Quantum dots to better computing?

-  1733  -  Quantum Dots and Valleytronics.  The new technology to faster computing, 1 million times faster.  Displays with brilliant colors all from today’s nanotechnology.
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----------------- -  1733  -  Quantum Dots and Valleytronics
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-  Kindle Fire HDX has a tablet display with brilliant colors, while consuming far less energy.  The secret is in “ quantum dots,”  manufactured by “ Nanosys”, based in Milpitas , California.
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-  The invention started 20 years ago when a lab synthesized spherical nano crystals made from a cadmium selenide core and a cadmium sulfide shell.  The small spheres, “ dots”, emit pure light of almost any color, depending on the size of the dot.
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-  This technology has spread far beyond tablet displays into computers, TV’s, medical imaging, and ,soon, solar cells.
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-  Nanosys’ 100 employees produces 25 tons of quantum dots per year.  These dots are inorganic nano crystals made from semiconductors.   The color emission lines are exceedingly narrow, 30 nanometers.  Therefore, each emission line is a very pure color.  Brilliant greens, rich reds, bold blues, ideal for color displays.  The wavelength of red light is 700 nanometers, blue light 400 nanometers, so the entire color spectrum is little over 300 nanometers wide.  These colors are 30 nanometers wide around each color frequency.
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-  Most displays today are made from LCDs , liquid crystal displays.  These liquid crystals are essentially “ filters.”  A white light is shined through a series of filters to produce a spectrum of colors.  This process wastes a lot of energy, even though LCDs are considered very energy efficient compared to incandescent lighting.
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-  Quantum dots have a photon conversion efficiency very close to 100%.  The total effect for a typical display is 20% more energy efficiency.  A display uses half the power of a tablet so 20% is a big deal for extending battery life.
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-Quantum Dot technology is used in luminescent testing for biological tissues.  Another exciting medical application has to do with brain research.  Quantum dots may be sensitive enough to measure neuron-transmitters in the brain.
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-  Another application that becomes obvious is with solar cells.  Quantum dots may be used as light concentrators to greatly improve the efficiency of solar cells.
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-  The diameters of Quantum Dots range from 2 to 10 nanometers.  That is the width of 10 to 50 atoms.
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-  The color of the light is a function of quantum confinement.  The confinement is due to electrostatic potentials between the interfaces of semiconductor materials.
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-  The smaller the dot the higher the energy and the intensity of the light.  Dots have been manufactured that can emit the entire light spectrum including infrared and ultraviolet above and below visible light frequencies.  The larger the dot the redder the light.  The smaller the dot the bluer the light and the higher the energy.
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-  LED manufacturing has become so simple you  could almost do the manufacturing in your garage.  Someday they may be used for all-optical switching and logic gates in computers that could operate up to 15 terabits per second. (10^12)  The internet today usually handles 10 megabits  (10^6), a 1,000,000 time slower.
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-  Billions of quantum dots can set on the head of a pin.
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-  Operating speeds of 1 picosecond (10^-12)or less are expected.  That is fast but there is still another technology that is even faster, 50 femtoseconds.  (10^-15).  That is 1 million times faster than a nanosecond (10^-9).
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-  This new technology is called Valleytronics.  It only requires a single particle per logic state.  An electron orbits at different energy levels around a nucleus.  The lowest orbit, lowest energy level , is called the “ ground state”.  Adding energy to the electron boosts it to higher orbits, higher energy levels.  These levels are discrete jumps, quantum leaps, they are not continuous, but discrete steps.
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-  There is a similar technology being developed called “ Spintronics” which can store a logic 1 or 0 in a quantum spin number.  Electrons have energy levels, spin, and angular momentum quantum properties.  “ Valleytronics” stores information in a quantum valley number.  Both these changes in states require very little energy.
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-  In contrast conventional electronics stores states of high and low electric currents.  Keeping information in a particular state requires much more electric power.  More power means more heat.  So heat becomes a limit for higher and higher computing speeds.
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-  The ground states in different materials are different.  Some materials have multiple different  “valley states” at the ground state energy levels.  A diamond , for instance, has 6 possible valleys of minimum energy ground states.  Getting between valley states can be controlled using laser pulses to simulate tiny magnetic fields.
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-  Getting electrons to jump between valley states is called the “ Optical Stark Effect”.  The technical description is using circularly polarized femtosecond light pulses to selectively control the valley degrees of freedom. A mouth full, but, worth  it for ultra fast manipulation of valley Exitons in quantum information applications,  Another mouth full, but, 50 femtosecond speeds in quantum computing would really change our life.  Computing power 1 million times faster.  That is faster than your imagination can take you., stay tuned, there is still more to learn.
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Friday, January 30, 2015  -----
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Listening to the Heartbeat of the Stars.

-  1732  -  Listening to the Heartbeat of the Stars.  Kepler has found 1,000 exoplanets and we have now learned how to use seismology on the parent stars.  Whole new science is emerging.
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--------------------  Sun’s violent surface:

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----------------- -  1732  -  Listening to the Heartbeat of the Stars.
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-  Most everyone is familiar with seismology.  The science used to study the interior of the Earth down to its iron core.  An earthquake on the surface sends a shockwave through the earth and seismologists detect the reflections and measure the speed of the wave traveling through the different layers of the interior.  With this data science can determine the composition of the Earth’ interior down 4,000 miles to its center.  Calculating the movement of layers also allows science to study Earth’s magnetic field.
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-  Now, most everyone does not realize that astronomers do the same thing in studying the interior of the Sun.  But, wait, shockwaves and sound waves do not travel thought space.  Right, but light waves do.  Astronomers can measure the tones and hum of the Sun monitoring the slight changes in the amplitude and frequencies of light waves.  By monitoring a specific frequency and detecting the oscillations created by eruptions and disturbances on the surface science can learn the composition of the Sun’s interior.
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-  The astronomer’s version of a seismograph is a photometer, an instrument that measures the slightest changes in brightness over time.  By detecting brightness over a wide range of frequencies astronomers can trace out a “ power density spectrum.”
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-  The Sun and all the stars have different and unique spectrums.  A Cepheid Variable star may have one fundamental note.  Other stars may ring at dozens of frequencies, with periods of hours.  Our Sun vibrates in millions of frequencies with periods of minutes.  Each fundamental note comes and goes in a few days.  Our Sun is not just ringing it is humming.
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-  Our Sun is close enough that these small changes in brightness due to the modulated waves on its surface can be accurately measured  But, what about stars that are millions of lightyears away and just a pin point of light?  To  measure light changes here we must detect changes in a few parts per million,  1  /  1,000,000  To detect these small signals the telescopes must be away from the background noise of Earth.  And, they must be outside our turbulent atmosphere.
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-  Spacecraft have been put in orbit to do this  2003, MOST,  2006 CoRoT, 2009  Kepler.  Kepler does not orbit the Earth.  It orbits the Sun along with us, trailing a million miles behind us.  Kepler has 42 CCD’s,   94,600,000 pixels on a 37 inch telescope.
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-  Kepler was designed to detect planets orbiting 160,000 stars.  Kepler stares at one spot in the sky, the Constellations Cygnus and Lyra.  It can detect dips in the star’s brightness when a planet passes in front of the star.  The planet must be monitored for at least 3 ½ years to get repeat dips, called transits, that define its orbit and diameter.
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-  Astronomers soon realized that Kepler’s precision could not just find planets.  It could be a seismograph for the parent star’s interior.  It can measure the star’s diameter which is needed to calculate the diameters of the transiting planets.  It can measure the mass and the age of the stars.
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- Measuring the light oscillations on a Red Giant star astronomers learned that the star’s core spins 10 times faster than its surface.
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-  Stars ring because the gas near the surface gets pushed and pulled out of equilibrium.  “Pulled” happens when a binary star’s gravity changes with eccentric orbits.  The star’s tides can be measured.  And the tides create repetitive ringing.  Astronomers refer to these as “ heartbeat stars”.
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-  It is new science:  names like space photometry,  asteroseismology, exoplanet  science.
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-  Analyzing the data can tell astronomers how much hydrogen is left in the star’s core.  What is the age of the star and how much longer it will live.  Our star is 4.6 billion years old and will live for another 5 billion years before collapsing into a White Dwarf star.
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-  Stars are in a delicate balance between gravity collapsing them to the center and gas pressure expanding them into space.  Upset this equilibrium slightly and you create oscillations around a stable, balanced, state.  Ringing!  Certain resonant frequencies travel at different speeds depending on temperature and composition of the medium.  Astronomers are now studying stars the way seismologists have studied Earth.  Stay tuned, there is more to learn.
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-Other reviews available:
-  #33  Kepler’s 3 laws in astronomy,  Isaac Newton’s biography.
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-  #1070  Kepler gathering  light from 1 trillion stars in 100 square degrees of sky.
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-  #1251  Kepler estimates there are 1,280,000 Earth-like planets in the Milky Way.
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-  #1717  Kepler has identified 1,000 exoplanets.
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Thursday, January 29, 2015  -----
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Collaborative Government????

