SPACE -Dust in outer space

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- 2029  -  SPACE  -Dust in outer space.  -  What creates the dust we find in space throughout our Solar System?  Could life have started in the dust of outer space?  Once life got started in space how did it survive the radiation that destroys life?  Regardless of how we got here aren’t you glad you landed on Mother Earth?
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-  ------------------------------------  2029  -  SPACE  -Dust in outer space
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---------  #1245  -  Can Dust in Outer Space contain Life?
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-  What creates the dust we find in space throughout our Solar System?  Could life have started in the dust of outer space?  Once life got started in space how did it survive the radiation that destroys life?  Regardless of how we got here aren’t you glad you landed on Mother Earth?
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 -  Look into the Western sky this spring evening right after sunset.  Under the right circumstances you can see the “ zodiac light”.  This faint triangle of light extends up from the horizon.  It is produced by the sunlight bouncing off the inter-planetary dust in our Solar System.  The triangle of light stretches along the path of the Sun, thus the name, “zodiac”.  This is because the ring of dust forms a disk in the same plane as the orbiting planets.
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-  This zodiac dust covers a huge area reflecting light that would out shine the planets by a factor of 100.  An extraterrestrial observer would see this dust before they would see Jupiter or the Earth.
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-  Infrared telescopes have discovered similar dust debris around over 100 other stars in the galaxy.  The presence of these debris disks implies the existence of asteroids, comets, and possibly planets.  The dust disks around these exoplanet solar systems appear to have radii ranging from 100 to 1,000 astronomical units.  Or, 20 to 200 times the Sun-Jupiter distance.  The light spectrum from these dust debris resembles the same as that from comets.
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-  Interstellar dust grains have been found to be composed mostly of carbon, silicon and oxygen.  Most are about 1,000 nanometers in size.  Other molecules that have been detected include silica, or SiO2, magnesium, iron silica ( called olivine), amorphous carbon, and water ice.  These also are the same compounds we find in comets and asteroids.
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-  What makes this dust interesting being found around Earth’s orbit is that it should not be there.  The orbiting dust particles are between 20,000 and 200,000 nanometers in size.  Those particles smaller than 20,000 nanometers should get pushed out of the Solar System by the Sun’s solar winds.  Those dust particles larger should have spiraled into the Sun because sunlight alone should slow the particle’s angular momentum.  A particle 100,000 nanometers in size should spiral in from the Asteroid Belt into the Sun in less than 100,000 years.  But, the dust is still there so something must be continuously replenishing it.
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-  Astronomers  explain this by assuming it is the result of on-going collisions among the asteroids and the evaporation of the surface of comets as they travel closer to the Sun.  The main asteroid belt in the Solar System lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.  Asteroid collisions are common in this region.  These impacts throw dust off littering the space around the impacts.  Comet tails are the trails of dust that have boiled off the surface of the comet as it heats up.
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-  The total mass of all this dust is 1/1000th the mass of the Moon.  Like all the matter in the Universe that is heavier than hydrogen and helium it originally came from supernovae explosions during an earlier evolution of the Universe.  Truly massive stars only live for 10,000,000 years.  They burn hydrogen fuel so fast due to their massive gravity.  When the fuel runs out the star collapses and rebounds into an enormous explosion called a supernova.  In the process of this enormous compression fusion of hydrogen nuclei gets smashed with other protons creating heavier and heavier elements all the way up the Periodic Table.   The explosion  then  scatters these heavier nuclei into inter-stellar space.
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-  It is cold in space, -440 degrees Fahrenheit.  But, that is just the right temperature for atoms to slow down and coalesce into bigger molecules.  These molecules coalesce to become dust particles.  Dust coalesces into clumps of dust and gravity collects even more material until a giant mass can eventually create another star.  But, this time the star has an accretion disk of dust that contains the heavier elements, like carbon and oxygen.  These coalescing molecules can result in chemical reactions that can even create complex organic molecules.
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-  So, from “destruction in space“, the Universe returns to “creation in space“.  But, what more is created?  The elements of life are created and they could exist in the dust of space long before the formation of the planet Earth.  We know that the same organic molecules could have landed on Earth in the distant past because they are still landing on Earth today.  And, not just Earth, but Earth-like planets throughout the Universe.
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-  Recently a meteorite landed in Australia.  It was analyzed and found to be chocked-full of organic molecules.  This is not new.  It has been going on for 4,500,000,000 years, since the planet first formed.  Other planets throughout the Universe must have been experiencing the same thing.
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-  Complex organic molecules mean proteins and nucleic acids.  Proteins perform the basic tasks of metabolic processes.  Nucleic acids are RNA and DNA that encode genetic information.  OK, where is all this going?
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-  Well, it just could be that life evolved in space and spread throughout the Universe just as it spread to planet Earth.  Most of science has assumed that space is too cold and too low density to ever form complex molecules.  However, ideas change with new data.
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-  Beginning in 1969 ammonia molecules have been detected near the center of the Milky Way galaxy.  Soon after that at 4.8 gigahertz, the spectrum of formaldehyde was discovered.  Then, at 88.6 gigahertz hydrogen cyanide was discovered..  Isocyanic acid at 87.9 gigahertz.  Formic acid was found in space.  This is the same acid that is in ant bites.  Methanol was found.  This is simple alcohol.
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-  When infrared astronomy was introduced the spectrums of methanol, ammonia, and water ice were all discovered in interstellar space, the open space between the stars.
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-  In 1990 science began reproducing complex molecules in vacuum chambers here on Earth meant to represent outer space.  Fundamental elements bathed in ultraviolet light began to form carbon atoms, nitrogen , fatty acid molecules, and nucleic acids molecules.  This is the chemistry of RNA and DNA and the elements for the beginnings of life.  It is still chemistry and not biology but these same molecules have been found in the dust clouds throughout the galaxy.  When meteorites struck the Earth in early times they delivered these same organic molecules to its surface.
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-  In 1962 a 200 pound meteorite landed in Murchison, Australia.  Analysis found millions of organic compounds, including amino acids.
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-  In 1950 meteorites landed in Kentucky.  In 1969, in Mexico. Analysis of these meteorites found the same thing.
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-  More than 150 different molecules have been identified to date in interstellar space.  These include sugar, ethyl formates ( which is the sweet smell of rum).  fulminic acid (which is used in explosive detonators),  NH2 CH2 CN,  amino acetonitrite, which is similar to glycine.  Acetone which is polish remover.  Ethylene glycol which is antifreeze.  Over 150 of these complex molecules have been found.  However, we do not know how all  this chemistry can transform into biology.  Only God knows.
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-  But, if it happened, the likelihood is that it is prevalent throughout the Universe.  Earth is not that special.  Let’s go to Saturn.  The moon Escalades spews icy volcanoes of ammonia, formaldehyde, and other organic molecules from its surface.  The moon Titan is thick with methane and has pools of hydrocarbons on its surface.
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-  We know life got here on Earth.  That event allows me to write this.  We do not know how, or where, it came from.  But, the possibilities expand beyond Earth.  Maybe space dust itself, maybe meteorites, maybe asteroids.  After all the size of the dust is all relative.  From one perspective Earth itself is just a giant dust ball in space.  We are not unique, but we are the product of a benevolent Universe that gives us life wherever it makes sense.  It is the make-sense part that is so confusing.
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-  Read review # 1246 -  The dangers to life that space gives us?  This review provides the opposite perspective.  Why it is so hard to sustain life in space.
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-""2007. Much todo about nothing. There is more nothing in the Universe as there is something. Nothing somehow contains repulsive energy, a form of anti-gravity. Even the atom itself is mostly empty space. New math tells that empty space is full of energy.
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-  2001. Space time, fast speed and short time. The speed of all the planets. The speed of the Sun is 486,000. Lasers can create a pulse that is 650 attoseconds long.
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-  1986. Space is what separates things. What else is it? The whole can be reduced to the size of a sugar cube if all the space between the atoms were removed. But, it would weigh the same. Space may have more than 3 dimensions. Space is not nothing.
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-  1920. Space missions in 2017. What will be in the budget for space exploration.

