Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Why is the Sky Dark and the Universe Leaving Us?

-  2349   -  Trying to describe the size of the Universe is trying to explain the unknowable.  But, there is a lot to be learned in trying.  The expansion of the Universe explains a lot of what we observe.  The Cosmic Microwave Background was a critical discovery in helping us determine the age of the Universe and the rate of the expansion of space.
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---------------------- 2349   -  Why is the Sky Dark and the Universe Leaving Us?
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-  How big is the “Whole Universe”?  We do not know.  How you answer the question depends on the theories you use for the expansion of the Universe.  The idea here is to try to understand what we do not know.  Your guess is as good as mine.  But, let me try to explain what I think I know from several different directions.  Let’s start with the
 “ Observable Universe”. 
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-  The Universe is 13.7 billion years old.  Light has been traveling for 13.7 billion years since it began.  The Cosmic Microwave Background radiation is our best evidence of this and light from it began about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
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-    I will cover this topic some more in later paragraphs.  So, we can say the radius of the “Observable Universe” is 13.7 billion lightyears.  This is the distance light can travel in 13.7 billion years.  One light year is 5,880,000,000,000 miles, so that is 81,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles light has traveled in 13.7 billion years. 
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-  This sounds straightforward but going from time of travel to distance assumes that the velocity is constant and  the geometry of straight lines.  We think the geometry of the Universe is “flat” or nearly “flat”.  If the “ Whole Universe” is really big than the “Observable Universe” would appear flat,  similar to the horizon on the planet Earth.
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-  The horizon to which we can see in the Universe is not the same as the horizon we see on Earth.  The horizon in the Universe is a “time” horizon, not a “space” horizon.  No matter which direction you look you see the horizon of the beginning of time and that horizon encompasses a certain volume of space.
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-  At some time later you see the horizon which is the beginning of time, but, it now encompasses a larger volume of space because during that time space has expanded.  You can not look past the “horizon” because you can not look back to a time before the Universe began.
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 -  It is best to visualize expanding space as carrying along the galaxies for the ride, rather than thinking of galaxies as projectiles flying through a static Universe.
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-   It is this expanding space that stretches the light’s wavelengths and causes us to see a “redshift” in the light from distant galaxies and the most distant Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. 
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-  The light left the CMB as Gamma Rays with 0.00011 centimeters wavelength and arrived here as microwaves with 0.11 centimeters wavelength.  The wavelengths were stretched by a factor of 1,000 during their travels to us.
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-  The Universe as far as we know does not have an edge.  But, it does have an “horizon” beyond which we cannot see.  13.7 billion years is as far back as we can see.  The Universe is this old and that is how long photons of light have been traveling.
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-   But, during the time that photons were traveling that long and that far the space behind them and ahead of them has been expanding.  It is like compound interest.  The more space expands the more space there is to expand even more.
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-  Photons that are 13.7 billion years old are now 47 billion lightyears away from where they started.
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-   (The latest calculations put this at 78 billion lightyears away because the expansion is believed to not just be constant, it is speeding up.  This has to do with the concept of Dark Energy that is accelerating the rate of expansion of the Universe. (another topic for a different review )).
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-  So, the “Observable Universe” could be at least 94 billion light years across, or, it could be 156 billion lightyears across depending on what you use for the rate of space expansion.  Even if we say the “ Observable  Universe” is now 47 billion lightyears in radius, we can only see 13.7 billion lightyears of that radius. We live inside a visible bubble inside a bigger Whole Universe bubble.
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-  If we can see 13.7 billion lightyears in one direction and we can see 13.7 billion lightyears in the opposite direction we see the same things.  The same conditions exist with two places 27 lightyears separated. 
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-  There is no way light could have traveled between these two places.  How can they be the same temperature, in equilibrium, if the two places have never been close enough together for even the speed of light to reach them? 
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-  The answer given is that they were together at one point in time.  Everything was in temperature equilibrium, then, separated great distances faster than the speed of light.
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-  This theory is called Cosmic Inflation.  It explains how opposite horizons can be in equilibrium.  It explains why the “ Observable Universe” is inside a bigger “ Whole Universe”.  The size of the “Whole Universe” is unknown and it could be infinite in size,  we don’t know, though infinity is hard to grasp.
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-  Cosmic Inflation occurred at 10^-32 seconds after the Big Bang when the temperature of the Universe was 10^27 degrees Kelvin.  The expansion of space at that instant was much faster than the speed of light.
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-  The theory as to why “Cosmic Inflation” occurred has to do with the separation, or freezing out, of the four forces in nature.  At the instant of the Big Bang all four forces were a single force.  First, gravity separated out at 10^-44 seconds and a temperature of 10^32 Kelvin.
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-   Next, the Strong Nuclear Force separated out from the Electroweak Force at 10^-35 seconds and 10^28 Kelvin.  The electromagnetic force separated out from the Weak Nuclear Force at 10^-10 seconds and 10^15 Kelvin.
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-   At 10^-32 seconds during this period that the forces were freezing out of the hot ionized plasma Cosmic Inflation occurred.  Space expanded faster than the speed of light for a short period of time. Therefore space is much bigger than we can see.
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-  We do not know if the rate of space expansion today is a constant rate or if it changes over time.  By measuring how fast distant galaxies are receding from us we calculate that the expansion rate today is 47,000 miles per hour per million lightyears.
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-   That means for every million lightyears a galaxy is away from us it is receding 47,000 miles per hour faster.  If a galaxy is 1 billion lightyears distant it would be receding 47 million miles per hour, 47,000,000 mph.
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-  If this rate of expansion is a constant velocity changing with distance, then inverting that ratio would be distance divided by velocity which is time.  Distance = rate * time. 
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-  Inverting the rate of expansion and running the slope backwards will take us back to zero time, the beginning of time.  The invert of the rate of expansion is the age of the Universe.
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-----------------  one lightyear  =  5,880,000 million miles
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----------------  one million lightyears  =  5.88*10^18 miles
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----------------  one million lightyears  /  47,000 miles per hour  =  age
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-----------------  5.88 *10^18 miles  /  4.7*10^4 miles per hour  = age
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-----------------1.3 * 10^4 hours  /  8,760 hours per year  =  age
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-----------------  13.7 billion years  =  age of the Universe
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-  Sometime after the Cosmic Expansion slowed back down to what we see today the first light was released from the plasma.  The electromagnetic energy could not escape the hot ionized plasma until the expansion had cooled enough for protons and electrons to combine into neutral atoms.
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-   This is the Cosmic Microwave Background that occurred at 12,000,000,000,000 seconds, or 380,000 years, and at a temperature of 3,000 Kelvin.
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-  560,000,000,000,000,000 seconds later, or 13.7 billion years later, we see this first release of Gamma Ray light as Cosmic Microwave Background radiation.  The light traveled for 13.7 billion years but all that time space was expanding and the wavelengths of this light kept being stretched out.
