Our next trip to Mars?

-  1779  -  Trip to Mars.  How will we visit this planet?  What are the risks of such a trip?  We need to send robots first to do our exploring.  The next one will leave March, 2016
-

-----------------  1779  -  Trip to Mars.
-
-  Not in my day, but, someday astronauts will visit Mars.  Probably a one way trip first time, but, the trick is to keep astronauts alive while they are there.
-  
-   It will take several months of space travel to reach Mars.  Let’s say you make it there and are orbiting the planet.  Landing on the surface is the next trick.  Mar’s atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth’s atmosphere.  Parachutes will not work.  Power thrusters must slow the heavy space craft down then stand on its tail to gently reach the surface.
-
-  Estimates are that this spacecraft needs to be carrying 20 to 30 tons of astronauts and supplies to start a planetary habitat. A well designed decelerator is needed to slow down this much mass and land it safely.
-
-  Next trick is how to stay alive once on the surface?  It is cold.  The average temperature is -81F, but, depending on time and location it can range form +86 at the equator to -284F at the poles.  The thin atmosphere means astronauts will feel rapid temperature changes much more harshly.  New and better space suits and habitats need to be designed.
-
-  Food and supplies are required similar to a research outpost in the Antarctic.  Resupply missions would take months to complete.  Self-sustainability will require some form of interplanetary farming.  If 80 square meters can be dedicated to plant growth it would be like a pot farm with artificial lighting, water pumped form sub-surface, carbon-dioxide pumped from the 4 man crew.
-
-  Crew produced CO2 will work but be insufficient to support the crop growth needed.  Some new technology is needed to scrub CO2 out of the gases in the Martian atmosphere.
-
-  Plants are also needed to resupply oxygen for the 4 man crew.  This technology needs tight control as well.  In a closed environment the crew has the risk of oxygen toxicity.  And, oxygen is very flammable.  It needs to be managed carefully.  One management technique would be to have the capability to split CO2 into oxygen and carbon monoxide.
-
-  Surviving in this man-made habitat will certainly be challenging.  But, let’s get back to the voyage to get there.  It takes a complicated spacecraft.  Even assuming it all works it has to avoid space debris and intense radiation.  High energy Cosmic Rays can easily penetrate the walls of a spacecraft.
-
- Cosmic Rays also penetrate the brain and destroy brain cells.  Astronauts may loose a functioning keen mind to operate what’s needed.  Longer exposure may create cancer.
-
-  Many of these obstacles need to be overcome not limited to shelter, food, water, air to breath, communication , exercise, social interactions, medicine, ……….  The biggest obstacle to be overcoming failures.  We can not think of everything.  We will need to be prepared to deal with surprises.
-
-  Stay tuned, Space-X and Elon Musk will have a proposal for a Mars trip this year.   Andy Weir will have a book and a movie coming out that will focus on some of the worst case scenarios.  Some future generation will see it happen for real.
-
-  In the meantime we need to send robots to do our exploring.  Next March, 2016, we will launch another spacecraft ( robot) called “ Insight”.  It will take 7 months to get to Mars.  About the size of a car it will land with instruments designed to study the internal structure of the planet.
-
-  Mars is less geologically active than Earth having no plate tectonics.  It therefore retains a more complete record of the planetary history of our solar system.  Seismographs will measure the size, thickness, and density of the core, mantle and crust.  It may even discover underground water reservoirs.  Other instruments will measure the rate at which heat escapes from the planet’s interior.
-
-  The study will determine the solid-liquid state of the core.  It will determine the composition and structure of the mantle and crust.  It will measure the rate of meteorite impacts on the surface.
-
-  All this data is designed to tell the story of the origins of the Solar System.  All this data will be immediately available to everyone interested.  Students can learn their own solar system history lessons.  We better learn a lot before sending our first astronauts there.  It is a risky trip.
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Venus and Mars our Sister Planets?

