3227 - BLACKHOLES - act as gravity lenses?

  -  3238  -  BLACKHOLES  -  act as gravity lenses?  If there were a supernova, a super powerful explosion of a dying star, behind the blackhole, Astronomers would see that supernova go off multiple times. Each image would be delayed by a certain amount, depending on how many times it orbited the blackhole, allowing researchers to compare their theories with what‘s really happening.

------------------  3227  -   BLACKHOLES  -  act as gravity lenses?

-  In two galaxies about 900 million light-years away, two blackholes each gobbled up their neutron star companions, triggering gravitational waves that finally hit Earth in January,  2020.

-

-  The two events were detected just 10 days apart.  They mark the first-ever detection of a blackhole merging with a neutron star. 

-

-   Gravitational waves have allowed us to detect collisions of pairs of blackholes and pairs of neutron stars, but the mixed collision of a blackhole with a neutron star has been  a new discovery.  

-

-   Two events in ten days,  the astronomers observed the two new gravitational-wave events, GW200105 and GW200115, on January 5, 2020, and January 15, 2020, during the second half of the LIGO and Virgo detectors third observing run. 

-

-  All three large detectors (both LIGO instruments and the Virgo instrument) detected the merger of a 6-solar mass blackhole with a 1.5-solar mass neutron star, roughly 1 billion light-years from Earth. With observations of the three widely separated detectors on Earth, the direction to the waves' origin can be determined to a part of the sky equivalent to the area covered by 2,900 full moons.

-

-  Just 10 days earlier, LIGO detected a strong signal using just one detector while the other was temporarily offline. While Virgo also was observing, the signal was too quiet in its data for Virgo to help detect it. From the gravitational waves, the astronomers inferred that the signal was caused by a 9-solar mass blackhole colliding with a 1.9-solar mass compact object, which they ultimately concluded was a neutron star. This merger happened at a distance of about 900 million light-years from Earth.

-

-   Although the signal was too quiet for Virgo to confirm its detection, its data did help narrow down the source's potential location to about 17% of the entire sky, which is equivalent to the area covered by 34,000 full moons.

-

-  While it is unclear where these binary systems form, astronomers identified three likely cosmic origins: stellar binary systems, dense stellar environments including young star clusters, and the centers of galaxies.

-

-  Blackholes are regions in space-time where gravity's pull is so powerful that not even light can escape its grasp. However, while light cannot escape a blackhole, its extreme gravity warps space around it, which allows light to "echo," bending around the back of the object. Astronomers have, for the first time, observed the light from behind a blackhole. 

-

-   XMM-Newton and NASA's NuSTAR space telescopes have observed the light from behind a blackhole that's 10 million times more massive than our sun and lies 800 million light-years away in the spiral galaxy. 

-

-   This study began with the researchers' desire to expand our understanding of blackhole coronas, which are the source of the X-ray light that often radiates from the vicinity of these objects.  Bright flares of X-ray light are emitted by gas that falls into blackholes from their accretion disks, the disks of dust and gas that surround and "feed" these objects.

-

-  The team spotted an X-ray flare  that was so  bright that some of the light reflected on the gas falling back into the blackhole. When that reflected light was bent around the back of the blackhole by the object's extreme gravity, the team was able to spot it using  space telescopes. 

-

-  The astronomers also took note of how the X-ray light changed color as it bent and moved around the back of the blackhole. They hope to create a 3D map of the blackhole's surroundings. They also hope to better understand blackhole coronas and explore how the corona of a blackhole is capable of producing these bright X-ray flares. 

-

-  Imagine a galaxy reflected in a fun house hall of mirrors. You'd see the galaxy, repeated again and again, with each image becoming more grotesque and distorted. That's how the universe looks near the event horizon of a blackhole, one of the most warped places in the universe. 

-

-   If you were to place a galaxy behind the blackhole and then look off to the side, you'd see a distorted image of the galaxy. That's because some light from the galaxy would barely graze the edges of the blackhole, without falling in. 

-

-  Because of the blackhole's extreme gravity, such light  would get bent toward your line of sight.  Strangely, the galaxy would appear to be far away from the blackhole, not directly behind it.

-

-  The gravity around blackholes is so intense, and space-time is so incredibly warped, that at a certain distance, light itself can orbit the blackholes. Some of the light from a background galaxy even gets trapped, looping forever, like a satellite. 

-

-  However, the light would need to come the exact right distance from the blackhole to get trapped in an orbit. It can also hit the blackhole at an angle that allows it to make one ,or many, loops before eventually escaping.

-

-  Looking at the edge of the blackhole, your eyes would  see one image of the background galaxy from its deflected light. Then, you would see a second image of the galaxy from light rays that managed to make a single orbit before escaping and then again from light rays that made two orbits, and then three and so on.

-

-  Physicists have known through simple estimates that each image is e^2𝜋 times closer than the last. In that formula, e is the base of the natural logarithm, and it equals roughly 2.7182. Pi is another irrational number that is about 3.14159, so e^2𝜋 comes out to a number very close to 500. That means each repetition of the same background object is about 500 times closer to the edge of the blackhole than the last.

