--------------------- #1543 - The Crab Nebula
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- On July 3, 1054 it was a star in the night sky.
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- On July 4, 1054 it was a supernova so bright it could be seen during the day and at night it was as bright as the planet Venus. The gas and material was exploding outward at 300,000 miles per hour.
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- Today we call it the Crab Nebula in the Constellation Taurus the Bull, 6,500 lightyears away.
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- Its brightness today is no longer an explosion, it is synchrotron radiation. The Neutron Star left behind has a spinning magnetic field that is sending electrons into giant spirals near light speed. When a charged particle travels at near light speed it emit’s a blue light of radiation.
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- The Neutron Star is rotating 33 times per second. It is 1.4 Solar Mass but only 16 miles in diameter. This means it is exceedingly dense.. The Star is 958 years old.
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- The expanding ball of gas and debris creates a bubble. Inside the bubble is a ring created by shockwaves of radiation blasting off the Neutron Star. A shockwave is a wave of energy expanding outward. It is a density wave, a sound wave. When its energy hits gas and dust it transfers energy accelerating the gas and dust, or heating it. Some of the energy is absorbed and re- emitted at a lower frequency. Ultraviolet energy is absorbed and infrared energy is emitted. Most of the energy is reflected. This is a “ light echo” and that is what lights up the ring. A light echo is just like a sound echo except it occurs at astronomical distances.
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- The Crab Nebula is dynamic and very unusual for astronomers to witness over their lifetime. Images taken over the past 50 years are compared and the expansion actually can be seen and measured over time. The angle in arc-seconds can be scaled to distances in lightyears.
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- The calculations for the size of the bubble can be found in Review # 1261.
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- This review will use the same methods to calculate the size of the ring. The ring is an ellipse. Draw a circle on a piece of paper and tilt it so it looks like the ellipse. On the image the ellipse is 10 millimeters diameter. The width of the image is 5 lightyears and70 millimeters across. The scale of the image is:
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---------------------------- 5 lightyears / 70 mm = 0.071 LY / mm
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---------------------------- The radius of the ring is 5 millimeters.
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-------------------------- The radius of the ring is 0.36 lightyears.
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------------------------- 1 lightyear = 5.9 * 10^9 kilometers.
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---------------------- The radius of the ring is 2.1*10^12 kilometers
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- The high energy particles are traveling at 95% the speed of light. The particles reach the ring in 85 days:
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------------------------ velocity = 0.95 * 300,000 km / sec = 285,000 km/sec
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---------------------- time = 2.1*10^12 km / 2.85^10^5 km / sec = 0.74*10^7 seconds
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----------------------- 1 day = 86,400 seconds
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------------------------time = 74*10^5 / 8.64*10^4 = 85 days
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- If the astronomers witnessed a burst of light from the ring it took 81 days for the light to reach the ring from the Neutron Star:
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----------------- time(light) = 2.1*10^12 / 3*10^5 / 8.64*10^4 = 81 days
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- Astronomers would have to wait 81 days to see how the light echo affected the ring and another 4 days to see how the particles affect the ring.
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- In the past several months astronomers have witnessed dynamic changes in the Crab using orbiting telescopes:
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--------------------- Fermi Gamma Ray telescope
--------------------- Chandra X-ray telescope
-------------------- Spitzer Infrared telescope.
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- On April 12 Gamma Ray flares were seen to have energies of 100 million electron volts, 30 times more energy then previous outbursts.
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- The reason for this sudden outburst of energy remains a mystery. Astronomers believe the flares occur as the intense magnetic field near the Pulsar Neutron Star undergoes sudden structural change, much like the sunspots and Solar Flares. Electrons get accelerated in the spinning magnetic field to nearly light speed. The high speed charged particle emit Gamma Rays. The energies observed are 100 times greater than our particle accelerators can achieve here on Earth.
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(1) Other Reviews that are available:
------------ #1334 Unusual light from the Crab Nebula
----------- #1261 What is making the Crab Nebula so active?
----------- #1100 , #862, #720 Crab Nebula
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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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Monday, December 31, 2012
--------------------- #1542 - The Gravity Lamp
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- We have a Gravity Clock in our house. It sound chimes every 15 minutes and bells every hour. We call it our Grandfather Clock. We wind the weights up once a week.
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--------------- So why not a gravity lamp?
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-------------- Search : www.indiegogo.com/projects/282006-
- A gravity lamp has been invented costing $5.00 that operates an LED lamp for 30 minutes at a time. Simply lift the rock tied to a cable and let it hang from the suspended lamp. As the rock slowly falls , the cable pulls, ant the lamp generates electricity to run the light emitting diodes (LEDs). The lamp has no batteries, no operating costs, no repurchases after the $5 investment up front.
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- There are over 1,500,000,000 people in the world without reliable electricity. They burn wood, peat, or kerosene to provide their light after dark.
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- But, living in a room with kerosene lanterns is the same as smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day. Adding up all of these kerosene lamps puts 244,000,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. Over 800,000,000 women are breathing smoke equivalent to 2 packs of cigarettes a day.
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- 60% of adult lung-cancer victims in developing countries are people who do not smoke cigarettes. Kerosene fuels also cause eye infections and cataracts. 10 to 20% of many household incomes is spent on kerosene fuel for a few cupfuls each day. 1,500 people per day become a burn victim from a kerosene lamp.
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- Solar panels produce electricity but only when the Sun shines and they require batteries to store the electricity. These lighting systems are more expensive ( relatively ). There is a product that claims to work for 8 hours even after a cloudy day and costs only $10. Batteries and panels eventually have to be replaced. Larger panels and larger batteries are too expensive to lift people out of poverty.
- My grandfather clock has worked for 25 years with not maintenance costs, just a little spray of WD-40 every few years. Of course, we have to wind up the weights every weekend, that burns a few calories turning the crank.
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- I think these Gravity lamps would be great for camping too. The rock weights are free at most camp sites. A little good marketing could crank up the manufacturing volume making the lamps even more cost effective for the rest of the world. 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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Sunday, December 30, 2012
--------------------- #1541 - Saving the American Dream
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- The address below is the data on our current Fiscal Cliff. And, how we got here over the past 50 years, our generation’s heritage. See the data in graphic form and make up your own mind:
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- http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/12/saving-the-american-dream-the-fiscal-cliff-and-beyond-
- The Heritage Foundation measures the degree to which individuals rely on benefits funded by the government, that is by taxes, which is another name for other people’s money.
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- In 2010,the last year we have good data:
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- Individuals received $32,748 in government benefits
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- The average personal disposable income of taxpayers = $32,446
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- Why work?
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- Obviously the government spends more than it can take in. It must borrow the difference. The debt is up to $16,000,000,000,000. And, they are begging for more.
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- 67,300,000 Americans get food stamps, retirement income, health care, job training, higher education, …….. That is 21% of Americans, at a cost to tax payers $2,500,000,000,000.
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- In 2010 49.5% of adult Americans paid zero federal income taxes.
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- Since 1962 to 2010, ( 48 years ) 15 times as much resources are used to pay government dependents.
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------------------------ Future Value = Present Value * ( 1 + interest ) ^ time
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------------------------ 15 = 1 ( 1+ interest ) ^ 48
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-------------------------- 15 ^ 0.0208 = 1.058
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---------------------------- Interest = 6%
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- Government dependency has grown 6% per year for the past 48 years.
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- 50 years ago 21,700,000 Americans received assistance from the government. Today it is 156,000,000, which means the number has grown 4% per year for the last 50 years.
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----------------------- 315 million people, 49.5% receive benefits = 156 million people
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---------------------- 156 = 21.7 ( 1 + interest ) ^ 50
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----------------------- 7.19^0.02 = ( 1+ interest )
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--------------------- 1.04 = 1 + interest
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- Editorial opinion: I think the way to look at this is that if you receive any money from the government you are a government employee. If you are an employee you have a job to do and you should be held accountable to do your job. If you are getting paid tuition your job is to graduate and become a tax paying citizen. If you are getting food stamps your job is to get a job and government matches your first month’s salary and your last month’s salary if you keep it for one year. Jobs should be assigned to everyone on the government payroll. And, your job is not to enforce the rules ( regulations ). Your job is to achieve the objectives the rules were intended to achieve ( goals ). It is the American Dream to be free and a contributing citizen to a free society.