-  1778  -  Mars and Venus, our Sister Planets.  Mars has become a cold, dry desert with an ultra-thin atmosphere.  Venus has turned itself inside-out with intense heat and an ultra-thick atmosphere.  Earth is in the middle.
-
-----------------  1778  -  Mars and Venus, our Sister Planets.
-
-  Astronomers studying Mars are convinced that at some point in the planet’s history water flowed on its surface, or, an abundant liquid of some type flowed in the now dry river beds scattered over the planet’s surface.
-
-   Maybe even dry lake beds because ancient shorelines suggest this watery past.  Because crater impacts scar the river beds astronomers conclude that the surface has been dry for 3.5 billion years.  However, the watery surface must have lasted for 40 million years before disappearing.
-
-  Underground water aquifers likely exist today.  However, due to Mar’s  thin atmosphere any water quickly evaporates once it reaches the surface.
-
-  All things considered the belief today is that Mars experienced a substantial climate change some 600 million years after the planet formation.  Volcanic eruptions may have been the cause of this drastic change.  We don’t know?
-
-  Mars cooled faster because of its smaller volume and the iron core solidified dissipating the planet’s magnetic field.  Without this magnetic shield the solar winds would have stripped away much of the Martian atmosphere.  With a thin atmosphere all the surface water would have quickly evaporated into space.
-
-  If Mars were a larger planet it may have retained its earthlike existence.  Instead the planet turned cold and dry, not a good home of living things.
-
-  Venus has a different story.  It is similar in size to the Earth.  Rather than a Mar’s thin atmosphere Venus has an intensely thick atmosphere.  The abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps the Sun’s reflection causing the surface temperatures to exceed 400 Centigrade ( 750F).
-
-  The thick atmosphere allows sulfur-dioxide and sulfuric-acid clouds to cover the planet.
-
-  Astronomers were amazed to find a lack of craters on the surface.  Unlike the other rocky planets and moons.  Venus must have some resurfacing forces hiding many old crater scars.  In fact, the evidence suggests the entire planet has somehow turned itself inside-out.
-
-  In order for the Venus surface to be wiped clean it must have undergone a cataclysmic upheaval some 500 million years ago.  One theory is that the Venusians crust grew so thick it trapped the planet’s heat inside and then flooded the surface with  molten lava.
-
-  To better understand the evolution of Mars and Venus we need to look at the evolution of the Solar System.  By measuring decay rates of radioactive elements in meteorites the birth of the Solar System is calculated to be 4.6 billion years ago.
-
-  Back then a molecular cloud had concentrated and began to collapse from 100 Astronomical Units in diameter.  An AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun today, 93 million miles.
-
-  As the cloud collapsed temperatures rose and the cloud began to rotate forming a relatively flat disk.  The density of the rotating disk rose quickly. As rotation’s angular momentum increased the size of the disk decreased and dust and gas began colliding.  A proto planetary spinning disk was formed.
-
-  After 50 million years the center of the disk gathered enough mass to cause nuclear fusion at its core.  The Sun was born.
-
-  Father out in the disk planets, minor planets, and asteroids began to form.  The Sun’s intense solar wind blew away the minor dust and debris.  The giant gas planets that formed in the outer disk flung planetisimals out into the distant Oort Cloud.  This gravitational disruption created a period of heavy bombardment of the inner rocky planets and moons.
-
-  Each planet’s environment depended on where it was orbiting in the disk.  The Earth got lucky.
-
-  Other Reviews on Mars and Venus:
-
-  #1729  -  Walk with Venus on a Starry Night.  and several other Review #1706 to #587 listed in this about Venus.
-
-  #1630  -  Water on Mars.  Mars is only 10.6% the mass of the Earth.  and other reviews #827, #384, #24 about Mars.
-
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Dark Matter - new clues but still a mystery?

-  1777 -  Dark Matter  -  New clues keep coming in but the mystery of what Dark Matter is remains a mystery.  Soon some new breakthrough in physics will help explain these astronomical observations.
-

-----------------  1777  -  Dark  Matter
-
-   May 2015 astronomers observing the Abell 3827 cluster of galaxies find some more clues about the existence of Dark Matter.  The cluster is four colliding galaxies.  Outside the cluster is light from background galaxies in long blue arcs evidence of gravitational lensing.
-
-  The gravity of Dark Matter separated in the galaxy collisions is bending the background light, focused in our line of sight and acting like a magnifying glass.
-
-  The image suggests that Dark Matter “particles” are interacting with one another and slowing themselves down during the collision.  These interactions did not affect normal matter during the collision.  There are many different theories as to what Dark Matter is.  Self-interaction is one more clue in the search for the answer.
-
-  Astronomers believe that galaxies are mostly Dark Matter.  “ Dark” because this matter does not emit or reflect photons of light like Ordinary Matter.  “ Matter” because it still behaves the same with gravity.
-
-----------------------------------   F  =  G  *  M  *  m  / r^2
-
-  The Force of gravity is equal to a Constant of Coefficients times the product of mass
 (or, matter) divided by the square of the distance of separation.
-
-  Johannes Kepler ( 1571 - 1630)  discovered that in our Solar System the outer planets orbital speed is slower and have further to go than the inner planets.
-
-  For example:  Jupiter’s distance from the Sun is 5.2 times larger that Earth’s distance from the Sun.  That Earth - Sun distance is called an “ Astronomical Unit”.  If Jupiter was orbiting at the same speed as Earth traveling further to complete one orbit would take 5.2 years.  But, Jupiter takes almost 12 years to complete one orbit.
-
-  This relationship is true for all the planets and other orbiting bodies.  The further from the Sun, the larger the circumference of orbit and the slower the orbiting speed.
-
-  Kepler discovered the mathematical relationship between the time period of orbit and the distance from the Sun.  The period squared is equal to the distance cubed:
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-----------------------------  ( P years)^2  =  ( Astronomical Units)^3
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-  In metric units this formula becomes:
-
-----------------------  (P seconds)^2  =  2.9*10^-19 ( A meters)^3
-
-  But, it is easier to work in Astronomical Units.  For example:  Neptune’s orbital period is 165 years.
-
------------------  (165)^2  =  A ^3
-
-----------------  27,225  =  A ^3
-
--------------  A  =  30.1  Astronomical Units.
-
-  Earth’s orbital period is 1 year with a radius of orbit of 1 Astronomical Unit.
-
--------------------  (1 year)^2  =  ( 1 AU)^3
-
------------------------     1       =         1
-
-  30.1 AU is the average distance between Neptune and the Sun.  This relationship works the same for all the planets.
-
-  Isaac Newton related Kepler’s law to the total mass of the orbiting system with this ratio:
-
---------------------  Solar Mass   =  A^3 / P^2
-
-  For example:  The mass of the Milky Way Galaxy interior to the Sun’s orbit is:
-
-------------------  Mass  =  (1.6*10^9  Astronomical Units)^3  /  ( 250*10^6 years )^2
-
------------------  Mass  =  6.6*10^10 Solar Mass.
-
-  The mass of the Milky Way interior to the Sun is 66 billion times the mass of the Sun.
-
-  If the mass distribution of the Galaxy is like that of the Solar System then we would see mass concentration at the center and fast orbital velocities near the center with slower orbital velocities farther out.
-
-  To the total surprise for astronomers they discovered that the orbital velocities did not slow down farther out ,but,  remained constant out to the  edge of the spiral galaxy.  For this to be true the mass distribution in galaxies must be different than that of solar systems.
-
-  For the observed orbital velocities to hold true there must be a greater total mass halo extending outside the visible galaxy that we can see.  This mass we cannot see but can be measured from the effects of gravity.
-
-  After studying many galaxies in this way astronomers conclude that about 90% of the total mass of a typical galaxy is in the form of Dark Matter that we can not see.
-
-  Here are some more Reviews that try to explain this situation:
-
-  #1636  -    Dark Matter accounts for 5.4 times as much mass as Ordinary Matter in the Universe.
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-  # 1722  -    If you include Dark Energy than 95% of the Universe is made of this stuff.  Remember matter and energy are the same thing,   E = mc^2.
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-  #1658  -  Gravity grows weaker with distance, 1 / r^2,  therefore distant objects must orbit more slowly or they would fly off into space.
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-  #1594  -  4% Ordinary Matter and the rest is Dark Matter and Dark Energy.
-
-  #1585  -  Today the space is expanding due to Dark Energy at 47,000 miles per hour per million lightyears, but, it is also accelerating faster and faster.
-
-  #1596  -  Using Redshift to measure the expansion of space.
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-  #1597  -  Using Brightness to measure the expansion of space.
-
-  #1598  -  Stars and galaxies would be flying our of their orbits if it were not for unseen mass existing around the galaxies.
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-  #1599  -  We need a breakthrough in physics to explain Dark Matter.
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-  #1517  -  5 calculations used to measure Dark Matter.
-
-  #1485  -  #594  -  10 more reviews about the subject.  Stay tuned we have much more to learn.
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Gravity waves and how to detect them

