Supernovae and evolution on Earth

-  1866  -  Supernovae and evolution on Earth.  Could Dark Matter also have impacted evolution on Earth?  Or, did the 9th planet yet to be discovered send Kuiper Belt asteroids into the inner Solar System causing mass extinctions and life evolution?
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---------------------------  -  1866  -  Supernovae and evolution on Earth.
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-  When the earliest human ancestors roamed the Earth, 2,000,000 years ago, a supernova exploded that out shone the full moon.  It was a star that exploded 325 years earlier and its flash of light was just reaching us.
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-  Not only the light but interstellar dust rained on to the Earth and the Moon.  The radiation was intense enough to alter Earth’s climate.  It may have been the seed that gave rise to the human lineage.  That was about time it all started, the Adam and Eve era.
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-  We are all made of star dust.  Our blood pumps iron that was formed in stars billions of years ago.  Science is using ocean sediments as “ telescopes” looking back in time to learn about past supernovae explosions near Earth.  Digging into the Earth to learn our Cosmic past.  Looking down instead of up to see the past.
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-  The technique being used is radioactive dating of the isotope iron-60.  Current thinking from early results is the Earth has experienced many supernovae explosions in the past.  Iron-60 concentrations were found from 1.5 to 3.2 million years ago.  And, from 6.5 to 8.7 million years ago.  Samples from the two Apollo Moon missions came to the same conclusion.
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-  The calculated star masses were 8.8 Solar Mass.   And , 9.2 Solar Mass for a supernova exploding 2.3 million years ago.
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-  Could these supernovae have been responsible for the rapid climate changes that created the eras of change on Mother Earth?  Supernovae remnants could interfere with Earth’s atmosphere.  There could be a loss of Ozone.  There could be X-ray, Gamma Ray, Ultraviolet ray and Cosmic ray bombardments.
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-  Betelgeuse is the closest star, in Constellation Orion, that could be the next supernova near Earth.  So, we have evolved  “ supernovae archaeologists” to study human evolution.  We humans are not just Earthlings, we are also citizens of the Cosmos.
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-  Supernovae affects on evolution is not the only theory.  Dark Matter could have been an impact factor.  After all it is 83% of all the matter in the Universe.
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-  Astronomers can not “see” Dark Matter, but, they have detected and measured it through its gravitational pull.  It is the fabric that is holding galaxies together, keeping them form flying apart like a lawn sprinkler.
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-  Science has not determined what particles exist that make up Dark Matter.  It appears to be outside our “ Standard Model of Particle Physics”.  A new name for Weakly Interactive Massive Particles, “ WIMPS”.
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-  We think the gravity math is true, it has worked for over 100 years of observations.  Detection has expanded to the search into Gamma Ray emissions that may result in Dark Matter interactions with Ordinary Matter.  Dark Matter may have its own “dark electromagnetism‘.  It may be composed of not just one particle but many different partially - interacting particles.  Neutrons in our Natural World do not interact with protons or electrons.  Maybe WIMPS are similar?
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-  Lisa Randall has authored a new book “ Dark Matter and Dinosaurs” that postulates Dark Matter may have influenced the evolution of life on Earth.
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-  Our neighborhood of galaxies, the Milky Way, Andromeda, and dozens of Dwarf Galaxies lie in roughly the same plane.  Maybe a slight Dark Matter interaction is responsible for creating this structure.  The rotation of clouds of Dark Matter could collapse into flat disks.  Maybe these “Dark Disks” are embedded in our visible disks.
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-   Our solar system takes 240,000,000 years to complete one orbit around the Milky Way.  Evidence is that our galactic orbit bobs up and down in a wavy motion traveling through the galactic plane every 32,000,000 years.  Meteor impacts on Earth have occurred at about the same intervals.  The Cretaceous - Tertiary extinction of the dinosaurs occurred 67,000,000 years ago.
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-  An asteroid impact left a crater 110 miles in diameter at Chicxulub, Mexico.  The asteroid was 6 miles diameter.  The release of energy into the climate killed 75% of the life on Earth.  Studying older craters uncovered nearly the same 35,000,000 cycle of large meteor impacts.
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-  Can science really tie mass extinctions to the meteorite cratering record?
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-  Could still another theory include a 9th planet orbiting outside the Kuiper Belt of asteroids and Dwarf Planets that is sending meteors into the inner Solar System.
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-  New evidence shows astronomers that the 6 most distant objects with orbits beyond Neptune are all mysteriously aligned in one direction.  They al tilt identically from the plane of the Solar System.  The probability calculated for this occurring by coincidence is 0.007 percent.  So, what was the cause for this alignment?
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-  Computer modeling puts constraints on the 9th planet that is 10 times the mass of he Earth.  In orbit 30 degrees from the orbital plane of our 8 planets.  With an average distance of 600 AU from the Sun.  ( 1 AU -  Earth-Sun distance, 93 million miles)
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-  The planet could have a 20,000 year orbit.  At its closest distance in its eccentric orbit it could be as bright as Magnitude 18 in the southern sky.  Perihelion is when the orbit is closest to the Sun.  Aphelion is when it is the furthest.  At its furthest point its brightness would be a very dim Magnitude 25  ( See footnote 1)
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-  The active search is on.  All the math gives us confidence we will find a 9th Planet.  Stay tuned, an announcement will be made shortly.
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-  #1806  ,  #1807  ,  #1808  -    evolution is my genealogy over 4,000 years, 139 generations.  And, the evolution of time 10^-43 seconds to present day, 15,000,000,000 years
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-  #693  -  Evolution of plants and animals.
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-  #583  -  Life Evolution and God.
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-  Footnote (1)  The Greek Astronomer Hipparchus ( 190 - 120 B.C.) first described the Magnitude system for the Apparent Brightness of stars.     The brightest stars were given a Magnitude 1.  The next brightest Magnitude 2, etc…. to the faintest visible stars a Magnitude 6.
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-  Today modern algorithms define Apparent Magnitudes “ Each difference of 5 Magnitudes represents a factor of 100 in brightness.  Magnitude 1 star is 100 times brighter than a Magnitude 6 star.  The brightest star needs a negative Magnitude, Sirius is Magnitude -1.46.
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Equations are just another language to learn.