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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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Saturday, December 29, 2012
--------------------- #1540 - Sutter Mill Meteorite, Coloma, California
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- A 100,000 pound meteorite explodes in a fireball over northern California. April 22, 2012, at 8:00 AM a meteorite exploded in the atmosphere over El Dorado County, California. The kinetic energy of mass times velocity squared was equivalent to a 4,000 ton bomb. The explosion was heard as far away as Washington state. The fiery streak of light could be seen across northern Nevada and California. Lucky it exploded before hitting the surface.
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- The meteorite weighed 100,000 pounds, about the size of a mini-van. There have been 77 fragments recovered to date, but, the total weight of the pieces is only 2 pounds. The largest was ½ pound (0.45 lb.) with the next largest only 0.2 lb.
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- The meteorite is called “Sutter’s Mill meteorite“. Most of the 77 fragments were found around the towns of Lotus, and Coloma, along the American River. One piece was found in the parking lot of the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historical Park.
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- The fragments were the most pristine samples ever collected. Their composition was a rare type of carbonaceous chondrite. These minerals were formed 4.5 billion years ago when the Solar System was first born. Some 40,000 meteorites have been recovered. Only 1,103 are documented with analysis. Carbonaceous chondrite represents 4.6% of these. Some meteorites contain 3 to 22% water which means their temperatures never exceeded 200C.
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- Doppler weather radar tracked the meteorite as it streaked through the atmosphere. Astronomers believe this meteorite came from the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. They believe it had a highly eccentric orbit that swings close to the Sun and close to Jupiter on its return. It is also believed that this rock broke off a bigger rock asteroid some 15,000 to 19,000 years ago. It is the fastest meteorite ever recorded traveling 28,600 meters per second, 65,000 miles per hour.
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- One crystal-like mineral called “Oldhamite” was found that formed during the very first years of the Solar System’s evolution. Most meteorite are composed of silicates, oxides and sulfates.
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- Oldhamite is very reactive and would have disappeared very quickly once on the ground. Fortunately, some fragments were recovered and preserved within hours of impact. The next days’ s rain would have erased all evidence of the Oldhamite. This evidence told astronomers that this asteroid originally formed closet to Earth and Venus rather than close to Jupiter. It’s history indicates wide travels throughout the Soar System. Even diamonds were found in some of the fragments. There was even evidence of flowing water that likely existed on the larger asteroid.
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- One theory of the water on Earth is that it was delivered by asteroids during an era of bombardments. The early Earth was too hot and volcanic to have retained any liquid water. Our oceans had to have arrived later in Earth’s evolution.
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- The Solar System began as a Solar Nebula disc-shaped composed of gas and dust left over from the Sun’s formation 4.6 billion years ago. It becomes an accretion disk from which planets, asteroids, and comets formed. The grains of dust clump together and merge through collisions growing a centimeter per year over millions of years.
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- An astronomical unit ( AU) is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, 93 million miles. Inside 4 AU only high melting point materials could survive, like nickel, iron, and aluminum and silicates. All water or methane would be evaporated. The rocks that made Mercury, Venus , Earth, and Mars comprise only 0.6% of the mass of the Solar Nebula.
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- Planet collisions and orbits through the gas and dust cause a loss of angular momentum allowing planets to gradually migrate out from the Sun to new orbits.
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- The gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune formed further out from the Sun, beyond 5 AU, the Frost Line, where water would freeze. These gas giants comprise 99% of the mass orbiting the Sun.
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- After 10 million years the Sun’s solar wind cleared away all the Solar Nebula gas and dust blowing it into interstellar space, ending the growth of the planets.
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- To learn more about these asteroids we can not wait for them to explode in our atmosphere. Future space missions are to send a rocket to land on an asteroid and bring samples back to Earth for study. We hope to learn much more about the birth of the Solar System with these missions. 1,000’s of other solar systems have been discovered. To learn about their evolution we need to know how are unique is ours? How likely is the evolution of life on these other solar systems. Are we alone?
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- There was a meteorite discovered in Morocco last December that was identified as coming from Mars. By measuring the ratios of oxygen isotopes geologists can trace volcanic rocks back to the magmas that formed them. This meteorite was a rock on the surface of Mars for hundreds of millions of years before it was blasted into space.
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- The type of rocks that could tell us more about climate, habitability, and life are sedimentary rocks. Unfortunately they are too soft to become meteorites. When asteroids hit Mars, blast rocks in to space, survive the journey to Earth, enter the atmosphere, and land on the surface they have to be very hard rocks. The Sutter’s Mill Meteorite is one of those very hard rocks. 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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Saturday, December 29, 2012
--------------------- #1539 - FISCAL CLIFF
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- We are going over the fiscal cliff on News Years Eve. You better put on a parachute. The Bush tax cuts are going to expire and your taxes are going UP. Now they can fund more government spending. Get more people on the government dole, more votes, more power in government. Money talks.
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- What do we know about this cliff we are about to jump over?
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- The last 4 years the federal government has spent $1,000,000,000,000 more than it collected in revenue ( taxes ). $1 trillion each year for 4 years.
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- The national debt has grown to $16,000,000,000,000. A debt that we have to pay back. it represents over $50,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country. Per taxpayer the total debt including unfunded liabilities is $400,000 per taxpayer. Good luck with that.
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- $16 trillion is more than our entire Gross National Product in 2012. The GNP is the sum total of all goods and services produced each year.
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- On April 30 the debt limit was raised from $15.184 trillion to $16,394 trillion. And, we are about to exceed that limit in a month or two. We are still spending more that we make. We need to borrow more money or cut spending. Raising the debt limit allows the government to borrow more and spend more.
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- The whole discussion is on raising tax rates which will fund the government for 8 weeks, or raising the debt limit so we can borrow more money, congressmen and the President are looking at their navels. The real debt is $48 trillion in unfunded social security and medicare.
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- Social security spent $45 billion more than it collected in payroll taxes in 2011. Next year the gap will be $66 billion. Then $95 billion in 2020. then$318.7 billion in 2030. In order to remain solvent we need a 25% cut in social security benefits. Good luck with that.
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- The Senate and President have not passed a budget since 2009. The President’s budget proposal has not received one vote in either house. He is not even trying.
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- Federal spending is equivalent to 2/3rds of the average household income. The average tax collected per household was $20,293. The government overspent that amount by $9,398 per household.
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- Obamacare will spend another $1.7 trillion in the next 10 years, $170 billion per year. It represents a 15% growth in federal health program spending.
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- The top 5 spending programs for the federal budget, that we do not have are:
-------------------- (1) social security
-------------------- (2) national defense
------------------- (3) medicare
------------------- (4) medicad and CHIP
-------------------- (5) Interest on the $16 trillion in debt.
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- Today 128,800,000 Americans depend on government aid for rent, prescription drugs, and higher education. This does not include social security or unemployment, or food stamps. 40% of Americans are government dependents.
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- Is there any hope? Will the parachutes pop before we hit the pavement?
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- Now you know the fiscal cliff you are jumping off, Happy New Year!
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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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Thursday, December 27, 2012
--------------------- #1538 - Superconductors have a future., after 100 years?
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- Electrons conduct electricity through copper wires imperfectly because the electron flow continually collides with the atomic lattice structure of the metal they must pass through.
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- Using imperfect conductors requires that an electric potential ( a voltage ) must always be present to push the electrons along. The atomic collisions inside the conductor (resistance ) causes electric energy to transform into heat energy. Heat energy is wasted energy for electric circuits.
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- The idea that electric current could flow through a “ superconductor” without any resistance and without the need for continued electric potential was discovered 100 years ago. Today, it is still a mysterious phenomenon. The potential applications of superconductivity is enormous. Levitate trains, cheap electricity, powerful magnets, etc. The actual applications are still too expensive and very limited. CERN’s particle accelerator uses superconductor magnets at an enormous cost. Why have we not made more progress?
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- The discovery of superconductivity was first made using liquid helium at 4.2 degrees Kelvin.
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- Electricity is the flow of tiny charged particles through the resistance of bouncing off inelastic vibrating atoms. As temperatures go down the vibration of atoms decreases. The resistance to electron flow decreases. As the temperature approaches Absolute Zero, 0 degrees Kelvin, the vibrations nearly stop and the resistance is nearly zero. The material is superconducting.
