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-------------- 2710 - COSMOLOGICAL DECADES - The evolution of the Universe ?
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- What Has Happened in the Past 10 Cosmological Decades?
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- We are living in the 21st Century, but, that is just since the Birth of Christ. The Earth is living in its 45,000,000th Century. The Universe can be said to be living in its 10th Cosmological Decade.
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- With big numbers it is easier to work with exponents. The 10th Cosmological Decade is 10^10 years. Or, starting at 10,000,000,000 years. This review covers the 1st through the 39th Cosmological Decade making our 21st Century of 100 years minuscule small in this big picture.
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- The 10th Cosmological Decade covers the period between 10,000,000,000 years and 100,000,000,000 years since the birth of the Universe. Between 10^10 the 10^11 years.
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- If you just take 100 years out of that 90,000,000,000 span of time you have the 20th Century. The start of which we did not know the existence of galaxies, quasars, or Blackholes. We had a simple comprehension of the Universe to be our Solar System amongst a bunch of stars.
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- 100 years ago we thought the Universe was “static“. Then, Edwin Hubble discovered it had galaxies outside our own and they were traveling away from us faster the further away they were.
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- 30 years ago by studying exploding supernovae we discovered the Universe was actually expanding at an accelerating rate. Now we think the expansion is an anti-gravity push from “Dark Energy” expanding the space between all the galaxies at an ever increasing accelerating rate..
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- At the end of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st Century we see the Universe as a web of Galaxy Clusters connected by filaments of stars and separated by vast bubbles of space. Each Cluster is 1000 times more massive then our Milky Way Galaxy. We know by the effects on gravity that the Clusters contain “Dark Matter“.
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- We can not see this dark matter, we do not know what it is, but, we know it is there because it creates more gravity than the Ordinary Matter we can see. The Galaxy Cluster with Dark Matter acts as a gravitational lens to bend the light and magnify more distant galaxies behind the Cluster in our line of sight. The oldest Clusters have been dated to be 8,000,000,000 years old. These clusters were born in the 9th Cosmological Decade.
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- There have been galaxies found that are older then 8,000,000,000 years, but, they are not congregated into Clusters. Our Local Group of galaxies is not in a Cluster. It is a sphere of 39 galaxies about 10,000,000 light years in diameter. M31 is our neighbor galaxy, Andromeda. M33 is the neighbor Pinwheel Galaxy.
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- Active galaxies are highly energetic places with giant Blackholes at their centers. Blackholes swallow local matter and create powerful jets exiting their magnetic poles. Some galaxies are hyper-active with new star formation. Others, like the Dwarf galaxies are small, fain and barely active.
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- Astronomers believe that larger galaxies are the result of mergers of many smaller galaxies. When galaxies collide, gas clouds inside the galaxy collide, get compressed and create the birth of stars. When stars form a structure it is called a galaxy.
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- Stars themselves come in a wide diversity depending on their mass and age. Dwarf stars are small, 0.1 to 1.4 Solar Mass emitting from brown to white radiation. Our Sun with a Solar Mass of 1 is yellow-green in its radiation. The green gets filtered out in our blue skies and the remaining yellow is the color we see under our blanket of atmosphere.
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- Stars that are 8 Solar Mass or larger, explode as supernovae. After the explosions the remnants are either a Blackhole or a Neutron Star are left behind. Neutron stars rotate and beam a periodic pulse called a “Pulsar“.
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- Stars less than 8 Solar Mass die as Planetary Nebulae and leave behind a White Dwarf that is 1/10,000th as bright as today’s Sun and about the diameter of Earth. This will happen to our Sun 5 billion years from now.
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- To go beyond what we observe today we need to assume the laws of physics are the same everywhere and for all time. We know the Universe is expanding, but it is not expanding evenly. Some galaxies have velocities in different directions than the direction of expansion.
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- Our Milky Way Galaxy is traveling in a different direction. We are being pulled by the Andromeda Galaxy that is nearby. And, our two galaxies are being pulled by the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. So, these velocities that are different than the velocity of expansion are accurately explained by the force of gravity between masses.
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- However, other galaxies that have strange velocities can not be explained by gravity. It is a if the Universe is tilted. Or, as if another Universe beyond our Observable Universe is pulling on our Universe. Some astronomers are calling this the “Dark Flow“.