-  1730  -  Collaborative Government.  Pass it on to your representative if you agree.
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----------------- 1730  -  Collaborative Government
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-  In astronomy we get to the Moon, to Venus, to Pluto with a collaborative team, thousands of individual contributors.  If we could do the same in our nation’s government as we achieve in space, we should take a lesson.
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-  How to fix the State of the Union
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--------------------  The Bill of Rights

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-  There is no question that we have a divided government.  That is by design.  But, the design was to require that the teams also work together.  Our President and many other politicians achieve their political power by dividing the nation, not by bringing it together.  That’s Wrong!  Pin one section against the other to get the support of the constituents ( donors ) needed to retain power.  Divide and conquer!  Votes and money!
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-  My hope is we can someday elect a different President who is skilled at “ collaboration”, not politics.  The President caters his speech to the middle class while 6 years of his leadership the middle class average earned income has decreased, -11%, and their net worth has decreased, -28%.  Success is touted in a lower unemployment rate, but, a fair depictions would show that there are fewer workers today, and lower wages for those that do have a job. I do not sense the government is working together to help the middle class, or the poverty class.  I sense they are only working for themselves.  Every class should benefit if we had “no classes“.
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-  A collaborative leader does not try to dominate the organization.  Instead he sees his job as a stage setter for a team, a visionary, a director of a team pursuing ideas and goals.  A true leader turns loose the creativity of his organization.  In the President’s case the team is that established by the Constitution, ( not just his staff, or his political party).
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-  Problems are too complex not to have a team of representatives of diversity, of creativity, of participation and of compromise.
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-  A collaborative leader seeks an environment of cooperation, not competition.  A team shares the goals together.  Compromises are viewed as progress toward mutual goals.
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-  A leader offers goals for a team of “doers“.  His vision is unclear in its details, it sets direction and limits, it deals with the “what” but restrains from engaging in the “ how”.  The team is responsible for the strategy of “ how” the goals can best be met.  If it is not inclusive it will not succeed.
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-  A collaborative leader suppresses his own ideas in the process.  The leader tolerates a messy process because people need an environment to explore.  Free thinking can take of in many different directions.  A leader’s process goal is to harvest diverse viewpoints while keeping an eye on the ultimate goals.
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-  Working groups put pride and egos aside.  There is a willingness of forgiveness to preserve relationships.
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-  A great leader never takes advantage of his or her position.  Remains vulnerable but confident.  Leadership must still demand cooperation.  Selfish solitary grandstanding cannot be allowed to undermine the culture of trust among the team members.  Leaders set the tone.
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-  A President who models the art of collaboration represents the most effective leadership for out great country, as well as for any great company or organization.  Things in Washington would work better if we had more of it.  Collaboration!
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Monday, January 26, 2015  -----
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Colorful Pictures of Eta Carinae

-  1731  -  Learn more about astronomy by using more of the electromagnetic spectrum.
-  Here are 2 views of galaxies and stars using X-rays and Radio waves converted to light waves.
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----------------- -  1731  -  Using more of the electromagnetic spectrum.
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-  This Review shares two beautiful astronomical pictures.  These two images would not be beautiful in visible light looking out the window of your spaceship.  They would be grey and fuzzy.  But, by enhancing the visible image using all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum much more science can be learned.
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-----------------------  Cygnus A

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-  This is the galaxy Cygnus A.  Its image uses the X-ray spectrum ( blue )  from the Chandra Observatory.  Radio emissions ( red) extend the image to either side of the galaxy by 300,000 lightyears  ( The Milky Way Galaxy is 106,000 lightyears across.)
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-  Cygnus A is 600,000,000 lightyears away and the closest powerful “radio” galaxy.  The yellow hues in the picture are the only visible wavelengths provided by the Hubble Space Telescope.  The surrounding view of stars is provided by the Digital Sky Survey.
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-  The red radio emissions are created by jets of particles emanating the poles of a Blackhole at the center of the galaxy.  The charged particles impact cool interstellar material and generate radio wavelength emissions.
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---------------------  Eta Carinae

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-  The second picture is Eta Carinae.  It is the most luminous and massive system within 10,000 lightyears of Earth.  The distance of Earth to the center of the Milky Way is 27,400 lightyears.
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-  The image from Hubble shows shells of ionized gas racing away from the largest star at a million miles per hour.  The shells indicate the Eta Carinae’s past eruptions.
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-  Eta Carinae is 7,500 lightyears away.  It is 2  massive stars in eccentric orbits of each other.  Their orbits being the closest together every 5.5 years.  Both stars produce powerful gaseous outflows of stellar winds.
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-  The brighter, cooler primary star is 90 Solar Mass, and 5 million Solar Luminosity.  The smaller, hotter companion star is about 30 Solar Mass and 1 million Solar Luminosity.
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-  At their closest approach the stars are 140 million miles apart  The Earth-Sun distance is 93 million miles.  The Mars-Sun distance is 140 million miles.
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-  The Solar Wind of the larger star is traveling at 1 million miles per hour.  The smaller star has a Solar Wind 100 times less but it is traveling  6 million miles per hour.
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-  Astronomers have been closely monitoring Eta Carinae for the past 11 years.  One observation monitors a single wavelength of blue-light emitted by helium atoms that have lost a single electron ( neutral helium has 2 protons and 2 electrons so this atom has a single positive charge).    This particular wavelength is used to track the solar wind.
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-  A second observation tracks a blue light wavelength emitted by iron atoms that have lost 2 electrons.  This wavelength reveals the gas set aglow by ultraviolet light from the companion star.  X-rays reveal the solar wind collision zone with the interstellar medium.  The colliding winds create shockwaves that heat the gas to hundreds of mullions of degrees.
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-  Both of these stars may one day end their lives in supernova explosions.  The next closes encounter of the two stars occurs in February, 2020.  For stars, mass determines their destiny.  They are loosing mass through solar winds.  But, the are burning fuel rapidly due to their enormous mass and gravity.  When they run out of fuel they explode as supernova.  Astronomers can not predict when this will occur, But, research continues, Stay tuned.
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-  (1)  The Milky Way is 5 *10^20 meters radius.  There are 9.4605 * 10^15 meters per lightyear.  Therefore  53,000 lightyears radius, or 106,000 lightyears diameter.
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-  (2)  Other Reviews available on the subject:
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-  #1347  The biggest supernova every recorded happened in 2006.  250,000,000 lightyears away.  Eta Carinae is ready to blow and it is only 8,000 lightyears away.
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-  #832  When Eta goes supernova it will be so bright you coud see it during the day.
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-  #775  Eta’s nebula is nitrogen and helium rich which indicates the star has already burned up its hydrogen fuel.
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-  #49  Between 1835 and 1855 Eta was the brightest star in our galaxy.  Its 20 year eruption ejected 2 Solar Mass.  Its solar winds are equivalent to ejecting 2 Earth Mass each day.  Learn to calculate the temperature of the star using Wien’s law.
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Monday, January 26, 2015  -----
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Walk with Venus on a Starry Night?

