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--------------------- 2409 - ASTRONOMERS - Write like an astronomer.
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- Astronomers are seldom in doubt, but often in error. Physicists, on the other hand, won’t say for sure until they find the value 40 places to the right of the decimal point. This review will try to set the record straight. What do astronomers and physicists really know?
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- One of today’s ironies is that particle physicists and astronomers are coming together to study the same thing. Astronomer thought they were learning the macro world, the Universe, infinite distances and light speeds. The physicists thought they were learning the micro world, the atomic world, the uncertain world of Quantum Mechanics.
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- But, today, astronomers are using neutrino telescopes that are more like the physicist’s particle accelerators than telescopes. Astronomers are studying far outside the visible light spectrum that they started with. Now, they use Ultraviolet, Infrared, X-rays, and Gamma Rays, a whole new spectrum that uses technologies in the realm of physics. For each to learn more these two sciences have had to come together.
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- Already these two sciences are recognizing that what we have known about the Universe is at best only 5% of what is there. It is hard for scientists to admit that they do not know 95% of what they are studying. They are studying a 100 page textbook and only the first 5 pages have print, the remainder of the book is blank.
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- When they calculate how much mass it takes to hold a galaxy or cluster of galaxies together they get a number 95% larger than what they see. When they calculate the gravity needed to bend light from distant objects they require a mass 95% bigger than what they can see is there. (Gravitational Lensing).
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- When they calculate the nuclear reactions that occurred after the Big Bang and compare that with the results we see today there should be 95% more mass than all the protons and neutrons that we think the Universe is made of. Something else is out there. Physicists are considering neutrinos, neutralinos, axions, something electrically neutral and unable to absorb or reflect light. But what is it? We will just call it “Dark Matter“.
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- Einstein’s equations show that all matter alters the shape of space and time. Therefore, the overall shape of the Universe is governed by the total mass within it. Recent studies of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation have determined that the shape of the Universe is “flat”. If the Universe is “flat” it must have a certain total mass density that they can calculate. The total mass density we calculate requires another 30% more mass than all the ordinary matter (protons and neutrons) and the Dark Matter we can come up with.
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- Another recent observation is that Supernova Type 1A in distant galaxies are accelerating in their rate of expansion away from each other. If the pace of the expansion of the Universe is increasing in this manner there must be some unknown, pervasive energy, repulsive force that is accelerating the expansion of space and time.
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- The vacuum of space appears to contain some low-grade energy responsible for this acceleration. The acceleration of a mass requires a force. What causes this force of anti-gravity? We will just call this remaining 30% of the unknown Universe, “Dark Energy” (Remember Mass is the same as Energy according to E=m * 90,000,000,000,000,000).
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- Many of my reviews were on Supernova, nuclear energy, the Big Bang, the periodic table of elements. These reviews defined how the simplest elements, hydrogen and helium, were formed in the Big Bang.
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- Then heavier elements were formed in the center of stars, then the heaviest, highest level elements were formed in Supernova explosions of massive stars. Fusion in the center of stars created all the elements up to iron then in the explosive shockwave outside the supernova center protons and neutrons were smashed together to make the elements heavier than iron, all the way up to uranium.
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- We think this is how it happened but we really do not know for sure. Maybe, gold and lead, required a different process like colliding neutron stars. Or, maybe there is something even more powerful in the Universe like magnetars and gamma ray busters that create the heavier elements. We really do not know for sure.
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- At the other end of the particle spectrum we have the lightest sub-atomic neutrinos. They were thought to be massless like photons but new theories give them a tiny mass. They are neutral and barely interact with other matter.
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- Photons are massless and interact in a major way with other matter. Most everything we see and know we learned with photons. If astronomers could “see” with neutrinos like we see with photons then much more could be learned about our Universe. Astronomers and physicists are working together to begin seeing using neutrino telescopes.
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- Photons span a wide range of energies. For centuries astronomers have been using photons in the energy range between 400 and 750 wavelengths, visible light, from blue light to red light. New technologies from physics is allowing astronomers to see the Universe using higher energies, shorter wavelengths, Ultraviolet, X-rays, Gamma Rays.