-  1776  -  Gravity Waves  -  What cause them and how are do we intend to detect them.  Computer simulations using General Relativity are modeling our investigation.
-

-----------------  1776  -  Gravity Waves  -
-
-  To simulate Blackholes merging, or Neutron Stars colliding, we need the extreme physics using The Theory of Relativity.  Solving General Relativity equations at lightning speeds used in these simulations requires the biggest super computers.
-
-  The math problems become relevant today because astronomers are building Gravitational Wave Detectors designed to study these Blackhole mergers.  To design the detectors astronomers need the simulations to tell the designers what to look for.
-
-  The observatory in Hanford, Oregon, designed to do the job is LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory.  A second observatory is built in Livingston, Louisiana.  So, any observation on one can be confirmed by the other independent source.
-
-  The laser interferometers hope to detect ripples in space-time predicted in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.  Oscillating, or orbiting, mass creates gravity waves.  But, enormous mass is needed to create waves powerful enough to be detected in the instruments we can build today.  Merging Blackholes should be just the ticket to produce these powerful gravity waves.
-
-  Orbiting Blackholes release energy in the form of gravity waves rippling and spiraling outward.  This energy loss removes angular momentum from the system and the Blackholes slowly spiral inward becoming closer together until they merge into a single Blackhole.
-
-  Simulations can use Newton’s equations for gravitational attraction and angular momentum when the orbits are large.  With ever tightening orbits the math requires full-blown General Relativity equations.  The goal is to accurately reproduce the details of the  merger, a gravity wave signature, so LIGO knows what to look for and can recognize it when it finds it.
-
-  The simulations require solving 10 interwoven equations simultaneously to get a 4-dimensional picture of space-time out of the super computer.  The difficulty of translating Relativity equations into computer code was a horrendous task.
-
-  The efforts have produced results.  Simulations show Blackholes recoiling after mergers with blasts of energy jetting out at 625 miles per second, ( 2,250,000 miles per hour).
-
-  LIGO is geared to detect faint ripples of passing gravity waves resulting from these distant cataclysms.
-
-  In the 1990’s it became clear to astronomers that Blackholes not only exist, but, are in fact plentiful.  In a Blackhole the escape velocity exceeds 186,000  miles per second.  Nothing , not even light, can exceed that speed.  Blackholes are detected by their gravity and its effect on nearby stars, gas, and dust.
-
-  Blackholes are the remnants of exploding giant supernovae.  If a Blackhole’s gravity is shredding material from a binary star it unleashes X-ray energy.  These are called “ Stellar Blackholes”
-
-  Even larger Blackholes are at the centers of galaxies containing millions to billions Solar Mass.  It is possible the “ seed” Blackholes predated the formation of galaxies.  Astronomers are not sure which came first blackholes or galaxies?
-
-  X-ray and Gamma Ray emissions give astronomers evidence that Blackholes are abundant in the Cosmos.  Sky Surveys have catalogued over 13,000 Quasars and estimates are that the total is over 100,000.  Quasars are the Blackholes at the center of distant galaxies.  As Quasars age the Blackholes have less to feed on and they eventually become slumbering gravity pits at the center of older galaxies, like our own Milky Way.  The center of our galaxy harbors a 4,000,000 Solar Mass Blackhole.
-
-  A collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies will awaken two massive Blackholes and the fireworks will begin again.  This event is not expected for another 5 billion years.  Stay tuned , you never know what we will learn next?
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-
-  Other Reviews available on this topic:
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-  #1419, #1404, #1199  on Gravitational lens  
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-  #1307  The Gravity of the Details.  What are the causes of small errors in our calculations  using the equations for gravity?  ,   #974  Gravity - What is it Really?
-
-  #816  -  Why Gravity is so small.  If the Electromagnetic Force is 1.00, then gravity force is 10^-36.  That is 0.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001
-
-  #1536  -  Gravity Probe B  -  Earth’s angular momentum circling the Sun is 10,000,000 times greater that the angular momentum of Earth’s spinning in its axis.
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-  #1399  Earth’s gravity warps space-time
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-  #1155  -  What are Gravity Waves?  ,    #1728  Measuring the Universe using Gravity Waves.  -  #917  -  Gravity Waves -  mass in motion creates them.  Gravity waves are a geometric effect that travels at the speed of light.  Gravity waves are carrying away energy.
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Cosmic Evolution, how did we get here?