-  1865  -  Equations are just another language to learn.  Here are several of equations that changed our understanding of our world.  Also listed of how important they are in our daily lives.
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----------------  1865  -  Equations are just another language to learn.
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-  The language of mathematics is a shorthand.  It was created to make things simpler to understand and to manipulate.  Learn the new vocabulary in math and how equations can be transformed into longhand, words and sentences.  For example:
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----------------------------  h^2  =  a^2   +  b^2
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----------------------------  The square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.
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-  Equations are designed to simplify ideas and theories  One of the simplest ideas was discovered 100 years ago.
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--------------------------  E  =  m
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-------------------------  Energy  =  mass
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-  This equation says that energy and mass is the same thing.  To be an equality we need a constant of proportionality depending on the units used.  Mass in kilograms.  Energy is kilograms * meters^2 / seconds^2.
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-----------------------kg * m^2 / sec^2  =  kg  ( constant )
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--------------------  The constant must be m^2 / sec^2, which is the square of velocity.  The genius of Einstein was to realize the constant velocity was the speed of light ( c ).
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----------------------------  E = m*c^2
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-  The equation in the first paragraph involved a simple right triangle.  Take 2 sticks connected at an angle, a vertex.  Measure 3 feet along one stick and make a mark.  Measure 4 feet along the other stick and make a mark.  Measure 5 feet between the marks and the angle at the vertex is exactly 90 degrees, perpendicular, a right angle.
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-  This is the Pythagorean Theorem.
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--------------------(3)^2  +  (4)^2   =  (5)^2
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-------------------  9  +  16  =  25
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-------------------  a^2  +  b^2  =  h^2
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-This simple equation helped build the pyramids and was around 1,000 years before Pythagoras , a Babylonian, made it famous.  Today it is still the core of geometry, trigonometry , surveying, map making , navigation, even art, and of course our GPS satellite navigation system.  The Pythagorean Theorem works in plane geometry.  A right angle on the surface of a sphere, the Earth’s surface for example, does not work with this theorem.  In that case the 3 angles of the triangle does not add up to 180 degrees.
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-  There at least 6 different proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem.  My favorite uses geometry.  Puts a right triangle inside a trapezoid.  Doubles the trapezoid to form a rectangle.  One side being the hypotenuse.
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----------------   ½ ab  +  ½ ab  + ½ c^2  =  h ( a+b) / 2
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--------------------  h  =  a+ b
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-----------------  c^2  =  a^2 + b^2
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-  Logarithms are another math invention to make life simpler.  Numbers can be  multiplied and divided by adding and subtracting their exponents with a common base.  The common base can be 10, or 2, or “e”.  Reference tables are created that make multiplying large numbers less tedious.  Just add up the exponents.
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-  Today logarithms are used to model compound interest and exponential biological growth, and radioactive decay.
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-  Logarithms are the inverse operations to exponentials.  For logarithms to the base 2:
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-------------------  y = log 2(x)
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------------------  64  =   2^6
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------------------Log 2 (64)  =  6
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-  Binary logarithms are used in computer science Natural logarithms using the base “e”, 2.71828.…….  Are used in physics.
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---------------  Log ( x*y)  =  Log x  +  Log y
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-  Calculus was a math invented to calculate instantaneous rates of change.  The inventors were Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.  Calculus is the foundation of  many of Nature’s laws.  It is the source of differential equations.  It is used to measure solids, curves, and areas.  It s used to calculate the optimal solutions in medicine, economics, physics, engineering and computer science.
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-  A linear function is the equation y  =  mx +b
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-   “m” is the slope or “the rate of change” of y with respect to x at the point of intersection of “a” and “b” coordinates.
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----------------------  m = delta y /  delta x  =  change in y / change in x
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--- Differential-----------------  d(x^2)  /  dx  =  2x
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----Integral -----------------------  2x*dx  =  x^2 + a constant.
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-   The equation for gravity:
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--------------------  F  =  G * m*M /r^2
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-  This equation calculates the force of gravity between two objects ( m  and  M ).  Isaac Newton,  Johannes Kepler, and Robert Hooke all had a  hand in its creation.  Newton’s law descries how gravity works everywhere from the baseball field to the evolution of galaxies.  An enhancement to Newton’s law was introduced by Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity which is needed in dealing with massive objects or motion approaching the speed of light.
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-  Complex Numbers were needed to work with the square roots of negative numbers.  The square root of (-2) has no “real” solution.  There is no real number multiplied by itself that has the answer (-2).  The imaginary solution to the square root of (-4)  is (2i)  Math using these imaginary numbers is essential in working with electrical systems and a variety of modern data processing algorithms.
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-  Euler’s formula for polyhedral describes a numerical relationship for solid shapes.  Polyhedral are 3-dimensional versions of polygons.  The corners are “vertices”, the connections lines are “ edges”.  a cube had 8 vertices, 12 edges, and 6 “faces”.  If you add the vertices and faces together ( 8 + 6)  and subtract the edges ( 12) you will always get the number 2.
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------------------------  8  +  6  -12  =  2
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-  This concept is used extensively in the science of topology, which is the geometry of continuous surfaces.  This scientific tool is also used to study DNA, and networks like the internet.
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---------------------  e^ix  =  cos x  +  i*sin x
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-------------------  “e”  is the base of natural logarithms
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------------------  “i”  is the imaginary unit
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-  The Normal Distribution is a bell shaped curve that has defined probabilities at points near the average and extending to the edges.  68% of the values in the distribution are within one “standard deviation” of the mean.  95% of the values are within 2 standard deviations.  99.7% are within 3 deviations.
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-  It came from the initial work of Blaise Pascal.  The Normal Distribution has become the foundation for modern statistics.  The curve mathematically describes purely random occurrences, like flipping a coin, heads or tails.  Today it is used to determine whether drugs are sufficiently effective in clinical trials.
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-  The Wave Equation is a differential equation that describes the behavior of waves, for example the vibrating guitar string and the resulting sound wave.  It works equally well with earthquakes and ocean waves.  Oil , gas, mining companies set off explosives and read reflecting data in sound waves to discover geological formations.
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-  To describe a sinusoidal wave you need a “ second - order linear partial differential equation”:
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-------------------------- d^2 f(x)  /  dx^2  =  - (w/c) f(x)
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-  Fourier Transforms describe patterns of time as a function of frequency.  The equation can describe complex wave patterns in heat flow, music, speech, images and signal analysis.  Today it is used to compress the JPEG image format in your cell phone and describe the structure of molecules. ( Charles Fourier  1772  - 1837 ).
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-  The Navier-Stokes equations are used to describe how fluids work. The left side of the equation is the acceleration of fluid and the right side is the forces that act upon it.  It is applying Newton’s 2nd law of motion to fluid motion.    The equations are used to model the weather, ocean currents, water flow in a pipe, air flow around a wing.  It allows the design of vehicles that are more aerodynamic.
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-  Maxwell’s equations are the ones I spent 3 years working on in electrical engineering school.  They define the relationship between electric and magnetic fields.  Maxwell then realized that light was an electromagnetic wave.  Today we owe these equations to the development of radar, television, and modern communications.
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-  The 2nd  law of Thermodynamics defines how heat and energy dissipate over time.  The concept of “ Entropy” is a measure of disorder, or randomness, in the system.  The sum of entropies must continually increase over time.  The simplest example is that of heat flow from hot to cold until equilibrium is reached.  The 2nd law expresses the irreversibility of this process.  Thermodynamics is an essential tool in the understanding of chemistry and engines.
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-  Einstein’s Theory of Relativity says energy and matter are 2 forms of the same thing,    E = mc^2.  “c^2” is the speed of light squared.  “c” is a universal speed limit such that space / time must change to keep “c” constant in all forms of motion.
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-  Schrodinger’s equation.   In 1924  Louis de Broglie determined the dual nature of matter being both particles and waves.  Erin Schrodinger  (1867 - 1961) in 1924 defined the math that describes how particles exist over a range of probabilities.  This today is the modern Quantum Mechanics that matches all observations and predictions in physics.  The equation is used in nuclear power, semi-conductor based computers, lasers, and other quantum phenomena.
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-  Shannon’s Information equation estimates the amount of data in a piece of code by the probabilities of its components.  It measure the information content of a message or anything represented symbolically.  The Shannon Entropy is how much the message can be compressed without losing content.  It is used in source coding given a noisy communications channel.
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-  Chaos Theory equations are used in logistic models of population growth.  Chaos is a normal consequence of differential equations.  Processes evolve based on their initial conditions.  Weather is the best known example of a small change in initial conditions resulting in a completely different weather system days later. (popularly known as the butterfly effect).  It is also used to model earthquakes.
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-  The Black-Scholes equations were created for the multi-trillion dollar financial derivatives market.  Improper use of the formula created a financial crisis.   Variants of the model are still in use to price derivatives today.
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-  And , we still have not gotten to F = ma.  Force = mass * acceleration.  An object in orbit at a constant speed is accelerating.  Velocity is speed AND direction.  A circular orbit is constantly changing directions.  And, changing velocity is acceleration.  The centripetal force is exactly balanced by the pull of gravity.
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-----------------------  F  =  G*m*M / r^2  =  m*a  =  m*v^2 / r
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-----------------------  So if you can measure the orbital speed and the distance from the larger mass , “M“ , you can calculate the mass inside the orbit.
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-  Or,   e^i*pi + 1  = 0,    An “ irrational number” raised by the power of and “ imaginary number” plus a normal number 1 =  zero.  Who ever thought of that?
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-  Leonard Euler.  ( 1707 - 1783)
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-  or,  Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle.  Equations are a simplification to help us understand complex things.  Simplification helps us know more and more about less and less until we know everything about nothing.
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How is Dark Energy expanding the Universe?

