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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.
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- 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.
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---------------------- E = h * f
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- “h” is Planck’s Constant of Action = 6.625 *10^-34 kilogram * meters^2 / seconds.
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-------------------- Energy = 6.6^10^-34 * frequency
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- The higher the frequency the shorter the wavelength the higher the energy. w*f = c
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- High frequency Gamma Rays burn living tissue.
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- 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)
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- The Sun emits 10^45 photons per second.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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----------------- E = m*c^2
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------------------- E = m * 90,000,000,000,000,000
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- 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.
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- Our Solar System formed from the collapse of a gas and dust cloud some 4,568,000,000 years ago, + or - 1 million years.
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- The gas cloud was 72% hydrogen
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- 27% helium
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- 1% all the other 90 or so elements in the Periodic Table.
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- 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.
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- The largest stars exploded first because their immense gravity burned their nuclear fuel the fastest.
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- 140 to 160 Solar Mass supernovae produced the heaviest elements.
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- 50 to 100 Solar Mass produce oxygen, nitrogen, iron and carbon
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- 10 to 100 Solar Mass stars went supernovae 200 to 300 million years after the Big Bang
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- 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.
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- 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:
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- #1810 - Photons are everywhere. The Sun is a giant light bulb producing 10^45 photons per second.
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- #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. ----
--- 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 ---------------- Saturday, April 23, 2016 -----
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