-  1729  -  Walk with Venus on a Starry Night?  Compare the differences with Earth.
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----------------- -  1729  -  Walk with Venus on a Starry Night?
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-  A late walk under a starry sky.  I like to observe the setting stars.  Like Venus setting on the western horizon last night.  It gives you  a sense of the Earth’s rotation.  Of course the best way to see the Earth’s rotation is to put a camera on the sky and take an all night time exposure.
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-   The rotation is obvious with the axis pointing to the North Star, Polaris.  The Earth is rotating 1,038 miles per hour, standing at the equator traveling east.
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-  If you were on Venus you could walk west and keep the same stars overhead, because the rotation is so slow, 243 days.  Walking west on the equator on Venus at 4 miles per hour would do the trick.  Of course, you would have to walk for 243 days to complete one “day”
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-  The other problem is you could not walk on the equator because it is too hot, 864F.  And, it is not just the equator the whole planet is that hot.
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-  And, you could not see the stars anyway because the light does not penetrate the 60 mile thick atmosphere.  The atmosphere is so thick the pressure is 90 time greater than on Earth.
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-  And, you could not breathe because the air is 96% carbon dioxide and 3% nitrogen.  Earth is 77% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, thanks to the plants and the vegetable gardens.
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-  January 2015 the spacecraft “ Venus Express” is burning up as it descends into the atmosphere.  It started “aeorbraking” in the upper atmosphere using its polar cell panels in June 2014.  Its communications and fuel ran out in November.  The 2,800 pound spacecraft has been orbiting and collecting data on Venus for the last 8 years .
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-  The Venus Express was launched November 9, 2005 at a cost of $110 million.  It arrived Venus April 11, 2006 after a 250 million  mile journey.
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-  Venus has an iron core like Earth but has no magnetic field because it rotates so slowly.
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-  The atmosphere is so thick light can not penetrate so the spacecraft must use ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths to study the surface.  It also used a plasma analyzer, a magnetometer, and a radar sounder.
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-  The Magellan spacecraft orbited Venus 1990 to 1994 and used radar to map 98% of its surface.
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-  Venus Express mapped the surface temperature using infrared.  Because Venus is too hot to have rain there is very little erosion to its surface.  And, there is almost o wind due to its slow rotation.
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-  The Venus surface is 750 million years old and pretty much undisturbed  There are not many craters, like on Mercury, because most meteors burn up in the thick atmosphere and never reach the surface.
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-  Venus is 81.5% the mass of Earth.  Its diameter is 94.9% that of Earth’s.  Its density is about the same 5,240 kilograms/meter^3 versus Earth’s 5,510 kilograms/meter^3.  Its atmosphere contains clouds of sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide and water.
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-  (1)  There are several other Reviews available upon request:
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-  #1706  The atmospheric pressure would crush a submarine, equivalent to being 3,000 feet under the ocean.
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-  #1480  Venus crossed the Sun June5,2012 and the observation was used to calculate the distance to Venus , 27.6 million miles.
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- #1368  The reflectivity of Venus is 75% compared to Earth’s 29%.
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-  #1176
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-  #945  Venus greenhouse effect
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-  #817  Some 20 probes / spacecraft have visited Venus from 1962 to 2013.
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-  #  587  Venus is tilted 177 degrees, just 3 degrees from the perpendicular
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-  (2)  Mass of Earth 5.9742*10^24 kilograms.  4.87*10^24 kilograms, 81% Earth’s
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-  Radius Earth  =  3,962  Times 2*pi the circumference  =  24,900 miles
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-  Radius Venus  =  3,760 miles Times 2*pi the circumference = 23,625 miles
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-  Speed of equator, Earth in 24 hours  =  1,038 miles per hour
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-  Speed of equator in 243 days, Venus  =  4 miles per hour
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---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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 ---   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Friday, January 23, 2015  ---
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Gravity Waves to measure the Universe?

-  1728  -  Measuring the Universe  Using gravity waves and not just electromagnetic waves to study back to the beginning of time.  How to explain the universe is flat and the same in every direction astronomers can look.  Gravity waves could be a measuring stick.
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----------------- -  1728  -  Measuring the Universe.
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-  Looking at the big picture.  As big as it gets.  The Universe has a diameter of 2 * 10^58 meters, that is 2*10^44 lightyears.  But, the Observable Universe is only 27*10^9 lightyears in diameter and light has been traveling 13.4 *10^9 years.  These dimensions assume that the Universe is geometrically flat, on average, light travels in a straight line.  Of course, we know it bends around cosmic gravity wells, but on average it‘s straight.
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-  If astronomers look in opposite directions they see 13.4 billion light years each way.  The light from one side has not had enough time to reach the other side that is 27 billion lightyears away.
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-  We can say the Universe appears flat.  But, mathematically a perfectly flat universe is very unlikely, in fact, practically impossible.  It would be like balancing a pencil on its point.  The slightest disturbance and it falls in one direction or another.  So, a geometry for the Universe must be slightly curved like a saddle, ( an open geometry ), or, curved like the surface of a sphere, ( a closed geometry ).
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-   A mathematical explanation developed by Alan Guth is that the Universe experienced a spontaneous symmetry breaking” in the first seconds after the Big Bang and expanded for a short period of time, an enormous expansion faster than the speed of light.  He called the event “ Cosmic Inflation.”
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-  The cosmic inflation event is thought to have occurred when a unified Universal Force separated into two fundamental forces, the electromagnetic force and the nuclear weak force.
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-  If this event occurred the math says the size of the Universe expanded 25 orders of magnitude in 10^-36 seconds.  This extreme expansion could explain why the Observable Universe appears flat and the same in all directions.
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-  Cosmic Inflation is a theory that needs more evidence.  The Theory of Relativity in 1915 implied the existence of a gravitational field that was a distortion of the cosmic fabric of space and time.  A time varying source of energy would appear as a time varying distortion, or wave, propagating at the speed of light.  We call these distortions gravitational waves.
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-  Gravity is so weak compared to electromagnetism these waves become very difficult to detect.  The theory developed to do the job is “Quantum Field Theory” which attempts to unify ( combine) Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity.  At very small scales all ’Fields” are fluctuating, vibrating, including the gravitational field.  At the quantum level all particles are waves and all waves are defined by a spectrum of probabilities that are in constant flux.
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-  Due to Cosmic Inflation any small fluctuations in fields would expand to large wavelengths.  Just as Gamma Ray light at 380,000 years after the Big Bang is stretched to microwave wavelengths today in the Cosmic Microwave Background, CMB.  This event was when the Universe was first made transparent to light.  Prior to that the charges of particles in the hot plasma contained all the photons of light preventing them from escaping
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-  That makes the CMB the oldest visible light in the Universe.  At the time, the light might have been “polarized “ by the electric charges in the plasma.  A special distortion produced by gravitational waves could cause the CMB to have a greater amplitude along one axis than along the perpendicular axis.  That’s called “ polarization”.
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-  A difficulty comes in play in measuring polarization of caused by gravity waves because other conditions could cause the same thing, like underlying temperature fluctuations , or polarized dust, for example.  Besides the difficulty research continues because gravitational waves interact so weakly with matter they have traveled unimpeded from the beginning of time.  All the way back to 10^-36 seconds old.  If we could study these early times using gravity waves that would be a great scientific achievement.
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-  The Cosmos is a field that stores and releases tremendous amounts of energy during a phase transition.  A phase transition is like water suddenly turning in to ice at 32 F.  The Multiverse Theory is that the phase transition events could have occurred countless times.  Then our Universe is one of an infinite number of separate, physically different universes.
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-  In our case, life is here simply by accident having an infinite number of possibilities and ours just right  with “ finely tuned” parameters allowing us to be here.  If the universe were any different I could not be writing this and you could not be reading it.  God only know how this all happened.
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-  (1)  9.4605 * 10^15 meters in one lightyear.
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 ---   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Tuesday, January 20, 2015  ---
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Pluto and Charon - Do the Math?