-  1864  -  How is Dark Energy expanding the Universe?  Why is this expansion rate accelerating?  Where does the energy come from?  What is the likely end result?
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-----------------1864  -  How is Dark Energy expanding the Universe?
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-  Empty space that separates everything is growing wider and wider.  Not that we can notice.  We need cosmic scales before we can begin to measure it.  Edwin Hubble made the first measurements in 1920.  His distance measurements for galaxies determined that the farther the galaxy was away from us the faster it was receding away from us.  The space between us was expanding.
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-  In 1998 measurement of supernovae determined that not only was the Universe expanding it was accelerating in its expansion.  18 years later and all we have is a “name” for this phenomena, “ Dark Energy”,   but, no explanation on what is causing this cosmic acceleration.
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-  One theory assumes that empty space is not a vacuum, not nothing, but, teeming with pairs of “ virtual particles”.  Virtual because these  particles and their anti-particles spontaneously appear and disappear so quickly they avoid detection.  In the process these particles carry energy.  Energy can produce gravity just as mass can produce the effects of gravity.
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-  Somehow this energy is negative pressure, a type of anti-gravity.  In Einstein’s equation for gravity this term is called the “ Cosmological Constant”.  He called it the “ constant energy density throughout space”.
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-  Another theory is that the Dark Energy is a “Quintessence“ field, where every point in space counteracts the pull of gravity.  If Dark Energy is a quintessence field it might change with time.  So it may accelerate the Universe for a while , then, reverse itself and return the Universe into a “ Big Crush”.
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-  Still a third theory is that our theory of gravity, the “General Theory of Relativity’, is incomplete.  These laws of gravity themselves might need to change.  But, where, why, how?
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-  None of these theories mathematically,  completely match observation.  Regardless the vacuum energy must be very tiny. It only is effective on cosmic scales.  Still any one of these theories if true could produce very different results in the long run.
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-  Is Dark Energy a field?  Will it send the Universe into a “ Big Rip” or change direction and collapse the Universe in a ‘ Big Crunch”?
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-  Or, is there no Dark Energy at all?  Instead we may learn that we need to change the laws of gravity?
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-  If space is expanding under the cosmological constant in a trillion years from now all the galaxies will be so far away their light will never reach us.  Even the Cosmic Microwave Background will have a wavelength wider that our visible universe.
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-  “ Cosmic inflation” suggests the Universe ballooned enormously in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang.  Maybe there are multiple pocket universes that form in isolation from one another doing the same thing?
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-  This last theory comes out of “ string theory” and “ M-theory”.
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-  To learn the nature of Dark energy we need more measurements of the pressure and the density of space.  It the ratio of pressure to density is equal to -1 it could be that the “cosmological constant” is the right theory.
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-  If the ratio differs from -1 it may be energy is evolving differently over time.  If the ratio is different with different observations maybe the Theory of Relativity needs to be modified.?
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-  The new data astronomers need are to learn how galaxy clusters grew over time.  A new technique for astronomers is Gravitational Lensing.  This new tool allows the most distant measurements of galaxies.  The data collected will define how the Universe has expanded over time.  The distant measurements rely on “ redshifts’ of light spectrum.  The greater the redshift the more distant the source.
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-  A new measurement for distant measurement involves “ Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations”.    Newly discovered “ Gravitational Waves” may also be a tool to measure cosmic evolution.
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-  Another very interesting test involves the equations for gravity being verified measuring the changing distance to the Moon.  This is done using laser light off reflectors placed on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts.  Astronomers are looking for minuscule discrepancies in the calculations using current laws for gravity.
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-  There are many tests being focused on the current model for cosmology.  Dark Matter is 23% of the Universe, Dark Energy is 73%.  4% ordinary matter. Matter is using gravity to slow cosmic expansion.  Dark Energy is using anti-gravity to accelerate expansion.  How has these ratios changed over time and will they remain constant in the future?
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-  Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation is a snapshot of the Universe expansion 400,000 years after the Big Bang.  Using this data to calculate expansion does not agree with today’s direct measurements.
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-   The Universe expansion rate is called the “ Hubble Constant” but it is only constant everywhere at this point in time.  Measurements are trying to determine the rate existing in the past, and the rate does not appear to be constant going into our future.
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-  Direct measurements rely on “standard candles” of brightness of stars in galaxies to determine how fast galaxies are moving away from each other.  That is , how fast is space growing in between the galaxies.  Only those gravitationally bound together can resist this pressure to spread them farther apart.
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-  Brightness calculations depend on the “intrinsic brightness” of these “candles” compared to their “ apparent brightness” measured by the Hubble Space Telescope.  This month (April 2016) the data was published for a measured constant with an uncertainty of +-2.4%.  But, that answer is 8% faster expansion rate compared to the Cosmic Microwave Background results.
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-  Using distance ladders with Cepheid stars and Type1a supernovae astronomers get an expansion rate of 73.02 +-1.79 km/sec/mps  That is with an uncertainty error of +-2.45%.  Translating these mega parsecs into lightyears we get 47,000 miles per hour expansion rate for every million lightyears of distance.  The further the distance the faster the galaxies are receding.
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-  Using the CMB to calculate expansion rate we get 67.43 km/sec/mps  +-0.7 which is an uncertainty of +-1.04%
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-  The bottom line is the Universe looks like it is expanding 8% faster than expected based on looking at its youth (CMB) and how we expected it to evolve from then to now.
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-  Three theories surface to try to explain the disparity:
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-  (1)  Maybe the elementary particles of Dark Matter that we have not yet discovered have different properties than our current thinking.
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-  (2)  Maybe Dark Energy is not constant.  It has been different in the past and it is changing its acceleration into the future.
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-  (3)  Maybe “ standard candles” measurements were not precise enough to give us accurate results.
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-  May your curiosity always reign, and may you always have more to learn”  Cosmology is certainly granting us this wish.  God has made sure we have plenty to do.
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-  #1749  -  When the visible universe was half its current size the density was 8 times higher and the radiation twice as hot.
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-  This review lists 5 more reviews about Dark Energy.
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-  #1516  -  Dark Matter would have to be 200 times the mass of visible matter in order to have the critical density needed to halt expansion.
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-  #1499  -  Astronomers find about one supernova explosion every night.
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-  #1290  -  The observable universe has 10^22 sun-sized stars as a measure of ordinary matter.
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-  #1083  -  The intensity of luminosity of the supernovae follow the Blackbody Curve which has a defined peak as a function of wavelength and temperature.
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-  #1047  -  Is the Universe like Swiss Cheese?
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-  #822  -  Does gravity only come in one polarity?  The more studying you do the more mysteries you find.
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---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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From star light to star dust.