-  1861. - How can space be curved by mass and gravity? It is impossible to leave space. In 1916 the General Theory of Relativity showed the math for curved space. But, on average across the Universe the curvature of space is flat.
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-  1831 - From blackholes to empty space. Could there be a blackhole so big the whole universe is inside it? The only difference between the Big Bang and a blackhole is the dimension of time. The Uncertainty Principle is responsible for creating stars and planets.
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-  1790 - Space bends and time slows. This review takes us through determinism, non-locality, infinity, spacetime and relativity.
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-  1791. - the consequences of the theory of relativity.
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-  1773. - the size of space depends on how fast you are moving.
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-  1670. - space dust.
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-  Plus several more reviews about space and spacetime
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Wednesday, February 28, 2018   -----
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Hyper-Velocity Stars .

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- 2028 - Hyper-Velocity Stars are destined to leave the galaxy breaking free of its gravity.  They are racing in the galaxy’s outer halo 150,000 lightyears from the galaxy center traveling more than 700,000 miles per hour. At that speed it would take 20 minutes to traverse the Earth -Moon distance.
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-  Could the Earth ever leave the Sun’s gravity and drift off into space?  How about the Sun, could it escape the Milky Way Galaxy?  Well there are stars that get up enough speed to escape the galaxy’s gravity.   There are dozens of them making the trip into intergalactic space.
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-  Stars are always weaving in and out , above and below, the Galaxy’s spiral arms.  I know when you look into the night skly it looks like everything except the Moon and a few planets are stationary.  However, the 200 to 500 billion stars that are in our galaxy are all in constant motion. Some are revered up so fast they are 2 to 3 times the speed of our Sun.   
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-  The ones called hyper-velocity stars are destined to leave the galaxy breaking free of its gravity.  Most of these stars are 2 to 5 times the mass of our Sun with surface temperatures over 18,000 Kelvin.  They are racing in the galaxy’s outer halo 150,000 lightyears from the galaxy center traveling more than 700,000 miles per hour. At that speed it would take 20 minutes to traverse the Earth -Moon distance.  Or, traverse  1,000 lightyears in just 1 million years. 
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-  The first hyper-velocity star was discovered in 2005.  The star was 350,000 lightyears from the center of the galaxy. We are 26,000 lightyears from the center.  The star was traveling 1,510,000 miles per hour away from the center.  Astronomers believe that the super massive blackhole at the center slingshot the star out of the center.
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-  Mathematically it is called a ‘3-body exchange” between the blackhole and a binary pair of stars.  The blackhole captures one of the stars and slings the other star out of the galaxy. This gravitational slingshot could potentially eject a star at near the speed of light out of the galaxy.
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-  The galaxies halo contains several old metal-poor, low-mass stars that were likely been ejected there. The best explanation for their existence there involves a binary star that travels too close to a massive blackhole. The blackhole captures one star into a highly eccentric orbit than ejects the other has a hypervelocity star.
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-  The radian velocity of the star is determined by examining its light spectrum. If the star is moving towards us its spectrum wavelengths are shifted to shorter wavelengths. If the star is moving away from us, its spectral lines shift to longer wavelengths. The higher the velocity the greater the shift.
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-  Once we know the star’s radian velocity as viewed from Earth we can calculate how fast it is moving relative to the Galactic center. This is the star’s “radian velocity“, its motion “across” our line of sight is called “proper motion”.  It is much harder to precisely measure this velocity. In order to measure proper motion we must observe the shift in the star’s position relative to more distant stars.
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-These hyper-velocity stars  have extreme velocities but their proper motions across the sky is less than 1 milli-arcsecond per year.  This is equivalent to the angular size of a dime viewed at a distance of 2,300 miles away.  Quite a technical challenge.  It requires using satellites specifically designed to make this measurement.
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-Astronomers are learning that a trajectory outward from the center of the galaxy would not necessarily be in a straight line. Theorist are speculating that dark matter could shape the trajectory quite differently. On the other hand by plotting the trajectory astronomers could better map out the unseen dark matter surrounding our galaxy.
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-  Astronomers hope to learn a lot more studying these hyper- velocity stars. There could be thousands more that we have not yet discovered. Studying these hyper-velocity stars and how they deviate from a straight line could help us map out the shape and orientation of the dark matter halo. Dark matter remains one of the major mysteries in astronomy today.  We need to learn much more to understand what it is and how it affects our world.  Stay tuned. There is a lot going on out there.
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com ----- 
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Tuesday, February 27, 2018   -----
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MARS - Exploration and Discoveries.

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-  --------------------------------  2029  -  MARS  -  Exploration and Discoveries.
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-  OUR  NEIGHBORS

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-   Mars exploration started with a spacecraft roaming the surface on January 2004. It has just completed its 5,000th Martian Day on the planet. There have been many discoveries with over 20 successful missions. 
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 -  Mars Rover was recently exploring some of the slopes within the Perseverance Valley.  The soil and gravel particles appear be organized into narrow rows , or corrugations, parallel to the slope.  These signs have convinced scientists that Mars has experienced some water flow. That water now frozen at the poles vaporized and became snow accumulating nearer the equator.
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-  Rocks carved by sand blowing up hill from the creator floor and wind sorting larger particles into rows parallel to the slope.  Debris from relatively fresh impact craters is scattered over the surface of the area. Science is entertaining multiple hypotheses and gather more data to figure out how all these configurations occurred.
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-  Science also has to figure out the mechanics that led to the atmosphere being depleted turning into the cold desiccated environment we see today. 
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-  Mars is believed to have had warm flowing water on its surface even though the Sun was 1/3 as warm as it is today.  Roughly 3 .5 billion years ago Mars’ surface had lakes and flowing rivers. Rover has found lakebeds that gradually became filled with sedimentary deposits.
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-  For Mars to have been warm enough for liquid water to be flowing on its surface the atmosphere must have once contained carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide would need to be sufficient enough to create the greenhouse effect in order to compensate for the Sun’s diminished warmth.
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-  The  mystery deepens because exploration has not been able to find even traces of carbonates in the rock samples.  Scientists are still struggling to produce models that show how the Martian climate could have produced these conditions.
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-  The Curiosity Spacecraft traversed through streambeds in deltas and hundreds of vertical feet deposits believed to be  ancient lakes which required a system supplying flowing water. Science is searching for another explanation besides carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a possibility in achieving these results.
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-  Volcanic activity , which Mars is still experiencing even today, may have triggered the release of floodwaters which created debris and erosion.   These features are found  throughout the region.
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-  The northern hemisphere of Mars contains buried glaciers, chunks of ice , that became buried over time. This is evidence of ancient glaciers that have retreated several hundred million years ago.
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-  Wind borne dust has buried the ice over time. Also, the ice shows evidence of the  volcanic activity. The ice has streaks of dark material within the impact craters.
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-  Evidence of water on Mars began in 2008 with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that used penetrating radar to locate water ice under the blankets of rocky debris. The theory is that the aprons of rocky debris were lubricated by small amounts of ice.
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-  The current ExoMars mission in November 2016 concluded that there were plenty of ice deposits all across the surface of Mars. It is now believed that Mars experienced an Ice Age much like that of Earth.
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-  There are seven active missions operating on Mars including the NASA Rover. The Mars Express mission has been actively surveying the surface of Mars since 2003. Unfortunately the XL Mars Lander of 2016 that was sent down to the surface did not survive the landing. However,  the XO Mars Orbiting Satellite continues to take photos of the surface and provides analysis from four different scientific instruments. These instruments are measuring methane, carbon dioxide, and evidence of water.
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-  Using ground penetrating shallow radar instruments satellites have found deposits of water ice from 260 feet to 550 feet below the surface. Water ice cannot persist on the surface of Mars because it sublimes into the planet’s thin dry atmosphere.
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-    The actual tilt of Mars at 25°  large amounts of water ice to accumulate at the poles The Curiosity Rover collected samples from stone slabs with the drill feeding half aspirin size portions into the onboard lab. The analysis identified traces of elements like carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and more of the basic building blocks for life. It also found sulfur compounds in different chemical forms which could be a possible energy source for microbes.
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-  OTHER REVIEWS ARE AVAILABLE:
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-  1905  -  Mars explorations in 2016.  Salt water is frozen one meter beneath the surface.
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-  1877  -  it is not physics that is producing oxygen, its life.  Oxygen did not shown in our atmosphere until 2.3 billion years ago.  The Earth is 4.5 billion years old. 
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-  1860  -  Space missions to Mars and Ceres have collected enough data to keep astronomers working for decades.  This Review lists 7 additional Reviews about Mars.
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-  1796  -  Discusses the 20 successful missions to Mars.
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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, February 27, 2018   -----
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The Universe you live in.