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-  It started out as Gamma Ray radiation at 3,000 Kelvin and we see it today as Microwave radiation at 2.73 Kelvin.  The temperature has decreased by a factor of 1,000 and the Universe has expanded by a factor of 1,000.
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-   Again, it is like compound interest.  The more space expands the more space there is to expand more.  27.4 billion lightyears is the diameter of  the “Observable Universe”.  What about the “ Whole Universe”?
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-  We do not know.  The “Whole Universe” could be infinite in size, but, that is hard to grasp.  If the number of stars and galaxies were infinite the night sky would be a dome of star light.
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-   The night sky would not be dark because every direction you looked you would see a star.  However, this dark sky could still be explained if the infinite Universe was expanding because the dark sky could be from those far away stars where their light has not had time to reach us. 
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-  Worse yet, if the Universe was expanding fast enough at the farthest distances galaxies would be receding faster than the speed of light.  Their light would NEVER reach us.  The Universe, including the “Observable Universe” would be disappearing over the “horizon“.
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-   If this accelerated expansion continues for a long time the only stars we will see at that time would be those that were gravitationally bound in our Local Group of galaxies.  All the other galaxies would have disappeared over the horizon, beyond the edge of light able to reach us.
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-  The idea here is to try to understand what we do not know.  Your guess is as good as mine. In the meantime enjoy the night sky knowing why it is dark.  We live in interesting times.
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-  April 30, 2019                                                                                1234
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 --------------------------   Tuesday, April 30, 2019  --------------------------
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Monday, April 29, 2019

The Universe from start to finish.

-  2348   -  The Universe from start to finish. Studying Cosmology gets you into some fun physics and math calculations that try to explain observations.  This in turn results in new discoveries because things don’t always match up.  How did things become as they are?
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---------------------- 2348  -  The Universe from start to finish.
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-  The strongest bond between cosmology and everyday life resides not in religion and philosophy but in the ability of science to pursue questions of universal simplicity about how things came to be as they are.
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-  The skepticism  of questioning, subversive and perpetually dissatisfied spirit that is the characteristic of science.  A theory can be sensible and beautiful and still quite wrong.
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-  Galileo:  " Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world;  all knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends with experience."
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-  The Earth's equator is moving east at 1000 miles per hour.  Eratosthenes, a Greek scholar,  in 300 B.C. figured the Earth was round.  He was in Egypt in the town of Syene, now called Aswan.  On June 21 every year he noticed the Sun shined to the bottom of the deep well that was in the town center.
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-   At the same time in Alexandria, directly north of Syene a ten foot stick pointing straight up cast a 16 inch shadow on the ground.  Sighting directly at the Sun he measured the angle at the top of the stick to the sun's rays to be 7 and one-half degrees.  The distance between the two towns was almost 50 days travel by camel, walking about 10 and one-half miles each day.
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-----------------------10.5miles/day *49.5days = 519.75miles * 360 degrees / 7.5 degrees = 24,948 miles.
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-----------------------   Divide by pi and get 7,926 miles for the diameter pf he Earth.  It took a camel driver to figure that out.
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-   Let's try parallax to measure the distance to Mars before we use it on the stars.  If we line up Mars and a star directly behind it, say at 80 degrees.  Then on the opposite side of  the globe do the same thing; there will be a slight angle difference due to parallax from the two vantage points.
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-   If this angle is measured to be 0.0092 degrees, you notice it is very small.  We can make a couple right triangles and calculate the distance to Mars.  It is 7,926.21 miles* cosine 80 * tangent 80 / tangent 0.0092 degrees plus 7,926.21 miles * cosine 80 degrees = 48,614,310 miles. 
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-  The Earth's and other planet's orbital velocity increases when it is nearer the Sun and decreases when it is farther away such that the rate sweeps an equal area within its orbit over equal intervals of time.
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-  When orbits are elliptical , over a fixed time, these triangles are long and narrow far out and short and fat when close in but the areas of the two triangles are equal.
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-  In 1761 and 1769 Venus crossed the face of the Sun and that yielded a fairly accurate value of the size of the Earth's orbit.
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----------------------  The period of Mars is measured to be 1.88 years (686.98 days).
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-----------------------    The orbit of Mars is 141,595,165.14 miles.
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-----------------------   The formula is the period of Mars squared divided by the period of the Earth squared = the orbital radius of Mars cubed divided by the orbital radius of the Earth cubed
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-----------------------    This formula works for any two bodies in orbit about the same mass.
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-----------------------    1.88 years squared / 1year squared = 141,595,165.14 miles cubed /  Earth's orbit
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-----------------------    The orbit radius of Earth is 92,955,806.84 miles ( mean distance).
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-----------------------    Jupiter's period is 11.83 years.
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-----------------------    The orbit of Earth is 93 million miles, but that's called one astronomical unit, AU.
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-----------------------    So, 11.86 years squared / 1 year squared = Jupiter's orbit cubed /
 1 AU cubed.
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-----------------------   Jupiter's orbit is 5.2 AUs or 483.6 million miles.
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-  Once the orbit diameter was known “parallax” could be used to calculate the distance to the stars.  In 1838 Cygni was measured at 11 light years away.
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-  How small of an angle would you  have to measure to measure the distance to Sirius, which is 8.6 lightyears away?  One lightyear is 63,240 AU, astronomical units ( distance Earth to Sun ).  8.6 lightyears is 543,864 AUs.  The tangent of the angle = sine 80 degrees ( angle we first used to line up Sirius with a more distant star or galaxy behind it ) * 2 AU ( Earth's orbit diameter ) / 543,864 AU.
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-   The angle we would measure would be only 0.002075 degrees
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-  Gaseous nebulae, clouds of gas and dust, are typically measure to be a few tens of light years in diameter.  Spiral nebulae are billions of stars and typically measure 100,000 light years in diameter.  Spiral nebulae are millions of light years away.  They look about the same through the telescope.  Astronomers had to learn the difference before their next leap in understanding the  distances in the universe.
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-  In 1925 Edwin Hubble photographed individual stars in a spiral nebulae, now called a spiral galaxy, once we knew what it was.
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-  When something expands it cools.  Matter is really just frozen energy.  When the Universe expanded after the big bang , or cooled after the big bang, atoms, molecules, galaxies, and people were formed, in that order.
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-  The Cosmic Microwave Background, is the temperature of about three degrees above absolute zero.  That happens to be the temperature of the current expansion..
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-  The Universe is isotropic, to the observer the Universe is the same in every direction,  so this cosmic microwave background is the same in every direction , everywhere in the universe.
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-   It is the haze of photons that permeated space ever since the big bang.  When we look farther out with a microwave telescope we see farther back in time.  This photon haze thickens and eventually becomes opaque.  So the microwave telescope eventually sees the universe as a giant sphere that stops where we can't see any farther.