-  1863  -  From starlight to star dust.  Photons have some very interesting characteristics.  They are constantly moving energy around the Universe.  Mass is concentrated energy.  The gassy stars created the star dust at their cores and then exploded.
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---------------------------  -  1863  -  From starlight to star dust.
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-  Light is the most amazing thing!  Electromagnetism and the whole spectrum of radiation that we can not see, but often feel.  We can only “ see” light with wavelengths of 400 to 700 nanometers (10^-9 meters),  blue light to red light.  This is a very, very narrow slice of the whole electromagnetic spectrum.
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-  I marvel at  my cell phone.  It is able to “see” longer wavelengths in the radio spectrum and process electrical energy to produce audio wavelengths I can hear.  Amazing!  Oh, and picture pixels I can see.  Oh, and GPS satellite communications that tells me where I am standing.  Amazing!
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-  Photons are massless, but, they do carry energy.  And, energy and mass are the same thing according to E=mc^2.  Mass is just concentrated energy.  Massless photons can only ravel at one speed, 670,633,500 miles per hour.  But, that is in a vacuum.  In other media photons appear to be traveling slower.  Actually what is happening is the photons are being absorbed and re-emitted over and over again  making their forward travel appear to be slower than the speed of light.
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-  This effect can actually produce “shockwaves” in water or air, similar to sonic booms.  Light appears to slow down as it interacts with the atoms in the medium.
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-  Gamma Rays from space hit the upper atmosphere moving faster than the speed of light “in air”.   The resulting shockwave produces more photons at lower energy levels.  This effect is known as “ Cherenkov Radiation”.  Nuclear reactors produce this effect in the water surrounding the nuclear fuel.
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-  Color is our brains way of interpreting the wavelength of visible light.  Red is the longest wavelength we can see, 700 nanometers.  Longer wavelengths are in the infrared and microwave that we can feel but not see.  Blue or Violet is the shortest wavelengths that we can see, 400 nanometers.  Shorter wavelengths are ultraviolet that we can feel in sunburns, X-rays that can penetrate the skin, and Gamma Rays that are deadly radiation.
-
-  The longer wavelengths like radio waves have much lower energy.  That is the reason you need amplifiers in your cell phone.  Shorter wavelengths have higher energies.
-
----------------------  E  =  h * f
-
-  “h”  is Planck’s Constant of Action  =  6.625 *10^-34 kilogram * meters^2 / seconds.
-
--------------------  Energy  =  6.6^10^-34  * frequency
-
-  The higher the frequency the shorter the wavelength the higher the energy.  w*f  = c
-
-  High frequency Gamma Rays burn living tissue.
-
-  Knowing the energy and the frequency it is possible to calculate the number of photons, which are little bundles of energy.  See Review #1810.  An incandescent light bulb emits 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 photons per second (10^20)
-
-  The Sun emits 10^45 photons per second.
-
-  Amazingly science can actually perform measurements on a single photon.  Your eyes are sensitive enough to detect a bundle of 6 to 10 photons.  Photons can appear particle-like or they can appear like a bundle of wave-energy.  And this wave-like character can produce interference patterns of “light” amplification and ‘dark” wave cancellations.
-
-  Visible light wavelengths are larger than the size of atoms and molecules allowing us to see matter.  Shorter wavelengths like X-rays and ultraviolet light are able to “see” even smaller structures.  Particle Accelerators accomplish this by accelerating electrons using changing magnetic fields producing photons at specific wavelengths.  This is called “synchrotron radiation”.  By producing pure X-rays and ultraviolet rays science at a single wavelength can produce movies of the structure of molecules , viruses, and chemical reactions.
-
-  Light photons are just one of the force carriers.  Photons carry the electromagnetic force.  “Gluons” carry the Strong Nuclear force that holds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of atoms.  “Bosons” are the force carriers for the Weak Nuclear Force responsible for the Beta Decay of neutrons and radioactivity.  “Gravitons” are yet to be discovered as force carriers for Gravity.  In the meantime gravity is explained as the curvature of space and time created by the presence of mass.  Empty space is explained as a seething soup of “ virtual particles”, also yet to be discovered.
-
-  Photons are easily emitted and absorbed by atoms.  Your eyeball is absorbing photons causing electrical signals to your brain.  An electron moving in a strong magnetic field will emit photons just from its acceleration.  Photons disappear inside atoms by kicking electrons into higher energy orbits.  When the electron falls back to a lower orbit photons of specific wavelength is emitted.  Each atom has unique energy levels and the emitted photons are also at unique wavelengths giving each atom a unique spectrum of light.  That is what is responsible for creating all the different colors that are around you.
-
-  When matter and anti-matter annihilate each other their masses are converted to a pair of Gamma Ray photons.  When two photons of the right energy collide that can produce matter.  But, that takes a  lot of energy because mass is concentrated energy.
-
----------------- E  =  m*c^2
-
-------------------  E  =  m * 90,000,000,000,000,000
-
-  All mass and the material world around us, and us too, are made from the dust of stars.  Your body is composed of elements created in many different stars, and even many generations of stars.
-
-  Our Solar System formed from the collapse of a gas and dust cloud some 4,568,000,000 years ago, + or - 1 million years.
-
-  The gas cloud was 72% hydrogen
-
-  27% helium
-
-  1% all the other 90 or so elements in the Periodic Table.
-
-  Only hydrogen, helium and lithium were produced in the Big Bang 13,800,000,000 years ago and within minutes afterwards when the density was low in the rapidly expanding Universe. All the heavier elements had to wait for the explosion of supernovae to form in their high pressure, high temperature cores.
-
-  The largest stars exploded first because their immense gravity burned their nuclear fuel the fastest.
-
-  140 to 160  Solar Mass supernovae produced the heaviest elements.
-
-  50 to 100 Solar Mass produce oxygen, nitrogen, iron and carbon
-
-  10 to 100 Solar Mass stars went supernovae 200 to 300 million years after the Big Bang
-
-  Stars shine, produce photons, because they are fusing lighter elements into heavier elements which releases energy.  Hydrogen fuses into Helium for example.  When the stars run out of these lighter elements, the pressure and temperature is not high enough the fusions stops, the outer star layers are no longer supported by radiation, the star collapses into the core and rebounds into an explosion, a supernovae.  Dust and photons are spread throughout the Universe to start the process all over again.
-
-  The gas and dust begins to collect due to the pull of gravity and the whole process of star formation repeats for another generation.  “Let there be light”.  and it was so.
-
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
-
-  #1810  -  Photons are everywhere.  The Sun is a giant light bulb producing 10^45 photons per second.
-
-  #733  -  When a photon hits an object, an atom, it is reflected or absorbed.  The transfer of energy is proportional to its frequency.  E=h*f  In broad daylight 79,000,000,000,000,000 enter the eye every second.
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-  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Saturday, April 23, 2016  -----
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How can space be curved?

-  1861  -  How can space be curved?  2,200 years ago curvature was determined by plane geometry.  Relativity showed us space was curved by mass and gravity.  Today curvature in space tells us 96% is mysterious Dark Mass and Dark Energy.
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-

-
------------------------  -  1861  -  How can space be curved?
-
-  The concept of curved space and time is challenging.  Not easily digested.  Most of the concept relies on mathematics to provide the descriptions, but, math is another language that has to be learned first.
-
-  And, even space itself is a hard concept.  It is impossible to leave space.  It holds everything.  Like time keeps everything from happening all at once, space keeps everything from being in the same place.  If we study space we have to study it from the inside.  A corollary might be how early humans discovered that the Earth was not flat, it was not seen as a giant sphere,  not totally visible until thousands of years later.
-
-  Math was used by an Egyptian, Eratosthenes, 2,200 years ago to show the Earth was a sphere and we could calculate its circumference.  He used plane geometry.  He used camel drives to gage the distance between two cities, Syene and Alexandria.  He assumed the Sun’s rays were parallel lines.  At noon in Syene he saw the Sun light directly overhead  reach the bottom of a well.  At noon in Alexandria, 5,000 stadice away, the Sun rays were at an angle of 1/50 of a circle ( 7 degrees, 12 arc-seconds)  A full circle would be 50 * 5,000 stadice, or 35,000 miles for the circumference.  The Earth is 24,901 miles circumference.  He was 29% to high.  The camels must have been taking shorter steps that day.
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-  Using geometry on curved surfaces did not arrive until 1818 when Carl Gauss showed that for curved surfaces the laws of geometry were different.  The shortest distance between two points is not a direct line.  The shortest path is always a geodesic, a curved arc with the center at the center of the Earth in the case of our sphere.
-
- Euclid decided that not only the Earth’s surface was curved, but, space itself was curved.  The tracers for the geodesics are rays of light.  Light always takes the shortest path in empty space.  Gravitational lensing uses the fact that light bends passing through curved space created by a massive object.
-
-  It was not until 1916 that the General Theory of Relativity showed us the math for curved space.  Space curves in response to mass.  Arthur Eddington first demonstrated how star light bends around a solar eclipse.
-
-  So, if we can measure how much mass bends light we can calculate how much mass is there.  The biggest effect occurs around galaxy clusters, the most massive objects in the Universe.  Clusters contain thousands of galaxies and billions of stars.
-
-  The surprising result measuring bending starlight ( actually quasars) was that cluster contain more mass than can be seen.  This missing mass is known as Dark Matter and we have yet to discover what it actually is.  It is affected by gravity but not electromagnetism.
-
-  Astronomers are using this technique on the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, light that has been redshifted into the microwave spectrum after 13 billion lightyears traveling through expanding space.  The “ hotspots” in the fabric of the CMB are magnified or shrunk from actual size.  If we can determine the true size we can calculate the magnification and the average curvature of space.
-
-  The result.  On average the curvature of space is “flat“.  And, the density of mass is on average 10^-29 grams per cubic centimeter.  With that small a number it is obvious that most of space is “empty” of mass.  But, add up all the mass in the Universe and it reaches only 30% of the calculated result using this density.
-
-  Where is the missing 70% of the universe?  It has been given the name “ Dark Energy”.  Remember, energy and mass are the same thing.  Mass is concentrated energy according to E=mc^2.
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-  What we model as “ space” today is resembling an old picnic table.  Full of chips and scratches you can see up close.  But, from a distance the table top looks perfectly smooth and flat.  The chips and scratches correspond to small regions of strong space curvature due to the gravity from individual stars and galaxies.  These stars and galaxies account for only 4% of the mass-energy in the Universe.  The other 96% is the missing matter and energy.
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-  We have come a long way from plane geometry in understanding the Universe.  With 96% left we have a long way to go.
-
-  Maybe the Universe appears flat because it is so big even if it is curved we can not notice it.  God only knows?  It sure looks flat to me.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1831  -  From Blackholes to empty space.
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-  #1790  -  Why space and time must change as we approach the speed of light.
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-  #1773  -  The size of space depends on how fast you are moving.
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-  #1407  -  Space is in constant motion.
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-  #1241  -  At the smallest levels things remain connected.  Even though they are separated in space.  Believe me this defies all logic.
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Friday, April 22, 2016  -----
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Pluto - and its 5 satellites.

