Astronomy studies lifetimes?

----------------------- # 1584 - Universe Lifetimes.

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-1584 - Universe lifetimes. The stars, the galaxies, and the Universe itself as a life cycle we are trying to understand. X-rays are giving us a new vision on the scene.

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- Lifetimes are changing. Stone age man had an average lifetime of 20 years. Today the average lifespan is 67 years and still climbing. At the age of the dinosaurs the year lasted 370 days. Today it is only 365.256366 days long. The Earth wobbles through the plane of the Solar System every 100,000 years. Last year the Universe was 13.7 billion years old.

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- This year the age of the Universe is 13.8 billion years. More Cosmic Microwave Background data now available from new spacecraft has brought us new data. The recalculation is a 7% increase in the age of the Universe ,but, it is 100,000,000 years older. Our planets were thought to have formed in the Solar System in less than 200,000,000 years. That happened 4.5 billion years ago.

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- We believe the Universe is expanding to try to achieve a lower state of entropy. Entropy is randomness, or a high state of disorder. The Big Bang started with the lowest state of entropy in uniform order. The disorder and entropy has been increasing ever sense. Energy always seeks to reach its lowest level. Entropy always seeks to reach its highest level.

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- Gravity opposes the expansion and where pockets of gas were higher density stars would form. As gravity crushes matter fusion creates radiation that opposes gravity. The balance of forces determines the lifetimes of stars. Dark Matter’s gravity collects stars into galaxies. In between Dark Matter galaxies and cluster of galaxies is Dark Energy. Dark Energy is like the radiation in space that is expanding space moving the galaxies away from each other. The voids between them are expanding bubbles of space.

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- Eventually we will be in a single bubble that will be our Observable Universe. Everything else will have expanded so far their light will never reach us.

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- The stars have a lifetime determined by their mass. The largest stars burn their nuclear fuel quickly and die as supernovae in only a few million years. Smaller stars like our Sun have lifetimes of 10 billion years. Our Sun will die as a White Dwarf star. It is not big enough to go supernova. Red Dwarf stars and Brown Dwarf stars that are smaller still will live for 100 trillion years as they slowly cool down.

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- Galaxies eventually evaporate. Protons eventually decay into photons. That will take another 10^40 years. Blackholes will also eventually evaporate and decay. For that you will have to wait 10^100 years. That is really a long time.

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- Is the Universe really flying apart? Or, is Mother Nature fooling us? Astronomers see the Universe as expanding because the light from distant galaxies is redshifted by the time it reaches. the light’s wavelength is stretched due to traveling through expanding space over its entire journey.

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- The light that astronomers can gather from the edge of the Observable Universe is only 1 photon per second. Could there be large scale factors that have unknown properties? Maybe the Cosmos is not uniform? Maybe expanding space is an illusion? In many ways we are flooded with data and starving for knowledge.

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- Chandra is a large space telescope built to purposely collect fewer photons and build up an image over a long focusing time. The images are recreated by computer software that uses the photon brightness differences and the grazing angles to “ see” with fewer photons. The detectors collect a few hundred photons, each having very high energy in the X-ray frequency range. X-rays range from 10 nanometers wavelength to as short as 0.01 nanometers wavelength.

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- The entire sky is diffused in X-ray energy. Where does this energy come from? In may have started out as Gamma Rays and been redshifted into lower energy X-rays?

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- The moon reflects X-rays and the minerals on its surface fluoresce. The X-rays get absorbed and visible light get re-emitted from the surface.

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- The Sun creates X-rays in its magnetic fields at its surface. The magnetic field lines break and reconnect creating high temperature X-rays.

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- The Blackhole at the center of our Galaxy is the brightest X-ray source. Binary Stars where one star steals mass from the other creates another source of bright X-rays. Gravity and magnetic fields accelerate ionized particles into jets and shockwaves. When ionized particles slam into gas and dust their deceleration emits radiation heating the gas clouds to millions of degrees. Thermal radiation emits in all directions along with X-rays.

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- These studies are telling astronomers how galaxies go through their lifecycles. Astronomers want to learn how did we get form the Big Bang to spiral galaxies orbiting Blackholes separated by voids of empty space? The more astronomers can “ see “ the better we can understand the life cycles of the Universe. 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 upon request. Some reviews are 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, March 29, 2013

Simulating the expansion of the Universe?

----------------------- # 1583 - Simulating the Expanding Universe

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- The Universe is expanding but in an astronomer’s lifetime she would hardly notice. 100 years ago the astronomers were certain the Universe was “ static” neither expanding or contracting. The Milky Way Galaxy was our Universe. Then, 1920’s Hubble’s discoveries changed all that. Other galaxies were discovered that were moving away from us. The further away the galaxy was the faster it was receding away.

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- Today astronomers are studying galaxies that are billions of lightyears away. Today astronomers can model the Observable Universe, put the model on a computer. They can start the simulation after the Big Bang and use the algorithms in physics to run the expansion of time. Then see how the results compares with what we see today. If there is not a good match astronomers can change initial conditions, or change assumptions, and run it again.

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- Cosmology has entered the world of experimentation. Google the Bolshoi to learn more. http:hipacc.ucsc.edu/Bolshoi.

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- The observations are the inputs. The laws of physics run the software. Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity are the equations in the software.

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- The simulation assumes Cosmic Inflation occurred shortly after the Big Bang. The Inflation grew the Universe 1,000 times faster than the speed of light. The quantum fluctuations at the sub-atomic level when the expansion began grew into the lumps of matter and energy we see in the Universe today.

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- Gravity coalesced Cold Dark Matter into halos around ordinary matter . These structures eventually evolved into galaxies and clusters of galaxies interconnected by filaments of matter and separated by giant voids of space.

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- The simulation also assumes Einstein’s Cosmological Constant that opposes gravity . This is the Dark Energy that is expanding space and growing the size of the Universe.

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- The model’s assumptions best fit is when 73% of the Universe is Dark Energy and 22% is Dark Matter. 5% is ordinary matter ( Baryonic matter which is made up of protons and neutrons.). Only 0.5% is the matter visible as stars and gas/dust that we call “ our world”.

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- The simulations created take a lot of computer time, about 6 million CPU hours. the resolution in the software is down to 5,000 lightyears. ( The Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 lightyears with a Dark Matter halo extending out to 2,000,000 lightyears.)

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- Using the simulations astronomers can observe the Dark Matter directly. We know the Dark Matter exists by measuring the speeds f stars and gas in galaxies and the speeds of galaxies orbiting in clusters of galaxies. Another measure is the bending of light from background galaxies passing by foreground clusters of galaxies.

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- The computer simulations are agreeing accurately with the observations we see today. The calculations and assumptions must be close to reality. Now astronomers can start experimenting with “ what if’s” in the laboratory. Astronomers can change the assumptions and quickly see the results. They can run the software forward in time and see what the Universe will look like in the future.