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-  In 1965, two physicists discovered this cosmic microwave background, after first thinking it was pigeon droppings inside their antenna.
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-  In 1989, COBE, a cosmic background explorer satellite discovered stunning confirmation that this expansion model existed.  The temperature versus wavelength, or frequency, plotted exactly according to the theory. with the absolute temperature being 2.726 degrees centigrade above absolute zero.
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-  In 1992, this experiment was repeated with more sensitive instruments.  It discovered that although matter was generally distributed evenly, homogeneously, there were clumps of bubbles of galaxies formed by gravitational attraction.  These clumps were thought to originated from quantum fluctuations an the microscopic level in the very early universe.
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-----------------------    This universe is 25% helium and 73% hydrogen.
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-----------------------    All heavier elements were forged inside supernovae, exploding stars.
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-  Although the Universe is under no obligation to make sense, students in the pursuit of knowledge are.
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-  In 1929 Hubble found the linear relationship that the more distant the galaxy the greater the redshift displayed in its spectral lines.  When redshift is plotted versus apparent magnitude the plot is a straight line, indicating cosmic expansion.
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-  The Hubble Constant denotes the rate at which the Universe is expanding ,  it is thought to be 50 kilometers per second per megaparsec.  A megaparsec is 3.26 million light years.
So, for every 3.26 million light years we look out into space the galaxies are receding 50 kilometers per second faster.     That is 49,306 miles per hour for every million lightyears distance.
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-  The deceleration factor measures the rate at which cosmic expansion is slowing down, due to gravitational attraction which is due to the mass inside the universe.
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-  The mass density is now thought to average one atom per cubic meter of space.
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-  Knowing these numbers precisely would allow calculations to determine if and when the universe would stop expanding and begin collapsing back into itself.  Or, if the universe continues to expand forever; a form of heat death, where all the energy would eventually run out, black galaxies would expand endlessly into black expanding space.
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-  This formula for the “critical density balancing” between these two fates is called omega:
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-  Omega = 2* the deceleration + 2/3*cosmological constant * speed of light squared / the Hubble constant squared.
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-  The effect of deceleration is to slowly decrease the Hubble constant.  Therefore, it must not be a constant at all.  Well it does remain approximately constant over our lifetime so we call it a constant.
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-  If the Omega is equal to one and the Hubble constant is 50 then you can calculate the Universe to be 15 billion years old.

-  This expanding universe is difficult to measure because of the bubble of galaxies in clusters and super clusters whose gravitational effects pull galaxies in different directions than the direction of expansion.  Local galaxies appear to be going 600 kilometers per second in an unrelated direction.
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-  Parallax is simple triangulation used to measure distances of close in stars.  In 1672 astronomers calculated the orbit of Mars using triangulation.
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-  If you know the radius of one planet's orbit you can derive all the others from their orbital periods with Earth's orbit known we can get better parallax calculations
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-  By 1900 astronomers had measured the distance to 100 stars.
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-  A star's brightness can be determined theoretically from its mass and chemical composition.  This is intrinsic brightness or absolute magnitude.
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-  If we know that Sirius has an intrinsic brightness, and a similar star is one percent as bright, in observed brightness, then we conclude it is 10 times farther away.  The brightness will decrease by the square of the distance.
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-   Sirius is 8.6 lightyears away , so the observed star must be 86 lightyears away.
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-  Cepheid stars, or pulsating stars, are the next distance indicator into the universe.  Cepheid’s are young giant stars the are in an unstable stage in their evolution.  The Cepheid star contracts and gets hotter. 
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-  Heat emanating into its atmosphere ionizes its helium . Helium atoms loose one of their electrons.  More heat and energy knocks a second electron off the helium atom.  Double ionized helium atoms tend to absorb light.  The stars atmosphere then becomes opaque.
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-  The opaque atmosphere retains heat and the star gets even hotter.  As it gets hotter it expands.  As it expands it cools, since its heat energy is spread over a greater area.  As helium atoms cool they return to their single ionized state.  The atmosphere turns transparent and collapses as the heat and light dissipates.  This whole cycle repeats itself every few weeks.  This becomes a predictable repeatable cycle.
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-  Astronomers can measure the rate of a Cepheid's pulsation and with its color they can determine its intrinsic brightness.  Bigger Cepheid’s pulsate more slowly.  And , the bigger the star, the brighter it shines.
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-  Polaris, the north star , is the nearest Cepheid to Earth and it was determined to be 466 light years from Earth.
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- Cepheid’s have been measured in galaxies as far as 15 million lightyears away.  Using the Hubble telescope this has been extended to 60 million lightyears distance.  These more recent measurements have put the Hubble constant, rate of universal expansion, at 80 rather that 50 kilometers per second per megaparsec.
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-  Supernovae are exploding stars.  A supernovae can release more energy in one minute that is released by all the normal stars in the observable universe during the same amount of time.  Only one-hundredth of one percent is emitted as visible light.  99% of their energy is not light but is in the form of neutrinos.  The temperatures are in the 100 billion degrees.
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-  All Type 1a supernovae have similar absolute magnitudes in intrinsic brightness.
Measuring these “standard candles” results in a Hubble constant of 50.

Type I supernovae are dwarfs, they collapse when they gain a critical mass.
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-  Type 11 supernovae are giants  They collapse when they run out of nuclear fuel at their core.  When the fuel runs out they become unstable, the radiation pushing outward no longer is in balance with the gravity pulling inward.  They deflate.
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-  Reverend Robert Evans in Australia discovered 27 supernovae using the telescope in his backyard.  He had an acute visual memory.  He could spot an exploding star that was not in that galaxy the last time he looked.
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-  In 1977  astronomers discovered that the spectrum of hydrogen, 21 centimeters in wavelength, is blurred, widened by the Doppler shift, related to the speed at which the galaxy is rotating.  The rotation speed is related to the galaxy's brightness.  This method could measure distances out to 300 million light years.  This method is getting a Hubble constant of 70.
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-  Gravitational lensing is the next big step in measuring distances.  Quasars are young stars and are consequently further away, and further back in time.  As the light of a quasar travels toward us across billions of lightyears of space, it may pass to either side of an intervening cluster of galaxies. 
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-  The warped space surrounding the galaxy cluster can act as a lens such that we get two images of the one quasar.  ( Gravitational force is simply the result of objects and light beams pursuing the shortest available path through curved space.) 
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-  The light traveling around one side of the lens will travel further than the other side, most likely.  The quasar is pulsating, with its brightness changing over as little as a month.  The difference in light travel can now be measured for the same event.  You can now calculate how much longer the path through space is taken by the second path.
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-  Measuring the intensity or brightness of light is not the only way to measure distances.  Measuring the intensity of cosmic microwave background through galaxies that emit
 x-radiation is a newly discovered technique.
