- #1357 - Betelgeuse, Algol, and Epselon Aurigae.
- Attachment: none
- Betelgeuse, Algol, and Epselon Aurigae are Variable Stars. Each presented a mystery as to why its brightness should vary. This review presents a story for each one.
- Betelgeuse is a super-giant star that is orange or reddish in color located at the right shoulder of Orion the Hunter, everyone’s favorite Constellation in the southern night sky.
Rigel is a blue-white star that is the left foot of Orion the Hunter. Rigel’s surface temperature is 10,300 K which makes it blue. Betelgeuse is 3,400 C which makes it red. Our Sun is 5,800 K and is yellow.
- Betelgeuse is a variable star whose brightness changes by 50% over a period of years. At its brightest it has the luminosity of 38,000 Suns. Its brightness is changing because it is huffing and puffing as it reaches its final stages of nuclear burning. It has been burning all the elements from hydrogen up to iron. We have know way of knowing at what stage of burning resides in its core. If iron is piling up, and iron will not fuse releasing energy, than it could go supernova any minute. Or, it may burn remaining fuel for another thousand years. We could be the witness of one of the most dramatic events that occurs in the Universe. Maybe.
- A stars brightness is a function of both temperature and surface area. Betelgeuse’s surface area is immense. Luminosity = Constant * (4*pi*r^2) * ( T^4). Luminosity is proportional to the 4th power of the temperature. The Constant is 5.7*10^28 watts / (m^2 * Kelvin^4)
---------------------- L = Constant * (4*pi*r^2) * ( T^4).
----------------------- The Luminosity of Betelgeuse is 38,000 Suns.
---------------------- The Luminosity of the Sun is 3.8*10^26 watts.
--------------------- Therefore, the Luminosity of Betelgeuse is 1.4*10^31 watts
---------------------- The temperature of Betelgeuse is 3,400 Kelvin
- We can use this equation to calculate the size of Betelgeuse. Solving for the radius:
-------------------- r^2 = L // 4*pi * Constant * T^4
--------------------- r = 1.4*10^31 // 4 * 3.14* (5.7*10^-8) * (3.4*10^3)^4
---------------------- r = 3.8 *10^11 meters
.
- The radius of Betelgeuse is 380 billion meters. If Betelgeuse replaced our Sun its surface would engulf the Earth and reach beyond the orbit of Mars.
- Algol is a variable star, but it has a different cause. Algol is an eclipsing binary system. Algol , the “ Demon Star”, marks the head of Medusa the gorgon carried by Persus who had decapitated her in one of the most famous Greek Myths.
- Algol’s brightness regularly recurs every 2 days, 21 hours. In just 5 hours it can dim brightness by 33%. 5 hours later it will be full brightness again. One star is blue-white and 25 times brighter than the other. It is 3.7 Solar Mass and a Main-Sequence Star. The companion star is orange and slightly larger in diameter. It is 0.8 Solar Mass and a Sub-giant Star At minimum brightness 80% of the brighter star is eclipsed from our point of view.
- Binary stars are born at the same time. More massive stars have shorter lives. Therefore, more massive stars exhaust their core hydrogen and become sub-giants sooner than the less massive stars. In Algol’s system of binaries the opposite is occurring. Why is this?
- When the massive star exhausts its hydrogen first it swells in size and becomes a Red Giant Star. Its massive size allows the companion star to pull gas away from its huge tidally distorted outer layers. This results in a mass exchange. As the gas spills over from the Red Giant to the companion, the companion gains mass at the giant’s expense.
- The 0.8 Solar Mass star used to be much more massive. As the more massive star it was the first to begin expanding into a Red Giant Star. So much of its matter spilled over onto its companion that it is now the less massive star.
- The 3.7 Solar Mass star is still gaining mass from Sub-giant companion. Its lifecycle is actually accelerating as its increasing gravity raises its core hydrogen fusion rate. It will eventually exhaust its hydrogen and begin expanding into a Red Giant itself. At that point the cycle could start all over again.
- Epsilon Aurigae is a variable star with still another story. It is in the Constellation Capella the Charioteer. The constellation is directly overhead at this time. Capella is the brightest star in the 5 star pentagon shape. The “ Three Kids” is the triangle of stars next to Capella. Epsilon is the next orange star as you go around the Pentagon vertices.
Epsilon is a Super Giant Star 20 Solar Mass, 300 times the diameter, and 60,000 times the luminosity of our Sun. It is 3,000 lightyears away. Epsilon is a variable star caused by an eclipsing binary. However, the eclipse occurs once every 27 years and lasts for 2 years. The last eclipse started in 2009 and ends this year. If this is a star passing in front of another star it must be enormous size. In fact, impossibly big to block out the sun for 2 years.
- Infrared Space Telescopes have given us the answer. It is not a star it is a cloud of dust. Only the dust is not what we expect. This is a pancake of countless solid particles the size of gravel. The diameter of this gravel patch is 430 times the diameter of our Sun. (4 AU).
- When you look at Epsilon Aurigae tonight it is getting brighter and you can visualize this giant patch of gravel floating by in front of it. Awesome!
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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, December 26, 2011
--------- #1357 - Globular Clusters Surround the Galaxy.
- Attachment: globular cluster, Omega Centauri
- We think of our Milky Way Galaxy as a giant disk with rotating spiral arms, which it is.
The arms do not rotate they are simply density waves that the stars are passing through as the stars rotate around the Galaxy. This is similar to traffic congestion on a commute highway. The more we discover the more spherical our galaxy becomes adding to the disk we know.
- 80% of the mass of the Galaxy lies in a spherical halo of Dark Matter that surrounds the disk. ( See index for reviews on Dark Matter). This review is about some 150 known Globular Clusters of stars that also exist in the spherical halo surrounding our galaxy disk. Looking at these clusters alone our galaxy appears as a disk inside a sphere.
- All the stars are born from giant gas clouds. Giant clouds can give birth to many stars. These groups of stars are known as Star Clusters. They are identified as a group of stars all the same distance from Earth. The stars are all about the same age, within a few million years.
- There are two general types of Star Clusters. Open Clusters that are less dense and contain 10’s of thousands of stars. These type clusters are found in the disk of the Galaxy. Globular Clusters are more dense and contain millions of stars and are found in the halo surrounding the Galaxy.
- Open Clusters contain younger stars. The several thousand stars can cover some 30 lightyears in diameter. Pleiades in the Constellation Taurus the Bull is an example of an Open Cluster.
- Globular Clusters contain millions of older stars in a spherical shape that can be up to 150 lightyears in diameter. The central region of the Globular Cluster sphere can have 10,000 stars tightly packed in just a few lightyears diameter.
- The age of the cluster is determine to be the lifetimes of stars that are at their Main-Sequence turn-off point. Above this point stars have exhausted their supply of hydrogen. Below this point stars remain in the Main Sequence still burning hydrogen. ( Refer to the H-R Diagram for more information).
- The age of an Open Cluster is about 5 billion years. The age of a Globular Cluster is about 10 billion years. Some stars are as old as 13 billion years.
- Of the 150 Globular Clusters known Omega Centauri is different from all the rest. Located in the Constellation Centaurus the Centaur., Omega is the brightest, richest, largest cluster found to date in our Galaxy. There is only one bigger that is found in the Andromeda Galaxy, Mayall II.