-

-  Light from galaxies in the background of a blackhole circle the gravitational monster, creating endless "mirror" images of that universe.   While physicists could get that simple result using pen-and-paper calculations, they weren't sure if that special factor of 500 would be completely accurate if they looked closely at the behavior of the complex space-time curvature near black holes. 

-

-  Because the rotation of the blackhole twists space-time around it, each successive image of the background object appears flatter. Thus, the farthest image will appear relatively undistorted, while the closest image may be completely unrecognizable.

-

-  Technically, there are an infinite number of repeated images of background objects, each one closer to the event horizon.  But those few that can be detected would provide a powerful perspective into the heart of general relativity, the mathematical theory that describes gravity.

-

-  In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of dishes spanning the entire globe, generated the first image of the "shadow" of a blackhole cast on its surrounding gas and dust. That telescope wasn't powerful enough to capture the multiple fun-house-mirror images of background objects, but future telescopes could.

-

-   A supernova explosion of a dying star, behind the blackhole Would allow astronomers to see that supernova go off multiple times. Each image would be delayed by a certain amount, depending on how many times it orbited the blackhole.  Researchers could then  compare their theories with reality.

-

-  Astronomers just have to be willing to stare into the void long enough until the right thing happens.  

-

-  July 29, 2021       BLACKHOLES -   act as gravity lenses?           3238                                                                                                                    

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--------------------- ---  Saturday, July 31, 2021  ---------------------------

3237 - NEUTRON STAR - first detected merger?

  -  3237  -  NEUTRON  STAR  - first detected merger?   When the large star burns all of its fuel it can no longer resist gravity.  The immense gravity at the center collapses the individual atoms themselves.  The entire enormous star collapses into the center and then rebounds in a giant “supernova” explosion.  What is left behind at the core is the collapsed star of neutrons.  A Neutron Star is just 10 miles in diameter.

------------------  3237  -   NEUTRON  STAR  - first detected merger?  

-  All the 96 elements in the Periodic Table of Elements, which were not synthesized during the big bang are heavy elements, and we call them “metals“. Only Hydrogen and Helium were directly produced in the initial moments of the big bang. All other elements are made in some processes in the atmosphere of planets or the cores of stars.

-

-  For example, elements like Lithium are produced during interactions of cosmic rays with our atmosphere. “Element” means the nucleus of that element. Because we are talking about highly energetic processes, and at such high energies, the elements get ionized, meaning they lose all their electrons leaving behind the protons in the nucleus.

-

-  In the periodic table, there are nuclei whose origin we know. Like, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, up to Fe, Co, and Ni. All of them are a product of some nuclear process in a planet or a star.

-

-  The heaviest ones, Iron, Nickel, etc., are created during the violent deaths of stars,  “supernovae“. Above that, we do not have observational proof about how nuclei heavier than Iron are created. Until now, we thought that they might be a product of supernovae, too, because the formation process is similar.

-

-  To understand how these processes for the heaviest elements occur, we need to understand a little bit of Nuclear Physics. We know that the nucleus is made up of two particles, protons and neutrons. Protons, being positively charged, neutrons being neutral. We know that two positively charged particles would repel each other.

-

-   To make stable or semi-stable nuclei, we need something more inside the nucleus to hold it together against the repulsive force.   As we go from lighter nuclei towards heavier ones,  the number of neutrons become much larger than protons.

-

-  From theory and experiments on radioactivity  if a nucleus is bombarded with neutrons, it will absorb a neutron and eventually decay in such a way that it becomes stable. To gain stability a neutron in the nucleus splits into a proton and an electron (called beta radiation), hence maintaining the charge neutrality, and also emitting a neutrino.

-

-  In this process, we created an element whose proton number increased by 1 due to a neutron splitting into a proton and an electron. This way, we made a higher atomic numbered nucleus.  The actual process is significantly more complicated. To synthesize much heavier nuclei, we need to imagine this process on a dramatically larger scale. We need to have access to an enormous amount of neutrons in an extreme environment.

-

-  Neutron Stars are extremely dense, super-heavy, small objects, which are just remains of dead stars. These objects can be about 10 miles in diameter yet have masses up to 1.5 times the mass of our Sun. 

-

-  The gravitational force in this dead star is so overwhelming that it collapsed into a state where the atoms’ electrons are captured by the nuclei and fused with the protons to make neutrons.

-

-  The star is mostly made of neutrons. But, it is a dead star. How can it make heavy nuclei? It is already dead! Nuclear fusion is no longer going on.  Right?

-

-  It turns out that when we set our telescopes onto the night sky and see it, we observe that a vast majority of stars exist in pairs. Is it possible that there might be a pair of neutron stars?

-

-   In 2015, a pair was detected with the gravitational waves coming from a merger of the binary blackhole pair. 

-

-  Because neutron stars are only about 10 miles in diameter they hardly emit any visible radiation.  How do you see something which does not emit light but is immensely heavy?

-

-  We use gravitational wave detection! We detect gravitational waves coming from a binary neutron star merger. Once we detect this, we point all the telescopes available to us towards the gravitational wave signal’s direction.

-

-   Theory suggests that there will be a lot of heavy nuclear production, and in that process, there will also be a lot of nuclear radiation! Hence electromagnetic radiation should be abundant to actually “see” the event!