-  1857  -  Pluto - and its 5 satellites.  Pluto is not the cold ice world we expected.  Instead it is a complex system with 5 moons and a geology that will keep science busy for years.
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--------------------  -  1857  -  Pluto - and its 5 satellites.
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-

-
-  New Horizon spacecraft visits Pluto and writes a whole new story for the Dwarf Planet.  The spacecraft was a fly-by  so the images and data collected lasted only a few days.  But, it will take several months to download all this data back to Earth.
-
-  To begin with Pluto is a system of orbiting moons in a strange dance of synchronous orbits:
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------------------------------------------------------------------  Orbit  --------   Orbit
--------------------------  Diameter  ----  Rotation  -------  Radius  --------  Period
--------------------------  ( miles )   -----  ( days )  --------- ( miles ) -------- ( days )
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------------  Pluto  ------  1475  ----------  6.39  -----
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------------  Charon  ---     754  ----------  6.39  -------------  12,161  -------  6.39
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-------------  Styx  ---------  6 x 3.3  -----  3.24  -------------  26,505  -------  20.16
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-------------  Nix  -----     34x25x22  -----  1.83  -------------  30,257  -------  24.85
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-------------  Kerberos  ---     7x5  --------  5.33  -------------  35,905  -------  32.17
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-------------  Hydra  -----     27x21  -------  0.43  -------------  40,226 -------  38.20
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-  Pluto is an icy cold world, but much more.  There is a gigantic icy plain more than 350,000 square miles that is almost perfectly flat and ringed by mountains 2 to 3 miles high.  It could be a giant impact basin formed by an ancient collision.
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-  Other areas have a cellular pattern of ices with cell sizes 30 to 60 miles diameter and troughs 330 feet deep.
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-  The plains have surfaces that are less than 10 million years old.  This indicates thermal convection of Pluto’s deep ices.  But, what is the energy source that creates this thermal convection?
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-  Pluto’s atmosphere has over 2 dozen haze layers stretching up to 125 miles high.  These hazes are photo chemical creations from ultraviolet light interacting with Nitrogen, Methane, and Carbon Monoxide found in the atmosphere.  The haze particles are 0.1 to 0.5 microns in diameter.
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-  The haze scatters sunshine and creates a blue tint not unlike the blue sky we are familiar with.
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-  Some regions of Pluto are heavily cratered and are ancient terrains dating back 4 billion years.  ( The Earth is 4.6 billion years old ).  Other regions are just 1 billion years old which indicates the planet has been geologically active.  But, how does such a small planet power such activity?
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-  There is a surface crack that is a V-shaped trough 2 to 3 miles deep and 125 miles long.  There are two 95 mile wide mountains with deep central pits at their summits like volcanoes.
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-  Pluto’s crust is made of water ice.  Up to 33% of the planet’s mass is water, H2O.
-
-  The next discoveries involved the five moons orbiting Pluto.  The largest being Charon that is in synchronous orbit with its rotation similar to our Moon and Earth. ( i.e. We always see the same side of the Moon).
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-  Charon is 754 miles diameter half the diameter of Pluto.  There is no evidence of an atmosphere.  Charon has heavily cratered terrain as well as ice-flooded terrains.  It has an equatorial tectonic belt that would dwarf the Grand Canyon by comparison.
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-  The theory is that Charon had a subsurface ocean of water that froze expanding the surface creating the surface faults.  Most all these features are dated to be 4 billion years old.
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-  There were deposits of ammonia and ammonium hydrates scattered across the water ice surface.  This  chemistry was not found on Pluto.  Stay tuned , there is still more data being downloaded.  It will keep us busy for years learning more about the Dwarf Planet at the edge of our Solar System.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1789  -  Pluto 9th planet demoted to 1st dwarf planet.
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-  #1781  -  Learn more about Pluto.
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-  #1724  -  Visiting Pluto
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-  #1632  -  Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Dwarf Planets.
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-  #1727  -  Pluto and Charon, do the  math
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, 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
 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Friday, April 22, 2016  -----
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Pluto the 9th Planet - Not!

-  1856  -  Pluto the 9th Planet - Not!  But, wait, there still may be a 9th planet.  Cal Tech has a computer simulation that says so.
-

--------  1856  -  Pluto the 9th Planet - Not!
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-  Poor Pluto got kicked out of the Solar System of 8 planets.  It got renamed as a ”Dwarf Planet” because past nine planets were orbiting at least 3 more Kuiper Belt objects that were as big or bigger than Pluto  All were orbiting the Sun is the same elliptical plane.  These objects having larger orbits were designated Dwarf Planets.  Sedna is one that received this title after Pluto.
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-  This all took place in 2006.  See review # 1660 for discussion about the new Dwarf Planets and the discoveries that caused this to happen.
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-  There are millions of school children that need to be retrained, and  some of us old codgers as well.
-
-Cal Tech astronomers may cause the Astronomical Union to revisit their decision.  On January 20, 2016 they announced there was a 9th planet 10 times the mass of the Earth orbiting at 700 AU.  “AU” is Astronomical Unit, which s the distance between the Earth and the Sun, 93,000,000 miles.
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-  At that distance it takes this 9th planed 10,000 to 20,000 years to complete one orbit.  It takes Pluto 248 years.  The object is 5,000 Pluto’s mass.
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-  The discovery started in 2014 when 13 Kuiper Belt objects were tracked having elliptical orbits tilted at 30 degrees to the ecliptic, the plane of the other Solar System planets.
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-  Some other unknown orbiting mass was tilting these orbits.  The larger mass had to be orbiting 180 degrees out of phase with these other objects.  Its closest approach to the Sun occurs on the opposite side of the Solar System.
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-  Astronomers are anxiously trying to “see” this 9th planet.  So far its detection has been by computer simulations that duplicate the orbits found of all the new Kuiper Belt objects, at least 11 of them.
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-  The Kuiper Belt objects are orbiting 50 to 150 AU.  When they come closest to the Sun their perihelia all cluster in the same ecliptic plane.  The orbiting clustering must be created by another undetected mass?
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-  ( See reviews #  about KBO’s,  one of the largest named Sedna.)
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-  It is amazing that computer simulations can be programmed and re-programmed until the results match observations.  This is how astronomers are convinced there is a 9th planet, or a extremely large alien spaceship, out there while not actually seeing it.
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-  The simulations work with a wide range of orbit periods, 10,000 to 20,000 years.  It requires a highly elliptical orbit spending most of its time in the aphelion .  Its brightness magnitude is calculated to be M = 22, too dim to be seen by Earth bound telescope today.
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-  Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) formulates  the math for Johan Kepler’s  (1571 - 1630) second law of planetary motion, planets in orbit sweep out equal areas over equal times in the plane of the elliptical orbit that traces its path around the locus, the Sun.  When the orbit gets near the Sun the object speeds up.  As the planet orbits the furthest distance from the locus the objects‘ orbit velocity is the slowest.
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---------------------------------------  p^2  =  4*pi^2  * a^3 /  G * ( m +M )
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---------------------------------------  “p”  is the orbital period
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--------------------------------------  “ a”  is the distance between the masses.
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----------------------------------------  p^2  =  a^3  when the period is in years and the distance is in Astronomical Units and the star is the mass of the Sun.
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-  So much for the power of circumstantial evidence.
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-  Stay tuned, more announcements are bound to follow.  While we are finding 2,000 planets orbiting other stars, we are about to find another one orbiting our own star.
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-  ( See http://is.gd/proxcen2016 )
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more about Pluto and KBO‘s:
-
-  #1660  -  Outside Neptune there are over 100 spherical dwarfs discovered to date.
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-  #543  -  Name the 10th planet (2005)  Johan Kepler figured out Pluto’s period 248.54 years, radius 39.53 AU and the period squared equals the radius cubed in 1596.
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-  #1789  Pluto the 1st Dwarf Planet.  What is the energy source driving all the activity on Pluto?
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-  #1781  -  New Horizon visits Pluto July 14, 2015.
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-  #1632  -  Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Dwarf planets.
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-  #502  -  Sedna
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- #1727 -  #1724  -  #1364  -  #1129  -  #685  all knowledge of Pluto in 2006 soon to be outdated.
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-  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, 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
 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Friday, April 22, 2016  -----
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Using concrete to solve Global Warming

-  1862  -  Using concrete to solve Global Warming!  What has lava got to do with?
And, the basalt in my back yard?
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-