-  1775  -  Cosmic Evolution.  What we have learned in the past 100 years about how we got here.  And, what we are doing to learn more about what happened the past 13.7 billion years.
-
-----------------  1775  -  Cosmic Evolution.
-
-  The “ Universe” 100 years ago was a few million visible stars in our Milky Way Galaxy.  It was simple, unchanging, and consistently static.
-
-  My how times change.  Today the Observable Universe is inhabited by 100 billion galaxies , and , each galaxy could contain 100 billion stars, and, probably 100 billion planets as well.
-
-  Somehow galaxies are configured in a super structure controlled by mysterious Dark Matter.  The space between these web like structures continues to expand and consequentially the galaxies are moving further and further apart.  The energy driving this expansion is another mystery, called Dark Energy.
-
-  Over the last 13.7 billion years we have grown from a plasma of Quark soup to the complexity of galaxies and life itself.  Light from when the Universe was only a few hundred million years old has traveled 13.7 billion lightyears to reach us.  Traveling through expanding space the light wavelengths have stretched by a factor of 10 to microwave wavelengths.  To see this early light astronomers must us infrared and radio detectors as their telescopes.
-
-  At 100 million years galaxies first formed using 5 parts Dark Matter and 1 part hydrogen and helium, ( ordinary matter).  Dark Matter did not emit or absorb light radiation.  Hydrogen and helium did emit light and this caused them to loose energy.  This in turn allowed early ordinary matter to concentrate in the center of clouds of Dark Matter that didn’t loose energy.  This phenomena formed the web of filaments and clusters of galaxies we see today.
-
-  The early stars were massive, 100’s of Solar Mass.  They burned hot and with intense ultraviolet light.  They had short lives, exploding as supernovae after only 100 million years.  It took the next billion years for gravity to assemble the first galaxies out of the next generation stars.
-
-  For the first 100,000 years the Universe was dominated by pure radiation.  The first elements fused in the nucleosynthesis era was limited to the lightest elements, 75% hydrogen and 25% helium.  We had to wait 1 billion years before the heavier elements were fused in the exploding supernovae of second generation stars.  The following generations of exploding supernovae is what formed the elements in the Periodic Table.
-
-  The identity of Dark Matter remains unclear but cosmologists are convinced its existence emerged from the Quark soup when ordinary matter emerged.
-
-  One possible candidate for Dark Matter is called  the “ neutralino”.  Like neutrinos however with masses 100 to 1,000 times greater than a proton mass.  The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland, is today searching for this heavy particle.
-
-  A second candidate is called the “ axion”.  It is believed that a strong magnetic field can transform an axion into a photon.  These particles would have a mass one trillionth that of an electron.
-
-  Physics tells us that the early Universe must have contained equal amounts of matter and anti-matter.  Somehow out of the Quark soup we got one extra Quark for every billion anti-Quarks.  The rest were annihilated in a burst of radiation.  This slight imbalance occurred only 10^-34 seconds after the Big Bang.
-
-  Quantum fluctuations on the sub-atomic scale got blown up to astrophysical size by Cosmic Inflation.  These were the seeds for all the Cosmic structure we see today.  What we see are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons.  What we see is all matter and almost no anti-matter.  What we see is only 4.5% of the mass-energy of the total Universe.
-
-  There is irony in the arrogance implied in our figuring this stuff out.  At the same time it gives us the humility that there is so  much more to the Universe than us.
-
-  If the Universe continues its accelerated expansion at the current rate than all traces of the Big Bang will disappear in 30 billion years.  We will go back to what astronomers knew 100 years ago when instruments were not powerful enough to reveal the Universe we know today.  All other galaxies would have been carried by Cosmic Acceleration out of our ability to see them.  The temperature of the CMB radiation would be too low to even measure.  All evidence of the Big Bang would have disappeared.
-
-  A new telescope will measure the expansion of the Universe with more accuracy.  Called DESI, Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.
-
-  DESI will allow us to make a 3-D map of galaxy locations.  It will measure the Redshifts of 25 million galaxies to add depth information to our 2-D image.  If the light from the galaxy starts out with a wavelength of 373 nanometers and we see it Redshifted to 746 nanometers we know the Universe stretched by a factor of 2 in that region of space during the time the light was making its way to us.
-
-  By knowing the distances between pairs of galaxies astronomers can track the expansion of the Universe.  They can calculate the gravitational fields between galaxies.  They can check to see if our current theory of gravity works the same in both the early Universe and today.  Maybe Cosmic expansion comes and goes in a Cosmic oscillation.  Stay tuned there is much more to learn about Cosmic Evolution.  And, how we got here, from there.
-  
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Time, we can't live without it?