-  1727  -  Pluto and Charon  -  Do the Math?  Spacecraft begins its visit to Pluto this month, January, 2015, for a fly-by.  Here is how the measurements become math that calculate the mass of the planets and moons.
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----------------- -  1727  -  Pluto and Charon  -  Do the Math?
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-  The New Horizon space craft arrives Pluto July 2015.  Its 7 instruments are already taking data starting this month.  Pluto has 5 moons, Charon, which is half its size, Nix and Hydra and 2 other moons without names that are only 60 to 100 miles diameter.
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--------------------  Pluto’s diameter is 1,485 miles  ----------  18.7% Earths
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--------------------  Pluto’s mass is  0.2% that of Earth’s.  This Review teaches how the mass of Pluto and its moon Charon can be calculated.
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-  ----------------- Pluto density  =  1,750 kilograms / meter^3  This is 31.7% the average density of Earth.  Pure water is 1,000 kilograms / meter^3
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---------------------  Pluto and Charon orbit the Sun in 248 days.
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--------------------  The orbit radius is 3,670,000,000 miles.  Earth is 93,000,000 miles or one AU, astronomical unit.  Therefore, Pluto is 39 AU or 39 times the Earth-Sun distance.  It has an elliptical orbit that varies from 29.5 AU to 49.5 AU.
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---------------------  One day on Pluto takes 153.3 hours.  6 times that of Earth’s.
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-  Pluto is a Dwarf Planet part of the Kuiper Belt Objects that orbit the Sun at 30 AU to 50 AU.  To date astronomers have discovered more than 1,000 Kuiper Belt Objects.  Pluto was just the first one because it is highly reflective.  There are many more KBO’s yet to be discovered, estimated to be over 100,000 of them that are over 60 miles diameter.  Pluto is 1,485 miles in diameter.
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-  Pluto has a large moon, Charon, that is half its size and 4 smaller moons.  Pluto reflects 55% of its sunlight because its surface is ice, nitrogen ice, with small amounts of methane ice and carbon monoxide ice.  There is a small nitrogen atmosphere surrounding the planet.
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-  Charon’s orbit is 12,160 miles from Pluto.  Our Moon is 238,855 miles from Earth.  Charon’s diameter is 756 miles and its mass is 10% that of Pluto  Charon reflects 45% of its sunlight.  Charon’s surface is water ice with small amounts of ammonia.
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-  Pluto’s density is 1,750 kilograms/meter^3 which would indicate that it is 70% rock.  Charon’s density indicates it is 50% rock and 50% water ice.
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-  At least 20% of the KBO’s have their own moons  If a KBO has a moon , their orbits allow astronomers to calculate their mass, volume, density and some estimate of their composition.  Here is how it is done.  I do not have the data on Pluto and Charon so I will substitute an eclipsing binary pair of stars that I do have data on.
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-  First observation is a compete orbit of the pair takes 2.63 years.  p  = 2.36 years.
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-  Using the Doppler shift of spectrum light the orbital velocities are measured.  One star has a velocity of +6.8 kilometers per second and - 6.8 kilometers per second.  These are symmetrical so the orbits must be circular rather than too elliptical.  The other star has orbital velocity of +20.4 km/sec and -20.4 km/sec.  The “+” velocity is coming towards us and is blue shifted in its spectrum.  The “- “ velocity is going away from is and is redshift, longer wavelengths, in its spectrum.
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-  Since we know the orbital velocity and the period of one orbit we can calculate the orbital circumference.
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-------------------  distance  =  velocity  *  time
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------------------  d  =  20.4 km/sec  *  2.63 years  *  3.156*10^7 sec / year.
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-------------------  d  =  1.69 * 10^9 kilometers.
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------------------  v  =  orbital velocity of 45,634 miles per hour.
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-  The “d” is the circumference of orbit, the radius is found by dividing by 2*pi.
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----------------- r  =  d  /  2*pi
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-----------------  r  =  2.7*10^8 kilometers.
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-----------------  r  =   167,770,000  miles
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-  There are 1.5*10^8 kilometers in 1 AU, astronomical unit, the distance from Earth to Sun, 93,000,000  miles.
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----------------- r  =  2.7 *10^8  /  1.5 * 10^8  =  1.8 AU
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-  The radius for the second of the pair is calculated:
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------------------  d  =  6.8 km/sec  *  2.63 years  *  3.156*10^7 sec / year.
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------------------  d  =  56.44 *10^7 km
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------------------  r  =  56.44*10^7  /  2 * pi  =  8.98*10^7  km  *  1 AU / 1.5 * 10^8 km
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-----------------------  r  =  0.6 AU
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-  Johannes Kepler ( 1571 - 1630)  discovered 3 laws of planetary motion:  (1)  Most orbits are an ellipse with the larger planet at one focus.  Circular is a special type of ellipse for some unique orbits.  (2)  As a planet moves around its orbit it sweeps out equal areas in equal times.  (3)  More distance the orbit has the slower the average orbital speed.  The relationship is the square of the period of orbit equals the cube of the radius.
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-----------------------  p^2  =  r^3
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-  This equations works with no constants of unit conversion when the period is in years, the radius is  in AU’s and the mass is in Solar Mass.  When other units become involved Isaac Newton’s version for this equation becomes:
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-----------------  p^2  =  4*pi^2 / G  *  1 / ( M+m)  *  r^2
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----------------  (M+m)  =  4*pi^2 *  r^3 /  p^2
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-  For an ellipse the “r” becomes the semi- major axis, radius of a circle is a special case.  Since the pair are always on opposite sides of the center of mass their separation is:
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-----------------  a  =  1.8 AU  + 0.6  AU  =  2.4 AU
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-----------------  p  =  2.63 years
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------------------(M+m)  =  a^3  / p^2  =  2.4^3 / 2.63 ^2  =  2 Solar Mass
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---------------  To find the mass of each body we realize that the orbital velocities are inversely proportional to mass:
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----------------  M  / m  =  vm  /  vM  =  20.4 km/sec  /  6.8  km / sec  =  3
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---------------  M  =  3m
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--------------  M  + m  =  2
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---------------  m  =  0.5 Solar Mass
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---------------  M  =  1.5  Solar Mass
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-  Therefore, we have calculated the masses of the binary pair by observing their period of orbit and measuring their orbital velocities.  Next we could measure their diameters, calculate their volumes, calculate their densities and estimate their composition by knowing the densities of  various materials, water  =  1,000 kilograms / meter^3
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-  Request other Reviews about Pluto and Kuiper Belt Objects:
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- #1724  Visiting Pluto, New Horizon spacecraft
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-  #1632  Kuiper Belt Objects
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-  #1364  Pluto and Charon
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-  #1129, #1279  Pluto demoted to a Dwarf Planet.
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-  #1660  Kuiper Belt Dwarf Planets
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-  # 33 Kepler’s laws, Issac Newton biography
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-  #543, #685  KBOs discovered 8-14,-2005  we have learned a lot since then.
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Supersymmetry in Particle Physics.?