- Omega is 15,800 lightyears away. It contains over 5,000,000 stars, has a radius of 86 lightyears, and rotates at 18,000 miles per hour. Its spherical shape appears as large as a Full Moon. The stars in the center are so dense they are separated by just 0.1 lightyears, about 6,000 A.U. The fastest stars near the center are orbiting at 47,000 miles per hour.
- After studying some 50,000 individual stars in the Cluster astronomers have concluded that the Cluster contains multiple age groups of stars. Ages that spread over billions of years. Some are 12 billion years old.
- The conclusion is the Omega Centauri is not an ordinary Globular Cluster. It is what is left of a Dwarf Galaxy that collided with our Milky Way Galaxy. The range of metal richness of the stars means they did not form all at the same time. There are several generations of stars all mixed together. The fast moving stars near the center is evidence of a Blackhole there. 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, December 23, 2011
--------- #1359 - Iapetus, Saturn’s 3rd Largest Moon
- Attachment: Iapetus
- Iapetus is Saturn’s 3rd largest moon, behind Titan and Rhea. Saturn has 50 moons, but, this one is the most unusual. Iapetus is shaped like a walnut with a large ridge around 1/4th of its equator. The ridge is 12 miles high. If it were here you would need a rocket to fly over it. Then ½ of the moon is dark as tar and the other half of the moon is white as snow. What goes on here?
- Iapetus was first discovered as a Saturn moon in 1671. It took another 34 years for astronomers to figure out its orbit because they could only see it when the white side was facing us. When the white side was showing Iapetus is 5 times brighter on the west side of its orbit. Once astronomers figured this out the orbit was calculated at 79.3 days. The rotation was the same, 79.3 days, so the orbit was synchronous always with the same side facing Saturn. In brightness Iapetus went form 12 Magnitude to 10 Magnitude depending on which side we were looking at.
- Voyager spacecraft visited Iapetus in 1980. Cassini spacecraft visited in 2000. What they discovered was that one half of Iapetus was covered in water ice. The other half had a veneer of dark material like the asphalt on a parking lot.
- Astronomer’s think the dark half is carbon-rich dust thrown off by Saturn’s outer moon, Phoebe. Meteors pummeled the moons and the dust from Phoebe was pulled inward to Iapetus’ orbit and coated it 1 foot deep on the forward side of its orbit. The depth is known because meteor impacts on Iapetus expose the ice one foot below the surface.
- The white side is caused by 40 days of sunlight causing ice to sublimate, vaporize, and then getting re-deposited on the cold areas. The temperature only varies from - 229 F to -256 F.
- The raised ridge around Iapetus’ equator rises 8 miles to 12 miles above the surface. The meteor impacts on the ridge indicate an ancient tectonic uplift raised these mountains.
- Iapetus’ orbit is highly inclined to the orbiting plane of Saturn’s rings and other moons.
- Cassini’s last flyby was September 1, 2007 within 1,022 miles of the surface. That is abuot as much as we know about the “walnut” moon until we can get some more explorations. Here is a list of all of Saturn’s moons. Iapetus is 2,210,000 miles away from Saturn towards the outer edge of the group.
-------------------- 11 small inner moons near Saturn’s ring system
------------------- Mimas
------------------- Enceladus - ice balls.
------------------- Tethys
-------------------- Calypso & Telesto - share the orbit with Tethys
-------------------- Dione - a medium sized ice ball
-------------------- Helene & Polydeuces - shares the orbit with Dione.
------------------- Rhea - medium sized ice ball
------------------ Titan - dense atmosphere of methane shrouds the surface ( See review # 1144 to learn about Titan)
----------------- Iherion - The one moon known that does not rotate in a synchronous orbit
---------------- Iapetus - Review # 1359
----------------- Phoebe - very dark, impacts from it may have covered Iapetus.
----------------- 25 irregular moons - captured and highly inclined orbits, some even in backwards orbits.
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707-536-3272, Thursday, December 22, 2011
--------- #1360 - Sirius - the brightest star in the sky.
- Attachment: Well, whoops I forgot this one.
- The brightest star in the night sky is “ Sirius”. It is only 8 lightyears away and it’s brightness is measured at - 1.46 Magnitude. Sirius is slightly blue in color and has a surface temperature of 9,400 Kelvin.
- Sirius is a binary star system. Called Sirius A and B. Sirius A is the “Dog Star” and Sirius B is called the “ Pup”.
- Sirius A is a 2 Solar Mass star with an expected lifetime of 1 billion years. For comparison, our Sun is 1 Solar Mass with an expected lifetime of 10 billion years.
- Sirius B is a White Dwarf star. It is much smaller, maybe only Earth-size. It is much hotter although it no longer produces nuclear fusion it is super hot and cooling off very slowly. A White Dwarf is the exposed core of a star that has died and its outer layers expanded into a planetary nebula. The core composition depends in the size and at what stage the star lost its nuclear fuel.
- A one Solar Mass White Dwarf will be mostly made of carbon because helium was the last element to fuse and it fuses into carbon. At that point gravity was not intense enough to continue nuclear fusion to heavier elements. Larger stars will fuse carbon into oxygen. Smaller stars will remain as helium White Dwarfs.
- If a star is too large it fuses all the way up to iron. Iron will not fuse and release energy or radiation. Unlike the lighter elements Iron absorbs energy when it fuses. This means the star has no radiation to hold it up against gravity. The star collapses into the core and bounces back out into a giant explosion, a supernova.
- The pressure that holds up a White Dwarf against gravity is called “electron degeneracy” . There is not nuclear fusion. It is simply that the electrons refuse to collapse into the nuclei. The material becomes very, very dense but electron pressure holds it up. If the mass is large enough and the gravity is great enough to overcome the electron’s pressure the atoms collapse into a Neutron Star or a Blackhole if the gravity is strong enough.
- The theoretical pressure that the electrons can stand is 1.4 Solar Mass. With gravity pressure greater than 1.4 Solar Mass the electrons will collapse into the protons and form a neutron core.
- Sirius B was discovered in 1844 because its orbit wobbled Sirius A indicating some mass was tugging at it in a recurring orbit. Sirius B remained unseen until 1862 when it was first spotted using a 18 ½ inch refractor telescope. It was not categorized as a White Dwarf until 1910.
- Sirius B is exactly one Solar Mass. In 2005 its diameter was measure to be 7,500 miles, slightly smaller than the Earth. Mass of the Sun, in the volume of the Earth. That makes its density 100,000 times denser than iron.
- Over 9,000 White Dwarfs have been identified. Most are smaller that one Solar Mass averaging 67% Solar Mass.
- Sirius A and B are in a 50 year orbit. We get to view their maximum separation from our point of view in 2022.
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707-536-3272, Thursday, December 22, 2011
--------- #1355 - Laser Light is Cool
- Attachment: none
- One of the first toys I can remember getting for Christmas was an “ Erector Set” It was dozens of metal strips with holes in them. Hundreds of little screws and nuts. Maybe a couple pulley wheels. And, you could make all kinds of things, Ferris Wheels, Windmills, box cars, robots, whatever your imagination could come up with.