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-  2027  -  The Universe you live in.  --  In the night sky we look into our night sky and can count about 1600 stars.  Not that you have ever tried that.  You can also count one galaxy.  The Andromeda Galaxy is a barely visible smudge of light in the north eastern sky.  Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains up to 400 billion stars that we can not see without telescopes.
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------------------  2027  -  The Universe you live in. 
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-  In the observable universe, there are more than 200 billion, up to 500 billion galaxies each with billions or even trillions of stars within it.  This equates to roughly 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe. (That is 10^29)
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-  Of the planets orbiting these stars, astronomers estimate that there are 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (50 sextillion, 50*10^21) habitable planets.
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-  This is in the observable universe, so the real figures may be infinite… Still wondering whether extraterrestrial life is likely to exist?!
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-  Many scientists believe in the multiverse – that there are an infinite number of parallel universes that exist alongside our own in other dimensions. This theory would explain some of the peculiarities of quantum mechanics. Detecting a parallel universe is one of the aspirations of the team of scientists working on the CERN Hadron Collide in Europe.
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-   Planning a trip to outer space?  Plan on dealing with solar winds and interstellar gas clouds that can reach millions of degrees in temperature , but the general background temperature of outer space is around -260C.
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-  The closest galaxy to our own is Andromeda. Measuring 140,000 light years across and 2.5 million light years away from Earth, if it were bright enough to be seen in the night sky, it would appear six times as large as the Moon.
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-   Black holes form when massive stars collapse into themselves and condense their mass into an unbelievably small area. The tiniest are called primordial black holes, which are about the size of a single atom, but with the mass equal to that of a mountain! The biggest are supermassive black holes.  These have masses greater than 1 million suns. That is a whole lot of mountains.
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-  It’s thought that every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center.  The Milky Way’s blackhole is called Sagittarius A. It has a mass equal to 4 million suns, yet, it would fit inside our own Sun.
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-  If a human were to become a black hole, that person would have to be compressed to the size of a proton.
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-  Over the course of a year, 100 billion stars are born and die throughout the universe.
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-   Astronauts returning from space have said that their spacesuits and gear smell like seared steak and hot metal.  This is an odor that’s probably caused by the remnants of dying stars.
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-   Back in the days when you would turn your television over to a badly tuned channel, the static, or ‘white noise, that you heard was made up of about one per cent radiation left over from the Big Bang. The proper name for this is Cosmic Microwave Background.
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- Space officially begins 62 miles above the earth, at the Karman line.  Cast into space on 5 September 1977 was space probe Voyager 1.  It is the furthest man-made object from Earth, at 11,136,538,637 miles away. In 1990, this space probe took the first ever image of our solar system from outside the solar system,  showing the Earth as a tiny blue dot.
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-  The probe carries a gold-plated audio-visual disk that carries scientific information, greetings, photos, sounds, and music from Earth, in case the probe ever is discovered by extraterrestrial life.
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-   Neutron stars are a crushed core of a massive star with a small radius and extremely high density. It can spin at up to 43,000 times a minute, and have a magnetic field one trillion times stronger than Earth,s.  They are one of the densest objects known.  One teaspoon of matter from a neutron star would weigh as much as one billion tons.
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-   Space is completely silent. Sound needs an atmosphere to travel through, and since space has no atmosphere, it has no sound. The biggest, most awe-inspiring exploding star wouldn’t even make a peep. Astronauts are able to communicate up there thanks to radio waves, which can travel through space.
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-  Talking of atmospheres, the Moon doesn’t have one, either. So, the footprints made by the Apollo astronauts are likely to remain printed on the lunar surface for billions of years.
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-   Space is almost a perfect vacuum. As a result, if two lumps of the same metal touch each other, they’ll meld together. This is because the atoms in each piece of material have no air separating them, so the lumps of metal have no way of knowing they’re two different pieces. Imagine the possibilities of construction in space with this handy effect!
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-  OTHER REVIEWS AVAILBLE UPON REQUEST, use THE NUMBER LISTED:
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-  2016  -  Birth of the Universe. The universe was born 13.8 billion years ago.  Our telescopes can see back 13 billion years.   This is when the Universe was only 800,000 years old. 
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-  2008  -  The universe almost did not happen.  There is a fine tuning problem for many of the constants in physics.  Change any of these constants only slightly and the universe we know would not have happened. 
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-  1991  -  Universe -  what are the odds?  Our whole existence appears to be n the very edge of the best conditions.  Our bodies are a collection of elements that were formed inside exploding stars. So, what are the odds you are able to read this review?
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-  1493  -  The universe is expanding at an ever accelerating rate due to a vacuum energy that we do not understand.  This energy will eventually over come all the gravity in the universe.    Enjoy life while you have it.  The future is not bright. 
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-  1836  -  95% of the universe is Dark Matter and Dark Energy that we do not understand.  General Relativity was the theory used to detect gravitational waves.  These are ripples in Einstein’s space-time. 
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-  1821  -  Describing the universe.  The universe can be described with a model using just 6 qualities. Astronomy is a time machine that looks backwards in time.  Hubble’s law describes the expansion. 
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-   1808  -  History of the Universe.  15 pages starts t 10^-43 seconds and goes to15 billion years.  Each period details important events.
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-  1782  -  Telescopes looking back in time.    The Hubble Deep Space Exposure, lasting 140 hours.  The view 11 billion years back in time.  Expanding space stretches wavelengths into the infrared.  The temperature drops from 3,000 Kelvin to -2.73 Kelvin.  If the Sun were a grain of sand, the milky way would be 40,000 miles across.
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-  1759  -  Why is the universe expanding?  It is expanding 47,000 miles er hour for every million lightyears distance.  And, it is still accelerating.  On lightyear is 6 trillion miles distance. 
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-  1672  -  100,000,000 years after the Big Bang the universe was 5 parts Dark Matter and 1 part Ordinary Matter, hydrogen and helium.  Today Dark Energy is pulling the universe apart at an accelerating rate.  We still do not understand gravity, but, Einstein’s math always works. 
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-  1665  -  For the first 400,000 the universe was a pea soup fog of all charged particles.  The first stars could have been a million times larger than our Sun. 
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-  1634  -   The universe started out in the realm of Particle Physics.  We are still 95% Dark Matter and Dark Energy and only 5% Ordinary matter and energy.   Gravity is an amazingly small number in the scheme of things.  The masses of the fundamental particles still can not be predicted mathematically.  The macroscopic world is quite different than the microscopic world. 
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-  1627  -  Is the universe really expanding? 
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-  1584  -  Universe lifetimes?
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-  1563  -  How old is the universe?
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-  1523  -   Turn the sky ito a 3-D map back to the beginning.
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-  1469  -  How we think the universe began?  The most amazing part of the universe is that I am here typing this review.
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-  1421  -  The size of the universe from the smallest to the biggest .
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-  1311  -  Is the universe spinning ,or, is it just me? 
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-  Ok there are a few more but, I will stop here.   1225  -  Is the universe really a computer?   -  1051  -  The universe by the numbers?  -   843  -  Pressed for time?  My entire lifetime is but a blink of the eye.  -  342  -  The Whole Shebang by Timothy Ferris. 
Ok , there is still more.  Stop.
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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, February 24, 2018  -----
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Neutrinos - the littlest particles