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- It all boils down to simple multiplication. The Earth is 10^7 meters, the Galaxy 10^22 meters, the Observable Universe 10^27 meters, the Whole Universe 10^58 meters. 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 upon request. Some reviews are 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, March 28, 2013

Petagorean Theory of Relativity?

 


----------------------- # 1582 - Pythagorean Theory of Relativity

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- If Pythagoras had discovered the Theory of Relativity it would have been a lot easier to understand.

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-------------------------- E = mc^2

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- This formula only applies to a mass that is at rest. If a mass is in motion you must consider its Total Energy to include Kinetic Energy and Momentum. Momentum is mass * velocity. So, if the mass is in motion the Energy equation expands to:

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------------------- E^2 = ( mc^2)2 + (mv* c ) ^2

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- This can be recognized as the Pythagorean Theorem for Relativity. “E” is the hypotenuse, “(mc^2)” is the opposite side of a right triangle and (mv*c) is the adjacent side of the right triangle. The Theorem says that the hypotenuse squared is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides of a right triangle. So:

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---------------- E^2 = ( mc^2)2 + (mv* c ) ^2

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- “(mc^2) is the opposite vertical side. When the velocity is zero the horizontal line collapses into the vertical line. The hypotenuse E becomes the same as the vertical line mc^2 and E = mc^2 when the velocity is zero.

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- Likewise, if the mass is zero the vertical line collapses into the horizontal line and the hypotenuse E = mv^2 * c. The energy of the massless object is a photon. But, its momentum is not zero even though the mass is zero there is always a quantum of energy in each cycle of oscillation. The Energy of photons is Planck’s Constant * Frequency of oscillation. E = h* f. However, if there is just the slightest bit of mass of another particle the hypotenuse will always be greater than the adjacent side. What we can say is the smaller the mass becomes the closer E = mv*c, Energy = the momentum times the speed of light.

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- Reformatting the equation to solve for the velocity of the mass

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------------------------------- v = mv*c / E * c

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- As mv *c / E approaches “one” the velocity approaches the speed of light

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------------------------------ v = c

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- Light can be thought of as particles, photons, with zero mass but still momentum. Their motion can only be one speed, 186,000 miles per second.

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- All light, electromagnetic radiation, travels at this single speed. It has been traveling at this speed ever since the Big Bang. We say the size of the Universe is its age in lightyears. That is how far light travels in one year = 5,880,000 million miles. So the age of the Universe is 13.8 billion years and the distance the light has traveled is 13.8 billion lightyears distance.

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- If you point your telescope due east and see to the edge of the Observable Universe you can only see 13.8 billion lightyears distance. But, if you point your telescope to the west you could see another 13,8 billion lightyears in that direction. In that sense we the observer are in the center of the Universe. Of course , every observer can say that.

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- The Observable Universe is therefore 27.5 billion lightyears in diameter.

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- But, during the 13,8 billion years of time that it takes the light to reach us the Universe has been expanding. So, the Universe we can not see, because the light has not reached us yet , is out 46 billion lightyears in both directions. The diameter of the Universe today is 93 billion lightyears across.

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- Comparing the size of Earth ( 10^7 meters) to the size of the Universe (10^27 meters) is like comparing the size of a virus (10^-6 meters) to the size of the Solar System (10^14 meters).

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- And, we know that the Whole Universe is much, much larger than the 93 billion lightyears. Because the Universe is homogeneous in all directions and the geometry is flat, meaning parallel lines neither diverge or converge then the Universe must be infinitely bigger. The Cosmic Inflation that occurred during the first seconds of the Big Bang expanded the Universe faster than the speed of light.

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- When we conceive the Whole Universe we are no longer in the center. There is no center. Space and time are expanding in all directions, everywhere. Today we measure this expansion of space to be traveling at 47,000 miles per hour per each million lightyears distance. Once we see out a billion light years distance of expanding space we see galaxies receding at 47,000,000 miles per hour.

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- When we get to the edges of the Observable Universe over 46 billion lightyears the galaxies are moving away from us at 2,162,000,000 miles per hour. That is over 3 times faster than the speed of light. The speed of light is 670,633,500 miles per hour. That light will never reach us. Never.

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- Nothing can exceed the speed of light. So, how can a galaxy be moving that fast? It must be impossible, and , violating the Theory of Relativity. True, no “ thing” can travel faster than the speed of light. But, nothing says that space can not expand faster than the speed of light. The more space there is the faster things are expanding away from each other.

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- We have not violated the Pythagorean Theorem: E^2 = (mc^2)^2 + (mv*c)^2

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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 upon request. Some reviews are 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 Tuesday, March 26, 2013

 

 

Species - The Diversity of Life?

----------------------- # 1581 - Species - The Diversity of Life

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- There is an enormous diversity and complexity among the species that live on Earth. How many species of life are there? Estimated to be at least 9,000,000 different species with only 4,500,000 of them discovered and named. That count is not counting the variety of bacteria and microbe life. Life of any sort has not been discovered outside Earth. And, only half of life has been discovered on Earth.

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- Defining a unique species is not easy. And, there is much debate and disagreement of how the classifications are made. Therefore, these numbers are rounded off as today’s best estimates.

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- To define a species we start with “ the beginning of life” >>>>>> Domains >>>>> Kingdoms >>>>>> Phylum’s >>>>> Classes >>>>>> Families >>>>> Genus >>>>> Species. Species are defined as life that is capable of interbreeding. If you collect enough of interbreeding species believed to have the same ancestors you have a “ Genus”.

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- Here are the species categories you are familiar with:

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------------------------ DISCOVERED ----------------- ESTIMATED UNDISCOVERED

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------- Insects --------------- 950,000 -------------------------- 8,950,000

------- Plants ----------------- 270,000 -------------------------- 380,000

------- Arachnids ----------- 75,000 --------------------------- 740,000

------- Mushrooms --------- 72,000 --------------------------- 470,000

------ Mollusks ------------- 80,000 --------------------------- 250,000

------- Vertebrates --------- 56,000 ----------------------------- 61,000

------- Algae ---------------- 40,000 --------------------------- 400,000

------- Protozoa ------------ 30,000 --------------------------- 210,000

------- Crustaceans -------- 75,000 --------------------------- 180,000

------- Other --------------- 120,000 -------------------------- - 400,000

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--------- TOTAL --------- 4,500,000 ----------------------- 7,841,000

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- These numbers are rough estimates. For example there are other estimates that the total number of insects is 30,000,000 not the 9,900,000 that I have listed above. Finding and identifying species on Earth is still work in process.

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- If you are reading this you are one of the vertebrates classified among the 5,490 mammals. The rest in your family of the species are fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds.

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- Now to really stretch your thinking ponder this: all of this diversity started from a single gene pool.

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- Mice and humans share 80% the exact same protein coded genes. 80% of us comes from the same gene pool. We are just learning this stuff as we can study DNA at the microscope level. To understand the DNA substructures your vision must get down to 100 angstroms, or 10 nanometers. A hydrogen atom is 1 angstrom or 0.1 nanometer in diameter.