- I also remember another toy. It was a clear light bulb with a black and white fan inside. The fan would spin when you shinned a light on it. the white side reflected the light and the black side absorbed the light and the fan would spin.
- Light is supposed to be massless. Without mass there is no Kinetic Energy =
½ M* v^2. Photons are massless, yet, they carry energy and they can move things.
- It was in 1619 the Johannes Kepler suggested that the pressure of sunlight caused the comet tails to always point away from the Sun.
- In 1746 Leonard Euler wrote the equations for how waves in motion produce pressure.
- In 1873 James Clerk Maxwell calculated that bright sunlight would put a pressure on Earth equal to 4 pounds per square mile.
- My toy light bulb invention first occurred in 1873. Again the pressure of light was what caused the mill to rotate. It was called a “ light mill”. Science has since concluded that it was more caused by the transfer of heat by the light reflecting and absorbing on opposite sides of the fan. The expanding heat from the black absorbing side caused the fan to spin.
- Today science is still experimenting with light pressure. Science is trying to use light pressure to cool objects by slowing down the vibration of atoms. The goal is to reach Absolute Zero temperatures and the ‘Ground State” of atom vibrations. The new science is called “ optomechanics“.
- The reason science is interested in Absolute Zero is that large objects reduced to their Ground States of lowest energy will display the properties of Quantum Mechanics. Large objects near Absolute Zero begin behaving like sub-atomic particles.
- We think of sunlight as heating things not cooling things. Our intuition tells us that light should not be cooling things down? Temperature is vibrating atoms. A very small force that opposes each cycle of vibration will slow down the vibration and make it cooler. Vibrating atoms is the definition of Thermal Energy, “ heat”. When vibrations slow down, atoms cool down.
- Maxwell’s calculations in 1873 showed that sunlight reflecting on one square meter of mirror delivered a pressure of 1/1000 the weight of a small paper clip. A very small force but enough to cool atoms.
- If a laser light is tuned just off the resonant vibration of an object it will dampen the oscillations. It will steal a small amount of vibrational energy. The vibrating object cools down.
- In 2006 science first used the technique to cool mirrors down to 10 degrees Kelvin. Getting to 0 Kelvin means removing every “quanta” of energy that is in the oscillations. Energy, like the photons, comes in “ quanta”, discrete packets of vibrational energy. The energy of one photon packet is Planck’s Constant of Action = 1.05*10^-34 Joule*seconds. That is the energy of one cycle of oscillation. Multiply this times frequency of oscillation and you have the Energy of the wave of oscillation.
---------------------- E = h * f
- In 2009 science used microwave light to cool a vibrating object down to 4 quanta of thermal energy. This meant the object’s atoms were in Ground State 21% of the time. We could almost begin to study the effects of Quantum Mechanics.
- In 2010 UC Santa Barbara used a ceramic wafer 30,000 nanometers long that vibrated in resonance at 6,000,000,000 times per second. The theory being that the faster an object quivered the easier it would be to remove its energy. The result was to put the ceramic wafer in its Ground State 93% of the time. The wafer could be put in a state of “Superposition”, both moving and still at the same time.
- Science as since gone beyond the microscopic world an successfully cooled a giant 10 kilogram mirror down to 234 quanta. these mirrors are being used as gravitational wave detectors in the OLGO project.
- Another gravitational wave detection project in Italy uses an aluminum bar weighing 2,000 pounds that was cooled down to 4,000 quanta.
- Electromagnetic radiation consists of “ quanta ‘ of energy. Each quanta is an identical indivisible unit equal to Planck’s Constant * frequency.
------------------------ E = h * f
- The momentum of light, “p”, is mass times the velocity of light. “c” is the velocity of light.
------------------------- p = m * c
- Energy is equal to momentum times velocity.
----------------------- E = p * c
---------------------- E = m * c^2
- Wavelength of light times the frequency of light equals the speed of light.
---------------------- w * f = c
-------------------- w = E / c = h*f / c = h*c / E = h / p
- All of these are “ quanta ’ for a single cycle of oscillation or vibration. When the quanta get down to a single wavelength , quanta = 1, it is as cold as it gets. Hope you like this review. And, hope I can make an announcement of gravity wave detection using those cold mirrors. This would be a new form of “ light” for astronomers to explore the 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, December 18, 2011
--------- #1356 - Our Galaxy Blackhole is about to Have Fireworks?
- Attachment:
- The Blackhole in the center of our Galaxy may be flaring up soon. Astronomers have found a giant gas cloud that is heading right towards it and it is picking up speed.
- Our Blackhole is been quiet as far as galaxy Blackholes go. We are located in one of the four spiral arms in the Milky Way 26,000 lightyears from the center. You can see where the Blackhole sits at the center from your backyard. Look to the southern night sky at the Constellation Sagittarius the Archer. The shape of the constellation is better described as the “ teapot”. The had bow and arrows but they did not have teapots at the time the Constellations were first named. This Blackhole is named “Sagittarius A star”. It is located right at the top of the teapot where the steam comes out.
- The Blackhole is massive, 4,000,000 Solar Mass. It is compresses into a volume less than 26,000,000 miles across. This would be a sphere about have the radius of the orbit of the planet Mercury.
- Blackholes discovered to date appear to come in two sizes , big and enormously big.
Solar Blackholes are created from an single massive star and are about 10 Solar Mass. The Blackholes at the center of galaxies weigh millions and billions of Solar Mass.
- 10 Solar Mass Blackholes have enormous gravity and relatively small event horizons. As a consequence in falling material experiences tremendous tidal forces once it crosses the Event Horizon. These forces tear the material to pieces as it falls to the center.
- On the other hand billion Solar Mass Blackholes have a much larger spherical Event Horizon. Crossing it Event Horizon would be a big mistake but you would hardly notice any difference. You could not call home because radio waves could never leave the Blackhole. Neither could you. Science is not sure what happens next?
- If you are outside the Blackhole looking at what is happening the picture is much different. Outside means you are in a different “ reference frame” in the Gravity’s distortion of space-time. To the outsider the material falling into the Blackhole appears to “ freeze” as time slows and eventually stops as it hit’s the Event Horizon. At the Event Horizon the material appears to hang motionless forever.
- The Chandra X-ray telescope has detected weak X-ray flares being emitted at the Blackhole’s Event Horizon. These flares are most likely coming form high-speed atoms spiraling inward until they cross the Horizon.
- Huge lobes of ultra-hot gas is streaming away on opposite sides of the Blackhole. these lobes extend out dozens of lightyears and are likely the result of massive explosions ad emissions that have occurred over the past 10,000 years. There also X-ray filaments that result from rapidly spinning Neutron Stars creating magnetic fields with streams of high-energy electrons.
- Astronomers have been tracking 28 stars that are orbiting close to the Blackhole. Some have passed within 10 lighthours of the center. One has been tracked for nearly a complete orbit, circling the center in 15.6 years. It passes within 17 lighthours of the center ( This is about 3 times the orbit of Pluto.) Measuring these orbits is how astronomers have estimated the mass of the Blackhole to be 4,000,000 Solar Mass.