-

-  On August 17, 2017  one such gravitational wave signal is detected in LIGO detectors from merging neutron star.  All the telescopes on earth as well as in space were pointed towards the direction of the signal calculated from the signals  in the LIGO and VIRGO detectors. We have visual confirmation of light coming from the “Neutron Star merger“!

-

-  Multiple electromagnetic spectra were taken in all available frequency bands, and it was confirmed that the heavy elements were indeed produced there! Just to put this into perspective, a rough estimate suggests that Gold was one of the products in this nucleosynthesis, and the amount of Gold produced was equal to 5 to 6 times the entire mass of the Earth!

-

-  This is the first time we saw an electromagnetic signal along with a gravitational wave signal.  This was experimental confirmation that heavy elements are produced in “neutron star - neutron star” mergers.

-

-  The only process which produces elements like Gold, Platinum, Uranium, and so on is binary neutron star mergers. We have all of these elements on Earth. This implies that we may be the product of one such process, and we owe our existence to it!

-

-   We have developed special telescopes to observe these optical signals and study them in much more depth.  These three telescopes, the BlackGEM array of telescopes,  in Chile, in South America,  detected these optical light signals coming from colliding Neutron Stars.  Amazing science in action.  

-

-  July 28, 2021       NEUTRON  STAR  - first detected merger?             3237                                                                                                                    

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--------------------- ---  Thursday, July 29, 2021  ---------------------------

3234 - GALAXIES - die too?

  -  3234  -  GALAXIES  -  die too?  -   A single galaxy may contain billions of stars and their solar systems, all held together by the sheer force of gravity.   But even galaxies die.  After all of its star-forming gas runs out, and all of its stars have burned out, a galaxy dies. It will one day happen to the Milky Way, too.  That day is some 5 billion years into our future.  Probably should not have used “our”  

------------------  3234  -  GALAXIES  -  die too?

-  Until as late as, astronomers had never witnessed a distant galaxy”s death. However, recent observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) have given astronomers their first view of a large galactic system nearing its death.

-

-  Astronomers observing some 100 galaxies in distant locations noticed something odd about galaxy ID2299.   ALMA, the array of telescopes located in northern Chile caught a glimpse of ID2299 for a few minutes but  researchers could see that the galaxy had a tail of gas that was being ejected from it.  The gas is being ejected at a startling rate, the equivalent of 10,000 Suns a year. Additionally, it is removing 46 percent of the galaxy's total cold gas.

-

-   The galaxy is located 9 billion light-years away from Earth, meaning that it existed at a time when the universe was merely 4.5 billion years old.  The universe was formed 13.8 billion years ago.  Star formation in galaxies then was at a much higher rate than it is today.

-

-  Galaxy ID2299 is forming stars hundreds of times faster than our Milky Way, and therefore the gas that remained in the galaxy will quickly be consumed as more stars continue to be born.

-

-  As a result, the galaxy will meet its final demise in just a few tens of million years.  The galaxy's untimely death was brought on by the collision between two galaxies, which merged to form ID2299.

-

-  The telltale sign that there had been a galactic collision was a "tidal tail." Tidal tails are an elongated stream of stars and gas that extend outwards from a merged galaxy after two galaxies have collided into each other to form one.

-

-  Although scientists had previously suggested that these tidal tails form from the star formation process and activity of the blackholes at the center of the galaxy, the recent observations of ID2299 suggest that the tails of star-forming gas could also be the result of a galactic merger.

-

-    By studying the relationship between the star-forming gas and the galaxy's eventual death, astronomers are hoping to understand how galaxies evolve over time until they stop giving birth to stars, and die.

-

-    This massive starburst galaxy at z = 1.4 which is ejecting 46 ± 13% of its molecular gas mass at a startling rate of & 10, 000 Myr.

-

-  A blackhole is a region of spacetime where the gravity is so powerful that not even light can escape them. They are created when massive stars die. The jets blast material out the poles at nearly the speed of light. Researchers obtained the highest resolution images yet of these eruptive jets as they blasted from a nearby blackhole.

-

-  The new images suggest blackholes of different masses, ranging from three times the mass of the Sun to a billion solar masses, behave similarly.

-

-  Centaurus A is a giant elliptical active galaxy 12 million light-years away from Earth. It is the nearest galaxy with a strong jet of plasma erupting from its center. This jet exists because the center is home to a blackhole weighing 55 million times the mass of the Sun.

-

-  By pointing their radio telescopes at the center of Centaurus A, the scientists were able to zoom into as close as 0.6 lightyears away from the blackhole itself.

-

-  A blackhole will launch a jet in one direction, and another in the opposite direction. Th

This is the first image of a blackhole and was taken in 2019. It shows the “ring of fire” that surrounds a blackhole’s event horizon.

-

-  M87 sits at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, an elliptical galaxy located 55 million light-years away. The blackhole itself is  weighing at 6.5 billion times the mass of the Sun.

-

-  The analysis revealed that, although M87 and Centaurus A greatly vary in mass, their jets are quite similar. The study team found the geometry and other properties of both blackholes’ jets are pretty much the same, confirming massive black holes are simply scaled up versions of their not-so-massive counterparts.