-
--------  1862  -  Using concrete to solve Global Warming!
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-  It all starts in my backyard.  The acre is nearly solid lava rock, basalt, from the St Helena volcano.
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-  Lava did not have the name until 1737 when Mount Vesuvius erupted.  Lava means “ slide” in Latin.  Lava is magna that reaches the Earth’s surface from deep inside the planet.  The molten flowing rock is basalt.
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-  Basalt in Hawaiian is called, “pahoehoe” which means “spreads slowly:, and, the other word A’a which means advances erratically with sudden surges.
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-  If basaltic lava is called “ mafic” it is composed primarily of magnesium and iron.
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-  Rhyolitic lava is “felsic” if it is primarily feldspar and silica.
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-  A “corium” lava is highly radioactive glob like that formed beneath the Chernobyo reactor in 1986.
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-  The lighter the color the more fluid the lava.  Bright orange indicates temperatures of 1,000 C, or higher.  Dark red in color, 650 to 800 C.
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-  The largest distributor of lava is on Mars.  The solar systems largest volcano, so far, is Olympus Mons.  It is 3 times higher than Mount Everest, all basaltic lava.
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-  Jupiter’s moon Io spews massive fountains of hot lava.
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-  Some of the exoplanets in the other solar systems are  likely covered in lava.
-
-  Some 65 million years ago when an asteroid struck the Yucatan massive basaltic lava flows occurred in much of India, the opposite side of the planet.  The eruptions created toxic gases as well.  The dinosaurs did not survive.
-
-  So things have improved in the past 65 million years.  Today we only have to deal with Global Warming.  The idea is that man-produced carbon dioxide that keeps all our vegetation alive is a heat blanket in the atmosphere that causes the greenhouse effect, slowly warming the Earth.
-
-  Also, Global Warming is a high priority for our politicians and anyone in business that can make money off of it.  Solar panels and wind farms for example.
-
-  The first step in our education is to get the air we breath designated as the cause.  The rising levels of carbon dioxide is the culprit.  Of course, trees and plants need CO2 to breath, so, eliminating CO2 altogether would not be a good idea.  We want to eliminate just enough to eliminate the greenhouse effect.
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-  The greenhouse effect is a layer of CO2 gas in the upper atmosphere that lets ultraviolet light in to reach the ground.  The ground heats up and radiates infrared light then it is reflected again be the same layer of CO2 gas in the atmosphere.  The infrared heat gets trapped and Global Warming ensues.
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-  What we need is a way to take some CO2 out of the atmosphere to help the trees that can not keep up with the autos and industries that are burning energy, puttingit into the air.
-
-  Even if we have systems to capture CO2 out of the atmosphere we don’t have a good way to store it.  Trees store it in the wood.  But, when we burn the wood, or it decays, the CO2 gets back into the air.
-
-  UCLA researchers have an idea!
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-  Convert the carbon captured into “concrete”, man made lava.  Today’s concrete production is a major source of CO2 production in its own right.  However, the still bigger source of CO2 is the exhaust gas from electric power plants.
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-  UCLA’s process is not straight forward.  It is a complex process that needs refinements.  First the carbon is captured out of the atmosphere.  Carbon as the raw material is used in 3D printers to produce blocks of concrete.
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-  Carbon is extracted from Carbon Dioxide using pressurized reservoirs at 20 mega -Pascal.  Siphon extracts the carbon.
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-  The process works in the lab.  The goal is to upscale it to the industrial high volume level.  Connect it to a coal-fired power plant and have a closed loop system.
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-  The future is envisioned that turns smoke-stack flue gas into concrete to build roads and other infrastructure that is in need of replacement.  Or, they could harvest the basalt rock out of my backyard to build highways and buildings.  There are several buildings in Santa Rosa that are built from these rock blocks.  Lava flows are layered so they can be split with a chisel and have a perfectly flat surface.  Ideal for laying like bricks.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
-
-  #1588  -  Global Warming is what stars do.  Sun-size stars grow steadily more luminous adding 10% more brightness every billion years.
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-  #1390  -  The amazing power of dirt.  Perennial root systems sequester an amount of carbon equal to 1% of a cubic meter of topsoil.
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-  #1417 -  What is next after Fossil Fuels?  What are 6 ways we can store energy?
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-  #1414  -  Is Global Warming real?   Dishonest science sets doing the right things back even further.
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-  #992 - and -  #509  -  An inconvenient fact, and the day after tomorrow.
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-  #926  - and - #672  - Acid ocean
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-  #909  -  The history of climate change. From 4.52 Billion Years to 0.003 BY when humanoids first appeared on the African Plains.
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-  #908  -  By studying ice cores in the Antarctic physicists have recorded the mount of CO2 in the air bubbles trapped in the ice over the last 400,000 years.
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-  #788  -  Since 1970 every part of the planet except the Antarctica is warming up.
  If Antarctica melted the sea levels would rise 200 feet.
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-  #698  -  Sunspots and Global Warming.
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-  #657  -  Let there be no data without analysis, let there by no analysis without decisions, let there be no decisions without action, let there be no action without data.
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, 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
 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Thursday, April 21, 2016  -----
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Space missions to Mars and Ceres

-  1860  -  Discoveries are coming fast in astronomy.  Space missions to Mars and Ceres collect enough data to keep astronomers working for decades.
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-------------------  1860  -  Discoveries are coming fast in astronomy.
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-  Astronomers have many questions that need answering.  It is a never ending job going back to the beginning and out to the end of time.
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-  What happens to gravity when matter converts to energy?
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-  Nothing?  Matter and energy are two forms of the same thing.  Matter is concentrated energy according to E=mc^2.
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-  Is the whole Universe spinning?  Could it be centripetal force that is expanding the Universe?  Could this spinning explain Dark Energy?  Of course if it is spinning it must have a center?  If it is space expanding everywhere there is no center?  A contradiction?
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-  There are 10^78 atoms in the Universe.
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-  There are 10^27 atoms in your body.
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- The Universe only has 10^50 more atoms to make everything else.
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-  It all has to start somewhere.  Let’s start in our own neighborhood and work outward from there to study the remaining 10^50 atoms.
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-  Our sister planet Mars has had a “ Reconnaissance Orbiter” that has completed 45,000 orbits taking more than 200,000 pictures.
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-  In addition to the orbiter the “Spirit”, “Opportunity”, and “Curiosity” rovers have been exploring the surface of the planet.
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-  Here are a few of the discoveries:
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-  Dark streaks indicate some form of flowing water.  In fact, salty liquid water may still flow on the surface of Mars.
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-  The surface and terrain have been mapped out for possible landing targets for a human mission to Mars.
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-  A fresh crater was discovered in 2010 that was not there in 2008.
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-  A super volcano may lurk below a very old crater in Mar’s surface.
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-  In 2012 pictures of a 12-mile-high dust devil swirling from the surface.
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-  Photos also show fields of sand dunes which change shape with the winds.
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-  In August 2015 a photo caught an avalanche of frost falling off a ridge.
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-  The orbiter also turned its cameras on the Mar’s moons, “ Phobos” and “ Deimos” to identify their reason for the strange color and odd shapes.
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-  In 2014 photos spotted a oddly shaped boulder rolling down a slope.
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-  Photos were taken of gullies of frost on the Martian plains carving the surface.
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-   On another spacecraft, “ Dawn” has been collecting data on the once planet “ Ceres” for over a year.  Ceres was thought to be a planet until astronomers decided it was the largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.  Then when orbiting objects beyond Pluto were discovered astronomers decided to introduce a whole new classification, “Dwarf Planets”.  Ceres is now a dwarf planet.
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-  Launched between September, 2007, the Dawn mission first visited the asteroid “ Vesta”.  After a close study Dawn propelled itself to Ceres using its zenon-fueled ion engine.  Electric power is provided by twin solar arrays that have a 65 foot wing span.
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-  The Dawn spacecraft arrived January 2015 after a 3,100,000,000 mile journey.  The first images found unusual bright spots marking the surface of Ceres  In March Dawn achieved orbit around Ceres 8,400 miles altitude.
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-  Dawn spiraled in to lower altitudes to map the entire surface.  25% of it is water-ice. (This is similar to Saturn’s moons Dione and Tethys.).  The bright spots are magnesium sulfate deposits probably sublimated from a layer of briny water-ice.
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-  Other surface areas were ammonia rich clays.  Dawn’s descending orbits eventually reached 235 miles altitude.  The camera’s resolution was 120 feet per pixel.  They found a mountain peak that was 3 miles high.
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-  Dawn runs out of its hydrazine fuel which allows the orientation of the spacecraft to be set for cameras, antenna pointing towards Earth, solar panels pointing towards the Sun.  The derelict Dawn will orbit another 50 years before crashing into the surface.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more about Vesta:
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-  #1618  -  The Dawn spacecraft visiting Vesta asteroid.
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-  #1572  -  Visit the 2nd largest asteroid in the Solar System.  Vesta is 360 miles in diameter.  It takes 3.63 years to orbit the Sun.
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-    Request these Reviews to learn more about Mars:
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-  #1796  -  Mars after 20 successful missions.  Over 40 missions have been launched.
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-  #1779  -  Trip to Mars.  How to survive?
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-  Plus 5 more reviews from #1777 to #24, which was written in 2003.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more about Ceres:
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-  #1784  -  What was the 5th planet to be discovered, in 1801?  It is 590 miles in diameter.
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-  #1618  -  It is 4% the mass of the moon and orbit’s the Sun in 4.6 years.
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-  $847  -  Ceres shares its orbit with 1 million asteroids all over 0.6 miles diameter.  There are 3 other asteroids over 250 miles in diameter.
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
-  to:   -------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Tuesday, April 19, 2016  -----
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Will a rocket ever reach the stars?