-  1726  -  Supersymmetry in Particle Physics.  The Large Hadron Collider may find the super partners in particles to unify the 4 forces to include Gravity and add to our understanding of why the Universe is finely tuned as it is.
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----------------- -  1726  -  Supersymmetry in Particle Physics
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-  May 21, 2013, Dr. Beale Heinemann, Lawrence Berkeley Lab lecture explaining particle physics research being done using the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.  One of the goals of the experiment is to discover evidence of the existence of Supersymmetry.
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-  Supersymmetry is a theory in particle physics about the existence of undiscovered particles in symmetry with ordinary Fermions and Bosons.  These super partners to ordinary particles would unify the relationships of the four forces, Electromagnetism, Strong and Weak Nuclear , and Gravity.
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-  Physicists hope to learn why particles have the masses they do ( the force of gravity ).  All mass quantities and ratios have been discovered using experimental data, no theories have been invented to derive their numbers.  There is no mathematical linkage that explains why they are what they are.  Example:   A proton is 1.167252 * 10^-27 kilograms.  An electron is 9 *10^-31 kilograms.  A proton /electron ratio is 1,297  Why?
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-  Supersymmetry predicts that the Universe is filled with super-partner particles.  These massive particles ( high energy ) might explain the existence of Dark Matter.  Dark Matter represents 80% of all the matter in the Universe.
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-  But, none of these super-partner particles have yet been discovered.  The hope is the LHC will do that.  In 2015 the LHC is planning to run at the highest energies it was designed for, 13 trillion electron volts.
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-  What physicists have developed so far  a “ Standard Model of Particle Physics” with 12 particles and 4 force particles.  The model remains incomplete.  Quantum Mechanics and Relativity theory explain a lot, but, not everything.
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--------------------  Matter is made of particles called Fermions.
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--------------------  Matter is held together by force particles called Bosons.
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--------------------  Fermions are made up of Leptons and Quarks.
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-------------------  Leptons include Electrons, Muons and Taus
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- But why are there only 3 energy levels for these Leptons.  Why do they have the masses that they do?
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---------------------  Electron  ---------------0.000511  Giga-electron volts /c^2
----------------------  Muon  -----------------0.106  Giga-electron volts /c^2
----------------------  Tau  --------------------1.777  Giga-electron volts /c^2
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-  New theories, such as String Theory, require new particles in order for the theory to work.  These hypothetical particles have very high mass, energies.  Quantum Mechanics requires “ virtual particles” to allow the ordinary particles to interact.  Two electrons, negative charges, repel each other.  The force of their repulsion is carried by “ virtual photons”.
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-  Supersymmetry is actually a framework of theories developed over 40 years, since 1970.  The laws are symmetrical because they apply equally regardless of direction, speed, or location of particles.  They imply the other laws of Conservation of Energy, Momentum, Angular Momentum and E = mc^2, the relationship between energy and mass.
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-  Symmetry exists because every particle has an anti-particle of equal mass but opposite charge.  Therefore, the list of particles is really 24 not 12 ,as stated above.
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-  Super symmetric theories require that every “ Boson” particle has a “ Fermion “ partner particle.  To do this the number has to double again, to 48, instead of 24.
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-  Will the LHC discover these massive super-partner particles?  Or, will it not, and will other theories come to the forefront to replace Supersymmetry.  Here are some other theories waiting in wings:
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-  The Multiverse?  The Universe must be finely tuned for life to exist at all.  Multiverse suggest that fine tuning is not impossible as it is a random accident among an infinite number of universes out there.  We are just an accident in Cosmic history.  Our Universe has parameters to all0w life to develop  like me to write reviews and like you to read them,  Why is that?  This all smacks to me as appealing to the unknowable.
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-  Extra Dimensions?  Extra dimensions can explain Gravity’s weakness compared to the other forces.  Somehow the force of gravity is leaking out of our universe of 3 spatial dimensions and one time dimension.  In this case mass might be explained by the energy of motion the extra dimensions.
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-  Dimensional Transmutation?  A proton is not a fundamental particle, it is an assembly of 3 Quarks held together by Gluons.  But, the protons are heavier than the sum of the masses of the Quarks and Gluons   The extra mass comes in the from of an “energy field” called the Strong Nuclear Force.  Are there other energy fields to be discovered?
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-  Today there remains no way to predict the masses of all these particles.  We have to experiment and try to measure them.  This was the problem that delayed the discovery of the Higgs Boson.  This recent discovery implies the existence of a Higgs Energy Field that gives mass to all the fundamental particles.   A Noble Prize is in it for anyone who can figure this stuff out.
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-  In conclusion, we are dealing with empty space that is not empty at all.  Space is packed full of virtual particles and Higgs Energy Fields,  And the mass of the Higgs Boson is right on the edge of a state of an unstable vacuum of space.  Higgs Boson Mass =  126.8 Giga-electron volts.  An unstable vacuum could trigger a catastrophic transition in the Universe.  This happened with Cosmic Inflation seconds after the Big Bang when the Universe expanded faster than the speed of light.
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- Are we on the “ Edge of Doom”?  Could the Universe suddenly bounce into a lower energy state?  Supersymmetry is a framework for making models of how the Universe really works.  Let’s hope we find it soon before something pulls the trigger.  Stay tuned there is more to learn.
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-  Request other Reviews:
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-  # 955 , #811,  - Large Hadron Collider
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-  #1693,  #1512 the Standard Model, #1573, #1511 Sterile Neutrino, #1136 Six ordinary particles, #1097 Nature’s constants, #977  Fermions and Bosons, #973  Physics in a Nutshell, #632  Gluons, Bosons And Photons, Muons and Taus
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Europa, icy moon of Jupiter

-  1725  -  Europa , Icy Moon of Jupiter.  At -300F temperatures how can liquid water exist?  Why have the water geysers stopped spewing?  How do tides create heat?
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----------------- -  1725  -  Europa , Icy Moon of Jupiter
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-  January 15, 2015, the huge geysers on Europa have gone silent, underground.  Last year Hubble Space Telescope detected plumes of water vapor spewing 120 miles into space from geysers at the south pole.
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-  The Galileo spacecraft has studied the Jupiter system 1995 to 2003 and didn’t uncover evidence of water geysers.
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-  Saturn’s ice moon Enceladus, on the other hand, has continuing evidence of spewing liquid water up from beneath its icy shell.  Plumes of gas and ammonia water are frequently still occurring.
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-  The Cassini Spacecraft uses ultraviolet imaging spectrographs that suggest most of the hot gases surrounding Europa originated from the neighboring volcanic moon, Io.
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-  If there are water plumes on Europa they are infrequent and smaller than those on Enceladus.  Hubble Space Telescope did not detect any plumes between October , 1999 and November 2012.  December, 2012 and January, 2013 was the only events recorded, so far.
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-  Galileo spacecraft’s magnetometer data suggest that Europa’s magnetic field is variable indicating an internal electrically conducting fluid, that is a salty ocean.  At temperatures of -300 F how can liquid water exist?  Heat energy must be generated either by radioactive decay or by tidal forces created by the gravity pull of Jupiter?
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-  How can tidal forces generate heat?  Tidal forces can cause tugs and twists which can cause friction. How can friction create heat?  Friction is mechanical.  Is there a mechanical equivalent to heat?
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-  “Heat” is energy that flows form a higher temperature to a lower temperature.  Heat is a form of energy.  It is measured in the same units as kinetic energy or potential energy --
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-----------------  E  =  joules  =  kilogram * meter^2 / seconds^2
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----------------  E = m * v^2  =  mass * velocity^2
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----------------  E = F * d  =  Force * distance   =  kilogram * meter^2 / seconds^2
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-----------------  F  =  newtons  =  kilogram * meter / seconds^2
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------------------F  =  m * a  =  mass * acceleration.
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-  The internal heat energy is the sum of the molecular kinetic energy due to the random motion of the molecules.  Rapidly moving molecules transfer their energy to more slowly moving molecules by many, many microscopic collisions.
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-  Jupiter’s immense gravity places tidal forces on Europa just as Earth’s Moon places tidal forces on our oceans.  The friction of moving, colliding , molecules create the heat energy in Europa’s oceans.  Believe it or not you can actually heat up water by stirring it.
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-  James Joules discovered the nature of heat by observing how canons were drilled out causing the canon body to heat up.  He created the experiment where a falling weight
 ( mechanical energy), worked through rope and pulleys to a sealed jar of water.  The rope would pull and spin paddles inside the jar of water.  The water would heat up ( heat energy).  Precisely measuring, Joules discovered the relationship between work done, dQ and temperature rise, dT.
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--------------------------  dQ   =  C * dT
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------------------------  C is heat capacity,  heat capacity for water  =  1 cal/gram * degree C
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-----------------------  dQ is heat flow  =  equivalent to work done.
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------------------------  dT  is temperature change.
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-  Life on Earth exists in our deep oceans near geothermal vents, maybe, a similar environment exists Europa’s and Enceladus’ subsurface oceans.  Where this same tidal friction is keeping them warm.  Whatever “ them” is?
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-Other Reviews available:
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-  #1702  Jupiter’s moon Europa has plate tectonics just like Earth, only its ice.  the icy surface is less than 90 million years old.  That means it has been recycled through geological activity.
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-  Europa is 90% the size of our Moon.  Diameter 1,944 miles.  Our Moon is 2,160 miles.  Its surface temperature is -300 F.
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-  #1361  Jupiter has 4 moons easily seen with binoculars on a clear night.
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-  #1152  Europa , best chance to find life existing elsewhere in our solar System.
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-  #812  the icy moon of Jupiter, August 1, 2007, we have learned a lot since then.
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to:   -------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -------------- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  --- www.facebook.com  --- www.twitter.com
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Visiting Pluto, My 9th Planet.