-

-Black holes typically come in two sizes: Stellar-mass blackholes, which are five to ten times the mass of the Sun and Supermassive blackholes, which are millions or billions of times the mass of the Sun

-

-  A blackhole feeds on its surrounding material, gobbling up nearby stars and other objects in order to grow in size. The amount of material swallowed by a blackhole largely depends on its environment.

-

-  During their feeding frenzies, some matter, hot gas or dust, falls toward the center of the blackhole. It then shoots out in the form of jets, or two short beams of material, from outside the boundary that surrounds the blackhole. This boundary is known as the “event horizon“.  These jets can sometimes reach the outside of the galaxy itself, traveling at nearly the speed of light.

-

-  Astronomers are now working on capturing a video of the blackhole at the center of the Milky Way., Sagittarius A*.   Ideally, the video will reveal movement taking place around the blackhole, giving scientists a better idea of its surrounding conditions.

-

-   Very-long-baseline interferometry  observations of active galactic nuclei at millimeter wavelengths have the power to reveal the launching and initial collimation region of extragalactic radio jets, down to 10–100 gravitational radii (rg≡GM/c2 ) scales in nearby sources 

-

-  . Centaurus A is the closest radio-loud source to Earth . It bridges the gap in mass and accretion rate between the supermassive blackholes  in Messier 87 and our Galactic Center. A large southern declination of −43° has, however, prevented imaging of Centaurus A below a wavelength of 1 cm thus far. 

-

-  The millimetre image of the source obtained with the Event Horizon Telescope is at 228 GHz. Compared with previous observations , we image the jet of Centaurus A at a tenfold higher frequency and sixteen times sharper resolution and thereby probe sub-lightday structures. 

-

-  This reveals a highly collimated, asymmetrically edge-brightened jet as well as the fainter counterjet. We find that the source structure of Centaurus A resembles the jet in Messier 87 on 500 rg scales remarkably well ( rg≡GM/c2 ).

-

-   Astronomers have identifed the location of Centaurus A’s SMBH with respect to its resolved jet core at a wavelength of 1.3 mm and conclude that the source’s event horizon shadow should be visible at terahertz frequencies. This location further supports the universal scale invariance of blackholes over a wide range of masses.

-

-  July 26, 2021               GALAXIES  -  die too                                 3234                                                                                                                    

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--------------------- ---  Wednesday, July 28, 2021  ---------------------------

3235 - SIZE - from the Universe to viruses.

  -  3235  -  SIZE  -  from the Universe to viruses.   The size of things, from the Universe to viruses.  The universe is a big place, but it's made out of small pieces. The periodic table includes elements such as oxygen, carbon and other building blocks that make up stars, things, and us.

------------------------------------    BACTERIA

-

-----------------  3235 -   SIZE  -  from the Universe to viruses. 

-   Scientists have been thinking about and finding smaller and smaller fundamental particles, those tinier than atoms that fill up the universe. Which of these fundamental particles is the smallest? And, which is the largest?

-

-  At Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), near Chicago, scientists use a particle accelerator to smash individual particles together and look at the debris, or possible new fundamental particles, that come out. 

-

-  How do you weigh an atom in terms of mass? The lowest nonzero-mass particle we know of is the “neutrino“.  Science does not have the exact measurement of a neutrino's mass because the instruments used to calculate mass of fundamental particles aren't sensitive enough.

-

-  A neutrino is a particle.  Neutrinos interact very weakly with matter and are the second most abundant particle after photons (which behave more like waves than actual particles). 

-

-  There are trillions of neutrinos passing through you at this very second. Neutrinos weigh nearly nothing and travel close to the speed of light ,  as do photons.

-

-  An atomic nucleus is made up of neutrons, protons and electrons. Protons and neutrons themselves are about one-tenth the size of the nucleus as a whole. An electron has near-zero mass, but it actually weighs about 500,000 times more than a neutrino.

-

-  Physicists use electron volts (eV) to measure the mass of subatomic particles. Technically, the unit is eV/c^2, in which c is the speed of light.  One electron volt is equivalent to about 1.6x10^-19 joules. 

-

-  To simplify things, physicists use a set of units whereby the speed of light is 1. To figure out the mass of a subatomic particle, then, you'd use Albert Einstein's famous equation E=mc^2 to get the mass (m) in kilograms.

-

-  An electron weighs 511,000 electron volts, which is equivalent to 9.11 x 10^-31 kilograms. For comparison, a typical proton in the nucleus of a typical atom weighs 938 million electron volts, or 1.67 × 10^-27 kg.

-

-  Conversely, the largest (in terms of mass) fundamental particle we know of is a particle called a “top quark“, measuring a whopping 172.5 billion electron volts. 

-

-  Quarks are another fundamental particle that cannot be broken down into more parts. Scientists have found six types of quarks: up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top. Up and down quarks make up protons and neutrons, and they weigh 3 million and 5 million electron volts, respectively. In comparison, the top quark weighs 57,500 times more than the up quark.

-

-  The question of physical size is harder to answer. We know the physical size of some particles, but not the smallest ones. Some "tiny" particles that people hear about in daily life, such as virus particles, are actually quite large.