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- When science can witness this level of substructure they can learn how the genetic message of DNA is copied to RNA for the production of proteins. Understanding this process is critical for the growth , development, health, and survival of the species.

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- Counter- intuitively the total number of genes is not evidence of the complexities of the species. A Fruit Fly is far more complex than the nematode worm yet the worm has 20,000 genes and the Fruit Fly has 14,000 genes. We humans have between 30,000 and 40,000 genes. These numbers are still in the process of discovery. Genomes are still being sequenced in plants and animals.

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- What science has already learned is that the number of genes do not create complexity but, the various combinations and multiple transcription factors are what create evolutionary complexity. The species with the highest known number of genes is the protozoan with 60,000 genes, 3 times as many as the human sub-species.

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- The recent discoveries are being made using a single-particle cryo-electron microscope recording a series of 2D images, then, using a computer to create a high-resolution 3D reconstructions.

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- The genome is the entirety of a species hereditary information. With it science can trace the ancestors of species and clearly tell which species are related. Genomes include both the genes and other non-coding sequences of DNA/RNA. 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 upon request. Some reviews are 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, March 24, 2013

Asteroids with moons tell us our evolution?

----------------------- # 1580 - Asteroids the bricks that build Solar Systems

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- Asteroids have been in the news lately. Some are called comets. There is really little difference. Asteroids are rocks and Comets are loose rocks with water ice that makes for a great tail when they orbit near the Sun. Asteroids too may be loose rocks and not always solid rocks. This is important because loose rock asteroids would form planets more quickly. Knowing the density of asteroids would help us understand how our Solar System first formed.

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- Knowing how our Solar System formed would help us understand the more than 1,500 planets we have now discovered orbiting other suns. What are the differences between our solar system and their solar system? Our Solar System formed in 200,000,000 years 4.5 billion years ago, just a billion years after the Sun formed. If we can understand solar system formation we may be able to predict the chances of life evolving on other planets.

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- Density is mass / volume. The density of water is 1 gram / cubic centimeter. A density of 3 to 5 grams/ cm^3 would be a rocky asteroid. Density of 1 to 2 gm/cm^3 would be a rocky rubble, a comet, a dirty snowball.

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- There are 551,621 registered asteroids. Registered means their size has been estimated and their orbits have been calculated. However, we do not know the mass or the volume of most asteroids. Most asteroids lie between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Some “Trojan” asteroids are in the same orbit of Jupiter, either ahead or trailing. The belt of asteroids would have formed another planet except for the fact the that Jupiter’s gravity created tidal forces that kept pulling them apart.

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- The biggest asteroid in the belt is Ceres, 1,000 kilometers in diameter. Vesta is the second biggest. See Review # 1572 to learn about a spacecraft that visited Vesta in 2012. Now the same spacecraft , “ Dawn” has left Vesta and is on its way to Ceres.

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- There are millions of asteroids that have not been registered. Some are greater than 150 meters in diameter and are in Near Earth orbits. There are 6,000 of these Near Earth asteroids that are known. 15 of them have been visited by spacecraft. “Lutetia” had a recent visit. It is a dumbbell shaped asteroid that is 100 kilometers long. “ Mathilde is 53 kilometers and has a 30 kilometer crater.

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- See the pictures of these asteroids by google” “ Cosmic Diary Network” a blog by Franck Marchis.

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- We know the Sun formed with an accretion disk of dust and rocks and water and gas. And, gravity within the disk caused a chaos of collisions between all this material. As collisions grew bigger and gravity became stronger more collisions created big enough asteroids to be called planets. When asteroids get a certain size gravity pulls them into a perfect sphere and creates a core at the center. We believe this planet formation took only 200,000,000 years. Back to the density problem:

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- Most asteroids are not spherical because they are not massive enough. If their density is solid rock it is hard to calculate how solid rock collisions could have formed planets in 200,000,000 years. However, if asteroids are low density “ rubble piles” then collisions could collect into larger planet sized rocks more readily. That is where the four Terrestrial Planets came from, asteroid collisions.

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- In 1994 spacecraft visited asteroid “ Ida” and it was found to have a moon. To date 205 asteroids have been found to be binaries, or have moons. “87 Sylvia” has 2 moons. Its mass is 1.48*10^19 kilograms, its size is 192 km by 132 km by 116 km. It is 25 to 60 % porous and has a density of 1.2 gm/cm^3. This information could all be calculated because the asteroid had a moon. The orbit velocity and distance of orbit allowed calculations of mass. Dimensions gave us volume. The conclusion came from the density being not much more than pure water. This can not be a solid rock asteroid.

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- Adaptive optics are now being used on telescopes to see the moons orbiting asteroids. Many more density calculations will tell astronomers better how our Solar System formed. They can then compare this knowledge with what they learn about the exoplanets in other solar systems.

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- Nano-telescope satellites have been funded to do the job like Hubble but using much smaller ad cheaper telescopes just for studying asteroids. Light curves of these asteroids can be studied to determine orbits and their spectrum to determine mineral composition.

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- Protecting us from and Earth- asteroid collision is not the only motivation for studying asteroids. Having time to send a spacecraft to deflect its trajectory is certainly a worthy goal. But, learning how our Solar System formed and the potential for life on other planets is too. 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 upon request. Some reviews are 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, March 23, 2013

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1580 - Asteroids the bricks that build Solar Systems. Knowing the density of asteroids would help us understand how our Solar System first formed.

Socrates was a great teacher

----------------------- # 1579 - Socrates, a great teacher

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- Socrates was a great teacher. His method of teaching was not to lecture, not to answer questions. But, more simply to return a more thoughtful question for every question asked. This would allow self-discovery in the pursuit of knowledge. Teaching how to learn.

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- To illustrate Socrates teachings. Get a pencil and paper and follow along as Socrates teaches a slave some geometry. He begins by drawing a large square in the sand. He then extends 2 lines through the center to divide the larger square into 4 smaller squares. Now each square is 1 square foot and each side is 2 feet.

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- Socrates: What is the area of the square? How many square feet are there?

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- The slave easily sees that the larger square is 4 square feet, the sum of the 4 smaller squares.

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- Socrates: What would be the length of one side needed to double the area of this square? Double the area is 8 square feet.

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- The slave instinctively says that each side must be 4 feet long.

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- Socrates: Instead of telling the slave his answer is wrong. Socrates simply takes his answer and draws a larger square 4 feet on a side. He then shows that inside the larger square are 3 more squares like the previous one. Again dividing each of the squares into smaller 1 foot squares the slave is quick to see that the area is 16 square feet, not the 8 square feet desired.

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- The slave realizes that sides of 2 feet is too small and sides of 4 feet is too large he says that the answer must be 3 feet sides.

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- Socrates: Again Socrates takes his answer and draws another square 3 feet on a side. When divided up the count is an area of 9 square feet. The area is too large. How are we going to find the length of the side that will be the correct answer of 8 square feet?