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- 2026  -  Many more discoveries are needed to explain neutrinos.  A detector in the ice at the South Pole may make these new neutrino discoveries.  Another experiment is sending neutrinos from Illinois to South Dakota. Neutrinos are a billion times more abundant than electrons. 
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-  -------------------------------  - 2026  -    Neutrinos  -  the littlest particles 
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- If you get hit by a baseball you feel it. A baseball is composed of one trillion atoms all interconnected.  If you got hit by a single atom you would not feel it.  It could be a cosmic ray, which is a misnomer because they are not rays at all, they are particles, these atom nuclei are moving at near light speeds.  They could collide with other atoms inside your body and cause mutations. But, you would not feel a thing, not a single atom.
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-  And, you would not feel the trillions of neutrinos passing through  every inch of your body every second. They are the smallest fundamental particles. Neutrinos are so small they are nearly massless. Passing through your body they almost never collide with a single atom.
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-  The Standard Model of Particle Physics has only 12 particles. The protons and electrons are well understood. Protons are made of other fundamental particles called quarks. And quarks  are becoming better understood. But, the three types of neutrinos in the Standard Model are not well understood.
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-  Experiments at Fermi lab are hoping to change that. Neutrinos carry no electrical charge. They carry almost no mass. This makes them extremely difficult to detect. Fermi lab in Illinois generates the neutrinos and sends them to the detector in South Dakota.  The detector is called DUNE, the deep underground neutrino experiment.
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-  Physicists believe that neutrinos acquire their mass by a new undiscovered type of physics. The first neutrino was discovered in 1962. We now know that there are three types of neutrinos and that they can oscillate between each type.
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-  The three types are:
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-------------------------------------  Electron neutrinos
------------------------------------  Muon neutrinos
------------------------------------  Tau neutrinos
-
-  A type might leave Fermi lab as an electron neutrino sand arrive in South Dakota as a tau neutrino in the DUNE detector.  This discovery of identity transformation has helped explain why the Sun’s neutrinos arrive with us detecting only 33% of what was expected. 
-
-  The math and theory expected electron neutrinos but 67% of them morphed into muon and tau neutrinos during their travel time to Earth.    The detectors were designed detect only the first type. To allow the morphing to occur physics theory requires neutrinos to have some mass. Without there being mass physics theory says that they cannot morph.
-
-  Quantum Mechanics math predicts there be three types of neutrinos. Quantum Mechanics also states that these very small particles exist in a state of uncertain probabilities. Neutrinos have different masses.  In order to travel the speed of light the mix of their masses must change between the different types of neutrinos.
-
The DUNE experiment hopes to learn the exact mass of each neutrino and to explain how and why they morph between masses.
-
-   How do neutrinos get their mass in the first place?  Other particles inside atoms obtain their mass by interacting with the Higgs Field that pervades all of space.
-
-  All neutrinos discovered to date have left-handed spin. In order to interact with the Higgs Field they must have a right-handed spin. Neutrinos have so little mass, 1/100,000 the mass of an electron. Perhaps they interact with another undiscovered field other than the Higgs. Could Dark Matter be that undiscovered mass?
-
-  Another hope in these experiments is to discover why the universe is made of matter and not equal amounts of anti-matter??  If the universe evolved from nothing then there should be equal amounts of each. Maybe the answer might be discovered while studying neutrinos and anti-neutrinos?  Maybe right-handed neutrinos having right handed spin could explain this?
-
-  The DUNE detector is designed to make several of these new discoveries.  The detector contains 17,000 tons of liquid argon. When a neutrino strikes a nucleus of argon the collision ,leaves a trail of electrons that the detector can “see”.
-
-  These detections could start up in 2018 in a miniature version. The full experiment would not be operational until 2020. The more we understand the more questions we have. The questions in particle physics will keep us busy for a long time.
-
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-
-  Other reviews a available upon request:
-
-  1978.-   Neutrinos are sub-atomic particles that reside with electrons and protons in the center of atoms. They releases in mass from the fusion reactions that go on in the center of our Sun.  They are nearly massless with no charge and trillions have passed through your body as you have read this sentence.
-
-  1840. -  Are there sterile neutrinos?  They would be right handed. That would be a neutrino with right handed spin. It is predicted in the math in physics. But, it is yet to be discovered. It took 50 years later after its prediction for the Higgs Boson to be discovered.
-
-   1814. -  Defines what are neutrinos are and provides an index of seven more reviews on the subject.
-
-  1631. -  Because neutrinos are neutral particles they travel through space in a straight line unaffected by magnetic fields. They arrive hours ahead of the light coming from a supernovae explosions. Astronomers hope that neutrino detectors can be used to study supernovae. They can get their telescopes looking in the right places before the explosion happens.
-
-  1608. -   While you are reading this sentence 5,000,000 neutrinos passed through your thumbnail. They are generated in the Earths crust, the Sun, the Big Bang, supernovae, and even from inside your own body. Neutrinos come in 3 flavors. Only the left handed neutrinos interact with the weak nuclear force.
-
-  1589.-  Neutrinos are unaffected by the strong nuclear force. Neutrinos are created in radioactive decay.  These small particles were proposed to exist in 1930. They were not discovered until 1942. Neutrinos may be their own anti-particle. Neutrinos are so small they comprise only 0.3% percent of the mass-energy of the universe.
-
-  1511. -  Particles that the Standard Model of Particle physics predicts, but,  that we have yet to find. Sterile neutrinos  may explain the structure of galaxies. It may explain the distance between galaxies.
-
-  1219. -  ICECUBE is a neutrino telescope located deep in the ice at the South Pole. It will not see photons. It will see neutrinos. New discoveries are bound to occur.
-
-  1139  -  Neutrino telescopes could look further back in time then light telescopes can detect. The universe will “light up” when we can see with neutrino eyes.
-
-  732. -  Neutrinos are leptons. An electron neutrino mass is less than 0.1 electron volts. A supernova releases 99% of its energy in the first 10 second burst of neutrinos. This review contains the thermal history of the universe.  After 13.7 billion years we have cooled down to 2.728 Kelvin degrees.
-
-  630. -  Neutrinos are a billion times more abundant than electrons. Potassium 40 in your body is emitting 340,000,000 neutrinos every day. This review contains the history of discoveries of neutrinos.
-
-  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----  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, February 22, 2018   -----
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SATURN - Huygens lands on Titan.

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- 2025   -  SATURN  -  Huygens lands on Titan.  This Review is about her biggest moon, Titan.  Titan is bigger than the planet Mercury. The Huygens Space Probe went through Titans thick atmosphere and landed safely on the surface operating for another 72 minutes.         
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TO LEARN MORE, CLICK ON ADDRESS BELOW:  FEEDBACK ENCOURAGED
-
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-

-  See Review 2023 to learn about the Cassini visit to Saturn and her moons.  This Review is about her biggest moon, Titan.  Titan is bigger than the planet Mercury. The Huygens Space Probe went through Titans thick atmosphere and landed safely on the surface operating for another 72 minutes.
-
-  It is camera that most of us are fascinated with.  These pictures made n 2005 were of another land.  To get them scientists had to overcome a couple special challenges. The team on Earth was receiving nothing but nonsense from Huygen’s precious stream of data. The radio receiver was not handling the Doppler shift of incoming signals. The landing had to be engineered to avoid motions that caused these shifts in frequency. Titan flybys had to slow down each pass to release the probe gently to minimize any Doppler shifts with the Probe’s transmissions.
-
-  Next the transmissions were to be sent over two separate channels. But, programming errors would not allow channel A to be turned on. Half of the images were lost forever. Released December 24, 2004, the probe had a 3 week fall through space before entering Titan’s atmosphere. Huygens deployed a large parachute and blew off its heat shield. It drifted for 89 miles sampling the atmosphere during descent.  After 15 minutes it continued to descending with a smaller parachute.
-
-  The probe landed gently on the surface of damp sand.  Channel B recorded 100 images over the next 72 minutes. The pictures showed river beds, small channels feeding larger rivers. The highlands were pictured with jagged rocks and canyons created by methane rain erosion. Liquid methane was also welling up from beneath the ground.
-
-  The decent through the atmosphere found mostly nitrogen and methane. Conclusion were that this atmosphere was delivered by bombardments of space rocks. The atmosphere on Earth was formed in the same way. In fact tholin molecules were detected which are thought to be the same building blocks for life on Earth.
-
-  Tholins are organic compounds formed by ultraviolet radiation or cosmic rays radiating simple carbon containing compounds like carbon dioxide, methane or ethane in combination with nitrogen. When in the presence of water tholins can facilitate the formation of prebiotic chemistry that may have been the origins of life.
- 
-  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----  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, February 20, 2018   -----
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SATURN - and her many moons.