- As mentioned earlier, our Blackhole is relatively quiet compared with other galaxies. The X-rays from the Blackhole is only one of some 2,000 X-ray sources that have been detected in the region. It appears that very little of the solar winds form the orbiting stars is being pulled into the Blackhole. Less than 0.01% of the solar winds are fueling Sagittarius A* at this time.
- To explain this astronomers theorize the particles in the hot inner region close to the Horizon collide and transfer energy through convection to particles in the cooler outer region. This is in turn creates an outward pressure pushing as away from the Blackhole.
- But, things are about to change. Astronomers have spotted a cool cloud of hydrogen and helium that is 3 times the mass of the Earth heading directly for Sagittarius A*. The gas is moving 5,257,000 miles per hour. Its speed has doubled in the last 7 years. By 2013 it will begin being sucked in to the Event Horizon and fireworks will flare up.
- The massive cloud will be within 250 AU, 250 times the Earth-Sun distance. Unlike stars that could whisk by at enormous speeds, clouds of gas get shredded by the tidal forces and break apart. They will then spiral inward towards the Blackhole. Rapid heating of the in falling gas will create blasts of X-ray hundreds or thousands of times their normal intensity. The period of quiescence is about to change. Astronomers are anxiously awaiting the fireworks. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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Other reviews available:
(1) 1350 - Blackholes can get bit and bright, Cygnus X-1
(2) 1244 - Blackholes explained
(3) 1105 - How small can Blackholes get, plus a more complete index of Blackhole reviews.
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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, December 18, 2011
--------- #1354 - New Rotary Engine for Hybrid Cars?
- Attachment: diagram of Wave-Disk Generator
- After 100 years it is about time the internal combustion reciprocating engine got replaced. Piston engines are 15% efficient on consuming the energy in gasoline. The world is running low on oil. We need a better solution.
- There is one coming in 2013. Prototype engines are already working. It is a gas driven engine but a rotary engine that powers an electric generator. This new vehicle would:
-------------------- 60% efficiency, 3.5 times better than today’s cars.
-------------------- 500 mile driving range on fill up.
-------------------- 30% less weight
-------------------- 30% cheaper to manufacture.
-------------------- 90% fewer exhaust emissions
- The new engine is a shock-wave engine. A gas turbine with the name “ Wave Disk Generator”. It has no pistons. It is a rotary engine. Like a jet engine with a spinning disk of curved blades except these blades are contained is combustion chambers. The engine has wave-like channels that trap and mix air and fuel as the rotor spins. When the central inlets are blocked the pressure builds up inside the chamber creating a shockwave that ignites the fuel and spins the rotor.
-The engine works at a higher temperature than reciprocating engines but does not require a cooling system. The rotating blades do not spin as fast as a jet engine or other turbine engines so it does not require the expensive high strength materials.
- With not transmission, no crankshaft, no pistons, no valves, no fuel compression, no cooling system the system will be 1,000 pounds lighter than today’s cars. The engine can be held in one hand. It is designed to connect its central shaft to an electric generator. The engine will rotate at maximum efficiency and the generator will charge batteries. The batteries will provide the instant acceleration and hill climbing power needed.
- A plug in hybrid would have regenerative braking that would also charge the batteries. They could even have electric generator shock absorbers that could turn the suspension system in to a charging system. 500 miles between fill ups and recharging.
- The Wave-Disk Generator engine is only 33 horsepower, 25,000 watts. But, engine efficiency could exceed 65%.
- Hot, pressurized air and fuel enter the gaps between the blades from a central spindle. High pressure shockwaves ignite the fuel at high temperatures and the expanding gas spins the rotor blades. The rotor’s crankshaft powers and electric generator that drives the electric motors at the wheels. The running engine requires split second timing for combustion and precise shaping of the blade geometries.
- The math involved is very complex, yet, the basic thermodynamics for a heat engine is dirt simple. The efficiency of a heat engine depends solely on the difference between the hot and cold temperature reservoirs. One minus the ratio of the cold temperature to the hot temperature.
------------------- Maximum Efficiency = 1 - Tc // Th
- This equation is Carnot’s Theorem from the second law of thermodynamics which applies to all engines that convert thermal energy to work. Fuel cells and batteries convert chemical energy to work and have different efficiency formulas.
- The Wave-Disk Generator hybrids could be on the road in 2013. This would enter us into a new era of electric vehicles. It could result in electric generators for many other purposes as well. To get a better idea of the small engine that does the work see the video:
-------------------------------------
See also Review #669 Cars can run on water.
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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, December 16, 2011
--------- #1353 - How Fast Do You Have to Go to Escape the Galaxy?
- Attachment: none
- How fast do you have to be going to escape the gravity of the Earth?
----------------------- 6.96 miles per second
--------------------- 25,056 miles per hour.
- Just over 25,000 miles per hour and the traveler can permanently escape the grasp of Earth’s gravity. But, not the grasp of the Sun. How is escape velocity calculated?
- The velocity needed to escape the gravity of a body is directly proportional to the mass of the body and inversely proportional to the radius to the center of the mass.
----------------- (velocity)^2 = constant * Mass / radius
- The constant needed to make this equation an equality is 2 times the Gravitational Constant, “G”.
------------------ G = 6.67 * 10^-11 m^3 / (kg*sec^2)
----------------- v^2 = 2 * G * M // r
----------------- M = mass of the Earth
------------------ M = 5.97*10^24 kilograms
------------------- r = radius of the Earth
------------------- r = 6.38 *10^6 meters
-------------------- v^2 = 2 * (6.67*10^-11) * ( 5.97*10^24) // ( 6.38*10^6)
------------------- v^2 = 12.48*10^7
------------------ v = 11.2 kilometers / meter
----------------- velocity = 25,000 miles per hour.
- For the Moon the escape velocity = 2.4 kilometers / meter
------------------ v ( Moon) = 5,370 miles per hour
- For the Sun the escape velocity is:
------------------- v ( Sun ) = 1,382,400 miles per hour.
- How fast is the escape velocity from the Sun at the distance of the Earth?
--------------- v(Sun at Earth) = 93,600 miles per hour
- Our fastest rocket ships can only go 36,000 miles per hour. So, our rockets can escape the Earth but the can not go fast enough to escape the Sun. Astronomers have figured out how to use gravity to swing by the planet and slingshot the rocket at ever greater velocities. When rockets get free from gravity traveling in outer space there speeds can gradually increase if they use more rocket fuel. But, fuel is heavy and rockets want to carry payloads not fuel.
- How fast would these rockets have to get going in order to escape the gravity of the Milky Way? Are there stars in the galaxy going fast enough to escape the Milky Way? The galaxy contains at least 200,000,000 suns and weighs over 2* 10^42 kilograms. Using averages for distances and mass distributions the escape velocity for the Galaxy is:
---------------------- v( galaxy ) = 648,000 miles per hour.
- Have astronomers ever found a star traveling this fast away from the center of the Galaxy?
- Yes, in 2005, a blue star was discovered (spectral type “O”) in the Constellation Hydra the Sea Serpent traveling at:
--------------------- v(star) = 1,558,800 miles per hour.
- This star is 362,000 lightyears away from the center of the galaxy. At these speeds it must have left the center of the Galaxy some 80,000,000 years ago.