-

-  A typical virus particle is about 250 to 400 nanometers long (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter, or 10^-9 m), and the typical atomic nucleus measures about 10^-14 m (0.00000000000001 m). That means an atomic nucleus is as small to a virus as a virus is to us. 

-

-  Currently, the smallest physical size scientists can measure with a particle accelerator is 2,000 times smaller than a proton, or 5 x 10^-20 m. So far, scientists have been able to determine that quarks are smaller than that, but not by how much.

-

-  July 28, 2021           SIZE  -  from the Universe to viruses.                   3224                                                                                                                    

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--------------------- ---  Wednesday, July 28, 2021  ---------------------------

3236 - EVOLUTION - My dogs Grandpa was a Llama?

  -  3236  -  EVOLUTION  -  My dogs Grandpa was a Llama?   Science now knows that mammals and dinosaurs lived together for millions of years.  65,000,000 years ago dinosaurs died out and mammals took over and began to diversify.  Mammals began as small, shrew-like creatures, some up to the medium sized dog.  From there, evolution created a diversity of mammals where today we have 4,316 different species of mammals.

------------------  3236  -   EVOLUTION  -  My dogs Grandpa was a Llama?

-  Mammals are different from other creatures in that they have fur, or hair, are warm-blooded, and produce milk.  They have live births, with a few mammals that lay eggs (platypus), and a few  that have a mother’s pouch (kangaroos), but 90% are placental mammals.

-

-  Of these placental mammals there are at least 23 categories, called orders, and within these orders there are 4,316 different species.  Each has a Latin name but I will just use a few representatives with common names for each species.  

-

-  For example the largest number of species is in the order “Rodentia” which has 1,995 species of mice, squirrels and guinea pigs.  Here is a table of the order and species:

-

----------  1  ------------ mice, squirrels  ----------  1,995  species

----------  2 -----------   rabbits  ------------------------  80  

----------  3 ------------  bats  --------------------------  925  

----------  4  -----------  bears, cats, dogs, seals  ----  280

----------  5  -----------  monkeys, men  --------------  233

----------  6  -----------  whales, dolphins  -------------  78

----------  7 ------------  cows, pigs, deer  ------------  215

----------  8  ------------  horses, rhinos  ------------- -- 18

----------  9  ------------  sloth’s, anteaters  ------------  29 

----------  10  ----------- pangolins (1)  -----------------  7

----------  11------------  flying lemurs  ----------------  2

----------  12------------  aardvarks (5) -----------------  1

----------  13------------  manatees  ---------------------- 4

----------  14------------  hyraxes (2) -------------------  11

----------  15------------  elephants  ----------------------  2

----------  16------------  elephant shrews  ------------- 19

----------  17------------  hedgehogs  -------------------  21

----------  18------------  moles  -------------------------  42

----------  19------------  tree shrews  ------------------  19

----------  20------------  shrews  ----------------------  312

----------  21------------  tenrecs,moles (3) ------------  24

----------  22------------  golden moles  ----------------  18

----------  23------------  solenodons (4)  ----------------  2

-

-  (4)  Solenodons are shrew-like mammals that resemble a species very closely to those living with the dinosaurs.  They have long snouts and eat insects.  Their tits are on their butts and their saliva is venomous.  Once adult they are solitary animals.

-

-  We can try to combine these orders into groups that have common characteristics in order to determine a common ancestor.    Common characteristics might be similar teeth, similar toes or  hooves, similar spines, etc.  Another way to combine these species into a family tree is to group those with the most similar DNA.

-

-    This review does not go into the details of mutations in DNA.  But, evolution has occurred through mutations in the DNA code.  The mutations that improve the species, or create another species that are better survivors, live on.  Those with the poor mutations die off.  Only the strong survive.  

-

-  The DNA string is unique to each species as it is passed on to generation after generation.  When you get back to common ancestors of species they have common DNA mutations.  So, without going into the explanations here are the results:

-

-  The genetic differences in DNA between:

-

----------------  humans  --------------  chimpanzes  ------------  1.24%

----------------  humans  --------------  gorillas  ----------------    1.62%

----------------  humans  -------------- orangutans  --------------  3.08%

-

-----------------  chimps ----------------gorillas  ----------------   1.63%

-----------------  chimps  ---------------  orangutans  ------------ 3.13%

-

-----------------  gorillas  ------------  orangutans  ---------------  3.09%

-

-  Using DNA results, humans are more like chimps than any other species.  And, humans are to gorillas almost as chimps are to gorillas.  Using this data from the DNA we conclude that humans and chimps had a common ancestor from which both species diverged 6,500,000 years ago. 

-

-   Humans and chimps diverged from gorillas some 7,500,000 years ago.  These species of humans, chimps and gorillas diverged from orangutans with a common ancestor 16,000,000 years ago.

-

-  It is important to note that only males were included in this DNA survey, ha, ha.