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-   Intergalactic gas in clusters of galaxies is relatively warm and emits X-rays, consequently microwave background photons are heated up when they pass through the cluster.  This results in a hot spot in the background radiation.  The  more distant galaxy clusters are denser and hotter and make hotter spots .  So temperature can be a measure of the distance.  In 1991 this technique yielded a Hubble constant of 40 to 50.
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-  Still another technique measures the brightness fluctuation as the narrow-field telescope scans across a galaxy.  Nearby galaxies can resolve individual stars, their unevenness in brightness as we scan across them is greater.  The more distant galaxies show more smoothness as the star light tends to all merger together.  So, galaxy brightness fluctuation is a measure of distance.  This technique should allow Hubble telescope to go out 500 million lightyears.
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-  There is a scientific dictum that claims the simpler of two otherwise comparable hypotheses is to be preferred..
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-  Questions:  If there are an infinite number of stars occupying an infinite amount of space why is the night sky bright as day with all this starlight?  If the space is finite, why hasn't the gravitational force of an infinite number of stars collapsed into a singularity?  If centrifugal force is keeping stars from collapsing and space is rotating, then rotating with respect to what?  How do forces even propagate through space?
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-  In 1915 the Einstein theory of general relativity does away with an need for a force of gravity.  Planets and mass follow paths of least resistance through curved space.  If space is curved, and the universe is sphere shaped, you could travel infinitely far and never come to the edge of space.
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-  Maps or models are always imperfect in that they represent the territory of investigation more economically than does the territory itself, inevitably the model contains less information.
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-  The general theory of relativity indicates that space can be mapped only by going to four dimensions.  Three dimension Newtonian models do not work completely.
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-  In 1882 an astronomer pointed out that Mercury was not behaving strictly according to Newtonian laws.  When Einstein added the forth dimension of time the calculations for Mercury's behavior again finally matched observation.
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-   In 1854 Georg Reimann created 4-dimensional geometry.  Einstein applied Reimann's geometry to the cosmos.  When the Earth was flat, 2-dimensional geometry worked fine.  But when we discovered the Earth was a sphere, we needed 3-dimensional geometry to explain things.  To explain the cosmos we now need 4 dimensions.
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-  On this 4-dimensional map light beams form the gridlines.  Light beams bend when they pass near massive objects.  In 1919 this was observed during a total eclipse.  Stars behind the Sun changed positions as the starlight bent passing near the sun.  Where Einstein got radical was to claim that actually the light beams are straight lines and that space itself is what is curved.
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-  This idea is not intuitive, but observation ranks this theory as among the most accurate theories of physics ever devised. Calculations were validated when gravitational redshift was observed in white dwarf stars.  And, when radar signals were bounced off Mercury, Venus and Mars.  And when time delays in radio signals coming back from spacecraft Voyager are passing by Saturn.
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-  If cosmic matter density is higher than critical density then space is wrapped around the universe, and spherical.  If matter density is less, the universe is hyperbolic.  If exactly equal to critical density space is flat.  Omega is >1, <1, or =1.  At the local level we think space is flat, Omega =1.  Maybe at the universe level cosmic geometry is curved.
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-  With curved space the effects of gravitation is local, but not at a distance.  So, gravitational force does not have to travel anywhere or through anything.  In Einstein's theory of gravity there is no force.  Objects simply respond to the contours of space in their immediate vicinity.  Geodesics is the mathematical measurement of curved surfaces, such as the Earth's geography which is a curved surface.
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-  Curved space also explains Galileo's discovery that in a vacuum all objects fall at the same rate.  Feathers and cannon balls follow the same path of least resistance, geodesics.  The path is the same regardless who travels it, or how big it is , or how much it weighs.
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-  Maybe we will learn that all forces are geometrical at their root.  Maybe a
 10-dimensional geometry will explain all the theories to do with matter and energy.  Remember matter is only energy that has cooled down, or slowed down enough that we can see it.
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-  We know the universe is larger than we can see.  We can only see those galaxies that lie close enough to us for their light to have reached us at the present time.  This is the "observable universe".
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-  In an expanding universe , what's observable is but a fraction of the whole.  If the Universe were the size of the Earth, we could only see an Observable Universe the size of a proton. 
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-  We should be able to count galaxy densities at various distances and measure the curvature of space.  The number of galaxies must increase even faster with distance for any given field of view because we are seeing back to an earlier time when the universe was smaller and galaxies were closer together.
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-  Blackholes both support general relativity and disagree with it.  Inside blackholes the curvature of space becomes infinite.  Light can not escape a blackhole. 
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-  To escape the Earth you need a velocity of about 24,000 miles per  hour.  The surface of the earth is 3,963 miles above the center of the Earth.  If we squeezed the Earth to half that size, 4 G's , we would need an escape velocity of 1.4 times, or 33, 600 miles per hour.
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-  If we squeezed the Earth's radius down to 0.35 inches you would need an escape velocity of 186, 000 miles per second ( the velocity of light)  At that density the Earth would become a blackhole.
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-  Escape velocity depends on both mass and radius.  The more massive the object the larger it can be when it  becomes a blackhole.   The Sun would have a radius of 1.9 miles for it to become a blackhole.
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-  The amount of energy in any chunk of matter is equal to its mass times the velocity of light squared.  So nothing can have a velocity greater than that of light.  As we approach the speed of light the mass increases, distance along the axis of direction shrinks, passage of time slows.  The amount of energy to go faster increases.  To reach the speed of light the mass would become infinite, length would be zero and time would stop.  An impossible situation wouldn't you think.
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-  Every healthy star has a balanced diet of nuclear fusion radiating outward from its core and gravity trying to collapse it to a point.  Caught in this balance, stars can pulsate.  When gravity collapses a little, density grows(compression), heat increases.  thermonuclear fusion increases, subatomic particles go faster ( get hotter, the definition of heat), releasing more energy, expanding the core, that thins and cools a bit and starts to contract again with gravity. 
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-  The star survives as long as it has fuel to burn.  The more massive a star the faster it burns ( burn rate is the cube of the mass).  A star 10 times bigger than the Sun would burn 1000 times faster.  The Sun's burn rate should allow it to survive 10 billion years before it collapses into itself. 
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-  We think the Sun is middle aged, about 5 billion years old.  That more massive star would only live for 10 million years.  The star collapses in less that one second when the core shrinks.
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-  If its mass is 1.4 times that of the Sun it will become a white dwarf star.  It becomes carbon and oxygen with a gas shell about 100 miles in diameter.
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-  If its mass is more than 1.4 times solar mass its gravity overwhelms the exclusion principle  and electrons are smashed into protons turning them into neutrons.  It becomes a neutron star, about 10 miles in diameter, perfectly smooth as a ball bearing. 