-  1774  -  Time  -  is a fundamental concept that Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity disagree about.
-

-----------------  1774  -  Time  -  We can’t live without it.
-
-  Einstein’s Theory of Relativity places “ time” and “ space” as variables.  Time depends on where two observers are in space .  Depending on position and motion they would disagree on the duration of events.  Their variability could even be extended to where two observers could disagree on the order in which events occurred.
-
-  These discrepancies are all dependent on the speed and direction observers are traveling because this affects the time it takes light from those events to reach them.  Light speed is the only “ constant” here.
-
-  Given these perceptions for two observers one could perceive a future that someone else perceives as a past.  Their perception all depends on their positions and motion.  The distinction between past, present and future is an “ illusion”.
-
-  Some physicists disagree.  They argue that the future cannot stand on the same footing as the past.  That concept could imply that the future has already been set.  What happens to “ free will” in this case.  The past is real and can have an affect on us today.  The future can not influence us because it does not yet exist.
-
-  Two observers can disagree on the duration of an event only if that event has already occurred and is in the past.
-
-  The Universe pushes forward day by day.  At the surface of time’s march forward there is uncertainty of future changes compared to the certainty of the past.  This concept enters the realm of Quantum Mechanics where a transformation from uncertain probabilities observably become fixed in reality.
-
-  In quantum Mechanics, the math that governs the subatomic world, it is impossible to predict the precise state of a particle until you measure it.  Speed and position remain unknowable until they are observed.  Only at that instant does the wave-particle collapse into a single, randomly determined identity.  The final outcome is never predetermined.
-
-  From this point of view Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity theory are incompatible.
-
-  Quantum Uncertainty states the future is not determined until it happens.  As events happen a wave of certainty transforms the open future into the closed past.
-
-  If time is an illusion, it is a very persuasive one.
-
-  The gap in this theory is to explain how the subatomic effects cascade upward to create an effect across the Cosmos.
-
-  Today quantum collapse requires an observer.  But, some physicists agree that quantum collapse can occur across the Universe without a conscious observer being present.  For example, simply when two particles happen to collide.
-
-  In this perspective quantum collapse, or decoherence, is happening all the time and everywhere in the Universe.  Time is real.  Life itself is an experiment in common sense.
-
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-
-  Other Reviews about time:
-
-  #1758  -  Time is a mystery but we can’t live without it.
-
-  #1735  -  How time, space, energy, mass, and gravity interact to make up the Universe.
-
-  Plus an index of 16 other Reviews about “ time”.  “Time is what God created to make certain everything did not happen all at once.”
-  
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Sunday, May 10, 2015  -----
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Space, what we know and don't know?

-  1773  -  Space is what separates things?  What else is it?  We continue to discover what space is and we are far from finished.
-

-----------------  1773  -  Space is what separates things?  What else is it?
-
-  The whole Earth can be reduced to the size of a sugar cube if you remove all the “space” between the atoms.  Of course,  the sugar cube would still weigh 59,700 trillion, trillion tons after removing all that weightless space.
-
-  Space as in Outer Space is different.  It can’t be “ nothing” because light waves travel through it.  And, “ waves” require some medium in which to have oscillations.  Therefore, space can’t be just a vacuum.  It was thought.
-
-  But, way back in 1887, the famous Morley-Michelson experiment realized that if light waves went through a medium they could be measured at different speeds traveling in different directions through the medium.  The Earth is traveling around the Sun at 67,000 miles per hour.  If light’s velocity was measured going in the same direction and then in the opposite direction of travel light should have a different speeds.  There was no difference, therefore, there was no medium, no ether.
-
-  In 1905 Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity showed us that light being electric and magnetic oscillations, actually pulses of photons, needed no medium and could travel through the vacuum of space.
-
-  When spectroscopy was used to study space we learned that space was full of dust, particles, atoms.  They were mostly hydrogen atoms ( proton and electron), but, the average was one particle per cubic centimeter of space.  Each sugar cube volume of space contained one atom on average.
-
-  Around the Sun space is bombarded with a “ Solar Wind” of particles that has an average density of 3 to 6 atoms per cubic centimeter.  This Solar Wind is strong enough to create a comet’s tail.
-
-  Outer space also bombards us with Cosmic Rays.  Cosmic Rays are mostly protons, (hydrogen nuclei) , but, sometimes some heavier atomic nuclei.  A mystery lies behind the fact that 99% are positive charged protons, or nuclei, but, what happened to their negative charged electrons?  They must be out there somewhere in space?
-
-  We are also bombarded from space by 3 varieties of neutrinos.  Their masses so tiny they fly right through us and through the Earth back into space.
-
-  One conclusion must be that space is full of particles.
-
-  Space is also full of “ fields”, magnetic fields, electric fields, gravity fields, or waves.  These fields are traveling energy.  There is another mystery in an anti-gravity traveling energy, a “ vacuum energy”, that is expanding all of space.  Even accelerating the expansion.
-
-  This vacuum energy was demonstrated in the lab in 1930s known as the Casimir Effect.  This mysterious energy is thought to be caused by particles and anti-particles filling space and constantly going into and out of existence.  If true, than space is not empty at all but really full of particles.
-
-  Today this vacuum energy is given the name Dark Energy and it is credited to ever expanding space at an accelerating rate.
-
-  Space is what we humans use to separate things.  It is measured as distance between things.  That distance may be full of stuff, but, it works to keep things separated.  Just as time is used to keep things from all happening at once.
-
-  Space as a separation of things extends from the very smallest to the very largest.
-
------------------  10^-35 meters is believed to be quantum space and the smallest space can be divided.
-----------------  10^? meters is the length of Quarks separated by Muons
-----------------  10^-14 meters is the size of a carbon nucleus, 14 protons, and 42 Quarks
-----------------  10^-11 meters is the size of a carbon atom with the nucleus and 14 electrons.
-----------------  10^0  is us
-----------------  10^6 is the Earth
-----------------  10^8  is Moon’s orbit
-----------------  10^11  is Earth’s orbit
-----------------  10^13 is the Solar System
-----------------  10^21 is the Milky Way Galaxy
-----------------  10^58 is the Observable Universe
-----------------  10^? is the actual Universe including Cosmic Inflation.
-
-  All things are separated in space, from the smallest to the largest.  Somehow they are separated but still all interconnected?  There is a Quantum Theory called “ Entanglement” that states there is “ something” in space tying all things together.
-
-  Two particles with Entangled properties remain connected even at opposite ends of the Universe.  An electron with spin up has a twin with spin down.  If one reverses the other reverses instantaneously regardless of their enormous separation.  The communication is faster than the speed of light.  There is something about space the remains interconnected.
-
-  The Theory of relativity states that space and time are also interconnected.  As velocity approaches the speed of light space shrinks and time slows.  The star Procyon is 11 light years distance.  But, if we could travel at 99% the speed of light , space would shrink, and it would take only 2 years to get there.  The size of space depends on how fast your are going.
-
-  What do we conclude about space?
-
---------  Space is not empty
-
---------  Space gives us distances that is variable depending on the velocity and the strength of gravity.
-
---------  Space still interconnects entangled bodies.
-
----------  Space at the smallest level may be a discrete package the can not be divided further, a quantum particle of space.
-
---------  Space may have more than 3 - dimensions.  There may be extra dimensions wrapped up so small we cannot detect them.
-
---------  Space is not nothing.  At the bare minimum it can tie your brain into a knot.
-
-  There are more Reviews about space available upon request:
-
-  #1407  -  Space is anything but empty
-
-  #1679  -  Space dust
-
-  # 1242  How does Space-Time change at the micro-level.  At the smallest scales things become bull’s eyes of wave patterns that spread effects over a range of probabilities.
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-  #1241  How can space and time be related?  They are connected by distance / time which is velocity.  And velocity is limited to the speed of light, therefore space / time must vary.
-
-  #1258  How much space is in our Solar System
-
-  #781  Much todo about Nothing.  The Universe is expanding and more “ nothing” is being created all the time.
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Friday, May 8, 2015  -----
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How do constants control nature?