-  1724  -  Visiting Pluto, My 9th Planet.  New Horizon spacecraft does a fly-by these next few months. 7 instruments collect years worth of data.  Then on to the Kuiper Belt.
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----------------- -  1724  -  Visiting Pluto, My 9th Planet
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-  Pluto, my 9th planet.  I refuse to accept his “planet” demotion.  A spacecraft, New Horizons, is visiting Pluto and its moon, Charon, this month, January, 2015.  The flyby continues to its closest on July 14, it will skim the surface of Pluto by 7,770 miles.  At that point the spacecraft will be 3,000,000,000 miles away.  Charon is a  moon half the size of Pluto.  They are in tidal lock orbiting each other.
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-  The flight has taken 9 years, launched January 19, 2006, leaving Earth at 35,800 miles per hour.  The spacecraft is going to fly-by taking several months of instrument data.  It will be going too fast to slow down, there is not enough fuel left on board for that.  After Pluto it flies into the Kuiper Belt to encounter  other KBO’s in its mission of exploration.
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-  New Horizon weighs 943 pounds, almost ½ ton.  A generator on board produces 200 watts of power for seven measurement instruments.  A camera on an 8.2 inch telescope, a spectrometer, the camera operating in both the visible and the infrared, a plasma spectrometer to measure charged particles, a temperature radio sensor, and a dust collector.
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-  These seven instruments consume less power than a 30 watt light bulb.  The camera has 65,000 pixels with two resolutions 650 meters per pixel, and up to 70 meters per pixel for high resolution.
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-  Data is transmitted using a 12 watt transmitter at 2,000 pits per second.  The entire down link will take over a year ending in 2016.  New Horizon will have entered the Kuiper Belt by then.  It intends to pass by two more  KBO’s one in December, 2018 and another in March ,2019
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Other reviews on Pluto:
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-  #1632  Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Dwarf Planets.  There are over 1,000 KBO’s, including Pluto and its moon, Charon.  Names like:  Sedna, Eris, Haumea, Quaoar, Orcus, Salacia, Makemake
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-   # 1364  Pluto and Charon.  Pluto takes 248 years to orbit the Sun.  Its orbit is elliptical, event bringing it inside Neptune’s orbit form 1979 to 1999.  Pluto rotates in 6.4 days.  Pluto  is a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle.
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-  #  1129  Why Pluto is a KBO not a Planet?
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-  #685 written  8-27-2006, soon very outdated.
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--  email comments, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
to:   -------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -------------- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  --- www.facebook.com  --- www.twitter.com
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Water, water everywhere, even in space?

-  1723  -  Water, Water, everywhere.  Astronomers have discovered water on Mars, Europa, Ceres, maybe outer space.  Follow H2O fingerprints they are trying to learn where all this water came from.
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----------------- -  1723  -  Water, Water, everywhere?
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-  Astronomers are discovering water nearly everywhere they look.  Water can exist as water vapor, liquid water, frozen ice, or water molecules.  In fact ,water can exist in all three states, gas, liquid, solid at the same time, if pressure and temperature are just right.
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-  Called the triple point on the pressure versus temperature x-y plot.  Temperature / Pressure ratio  =  273.16 Kelvin  /  4.38 mm of mercury
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--------------------  T  /  P  =  273.16  /  4.38
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-  In Indiana where I was growing up our science was using a divining rod to find water. Farmers would walk around the farm with the rod pointing up.  Then, when they were over water underground the rod would point down towards the ground.  The “Y” shaped stick worked every time.  When they dug the well they always found water.
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-  Astronomers use spectroscopy to find water for their science.  ( See Review #853 “ But a Spectrum of Light” and Review #38 “ Rainbows can tell us what the Universe is made of” )  Their science has discovered water on Jupiter’s moon Europa and on the asteroid Ceres.  This signature for H2O comes from ultraviolet light that is reflected off the surfaces.  This light passes through plumes, or geysers, of water vapor up to 120 miles above the surface.
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-  Ceres’ water was detected in the infrared spectrum.  This asteroid is orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.  The water jets from the surface of the asteroid are similar to how comets create their tails.
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-  A spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the Ceres asteroid in April , 1025.  We should learn much more of how Ceres is giving us this H2O “fingerprint”.
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-  If astronomers find an abundance of water that will suggest that there really is not much difference between asteroids and comets.
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-  But, where did all this water come from?
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-  Water does not just have an H2O fingerprint.  It also has a unique identity with the ratio of hydrogen to deuterium.  Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen that contains a neutron as well as a proton in the nucleus.  Hydrogen has only one proton.
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-   By studying the atomic structures of elements in water astronomers can determine the temperature and pressure  and where it was formed.  This can define time and location and environment.  Water on asteroids that formed between Mars and Jupiter has a different composition than water formed in comets outside the orbit of Neptune.
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-  Channels on Mars appear to have been created by running water.  No liquid water exist on the surface of Mars today.  Evidence shows that Mars did have rain and surface water in its distant past.  Today water is frozen in the polar caps and in the top meter of surface soil.
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-  Comets are ice-rich because they formed beyond the frost-line in their orbits.  Comets also contain frozen carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide that are gases condensed only in the very coldest and most distant orbits in the Solar System.
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-  Europa has an icy crust that likely hides a subsurface ocean of liquid water.
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-    Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System.  It has a surface of water-ice.  It is thought that the large cracks and grooves in its surface are created by water erupting in the cracks, freezing, expanding , creating large craters and grooves.  Some tidal heating and radioactive decay provide enough heat to liquefy the subsurface water.
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-  Venus has virtually no water.  Earth’s carbon dioxide is mostly in its rocks rather than in the atmosphere.   If it were not the case Earth would be like Venus too hot to be inhabitable.
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-  Recent studies with computer simulations are suggesting that the water was not all born in our Solar System.  Maybe, more than half of the water in Earth’s oceans came form water that was in interstellar space before the Sun was even born.
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-  If this were true then the water ice as well as the organic material would be equally abundant around the other stars, planets, moons.  Life may be more common in many of these other solar systems.   Stay tuned , there is more to learn.
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Dark Matter and Dark Energy, what is it?