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- The slave says “ I do not know”

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- Socrates says this is important knowledge. Before you thought you knew but you were mistaken. Now, you know you don’t know. Now, your mind is open to inquiry for new knowledge.

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- To help the slave see the solution Socrates asks the slave to go back to the original square that is 4 square feet. Then to the larger square that is 16 square feet. How much bigger is the larger square than the smaller square?

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- 4 times bigger.

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- Socrates: We want our answer to be 2 times bigger. Take the smaller square and draw a line from corner across the center to the other corner. You have divided that square in half. Do the same to the other 3 squares. Do the 4 equal lines you drew contain a square inside the larger square?

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- Yes!

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- What is the area of one triangle that you have created when you divided the square in half?

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- ½ for the 4 square feet is 2 square feet. Each triangle is 2 square feet.

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- Socrates: How many triangles are there?

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- 4 triangles, each 2 square feet, the total area of the new square is 8 square feet. That is the answer we wanted.

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- The line stretching from corner to corner of the new square is the proper length to have a square that is 8 square feet.-

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- If the teacher were Pythagorean, instead of Socrates:

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---------------------- 2 feet^2 + 2 feet^2 + 2 feet^2 + 2 feet^2 = 8 feet^2

---------------------- Square root of ( 2^2 + 2^2 ) * Square root of ( 2^2 + 2^2) = ?

---------------------- Square root of ( 8 ) * Square root of ( 8) = 8

---------------------- ( 2.83 ) * (2.83) = 8

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- Each side is 2.83 feet long and the hypotenuse of the right triangle is equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the other 2 sides.

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- Teacher: What do you call a person who keeps talking when people are no longer listening?

- Student: A teacher.

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- Teacher: Noah, your composition on “ My Dog” is exactly the same as your sisters. Did you copy Ava’s paper.

- Noah: No sir, it’s the same dog.

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- Teacher, Nathan, name one important thing we have today that we did not have 10 years ago?

- Nathan: Me

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- Teacher: Why are you late?

- Noah: Class started before I got here.

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- Teacher: Why are you doing your math multiplications on the floor?

- Noah: You said to do it without using the tables.

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- Maybe it “is” wrong, but you asked me how “ I “ spell it.

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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 upon request. Some reviews are 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, March 22, 2013

Visit Petaluma Bird Sanctuary

----------------------- # 1578 - Shollenberger Park Bird Sanctuary

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- From Santa Rosa head to San Francisco south on Highway 101. Just before you cross the Petaluma River turn left down Lakeville Highway and then right back to the River. There you will find Shollenberger Park Bird Sanctuary, ( and the Rocky Memorial Dog Park.)

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- Where the Adobe Creek reaches the Petaluma River the Coast Miwok Indians lived for 4,000 years, from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. Adobe Creek flows down from Sonoma Mountain. 3,000,000 years ago Sonoma Mountain was a volcano. 10,000,000 years ago the whole area was covered by the ocean. Tectonic Plates moving north from Baja to Bodega created the friction that caused the volcanic activity.

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- Adobe Creek carried the sediments from the volcano to the Petaluma River and the high tides from San Pablo Bay carried salt water sediments up the River. The River flows 14 miles to the Bay. The whole area became Tidal Mudflats that are rich in aquatic life. Grab a double handful of mud and realize that that mud contains 40,000 living organisms. Most are microscopic but many are visible. This is the feeding ground for the mud-probing shore birds and ducks.

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- In 1830 Mexico controlled this part of California. Mexico had Mariano Gaudaloupe Vallejo build a fort, Casa Granda there to protect the area from a feared Russian invasion. The Russians were at Fort Ross harvesting sea otters and sending furs back to Russia.

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- In 1837 smallpox killed a majority of the native population.

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- In 1852 Newtown was established at Vallejo’s landing. Steamer boats traveled up the river and brought prosperity to Newtown. Petaluma City replaced Newtown and the Newtown site became the city land fill. In 1995 the land fill was capped with clay and became the Dog Park.

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- Adobe Creek flows along the edge of Shollenberger Park into the Petaluma River that forms the other edge of the Park. In 1984 the creek was cleaned, trees were planted, and the steelhead population was restored. The Petaluma River is dredged every 4 years to remove sediments that keep returning with the high tides. This helps prevent the flooding that will otherwise occur.

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- The River is a tide water slough. Dredging it allowed it to become a river traveling 14 miles to the Pablo Bay. 90% of California wetlands have been drained or filled to support farmland or commerce. Preserving these wetlands is very important to hosting the bird and aquatic life of the Bay. Dedicated to this effort is the waste water treatment plant next to the park that maintains 10 ponds covering 162 acres.

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- Hiking trails cover both areas. In our 3 hour walk last Saturday Michael identified American Wigeon, Bufflehead duck, Cackling Goose, Canada Goose, Canvasback, Cinnamon Teal, Gadwall, Green-Winged Teal, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Ruddy Duck, American White Pelican, Great Egret, Turkey Vulture, Cooper’s Hawk, Northern Harrier, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, White -tailed Kite, American Coot, Killdeer, American Avocet, Black-necked Stilt, Least Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Glaucous-winged Gull, Herring Gull, Mew Gull, Western Gull, Eurasian Collared Dove, Anna’s Hummingbird, Black Phoebe, American Crow, Common Raven, Tree Swallow, Marsh Wren, American Pipit, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Brewer’s Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird, House Finch, and a Mute Swan.

-

- I bet him $5 he could not list them all from memory as we ate our picnic lunch. I lost the bet.

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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 upon request. Some reviews are 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, March 21, 2013

Higgs Boson, how does it work?

----------------------- # 1577 - Higgs Boson, How Does It Work?

-

- An announcement this week in the news was that the Higgs Boson like particle discovered statistically last July is truly the new Higgs Particle.

-

- The math is the Standard Model of Particle Physics states that the Higgs should have zero spin and positive parity. After 2 ½ times more data was collected since last July from the proton - anti-proton collisions these properties for the Higgs Particle were confirmed.

-

- The Higgs is supposed to decay into Bottom Quarks and Leptons. This “ coupling” decay still needs to be confirmed, so, the research is not done yet. The mass of the particle is measured to be 126,000 million electron volts.

-

- These discoveries are huge. Really, so what? What is the Higgs Boson really and how does it work?

-

- To learn this we need to know a little Quantum Mechanics, a little Field Theory , the Uncertainty Principle, and some Particle Physics. I know as little as anyone. So here it is. No problem:

-

- First, Quantum Mechanics. Things are not smooth and continuous as they appear. Things are all in “ quanta’, small packets that are too small to see and even measure. It all started with the study of light. Was light a continuous wave of a tiny particle? Called the theory of Wave-Particle Duality. The wave was really a spread of probabilities of the position and the momentum of a quanta of energy which is a particle. We call the quantum of light the “Photon”. Photons are little packets of electromagnetic energy. Each packet is 4.136 * 10^-15 electron volts. Each packet is a cycle of oscillation. The total energy of light is the packet of electron volts times the frequency of oscillation. (E = h*f ). “ h” is Planck’s Constant of Action. “f” is frequency is cycles per second. The higher the frequency of light the higher the energy. That is why ultraviolet light burns your skin and X-rays can kill you.