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-  Spinning more than a thousand times per second, rotation velocity increases as they contract, like an ice-skater pulling their arms in. Neutron Star’s magnetic fields emit intense radio waves that strike Earth as “pulsars“.
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-  If a star collapses further it becomes a blackhole.  Light rays will go into orbit about its mass.  It becomes a tiny circle of blackness.  Gravitational redshift is a displacement of light toward the red end of the spectrum as it loses energy in its attempt to climb out of the curved space surrounding the blackhole.  A blackhole is disembodied mass, mass without matter.
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-  The blackholes at the center of galaxies is estimated to be the masses of 100 million suns, even a billion suns.  Something that massive should be seen, but, the source of the gravitational force whirling those stars around is massive, small and black. Yet, we can't see it. 
-
-  The law of entropy says that unless work is done to prevent it, all systems tend toward increasing disorder, or greater entropy.  Entropy is disorder over time.  Missing information over time.  Entropy is randomness.   The less entropy there is in a system the more information available.
-
-  All work involves a certain irreducible increase in entropy.  For a machine to do work it must increase entropy..  Reducing entropy takes work.  Information tends always to decrease.
-
-  A system left to itself will tend to a state of maximum entropy.
-
-  The indeterminacy principle  says that subatomic particles do not have definitive positions in space and time , rather, their locations can be specified only in terms of probabilities.  Steven Hawkings uses this principle to show that particles can boil out of a blackhole, when other theories say nothing escapes a black hole.
-
-  Everything is made of curved space.  Matter is energy.
-
-  If an atoms nucleus were a golf ball the outermost electrons would lie two miles away.  Atoms like galaxies are mostly cavernous space.  What feels solid to our hand is the atoms in the object repelling the atoms in our hand.  Matter is energy.
-
-  In 1950 scientists determined that the big bang could not have made anything heavier than lithium.
-
-  In 1948 scientists calculated the temperature of the universe to be  5 degrees Kelvin.  Today's COBE satellite, Cosmic Background Explorer, measures it to be 2.726 degrees, and that is accurate to within 0.004 degrees.  One of the most accurate measurements ever made is on something that is 10 billion lightyears away.
-
-  Our Sun burns 600 million tons of hydrogen every second, turning 4 million tons into energy.  To accomplish this two protons fuse forming deuterium (one proton, one neutron) releasing a positron and neutrino.  The positron hits an electron, the annihilation creates a gamma ray. 
-
-   The deuterium fuses with hydrogen forming helium-3, releasing more gamma rays.  Two helium-3 nuclei fuse into helium-4 plus two protons.  The two hydrogen nuclei (protons) and one helium-4 nucleus weigh 0.7 % less than the original nuclei.  That's the mass that was converted into energy.  That's the 4 million tons per second  of energy that the Sun shines.
-
-  Baryons are protons and neutrons, what we call ordinary matter.  Most of the matter in the universe is not made of baryons, not ordinary matter.  In fact, 99% of the universe is non-baryonic.  That is to say everything we can see that constitutes our universe constitutes only 1% of the matter in the cosmos.
-
-  Gravitational force on planets diminishes by the square of their distance from the Sun.  The inner  planets orbit faster.  The Earth 30 kilometers per second, Jupiter, five times farther out, orbits at 13 kilometers per second.
-
-  The Sun is 99% of the mass in our solar system.
-
-  Our Milky Way galaxy is one of 26 galaxies on our Local Group.  Our local group is traveling 630 kilometers per second in an unusual direction, toward the constellation Centaurs. 
-
-  The Sun is traveling 220 kilometers per second around the Milky Way center.  To pull the Local Group of galaxies in this unusual direction it would need to be pulled by a mass of 50,000 galaxies that we can not see.
-
-  Over a 100 million lightyears distance there is lots of structure with galaxies, clusters of galaxies, super clusters and vast voids in between.  Once we look over 1,000 million lightyears distance the universe appears more homogeneous and isotropic ( the same in all directions) .  To date astronomers have probed 6 billion lightyears in both directions.
-
-  A chicken is an egg's way of making another egg..   Galaxies and universes must have some type of an evolution too.  Can blackholes produce another galaxy?
-
-  The Earth has had 7 global die outs which can be dated to coincide with comet impacts.  65 million years ago , between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods a comet hit the Yucatan peninsula creating a 100 mile diameter crater.
-
-  "Gas and dust" to "gas and dust".  The Earth began as a disk of gas and dust orbiting the Sun.  It started as a grain of dust.  These grains started sticking together by electrostatic force and then by slamming into each other traveling at orbital speeds.
-
-  Once Earth was a mile in diameter gravitational forces started pulling more pieces together.  These escalated into titanic collisions.  As mass grew higher escape velocities were needed for collision material to escape.  Scientists estimate this whole process to a few hundred miles in diameter took less that 10,000 years.
-
- After that it took elliptical orbits to promote further collisions, 10 million years for these to subside.  Earth's oldest rocks are 3.8 billion years old.  Bombardments from space continued for 100 thousand years.  It is believe the Earth's water was brought here by the bombardment of  comets.
-
-  Most planets rotate counterclockwise, viewed from the north,  they spin west to east.  Except Venus and Pluto spin clockwise.  Uranus is tilted more than 90 degrees, pole to plane of orbit. 
-
-  These unusual orbits were caused by massive collisions during planetary formation.  The moon around Earth was created by a big splash when the Earth was red hot, molten crust.  That's why the moon lacks iron.  Iron was at the Earth's core and not in its crust to get blown away..
-
-  If we lived on a planet circling Alpha Centauri, our nearest star, 4.22 lightyears,  our current technology would not allow us to see our Sun's planets.  In 1983 astronomers did discover a disk around Vega, 26 lightyears away.  In 1995 measuring variations in a Sun's motion as little as 3 miles per hour, astronomers found evidence of planets orbiting a star in Pegasi.  In 1996 evidence of planets were found in Virginis, Virgo near Arcturus, and Ursae Majoris.  See Reviews about Exoplanets as thousands more have since been discovered.
-
-  Supernovae, exploding stars occur 3 times per century in an average galaxy.  That equates to one per second in the observable universe.
-
-  Meterorites that are found on Earth are 4.56 billion years old.  The Sun is 5 billion years old.
-
- Hubble can see galaxies 4 billion times fainter that the human eye can see., 8 billion light years away and 8 billion years back in time.

-  Evolution is creative and creativity is unpredictable.
-
-  Age of the Earth were a calendar year vertebrates evolved on November 21, primates on Christmas day and Homo Sapiens only 3.5 minutes before midnight on New Year's Eve.
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-  From 1920 to 1970 field theory was in.  Now string theory has promise.  If correct, then all subatomic particles are blackholes.  10-dimensioal mathematics is used to model this mathematical universe.
-
-  Does reliability in the past constitute a warranty in the future?
-
-  Distrust any concept you can not explain to your kids.
-
-  The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, the pessimist fears this is true.