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- 2023  -  SATURN  -  and her many moons.  Cassini spacecraft ended its mission a few months ago.  Saturn left us with many more mysteries to solve.  Moons that have underground oceans that could support alien life.  A moon larger than the planet Mercury received an atmospheric probe, the Huygens Space Probe,  that descended through its atmosphere landing in a lake bed. 
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TO LEARN MORE, CLICK ON ADDRESS BELOW:  FEEDBACK ENCOURAGED
-
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-

-  -------------------------  2023  -  SATURN  -  and her many moons
-
-  Saturn is 9 1/2 times the size of the Earth.  It is also 9 1/2 times the distance from the Sun as the Earth.  It is only 70% the density of Earth, and 95 times the mass of the Earth.
-
-  Saturn has 11 smaller inner moons.
-
-  Outer moons include:
-
 --------------------------------------------------- kilometer radius -------  mile radius
-
--------------------  Mimas  -------------------------. 199 ----------------------   124     
----------------------Enceladus. ----------------------249  ----------------------  155
----------------------Tethys.-------------------------- 530  ----------------------  329
----------------------Dione.--------------------------- 539 ----------------------   335
----------------------Rhea. ----------------------------764  ----------------------  475
----------------------Hyperion. -----------------------140  ----------------------    87
----------------------Titan.-------------------------- 2,575  ----------------------  1600
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-  Cassini spacecraft has been studying Saturn for 13 years. It ended September 15, 2017 when the spacecraft was sent to descend into Saturn’s atmosphere. Astronomers will be studying the data for years to come.  Cassini left Cape  Canaveral 20 years ago arriving in 2004.
-
-  Cassini carried 12 instruments to measure a myriad of parameters.  All the instruments were attached directly to the spacecraft so the entire spacecraft had to rotate in order to point at a specific target.
-
-  There are some amazing videos collected by the Huygens Space Probe. See Review # 1922 to learn more about Huygens.  Saturn has 62 moons to explore. See Review #1764 to learn about he many moons and the rings of Saturn. See Review #1332 to learn about the hexagon cloud occupying the North Pole.  The moons include Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, Hyperion, Phoebe, Prometheus, and 50 more smaller moons.
-
-  Prometheus is 53 miles in diameter and its orbit dips into and out of the rings. Mimas creates the largest gap in the rings.
-
-  The rings of dust and ice crystals contain density waves created by the Saturn’s pulsating surface.  The pulsations correspond to the brightness variations at the Sun’s surface.
-
-  In order to measure the gravity of Saturn radio signals between Earth and the orbiting Cassini measured a slight change in radio frequency.  These tiny frequency changes were used to plot the mass distribution within Saturn. The result was a determination that Saturn had a differential rotation, some layers of the planet move at different speeds.
- 
-  Cassini turned its attention to the moons of Saturn. There are some 60 of them depending on how small of a satellite you count.  The biggest satellite is Titan which is bigger than the planet Mercury.  It has a hazy atmosphere that is denser than Earth’s.  It produces rains of methane that flow across the icy surface and pool into lakes.
-
-   Smaller moons sweep up particles inside the rings. Pan and Daphnis, Janus and Epimetheus orbit inside the rings. Mid-size moons like Dione and  Tethys orbit on Lagrangian points 60 degree points in identical stable orbits.
- 
-  Phoebe was a moon discovered in 1899. It was the first moon to be photographed.  It is only 130 miles in diameter,  1/60th the size of our Moon. Frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide have been discovered on the surface. What is unusual about Phoebe is it is orbiting in the opposite direction as the other moons. That suggests it is an interloper satellite that was somehow captured by Saturn’s immense gravity.
-
-  Iapetus was first discovered in 1671 by Giovanni Cassini himself.   Iapetus is tidally locked to Saturn. Like our Moon, we only see one side as it orbits the Earth. Iapetus is 927 miles in diameter and the third largest moon. Its density is slightly more than frozen water. Rock is likely less than one-forth the planet’s composition. Iapetus has the shape of a walnut with a large ridge running 800 miles along the equator. The ridge reaches 12 miles high.
- 
-  Rhea is Saturn ‘s second largest moon.
-
-  Hyperion is Saturn’s largest irregular shaped moon ,  224 by 165 miles. It has a sponge like surface of low density material, Hyperion tumbles along in its orbit changing direction of its spin.
-
-  Enceladus reflects almost 100% of  the sunlight.   It is 313 miles in diameter.  They believe there is on ocean beneath the surface of Enceladus. There are plumes of water vapor , hydrogen, and hydrocarbons erupting from the surface.  The water erupting to the vacuum of space simultaneously boils and freezes making the landscape as white as falling snow.
-
-  The plumes from Enceladus were measured to be 98% water vapor and 1% hydrogen. The sub-ocean is the most likely place to search for life.
-
-  Dione’s surface is also covered with volcanic ice deposits.   Dione too might posses a sub-surface ocean.

On September 15, 2017 Cassini ends it’s mission after 20 years since its launch from Cape Canaveral.
-
----------------------------------------------------------------
-
-  Other Reviews available:
-
-  1992. Titan and Saturn mission accomplishments.

-  1842. An exoplanet like Saturn but 200 times bigger.
-
-  1764. Beyond the rings of Saturn. Saturn‘s  moons.
-
-  1570. Cassini visits Saturn.
-
-  1332. Saturn’s hexagon at the North Pole.
-
-  1271. A thunderstorm on Saturn.
-
-  1252. New worlds discovered with Cassini.
-
-    661. Saturn, Cassini, and Huygens.
-
-  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----  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, February 19, 2018   -----
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The evolution of dogs