-

-  We are interested in my dogs common ancestors.  Together dogs and bears are in the species “ Carnivores”.  The number of nucleotide differences between dogs, bears, llamas, and antelope are:

-

--------------------  dogs  ---------------  bears  -------------  36 different nucleotides

-------------------   dogs  ---------------  llamas  ------------  35

--------------------  dogs  --------------- antelope  ----------  46

-

--------------------  bears  --------------  llamas  ------------  45

--------------------  bears  -------------- antelope  -----------  50

-

-  It looks like dogs are more closely related to llamas than to bears.  But, comparing dogs and bears to llamas they are 10 differences apart.  Comparing them to antelope they are only 5 differences apart.  Dogs and bears had a common ancestor with llama and antelope some 80,000,000 years ago.

-

-  As best we can determine there evolved two basic groups of mammals.  One from Africa and one from the Northern Latitudes. 

-

 From Africa common ancestors existed:

-

 -  65,000,000 years ago for:

-

------------elephants

-----------  hyraxes (2)

-----------  manatees

-

-  (2)  Hyrax is a small rabbit-like mammal said to be the closest living relative to the elephant.  Found in Africa and the Middle East it has fossil records dating back 40,000,000 years ago.

-

-  and 80,000,000 years ago for:  

----------  aardvarks (5)

----------  elephant shrews

----------  tenrecs (3)

-

-   (3)  Tenrecs are found in Madagascar and Africa.  They vary in size from shrew-like to opossum-like.  They are omnivorous and nocturnal and usually live in groups.

-

-    (5)  Aardvarks are called the ant-bear because it is the size of a pig.  It is a living fossil.  It is nocturnal and feeds on ants and termites.  It has a long, sticky tongue.  It borrows out a home.  Its predators are lions and leopards and for defense it will lie on its back and slash with its long claw

-

-  As best we can determine from Northern Latitudes common ancestors existed:

-

-   80,000,000 years ago for:

-

------------rabbits

----------  mice

----------  tree shrews

------------flying lemurs

----------  primates, you and me

-

-  and 90,000,000 years ago for: 

- 

----------  hedgehogs

----------  bats

---------   dogs and bears

----------  pangolins (1)

----------- horses

----------- pigs, whales

-

-  (1)  Pangolons are a scaly anteater.  They look like a walking pine cone that is up to 3 foot long.  They can curl up into an armored ball with razor sharp scales for protection.  Its claws are also sharp for climbing and burrowing.

-

-  This grouping certainly had something to do with continental drift when Africa separated from Gondwana some 120,000,000 years ago. 

-

-   South America separated from Africa some 105,000,000 years ago.  South America joined up with North America some 90,000,000 years ago. 

-

-   The categories for these mammals come together with a common mammal ancestor some 110,000,000 years ago when they were all shrews. Then, the dinosaurs died off some 65,000,000 years ago.  Interesting!

-

-  July 28, 2021    EVOLUTION  -  My dogs Grandpa was a Llama?      873    3236                                                                                                                   

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ---- 

---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----  

--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews 

---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------

--------------------- ---  Wednesday, July 28, 2021  ---------------------------

3233 - EARTH - is it heating up?

  -  3233  -  EARTH  -  is it heating up?  -   In 2021, Earth reached a concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere that hit 150% of its value in preindustrial times. To prevent these worst effects of climate change, the world needs to decrease net emissions of carbon dioxide to zero by 2050.  What is the plan?

------------------  3233  -   EARTH  -  is it heating up?

-  Even if we were to achieve this reduction goal, it wouldn't put a sudden brake on the temperature rise, because it takes time to see the effects of CO2 reductions on global temperatures; the negative impacts of global warming will continue for decades.

-

-  To counteract this it might be possible to achieve a temporary reduction in global temperatures by tweaking the composition of Earth's upper atmosphere. Researchers were hoping to test some of this technology in the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx). 

-

-  The ultimate source of Earth's heat is the sun, which bathes the daytime side of the planet in a constant flow of infrared radiation. About 30% of this is reflected back into space by the atmosphere, while the rest warms the planet during the day and is radiated back into space at night. 

-

-  In the delicate balance that prevailed in preindustrial times, the incoming heat was exactly offset by the amount lost to space, ensuring average global temperatures remained constant.

-

-  The problem by 2021 is that CO2 emissions have grown to disrupt this balance by absorbing some of the heat that should be radiated back into space, trapping it inside the atmosphere. The more carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, the more the temperature rises. In the long term, humans must reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to prevent the worst effects of this climate change. 

-

-  Other processes can produce short-term reductions in global temperature. Volcanic eruptions blast clouds of dust particles high up into the stratosphere, an upper layer of the atmosphere, forming a protective shield that prevents some of the sun's heat from reaching Earth's surface. 

-

-  The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines caused the average temperature in the Northern Hemisphere to drop by about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the following 15 months. The SCoPEx team wants to take a page from such eruptions by injecting particles into the upper atmosphere in order to lower temperatures the same way. 

-

-  The basic idea or stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI, is simple. A high-flying aircraft or helium balloon would dispense batches of microscopic particles called aerosols into the stratosphere at altitudes of 12.4 miles, or more, much higher than planes usually fly. The aerosols would remain suspended in the air, too tiny to be visible as clouds from the ground but opaque enough to reflect a fraction of the sun's energy back into space.