-
-  The weak nuclear force is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000  times stronger than gravity..  Electromagnetism is 100,000,000,000 times stronger than that.  And, the strong nuclear force is 100 times stronger than electromagnetism.  What does it take to explain all this?
-
-  There is no obligation for the universe to be logical, however it is an obligation for students of knowledge to be logical or the teachers won’t give you good grades.
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-  April 29, 2019                                                                                    342                         
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--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
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 --------------------------   Monday, April 29, 2019  --------------------------
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Sunday, April 28, 2019

The Island Universe

-  2347 -  -  In 1908 we did not know much about the Universe.  We were developing the theory of relativity and the theory of quantum mechanics, but, we thought the Milky Way Galaxy was our entire Universe.  We thought we lived in an “Island Universe” in the middle of vast empty space.
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---------------------------- -  2347   -  The Island Universe
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-   We had dispelled the idea of an ether in space as a medium for the transmission of light.  But, we thought all the starlight came from our galaxy.  We were quick learners because in a flash of the cosmic scale, a mere 100 years, we have since found more than 400,000,000,000 galaxies besides our Milky Way.
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-   We have learned that this Observerable Universe of galaxies is moving away from us.  It is leaving at an accelerating rate.  Someday it will be out of sight and we will again be an “Island Universe”.
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-  Astronomers who study the Universe are fast losing all of their data for more study.  When the horizon disappears so do all traces of our origin.  Once the Observerable Universe is out of sight we have no way to study the Big Bang, or the accelerating Universe itself.
-
-   So, we had better figure things out while we can still see the evidence.  To account for this anti-gravity expansion rate, space must have three times as much energy as all the cosmic structures we can see.  We call it Dark Energy.
-
-  The exception to the galactic expansion is our own Local Group of galaxies, and others of similar clustering.  The Milky Way, Andromeda, and the some twenty dwarf galaxies in our Local Group will collapse under the strength of gravity into a single galaxy, or super cluster of stars.
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-   The matter in our immediate neighborhood creates a gravitational force that is stronger than the expansion force, that we call Dark Energy.  Just as the electromagnetic force holding the atoms in your body together is stronger and prevents you from expanding with the cosmos.
-
-   However,  out there in wide open space gravity becomes the weaker force and the galaxies are spreading apart with the expanding space between them.  Not only are they expanding apart, the expansion rate is accelerating due to the Dark Energy in space.  In 100,000,000,000 years these galaxies will be beyond our horizon of observation.
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-  Astronomers in these times living in the super cluster of stars will have to find other work.  There will be nothing left to see outside of our neighborhood.  We will be an Island Universe inside a larger, empty, static, void.
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- Today astronomers are measuring redshifts of receding distant galaxies of 6 to 10.  Redshifts, meaning the wavelengths of light have lengthened by 6 to 10 times as they travel through expanding space.  In 100 billion years these redshifts will be 5,000. 
-
-  Objects will have their light redshifted to such large wavelengths as to be undetectable.  For us all the expanding matter and creators of light will have visually disappeared beyond the horizon.  All that remains inside this Black Hole is a gravity bound cluster of stars, yet to be named, alias Milky Way / Andromeda.
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-  The Cosmic Microwave Background radiation will have redshifted from microwave wavelengths to radio wavelengths.  And, the CMB intensity will be 0.000000000001 the strength it is today.  It will be too small to detect.  And, even if we could detect it, it would not penetrate the interstellar gas in space.
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-   Just like radio waves in the 1 kilohertz frequency range or 300 meter wavelength range bounce off the ionosphere on Earth as AM radio so will the CMB bounce off the interstellar gas in space.  We will never detect it because it could not travel very far in space.
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-  The Universe is constantly changing its composition.  When it started out in the first 3 minutes there were mostly protons and electrons and they combined to form 76% hydrogen and 24% helium.
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-  Today we live in a Universe that is 70% hydrogen, 28% helium, and 2% other elements that include us.  If we are around in a trillion years it will be 20% hydrogen, 60% helium, and 20% the heavier elements.  That is because many stars have died and blown up during that time.
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-   Now, these percentages are only for atoms of ordinary matter.  Matter that we are familiar with.  There is still 74% Dark Energy and 22% Dark Matter leaving only 4% of ordinary matter that we are familiar with.
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-   In another sense we are an “Island Universe” inside Dark Energy and Dark Matter that make up 96% of the Universe.  We can’t seem to get off the Island.
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-  April 28, 2019.                                                                                    921
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-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
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 ---------------------   Sunday, April 28, 2019  -------------------------
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Saturday, April 27, 2019

Seeing more and Thinking more.



-  2091  -  You may think thinking is hard, but seeing is harder.  Visualization uses more than ½ your brain.    Your eyes take the pictures but you brain does the seeing. A lot of what we see is recognized because the image is already in memory.   Objectivity is as important in communication as clarity is.  There is always more information than truth.  Only a broader perspective can lead to a greater intelligence.
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- 

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-----------------------------  2091  -  Seeing more and Thinking more.
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-  You may think thinking is hard, but seeing is harder.  Visualization uses more than ½ your brain.  While you are sitting down reading this review your brain is using 33% of the oxygen that you breath.  When you are sitting and reading you are burning 33% of the calories your body has consumed.  A total of 17% of what you eat gets used by your brain.  And, if you worry a lot the percentage  goes up.
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-  Speech uses a tiny area on one side of your brain.  In other words, it does not take much of your brain to be talking.  Somehow, I knew that already.  Hearing uses 10% of the size of the brain that seeing uses. “ Listening” has got to require a lot more brain than that 10%.
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-  The conclusion is certain that seeing areas in the brain are bigger than thinking areas of the brain.  Which goes on to say that you cannot learn a lot more with your eyes closed.
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-  Even moving arms and legs uses a surprisingly small part of the brain.  Interviewing most boxers and football players will allow you to draw this conclusion as well.
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-  Computers work differently than the brain works.  Computers can do a lot of things better than the brain can.  One thing computers have not yet learned to do better is to see.  A computer has a central processing unit to control all its programming.  The brain has trillions of central processing units.  Each can be working on whatever you are doing.  So, you can walk, talk, listen, smell, and think all at the same time.  Computers are trying to do the same think using many CPU’s and parallel processing.  When it comes to seeing, computers have a long way to go to catch up.
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-  Your eyes take the pictures but you brain does the seeing.  The brain first picks out patterns of light.  It looks at edges and sudden changes in patterns.  Your brain can act on this information before it has an image.   Later the image reaches the visual part of the brain.  The positions and angles of edges are picked out first.  Color and things moving are picked out next.  The brain sees the same way you create a cartoon.  Once the carton is created in the brain it starts working on recognizing and understanding the different features it sees.