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- In April 1911 this experiment was tried using liquid mercury. Sure enough at 4.2 Kelvin mercury has zero electrical resistance. Once current was flowing it would flow continuously without adding energy. Once started it would still be flowing today, 100 years later. Of course, only if kept at the extremely low temperatures of liquid helium, which is expensive.
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- Later it was discovered that superconductivity in lead was even easier to maintain at 7.2 Kelvin.
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- Superconductivity found in these simple metals occurred in only a micron of the metal’s surface. The electric current was easily stopped by the influence of any external magnetic field. However, if the superconductor was cooled below a critical temperature the magnetic field lines were expelled from penetrating the conductor. Magnetic field lines could only flow around the conductor and not inside it.
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- The explanations for these strange phenomena was not completed until 1972. The theory was that a gas of electrons are unstable in the presence of small, infinitesimal, attractive interactions. This causes the electrons to bind together in pairs, called “ Cooper Pairs”. The small , infinitesimal, attractive interactions were discovered to be “ phonons” Phonons are like sound waves in the metal that were at a resonant frequency. This allowed conduction of electron pairs at zero resistance. Phonon frequencies of oscillations are typically trillions of cycles per second.
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- The theory stated the pairing of two fermions were mediated by a boson field. The theory explains why sodium, gold, silver, and copper are not good superconductors, but lead is.
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- It was not until 1986 that the theory advanced using layered copper-oxide having zero resistance at 30 Kelvin. In 1987 yttrium-barium- copper-oxide would super conduct at 93 Kelvin. This is 16k above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. Finally a cheaper cryogen could be used instead of expensive liquid helium. The record for some new exotic materials is up to 138 Kelvin for superconductivity.
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- Many demonstrations of successful power cables, transformers, generators, fault-current limiters, using superconductivity have been made. The technology is proven. The economics are not proven.
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- Magnesium Diboride (MgB2) super conducts at 39K.
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- CERN’s LHC uses superconducting magnets of niobium-titanium alloys. Today MgB2 would have been a better choice.
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- Superconductivity likely exists in the interior of Neutron Stars where fermonic quarks and gluon bosons reach a superconducting transition at 1,000,000,000 Kelvin. That is hot. A middle ground temperature would sure be nice. What we still need is a common, cheap material that will superconductor at 300 Kelvin. 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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Thursday, December 27, 2012
--------------------- #1537 - Learning new states of matter?
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- We are learning some new states of matter. Not just solid, liquid, and gas, but, totally different matter.
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- First, we need to acknowledge that matter and energy are the same thing only separated by a constant 90,000,000,000,000,000, which happens to be the speed of light squared, meters^2 /seconds^2.
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- Second, we need to recognize that Ordinary Matter is only 5% of the composition of the Universe. 75% is Dark Energy and 20% is Dark Matter. That 5% left over is Ordinary Matter and it usually comes in solid, liquid, or gas. It is made of atoms and atoms are made of quarks and electrons.
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- For example, water molecules are solid when ice, liquid when water, and gas when the molecules are water vapor in the atmosphere. The state of Ordinary Matter depends on the temperature and pressure. If you plot a graph of pressure increase on the y-axis and temperature increases on the x-axis water will appear on the graph as 3 separate areas for ice, liquid, and vapor. The single point common where all three areas touch is called the “ Critical Point” where all three states can exist together at the same time.
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- There is a 4th phase of matter that makes up 84% of all the Ordinary Matter in the Universe. This is Plasma. It is the ionized state of matter when free electrons and free positive ions are of too high energy to combine into neutral atoms. Our Sun and all the stars are composed of Plasma.
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- Solids come in 2 states: Crystalline and Amorphous. Solids have a fixed size and shape. In the crystalline state the molecules are in a stable, regular, rigid lattice structure. In the amorphous state molecules are as in a liquid state although they maintain their position in a solid.
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- Liquids have a fixed volume and a variable shape. The molecules are mobile while still being bound together.
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- Solids can be conductors , insulators , or superconductors depending on the state of their electrons. In metals ( conductors ) electrons exist at particular energy levels. When a voltage is applied electrons move above the Fermi Energy Level and some of the electrons are freed to conduct electricity.
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- In an insulator all the electron vacancies are full and no electrons are free to move when a voltage potential is applied.
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- In a superconductor the electrons are paired, called Cooper Pairs. Like conductors the electron pairs move freely as if they were a gas. The electron pairs behave as a single particle The pairs all have the same energy level lifting the restrictions holding them in place and letting them flow freely without electrical resistance.
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- Next, there is the newly discovered state of matter called a “ Spin-Density Wave.” In this structure half of the electrons are spin-up and half are spin-down in alternating rows of the lattice structure. “All” of the electrons are “ entangled” and behave as a single unit, not as individual electrons, not as pairs, but, as a mass of trillions of particles bound together.
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- Superconductors were first discovered working at nearly Absolute Zero temperatures , (- 273 degrees C). However some super conductors have been made to work at -138C.
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- Electrons are “ Fermions” which mean they obey the Pauli Exclusion Principle “ no two electrons can occupy the same single-electron state. If one is spin up the other must be spin down. The lowest energy level that only allows 2 electrons to be in orbit about the nucleus. Electrons are always seeking the lowest energy state they can reach that is not occupied by another electron. Each state can be thought of as a sinusoidal wave with certain wavelength that is related to its energy level, E = h*c/w . “h” is Planck’s Constant of Action, “c” is the speed of light, “w” is the wavelength. When all the energy levels are full for a particular atom the threshold energy level is known as the Fermi Energy lever.
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- When a voltage potential is added to a “conductor” enough energy is transferred to an unoccupied stat to exceed the Fermi level. In an “insulator” all the energy states are occupied and an applied voltage has no affect.
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- In a “superconductor” the pairs of electrons behave as a “Boson“, not a “Fermion“. electron pairs all condense into the same state because the Pauli Exclusion Principle does not apply to Bosons. At the minimum amount of energy this state is known as the Bose-Einstein Condensation. An applied voltage pushes pairs into a higher-energy state leaving nothing to impede the flow of electricity of paired electrons. The electric current flows with zero resistance.
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- The electron pairing is due to a “ phonon” exchange. Atoms do not vibrate independently due to oscillations transmitted through the solid at extremely high frequencies, typically 10^12 oscillations per second. The energy transmitted by the waves is quantized. Each quantum is called a “phonon” having the energy value E = h* f = h* c / w
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- Most superconductors operate at -273C, Absolute Zero temperature. However, some like barium iron arsenide with a small amount of phosphorous form a molecule in a state know as spin-density waves. On ½ of the iron sites the electron spin is up. On the other ½ the electron spin is down. At 30% concentration of phosphorous the molecules reach a quantum critical state that becomes what is called , “Strange Matter” It is a state of “entanglement” between electrons. If one is up the other is down and vice versa. How the information is transmitted instantaneously between electrons so each knows the others state is a mystery. It does not seem to matter how far the electrons are separated. They could be on opposite sides of the Earth. Or, either ends of the Galaxy. Einstein called this “ Spooky Action at a Distance”
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- Strange Matter is usually a liquid of quark matter in contrast to normal liquids that are protons and neutrons. Strange Matter is thought to exist in the core of Neutron Stars under conditions of extremely high temperatures and pressures. Neutron Stars are formed when a massive supernova core collapses the iron electrons into the nucleus to from neutrons. Strange Matter is formed when the neutrons break down and the neutrons collapse into Quarks. If the Quarks break down you have a Blackhole.
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- At the Quantum Critical Point all 10^23 electrons can act as a singe particle, all interconnected. One theory is that the interconnections exist at higher dimension beyond the 4 dimensions in our Natural World. This is mathematically investigated using “String Theory”.
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- There is also a liquid state called a “Superfluid” made up of electrically neutral atoms. The liquid can flow without any friction. Placed in a glass jar the liquid can climb up the sides and across the table being totally mobile without resistance. It will spread until it is one atom thick.
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- Explaining what is really going on in these newly discovered states of matter is just beginning. Some scientists are applying string theory to get a better understanding. Some are applying Blackhole theories to begin understanding it. An announcement will be made shortly , stay tuned.