-

-   In simulations, SAI appears to be a viable concept.  A fleet of high-flying aircraft could deposit sufficient aerosols to offset current levels of global warming. But the aerosols would have to be replenished every few years, and the method tackles only one of the symptoms of climate change rather than addressing its root cause, the greenhouse effect. It is a stopgap measure, countering rising temperatures while countries simultaneously reduce carbon dioxide levels and lessening the greenhouse effect.

-

-  The research into SAI has been theoretical, supplemented by a limited amount of real-world data from volcanic eruptions. SCoPEx wants to make real-world measurements under carefully controlled conditions, allowing better calibration of their computer models. 

-

-  Volcanoes mainly eject sulfur-based compounds. But these compounds not only cool the atmosphere but also damage Earth's protective ozone layer, which shields us from harmful UV radiation. 

-

-  The SCoPEx team is focusing on a less harmful aerosol, calcium carbonate, chalk dust,  which researchers hope will produce the desired cooling effect without harming the ozone layer.

-

-  The team wants to deploy a large, uncrewed helium balloon that would be similar to a standard weather balloon except that it would be fitted with propellers to allow the team on the ground to maneuver it in a controlled way.  

-

-  On its first flight, which is tentatively planned for next year, the balloon would not release anything into the stratosphere. Instead, it would ascend to an altitude of 12.4 miles, where the team would test the maneuvering system and check that all the scientific instruments and communications function correctly.

-

-  A second flight would perform a controlled release of 2.2 to 4.4 pounds of calcium carbonate at the same altitude. The balloon would be moving steadily in a straight line during the release, so the aerosol particles would form a narrow plume around 0.6 miles  in length. 

-

-  The balloon would then turn back through the plume, observing how the particles disperse over time and measure the extent to which they reflect sunlight.

-

-  The goal is simply to improve our models of the way aerosols form in the stratosphere.

At least another decade of research will be needed before there is a large-scale aerosol release.  This aerosol release might involve injecting around 1.5 million tons  into the stratosphere per year.  Roughly a hundred aircraft would need to continuously fly payloads up to about 12 miles  altitude.

-  

The SAI plan remains highly controversial. One concern is that humans created the climate crisis in the first place by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, so how can people be sure that pumping aerosols into it will make things better?  Maybe create a different problem?

-

-  Although computer modeling suggests SAI is safe, there's still the possibility that it might have unforeseen side effects. There is the possibility that it could disrupt weather patterns, harm crops by reducing the amount of sunlight they receive, and if sulfide aerosols are used  damage the ozone layer.

-

-  Even if the SCoPEx mission is successful and SAI is fully implemented, it will only supplement, not replace, carbon dioxide reduction.  Can mankind engineer their way out of this problem?  

-

-  July 26, 2021                 EARTH  -  is it heating up?                       3234                                                                                                                   

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ---- 

---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----  

--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews 

---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------

--------------------- ---  Tuesday, July 27, 2021  ---------------------------

3232 - EARTH - what is its magnetic future?

  -  3232  -  EARTH  -  what is its magnetic future?  -   The strength of Earth’s magnetic field has already been dropping over the past 1,000 years, and if the “South Atlantic Anomaly” grew and took over, we’d have a field reversal.  The North Pole would become the magnetic South Pole.  Your compass would flip.

------------------  3232  -   EARTH  -  what is its magnetic future?

-   In the South Atlantic, stretching from Chile to South Africa, there’s a wide span where the Earth’s magnetic field isn’t quite in line with the rest of the Earth. Here, at what’s called the “South Atlantic Anomaly“, the field is weak. It’s so weak that it affects the satellites passing over because they are bombarded by solar radiation and space debris that are usually held off by the magnetic field.

-

-  This patch of low magnetism is growing. Underneath the surface, at the core-mantle boundary, it appears there are patches where the field has actually flipped polarity, that is the field north-south has is reversed. These are sometimes called “reverse flux patches“.

-

-  Some geologists are concerned that if the patch grows too big, it could trigger a sudden collapse of the field or even a flip of Earth’s magnetic poles. If this were to happen, electrical grids and satellite technologies would be at risk. The North Pole compass would be pointing south.

-

-  In a 2021 study, paleomagnetists, researchers who study the history of Earth’s changing geomagnetic field found evidence that a sharp directional change and intensity dip occurred around 1,100 –1,300 B.C. in what is today Cambodia.  This means the area may have experienced a geomagnetic “twitch” not unlike the South Atlantic Anomaly we see today.

-

-  Earth’s magnetic field acts as if there’s a giant bar magnet inside.   It is why compasses point toward the North Pole.  It is created by the liquid iron in Earth’s core. But the field is more complicated than that. There are spots where it’s stronger or weaker than the bar magnet would explain, and spots where the direction is out of line with north-south.

-

-  As these patches wax and wane, they affect the field as a whole sometimes even causing the magnetic north and south poles to flip entirely, which has happened every million years or so.

-

-  Are we headed for a flip now? It’s not out of the question. To understand Earth’s future, researchers look to its past. Paleomagnetists look for materials that were heated to high temperatures and then cooled, like lava, or clay pots fired in a kiln. 