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- Astronomers measure these velocities by measuring the frequency emitted by the hydrogen atom when its electron changes energy levels or spin directions. The fundamental physics behind this frequency is the “Alpha Constant“, a dimensionless number of 1/137.07.
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- Alpha is the square of the electron’s charge divided by Planck’s Constant of Action and the speed of light. The Alpha Constant is a strange number and can not be derived. It can only be measured. But, we assume that it is a “constant number” even into the far reaches of the Universe.
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--------------Alpha Constant = e^2 / 2*pi*h*c
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------------ where “e” is charge, “h” is Planck’s Constant, “c” is the speed of light.
--------------Alpha Constant = 1 / 137
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- Strangely when we look in opposite directions of the Universe the Constant seems to be different by 5 parts in 1,000,000. The ratio difference is disturbing because astronomers know that if Alpha was a little bigger or a little smaller that life as we know it could not exist.
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- The Universe could not withstand a 10% change or it would become a giant crunch or fly apart. So, are the laws of physics changing with distance and time. We do not know for sure. But, assuming the laws are always the same we look back in distance and time to the 1st Cosmological Decade, 10^0 = 1 year.
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- The 1st Cosmological Decade, 10^0, was the beginning of space and time. Another law of physics is Entropy that always increases, it is the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Entropy is the measure of disorder or randomness in any physical system.
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- Whenever Entropy is generated the amount of randomness increases. Gravity pulls things together and organizes things. Entropy opposes this . Entropy increasing wants to always create more disorder, more randomness.
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- So, with the beginning of the Universe Gravity and Entropy are in a constant tug of war. It is believed that in an instant of time Entropy overcame Gravity and Cosmic Inflation occurred expanding space at a fantastic speed, faster than the speed of light but only lasting for a few nanoseconds.
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- After Cosmic Inflation which was likely caused when the force of Gravity separated form the other three forces, Strong, Weak, Electromagnetic, the Universe was filled with quarks and anti-quarks, fundamental particles created out of pure energy. (m = E / c^2).
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- The temperatures were extreme in this primordial soup but somehow for every 30,000,000 anti-quarks there were 30,000,001 quarks. The annihilation of quarks and anti-quarks back into pure energy produced huge amounts of Entropy. Only a small amount of quarks survived to form the matter that became the stars.
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- After a few minutes protons and electrons formed helium, deuterium and lithium. The Strong Nuclear Force combined 25% of the protons and neutrons to form elements heavier than hydrogen ( a single proton).
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- Entropy continued to increase as electrons annihilated anti-electrons (positrons). The radioactive decay of the Weak Nuclear Force caused neutrons to decay into electrons and protons. Entropy was increasing again.
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- Continued expansion and cooling finally allowed atomic nuclei to form. Neutral atoms sprang into existence. Gravity begins to win the tug of war with Entropy. This all happened in the first Cosmological Decade. 10^0 to 10^1 year.
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- Starting the second Cosmological Decade 10^1 to 10^2 years, in the first 100 years stars are actively forming and dieing. Gravity overcomes the background expansion and galaxies begin to form. Gravities relentless hold continues to create stars and planets.
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- However, in the competition between Gravity and Entropy the victories are often temporary. This great war still guides the future of evolution and the ultimate fate of all the stars.
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- In White Dwarfs the war ends with gravity being exactly balanced by the pressure forces from Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle working on the electrons Electromagnetic Force.
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- When larger stars loose the battle a supernovae explosion disperses the elements of the Periodic Table across interstellar space in a tremendous shockwave. What is left behind is a Neutron Star, or, a Blackhole.
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- The Neutron Star is the resulting balance of gravity with the degenerative pressure of Neutron’s Weak Nuclear Force that refuse to collapse. If gravity overcomes this pressure the remnant collapses inside a Blackhole.
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- The evenly matched competition between Gravity and Entropy allows the Sun to exist for 15,000,000,000 years. A smaller Red Dwarf star can live for 10,000,000,000,000 years, into the 14th Cosmological Decade. 10^14 years.
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- In the 10th Cosmological Decade we see a dying Universe. By the 39th Decade there will be nothing left but a little radiation. Even protons and Blackholes will be gone.
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- Is there a sequel to this scenario that assumes physics stays constant? It could be a long time to wait to find out. Stay tuned. We have so much more to learn. But, now you know the big picture!
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- April 17, 2020 1215 2710
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--------------------- Saturday, April 18, 2020 -------------------------
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