-  1722  -  Dark Matter, Dark Energy What is it?  New instruments being developed and new theories being explored as to what this stuff is.  Or, isn’t?
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----------------- -  1722  -  Dark Matter and Dark Energy, What is it?
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-  Why is this important?  Because supposedly 95% of the Universe is made of this stuff.  Remember, matter and energy is the same thing.  E=mc^2 except that matter contains 90,000,000,000,000,000 times more energy.  Over 80% of all matter is Dark Matter. 20% is Ordinary Matter.
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-  When a supernova explodes does its shockwave plow through an enormous amount of Dark Matter?  Dark Matter interacts with gravity, but , it does not interact with electromagnetism.  See Review # 827 about the Bullet Cluster where 2 galaxies collide and Dark Matter gets separated from ordinary matter.
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-  The electromagnetic spectrum is how we communicate with our environment.  It is the source of almost all our knowledge.  This makes Dark Matter very difficult to detect even though there is so much of it, 80% of all matter.
-
-  The age of the Universe is now placed at 18,820,000,000 years old.  There was no light , electromagnetic radiation, releases until 378,000 years after the beginning.  That is when we can “see”.  And, what we can see is only 5% of all that is out there.  5% ordinary matter, 27% Dark Matter, 68% Dark Energy.
-
-  Because Dark Matter is so predominate it is suspected for being responsible for the large-scale structure of the Universe.  A structure of interconnected webs  and clumps of galaxies separated by giant bubbles of voids of space.  The bubbles are expanding at an accelerating rate.  Dark Energy is purported to be the force that is overcoming all gravity provided by mass in the Universe.  It is an anti-gravity force that is expanding the growth of the Universe at an ever accelerating rate.
-
-  Today the rate is 47,000 miles per hour for every million of lightyears of space.
-
----------------------------

-
-  One evidence for Dark Matter’s existence comes from the study of rotating galaxies.  Galaxies would fly apart if there were not 5 times more mass around than we can “see“.  More recent evidence shows that galaxies would never have even formed in the first place it were not for the predominate presence of Dark Matter.
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-  Dark Matter is composed of invisible particles that astronomers have named “ WIMPS”, for Weakly, Interactive, Massive Particles”.
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-  Billions of WIMPS pass through your body every second, ( theoretically).  Dark Matter is a mystery but an even deeper mystery is why all this matter is flying apart at an ever accelerating rate in an ever expanding Universe.  Sometime in the future , if all this continues, all the stars and galaxies outside our own gravitationally connected Local Group of Galaxies will disappear, out of sight.  They well reach such expanding speeds  that their light will never reach us.  In other words the expansion rate gets to become faster than the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second.
-
-  The evidence for Dark Energy’s existence comes from exploding supernovae in remote distant galaxies.  The distances are measured by the brightness of these explosions. Astronomers determined that the galaxies were moving  away faster and were further away than they were supposed to be.  Calculations using a constant rate of expansion said they should be closer.  To be further the expansion rate must be accelerating. The explosions were 25% fainter than they should be if the rate was constant. This acceleration rate has been going on for the past 6,000,000,000 years.
-
-  To measure this rate of accelerating expansion more accurately than the brightness of light from exploding supernovae astronomers are inventing new instruments.  One candidate is the “ Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey”, “ BAO Survey.
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-  11-24-2014 Sonoma State University lecture by Dr. Claire Poppett was about the 5,000 robots used to conduct this BAO survey.  Baryon density is ionized hydrogen, which the charged nucleus of the hydrogen atom, a proton.  Neutrons and protons are called “ baryons”.   Oscillations occur in the density because the push and pull between gravity and electromagnetic attraction to the charges creates “ripples in the pond” of the expansion.  The separation of these ripples will tell astronomers how fast the expansion is occurring.
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-  Dr. Poppett’s 5,000 robots will measure the distance to 24,000,000 galaxies.  5,000 robotic fiber glass positioners will focus on each assigned galaxy.  Each fiber is connected to one of ten spectrographs that will measure positions and redshifts of each point of light.  Each 170 micron diameter fiber has its own robot that will position the fiber to connect to the spectrograph to within 5 microns accuracy.  Once all these distances and velocities are measured astronomers can construct a 3-D picture of an expanding Universe.
-
-  In this 3-D picture we expect to see “pressure waves” similar to a spherical shell of sound waves propagating through the Universe.  The waves were generated by baryons, electrons, photons and Dark Matter particles sloshing around in a charged plasma.
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-  When the protons cooled down enough after 370,000 years they grabbed hold of electrons and became neutral hydrogen atoms.  75% of the Universe is now this hydrogen.
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-  At the point this plasma became neutral photons could escape the mix.  However, the imprint of the waves should remain as Baryon Acoustic Oscillations.  As the Universe expanded the waves spread out to where today they are 500 million lightyears radius, between peaks.
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-  By using the wave oscillations as measuring sticks astronomers can more precisely measure the distance to galaxies.  Different distances in astronomy equates to different ages of the Universe.
-
-  By measuring how fast galaxies at different distances are expanding away from each other astronomer can calculate more accurately how fast the entire Universe is expanding due to Dark Energy
-
-  Expanding space may not be empty.  “ Quantum Fields” may be in control of the Universe.  A theory for space is that is the relaxation, lowest level,  of the energy field.  When energy is increased matter comes alive according to E=mc^2.
-
---------  Energy =  90,000,000,000,000,000 * mass   (kilograms * meters^2 / seconds^2)
-
-  Protons, electrons and others particles may themselves be some form of quantum fields.  In order to understand all this we need new theories in physics that merge this quantum theory of space and time with gravity being a warping of space and time.
-
-  Dark Energy is one theory for the expansion.  10-14-2014 Sonoma State lecture by Dr. Ken Freeman on Dark Matter introduced another theory which would require the laws of gravity to change over great distances.  We assume the force of gravity is a constant every where in the Universe.
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---------------------  Force of Gravity  =  G * M * m  /  r^2
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-  Maybe there is a more complex formula relating distance, “r”,  to gravity that we have not discovered yet?
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Other Reviews:
- #1516  Dark Energy
-  #1499  Using supernovae to measure Dark Energy .  Brightness is inversely proportional to the square of the distances.
-  #1290  Expanding the Universe.
----------------------------  Acceleration of Gravity =  F/m  =  G.M/r^2
----------------------------  Density of the Universe  =  8*10^-27 kilograms / meter
----------------------------  Radius of the Universe  =  10^58 meters
---------------------------  Mass of the Universe =  8.4*10^147 kilograms
-  #1047  The Universe is like Swiss Cheese.
-  #  1083,  #1084  # 822, etc on Dark Energy
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-  #1535 Gravity Lenses to find Dark Matter
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-

-
-  # 1636, #1658, #1576, #1517, #1485 #1427, etc, on Dark Matter.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Monday, January 12, 2015  ---
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Closest stars and more perfect Earths?

-  1721 -  Closest stars and more perfect Earth’s?  A star just 7 lightyears away was newly discovered. Our Earth is right at the edge of a habitable planet.  There are more life friendly habitable zones for planets around other stars.
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-