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- 2024  -  Molly and me.  120 million years of mammal development and diversity.  Science now knows that mammals and dinosaurs lived together for millions of years.  65,000,000 years ago dinosaurs died out and mammals took over and began to diversify.  Mammals began as small, shrew-like creatures, some up to the medium sized dog. 
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-  -----------------  2024  -  Molly’s Grandpa was a Llama?
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-  Molly is a Golden Retriever, 7 months old and 50 pounds, at the time of this first writing.  My brother, Bob, wanted to know her pedigree.  She came from a flea and burr infested farm in Napa at 3 months and was considered a rescue dog.  Her lineage goes back to Scotland where her ancestors were bred for retrieving water fowl and game birds.  In the 18th century guns were getting better and the downed game was too hard to find.  Golden Retrievers were ideal for the job.  Her lineage goes back to over 120 million years.  Then, they were called Llamas.
-
-   Science now knows that mammals and dinosaurs lived together for millions of years.  65,000,000 years ago dinosaurs died out and mammals took over and began to diversify.  Mammals began as small, shrew-like creatures, some up to the medium sized dog.  From there, evolution created a diversity of mammals where today we have 4,316 different species of mammals.
-
-  Mammals are different from other creatures in that they have fur, or hair, are warm-blooded, and produce milk.  They have live births, with a few mammals that lay eggs (platypus), and a few  that have a mother’s pouch (kangaroos), but 90% are placental mammals.
-
-  Of these placental mammals there are at least 23 categories, called orders, and within these orders there are 4,316 different species.  Each has a Latin name but I will just use a few representatives with common names for each species.  For example the largest number of species is in the order “Rodentia” which has 1,995 species of mice, squirrels and guinea pigs.  Here is a table of the order and species:
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----------  1  ------------ mice, squirrels  ----------  1,995  species
----------  2 -----------   rabbits  ------------------------  80 
----------  3 ------------  bats  --------------------------  925 
----------  4  -----------  bears, cats, dogs, seals  ----  280
----------  5  -----------  monkeys, men  --------------  233
----------  6  -----------  whales, dolphins  -------------  78
----------  7 ------------  cows, pigs, deer  ------------  215
----------  8  ------------  horses, rhinos  ------------- -- 18
----------  9  ------------  sloth’s, anteaters  ------------  29
----------  10  ----------- pangolins (1)  -----------------  7
----------  11------------  flying lemurs  ----------------  2
----------  12------------  aardvarks (5) -----------------  1
----------  13------------  manatees  ---------------------- 4
----------  14------------  hyraxes (2) -------------------  11
----------  15------------  elephants  ----------------------  2
----------  16------------  elephant shrews  ------------- 19
----------  17------------  hedgehogs  -------------------  21
----------  18------------  moles  -------------------------  42
----------  19------------  tree shrews  ------------------  19
----------  20------------  shrews  ----------------------  312
----------  21------------  tenrecs, moles (footnote 3) -  24
----------  22------------  golden moles  ----------------  18
----------  23------------  solenodons (footnote 4)  -----  2
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-  We can try to combine these orders into groups that have common characteristics in order to determine a common ancestor.    Common characteristics might be similar teeth, similar toes or  hooves, similar spines, etc.  Another way to combine these species into a family tree is to group those with the most similar DNA.  This review does not go into the details of mutations in DNA.  But, evolution has occurred through mutations in the DNA code.  The mutations that improve the species, or create another species that are better survivors, live on.  Those with the poor mutations die off.  Only the strong survive. 
-
-  The DNA string is unique to each species as it is passed on to generation after generation.  When you get back to common ancestors of species they have common DNA mutations.  So, without going into the explanations here are the results:
-
The genetic differences in DNA between:
-
----------------  humans  --------------  chimpanzes  ------------  1.24%
----------------  humans  --------------  gorillas  ----------------    1.62%
----------------  humans  -------------- orangutans  --------------  3.08%
-
-----------------  chimps ----------------gorillas  ----------------   1.63%
-----------------  chimps  --------------  orangutans  -------------- 3.13%
-
-----------------  gorillas  ------------  orangutans  ---------------  3.09%
-
-  Using DNA results, humans are more like chimps than any other species.  And, humans are to gorillas almost as chimps are to gorillas.  Using this data from the DNA we conclude that humans and chimps had a common ancestor from which both species diverged 6,500,000 years ago.  And, humans and chimps diverged from gorillas some 7,500,000 years ago.  These species of humans, chimps and gorillas diverged from orangutans with a common ancestor 16,000,000 years ago.
-
-  It is important to note that only males were included in this DNA survey, ha, ha.
-
-  We are interested in Molly’s common ancestors.  Together dogs and bears are in the species “ Carnivores”.  The number of nucleotide differences between dogs, bears, llamas, and antelope are:
-
--------------------  dogs  ---------------  bears  -------------  36 different nucleotides
-------------------   dogs  ---------------  llamas  ------------  35
--------------------  dogs  --------------- antelope  ----------  46
-
--------------------  bears  --------------  llamas  ------------  45
--------------------  bears  -------------- antelope  ----------  50
-
-  It looks like dogs are more closely related to llamas than to bears.  But, comparing dogs and bears to llamas they are 10 differences apart.  Comparing them to antelope they are only 5 differences apart.  Dogs and bears had a common ancestor with llama and antelope some 80,000,000 years ago.
-
-  As best we can determine there evolved two basic groups of mammals.  One from Africa and one from the Northern Latitudes.
-
 -  From Africa common ancestors existed:
-
 -----------------65,000,000 years ago for:
------------elephants
-----------  hyraxes (footnote 2)
-----------  manatees
-
--------------- 80,000,000 years ago for: 
----------  aardvarks (footnote 5)
----------  elephant shrews
----------  tenrecs (footnote 3)
-
-  As best we can determine from Northern Latitudes common ancestors existed:
-
 ----------------80,000,000 years ago for:
------------rabbits
----------  mice
----------  tree shrews
------------flying lemurs
----------  primates, you and me Leroy
-
--------------and 90,000,000 years ago for: 
----------  hedgehogs
----------  bats
---------   dogs and bears
----------  pangolins (footnote 1)
----------- horses
----------- pigs, whales
-
-  This grouping certainly had something to do with continental drift when Africa separated from Gondwana some 120,000,000 years ago.  South America separated from Africa some 105,000,000 years ago.  South America joined up with North America some 90,000,000 years ago.  The categories for these mammals come together with a common mammal ancestor some 110,000,000 years ago when they were all shrews. Then, the dinosaurs died off some 65,000,000 years ago.  Interesting!  Molly had quite a lineage if you go back to the beginning.  I am still not sure where that beginning all started.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-
-  (1)  Pangolons are a scaly anteater.  They look like a walking pine cone that is up to 3 foot long.  They can curl up into an armored ball with razor sharp scales for protection.  Its claws are also sharp for climbing and burrowing.
-
-  (2)  Hyrax is a small rabbit-like mammal said to be the closest living relative to the elephant.  Found in Africa and the Middle East it has fossil records dating back 40,000,000 years ago.
-
-  (3)  Tenrecs are found in Madagascar and Africa.  They vary in size from shrew-like to opossum-like.  They are omnivorous and nocturnal and usually live in groups.
-
-  (4)  Solenodons are shrew-like mammals that resemble a species very closely to those living with the dinosaurs.  They have long snouts and eat insects.  Their tits are on their butts and their saliva is venomous.  Once adult they are solitary animals.
-
-  (5)  Aardvarks are called the ant-bear because it is the size of a pig.  It is a living fossil.  It is nocturnal and feeds on ants and termites.  It has a long, sticky tongue.  It borrows out a home.  Its predators are lions and leopards and for defense it will lie on its back and slash with its long claws.
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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    ----------------   Sunday, February 18, 2018   -----
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Blackholes how to measure their mass?

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- 2022  - Blackholes how to measure their mass?  The more distant galaxies are more challenging.  New techniques must be used to measure radius and rotation because they are so far away.   A breakthrough was the finding of two blackholes orbiting each other.
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-
-  Monster blackholes hide in the centers of most galaxies. A new technique is helping astronomers measure the mass of some of the very largest blackholes in the far reaches of the universe.  These blackholes lie in the centers of these very faint, distant galaxies.  This new approach could improve astronomer’s understanding of how these blackholes form and evolve, and how they influence galaxy evolution.
-
-  Astronomers now theorize that at the heart of nearly every large galaxy there is a supermassive blackhole.   These monsters can be millions or billions solar mass. They do not radiate or reflect light. They can not be seen directly. But, as the gravity of the blackhole draws in dust and gas from the surrounding galaxy, it creates a swirling disk of material that falls into the blackhole.
-
-  That in falling material heats up and begins to radiate light, making the blackhole indirectly visible. The light can become so bright as to outshine the entire galaxy. These brightest galaxies are called “active galactic nuclei, AGNs” or , the brightest of them all are called “quasars”.  Quasars seen all away across the universe indicate the presence of supermassive blackholes.
-
-  Blackholes have three measurable properties: mass , spin , and charge.  To calculate mass we need to observe the gas or stars moving around the galactic center.  By defining the orbit and speed you can calculate mass.  However, these most distant galaxies can not resolve stars or clouds around the center blackhole.
-
-  Astronomers use a technique called “reverberation mapping” to calculate mass.
They compare the brightness of the radiating gas in the outer region of the galaxy with that found at the inner region of the galaxy
-
-  The gas at the inner region affects the fast moving gas farther out.  However, light takes time to travel outward , or to reverberate, causing a delay between the changes seen in the inner region and the effect it has on the outer region. Measuring the delay reveals how far away the outer disk of gas is from the center of the blackhole.  Couple this with the rotation rate and you can calculate the mass.
-
-  This observation and calculation takes many months to do.  Only 60 blackholes have been measured over the past 20 years of observation.  Reverberation time delay rates have been measured for 44 quasars calculating blackhole masses from 5 million to 1.7 billion Solar Mass.
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-  The more distant the quasar the further back in time. Astronomers are writing the history of the birth of the universe with these observations.  To date they have studied 850 quasars over multiple years.  They continue to collect data and to calculate masses of these distant blackholes.
-
-  Good, accurate data and calculations require observations over multiple years.
-
-  For the first time, astronomers a have found a pair of blackholes orbiting each other.  Much remains uncertain how these giants grow and how they influence the universe around them.   The gravitational effects were used to calculate a 15 billion Solar Mass for the two blackholes. One might be 2 ,or even 4, times bigger than the other.  They could be a distance of only 24 light years apart.
 -
-  Astronomers believe these two blackholes were created from dozens of galaxies merging together.  Possibly these two might even merge into a single giant blackhole.
-
-  Astronomers measured the orbital rate of just one micro-arc second per year.  If that arc was measured for a planet orbiting our closest star 4 lightyears away that would be a movement of 0.4 inches an arc second.  This calculates to a single orbit for the blackholes to be 30,000 years.
-
-  Because the universe is expanding these two supermassive blackholes may never merge. However, astronomers hope to learn much more from this unusual astronomical event.  No one said this going to be easy.
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- Other Reviews on this topic:
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-  2020  -  . Blackholes when did they first appear?  How did the first stars form?
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-  1936.  -    Are there rogue blackholes?  Could they explain Dark Matter?
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-  1918.  -   Which came first blackholes or galaxies?
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-  1908.  -   How the mass of a blackhole is calculated?
-
-  These reviews list an index of several other reviews on what we have learned about blackholes. All available upon request.
-
-  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----  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, February 17, 2018  -----
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New discoveries in physics and astronomy

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- 2021 -  New discoveries include planets orbiting the stars. How pulsars were used to find these planets.  Some discoveries occurred inside Albert Einstein s head, he called a thought experiment. Robert Millikan used oil drops to discover the electric charge on an electron. In 1851 a pendulum was used to learn how fast the Earth was rotating.   To learn more read Review Number 2021.