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(1) See #963 Superconducting and MRIs
(2) #1538 Superconductors
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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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Thursday, December 27, 2012
--------------------- #1536 - Gravity Probe B
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- Gravity Probe B was an experiment launched in to orbit in 2004. The satellite carried a series of four precision gyroscopes designed to prove Einstein’s theory that space and time were warped around immense gravity. In this case the gravity was the Earth. If the gyroscopes pointed in the same direction over time then Newton’s equations held. If the gyroscopes precessed at a specific angle as they orbited the Earth then Einstein’s equations held.
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- The precession that is causing the axes of rotation to point in a circle is called “ frame dragging” The frame is space-time and Earth’s gravity is the drag. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity published in 1915 states that gravity curves space-time. “ Matter tells space-time how to curve and curved space-time tells matter how to move. According to Einstein’s equation the frame dragging rate orbiting Earth would be 0.0392 arcs seconds per year. This is a very small angle and it takes very precise measurements to confirm it is correct. This tiny angle is equivalent to the angular width of Pluto as seen from Earth.
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- The equation for the pointing angle of the axis that changes in degrees / second is:
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-------------------------- angle = G * L * 360 // 4 * pi * c^2 * a^3 * ( 1-e^2) ^3/2
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------------------------where:
------------------------ angle = degrees / second
------------------------ c is the speed of light = 3 * 10^8 meters / second
------------------------ c^2 C m^2 / sec^2
------------------------ L = angular momentum of the spinning Earth
----------------------- G = Gravitational Constant = 6.67*10^-11 m^3 / ( kg*sec^2)
------------------------ a = semi-major axis of orbit = 7.02*10^6 meters
------------------------ a^3 = 3.46 *10^20 m^3
------------------------ e = eccentricity of orbit, for a perfect circle = 0
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- The satellite carrying the gyroscopes was orbiting at 7020 kilometers distance for the Earth’s center. It was a circular orbit making eccentricity equal to zero, ( e = 0 ).
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--------------------------- angle = (6.67*10^-11 ) * L * 360 // 4 * pi * ( 6.67*10^-11) *( 3.46 *10^20 )* ( 1) ^3/2
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-------------------------- angle = 0.614 * 10^-46 * ( L )
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- To solve this equation we need to know the angular momentum of the spinning Earth. The angular momentum of a mass in orbit is the product of mass * velocity * radius. The largest mass traveling the fastest with the furthest orbit has the greatest momentum. This formula is for the angular momentum of the Earth orbiting the Sun.
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----------------------- L = m * v * r
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- The average radius of the Earth’s orbit is: r = 1.496*10^11 meters ( 93 million miles)
- The mass of the Earth is: m = 5.9742*10^24 kilograms.
- The velocity of orbit is: v = 29,800 metes per second, 66,663 miles per hour
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- L = 2.66*10^40 kg*m^2/sec the angular momentum of the Earth circling the Sun. However, we need the angular momentum of a spinning Earth. The angular momentum of a spinning body is the rotational inertia * angular velocity.
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--------------------- L = I * v
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- The rotational inertia changes for different configurations of the mass that is spinning. A perfectly uniform, solid sphere: I = 2/5 * m * r^2. A hollow shell sphere: I = 2/3 * m* r^2. We will assume Earth is a solid, homogeneous sphere. Jupiter being a gas planet would have a different rotational inertia.
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------------------- L = 2/5 * v * m * r
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--------------------- mass of the Earth = m = 5.9742*10^24 kilograms
-------------------- radius of the Earth = r = 6.378*10^6 ,meters.
-------------------- velocity of rotation = v = 2*pi*r / period
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------------------------ v = 2* pi *( 6.378*10^6 ) / 24 hours * 3600 seconds / hour
------------------------ v = 464 meters / second = 1,038 miles per hour.
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------------------------ L = 2/5 * ( 4.64^10^2 ) * ( 5.9742*10^24 ) * ( 6.378*10^6 )
------------------------ L = 7.022*10^33 kg * m^2 / sec
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----------------------- angle = 0.614 * 10^-46 * ( L )
----------------------- angle = 0.614 * 10^-46 * ( 7.022*10^33 )
---------------------- angle = 4.34 * 10^-13 degrees per second
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- angle / year = 4.34 * 10^-13 deg / sec * 3600 arc sec / deg * 3.1*10^7 sec / year
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-------------------- angle / year = 0.048 arc seconds / year.
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- The Gravity Probe B took data for 50 weeks and got a frame-dragging rate of 0.037 + or - 0.0072 arc seconds per year, between 0.0302 and 0.0442 arc seconds per year.
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- The refined calculation for the angular momentum of the spinning Earth is 5.861*10^33 kg*m^2/sec. This changes the precession angle to 0.040 arc seconds / year. The results of the 50 week experiment should be 0.038 arc seconds, or well within the margin of error for the experiment, an agreement to within 1%.
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--------------------------- angle = 0.614 * 10^-46 * ( L )
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---------------------------- angle = 0.614 * 10^-46 * ( 5.861*10^33 )
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--------------- angle / 50 weeks = 0.038 arc seconds
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- Therefore Einstein is right. There is no attracting force reaching out through space time tugging on the planets. The planetary trajectories around the Sun is very nearly straight in space-time, but not in space where it is circular. Earth’s orbit is a stretched-out spiral whose width is space is one Astronomical Unit , but , whose length in time is measured in lightyears. Nearly all our weight experienced on the surface of the Earth where speeds are small and the gravitational force is weak arises die to the warping of time , rather than space. In practice this means the acceleration of gravity makes clocks run slower on the surface than those in outer space
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- Gravity feels strongest where space-time is most curved and it vanishes where space-time is flat. “ Matter tell space-time how to curve, and curved space-time tells matter how to move.”.
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- Place a massive gravity bowling ball on to a stretched rubber sheet of space-time. Place a marble onto the rubber sheet and it rolls toward the bowling ball, or put the marble in orbit around the bowling ball. The marble is traveling along a surface that has been deformed by the presence of a larger mass.. Gravity is a feature of space-time itself . Your weight on Earth is due to the fact that our body is traveling through warped space-time.
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-ORBITAL ANGULAR MOMENTUM
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----------orbital radius ------ orbital period ------ mass ------------ L
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----------- ( 10^6 km ) --------( days ) -------- 10^22 *kg ) ----- ( kg*m^2/sec )
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Mercury -----58 ------------ 87.97------------------ 33------------- 9.1e38
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Venus -------108 ------------ 224.70---------------- 487------------ 1.8e40
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Earth -------150 ------------ 365.26 ----------------- 597 ------------ 2.7e40
Mars -------228 ------------ 686.98 ------------------- 64.2 ------------ 3.5e39
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Jupiter -----778------------ 4,332.71 -------------- 190,000------------ 1.9e43
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Saturn -----1429---------- 10,759.5--------------- 56,800------------ 7.8e42
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Uranus----- 2871----------- 30,685------------------ 8,680------------ 1.7e42
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Neptune ----4504 ---------- 60,190-------------- 10,200 ------------ 2.5e42
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Pluto -------5914------------ 90800 --------------- 1.27-------------- 3.6e38
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Moon -----0.384 ------------ 27.32 --------------- 7.35-------------- 2.9e34
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ROTATIONAL ANGULAR MOMENTUM:
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-------------- radius ---------- period --------- mass ----------------L
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----------------( km ) ---------- (days ) ---- (10*24 * kg ) -------- kg*m^2 / sec
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Sun--------- 69,5000 ----------- 24.6 ----------- 1,990,000----------- 1.1e42
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Earth -------- 6,378----------- 0.99 -------------- 5.97 -------------- 7.1e33
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Jupiter----- 71,492----------- 0.41----------- 1,900---------------- 6.9e38
--------------------------------------------
(1) See http: //einstein.stanford.edu/
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(2) Note that Earth’s angular momentum circling the Sun is 10 million tims greater than the angular momentum of the Earth spinning on its axis.
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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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Sunday, December 23, 2012
--------------------- #1535 - Gravity Lenses finds Dark Matter and Planets
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- See Review #1534 about the calculations of mass from the rings of gravitational lensing.
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- See Review #827 about the Bullet Cluster and the collision of 2 galaxies.
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- In August 2006 astronomers discovered direct evidence for the presence of Dark Matter in the collision of 2 galaxies, called the Bullet Cluster located in the Constellation Carina the Keel. The collision first began 150,000,000 years ago. The matter inside the collision did not all behave the same way. The ordinary matter and dark matter separated during the collision.