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-  Facial expressions are recognized in a special area of the brain called the inferior temporal cortex.  It is just above the bony lump behind your ear.  Women are especially developed in this area. Ha! Ha!
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-  Scientists think that recognition and memory are coded as patterns in a large group of brain cells.  Each brain cell is effectively a CPU.  It is only when a bunch of brain cells work together that recognition happens.
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-  You brain gets a 2 dimensional pictures from the back of your retina but it works out a           3-dimensional image from the clues it gets in the light patterns.  You see in 2-D but you think in 3-D.    It helps that each eye gets a little different picture of the same image.  The brain creates a single 3-D image from the two 2-D images it receives.  It is called “stereopsis“.
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-   Your brain can judge depth with one eye closed by moving your head from side to side.  This is why pigeons nod their heads when they walk or want depth perception.  Pigeons have eyes on the sides of their heads and get no stereopsis.  They need to do the head moving to see in 3-D.
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-  Astronomers us stereopsis to measure distances to the stars.  They usually have to wait 6 months for the Earth to move to the other side of the Sun.  In this way their eyes, (telescopes), are getting images 186,000,000 miles apart.  By doing this they can use stereopsis to measure distance to stars out to 300 million lightyears.
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-  A lot of what we see is recognized because the image is already in memory.  Reading is taking patterns of light and dark and transferring them into ideas, thoughts, and memories.  No wonder the brain is using so many calories.
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-  Sperm whales have brains 5 times bigger than ours.  But, they are not smarter.  Maybe a better indicator would be brain size as a percentage of weight.  In that case, the mouse would be 50% smarter.  In conclusion, it is not the size of the brain it is how we use it that makes us smart.  My hope is that you just learned something.  But, don't stop there:
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-  If you want your brain to learn more, exercise it.    Specific body building exercises are designed for specific muscles.  Brain building works exactly the same way on your intelligence.  The key to any exercise is habit.  Habit is the constant repetition that makes learning second nature.  (See footnote on Brain Building)
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-  Everything we do is time consuming.  Brain building is one of the few things that is time repaying.  Self awareness is the first step in brain building.  Become aware of how you are thinking.
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-   Learning is what allows us to make sense of the confusing array of stimuli that reaches us from every part of our environments.  As a human we are developed not just by heredity but by circumstances in our environments and how we deal with them.
-
-  The human is endowed with the ability to overcome and alter the circumstances around him.  What we do and how we act is the single most important factor in dealing with our environment.  We are the operator of the brain that we own. 
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-  Intelligence is what makes us question, Why?  Ours is the only species that asks questions.   If you let others direct your thinking eventually you stop thinking for yourself.   Attempts to impress someone arises out of a lack in confidence. 
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-  Thinking mathematically helps you separate emotion from intellect.  Mathematical reasoning is merely logical reasoning that is quantifiable. A logical approach to thinking mathematically is to first become aware of the problem, recognizing you have a problem.  Secondly, define the problem, analyze it, and establish its parameters.  Thirdly, approach the problem rationally, from different angles, considering different options, hypothesize different solutions.  Then, select a solution and verify its effectiveness. 
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-  A problem is an unsettled question.  A symptom is something that indicates the existence of something else.  If there is sufficient data in your premise, your conclusion will be valid.  But, beware, you can always lie with statistics.
-
-  Making assumptions is one of the most likely places for getting into trouble.  Insight is genius, it is a cognitive leap.  Genius is also a combination of motivation, hard work, and perseverance.  The harder you work the smarter you will get. 
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-  Sometimes negatives may be as useful as positives in forming insight.  Intuition is common sense and sensitivity rolled into luck.  Accept the result of any mistake as part of the learning process.  The smartest learning process is sometimes only making mistakes fast enough, faster than your competitor.  
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-  Objectivity is as important in communication as clarity is.  There is always more information than truth.  Only a broader perspective can lead to a greater intelligence.  Read more to learn and to consider more. Words express thoughts and connotative words express opinions. 
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-  A common error is making a judgment based on a certain set of circumstances then clinging to that judgment after the circumstances have changed.
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- Perspective itself is actually a subset of objectivity.  To regard anyone else except yourself as responsible for your own judgment is to become a slave to circumstances. 
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-  Brain Building is a book written by Marilyn vos Savant.  Her book has many exercises and word problems to exercise your brain.
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-  April 27, 2019
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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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 -------------------------   Saturday, April 27, 2019   --------------------------------
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What You Will NOT Believe about Our Sun. -

-  2346  -  The Sun is HOT but not so HOT.  In fact, your body heat is hotter than the Sun.  What you will learn from this review is that the Sun is not so hot but it is so big.  Yes, the interior of the Sun is hot, 13,600,000 degrees Kelvin.  By contrast, the Sun’s surface is 5,785 Kelvin.
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---------------------------- -  2346 -  What You Will NOT Believe about Our Sun.
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-   The temperature of the Sun is generated by 4 protons fusing together.  We have all learned that the fusion in the Sun is converting hydrogen into helium.  This is true,  but it is not hydrogen and helium gas as we know it.  It is ionized plasma.
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-  The temperature in the Sun is hot enough to separate all electrons from their nuclei.  The electrons become free negative particles and the nuclei become free ionized, positive particles.  This state of matter is called a plasma.
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-  Temperature is the average kinetic energy, or energy of motion, or constantly vibrating particles, or atoms.  When the temperature is high enough and the vibrations are energetic enough the electromagnetic force that normally holds the electrons and protons together is overpowered.  The two get separated.
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-   The positive and negative electric charges are an attractive force.  When the attractive force is overpowered they separate and the free electric charges go there separate ways.  The hydrogen nuclei is a single free proton of positive charge.  The nuclei of helium is 2 protons and 2 neutrons, with a positive charge of 2.  Each neutron is a fused proton and electron and a neutrino.  By weight it is another proton but by electric charge it is neutral.
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-  In the Sun’s core, several other combinations of protons are fused together but these other nuclei are unstable and radioactive.  They soon decay into other elements.  However, the element of helium is very stable and it makes up 25% of the Sun.  This is easy math:  75% is hydrogen with 1 proton.  25% is helium with 4 protons.
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-  Each step of the fusion processes releases energy in the form of radiation.  The highest energy electromagnetic radiation is called Gamma Rays.  The Gamma Rays take years and years of bouncing off particles, being absorbed and re-emitted as lower energy radiation as they make their way to the surface.
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- It can take 17,000 to 1,000,000 years for each Gamma Ray to make it to the surface.  When they finally make it they are much lower energy and are released into space as ultraviolet, visible and infrared radiation at a temperature of 5,785 Kelvin.
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-  So, how can I state that the Sun is not so hot?  It is in the details.  The Sun’s core converts 3.4*10^38 protons into helium nuclei every second.  There are a total of 8.9*10^56 protons in the Sun.   At 3.4*10^38 protons per second.  That would exhaust the protons in 2.6*10^18 seconds.  There are 3.156*10^7 seconds in a year.  That is 83 billion years.