-  1772 -  How do Constants control nature?  How well do we know the value of each constant?  Has their value changed over time or distance?  What happens with the slightest change in these constants in nature?
-

-----------------  1772 -  How do Constants control nature?
-
-  Our world of “ reality” relies on some “ constants in nature”:
-
--------------  c  =  velocity of light  =  299,792,458        meters per second
-
--------------  G  =  Gravitational Constant  =  6.673*10^-11     m^3 / kg*sec^2
-
--------------  me  =  mass of electron  =  9.10938188 * 10^-31         kilograms
-
-  There are several more of nature’s constants.  We expect these “ constants’ to be the same everywhere in the Universe and always whenever in time.
-
-  We only experimentally have come to learn the magnitude of these constants.  No one so far has defincd why they are what they are.  The only thread running between them is that if any one was only slightly different in magnitude living beings would not be here trying to figure them out.
-
-  Proving that these constants are truly constant and have always been the same throughout time is a enormous task.  Could there be some unifying description of all of nature?  Is there such a thing as a “theory of everything”?  Could these constants be merely 3-dimensional “ shadows’ of higher multidimensional space?  And , we can not see past 3-dimensions.  Is our known Universe be one of many unknown universes with different constants?
-
-  Science likes to assume that its reference standards are “fixed”.  Rulers, masses, clocks, are fixed in space and time.  To avoid these measurement unit assumptions science uses ratios that have no units.
-
-  An example would be the ratio of a proton mass divided by an electron mass  = 1832.
-
-  Another example is the “ fine structure constant” which is more complicated but never less it is unitless:
-
----------------------  alpha  =  e^2  /  2 * Eo * h * c
-
-----------------------   e  =  charge of electron  =  1.6*1-^-19     Coulombs
-
----------------------   Eo  =  permittivity of space  =  8.85 *10^-12         C^2 / N * m^2
-
----------------------   h  =  Planck’s Constant  =  6.63*10^-34         Joule * seconds
-
---------------------    c  =  speed of light  =  2.99*10^8  meter / second
-
-  The measured answer of these constants and calculated  for the fine structure constant is :
-
-------------------  alpha  =  1 / 137.03599976
-
-  Or, approximately  1/137  in the rest of this text.  (0.007297)
-
-  If alpha were any smaller molecular bonds would break at lower temperatures.  There would be fewer different elements in the Periodic Table.
-
-  If alpha were any larger atom’s nuclei could not exist.  The elements would blow apart.  Fusion in stars would not happen.  Carbon would not be produced in the stars.
-
-  Science has difficulty seeing any of these changes in constants, but, they are trying.  If alpha changed only 4 parts in 10^15 over a 3 year period the atomic clocks would be able to see it.  None have!
-
-  Yes but, 3 years is a very short time in cosmological time.  Changes have been studied in isotopic composition of uranium and measured to 1 part in 10^8 over 2 billion years.  In the radioactive decay in meteorites the measurement was to 2 parts in 10^6 going back to the origin of the solar system , over 4.6 billion years.
-
-  Astronomers are studying the light from Quasars that travels through interstellar gas over billions of lightyears.  Do the atoms in the gas absorb light at the same frequencies which would be controlled by the fine structure constant.  Calculations were made of how alpha affects observed wavelengths in all different atomic types and elements.
-
-  Based on 128 Quasar absorption lines alpha was found to increase 6 parts in 10^6 over a 6 to 12 billion year time period.  Could this change in alpha be a function of distance , and therefore of time?  Or,  could it be by a particular direction looking into space?  Or, is this our measurement error?
-
-  Changes in alpha could be driven by the imbalances between the electric field energy and the magnetic field energy over the evolution of the Universe?  During the early evolution radiation dominated over charged particles.  As matter became dominate over the Universe expansion the electric and magnetic fields could become unequal.  About 6 billion years ago Dark Energy began to accelerate the expansion and alpha became nearly constant again.
-
-  This scenario of cosmic evolution could explain how Redshift dependency on alpha might have changed over time.  The changes are so small random or systematic measurement errors could also explain them.  If alpha is susceptible to change the other constants that comprise it are subject to change as well.
-
-  The study is on, but, the jury is still  out.  We need more evidence for cosmological evolution changing nature’s constants.
-
-  There is one constant standard that is changing.  The “kilogram”.  The mass of the Earth is 5.97219*10^24 kilograms.  The mass of the Sun is 1.98855 + or - 0.00025 *10^30 kilograms.  Accuracy to within 25 ten thousands of a kilogram, but, how accurate is a kilogram?
-
-  The kilogram was created in 1889.  It is block of platinum and iridium kept in a vault in Paris  There are also 6 official copies that are routinely cross-checked with the original.  Plus 100 more that are calibrated every few decades.  Discrepancies have been detected at 1 part in 60 billionths.  That seems terrible accurate.  But, science would like a better standard, not a block of metal in Paris.
-
-  A better standard would be based on the constants of nature.
-
-  A proposed new standard to come into affect in 2018 would use an equation based on the product of Planck’s Constant , “h”, and a frequency, “f”, derived from the atomic element Cesium.  Energy  =  h * f.  Divided by the speed of light we have  E / c^2  = mass.
-  
-  To get acceptance independent standards labs around the world need to verify accuracy to within 20 parts per billion.  Once accepted we would have an equation to replace that block of metal in Paris.
-
-  Stay tuned, there is still more to learn.  Also see Review #938 on Universal Constants.  And, #1336 Mystery of the Fine Structure Constant.
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Monday, May 4, 2015  -----
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Complexities of the Universe?