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TO LEARN MORE, CLICK ON ADDRESS BELOW:  FEEDBACK ENCOURAGED
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-

-
-  In 1992, 60 years after discovering Pluto, astronomers discover a new planet orbiting a distant star.  By observing light from the star and measuring wavelengths they could determine that the star moved back and forth as if a planet was circling it. The light was red shifted and blue shifted as the light source moved away from us and then towards us.
-
-  Pulsars are the remains of supernovae explosions. Their rotation results in rotating beams of light exiting the poles. The rotating Neutron Star is compact only 12 miles in diameter. It is super dense and has a precise , constant rotation. This star with orbiting planets will have a clock lile wobble due the gravitational influence of its orbiting planets.
-
-  You would think that a supernova explosion would blast away any orbiting planets. However, somehow, orbiting a pulsar was the first exoplanet to be discovered.
-
-  The teacher asked the students, “How would you discover the size of the Earth before airplanes?”
-
- It took the ancients many decades to discover that the Earth was not flat, it was round.  They began to realize the curvature when sailing ships went over the horizon, you could still see their sails. Then, they saw a Lunar eclipse with the Earth’s circular shadow on the Moon. Their sailing ships also realized that the stars in the Southern Hemisphere could not be seen in the Northern Hemisphere.
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-  You will be surprised to learn who first measured the size of the Earth. It actually happened in 250 BC. Eratosthenes was a Greek scholar who figured out why in the town of Syene they experienced no shadows looking down the well at high noon. But, during the summer solstice at noon the wells in the city of Alexandria did. He measured the distance between the two cities using camel drives. He knew how far camels can walk each day. He measured the angle of the shadow in Alexandria. He used simple geometry.  He came up with a calculation that the Earth was round with a circumference of 28,000 miles.  Of course his units were not miles, but, his calculation was within 10% of today’s number.
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-  Einstein’s experiment was a “thought experiment“. No camels were needed. He thought that if he raced his bicycle along side a beam of light what would he see?
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-  He knew that light was an electromagnetic wave. He figured that the light wave would be frozen as he raced along side it at the same speed. Would it be possible for him to travel that fast??  He did the math. What fell out was the Theory of Special Relativity.
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-  His next trick was to imagine he was in an elevator with no windows. He cut the cable and went into free fall. He would experience the same weightlessness as in free space. His conclusion was that he could not tell the difference between acceleration and the pull of gravity.  Inertial mass and gravitational mass were identical.  What fell out of that thought experiment was the math for the Theory of General Relativity.
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-  In 1909 Robert Millikan knew that an electric charge existed. He knew the charge was carried by electrons. But, what was the amount of charge carried by each electron. How could he possibly measure one electron?
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-  Well, use oil drops , of course.
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-  He dropped drops of electrically charged oil drops into a vacuum. Their terminal velocity would be due to the pull of gravity. If you calculate the drops velocity, the density of air left in the vacuum chamber, the density of the oil, the strength of gravity, and “viola” the math can calculate the mass of the drops.
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-  Now, apply an electric field around the chamber. When the electric field balanced the falling drops with that gravitational force he could calculate the electric charge on each drop. After many, many measurements he determined the charge on an electron to be 1.6*19^ coulombs. That amount of charge was fundamental. It is always the same for every electron. 
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-  In 1851 physicist Leon Foucault decided he could suspend a pendulum and the Earth would rotate underneath it. The pendulum would always maintain its original plane.  It would trace the rotation of the Earth on the floor beneath it. 
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-  He constructed his biggest pendulum in the Pantheon in Paris, France. He showed everyone how the Earth was rotating 11.3 degrees per hour.  Times 24 hours equals 271 degrees. A more accurate experiment would measure 15 degrees per hour.
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-  In the 1950s astronomers were studying mysterious radio waves from unknown sources in the night sky.  In 1963 a paper was written declaring the sources to be 2.4 billion light years away. They were so powerful yet appeared as the faintest of stars. They got the name “quasi-stellar objects” , or quasars..
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- Later many of the same objects were found far beyond the Milky Way. Not knowing what they were astronomers came up for many different names for them.  Eventually they realized they were all the same objects viewed from different directions and orientations.  The energy came from blackholes at the centers of distant galaxies. The material orbiting around and cascading into the center of the blackhole were generating the enormous amount of energy.
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- Now, in 2017, astronomers have discovered gravity waves , which are the stretching of spacetime, followed by a flash of gamma rays.  Gamma rays are the highest energy form of light. The source was found to be two neutron stars spiraling around each other, then merging , and maybe creating a blackhole.
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-  LIGO, the gravity interferometer in Louisiana, detected the gravitational waves on August 17, 2017.  Then there was a second LIGO detection in Washington State milliseconds later.  After that a gamma ray burst was detected, 1.74 seconds later. They showed that the two neutron stars were circling each other some 1,500 times before merging.
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Eleven hours later optical and infrared telescopes got the spectrograph identifying the chemical elements, iron and gold created in the collision. These were some of the elements thrown into outer a space to become new stars and planets.
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-  On September, 2015, LIGO detected two blackholes merging. They had Solar Masses of, 29 and 36 suns. The merger created a new blackhole of 62 Solar Mass. The remaining 3 Solar Mass was radiated away as gravitational waves traveling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second.
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-  LIGO’s wave detection is amazing. These two instruments have two perpendicular arms that only stretched their laser beams 1/1000 the width of a proton.
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-  In December, 2015, another detection was of a merger of two blackholes, 8 and 14 Solar Mass. Later, on January 4, 2017, LIGO detectors measured a 19 and 31 Solar Mass merger of two blackholes.
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-  The blackhole pairs are gravitationally bound.  By emitting gravity waves they drain their orbital energy. Eventually, over billions of years, the orbits shrink into a collision. These final seconds are when the gravitational waves are powerful enough for LIGO to detect them.
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-  These new detections will allow astronomers to confirm that gravity waves don’t disperse and all frequencies travel at the same speed through space, the speed of light.
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-  Neutron stars should also emit gravitational waves. If these high density rotating stars produce circumference bulges of only a few inches they should continuously radiate gravitational waves.
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-  These gravity wave detectors may even become sensitive enough to study supernovae explosions and cosmic strings. Who knows what we may find with these new telescopes steadying the cosmos?   We might even detect the source of Dark Matter.
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
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--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Friday, February 16, 2018   -----
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Blackholes, when did they first appear?

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- 2020 -  Blackholes, when did they first appear?  How did the first stars form and how did they create the first blackholes, called quasars?  How old was the Universe when these first stars happened?  How are colliding blackholes and detecting gravitational waves helping in our understanding the birth of the universe?
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-  After the Big Bang , it took 380,000 years for the temperature to cool enough for atoms to form. At that time , the Universe became mostly all hydrogen two atoms each with one electron and one proton. It took another few hundred million years before this hydrogen gas could coalesce into the first stars. The stars clustered into galaxies. The oldest galaxy existing 400 million years after the Big Bang. 
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-  This also was when the first quasars appeared.   Quasars are the center of galaxies powered by super massive blackholes.  They are so luminous they can be seen in the farthest reaches of space.  The most distant quasars are the oldest and most ancient.
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-  The quasars are fueled by blackholes a billion times the mass of that of the sun. The oldest and most distant quasar discovered to date existed just 600 million years after the Big Bang.
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-  Astronomers can see the region of blackholes by the light emitted by matter falling into the center of these galaxies , the Blackhole.
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-  Blackholes are thought to form, mathematically speaking, when a mass ten times of the sun exhausts its nuclear fuel and begins to cool and contract. Eventually gravity wins and the star collapses, igniting a supernova explosion leaving behind a Blackhole.  However, this could not have been how the very first blackholes formed.