-

- Next, Quantum Mechanics does not stop with light. All things are quantized. Time is quantized at 10^-43 seconds. Space comes in a minimum length of 1.613*10^-35 meters. The speed of light travels that far in the quantized time of 10^-43 seconds. Angular momentum comes in quanta of 6.625 * 10^-34 joule-seconds. In Quantum Mechanics everything is “lumpy” . Space, time , energy, everything comes in a smallest lump.

-

- Next, the lumps never stand still. They never have a fixed position. They never have a fixed momentum which is mass times velocity. This is called the Uncertainty Principle. This principle says that the position times the momentum of a particle must always be less than Plancks Constant of Action divided by the wavelength., 4.136*10^-15 electron volts / wavelength. ( delta “position” * delta “momentum” < = Plancks Constant).

-

- Translated this means that the more you know about “position” the less you can know about “ velocity” because the product of the two can not exceed the fixed value of Plancks Constant. At the same time particles can not have “ no momentum” or a “ fixed position”. The vacuum of space is filled with this quanta of oscillating energy. You can not have empty space without a charge being in it. This condition can be interpreted as a sea of “ virtual particles” jumping in and out of existence. They do this so fast as to not violate the “Conservation of Energy“.

-

- Now, to Field Theory. Fields are simply a condition of points in space. Space is filled with Fields. The vacuum of space is the state of lowest energy but the fields are still there. Fields cost energy. When particles vibrate they displace the field and that costs energy. Rotation at the lowest energy level does not cost energy. Rotation at this lowest energy point corresponds to a charge at no cost. This is how Einstein’s Condensate works and Superconductivity works. It is symmetry breaking that we are not going in to.

-

- Particle Physics is our next pursuit. Mass and Energy are the same thing. When we say the mass is in electron volts we really mean electron volts / c^2, (m = E / c^2 ). Particles come in different energy levels. Photons and Gluons are at zero mass and the only ones that can travel only at the speed of light, which is the fastest anything can travel. Photons and Gluons are energy carriers. Photons carry the electromagnetic force. Gluons carry the Strong Nuclear Force. That is what holds protons together in the nucleus of atoms. Then we have W and Z Bosons that carry the Weak Nuclear Force but they have enormous mass and they decay. All together these force carriers are called “Bosons”. All the matter particles are called “ Fermions”. There are 3 types of electrons, 3 types of neutrinos and 6 types of Quarks that are Fermions.

-

- Electrons can emit photons. Neutrinos can not emit photons. Neutrinos have very little mass. The lowest energy levels are the ordinary matter of electrons, neutrinos and Up and Down Quarks. The heavier particles decay always seeking the lowest energy levels. The heavier the particle the faster it decays. Top Quarks decay the fastest, but, they can produce the Higgs particle as we shall see. But, all the Fermions have mass:

-

------------------------- Electrons -------------- 0.511 million electron volts / c^2

------------------------- Muons -------------- 106 MeV ( c^2 is assumed )

------------------------- Tau ---------------- 1,777 MeV

------------------------- Up Quark ------------- 2,000

------------------------- Down Quark --------- 5,000

------------------------ Bottom Quark -------- 4,200

------------------------ Top Quark ------------ 173,000

-

- Two of the Bosons have mass. They are responsible for the Weak Nuclear Force decay, commonly referred to as radioactivity.

-

------------------------- W Boson ------------- 80,300

------------------------ Z Boson -------------- 91,188

-

- Add all these particles up and get 16 particles. Each of these has an equivalent anti-matter particle that has equivalent mass but opposite charge. That brings the total to 32 fundamental particles of matter and anti-matter.

-

- What causes these particles to have mass? Why do the different particles have different mass? The answer is their degree of interaction with the Higgs Field gives them mass. The Higgs Field permeates all of space. Inertia is the degree of interaction each particle has in this sea of “ virtual particles”. The virtual particles can become real particles if enough energy is added to them. The Higgs Particle requires 126,000 MeV.

-

- An electron and an anti-electron could create a Higgs Particle if they had enough energy. But, practically this will not happen because electrons have too little mass and too small cross-section area to have high energy collisions. The Top Quark collisions offer the best candidates to create the Higgs.

-

- Here is the plan. Collide protons and anti-protons together in the Large Hadron Collide at speeds near that of light. The Gluons that collide in pairs create a Top Quark and a anti-Top Quark. This pair of Top Quarks decay into a Higgs Particle.

-

- That is the theory and the math needed to create the Higgs Boson. A real particle is created out of the virtual particle in the Higgs Field. This is what happened at CERN last July. The statistics from trillions of collisions found a particle with 126,000 MeV mass. When the energy is high enough the energy becomes matter. The matter has mass. The mass in the interaction with the Higgs Field. What a discovery!

-

- The math in the Standard Model allows for 4 more Higgs Boson particles to exist. It even suggests there an equivalent set of Super-particles to all the Standard Model particles. Called Super Symmetry it is a theory supported by String Theory. Particle discoveries are definitely not finished. Dark Matter is another form of mass that is undiscovered. 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 upon request. Some reviews are 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 Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Why we think there is Dark Matter?