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- Stars that were 1 to 2% of the mass passed right by each other with very rare collisions or interference. Hot Interstellar gas, an ionized plasma, 5 to 15% of this mass slowed down due to the charged particles interacting with each other and with the electromagnetic forces.
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- Gravitational lensing was used to measure the mass distribution of the cluster. The unseen mass was not around the ionized gas because it was not affected by the electromagnetic forces the same way the gas was. That is the reason it is Dark Matter, it does not interact with light. X-ray telescopes were use to track the gas distribution. X-rays are a form of light and interact with the gas.
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- The conclusions from studying this collision was that 16% of the mass was ordinary matter and 84% was Dark Matter.
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- In 1933 astronomers first realized that galaxies contained a lot more mass than we could see, maybe up to 400 times more mass. Today the belief is that 84% of all the mass in the Universe is Dark Matter.
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- In 1996 Hubble Space Telescope showed images of gravitational lensing around the galaxy cluster Abell 2218 , 2 billion lightyears away. See Review #1534 to learn the calculations made using gravitational lensing. The galaxy cluster had 700 Galactic Mass bending light to form a 38 arc second ring. With visible light astronomers could only find 35 galaxies in this cluster of galaxies. 5% of the mass was visible mass. 95% of the mass was invisible mass, Dark Matter.
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- Micro lensing is a technique used to find dark stars and planets. Micro lensing occurs when a foreground object drifts in front of a background star producing a distinctive bell-shaped light curve. Typical light curves last about a month as a star drifts past the background object. It the object is a planet the light curve only lasts a few hours.
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- Hubble Space Telescope used gravitational lensing on the Bullet Cluster to generate a map of the Dark Matter. Combined with an X-ray image that tracked the hot gases the picture at the beginning of this review was created.
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- Gravitational lensing has come form theory to being an essential tool for astronomers . Hubble Telescope has used the lensing as a magnifying glass to see galaxies back to 500,000,000 years after the Big Bang. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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- Here are several reviews available upon request about Dark Matter:
- #1517 - What is the universe made of?
- #1485 - Where is the Dark Matter?
- #1427 - The picture of Dark Matter Collision
- #1341 - Investigating Dark Matter
- #1218 - Could Dark Matter be another Universe?
- #1075 - Dark Matter
- #837 - Weighing Galaxies using Hot Gas?
- #718 - What could Dark Matter be?
- #692 - Dark Matter and Blackholes.
- #594 - Dark Galaxy
- # 14 - What is Dark Matter.
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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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Saturday, December 22, 2012
--------------------- #1534 - Getting Used to Bending Light
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- Our 3 pound brains count on light traveling instantaneously and in a straight line. When this does not happen our brains are in a house of mirrors and we have to over-think it to understand what’s going on.
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- For astronomers it is light being bent by gravity. Light is not traveling in a straight line at all. It is not instantaneous, but, traveling at a fixed speed, 670,633,500 miles per hour. If the light is taking different paths it will arrive at different times. This is mind bending as well as light bending.
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- In 1704 Isaac Newton wrote a paper claiming light was stream of infinitesimally small particles called corpuscles. He assumed they had mass and would be susceptible to the pull of gravity. He was ½ right.
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- In 1800’s Thomas Young did the 2-slit experiment and showed that light was a wave because the 2 slits transmitted an interference pattern on the screen behind the slits. Only a wave could do this. He claimed light was a wave, and massless, and not influenced by gravity. He was ½ right.
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- In the 1900’s quantum physics concluded that light was both a wave and a particle called a photon. Wave-particle duality was described in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity claming light was massless but its trajectory would still be changed by gravity because light energy was the same as mass, E = mc^2. He was right.
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- In 1919 a total solar eclipse was used to “ prove” light was bent as it passed by the rim of the Sun’s immense gravity. The background stars shifted because light was not traveling in a straight line as it zipped past the Sun. We could only see those background stars during a solar eclipse.
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- The bending of light by gravity was re-discovered in 1979 when viewing Twin Quasar, SPS 0957+561, which in fact was multiple images of the same object. G2237+305 was a distant quasar that appeared as four separate images.
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- A brightness change in one image would repeat itself 14 months later in another image. Warped space from massive gravity of an intermediate galaxy causes one light path to travel more than 1 - lightyear farther distance to reach us. The Quasar was 8.7billion lightyears away. The foreground galaxy along our line of sight was 3.7 billion lightyears away.
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- To learn how gravity lensing measures mass, or, weighs a galaxy cluster were using RCS2-032727-132623. You would think astronomers could figure out more romantic names for these galaxies. RCS2 is 5.4 billion lightyears away in the Constellation Cetus the Whale. A blue galaxy was directly behind this galaxy cluster at 9.7 billion lightyears. The gravity lens ring that Hubble imaged was 38 arc seconds in diameter.
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- The diameter of the gravity lens ring is directly proportional to the mass and the separation of the two galaxies and indirectly proportional to the product of their distances.
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---------------------a^2 = M * 4* G ( d - D ) // c*2 * d * D
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- There are several constants of proportionality. Setting mass as function of ring diameter and distances the formula becomes:
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------------------- M = a^2 * c*2 * d * D //4* G ( d - D )
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------------------ M = the mass in kilograms . 1 Solar Mass = 2*10^30 kilograms
------------------ a = angular diameter is 38 arc seconds, 1 radian = 2.06265 * 10^5 arcseconds. 1 arc second = 4.848 *10^-6 radians
------------------ D = distance to the cluster = 5.4*10^9 lightyears, 1 lightyear = 9.5 * 10^15 meters.
------------------ d = distance to the blue galaxy = 9.7*10^9 lightyears
------------------- c = speed of light = 3*10^8 meters per second
------------------ G = Gravitational constant = 6.67*10^-11 m^3 / ( kg*sec^2)
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------------------- a = 1.842 *10^-4 radians
-------------------- a^2 = 3.33 *10^-8 radians^2
------------------- c^2 = 9 * 10^16 m^2 / sec^2
------------------- D = 51.3 *10^24 meters
------------------- d = 92.2 *10^24 meters
------------------- d*D = 4727*10^48 meters^2
------------------ (d-D) = 40.85*10^24 meters
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---------------- M = (3.33 *10^-8) * (9 * 10^16) * ( 4.727*10^51 ) // 4* 6.67*10^-11 *(40.85*10^24)
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----------------- M = (radians^2) * (m^2/sec^2) * (m^2) * kg * sec^2 // (m*3) * (m)
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--------------- M = = 144.2*10^59// 1089*10^13
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---------------- M = = 0.1325* 10^46 kilograms / 2*10^30 kilograms / Solar Mass
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---------------- M = = 6.6 10^14 Solar Mass
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----------------- 1 Galaxy Mass = 10^12 Solar Mass
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--------------- M = 660 Galactic Mass.
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- THE MASS OF THE CLUSTER IS 660 TIMES THE MASS OF THE MILKY WAY GALAXY.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- The mass of he galaxy cluster can also be measured by the orbital velocity of the galaxies about the center of gravity. The average velocity = v = 988 kilometers per second. The average radius of orbit = R = 9.5 *10^6 lightyears.
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- The velocity is directly proportional to the mass and inversely proportional to the radius of orbit.
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---------------------------- v^2 = G * M / R
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--------------------------- M = v^2 * R / G
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---------------------------- M = (9.88*10^5)^2 * 90.25*10^15 / 6.67*10^-11
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------------------------- M = 6.6 *10^14 Solar Mass.
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-------------------------- M = 660 Galactic Mass
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- Astronomers use this formula a lot and it is easier to convert the Constant of proportionality into the arc seconds and lightyear units and Solar Mass units most commonly used. In this case the formula changes:
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-------------------- M = a^2 * c*2 * d * D //4* G ( d - D ) in radians, kilograms, and meters
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--------------- Constant = (0.4848 *10^-5 ) ^2 * ( 3*10^9 )^2 * 9.5 *10^15 m/LY )^2 // 4 * (6.67*10^-11 ) * (9.5*10^15 ) * (2*10^30 )
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------------- Constant = (radians^2) * (m^2 / sec^2) * ( m^2 / LY^2) * (kg*sec^2) * (LY) * ( Solar Mass) // (m^3) * (m) * ( kg )
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--------------- Constant = 40
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------------------ M = 40 * a^2 * d*D // ( d-D)
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- A MUCH SIMPER FORMULA when the units are in arc seconds , lightyears, and Solar Mass:
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------------------- M = 40 * (38^2) * (5.4 * 10^9) * (9.7*10^9) // ( 9.7 - 5.4)* 10^9
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-------------------- M = 40*(1.444*10^3)* ( 52.38*10^18) // ( 4.3*10^9)
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--------------------- M = 7 * 10^14 Solar Mass
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-------------------- M = 700 Galactic Mass
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- THE GALAXY CLUSTER THAT IS BETWEEN US AND THE QUASAR IS AS LARGE AS 700 MILKY WAY GALAXIES ALL GRAVITATIONAL BOUND TOGETHER.
