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---------------------- 2243 - SPACE - What is it really?
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- We think of space as a void, a vacuum, the place between the x, y and z axes on a graph in which matter exists but which is filled with nothingness.
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- In 1915 Einstein released his theory of General Relativity and introduced the world to the idea that space tends to curve in the presence of objects with mass. When space curves matter falls into this curvature due to the force of gravity generated by the mass causing the curvature.
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- Gravity does not exist without mass and mass does not exist without gravity.
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- The theories of quantum gravity attempt to reconcile the theory of general relativity with the theory of quantum mechanics by looking at space in a variety of new ways in an attempt to uncover what is really meant by this ‘curvature’ and how gravity works on the quantum scale.
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- One property of space which a theory of quantum gravity would have to explain is the phenomenon of the redshift of light. In our everyday lives we know that as a siren passes us and recedes into the distance that the pitch is altered due to the Doppler Effect. The reason for this is because sound waves are vibrations in the air molecules in the space between ourselves the observer and the siren producing the sound.
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- As the observer doesn’t move and the siren does, the sound waves have to travel through, on average, a larger number of air molecules which have to vibrate in order to produce the sound. As the number of air molecules increases, the pitch decreases and the sound eventually fades into nothingness.
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- The big question here is as to whether or not a similar thing is happening in space and this raises the question as to what light must be moving through in order for it to exhibit this redshift and blueshift that we observe.
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- So what has to be filling space for this effect to occur? We know that space is filled with an enormous number of neutrinos ,electrically neutral particles with a very small mass. Could these neutrinos be causing this Doppler shift in light?
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- Physics tells us that neutrinos are only considered to interact via the weak nuclear force and therefore not with photons. Photons are the force-carrying particle (or, ‘boson’) for the electromagnetic force.
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- Quantum theory, and especially the theory of Loop Quantum Gravity, tells us that space needs to be quantised (to have a particle basis), in order to explain these effects. It seems neutrinos are out. The particle that we’re looking for has to be something different, perhaps this particle (also given the name ‘graviton’) is something very mysterious which we need very large particle accelerators to be able to detect.
- We could take the view that this particle ought to be something that we know interacts via the force of electromagnetism. This would include any and all charged particles in the standard model of particle physics, such as the quarks, the electron and the electrons heavier counterpart particles the Tau and the Muon.
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- There exists a host of these particles along with a variety of other composite particles in space, so it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that these particles may be causing this Doppler Effect in light.
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- However, in cosmology we refer to the universe as being both homogeneous and isotropic, and it is this isotropic characteristic of the universe which seems to suggest that other particles, such as cosmic ray particles are not the cause of this Doppler shift as their distribution is not homogeneous in space (not evenly distributed) and therefore it would cause the redshift to not also be isotropic (to look the same in different directions).
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- Entities known as ‘secondary electron densities’ are the cause of these Doppler Shift effects These electron densities fit the bill of weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMP’s). Electrons comprising the electrical and gravitational fields of objects absorb and then emit photons as an object approaches, or moves away from, another object and thereby causes a shift in the energies of photons.
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- We know due to quantum electrodynamics that photons interact with electrons. They are absorbed and then emitted again, and that quantum electrodynamics is in agreement with special relativity.
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- If you were to take everything out of space, would you still have space? What would happen if you were able to remove all the radiation (particles of light, radio waves, gamma rays etc), all the neutrinos, all the cosmic rays and all the matter, what would you be left with?
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- It may be that you’re left with something called a Higgs vacuum. You may in fact be left with a naked singularity. But in reality you would not be left with space, as you need something to fill space to be able to measure it.
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- It may be the case, as is considered to be the case with dark energy, that it is the radiation itself that forms the backdrop against which we see the stars in the night sky. It is what we consider to be gravity fighting against this force pulling everything apart.
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- It may also even be the case that secondary electron densities allows gravity-causing electrons to act in exchanges of energy between different parts of the universe, with the photons acting in a way similarly.
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- It may even be the case that these ‘exchanges’ made by electrons cause the universe to expand in different parts and collapse in other parts. It may be that the universe is infinite, that it expands for a time in some places, and that then in other places it collapses back in on itself before exploding back out once again. God only knows. We need to keep working on these theories. Our education is incomplete.
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- (More reviews on this subject are available if you are interested)
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- 2074 - Space is much todo about nothing. There is much more nothing in this world then there is something.
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- 2049 - The furthest star we can see is because we get the help of an intervening galaxy that acts as a gravitational lens, a magnifying glass
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- 2019 - The expanding universe. There is a cosmic web interconnecting all the galaxies with massive voids in between. Space s not nothing. Expanding your mind to keep up with astronomy.
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- 2039 - If we can accelerate a starchip to 20% the speed of light we could get to the nearest planets in 20 years.
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- 2029 - Dust in outer space. Could this dust contain life? This Review lists 11 more reviews about space.
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- January 23, 2019
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-------------------------- Wednesday, January 23, 2019 --------------------------
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