-----------------------  # 1576  -  What does it matter, It’s Dark
-
-  Our world is made of atoms.  It is “all” that we know.  It is everything that is matter.  It is the chemistry and its 118 elements, it is  biology, it is all material, it is the Cosmos.  We have the idea that the particles in matter and the 4 forces in nature are our whole Universe.   If we understand atoms and we understand Gravity, Electromagnetism, and the 2 nuclear forces, we understand the Universe.
-
-  That’s it.  We even know that the atoms and forces can be defined in a Standard Model of Particles.  12 matter particles and 4 force carrier particles.  Add the Higgs Boson and you get to 17 particles which are just subsets that make up the Universe in the above paragraph.
-
-  The problem arises in the math.  All this matter does not add up for a Universe that we can observe.  For the last 80 years some astronomers among us have concluded that we were missing matter.  We still have not found it, but, we have accumulated a lot of evidence that the 80 year old idea was correct.
-
-  In 1933 astronomers studying the Coma Cluster of galaxies measured their motion, their orbiting velocities around a center of gravity.  These clusters should be rotating bodies no different that the planets orbiting the Sun.  The math is the same.  The force of gravity is well known.  We have an equation for that:
-
--------------------------  F  =  G * M * m  /  r^2
-
-  The force of gravity is directly proportional to the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
-
-  The centripetal force of angular momentum of orbiting bodies is also well known.
-
-------------------------  Force  =  mass * acceleration
-
------------------------  Force  =  mass * (velocity)^2  /  radius
-
-----------------------  F  =  m * v^2  / r
-
-  This is the force accelerating objects moving in a uniform circular path or orbit.  These two forces should be in balance if a system is in stable orbits.
-
-  The problem discovered in 1933 was that these forces in the Coma cluster of galaxies did not balance.  The math definitely concluded that the galaxies should be flying apart.  They are not in stable orbits.  There was not near enough mass for gravity to hold them together.  There must be a huge amount of mass there that we can not see, Dark Matter.
-
-  In 1970, there was no other explanation for 67 years.  Then astronomers measuring the rotation rates of stars inside individual galaxies came to the same conclusion.
-
-  For example, our star, our Sun, is orbiting the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at 504,000 miles per hour.  It is at a radius of 27,400 light years from the center of the galaxy.  A radius of 161,112,000 billion miles.  If the math is the same for our stable Solar System, the whole system should be flying out of the galaxy.  What is holding us together?  Dark Matter.
-
-  There is 5 times as much mass as we can count otherwise the outer stars in the galaxy would be leaving the galaxy and flying off into space.  5/6th of all the matter needed to hold it together must be Dark Matter.
-
-  Maybe there are a huge number of stars that we can not see?  Let’s add all  the possible White Dwarf stars that are too small to see, the Neutron Stars, the planets, the Brown Dwarf stars, and even all the Blackholes.  It is still not near enough mass.  There still has to be more Dark Matter in a giant halo around our Milky Way Galaxy and around every Galaxy in the Cosmos.
-
-  Or, could the equations for gravity and angular momentum be wrong?  Does the gravitational constant change with size, space , or time?  Or, is it constant everywhere?
-
-  1980, another discovery was made with the more evidence that the equations are correct and we are missing Dark Matter and Dark Energy that composes 95% of the Universe created in the Big Bang.
-
-  The Cosmic Microwave Background radiation that was released 370,000 years after the Big Bang has sound waves imprinted in it.  Pressure waves that were responsible for bringing matter together allowing gravity to create the stars and galaxies.  The fundamental frequency of the pressure wave and the harmonics in the amplitude of the radiation wave allowed the composition of the Universe to be calculated.  The nearly uniform 2.725 degrees Kelvin temperature today contained 1/100,000th degree variations that could be defined into these pressure wavelengths.
-
-  The composition of the Universe needed to create these oscillations had to be 27 % matter pulling it together and 73% energy pushing it apart.  Of the 27% matter only 4% was ordinary matter that we can see.  23% was Dark Matter and 73% was Dark Energy.  Our world of atoms and forces was only 4% of the whole Universe.
-
-  96% of the Universe is something else.  Something that is yet to be discovered.  What is it?  We have discovered 17 fundamental particles that are the composition of our 4% world.  Maybe, there are more fundamental particles that we have yet to find.  It was not until October 2012 that the Higgs Boson was finally discovered.
-
-  The Higgs Boson was in the math of the Standard Model of Particles but it took the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to come up with enough energy to create the Higgs Boson.  The particle is the Higgs Boson.  The energy is in the Higgs Field.  The Field permeates all of space and interacts with the other particles to give them mass.  This is analogous to a charged electron interacting with a magnetic field creating the force of acceleration on the electron.
-
-  There could be an undiscovered particle that creates the Dark Matter mass.  We call it a WIMP, a Weakly Interactive Massive Particle.  WIMPS interact with Gravity but they do not interact with the Electromagnetic Force.  Light does not see them.
-
-  Astronomers have even been able to map Dark Matter around a cluster of a galaxies.  By measuring how background galaxies are gravitationally lensed by the mass in a foreground cluster of galaxies the distribution of Dark Matter can be calculated even though it can not be seen.  We can make a 3D picture of it.
-
-  How can we discover a WIMP particle?
-
-  WIMPS travel through the Earth without being deflected or absorbed.  Well, almost entirely.  Maybe we can detect a chance encounter of  a WIMP colliding with an atomic nucleus.  However, the detectors that would indicate this would also be detecting Cosmic Rays.  Cosmic Rays are charged protons and nuclei entering the atmosphere from outer space.  Therefore, the WIMP detectors must be placed deep underground to avoid Cosmic Rays.
-
-  WIMP detectors are doubling in sensitivity every 15 months as the technology keeps improving.  Astronomers are hoping a discovery is made shortly, stay tuned.
-
-  The CERN LHC particle accelerator is reaching energy levels where proton - proton collisions might release enough energy to create  a WIMP.  We do not know the mass or the energy of the WIMP but the hunt is on.  To illustrate using E = mc^2, to create an electron requires energy ( temperature ) 1,000 times hotter than the core of the Sun.
-
-  On the theoretical side of physics we have created the math to explain WIMPS.  They even have a name, the “ Neutralino”.  The math is called “ Super symmetry”.  It creates 17 new particles that are heavier counter-parts to the 17 fundamental particles in the Standard Model.  These “super particles” also have names:
-
-------------------  Quarks have a counterpart called Squarks.
-
------------------  Photons have a counter part called Photinos.
-
-  The math looks promising because it also calculates why the Weak Nuclear Force is 10^32 times stronger then the Gravity Force.
-
-  “String Theory” is the new math that supports Super symmetry defining each of the 34 particles as strings of energy rather than being “ point particles”.
-
-  We need a breakthrough in physics to explain Dark Matter.  WIMPs should be colliding with us all the time at 536,880 miles per hour.  That is how fast the Sun is going through the Galaxy.  There have been unexplained WIMP detections that change with the seasons.  Change with the Earth’s rotation around the Sun.  Going with the wind of WIMPs or against the galactic wind of WIMPS.  Dark Matter will soon be discovered.  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 upon request.  Some reviews are 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, March 14, 2013

Teaching how to learn.......... creative brains

----------------------- # 1575 - Teaching How to Learn

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- The goal of teaching must be to teach students how to learn. Students need to cultivate the ability to ask questions. This is the cornerstone of critical thinking. It is the exercise to learn to use creativity.

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- Teachers asking juicy questions appears to be a transferable skill for deepening collaborative inquiry. Socrates, and the Socratic Method of Teaching, is to always answer a question with another well thought out question. Causing the questioner to think through to his or her own answers.

-

- Adhere to the idea that our learning is richer for our mistakes. Reframe the question and allow the students to figure things out. Teach them how to learn. My boss would say the problem is we are not making mistakes fast enough.

-

- Informal learning environments ( ex: San Francisco Exploratorium ) tolerate “ failure” better than school environments do. Many teachers have too little time to allow students to form and pursue their own questions. Too much ground has to be covered in mandated curriculum and standardized presentations and tests. BUT, the students need to acquire the skill somewhere.

-

- Our democracy relies on an electorate of critical thinkers. Our society depends on people being able to make critical decisions ….… their own medical treatment, care of a parent, global energy demands, what is the truth, filtering through the lies of mainstream media and politicians and authority. Our environment is flooded with data and starving for knowledge.

-

- Learning must not be seen as the ability to retain facts, or to apply prior knowledge to a new situation. Learning in schools must be preparation for future learning. It is a lifelong process. They need to learn how to learn.