-  1859  -  Will a rocket ever reach the stars?  Yes, laser sails and nano-satellites could reach the stars in 20 years.  Here is how:
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--------------------------  1859  -  Will a rocket ever reach the stars?  -
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-  We assemble a laser array the size of Manhattan in low-earth orbit.  We use a sail propelled by laser light.  The large laser array orbiting the Earth would gather energy via solar panels.  The laser beam would push the tiny probes to 26% the speed of light, 17,000,000 miles per hour, and reach the nearest stars in 20 years.
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-  How close is our nearest star?  Not the Sun, it is 93 million miles away.  The next star is Alpha Centauri.  It is 4.37 lightyears away, that is 25,000,000,000,000 miles.  If we send today’s spacecraft at 20,000 miles per hour it would take 30,000 years to reach our nearest star.
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-  What if we could reach the star in 20 years?  Would it be worth it?  Is it really even possible?  My grandkids should be able to prove it is possible.
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-  The mission is even in the design phase today.  Small, light-weight, nano-spacecraft, powered by lasers that could reach speeds 1,000 times faster than today’s spacecraft,  could reach 20% the speed of light
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-  The nanocraft could carry cameras, photon thrusters, power supplies, navigation and communications instruments.  The propulsion would use “ light sails”.  The sails would be very thin, only a few hundred atoms thick.  Laser arrays could pus them to 17,000,000 miles per hour, 26% the speed of light, 4,756 miles per second.
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-  20 years after launch these nanocraft would be gathering scientific data and transmitting back to Earth.  The communications at the speed of light would take 4.36 years to reach us.  It would be received by the same laser array that launched the mission.  My grandkids might be writing reviews about this event.
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-  The laser array would be on the scale of kilometers.  It would need to be able to store or receive several gigawatt-hours of energy.  The mother ship would put thousands of nanocraft into high altitude orbit, loaded with instruments ready for launch.
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- This “ Starshot” could really be possible.  Light beams, light sails, light spacecraft only imagined until now. Now the design for the mission has started.
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-  Alpha-Centauri is really a system of 2 stars.  The closest star , Proxima, and a larger binary star system.  We have yet to learn if the star system is supporting planets and moons.  But, what our own Solar System has told us, and what over 2,000 exoplanets discovered orbiting other stars has told us, Starshot is very likely to discover planets as well.
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-  The Starshot project assembles a laser array the size of Manhattan in low-earth orbit.  The lasers are powered by solar panels so that solves the “bring your own fuel problem”.  Today’s rockets use fuel as “reaction mass”  Action equals reaction.  On the launch pad fuel makes up 90% of the  mass of the rocket.  The thrust generated to lift the rocket is working it lift the fuel not the small payload.
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-  Today the farthest space craft is Voyager I, the only spacecraft to reach interstellar space beyond our Solar System.  It took Voyager 40 years and it is only 10 light hours away, not lightyears away.  At Voyager’s speed it would take 40,000 more years to reach these nearest stars.
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-  We need a new approach to space propulsion if we are ever going to reach the stars.  An obvious answer is to use an external source for power and don’t depend on carrying it with you.
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-  This new approach uses large and light weight mirrors to generate thrust from photons coming from the Sun.  Even that miniscule force , slowly and continually builds up to enormous speeds.
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-  To accelerate 100,000 times faster than using the Sun, the sails could use powerful lasers that are focused and perfectly synchronized.  Ideally the laser array would be in space as well, in near-earth orbit.
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-  Laser arrays can be modular and assembled to 10 meters on a side generating 30 kilowatts.  Or, 10 kilometers on a side generating 70,000 kilowatts.  That is an array 6 miles on a side.
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-  The wavelength of the laser light is 1 micron.  The lower wattage, smaller arrays could launch “ CubeSats” and nano-satellites.  The larger arrays are powerful enough to send a CubeSat to Mars in 8 hours.  If the payload is 22,000 pounds the trip to Mars would take one month.  Using current technology it takes seven months.
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-  The mass of the largest laser array would be 100 times the mass of the International Space Station.  So, we are  talking about a 50 year timescale to accomplish the more ambitious missions.  A CubeSat that could reach Mars in 8 hours traveling at 2% the speed of light would still take 200 years to reach these nearest stars.
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-  To get to the stars even faster we need to have smaller payloads, maybe wafer-scale spacecraft weighing only a few grams.  To carry miniaturization further we need nano-photonics, a nano-radio thermal generator (1 watt), nano-camera, nano-thruster, and thin-film super capacitors for energy storage.  A one meter laser sail propelled by a 70,000 kilowatt laser array to 26% light speed would reach Alpha Centauri in 15 years.
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-  Even these tiny spacecraft could send data and low-resolution pictures back to Earth.  The mirror sail and transmitter could send data at 100 kilobytes per second.
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-  Another mission to consider is the discovery of exoplanets up to 100 lightyears away.  Stationed at 600 Astronomical Units distance a telescope could use the Sun mass as a gravitational lens that could image exoplanets to 1 pixel per square kilometer.  Today a planet image is a single pixel.
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-  The first missions gong to  Mars will need fuel used to slowdown.  Once a laser array could be assembled in Mars orbit we could send payloads back and forth like a commuter service.  If we can’t slow down  early missions will be “ fly-bys” .
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-  This is challenging engineering but within reach of our rapidly developing technologies.  Reaching a 20 lightyear radius from Earth would reach 150 stars, 17 known planetary systems, 14 of which could support planets in the “ habitable zone“.  Who knows what we might find?
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more about stars:
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-   #1822  -  The largest stars, the oldest stars.  The dark sky contains the entire electromagnetic spectrum outside our eye’s ability to see it.
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-  The #1822 Review contains references to 12 other reviews about stars, #1116  to #907.
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-  You can see Alpha Centauri on a clear night.  It is one of the most brilliant stars in the southern sky, Magnitude = 0.  Centaurus is in the Constellation “ Crux of the Southern Cross”.
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-  Alpha Cen A is slightly larger than our Sun.
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-  Alpha Cen B is slightly smaller and dimmer, orange in color.
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-  Proxima is a small red star 10% the mass of the Sun, but, 129 times the mass of the planet Jupiter.  Proxima orbits its two larger companions once ever 500,000 years.
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, 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
 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Monday, April 18, 2016  -----
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Gravity, LIGO, and Gravity Waves.