-  1771  -  Life is complex?  What are the strangest things to try to comprehend?  They are found at either end of physics and astronomy, then life itself.
-

-----------------  -  1771  -  Life is complex?
-
-  Cosmology is a form of intellectual time travel.  Looking out 13.8 billion lightyears distance is looking backward in time to when the Universe began.  In the first few seconds the Universe expanded at an exponential rate causing the Universe to grow in size to where we can no longer see the other  side.  That light will never have time to reach us.
-
-  The photons of the most distant Universe are so far away they will never have time to reach us even while traveling at 300,000,000 meters per second.  The Cosmic Inflation that occurred at 10^-36 seconds expanded space by a factor of 1,050 in an instant of time.  There is no way to ever catch up with this.
-
-  After the Cosmic Inflation event the Universe continued to expand at its slower pace.  Today it is still expanding at 47,000 miles per hour for every million lightyears of space being occupied.
-
-  As photons travel through expanding space they stretch out and loose energy.  Their wavelengths widen, their frequency decreases.
-
--------------------------  Energy  =  Plank’s Constant  *  Speed of Light  / wavelength
-
---------------------------  E  =  h * c / w
-
-  The inverse relationship means the wider the wavelength the lower the energy.  ( See footnote 1 to learn how the formula works).
-
-  Wider wavelengths are characterized by shifting the spectrum of light towards the wider wavelengths, the red end of the spectrum.  Thus the “ Redshift”.  When photon wavelengths  reach us they have been Redshifted in accordance to the distance they have traveled through space.
-
-  In addition to distance, we are seeing objects that are as they were billions of years ago.  These faraway galaxies appear to be moving away from us at a rate that is proportional to the Redshift of their light.
-
-  The speed of light is the same when compared in all inertia reference frames.  As a stationary observer I see the same speed of light as an astronaut in a spaceship zooming past Neptune at 25,000 miles per hour.   The photon always travels 300,000,000 meters per second away from , or towards, an observer regardless of the changing reference frame.
-
-  Space-time is expanding but not with respect to anything outside of itself.  Distant galaxies can be receding away from us faster than the speed of light.  However, you as an observer on one of those galaxies would still see light at the same constant speed.
-
-  STRANGE:  We can see objects that have accelerated beyond our ability to see them today because the light we see today was emitted when the objects were within our ability to see them.
-
-  The Observable Universe has a horizon that marks the distance to the farthest light that we can see at this moment in time.  That distance by the way is about 46 billion lightyears in every direction, 250 billion trillion miles.
-
-  This horizon encompasses all the events in the past that we can currently see.  It is also the distance a future observer will be able to see when that ancient light finally reaches us.
-
-  STRANGER  STILL:  There are regions of the Universe that we will never see.  The velocity of the expanding Universe is actually increasing.  Cosmological calculations today suggest that the Universe expansion is outpacing the growth of our Observable Universe.  Today’s models fit the current data but the truth be known none of us will live long enough to see if outcomes match predictions.
-
-  STRANGEST:  The strangest thing in the Universe is that we are here thinking about the strangest thing in the Universe.
-
-  STRANGER STILL:  Strange does not stop with an accelerating expanding Universe.  Then there is the knowledge that energy and mass are the same thing.  Or the faster you go the heavier you get.  Energy is not stationary.  It is  moving at 300 million meters per second.  A small amount of matter equates to a tremendous amount or energy, E=mc^2.  Energy equals mass time 90,000,000,000,000,000.
-
-  There is a limit to the faster you go the heavier you get approaching the speed of light you reach infinite mass and require infinite energy to go any faster.
-
-  This conversion of mass to energy can be reversed.  Science today is able to transform light into a very small amount of matter.  Science is still working on this.
-
-  If you cannot explain it simply enough you don’t understand it well enough.  Life is grown in complexity to where it becomes aware of itself.
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-   Footnote (1):    Here is how light transports energy.  Each photo has a fixed amount of energy traveling at light speed,   h  =  6.63*10^-34 Joule-seconds.  It is Planck’s Constant of Action,  “h”
-----------------------------  E  =  h * f
-
-  The higher the frequency of light the greater the energy.
-
-----------------------  Energy  =  Planck’s Constant  *  frequency
-
----------------------  Frequency  =  Speed of light  /  wavelength
-
-----------------------    f  =  c / w
-
-  A wavelength of 590 nanometers of yellow light emitted by a 60 watt light bulb has a frequency of 0.51 * 10^15 cycles per second, or 0.51 terahertz.
-
-----------------------  f  =  300*10^6 meters per second  /  590 * 10^-9 meters
-
-----------------------  f  =  0.51 * 10^15 cycles per second
-
-  The rate of photons emitted per second from the 60watt light bulb at the single frequency of 0.51 terahertz =
-
-------------------  N  =  E / h*f
-
-------------------  N  =  60  Joule - seconds  /  (6.63*10^-34 Joule * seconds  * 0.51*10^15 cycles per second)
-
--------------------  N  =  1.8 * 10^20 photons per second
-
-  The 590 nanometer wavelengths each second carry 180,000,000,000,000,000,000 photons.  The eyeball is awash with photons.
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Hubble Space Telescope. 25 years of discovery?