-

- Of the myriad of courses I have had over nearly 20 years in school curriculum my most important course was in “ Critical Thinking”.

-

- Every human brain is different. Every human brain has capabilities the we can not access easily. The left brain offers inhibitors to the right brain to prevent stimulus from overloading its circuits. Savants are people who overcome these inhibitors either by accident or by birth. They learn to accomplish amazing mental feats. Learning can be a process to discover capabilities that you did not know you had.

-

- Using Savants as a way to illustrate the amazing potential lying inside every human brain:

-

- Kim Peek could read two pages of a book simultaneously, one page with each eye. He could recall over 12,000 books from memory. He could sum up the columns of phone numbers on a page in the telephone book. His story was portrayed in the movie “ Rain Man”

-

- Leslie Lemke is blind since birth. He began playing the piano at age 14 on his own. He has performed around the world playing thousands of songs he has memorized. His mind hears the individual notes, not just the melodies. He can memorize them and replay them perfectly.

-

- Flo and Kay Lyman are identical twins. They can name the day of the week for any date they are given. They can recall , what they had for dinner, what they wore that day, what the weather was like.

-

- Daniel Tammet can recite pi out to 22,514 decimals. He can master a new language in a week. When asked to take 37 to the forth power he instantly said 1,874,161. He ways he perceives the numbers as having distinct colors and emotional tones.

-

- Jim Carollo had a severe auto accident at age 14. He achieved perfect scores in Math and Calculus SAT tests while never having taken these math courses.

-

- Derek Amato received a severe concussion diving into a swimming pool. He never learned the piano but began playing it. His brain no longer filtered sensory inputs. He could learn and remember individual notes and he began scoring music at a prodigious rate, 2,500 songs a year.

-

- Temple Grandin is a professor at Colorado State University. She has a photographic memory. She thinks in pictures. Her brain has been studied by Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Her brain has an unusual neural landscape. The right side of her brain dominates. Different regions of her brain are larger and others smaller that usual. Every brain is different. Some more different that others.

-

- Genius within is withheld by inhibitors. Creativity and brilliance man be released to some degree in all of us given the right circumstances. We all need to learn how to make the best of our brains. That is the teacher’s challenge as well. If were easy everybody would be doing it.

-

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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 upon request. Some reviews are 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, March 9, 2013

Everthing is made of particles, but what are they made of?

----------------------- # 1573 - Standard Model of Particle Physics
-
- What are we made of?

-
- We are not talking about humans in the behavior sense. But, humans and everything else in the physical sense. Past behavior, past biology, in to chemistry and all the molecules. The molecules are comprised of atoms and there are 92 different natural atoms, called the elements. The Periodic Table lists them all stacked according to the number of protons in the nucleus.
-
- The Universe started with only 2 or 3 or possibly 4 elements. Hydrogen was the most predominate element with only one proton and one electron. Helium was next with two protons and two electrons. The elements have mass. Mass warps space and time and creates gravity. Gravity is an attractive force that coalesces and compresses the elements into a spherical core. When the core becomes dense enough and hot enough nuclear fusion starts and a star is born. The first stars were only these two elements.
-
- As long as fusion continues the radiation pressure opposes the compression pressure of gravity and the star lives. When fusion runs out of fuel and stops gravity compression smashes the elements into the core. The rebound is a massive explosion of out flowing elements called a supernova.
-
- It is in the supernova explosion that the temperatures and pressures are great enough to fuse the lighter elements into heavier elements. All 92 elements are created in the supernova and spread throughout the interstellar medium. All the elements have the basic building blocks of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
-
- In the 1960’s physicists discovered the protons and neutrons were composed of smaller particles , Quarks. There are 6 varieties of Quarks and they come in pairs and triplets. Protons are triplets composed of 2 Up Quarks and 1 Down Quark. Neutrons are composed of 1 Up Quark and 2 Down Quarks. These combinations of Quarks are held together by the force carrier particle, Gluons.
-
- In the 1930’s the math was developed to model the 4 fundamental forces, gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces. Force Carrier Particles were identified for each force. “Photons” carried the electromagnetic force. Eight different “Gluons” carried the Strong Nuclear Force. Three “Vector Bosons” carried the Weak Nuclear Force. And, “ Gravitons” carried the force of gravity, although this particle is yet to be discovered.
-
- In all of these models the math works. The theory is incomplete, but, what we have so far is the “ Standard Model of Particle Physics”.
-
- Carrying the math further has allowed the model to combine two of the forces into a single “ElectroWeak Force”. Then, the “ElectroWeak Force” can be mathematically combined with the “Strong Nuclear Force” under what is called the “ Grand Unification Theory”. However, the math has not come far enough to deal with Gravity. A new math is needed.
-
- The 4 forces combine at higher energies and higher temperatures, present in the Big Bang.
-
-------------------- 3 Kelvin, today’s temperature of space, the Cosmic Microwave Background.
-
------------------ 10^15 Kelvin, combines Electromagnetic and Weak Nuclear Forces.
-
----------------- 10^27 Kelvin, combines ElectroWeak Force and the Strong Nuclear Force.
-
---------------- 10^32 Kelvin, these 3 forces with Gravity, but, not without the math from String Theory.
-
- The math stops working at higher temperatures and higher densities. When particles are treated as “point particles” the probabilities in the math go to negative, or, exceed 100%. The energies reach infinity, or division by zero. We need new math.
-
- String Theory is the new math used to describe each of the 12 particles and 4 force carriers in the Standard Model. Each of the particles are redefined as 1 dimensional strings and are no longer 3 dimensional points. The math works , sort of.
-
- LEPTONS
-------------------- Electron ------------------ 0.511 MeV, million electron volts.
-------------------- Muon --------------------- 105.7
-------------------- Tau ----------------------- 1,778
-------------------- Electron Neutrino -------- 2.2 “ eV”
-------------------- Muon Neutrino ---------- 0.17
-------------------- Tau Neutrino ----------- 15.5
-
- QUARKS
-------------------- UP ----------------------- 3.1
-------------------- Down -------------------- 5.7
-------------------- Strange ----------------- 104
-------------------- Charm ----------------- 1,290
-------------------- Bottom ----------------- 4,200
-------------------- Top ------------------- 172,900
-
- GUAGE BOSONS
-------------------- Photon ----------------- 0
-------------------- W + ----------------- 80,380
-------------------- W - ----------------- 80,380
-------------------- Z o ------------------ 91,190
-------------------- Gluon ----------------- 0
-------------------- Higgs Boson ----- 126,000
-
- To get this math to work String Theory has to add 6 more dimensions in space. We need a Universe with 9 space dimensions and 1 time dimension. The 6 new dimensions are very tiny, 10^-33 centimeters. The extra 6 dimensional objects are called Calabi-Yau manifolds. They are so tiny we never see them in our 3 dimensional space.
-
- But, the math works. And, even Gravity can be modeled in these 10 dimensions. Each particle is defined as a vibrating string in open-ended or closed loop configurations. The math is not done yet. It needs symmetry. To get things to continued working mathematically we need “ Super symmetry”. Each of the Standard Model Particles must have a higher energy partner that is a super symmetry particle. Now, the math can even model “ Dark Matter”. None of these particles have been discovered to date.
-
- In the 1980’s there were 5 separate String Theories using the super symmetry model. In 1995 a mathematical way was discovered to combine all 5 theories into one theory, M-Theory.
-
- The math is beautiful. The challenge for physics is to discover evidence that it represents reality. We need to discover a super symmetry particle. We need to confirm some of these wild assumptions are real.
-
- Are we really made of strings? Do we have extra dimensions in our bodies that are this small, 10^-33 centimeters? Are there any super symmetry particles residing inside us? We have space and time, energies and matter, with more mysteries to be solved. What fun would this be if there was not something new to discover:
-
---------------------- Higgs Boson, the math says there may be 4 more varieties of Higgs.
---------------------- Neutralino ?
---------------------- Sneutrino ?
---------------------- Selectron ?
---------------------- Squark ?
--------------------- Chargino ?
-------------------- A o Gauge Boson ?
-
- 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 upon request. Some reviews are 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 Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Visit the 2nd largest asteroid in the Solar System