- By 2011 astronomers have discovered 12 stars traveling at galactic escape velocities. One of these in the Constellation Puppis the Stern, very near the Dog Star, Sirius, is a Neutron Star traveling that fast. It’s velocity is 0.5% the speed of light. This star will leave our Galaxy in just a few million years.
------------------ v(neutron star) = 3,353,167 miles per hour
- How can these enormous stars possible obtain these enormous velocities?
- Astronomers have two theories: One has to do with binary stars that fly too close to an enormous Blackhole, like the one at the center of our Galaxy. When the Blackhole captures one of the stars and pulls it in the Conservation of Momentum requires the companion star to be flung in the opposite direction with the same kinetic energy. This Conservation of Energy puts enormous velocity in the escaping companion star.
- The second theory has to do with a massive supernova explosion that is asymmetric. If the explosion is lopsided and the explosion goes off in one direction the remnant Neutron Star could get shot away like a cannon ball. Again, the Conservation of Energy requires an equal and opposite reaction. If the massive star’s supernova explodes in one direction the Neutron Star flies off in the opposite direction at enormous velocities.
- Velocities great enough to escape the Milky Way Galaxy and enter intergalactic space traveling at their escape velocity forever. What is the escape velocity to escape the Universe? Light traveling at light speed creates the Observable Universe as it goes. But, space is expanding faster than the speed of light. And, light is getting redshifted to broader and lower energy wavelengths as it goes. It appears that nothing can ever escape the Universe. An announcement will be made soon, stay tuned.
--------------------------------------------------
Also see Review #883 How to escape.
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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, December 16, 2011
--------- #1352 - Playing Baseball on Planet Kepler 22b?
- Attachment:
- The newest space telescopes have discovered over 2,000 planets orbiting other stars. Of those discoveries being studied 48 may be planets with liquid water and with environments suitable to life as we know it here on Earth.
- One planet in particular has been the most studied and the first discovered in 2009. Now, after early 3 years of study, confirmation has been made with 3 transits of the planet about the star. The planet’s orbit is 290 days. We witness the transit with a dip in the star’s brightness as the planet passes in front of it in our line of sight.. We have witnessed 3 transits: 3 * 290 days = 870 days = 2.4 years.
- The planet is named Kepler 22b and its solar system is 600 lightyears away. The star that is hosting this planet is spectral type “G”, which means it is very similar to our Sun that has a temperature of 6,000 to 5,000 Kelvin, greenish yellow color.
- Stars are classified by letters: “O”, “B”, “A”, “F”, “G”, “K”, “M”
-------------------- “ Oh be a fine girl kiss me”
- Here are the classifications be temperature, lifespan, peak wavelength, and example stars:
-----Spectral Type ----- Temperature ----Lifetime --------- Wavelength --- Example
------------------------------Kelvin---------million years ---- nanometers --------------
--------- O ------------ 35,000-30,000 ------ 3 -------------<97 -------- Orion’s Belt.
--------- B ------------ 30,000-10,000 ------ 15 ----------- to 290 -------- Rigel
--------- A ------------ 10,000-7,500 ------- 500 -----------to 390 -------- Sirius
--------- F ------------ 7,500-6,000 --------- 3,00------------ to 480 -------- Polaris
--------- G ------------ 6,000-5,000 --------- 10,000 --------- to 580 -------- Sun
--------- K ------------ 5,000-3,5000 ------- 15,000-----------to 830-------- Arcturus
--------- M ------------ < -3,500 --------- 200,000 -------- > 830 -------- Betelgeuse
- Planet Kepler 22b is 2.4 times he diameter f Earth, about ½ the size of Neptune. It could be anywhere from 10 to 35 Earth masses. Knowing its mass would help us decide if it is mostly ocean with a small rocky core, or a gaseous planet more like Neptune.
- The planet’s orbit is about 15% less than Earth’s orbit about the Sun. However, the star it is orbiting is 25% less luminosity than our Sun. This combination should bring the moderate temperatures to the planet to allow liquid water. Without an atmosphere the temperature would average -11C. But, with an atmosphere and he greenhouse effect that comes with it the temperature should average + 22C , or, 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Sounds pretty nice.
- There are 48 other planet candidates out of the 1,094 discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope that are in similar situations. But, more data needs to be collected on these candidates before good estimates on habitability can be made.
- The Kepler Space Telescope is starring at on spot in the sky. The singe field of view contains over 150,000 stars that are being recorded. If a star’s brightness dips in repeated fashion, it might be caused by a planet in transit in front of the star from our point of view.
- The total number of planet candidates discovered by various other telescope and methods total 2,236 candidates. The Doppler shift of the star is another method astronomers use to identify stars with planets in orbit. The sizes of the 2,236 candidates are:
----------------- 207 are Earth-size
----------------- 680 are super-Earth-size
----------------- 1,181 are Neptune - size
---------------- 203 are Jupiter-size
--------------- 55 are larger than Jupiter.
- Of these candidates 48 are possible life habitable planets. All need further study, but Kepler 22b has the best confirmed data so far.
- To make an estimate of the mass of the planet we can assume it has the same density as the Earth, 5,500 kilograms / meter^3. We measure the radius of Kepler 22b to be about 15,000 kilometers.
-------------- Volume = 4/3 *pi* radius^3
-------------- Volume = 4/3 *(3.14)* (1.5*10^4^3
-------------- Volume = 14 * 10*12 kilometers^3
------------- Density = Mass // Volume
------------ Mass = (5.5*10^3) kg/m^3 * ( 14*10^21) m^3
------------- Mass = 78*20^24 kilograms
- The mass of the Earth = 5.97*10^24 kilograms
- Therefore, an estimate fro the mass of Kepler 22b is:
------------------------ Kepler 22b = 13 Earths
- If you were playing baseball on Planet Kepler22b, how much would the batter weigh and how big would the baseball diamond be?
- This all has to do with the force of gravity on Planet Kepler22b. On Earth the acceleration of gravity is 9.8 meters / second^2. ( 32 feet per second per second).
- The acceleration of gravity, “g”, is directly proportional to the mass , “M” and inversely proportional to the square of the radius , “r^2”.
------------------------- g = G * M // r^2
-------------------------- G = The Gravitational Constant which is supposed to be the same everywhere in the Universe
------------------------- G = 6.67 * 10^-11 m^3 //(kg*sec^2)
------------------------- g = (6.67 * 10^-11) * (78*10^24) // (1.5*10^7)^2
-------------------------- g = 23 m/sec^2
---------------------- g = 23 m/sec^2 // 9.8 m/sec^2
- Gravity is 2.4 times greater on Planet Kepler 22b. The batter weighs 150 pounds on Earth. She would weigh 2.4 * 150 = 354 pounds at home plate on Planet Kepler22b.
- The Home Run fence is 325 feet away from Home Plate on Earth. The fence would be 325//2.4 = 147 feet away on Kepler’s base ball diamond. However, to run the bases she would only have to go 90 // 2.4 = 38 feet between bases. What would the approximate batting average on the Planet Kepler22b? ----------------- Just kidding!
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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, December 14, 2011
--------- #1351 - Animals that are 570 Million Years Old?
- Attachment: mini-baseball animals?
- Science believes it has discovered fossils in South China and in Australia that represent the oldest animal life on Earth. These fossils date back 570,000,000 years ago.