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----------------- -  1721 -  Closest stars and more perfect Earth’s?
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-  What do your mean,” The Earth has competition?”  We live on the best planet in the Universe , right?  Maybe, the only planet perfectly suited for life?
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-  We think as earthlings everything must be measured as if we are the gold, goldilocks, standard.
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-  Astronomers have discovered over 2,000 other planets orbiting other stars.  If we extrapolate what we have found to the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy there must be more than 100,000,000,000 planets orbiting other stars in our own galaxy.
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-  Some of these planets may be more optimally suited to form and sustain biology than our own.  Hard to believe!
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-  Earth has a lot of things going for it.  Our Sun is middle aged, 5,000,000,000 years old out of a lifespan of 10 billion years.  Earth has oceans, water covering 3/4th of the planet.  Earth orbits 93,000,000 miles from the Sun which is just right for biology, not too hot, not too cold.  Water sustains its liquid state.  What more do you want?
-
-  Earth is big enough to have the gravity needed to hold on to its own atmosphere.  Earth has a molten core that creates a protective magnetic field and the plate tectonics to create a life friendly and diverse biosphere.
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-  Earth is considered by science to have been more habitable in its past ,300 to 350 million years ago, the Carboniferous Period, than it is today.  Today we have much higher percentage of arid deserts, nutrient-poor oceans, and frigid polar regions.  The Carboniferous Period was much warmer, wetter, far more oxygen rich.  Great forests blanketed the continents.  Terrestrial creatures grew to gigantic sizes.
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- Earth today would be considered less habitable.
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-  And, our future is grim because in a few billion years form now our Sun will balloon into a Red Giant Star.  The Sun is getting hotter by 10% ever billion years.  Our Earth orbit is already at the edge of over heating.  In 1,750,000,000 years from now Earth will be so hot the oceans will all have evaporated.
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-  Earth is past its prime and the biosphere is nearing its end, astronomically speaking.
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-  Astronomers have always focused on planets.  But, an even better “ Earth” may be found on moons.  A biosphere on a super habitable moon could draw energy from reflected light and tidal forces creating heat for its nearby planets.  Tidal forces could create friction to heat the moon’s interior.
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-  Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus are too likely candidates for sub-surface oceans with liquid water.  Maybe even life.
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-  2.4 billion years ago on Earth the oceanic algae dumped substantial amounts of oxygen into our atmosphere.  This lead to the evolution of more energy intensive metabolisms.
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-  Rocky, super-Earths as much as twice our planet’s size should age more gracefully than Earth will because they retain their internal heat much longer.  This would keep a molten interior generating a protective magnetic field for much longer time.  A planet 25% larger in diameter has 56% more surface area for organisms to thrive.
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-  Survey to date suggest that slightly larger super-Earths orbiting smaller stars are more abundant throughout our galaxy.  Astronomers calculate that this is where a more perfect world will exist.
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-  Technology is fast improving to help us find life on a better planet.  In the next 50 years astronomers will have computers that can handle multidimensional data millions of gigabytes in size.
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-  Pulsars will be used to test the laws of physics in the most extreme conditions.  We will learn how the theory of Relativity works at the edges of discovery.
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-  Gravitational wave detectors will study blackholes and stars that are too dim to detect with light waves.
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-  Dark Matter telescopes will make visible galaxy halos.  Dark Matter is 82% of all matter.
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-  X-ray interferometers will study the Event Horizons of these blackholes.
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-  Modular spacecraft will be manufactured in orbit using 3-D printing and magnetic flux spinning.
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-  Space based telescopes and spectrographs will spit exoplanets light into wavelengths that identify biosignatures for life and geological chemistries
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-  These new technological developments will bring stars and planets even closer to Earth, metaphorically speaking.
-
-  Astronomers recently discovered a close, fast, cold Brown Dwarf star just 7 light-years away.  There are only 3 other closer stars:
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--------------------  Alpha Centauri triple star  ------------  4.2 LY
--------------------  Barnard’s star  --------------------------  5.9  LY
-------------------- Brown Dwarf binary  -------------------  6.6  LY
--------------------  Wolf 359 star  ----------------------------7.8  LY
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-  This star’s motion was measured with infrared parallax.. Parallax is back and forth motion that changes the object’s position with respect to the background objects.  The back and forth in this case is Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
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-  The Brown Dwarf has a proper motion, apparent motion across the sky, at 8.2 arc seconds per year.  ( 60 arc seconds is the width of your finger at arms length ( one arc degree) . (30 arc seconds is the width of a Full Moon )  Rigel star has a proper motion of 0.004 arc seconds per year.
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-  This Brown Dwarf has a surface temperature of 250 Kelvin.  That is -10F.  It is hard to relate this freezing temperature to a star.  But, it is not a planet.  Many hopeful discoveries are anticipated studying these closer stars and planets.  Stay tuned, there is much more to learn.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Saturday, January 10, 2015  ---
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How do we know the age of the Sun?

- 1720  -  How do we  know the age of the Sun?  How fast is it “ burning” hydrogen?  What does how fast it spinning have to do with this?
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-

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----------------- 1720  -  How do we  know the age of the Sun?
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-  That lucky ol’ Sun got nothing to do but roam around heaven all day.  Like me, stars too slow down as they get older
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-  Can we measure the ages of stars by measuring their spin rates?
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-  A star’s age tells us the likelihood if the star’s solar system will support life.  Our Sun is 4.6 billion years old out of a 10 billion year lifetime.  So it is just right for Earth’s to have a habitable environment.
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-  A star’s spin rate steadily slows down over time.  Larger, heavier stars tend to spin faster.  So, given these variables we would really like to discover the math that relates mass to spin to age.
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-  We measure spin rates by detecting a sunspot and timing how fast it moves across the surface of the rotating star.  Our Sun’s spin rate is 26 days, a weighted average.  The equator of the Sun rotates in 25 days.  Near the poles its rotation is 30 days.  26 days is the weighted average for a mass of 2 * 10^30 kilograms.  Remember the Sun is a rotating ball of gas.
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-  If the star is too far away astronomers can measure a brightness decrease when the sunspot appears then a brightness increase when the sunspot rotates out of view.  The Sun’s surface is 5,800 Kelvin, but a sunspot is cooler, 4,000 Kelvin.
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-  The dim rate is typically less than 1% the star’s brightness, so, this is a very difficult measurement to make.  The Kepler space telescope can do this. ( See Review # 1717 to learn about Kepler).
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-  The mass of the Sun is 300,000 times the mass of Earth.  Its radius is 696,000 kilometers , or, 109 times the radius of Earth.  The Sun’s composition is 70% hydrogen, 28% helium and 2% the heavier elements.  The surface temperature is 5,800 Kelvin, but the photosphere above the surface, the gas, is 6,000 Kelvin.  Why it is hotter is an on going mystery.  The temperature of the Sun’s core is 15,000,000 Kelvin.
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-  The luminosity of the Sun is 3.8 *10^26 watts.  If we could capture and store it for one second it would meet the Earth’s total energy needs for the next 500,000 years.  Only 3,000 watts per square meter of the Sun’s energy reaches Earth’s surface.  All the rest goes into space and some other civilizations sees it as a twinkling star.
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-  Star’s shine because they are fusion machines, mostly fusing hydrogen into helium.  2 hydrogen ( protons)  nuclei are slightly heavier the one helium nuclei ( 2 protons).  The 0.7% difference gets converted into energy according to E = mc^2.
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-  One kilogram of hydrogen fuses to 993 kilograms of helium.  7 kilograms gets converted into energy, sunshine.
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-  So, how do we know the Sun’s age or how long it will live?
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-  Back to the fusion and the 0.7% that is converted to energy and the photons leaving the Sun to make it shine.  When 4 hydrogen nuclei (protons) fuse into a helium nuclei we can calculate the mass loss:
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-----------------------  Hydrogen nuclei  =  1.6726*10^-27 kilograms
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----------------------- 4 Hydrogen nuclei  =  6.6904*10^-27 kilograms
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------------------------ Helium nuclei  =  6.6465*10^-27 kilograms
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--------------------  Therefore the mass loss =  0.0439*10^-27 kilograms
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---------------------  E  =  mc^3
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---------------------  Energy =   0.0439*10^-27 kilograms  * (3*10^8 meters / second)^2
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----------------------  Energy  =  3.95*10^-12 Joules
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-  Only 10% of the Sun’s mass will be involved in fusion.  When the Sun gets to 90% of its current mass its gravity will not be great enough to continue the fusion at its core.
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---------------------  Sun’s Luminosity  =  3.8*10^26 watts  =  3.8 *10^26 kg * m^2 / sec^2
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---------------------  Mass equivalent to that energy  =  E / c^2  =  3.8 *10^26 kg * m^2 / sec^2  /  ( 3*10^8 m/sec)^2  =  4.2*10^9 kilograms / second
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------------------  4,200,000,000 kilograms / second is equivalent to the mass of 10 oil tankers each second, or , 600 oil tanker mass each minute.  Starting out with 600*10^9 kilograms of hydrogen and 4.2*10^9 kilograms is converted into energy, that is 0.7%.  10^38  individual hydrogen / helium nuclei fusion reactions are occurring each second.
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--------------------  Sun’s mass =  2*10^30 kilograms
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---------------------  10%  =  2*10^29 kilograms.
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--------------------  One gram of hydrogen into helium releases 6 * 10^11 joules.
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-------------------  The Sun is “burning” 600*10^9 kilograms of hydrogen every second
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---------------------  There are 3.16 *10^7 seconds in a year.
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--------------------  600*10^9 kg/sec * 3.16*10^7 sec /year  =  1.9*10^15 kg / year
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---------------------  2*10^29 kilograms /  1.9*10^15 kg/year  =  10 billion years.
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-  The lifetime of the Sun with fusion at the same rate is 10 billion years, before fusion stops and it turns into a Red Dwarf Star and then a Planetary Nebula.  Stay tuned we only have 5 billion more years to wait to see if this is how it turns out.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Friday, January 9, 2015  ---
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