----------------------- # 1572 - Visit 2^nd largest asteroid in the Solar System

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- A spacecraft visited the second largest asteroid in the Solar System on July 17, 2011. The “Dawn” spacecraft orbited the asteroid, “Vesta” for over a year.
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- Vesta is 360 miles in diameter. Dawn left Vesta on September 5, 2012 on its way to the largest asteroid, “Ceres” that is 590 miles in diameter.
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- Vesta is the brightest of the asteroids and can be see on occasion with the naked eye having a Magnitude of + 5.4. Binoculars work as well. The asteroid was first discovered in 1807.
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- Vesta takes 3.63 years to orbit the Sun at a distance that varies from 2.57 o 2.15 astronomical units, traveling at 43,264 miles per hour. Vesta rotates on its axis every 5.34 hours. Its surface temperature varies from -10 F to - 150 F.
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- As Dawn orbited the asteroid it measured the gravity force and mapped the gravitational variations as it rotated. Modeling these variations have concluded that Vesta has an iron core, a mantle, and a crust much like the planets. The iron core is 136 miles in diameter.
-
- Dawn took 4,700 pictures and 9,000,000 infrared spectra. Vesta’s surface contains a whole range of minerals , iron being the most prominent.
-
- Vesta has experienced some major collisions with other asteroids. There is a crater at its south pole that is 310 miles diameter and 12 miles deep. This is overlapping another crater that is 250 miles diameter and 7 miles deep. the craters were dated to be 1 billion and 2 billion years old. These massive impacts have erases all other catering on the south pole.
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- Dawn spacecraft is due to arrive at Ceres on February, 2015. Ceres is such a large asteroid it is classified as a “ dwarf planet”. This should be an interesting visit. 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 upon request. Some reviews are 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 Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Stars are born in Clusters. Orion Nebula is one.

----------------------- # 1571 - Star Clusters, the birth of Suns.

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- Every star begins its life in a group. All the stars in the group are about the same age created in the same giant interstellar cloud of gas and dust. We call them star clusters. Our Sun was once in a star cluster. The Sun’s star cluster has long dispersed and the cloud mostly dissipated. The Orion Nebula is a famous example of another star cluster we can view today. The Pleiades Cluster is another example. It is in the constellation Taurus the Bull.
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- Star clusters can range in size from a few dozen stars to millions of stars. The cluster ages can range from a few million years old to 12 billion years of age, back to the dawn of the Universe.
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- Stars coalesce within vast clouds of mostly hydrogen molecules. Hydrogen being a single proton and a single electron forming a neutral atom. Two hydrogen atoms together make a hydrogen gas molecule. Within the gas cloud we find the dust composed of the other elements. The whole cloud is held together by gravity.
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- Within the cloud regions of denser gas and dust create more gravity. Eventually these denser regions collapse to form protostars. The cloud has many different denser regions and many protostars form until we have a cluster of stars. Clusters can come in different varieties. This review has them grouped into 5 basic types of clusters:
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- (1) Embedded clusters are the very youngest stellar group. Their clouds are so thick the visible light from the stars is completely obscured. The clusters are studied in infrared and ultraviolet light spectrums to understand the protostars that are being created.
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- (2) Globular Clusters are the oldest. They date back to the dawn of the Universe and they contain millions of stars. The parent clouds have dispersed and disappeared so all the stars are completely visible.
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- (3) T- Association Clusters contain young stars called T-Tauri Stars. Our Sun was once a T-Tauri star. These stars do not stay together for more than a few million years. In T-Clusters the mass of the cloud is much greater that the mass of the member stars. The gravity of the cloud holds the stars together. As the cloud disperses due to the solar winds of the individual stars the stars drift apart.
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- (4) O B Association Clusters contain O B type stars which are very massive. These clusters contain 10 times more stars that T-Clusters. The Orion Nebula is an O B Cluster containing 4 very massive stars and 2,000 smaller stars.
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- O B Stars create orbits of very high velocities. O B stars produce enormous solar winds. A typical “O” type star has 30 times the mass of our Sun and will exhaust all of its nuclear fuel in a few million years. (Compared to our Sun that will burn nuclear fuel for 10 billion years.) The solar winds produced ionize the surrounding gas until the parent cloud is gone and the high velocity stars are flung out of the cluster.
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- (5) Open Clusters can persist for hundreds of millions of years. They have a few O B class of stars and up to 1,000 ordinary stars. Pleiades is 125 million years old. Its parent clouds has been gone for 120 million years. The Hyades Cluster is 630 million years old. The M67 Cluster is 4 billion years old.
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- Star Clusters exist in a constant balance , or unbalance, of the attraction forces of gravity and the expansion forces of solar winds and radiation. The actor most predominate is determining which scenario the cluster follows depends on the original mass of the giant cloud. The force balance gets set in motion and the dance of interactions continues for millions of years.
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- Our Sun was once a part of a star cluster during its original formation as a protostar. It is believed to have first formed in a crowded O B Cluster. If astronomers can find stars of the same age and composition they can begin to play back the member dispersion from our parent star cluster. One such star has been located in the Alpha Centauri group of stars. It is the same age and has the same composition as our Sun.
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- Binary stars are quite common in star clusters. If the binary encounters a third star their angular momentum can speed up the orbits of the lighter star and fling it into outer space. Astronomers will have fun piecing this puzzle of star evolution back together. The Orion Nebula is a good place to study. Star formation their stopped only about 100,000 years ago. The tool of choice is computer simulations that can create a million year evolution in a matter of hours. Trial and error, new assumptions, other theories can be tried until the result matches the observations matching the real thing. 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 upon request. Some reviews are 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, March 3, 2013