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- Cosmic Rays are actually particles that come to us traveling at very nearly the speed of light. They carry enormous energies. Astronomers are just beginning to develop telescopes to see and better understand how and where these enormous energies are created in the Universe. These high energy photons and particles must originate somewhere. We would love to learn where and how.
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- Gamma Ray Bursters are sending energy rays and photons at us daily, arriving from random directions across the sky. Astronomers think these busters originate in exploding supernova or colliding neutron stars. But, it is all new science to explain how this happens.
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- At the extreme temperatures generated radiation and mass interact in unfamiliar ways. Photons can create matter and matter can create photons. The distinction between matter and energy becomes blurred. Magnetism plays a part too, but how remains a mystery. Something out there is creating enormous amounts of energy?
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- Under the most extreme high temperatures matter breaks down in to Quarks and Gluons, electrons and photons. These constituents of matter can become completely unglued from one another. They become a plasma, a whole new state of matter, not solid, not liquid, not gas, but plasma.
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- The phase transitions of Quark-Gluon Plasma to energy is beyond today’s comprehension. The 3 forces, Strong Nuclear, Weak Nuclear, Electromagnetic, are thought to be 3 manifestations of the same force. Where does the force of Gravity fit into this? Can Quarks change into other particles? Can protons decay into other particles? Calculations show that protons must be stable particles for trillions of years before they decay. But, what about after that?
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- What is the force of gravity anyway? Einstein’s theory of relativity does a good job of describing gravity for the very big and the very fast. He describes gravity as a curvature of space-time and the force as simply falling to the bottom of the curve or taking the easiest path in the curved space dimensions.
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- However, Einstein’s equations do not work for the very small. Quantum Mechanics equations work very well for the very small, but there is no link yet found between the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
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- Where these two disciplines really come together is at a Black Hole. Here is where gravity becomes very powerful at very, very tiny distances. The Big Bang itself can be viewed as the heart of a Black Hole.
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- To illustrate , Quantum Mechanics is used to explain how a Black Hole can evaporate over time. The concept requires virtual particles near the Event Horizon of a Black Hole forming pairs of particles and anti-particles. Before they can recombine and annihilate each other one gets sucked into the Hole and the other escapes beyond the Event Horizon. This process gets too far out for theories to explain. Stephen Hawking is simply saying “trust me, it happens“.
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- Everything I know was taught to me in 4 dimensions, 3 in space and 1 in time. But, to explain how gravity can be a continuous phenomenon while the other 3 forces come in discrete packets, physicists and mathematicians are adding 7 more dimensions. They need 11 dimensions to make the equations work out.
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- This is called String Theory and the 7 new dimensions are unimaginably small and wrapped up in tiny strings, instead of being point like particles. Physicists believe there must be a way to connect the 3 atomic forces with the force of gravity.
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- Astronomers believe that there was only one force at the start of the Big Bang. Each of the 4 forces starting with gravity coalesced out as the Universe expanded and cooled. Matter and anti-matter coalesced out as well. But, it in equal amounts the anti-matter and matter should have eventually annihilated each other leaving only energy behind.
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- Somehow, this process got out of balance and more matter than anti-matter was left behind. This gets back to the random quantum fluctuations of Quantum Mechanics to explain this. These quantum fluctuations were what created minuscule variations in the expanding space which later coalesced into lumps of matter and the seeds of creation of galaxies and clusters of galaxies we see today. Somehow the infinite Universe all started at the sub-atomic level. Somehow we got from the infinitesimal to the infinite.
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- Somehow the physicists and astronomers have got to get there heads together to explain all this.
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- This review is full of questions. Unless there are some answers you have not learned anything. Even if the answers are wrong, you can always change them later when you learn more. Unless you have a stake in the ground you can not tell if something has moved.
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- So, my reviews will go back to portray this stuff like the astronomer who is seldom in doubt. But, the truth be known we really do not know that much. Learning is the fun part anyway. The good news……………… there remains a lot to learn.
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- June 24, 2019. 641
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--------------------- Monday, June 24, 2019 -------------------------
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