-
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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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Friday, December 21, 2012
--------------------- #1533 Sustainable National Debt?
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- 4 years ago our national debt was $10.6 trillion. That is $10,600 billion. Today it is $16,400 billion
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----------------- FV = PV ( 1+i )^n
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------------- Future Value = Present Value * ( 1 + interest rate /year ) ^ number of years
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----------------- 16,400 = 10,600 (1+i)^4
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---------------- 1.55 = ( 1 +i )^4
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----------------- 1.12 = ( 1 +i)
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- So, out national debt is rising 12% per year. The Democrats in legislatures say that it is “sustainable“. Don’t worry. We need to spend even more money to continue to boost the economy. Present course and speed is the way to go.
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- Each family in America now owes $140,000 of the National Debt. At the same time the Federal government is borrowing $239 million every hour. We the people are the BANK. Somehow and someone has to come up with all this money?
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- We have always had debt. It is the American way:
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- Abraham Lincoln’s administration had a debt of $3 billion.
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- During the 1929 Depression the debt was $17 billion.
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- During 1945 WWII the debt rose to $259 billion.
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- With the 2008 recession it rose to $10,000 billion
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- Today the debt is $16,400 billion. The interest we pay on this debt will soon be greater than what we pay on Social Security, or on National Defense.
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- “Economic growth will solve this problem of paying off out debt.” A real economic recovery occurs when the private sector has money to spend and invest. But, the private economy has less when the government has more. There is only so much money to go around. The temptation is to just print more money, which means that it has less value and prices go up with inflation. We can inflate our way out of this and pay off the loan with cheaper dollars we’re home free.
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- Or, the government can spend stimulus money and grow the economy. Unlike the private sector the government does not need to make a profit. They can afford to waste the money with little incentive to be efficient. If more money is needed simply raise taxes.
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- The population is retiring into old age. This group is not paying taxes they are using taxes. The largest growth in expenditures is going to be their medical care. It alone will eat up all of Congress’s discretionary spending.
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- When will Congress tighten its belt? Keeping eating until it hurts. Then, we can stop. Let’s hope the parachute pops before we hit the pavement.
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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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Wednesday, December 19, 2012
--------------------- #1532 - Plasmons ? How they will change your life
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- Plasmons are to plasma as photons are to light. They are quantized oscillations. Let’s begin the explanation with your microwave oven. There are electromagnetic oscillations inside that are cooking your food. Look through the glass and you see through little holes. Since the wavelength of the microwave energy is bigger that the diameter of the holes the microwaves can not pass through and cook your eyeballs. A quarter wavelength of the microwaves is 3 ¼ centimeters. The holes are much smaller.
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- The same principle applies to light waves. Visible light has wavelengths of 400 to 700 nanometers, ranging from blue light to red light. Take a thin sheet of gold and drill holes in it tinier than 400 nanometers. Shine a light on the gold sheet and the light should be blocked. Light should not go through the holes.
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-------------------- But, it does?
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------------------- What is going on?
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- This is how plasmons were first discovered. The holes are much smaller than the wavelength of light so science did not know how it was possible for light to get through the gold foil holes?
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- In 1989 physics discovered the answer. The “plasmons” were quantized plasma oscillations have a much higher frequency. Just as “Photons” are quantized electromagnetic oscillations and “Phonons” are quantized mechanical oscillations, , “Plasmons” are quantized plasma oscillations. The plasmon oscillations have 10 times shorter wavelength then visible light. They can pass right through the holes.
-
------------------- But, what is plasma?
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- Plasmas are a state of matter. It is like gas, liquids , and solids. By volume and by mass plasmas are the most common state of matter in the universe. Our Sun and all the stars are made of plasma. So is most of interstellar space. The planet Jupiter accounts or the most “non-plasma” like me and you, in our Solar System and it is only 0.1% of the mass of the Solar System.
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- Plasma was first discovered in 1879 in the Crookes Tube, essentially the Cathode Ray Tube, or CRT, of today. Plasma was then defined as an ionized gas or region that has balanced electric charges of positive ions and free negative electrons. At low temperatures ions and electrons combine to form neutral atoms and the plasma usually becomes a gas.
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- Throughout antiquity glass makers have used plasmonics. You see them in the stained glass in church windows. The glass is coated with a metal such as copper or gold. In most metals the plasma wavelength is in the ultraviolet making them shiny or reflective to visible light. Copper and gold have electron interband transitions that are in the visible light wavelengths allowing time to absorb light rather than reflect it. This gives the glass the distinct colors. The ancients did not know why it worked but never the less they learned to use it to create beautiful art.
-
---------------------- How does it work?
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- A plasma oscillation occurs when a metal with free electrons is in an external electric field pointing to the right. Electrons will move to the left exposing positive ions that are on the right. Then the electric field is reversed or goes away and the electrons then move to the right repelled by each other and attracted to the positive ions on the right . The electrons oscillate back and forth at the plasma frequency until the energy is lost in damping oscillations. These oscillations are at much shorter wavelengths than the wavelengths of light.
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- In metals, light of frequency below the plasma frequency is reflected because the metal screens the electric field of the light. Light of frequency above the plasma frequency is transmitted through because the free electrons can not respond fast enough to provide a screen.
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- Plasmons have many uses and we are just beginning to learn them. Besides church windows they are in solar cells , fiber optic cables, computer chips, cancer therapy, disease detection, biosensors for viruses, and more to come.
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- perforated metal foil is being used in biosensors that can trace a virus in blood and saliva samples. the perforations are coated with different proteins that bind to the antibodies. If the antibodies accumulate on top of a group of holes , the plasmons can not pull the light through allowing the virus to be seen. These biosensors could detect dangerous viruses in airport screenings.
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- In solar cells silicon only traps the short blue and green wavelengths, the longer red wavelengths pass through without generating power. A solar cell lined with metallic nanoparticles, plasmons oscillate about on the surface intensifying the light. Nanoparticles along the bottom of the cell allow plasmons to bend the light 90 degrees so the long red wavelengths can be trapped making electric conversion more efficient.
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- Plasmon oscillations have very short wavelengths and can carry very large mounts of data directly from the fiber-optic cables into the computer chip.
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- Plasmonic nanoparticles can be used to cure cancer. Gold particles 100 nanometers in diameter with a silicon core can be injected in to the blood. The particles enter the cancerous tumors that have porous blood vessels. Infrared radiation that is harmless to the patient radiates the plasmons trapping the light energy and heating the tumor to 120 degrees killing the cancer cells. Healthy cells absorb 40 nanometer particles so they are not affected.
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- Plasmonic nanoparticles are used in high resolution spectroscopy.
-
- The more we learn abut the applications of plasmons the more innovation will change our lives. 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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Monday, December 17, 2012
--------------------- #1531 - December 21, 2012 is DOOMSDAY:
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- The ancient Maya calendar predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012. Next Friday is Grant Detrick’s birthday, it is the shortest day of winter, and to top it all off, it is Doomsday. I thought I had warn you. What are you going to do when you have less than one week to live?
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- The ancient Maya were capable astronomers and their predictions must not be taken lightly. They had precise understanding of the Sun’s path throughout the year. They knew that December 21 was the shortest day of the year, winter season begins. They knew the phases of the Moon. They knew the movements of the 4 visible planets. Detailed records have been recovered from the 11th and 12th centuries.
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- The Maya calendar kept tack of time with two calendars counting 260 days. Their 3rd calendar, the astronomical calendar had 365 days, 18 months with 20 days each and 5 extra days. The 2 calendars combined to last for 18,980 days which was about equal to the average human life span. The 3rd calendar started on August 11, 3114 BC and contained 144,000 days , or 394 years. December 21, 2012 is the final day of the 3rd calendar after a previous 13 calendars had passed, or 5,125 years ago.