-  1858  -  Gravity, LIGO, and Gravity Waves.  A new era in astronomy has occurred this year with the detection of gravity waves created by 2 merging Blackholes.  Many new discoveries are forthcoming.
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--------  -  1858  -  Gravity, LIGO, and Gravity Waves.
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-  Detecting gravity waves is no small feat.  Gravity by far is the weakest force we know.  The other 3 forces electromagnetism, the weak, and strong nuclear forces are millions of times stronger.  You can easily pick a book up off the ground with the mass and gravity of the entire Earth pulling the other direction.
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-  Gravity is unique in also always pulling in one direction, it is only an attractive force.  There is no “negative” gravity.  Unless it could be a form of Dark Energy?
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-  The electric force between the electron and the proton inside the atom is a quintillion times stronger than gravity. (10^ 30).  That is a 1 followed by 30 zeros.  Gravity is so weak science does not know exactly how weak it is?
-  In addition to our inability to measure the force of gravity it is better understood as not a force at all but a natural path of mass following the warped fabric of space-time.
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-  Gravity and weight are not the same thing.  Astronauts in the Space Station say they are floating in “ zero gravity”.  That is not really true.  The force of gravity is there , about 90% the force felt on the surface of Earth.  What astronauts feel is they are constantly free-falling, as gravity pulls them around the Earth at a constant velocity making it feel like “zero gravity”.
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-  If you use a bathroom scale in an elevator your “weight” will fluctuate as the elevator accelerates and decelerates while the gravitational force remains the same.
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-  Gravity makes waves that travel at the speed of light.  This phenomenon was predicted in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.  Two large masses in binary orbit will slowly get closer together in their orbit as gravity waves carry energy away.  Even the Earth is orbiting ever closer to the Sun, but, in this case the mass is so small and the energy loss too tiny to be noticed.
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-  Astronomers have had indirect evidence of gravity waves for 40 years.  But, gravity waves were not directly detected until this year (2015).  LIGO, the Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory , detected bursts of gravity waves coming from the collision of 2 Blackholes 1.3 billion lightyears away.
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-  Gravity waves traveling at the speed of light means that if the Sun disappeared instantaneously we would not realize it for 8 minutes.
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-  The other three forces have defined quantum force carrier particles , photons, Gluons, and Bosons.  However, no force particle has been discovered for gravity.  Quantum Theory has given the undiscovered particle a name, the “graviton“.
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-  Loop Quantum Gravity theory proposes that space-time itself is particle-like at the smallest dimensions.
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-  String Theory uses gravitons described as vibrations of strings coiled up in extra dimensions.
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-  However, Quantum Theory has yet to be successful in describing the microscopic behavior of gravity.  Stay tuned.
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-  If gravity has force-carrier-like gravitons they would likely be massless like photons.  But, an extremely tiny mass can not be ruled out.  Stay tuned.
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-  Even though the force of gravity is weak it would become stronger when masses become larger or closer together.  Theoretically, it does not reach the strength of the other forces until it reaches distance of  Plank Lengths,  1.6*10-35 meters, many times smaller than the nucleus of an atom.
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-  From the smallest scales to the largest scales gravity still serves us some mysteries.
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-  A breakthrough was announced this year (2016) when LIGO detected the merger of two Blackholes that violently shook the fabric of space-time and sent a burst of vibrations traveling to us, and through us.
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-  LIGO detected the ripples in two “L-shaped” mile long detectors in Louisiana and Washington State.  This achievement introduces a new field of study in gravitational-wave astronomy.
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-  In addition to the study of Blackholes this technique will allow cosmological distance measurements to be made more accurately.
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-  In 1974 radio astronomers studying a pair of Neutron stars orbiting each other observed indirect evidence of gravity wave radiation.  One was a “Pulsar” star that allowed measurements of the loss of orbital energy as the stars inward spiral exactly matched the math in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
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-  For the first time, September 14, 2015, direct evidence was observed by LIGO.  The gravity waves were being generated by two merging Blackholes.  The LIGO interference pattern measured a frequency of 30 cycles per second corresponding to 15 orbits per second for the two Blackholes
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-  In just 0.2 seconds the signal surged to 250 cycles per second then disappeared.  The orbiting Blackholes reached velocities half the speed of light before they merged.
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-  The two masses orbited so close to each other they had to be Blackholes. ( not Neutron stars ).  The vibrations of space-time created a sine wave with a steadily increasing frequency and amplitude due to their near perfect circular orbits.
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-  Using computer simulations to recreate the data astronomers estimate the Blackholes to weigh 36 and 29 Solar Mass combining into a 62 Solar Mass Blackhole.  The energy released was equivalent to 5,000 supernovae explosions.  The 3 Solar Mass difference was dispersed as gravitational radiation.  Our most powerful thermonuclear bomb was 1,030 times lower in energy.  The single Blackhole emerging was spinning at 100 revolutions per second.
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-  How did these binary Blackholes first form?
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-  One theory is that two massive stars were born as a binary-star system formed from interstellar gas like a double-yoked egg.  After a few million years the stars went supernova resulting in binary Blackholes.
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-  A second theory has the stars forming independently but in a larger globular cluster.  Massive stars sink towards the center of the cluster.  Complex interactions at the center form these binary system.  By gathering material around the center they transform into Blackholes.
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-  Massive stars are more likely to form at the center of clusters where there are frequent collisions and mergers.
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-  LIGO is hoping for Blackhole collisions closer to home.  This one was 1.3 billion lightyears away.  Closer and lighter binary Blackholes, or Neutron stars, would chirp with higher amplitudes and would last longer, several minutes.  This would provide more data for astronomers to learn more.
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-  The next step is to get more interferometers around the world involved, Japan and India are working on theirs.  By timing the single event from different directions astronomers can triangulate and more closely determine the direction to search for Blackholes, or Neutron stars.
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-  Determining direction would allow for the exact amplitude of the signal to be calculated.  The perpendicular direction produces the biggest signal.  Knowing the amplitude more accurately would allow the distance calculations with higher precision.
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-  Matching gravity wave observations with electromagnetic observations could greatly enhance astronomy studies.  A more accurate “Hubble’s Constant” could be measured., the rate of Cosmic expansion, Ho  = 72 km/sec/mps  =  47,000 miles per second per million lightyears.
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-  Albert Einstein predicted gravity waves would exist like light waves except they would be waves or ripples in space-time.  He also predicted they would be too slight to ever be detected.
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-  100 years later the technology progressed to beyond that which Einstein could have imagined.  On September 14, 2015 the first gravity waves were detected just as his math predicted.  After 5 months of checking and double checking by the two separate LIGO interferometers the announcement was made in February, 2016.  The gravity wave source was the collision of 2 Blackholes 1,300,000,000 lightyears away.
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-  The two interferometers work by shooting  infrared lasers breams through 4 kilometer arms in a near-perfect vacuum.  Bouncing off quartz mirrors the beams come back to their starting point and merge together into an interference pattern.
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-  The redshift of the source Blackhole merger is between 0.05 and 0.12 through expanding space.  This means the waves traveled between 700 million and 1,500 million years before reaching us.  1.3 billion years is a best estimate.
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-  Where the 2 perpendicular laser beams come together a signal above the null is sensitive enough to measure the distance the width of a Hydrogen atom.  In effect we are hearing the Blackhole merger, since we can never actually see it.
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-  Today we have finally heard gravity waves, a sine wave chirp.  When did the wave concept even begin?  In 1865 James Maxwell predicted that light traveled in waves.  But, it was not until the radio was invented by Heinrich Hertz that it was realized the light and radio were the same thing, electromagnetic radiation waves.
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-  In 1905 to 1915 Einstein introduced two new theories of gravity to be simply a warping of space-time caused by mass and energy.  And, mass was really just concentrated energy according to E= m*c^2.  He reasoned at the time that  very massive objects moving rapidly would create gravity waves, ripples in space-time.
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-  LIGO was the first to measure these waves as they pass through the Earth at the speed of light.  The waves were squeezing one perpendicular arm and stretching the other as the wave passed by.  The interference pattern of the 2 laser beams were sensitive enough to hear these changes in distances.
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-  LIGO detection begins as massive orbits spiral and tighten to 5 revolutions per second.  At that point the orbiting wave frequency is 10 hertz, 10 cycles per second.  The 2 Blackholes merge in 0.2 seconds.  At that point the frequency and sensitivity is strong enough for LIGO to detect it.
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-  This detection was possible because of the amazing engineering needed to separate the signal from noise and other interferences.  The detection was so sensitive it could hear a car passing by the site at 10 miles per hour.  The engineering feat was to pull the “ gravity chirp” out of this extraneous static.
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-  The next technology leap will put these interferometers into outer space where we can find a quieter place to make measurements.  This space instrument is under design today.  We are beginning a whole new field of gravitational wave astronomy.  Stay tuned, more announcements will be made shortly.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1827  -  Gravity Waves discovered using the LIGO telescopes.
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-  #1776  -  Gravity Waves using computer simulations.
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-  #1754  -  The tides of gravity.  The tidal forces of galaxies.
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-  #1751  -  Einstein’s Theory of Gravity.  A spinning massive body pulls space-time along.  It is like a spoon stirring honey.  Einstein’s Equivalence Principle has withstood 100 years of challenges.
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-  #1728  -  and   -  #1686  -  Measuring the size of the Universe.
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-  #43  -  The Gravity of it all.  If the Earth were spinning 5 times faster what would happen to gravity?  Nothing, gravity is a function of mass and distance, not rotation.  If you dropped a bowling ball off a 10 foot ladder and fired a bullet horizontally at the same time which would hit the ground first?  They both hit at the same time.
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-  #1534  -  Getting used to bending light.  Gravitational lensing.
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-  #1470  -  Are there atoms in space-time?
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-  #588  -  Gravity Probe B to  discover the effect of Frame-Dragging.
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-  Matter can barely feel the presence of a gravity wave.  Not only is it the weakest of the 4 known forces, its strength falls off sharply as it traverses space.  The gravity wave LIGO detected squeezed and stretched the Milky Wave Galaxy that is 100,000 lightyears in diameter the width of your thumb.  And, you did not feel a thing.  Or, did you?
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, 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
 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Thursday, April 14, 2016  -----
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