-  1770  -  Hubble Space Telescope.  The 25 year anniversary of space exploration.  What did Hubble learn?  How did Hubble change our view of the Universe?   What will James Webb show us?
-

-----------------  1770  -  Hubble Space Telescope
-
-  The Hubble Space Telescope is celebrating 25 years of space astronomy.  One of its greatest discoveries in 1998 was that gravitational attraction of all the matter in the Universe was not causing cosmic expansion to slow down.  Quite the opposite, Hubble’s view of the most distant supernovae explosions confirmed that cosmic expansion was accelerating.
-  
-  This amazing discover occurred by witnessing White Dwarf stars grow to 1.4 Solar Mass and explode as a “ standard candle” supernovae, which allowed astronomers to calculate distances very accurately.
-
-  Somehow the vacuum of space contains energy that is more powerful than gravitational energy that decays as distance squared.  If this Dark Energy represents the energy of “empty” space,  which has a constant density, then the expansion will continue to accelerate forever.  Distant galaxies will continue to disappear from view, farther than their light has time to reach us.  The Universe will die a “ cold death” as everything separates from every thing else.
-
-  The rate of expansion was not well measured until Hubble used the brightness of Cepheid Variable stars.  Earlier measurements put the rate of expansion at 50 kilometers per second per megaparsec to 100 km/sec/Mpc.  The distance measurements in Hubble’s observations refined the Hubble Constant of Expansion to 72 km/sec/Mpc.  This more accurate expansion rate allowed the calculation for the age of the Universe back to the Big Bang to be 13,800,000,000 years.
-
-  Hubble Deep Field observations at a single point in the sky for a very long time exposure witnessed thousands of galaxies in an area of the sky no bigger than looking through a soda straw.  Given the Universe is the same in every location and in every direction meant that the Observable Universe contains many hundred billion galaxies.
-
-  Hubble’s observations have concluded that essentially every galaxy that has a bulge of stars at its center hosts a super massive Blackhole.  The  mass of these Galactic Blackholes ranges from a few tens of thousand times the Sun’s mass to a few billion Solar Mass.  Hubble could measure the mass by the velocity dispersion of the stars orbiting the central Blackhole.
-
-  Hubble used gravitational lensing to map out Dark Matter surrounding a foreground galaxy cluster.  These 3-dimensional maps have allowed astronomers to create web-like structures in space that acts as scaffolding for normal matter and the formation of galaxies and galaxy clusters.
-
-  Hubble working with the Chandra X-ray Observatory have mapped out a clear separation of Dark Matter and hot ordinary matter present in colliding galaxy clusters.
-
-  Since 1991 nearly 2,000 planets have been discovered in other solar systems.  Hubble has witnessed some transiting planets passing in front of their star.  A small fraction of the star light passes through the planet’s atmosphere.  The spectrum analysis of this light has detected the elements sodium, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and water vapor in the planet’s atmosphere.
-
-  Hubble Deep Field images have explored the galaxy populations back to when the Universe was only 500 million years old.  This is in the “ Reionization” era of cosmic evolution.
-
-  Reionization was when the Universe was “ dark”.  After the Big Bang the Universe was filled with a hot plasma, or free protons and free electrons.  380,000 years later the protons and electrons began combining into neutral hydrogen.  When plasma ions (charged particles) were neutralized the cosmos became transparent and “ first light” escaped.
-
-  The “ first light” today is seen as the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation as the expanding Universe has stretched the light waves out into microwaves.  At that point in the evolution stars had not yet formed from the fusion of hydrogen.  That took another 200 million years later.  The first stars produced mostly ultraviolet radiation that further bombarded neutralized hydrogen atoms back into charged particles, protons and free electrons.  It took an billion more years for this Reionization to be completed.
-
-  Hubble is waiting to be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope to explore the faintest objects that existed at the end of Reionization.  We are literally studying the birth of the Universe.  Stay tuned , there is much more to learn.
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Saturday, May 2, 2015  -----
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