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- If we are still around after December 21, there are still other doomsday scenarios to worry about, particularly if you are an astronomer, or a geologists, or a nuclear scientist, or a politician, or if you are so inclined just to worry. There are comets, epidemics, super volcanoes, Gamma Ray bursts, asteroids, planet collisions, robot rebellions, nuclear war, or just the Sun expanding into a Planetary Nebula.
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- Comets could be approaching at 124,000 miles per hour. If we see it at best we only have a few weeks before impact. If it hit the ocean it would cause a tsunami 300 feet tall. Its debris splashed into the atmosphere would block the sunlight and send temperatures plummeting.
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- A deadly disease scenario like SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, could spread around the world killing millions of people because there is no cure.
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- Buried underneath Yellowstone National Park is a 640,000 year old crater, 45 miles in diameter. If this became a super volcano again the ash would block the sunlight and temperatures around the globe would plummet.
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- Gamma Ray bursts would burn away the Earth’s ozone layer. We would be bathed in ultraviolet radiation destroying every organism and the entire food chain.
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- 65 million years ago a large asteroid hit the Earth killing all the dinosaurs. Asteroids are slower, 37,000 miles per hour, so astronomers can track them. Maybe even have time to change their trajectory. An asteroid just a few miles in diameter would put trillions of tons of soil into atmosphere blocking the sunlight and plummeting the temperatures.
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- Our Moon was created when a Mars-sized planet collided with Earth and splashed the Earth’s crust into orbit. Another collision could happened in the inner planet orbits get destabilized. We could collide with Mercury , Mars,, or Venus. Our only chance? Get off the planet and find another home.
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- The world is housing over 19,000 nuclear weapons. In the wrong hands, or controlled by the wrong minds , they could destroy our planet with nuclear explosions and radiation.
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- Robots are getting smarter. Nano-robots can clean up oil spills. What happens if they get reprogrammed to eat “ all” forms of carbon? What happens when artificial intelligence becomes smatter than the human kind? What happens when robots learn to replicate themselves? If all else fails , what happens when the Sun runs out of hydrogen fuel?
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- Today the Sun is 5 billion years old expecting a 10 billion life expectancy. The Sun is getting bigger and warmer. In 600 million years the hot rocks will absorb all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and all the plants will all die. In a billion years from now the Sun will b 10% brighter and the increased temperatures will evaporate all the oceans. In 1.6 billion years the last bacteria disappears and all life on Earth is cooked. In 5.4 billion years the hydrogen fuel is used up and the Sun Transforms into a Red Giant Star. In 7.6 billion years it will swallow Mercury, Venus, and the Earth. In 7.8 billon years it will be a Planetary Nebula ejecting its outer layers and leaving a core that becomes a White Dwarf Star.
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- What to do? Be prepared to find another planet to call home. Eventually, which ever scenario you choose, the Earth is DOOMED! An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday Grant.
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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. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Sunday, December 16, 2012
--------------------- #1529 - Is there Intelligent Life Out There?
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- Astronomers now know there was water on Mars at one time. No life forms have yet been discovered there although rovers are still looking. Astronomers have found thousands of planets, solar systems, orbiting other stars. They are studying the atmospheres to see if a life form lives there. And, we have been listening for them to contact us.
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- SETI is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. It has been operating for 50 years. Today’s receivers listen to radio frequencies simultaneously monitoring hundreds of millions of channels. What happens if they pick out a signal amongst all that electromagnetic noise?
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- Well actually they do pick out a few dozen signals with every scan of the sky.
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- What happens next?
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- Next, astronomers rely on sophisticated software to perform the tedious task of determining if the signal is man-made of alien?
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- If the signal passes the alien test then a whole series of additional tests are run. If the signal is still a candidate astronomers at other observatories around the globe are asked to verify the detection. This step is designed to rule out equipment bugs, software coding errors, or prank signals.
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- This is all in the first step” “ Carefully verify the signal is truly extraterrestrial.”
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- Next, with positive detection other scientists and the public are informed ( We trust they inform the public. Some fear that it would be kept a secret for fear the public could not handle the news.)
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- Step 3, Seek international approval before responding. ( Some fear the answering may unleash an alien invasion the would destroy us. So, stay hidden.)
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- What happens next would be rush to learn more. A very Large Array telescope that can have a beam with of 5 arc-seconds at 1420 megahertz would be used to pinpoint the star (solar system) transmitting the signal.
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- Careful study of the signal would detect Doppler frequency shifts that would characterize the planet’s atmosphere. Studies would learn the length of the day, the length of a year for the planet. How big the planet was. If it had moons. And, possibly if it had a magnetic field.
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- Of course, the bigger analysis would be: “ What are the aliens saying?”
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- “What’s the message”
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- How would people react? If religion could handle Copernicus, Galileo and Darwin, they should be able to handle E.T.
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- Maybe the message will be incomprehensible to our 3-pound human brains?
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- Maybe it would bring people together in peace and harmony, But, the first pictures of Earth as a small blue dot has no positive effects to our world situation as far as I can tell.
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- We have been sending out radio signals for 90 years. Radio signals from the 1920’ are out there. The 1933 President Roosevelt’s fireside chats have passed the star Regulus. The 1952 TV shows have nearly reached Aldebaran. The star Capella has heard about the 1969 Apollo11 landing on the Moon. The broadcasts about the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center has already passed Sirius and reached Procyon. Our nearest star is Proxima Cerntauri, only 4.3 lightyears away. It has heard what has happened in 2008.
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- Once we get their signal SETI will shut off all world transmissions at that frequency using the World Administration Radio Council of International Telecommunications Union authority.
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- The United Nations would first approve our broadcasts before we respond. Remember it would likely take a decade for the signal to reach the aliens and another decade for them to answer. The next generation would be the discoverers. An announcement will be made in 20 years, 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.
or, use: “Jim Detrick” www.facebook.com, or , www.twitter.com.
707-536-3272, Friday, December 14, 2012
--------------------- #1528 - Measuring Binary Stars
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- Almost all of the stars in the night sky appear as a single point of light. However, many of them are binary stars, two stars orbiting around a common center of gravity. In fact, if Jupiter were just a little bit bigger it would ignite solar fusion and our Solar System would be a binary star system.
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- This review is about a binary star system called LL Pegasi, 3,000 lightyears from is in the Constellation Pegasus the Winged Horse. The observation that tells us it is a binary system is that it is spraying spiral arcs of material out from its center. One or both of the stars is loosing material by throwing it out of the system like a revolving lawn sprinkler.
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- The spirals arcs are expanding outward at 31,000 miles per hour. This velocity moves the spiral arcs outward 272,000,000 miles every year. The space between the spirals is 800 years. This means that the binary orbit is 800 years and the spacing between the spirals is:
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-------------------------- 272*10^6 miles / year * 800 years = 217 billion miles
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- The spirals go out 6 shells so the time duration for these spirals to be created is :
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-------------------- 6 shells * 800 years = 4,800 years.
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- If each shell decreases in brightness according to this function how many shells can we see?
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------------------------- Brightness = 128* N^-3/2
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--------------------------- N is the number of shells. The brightness of the background is Magnitude 2. What is the maximum number of shells we will be able to see?
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--------------------------- 2 = 128* N^-3/2
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---------------------------- N^3/2 = 128/2 = 64
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---------------------------- N = ( 2^6) ^ 2/3 = 2^4 = 16
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- The maximum number of shells that we could see is 16 spiral shells.
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- 16 shells would cover the period 16 * 800 = 12,800 years for that many spirals to work their way out like a lawn sprinkler.
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- As the 2 stars get closer and closer together the tidal forces begin pulling the stars apart. The tidal force is the difference in the pull of gravity between your head and you feet. The gravity force of the Earth on you body is not enough for you to feel the difference (Other than old age shortening you the Earth’s tidal forces are not pulling you apart.) However, around every body there is a distance called the tidal radius within which a body will be torn apart. Its own gravitational forces will not hold it together.
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---------------------- Tidal radius = 2.44 R * ( D / d ) ^1/3
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--------------------- Tidal radius = R * ( M / m ) ^1/3
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- Let’s see how close the Moon would have to be before the Earth began tearing it apart?