- See the attached photo. The fossils look like mini-baseballs, or soccer balls. There are three theories as to what living creatures these fossils really were?
---------------------- (1) bacteria
---------------------- (2) protists
---------------------- (3) metazoan embryos.
- (3) It these mini-baseballs are truly embryos they represent the oldest records of animal evolutionary lineage.
- (2) We know plants evolved before animals. Protists could be either. Protists are single cell organisms that lack a structured cellular arrangement. Protists include:
------------------- (a) bacteria
------------------ (b) algae
----------------- (c ) diatoms
----------------- (d) fungi
- Protists are not animals yet but they may have given rise to both plants and animals on Earth.
- (2a) Bacteria was the strongest theory until the mini-baseballs were studied using a particle accelerator. Using the power of the accelerator resolution was imaged down to 250 nanometers. Samples were sliced into sections so thin that they were transulent. Microscopic examinations revealed a myriad of eggs and embryos that confirmed the presence of tiny adult sponges and cnidarians. Several bilaterians were discovered ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 nanometers across. The extreme close-ups of these specimens revealed that the fossils and bacteria were far too different. The theory that mini-baseballs ere bacteria was shot down.
- These fossils from the Dousantuo formation in South China were preserved in a chance formation of calcium phosphate. The fossil deposit is 26 feet thick and each single grain is a fossil, a mini-baseball. The phosphate acted as a preservative for the remains of these soft-bodied animals.
- Preservation of fossils in types of rock and chemistry are spectacularly rare. Another one of these rare finds is in Solnhofen Limestone in Germany. There a 150,000,000 year-old feathered specimen was found believed to be the earliest bird, “Archaeopteryx”.
- Other fossils at the South China site include Vernaimalcula, which means “small spring animal”. It first appeared at the end of the era known as “ Snowball Earth”. This fossil is the first known animal having body symmetry. “ Bilaterians” are celled animals comprising species from worms to humans. Their symmetry displays a left-right balance yet a multilayered body that typically has a mouth, a gut and anus.
- Bilaterians as microscopic animals are surprisingly complex including the three major tissue layers you learned in high school biology, endoderm, mesoderm and extoderm. The presence of a gut and a mouth and anus and paired coeloms ( body cavities) surrounding the gut. The Vernaimalcula’s oval shaped body scooted along the seafloor to feed. At one end of the oval, the mouth sucked up microbes. Pits on either side of the mouth were likely sense organs. In life this animal was the size of a period at the end of this sentence “.”
- “Kimberella” are soft-bodied sea dwellers some 10 centimeters in length that were likely the ancestors to mollusks and today’ clams, snails, and squid. This link to the bilaterians is still waiting discovery.
- Other similar fossils have been found at Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Both sites were dated at 570,000,000 years old. Accordingly at that time South China and South Australia were connected as one continent , called “ Gondwana”. The Cambrian explosion of life began about 542,000,000 years ago and science now believes that complex animals existed at least 50,000,000 years earlier.
- Using DNA differences in organisms science tries to measure the date at which two lineages split from a common ancestor, each group going its separate way and accumulating its own distinctive mutations. The idea is that over millions of years mutations in the DNA of genes occurs at a steady rate. Using this technique theories have bilaterians diverging from more primitive animals 1,200,000,000 years ago.
- Exactly what the mini-baseball fossils in the picture represent remains to be determined. They have something to do with the evolution of life on Earth. We just to not know what that is? An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned. In the meantime , they are mini-baseballs fossils.
-------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Cradle of life, the discovery of Earth’s earliest fossils, by j. William Schopf
(2) Evolution, the triumph of an idea, by Carl Zimmer.
(3) Life on a Young Planet, the first 3 billion years of evolution on Earth. by Andrew H. Knoll.
(4) On the origin of Phyla, James W. Valentine
(5) www.ucmp.berkeley.edu
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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, December 13, 2011
--------- #1350 - Blackholes Can Get Big and Bright?
- Attachment: Blackhole image
- We are learning more about Blackholes that occupy the Universe with us. However, they still remain beyond our comprehension. Blackholes come in all sizes. Their creation is really dependent on the ratio of mass to radius. Even the Sun would become a Blackhole if its diameter were squeezed down to about 3 miles. The Earth would become a Blackhole at ¾ inch.
- We have a Blackhole called Sagittarius at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. It is about 4,000,000 times the mass of the Sun, ( 4 million Solar Mass).
- There is a Blackhole in the Constellation Cygnus the Swan. Spot the constellation straight overhead. At about the center of the long neck of the swan. There is Cygnus
X-1. We can not see the Blackhole but we can see what happens around it. There is a blue star nearby that weighs 10 to 20 Solar Mass. This blue star is orbiting something in a tight circle every 5.6 days.
- Using Kepler’s laws for gravity we calculate that the mass at the center must be holding the holding the blue star in its orbit with 8.7 Solar Mass. The radius of orbit about the center is only 20,000,000 miles. ( Mercury is orbiting the Sun at an average radius of 36,000,000 miles.) Using our most powerful telescopes astronomers have found no trace of anything at the center of this circle.
- Until X-ray telescopes too a look. What appeared is a brilliant high-energy X-ray source. The radiation flickers with pulses as short as 1/100th of a second. The flicker must occur with the entire object increases and decreases in illumination all at once. Light travels 3,000 kilometers in 1/100th of a second. 1,860 miles in 1/100th of a second. Therefore the Blackhole’s accretion disk must be less than 1,860 miles across. This is much smaller that the diameter of the Earth. To have over 8 times the mass of the Sun in this small of volume it must be a Blackhole. Calculations have put the size of the Blackhole at 1/20th the size of the Moon. What is creating the X-rays is the in falling atoms that are orbiting the accretion disk at the Event Horizon of the Blackhole.
- When massive stars run out of nuclear fuel they collapse under the immense gravitational pressure with no radiation pressure to stop the collapse. The smaller they get the more dense they become, the higher the escape velocity needed to leave the surface. When the escape velocity exceeds 186,282 miles per second light itself can not escape.
- Escape Velocity is proportional to mass and inversely proportional to radius.
--------------- Vesc = constant * Mass / radius
- Any proportionality can be turned into an equality with the proper constant. In this case it is “G” the Gravitational Constant.
---------------- (Vesc)^2 = 2 * G * M / r
- If we substitute the values for the constants and put the mass in terms of Solar Mass, and set the escape velocity equal to “c” the speed of light the equation reduces to:
--------------- c^2 = 2* 6.67 *10^-11 * M / 2*10^30 kilograms * r
--------------- r = 3 kilometers * M / Ms
- The radius of a Blackhole accretion disk Event Horizon is simply 3 kilometers times the mass in Solar Masses. In this case it is 3 kilometers times 8.7 Solar Mass = 26 kilometers, or about 16 miles radius.
- Beyond this Event Horizon we enter our incomprehension. The star continues to shrink while it mass and gravity remain unchanged. The star compresses to 3.7 miles diameter, then to the size of a beach ball, an orange, an apple seed, and still further ? We do not know?
- The circling accretion disk that is emitting the X-rays is only 32 miles in diameter. Inside this ring is the unknown.