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-   Obviously the Sun will not burn at a constant rate.  The rate will increase as the Sun gets older because it will last only another 5 billion years.
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-   Every second there is a 1 proton to 4 proton fusion converting some of the mass into energy according to E=mc^2.  The Sun converts 4,260,000 tons of matter into 3.83*10^26 watts of energy every second.  It is not that the Sun is so HOT, it is that the Sun is so BIG.
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-   99.85% of all the mass in the Solar System is located in the Sun.  At the Sun’s core the energy conversion is 0.3 microwatts per cubic centimeter (0.3*10^-6 w/cm^3).  A cubic centimeter is about the size of a sugar cube.  A burning candle produces heat at 1,000,000 microwatts/cm^3.  That is a million times more heat production from a candle than from a cubic centimeter at the Sun’s core.
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-  The human body produces about 1,200,000 microwatts per kilogram.  That is 1.2 watts per kilogram.  If you weigh 183 pounds, 83 kg, your body heat is about the same as a 100 watt light bulb.  That is the reason you show up so bright on an infrared camera.
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-  So, the Sun is not so HOT.  If we were to use the Sun’s plasma to create a 1 gigawatt electric power plant here on Earth we would need to use 170 billion tons of plasma.  That amount of plasma would occupy a volume of one cubic mile.
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-   Fusion power plants might be practical here on Earth someday but they will have to operate at much higher temperatures than even the Sun.  Temperatures so hot there is nothing that can contain them. 
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-  Fusion experiments are trying to develop magnetic and laser containers for the hot plasma.  But, to date we have not been successful in developing a practical fusion reactor.   That is fusing lighter elements into heavier ones.  All the nuclear reactors in use today are fission reactors.  Breaking heavy elements ( uranium )  into lighter ones.
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-  The Sun is not so HOT, it is so BIG.  99.85% of all the mass in the Solar System is located in the Sun.  That leaves 0.15% of the mass for all the planets, asteroids, comets and space dust that we are made of.
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-   The surface temperature of the Sun is 5,875 degrees Kelvin.  But, the atmosphere above the surface is 1,000,000 Kelvin.  The atmosphere near the surface is called the photosphere.  The photosphere is tens to thousands of kilometers thick ( 6 to 300 miles thick).  The particle density of the photosphere is 10^23 particles/ cubic meter.  That is a very thin atmosphere.  It is 1% the particle density of the Earth’s atmosphere at sea level, which is 2*10^25 / m^3.
-
-  Above the photosphere, which is the optical surface, is the Corona which we only get to see during a solar eclipse.  The Corona is very hot, 1,000,000 Kelvin and it is a mystery how it can be so hot. 
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-  The surface of the Sun is 5,875 K.  How can the atmosphere far above it be 1,000,000K.  What could possible be heating it up?  The total volume of the Corona surrounding the Sun is much larger than the Sun.  The particle density is much less at 10^15 particles per cubic meter.
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-  A theory as to how the Corona heats up is that it is the Sun’s magnetic fields providing the energy.  To explain this we will need to learn how the Sun creates its magnetic fields.  It is done much differently on the Sun than on the Earth.
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-  Above the Sun’s core and from about 20% to 70% of the Sun’s volume the thermal radiation is so intense that thermal “convection” to transfer heat can not operate.  Heat is being transferred by proton ions continually absorbing and re-emitting photons.
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-   It is a very slow travel outward with all this bouncing around taking a photon anywhere from 17,000 to 1,000,000 years to reach the surface.  However, above the 70% point from the core the solar plasma is no longer dense enough, or hot enough, to transfer heat by radiation.  This is where thermal convection begins.
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-  The thermal convection occurs in thermal columns, almost like chimneys, that carry hot plasma to the surface where it releases light radiation, cools, and plunges backward down its edges to the base of the convection zone again.  The plasma heats up again and begins to rise repeating the process over and over again. 
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-   This thermal convection has the effect on the surface as being granules.  The columns of material rise and sink back at the granule edges.  The effect of these rising and falling charged plasma particles is to create a circular electric current.  The circulating current in turn creates a powerful magnetic field.
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-  The next part of the theory depends on the fact that the Sun rotates faster at the equator than it does at the poles.  Plasma moves around the equator in 25 days.  Plasma at higher latitudes rotates in 35 days.  The different rotation rates cause the magnetic field lines formed by the granules to become twisted over time.
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-   Field line loops snap and reconnect in their north-south connections releasing enormous magnetic energies.  These magnetic storms when sever enough appear as sunspots or solar prominence's.  The total twisting action creates an overall solar dynamo cycle repeating every 11 years.  Every 11 years the magnetic activity peaks and the north-south orientations of the Sun’s magnetic fields reverse themselves.
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-  This continuous magnetic activity occurring above the surface of the Sun is what causes the 1,000,000 Kelvin temperatures to occur in the Corona.  This is still a theory and the exact mechanism and a complete understanding of this phenomena remains a mystery.
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-  The 11 year cycle of sunspot activity has been recorded for the last 250 years.  Sunspots usually exist as pairs with the opposite polarity. The polarity of the leading sunspot alternates every 11 year cycle.  It will be a north magnetic pole in one 11 year cycle leading the way around the Sun, then a south magnetic pole in the next 11 year cycle.
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-  The sunspot activity, and therefore the Sun’s magnetic activity, has significant influence on the Earth’s climate.  When solar activity is at a minimum the Earth tends to have cooler temperatures.  When solar activity is maximum the Earth has hotter temperatures. 
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-  In the 1600’s the solar activity was particularly low for several decades.  Not many sunspots were seen.  During that period the Earth experienced the Little Ice Age.  Europe in particular documented very cold temperatures. Tree Rings have indicated lower than average temperature throughout the globe during the Little Ice Age.
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-  Other Solar cycles, beyond the 11 year cycle, have shown fluctuations in the Sun’s activity every 41,000 years and every 100,000 years.  When all of these activity cycles line up we could experience an extreme temperature variation on Earth. 
-
-  Today we think we are entering a period of lower Sun activity and cooler temperatures.  This might compensate for the opposite greenhouse gas effect created by human use of fossil fuels in global warming.
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-   But, what happens when in 11 years the cycles line up with global warming creating an even greater extreme in temperatures.  Understanding the Sun’s cycles and their effects on Earth should be a major concern and study for the students in today’s science classes.  Our lives depend on it.
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-  Other Reviews about the Sun:
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-  1720  -  How do we know the age of the Sun?  Lists  10 more reviews.
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-  533  Why the Sun will become a White Dwarf star.
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-  382  Our Closet Star.
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-  383  Could our Sun be a variable star? 
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-  April 6, 2019.                                                                      833, 834
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 ---------------------   Saturday, April 27, 2019  -------------------------
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