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--------------------------- R = radius of the Earth = 6,378 kilometers
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-------------------------- D = the density of the Earth = 5,500 kilograms / meter^3
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-------------------------- d = the density of the Moon = 3,400 kilograms / meter^3
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------------------------- Tidal radius = 2.44 * 6378 * 5500 / 3400 ) ^1/3
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--------------------------- Tidal radius = 18.27 *10^3
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- Tidal radius is 18,270 kilometers. The Moon is 340,000 kilometers away and moving further away be 3 centimeters every year. We don’t have to worry about Earth’s tidal forces tearing the Moon apart, unless something changes.
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- What if the Earth had the gravity of a Blackhole and the Moon was a Red Supergiant Star? How far would the star have to be away to keep from being torn apart by the Blackhole’s tidal forces?
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---------------------- Tidal radius = R ( M / m ) ^1/3
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-------------------- m = mass of the star = 20 Solar Mass
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-------------------- M = mass of the Blackhole = 10 Solar Mass
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----------------------- R = radius of the Blackhole = radius of the orbit of Earth = 150,000,000 kilometers.
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----------------------- Tidal radius = 1.5*10^8( 10/20 ) ^1/3 = 1.19*10^8 kilometers
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- The star would have to be 74,000,000 miles away from the Blackhole in order to start being torn apart. The radius of the Blackhole is 37 miles.
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- What if the Blackhole was like the one at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy? It has a mass of 4,000,000 Solar Mass.
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------------------------- M = mass of the galactic Blackhole = 4*10^6 Solar Mass
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----------------------- Tidal radius = R ( M / m ) ^1/3
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---------------------- Tidal radius = 1.5 *10^8( 3*10^6 / 20 ) ^1/3
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----------------------- Tidal radius = .797*10^10
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- The tidal radius would be 4.9 billion miles , which is just beyond the orbit of Pluto.
- There goes Earth into pieces. 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.
or, use: “Jim Detrick” www.facebook.com, or , www.twitter.com.
707-536-3272, Thursday, December 13, 2012
--------------------- #1526 - Galaxy Center a Pin Ball Machine
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- We live just 26,000 short lightyears away from a massive Blackhole. The size of the Blackhole is 4,000,000 times the mass of the Sun. With the staggering amount of gravity that comes with that immense mass stars orbiting close to the center are moving very fast. The force of gravity is:
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------------------------ F = G * M*m / r^2
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- The force is directly proportional to the masses ( M*m ) and inversely proportional to their distance of separation ( r ). Suns ( stars ) orbiting close to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy have been clocked at 3,000 miles per second, that’s 10,800,000 miles per hour. If the Earth was in orbit with that velocity it would circle the Sun in 3 days. The orbital velocity is:
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--------------------- v^2 = M * G / r
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- Orbital velocity is directly proportional to the total mass inside the orbit radius ( M ) and inversely proportional to the radius ( r ). The bigger the mass the faster the orbit velocity. The smaller the distance from the mass the faster the orbital velocity.
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- G is the constant of proportionality . In the units we use it is 6.674215*10^-11 meters^3 ( kilogram * seconds^2). 10^-11 is very small. Gravity is a very weak force unless the mass is very, very big.
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- One of these stars was clocked orbiting just 17 lighthours form the center. (hours not lightyears). That distance is equivalent to 3 times the distance from Pluto to our Sun.
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- Other galaxies have had similar measurements made on their central orbiting stars. M87 is an elliptical galaxy that has a 3,000,000 Solar Mass Blackhole. Andromeda Galaxy next door to us has a 140,000,000 Solar Mass Blackhole, 35 times bigger than our Milky Way Blackhole.
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- “ Light” waves can not make these measurements for our galaxy because our center is crowded with opaque gas and dust. However, radio waves and infrared waves can penetrate the dust and “ see” the stars orbiting the center. The shell of dust is rotating counter-clockwise around the center, the opposite of the Galaxy’s rotation.
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- Over a dozen stars have had their orbits calculated over the past 10 years ( labeled S2 through S20 ). S2 is the one the loops within 17 lighthours closest to the center. It completes an orbit in 15 years. The elliptical orbit extends from 17 lighthours to 240 lighthours, or 10 light days at its farthest point.
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- Tracking these stars is no small achievement. It is like aiming a gun sight at a basketball that is 1,000 miles away. But, spectroscopy measurements have been made and S2 was found to be a main-sequences star of 15 Solar Mass. This size star has a lifetime of about 10,000,000 years. Measurements tell astronomers that these stars likely formed between 3 and 6 million years ago, which is a very young star. Our star is 4.6 billion years old.
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- One theory to explain these young stars it that they could be the cores of older stars that have collided and merged together.
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- A second theory to explain such young star is that the actually formed somewhere else and migrated to the Blackhole to be captured by its gravity.
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- A third theory is that the stars formed in the Blackhole’s spiral arms and spiraled down to within a few lightyears of the center in less than 10 million years. To do these descending orbits stars would have to loose angular momentum . However, this could happen if stars were colliding. If not collisions between suns, which is unlikely, maybe it as collision between gas clouds and suns.?
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- A forth theory has two binary Blackholes at the center with the second smaller Blackhole dragging the young stars closer to the bigger Blackhole at the center.
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- Bursts of infrared light have been measured and timed suggesting that the Blackhole is spinning with a period of 17 minutes.
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- The center around the Blackhole has been likened to a pin ball machine. With stars colliding or passing near each other perturbing each other’s orbits. Stars could even be totally knocked out of the galactic halo if they attained enough escape velocity in their exchange of angular momentum. A few of the “ hyper velocity” stars have been found. If a star escapes once every100,000 years then 100,000 stars could have been flung outside of the Galaxy by the central Blackhole by now.
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- There are a lot of mysteries to be solved at the center of our Galaxy. Radio astronomers are working with 1 millimeter wavelengths to get more precise measurement data. If nothing else it a chance to study some dynamic astronomy. A lot is happening at the center pin ball machine. 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.
or, use: “Jim Detrick” www.facebook.com, or , www.twitter.com.
707-536-3272, Wednesday, December 12, 2012
--------------------- #1525 - Mapping Moon’s Gravity
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- The picture included shows what the Moon looks like with a topological gravitational map. Two satellites orbiting the Moon measured the gravitational force of the surface below as they passed 34 miles overhead. The color shows areas that have more mass, the mountains, and other areas that have less mass, the craters.
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- The same type of map was created for the Earth. The Earth satellite project was called GRACE, Gravity /recovery and Climate Experiment, launched in 2002.
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- The Moon satellites are called project GRAIL, Gravity Recovery ad Interior Laboratory , launched in 2011. GRAIL has measured the Moon’s internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail. The map reveals such features as tectonic structures, volcanic land forms, basin rings, crater central peaks, crater bowls. The data has revealed long, linear gravity anomalies crisscrossing the surface for hundreds of miles. These appear to be dikes of long, thin vertical bodies of solidified magna in the subsurface.
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- The measurements were accomplished by 2 washing machine-sized satellites that were in tandem orbits, near circular orbits, 34 miles above the surface. A laser beam precisely measured the distance between the two satellites. Named “Ebb” and “Flow” as the lead satellite passed over a surface of more mass it speeds up ever so slightly due the increase pull of gravity. The distance between the satellites lengthen. Later, as the tandem satellite passes over the same spot it speeds up shortening the distance between them again and confirming the gravity measurement.
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- These changes in the gravity field were transmitted to Earth where astronomers synced up the changes with the surface topography features.
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- The gravity field has preserved the record of the Moon’s impact bombardments. The data found the bulk density of the Moon’s highland crust is substantially lower than expected. But, it matches the local samples returned by the Apollo astronauts. In total the Apollo missions brought back 800 pounds of rocks.
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- The average thickness of the Moon’s crust is between 21 and 27 miles. The bulk composition of the crust is similar to that of Earth supporting the theory that the Moon was created from a giant impact splash by an asteroid the size of Mars. Mars is 11% the mass of the Earth.
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- You can see a different Moon today thanks to the Ebb and Flow mission. Google the GRAIL project for videos and pictures of the Moon’s gravity map. 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.
or, use: “Jim Detrick” www.facebook.com, or , www.twitter.com.
707-536-3272, Sunday, December 9, 2012