- Recent discoveries have found Blackholes that weigh 21,000,000,000 Solar Mass. NGC4889 is 336 million lightyears away in the Constellation Coma Berenices.
- Another discovery is NGC3842 that is 9,700,000,000 Solar Mass 331 million lightyears away at the center of a Galaxy Cluster “Abell 1367” in the Constellation Leo the Lion.
- Blackholes are with us. We might as well get used to the idea. 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, December 12, 2011
--------- #1349 - Five Colliding Galaxies in Pegasus
- Attachment: Stephan’s Quintet Galaxies
- There are a group of 5 galaxies all colliding in the Constellation Pegasus the Horse. When first discovered it was thought to be a bright star. As telescopes got better and better it became a Nebula, then a galaxy, then 5 galaxies all merging together. Called “Stephan’s Quintet” it was our opportunity to study 5 merging galaxies.
- The merging galaxies had filaments and streams of stars interconnecting them as the merger was occurring. All 5 galaxies appeared to be about the same size and the same distance away.
- When astronomers first began to measure the distance of the galaxy merger they created great controversy. The technique was to use the redshift of the spectrum of hydrogen. Some got a redshift of 658 nanometers for hydrogen spectrum at 656.3 nanometers. A redshift of 1.7 nanometers. Other measurements got 670.6 nanometers for a redshift of 14.3 nanometers.
- The ratio of the amount of redshift to the wavelength at rest is to the receding velocity is to the speed of light.
------------- shift in wavelength / wavelength = receding velocity / speed of light.
-------------- 1.7 nanometers / 656.3 nanometers = receding velocity / 3*10^5 kilometers / second.
------------- Receding velocity = 780 kilometers per second
------------- Receding velocity = 1,740,000 miles per hour
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------- 14.3 nanometers / 656.3 nanometers = receding velocity / 3*10^5 kilometers / second.
------------- Receding velocity = 6540 kilometers per second
------------- Receding velocity = 14,600,000 miles per hour
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- That is 8.5 times faster velocity for some measurements versus others. Astronomers began to loose faith in the redshift method of measuring distances. The Universe is expanding at 47,000 miles per hour per million lightyears distance.
- Distance = 1,740,000 miles per hour / 47,000 miles per hour per million lightyears
- Distance = 37 million lightyears.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Distance = 14,600,000 miles per hour / 47,000 miles per hour per million lightyears
- Distance = 310 million lightyears.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- These galaxies could not be merging and be that far apart, or, the redshift measurements for distance can not be working?
- See the Hubble Space Telescope attached. One of the galaxies has all the bright stars shining as pin points of light. The other 4 galaxies are somewhat blurred because of the 8 times greater distance. It just happened that the 5th galaxy was in our direct line of sight and was 8 times smaller. The interconnecting filaments were an optical illusion.
- However, further study confirmed that the other 4 galaxies were truly colliding and would eventually end up as a giant merger in an elliptical galaxy. The strange interconnecting filaments were caused by giant intergalactic shockwave caused by one galaxy falling into the center of the group at 300,000,000 miles per hour. The shockwave is so big itself is larger than the Milky Way Galaxy. The shockwave is similar to a sonic boom except it is in interstellar gas rather than in air.
- The shockwave was detected by an X-ray Space telescope. The X-rays are emitted by gas heated to millions of degrees. This created another controversy. How could we be measuring the spectrum of molecular hydrogen within the shockwave. This measurement was measured with an Infrared Space telescope. Molecular hydrogen is a very fragile molecule and would easily be ionized or destroyed by a shockwave.
- What astronomers learned was that the shockwave produced a turbulence creating many smaller shocks which in turn created pockets in which the molecular hydrogen could survive. This is very interesting because it is the molecular hydrogen that is the seeds for the birth of new stars.
- Most recently the Infrared Space telescope has discovered as set of 4 other galaxies that are extremely “red”. See the image attached from Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble’s image is not so bright in visible red light, however, the infrared image is 60 times brighter in the longer wavelengths. Galaxies can appear red for several reasons:
------------------- (1) They might be very dusty
------------------- (2) They might be very old stars that have lost their high temperature brilliance.
------------------- (3) They might be very distant and the expansion of the Universe has stretched their brilliant starlight into longer and longer wavelengths. and redder and redder colors.
- All three reasons apply to these 4 distant galaxies that are 13,000,000,000 lightyears away. This proves that galaxies existed within less than 1,000,000,000 years after the Big Bang. Stephan’s Quintet gives us some theories of how molecular hydrogen could survive these galactic collisions to form new stars. The further distance we see the further back in time we go. These images are the childhood of stars in a galactic nursery. We are just beginning to trace their evolution into today’s understanding of the Cosmos we see. An announcement will be made soon, stay tuned.
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(1) Also see Review #1240 Stephan’s Quinter Merging Galaxies
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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, December 11, 2011
--------- #1348 - A Galactic Journey around the Milky Way?
- Attachment: A Spiral Galaxy
- Everything in our Universe is in motion. It represents kinetic energy that is everywhere, all the time. There must be a lot of energy in the cosmos in motion alone. If you are standing in Santa Rosa, California, you are traveling 700 miles per hour due east as the Earth rotates. You are also traveling 66,663 miles per hour as the Earth orbits around the Sun. The planet Mercury is traveling much faster at 107,088 miles per hour.
- Then the Sun and the entire Solar System is traveling around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at 486,000 miles per hour. Our galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy are approaching each other at 670,000 miles per hour. Together with a Local Group of Galaxies we are approaching the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies at 2,370,000 miles per hour. That is our closing speed, our galaxy is traveling at 335,550 miles per hour in that direction. This whole Cluster of Galaxies is approaching the Coma Cluster of Galaxies at 16,000,000 miles per hour.
- These are all “approaching” galaxies because they are all gravitationally connected. Outside the gravity bounds of these galaxies is outer space that is expanding between galaxies. The rate galaxies are receding is known as Hubble’s Constant and it is 50,400 miles per hour per each million lightyears distance in separation. The further a galaxy is away from us, the more expanding space there is between us, the faster the galaxy is receding away from us.
- A galaxy that is 100 million lightyears away is receding at 5,400,000 miles per hour.
- A galaxy that is 10 billion lightyears away is receding at 504,000,000 miles per hour. That is 75% the speed of light. If we look over the opposite horizon at another galaxy that is 10 billion light years away receding at the same speed, the two distant galaxies are receding from each other at 1,008,000,000 miles per hour. That is 150% the speed of light.
- The Universe is only 13.7 billion years old. The two distant galaxies are 20 billion light years apart. The space between them is expanding 50% faster than the speed of light. Therefore no light, or any matter, or radiation, could ever be exchanged between them. And, it never will.
- Remember, the galaxies themselves are not traveling faster than the speed of light. It is the space between them that is expanding with a cumulative effect of separating them faster than the speed of light.
- Also remember, that the light that reaches us today can not be older than 13.7 billion years. But, it has been traveling for 13.7 billion years to reach us and the Universe has been expanding all that time. Our Observable Universe is 13.7 billion years in all directions, but, the actual “Observable Universe” that we will have to wait to see because the light that has not reached us yet traveling at 670,616,529 miles per hour, is 45 billion lightyears away in all directions.