-  The first stars formed from primordial gas 200 million years after the Big Bang. These first stars were massive, 200 Solar Mass. They were likely formed in dense clusters of stars. They could have merged giving rise to blackholes of several hundred Solar Mass.
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-  When cosmic inflation occurred these primordial blackholes may have coalesced from tiny fluctuations in the density of the expanding cosmos.
A Blackhole would grow exponentially , doubling in mass every 10 million years.
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-  Gas disks cool down more with molecular hydrogen, 2 hydrogen atoms bound together, rather than atomic hydrogen, which consists of only one hydrogen atom.  Radiation from the first stars could break down molecular hydrogen  creating atomic hydrogen and slowing the cooling process.  This would keep the gas too hot to even form stars.
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-  In general the stars in a galaxy out weigh the central Blackhole by a factor of 1,000. In the above scenario the blackhole would briefly exceed that of all the orbiting stars in that galaxy.
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-  Evidence is that central blackholes play an important role in adjusting how many stars form in the galaxy they inhabit.  The energy produced by
in-falling material radiates out to the surrounding gas preventing cooling and halting star production.  The jets fromed at the poles could heat up gas in the outer regions also shutting down star formation.
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-  Substantiating these theories are in the works.  The LIGO experiment is detecting gravitational waves from colliding blackholes weighing 36 and 29 Solar Mass.  The data collected may give us insights on how space-time works around these events.
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-  Observing pulsing stars could detect tremors in space-time caused by an accumulated signal of multiple blackholes. More revelations about blackholes and the birth of the universe  are in our future
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-  Which scenario produced the first stars and galaxies?  Or, were both instrumental in producing the universe we have today?  The James Webb Space Telescope to be launched  next year, 2019, should help us find some answers.   And, create some new questions.
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-  HERE ARE SOME MORE REVIEWS AVAILABLE:
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-  1926. -  Are there rogue blackholes wandering through our galaxy? Are there blackholes that we calling Dark Matter?
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-  1918  -   Which came first the central blackhole or the galaxy?
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-  1908  -   How the mass of a blackhole is calculated?
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-  1819.  -   The history of discovery of blackholes. Reviews 1918 and 1819 lists even more Reviews about blackholes going back to #592 dated December, 2005.
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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    ----------------   Thursday, February 15, 2018  -----
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Quantum systems and Entanglement

-  1828  -  Quantum systems and Entanglement.  How to connect the smallest particles in the Quantum World to the macro-world math that uses General Relativity?  Is the entire Universe a space-time fabric interconnected in this way?
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-----------------  -  1828  -  Quantum systems and Entanglement. 
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-  At the quantum level , when you deal with the size of atoms and smaller particles they do not behave as the sum of the parts.  Instead quantum particles take on a collective behavior.
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-  Science is reduced to rough approximations when dealing with these quantum particles. Atoms do not have predetermined positions.  They are located at all possible positions at the same time.  They take fixed positions only the instant they are measured ( called the Uncertainty Principle).  The result is completely random at the same time at the quantum level they are somehow physically connected.
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-  To deal with this, science is reduced to “ probabilities”  To specify a position there is a probability highest at the center of a “ cloud” and gradually diminishes towards the outer fringes of the cloud.
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-  Then “ quantum entanglement” makes the math extremely complicated.  First calculate the probability of the first particle being measured on a certain position.  The position of the second particle depends on the position of the first particle .  The third particle depends on the positions of the first two.  And, so on……..  The correlations depend on the position of all the previous particle positions. 
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-  The result for many, many particles become  “ quantum waves”.
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-  The creation of these states of entanglement normally requires temperatures close to absolute zero and the application of enormously powerful magnetic fields.  ( called Bose-Einstein Condensations).  The temperatures are -270 C and the magnetic fields 1,000 times greater than everyday permanent magnets.
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-  However, recent science has achieved entangled states on a semiconductor chip at room temperatures and using small magnetic fields.
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-  When  photons are entangled they interact physically,  then forced to separate with the spin direction of one opposite to the spin direction of the other.  No matter how far the entangled particles are separated switching the spin of one immediately and instantaneously reverses the spin of the other.  The communication between the two entangled particles occurs faster than the speed of light.
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-  Normally room temperatures mean thermodynamic entropy and chaos at the atomic levels.  It should be difficult to get entanglement in this completely disordered state at the atomic level. 
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-  Normally, to get an ordered state very high energy photons from a laser are passed through a non-linear crystal.  The result at the output is a single high-energy photon that can be split into two entangled lower energy photons.  The two photons have entangled opposing spin polarizations because there were spawned from a single particle.
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-  To achieve this same entangled state at room temperature a whole new approach is needed.  An infrared laser is used to align the magnetic states of many electrons and positive charged nuclei.  Then, entanglement is achieved applying short electromagnetic pulses,  (like magnetic resonance imaging, MRI).  The process occurs on a silicon carbide semiconductor.  The volume of entangled particles is about the size of a red blood cell.
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-  This achievement in attaining entangled states repeatedly and economically has enormous potential in an endless number of applications.  Including:  biomedical, secure encrypted communications, information processing, high capacity data transfer, GPS satellites, and still more to be thought of………………
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-  It all is to come from understanding “ entanglement”.   Entanglement concerns tiny particles that contribute insignificantly to gravity.  But, could there be a link to space-time that is governed by gravity and linked to the Universe as a whole?  If space has some underlying physics it may include entangled particles inherently.
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-  Science is even going to Blackholes to study this possibility.  Inside and outside the Blackhole entangled particles might be connected by “ wormholes”.  Wormholes could be the bridge linking distant points in space.  They are hypothetical tunnels through hyperspace connecting distant separations in space.
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-  This idea has been expanded to view the entire Universe as a quantum computer encoding space-time as a web of entanglement.
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-  This idea is rooted in the math for holograms - the boundary enclosing a volume of space that contains all the same information contained in the inside of that space.   The 2-dimensional boundary has all the information contained in the 3-dimensional space inside.
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-  Add to this 3-dimensional space a 4th dimension of time with space expanding at an ever increasing rate.  Quantum Mechanics math describes the boundary at the micro-scale.  Gravity and General Relativity describe the space inside.  The 2 entities share no obvious relationship yet they may be connected with entanglement.
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-  Does entanglement tie space - time together?
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-  Is space really entangled particles that flash in and out of existence too quickly to ever be measured?
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-  Stephen Hawking’s idea is that Blackholes evaporate with entangled particles getting separated at the Event Horizon.  Then, all the information evaporating is the same as all the information contained inside the Blackhole.  Information is never lost.  The Conservation of Energy and Information can never be destroyed.
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-  Is the Event Horizon of a Blackhole actually a holographic boundary?
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-  Do all the entangled particles that escape the Blackhole remain connected to their counterpart inside the Blackhole via wormholes, tunnels in space-time.?
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-  Is the entire Universe a space-time fabric interconnected in this way?
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-  Could the ideas mold into one theory for Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity?
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-  If we merge the enormous big and the infinitesimal small does that take us back to the Big Bang and the birth of the Universe.  God only knows.
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-  Stay tuned, an announcement will be made shortly.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1801  -  Entanglement - space-time and wormholes
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-  #1231  -  How entanglement crosses the Universe.  Calculations are made for the size of the Universe.
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-  #1229  -  Is the Universe entangled in property pairs that defy reason?
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-  #1039  -  Entanglement in Quantum Mechanics.  People in relative motion disagree about time and space.
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- #1548  -  Quantum gravity.  From the biggest to the smallest.  When you can not demonstrate something with experiment any theory will work.
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-  #688  -  The Universe is a computer.  Space itself may just be a web of information.
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-  #1817  -  Quantum Mechanics  and Gravity.  Are we all entangled to one another.  Or, do quantum properties disappear when things get larger?
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-----------------  RSVP, Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----------------
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com ----- 
--  email comments, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
-  to:   -------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------
-  https://plus.google.com/u/0/  -- www.facebook.com  -- www.twitter.com
 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------------   Tuesday, February 13, 2018  -----
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