- Here is a thought experiment: If Isaac Newton had blasted off the Earth on a spaceship traveling at the speed of light, we could observe him alive today through the telescope. He could be waving at us through the porthole of the spaceship at the same time we know he is buried in Westminster Abbey. In the same way we see galaxies as the looked billions of years ago. We have only imaginative ideas as to what they really look like today?
- Back to our Solar System orbiting Sagittarius at 486,000 miles per hour. The Constellation ”Sagittarius the Archer” is the “teapot” constellation in the southern night sky. Right at the top of the spout of the teapot is the center of our galaxy. We are 26,000 lightyears away from that center. Traveling in a circle around the center takes 220,000,000 years. It is a perilous journey through space. During our lifetimes we do not get very far around. But, during the lifetime of our Solar System, 4.5 billion years, we have made the trip 68 times.
- In one complete trip we have to pass through the 4 spiral arms of the Milky Way disk. We also have to bob above and below the disk about 4 times. Each bob gets us above and below the disk by about 200 lightyears.
- This is a perilous journey. We encounter many dangerous environments in space. Our Mother Earth has a very broken record of all it has encountered. The rocks and records have been constantly recycled by plate tectonics, seasonal and weather erosions. However, a better record can be found on the Moon. If we can get there and read the record, its rocks have been undisturbed for eons.
- The Moon’s sub-terrain certainly contains a record of our past journeys through the spiral arms of the galaxy. These arms are standing waves of denser regions where stars and gas come closer together. As our Solar System passes through each arm we are like a surfer riding an ocean wave. If our speed is just right we get pushed along with the wave. We could ride the wave for 10,000 years or more.
- Our Sun is richer in heavy elements than stars in our neighborhood. Also, the Dwarf Planet Sedna has an elongated orbit not explained by our Solar System physics. This could be evidence that our Sun was once closer to the center and once road such a wave. If we could get to the Moon we could find confirming evidence of our surfing background.
- The Orion Nebula is only 1,000 lightyears away. It is full of new stars and massive stars. Many supernovae have exploded in this region in the distant past. The Earth would have been much closer at times in its journey around the galaxy. X-ray radiation from these supernovae could have been responsible for depleting our ozone layer. Ultraviolet radiation could reach the surface with Cosmic Rays causing massive environmental change and mass extinctions of life on Earth.
- Discovery of the isotope iron-60 in ocean sediments suggests just such an event occurred several million years ago. The half life of iron-60 is 2.6 million years. It is commonly expelled material of supernovae, but, it is not found in any natural processes on Earth. Again, the Moon should have the answers. Astronomers hope to find other exotic isotopes like krypton-83 and xenon-126. The lava flows on Moon’s surface can be dated precisely by measuring decay of radioactive elements. Could the Moon’s records match the Earth’s records of mass extinctions?
- Today, our journey is in a relatively empty patch of space, with a hydrogen atom per 5 cubic centimeters. There are denser patches of space around the galaxy that have 1,000 molecules per cubic centimeter. Passing through these denser regions could have the effect of deforming our electromagnetic shield that encircles the Earth. This in turn could create reflective clouds and dust aerosols that would block the sunlight and trigger a global ice age every few hundred million years. We know a “Snowball Earth” era did occur some 700 million years ago. Again, the Moon could tell us Earth’s tale.
- Could our galactic odyssey be repeated encounters as we journey around the galaxy? Our Solar System today is north of the galactic plane. Could we be headed for danger? 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, December 9, 2011
--------- #1346 - What is the Next Supernova to Go Boom?
- Attachment: Eta Carinae and SN2006 image.
- The picture attached is the star Eta Carinae. It has been huffing and puffing for centuries. It may be the next to blow.
- The biggest supernova explosion ever recorded was in 2006. It is 250 million lightyears away in the Galaxy NGC 1260. The supernova was named SN2006gy. It super brightness lasted for several months pumping out enormous amounts of energy starting on September 18, 2006.
- There are three general types of supernovae ingeniously categorized as Type I, Type II, and Type III.
- This supernova SN2006 was a Type III. Type III supernovae occur with truly massive stars, up to 150 Solar Mass, which is believed to be the maximum size a star can possible get. These massive stars do not live very long, only a few million years. For that reason there are not many in existence today. In our Milky Way Galaxy of 400,000,000,000 stars less than 10 are Type III supernova candidates.
- After 5 to 10 million years these massive stars burn all their nuclear fusion fuel. They collapse and explode with such intensity their Gamma Rays create matter, anti-matter pairs. When these matter collides with anti-matter they annihilate entirely converting 100% of their mass into energy according to E = mc^2. ( By comparison, normal fusion reactions at the cores of stars only release 0.7% of their mass into energy.)
- The explosion from these massive stars is so great nothing is left behind. No Neutron Stars, no Blackholes, no remnant at the core is left behind. Everything is blown away into outer space. the matter, anti-matter annihilation releases 10 million - trillion times more energy then the output of the Sun.
- This Type III supernova in 2006 was 250,000,000 lightyears away. Eta Carinae is only 8,000 lightyears away. Nearly 32,000 times closer. It could blow tomorrow or any time in the next million years.
- Eta Carinae was first discovered in the Constellation Carina the Keel in 1677. “Eta” is the 7th letter in the Greek alphabet which meant that it was the seventh brightest star in the Constellation. In 1700 things changed, it became the brightest star in the Constellation. Then it changed again dimming for decades and in 1820 was the brightest again. Its brightness peaked again in April , 1843. It is definitely huffing and puffing.
- It is 4,000,000 times more luminous that our Sun with light coming from a binary pair of orbiting stars. Eta is the biggest of the pair and is estimated at 100 Solar Mass.
- Eta dimmed again in 1940, then brightened, and today is dimming again. Why these irregular outbursts occur astronomers can only guess. Somehow an interaction between the super luminous Eta sucks off material from one to the other maybe blocking light or maybe causing outbursts of light.
- The most recent outbursts have created the pairs of lobes or bubbles you see in the picture. Shockwaves have produced standing waves dividing the out rushing material into dual spheres expanding at 938,000 miles per hour. The center of the lobes glows in a violet color, the center has blown clear of dust allowing the blue wavelengths to escape. the dust in the bipolar lobes glows in red-light. It is a spectacular image today. When it blows it will look more like SN2006 supernova.
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(1) Type I supernovae are from a double - star system. One star is a dense White Dwarf star that pulls in stellar wind material from the orbiting companion star. When enough material accumulates on the White Dwarf its carbon fusion enters a thermonuclear explosion with a well defined luminous supernova. Astronomers refer to these as “standard candles”.
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(2) Type II supernovae are single massive stars whose core burns up the last remaining elements up to the element iron. Iron does not fuse and release energy, it absorbs energy. Therefore the core stops its outward radiation the pushes against gravity. The compressing material arrives at the core and rebounds into a massive explosion sending the outer layers of the star into outer space. The material flies away at 2,237,000 miles per hour. Left behind is a hyper-dense Neutron Star that is 12 miles in diameter or an even denser and smaller Blackhole.
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(3) Type III supernovae described in this review are from the really super massive stars that can approach 150 Solar Mass.
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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, December 7, 2011