-

-  When materials are brought to a high enough temperature, the magnetic molecules inside lose their magnetism. As they cool back down, the molecules not only become magnetized proportionally to the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field, but also are more likely to point in the direction of the field.

-

-   This, combined with radiocarbon dating, allows researchers to measure the intensity and direction of the past field from artifacts and rocks.

-

-  Archaeologists are excavating a site near the ancient city of Angkor in Cambodia.  The area was once host to ancient iron-smelting operations centered around a huge hematite deposit, Phnom Dek, which in Kmerian means “iron mountain.” 

-

-  The researchers excavated a site called Tonle Bak that was active around the time when Angkor was starting to rise and the Khmer Empire was starting to gain power, between the 11th and 13th centuries.

-

-  The archaeological team was interested in the interplay between the widespread iron smelting and the rise of the empire. But the excavations also provided a unique opportunity to reveal information about the Earth’s geomagnetism.

-

- Iron production sites are valuable to geomagnetic research since they once produced massive amounts of waste that was heated. Finding a smelting furnace is better than something like a clay pot, since it’s attached to the landscape, meaning it’s still facing the same direction it was when it was heated and then cooled, so the direction of the magnetic field when it was heated is preserved.

-

-   At Tonle Bak, they found three iron furnaces,  the first ever found in Cambodia.

This is the first time researchers have uncovered paleomagnetic data from this area and one of the first data points from near the equator.

-

-   The researchers found that the rate of directional change from 1200 to 1300 B.C. was about 10 times what’s happening today, and the intensity of the geomagnetic field dropped sharply between 1,100 and 1,300 B.C. It’s reminiscent of today’s South Atlantic Anomaly. 

-

-  There’s no evidence that the patch caused any problems for society at the time.  Reverse flux patches, or spots where the Earth’s geomagnetic field is twisted , are something scientists are still working to understand, especially when it comes to how they can affect the field as a whole.

-

-   The strength of Earth’s magnetic field has already been dropping over the past 1,000 years, and if the South Atlantic Anomaly grew and took over, we’d have a field reversal.

-

-  Researches recovered high-fidelity full-vector geomagnetic information from the 11th to 14th century for this region, which fill gaps in the global distribution of data and will significantly improve the global models.

-

-  These results reveal a sharp directional change of the geomagnetic field between 1,200 and 1,300 B.C., accompanied by an intensity dip between 1,100 and 1,300 B.C.. The fast geomagnetic variation recorded by our data provides evidence for the possible existence of low-latitude flux expulsion.  What’s next?

-

-  July 26, 2021        EARTH  -  what is its magnetic future?              3232                                                                                                                   

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ---- 

---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----  

--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews 

---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------

--------------------- ---  Monday, July 26, 2021  ---------------------------

3231 - FUSION - to generate electricity?

  -  3231  -  FUSION  -  to generate electricity?  When fusion is technologically mature enough to be used industrially, it will open up an unprecedented scenario where an extensive supply of clean, safe and sustainable energy can finally be guaranteed.

------------------  3231  -   FUSION  -  to generate electricity?  

-  US company named “Helion Energy” announced that its sixth fusion generator prototype has exceeded 100 million degrees Celsius. The prototype, called “Trenta“, has undergone a 16-month series of reliability and durability tests on key components of the fusion process.

-

-  The Sun uses fusion to generate all of its energy.   Fusion is combining light atoms like hydrogen into heavier atoms like helium with some leftover radiation that turns water into steam to turn generators and send electricity our way.

-

-   Fission is different.  In order to release power it starts out with a heavy atom like uranium and splits it into smaller atoms with the release of energy including dangerous radiation that make it difficult to manufacture electricity.

-

-  Fusion is “cleaner” but it takes tremendous heat and pressure to allow fusion to occur.  

-

-  100,000,000 degrees is the temperature a commercial reactor would operate at.  The durability tests are confirming the reliability of the ‘Tentra system‘ to do this. These achievements allow the company to proceed with development of its unique “pulsed-fusion, ignition-free” generating system.

-

-  The key to Helion’s approach is to directly convert fusion energy into electricity, which means that we don’t require “ignition” and can produce net electricity at much lower net energy values.  The system uses  “pulsed fusion’ rather than “pressure fusion’ like the Sun.  This keeps the fusion device small and allows for flexible electricity production. It is using deuterium and helium-3 (D-³He) as fuel.

-

-  There is a growing expectation that fusion might become a viable option for the production of abundant, clean, and reliable electricity in our future.

-

-  One of the key obstacles for many fusion power proposals is that using them will require upgrades to the existing power grid. Helion claims it is side-stepping this issue.

Helion’s fusion electricity generators are compact, use small amounts of fuel, and can run 24/7. 

-

-  Therefore, one of the key benefits of Helion’s power facilities is that they can directly plug into existing transmission infrastructure and replace current fossil-fuel-based power generation without significant investment in additional infrastructure. 

-

-  A new grid-level transmission infrastructure is a requirement of large-scale, gigawatt-class power associated with other traditional fusion approaches.

-

-  Fusion aims to provide an abundant and reliable basic energy solution to meet the world’s growing energy needs.  Climate change is one of the world’s most challenging and pressing challenges, and new energy technologies are needed to answer the climate crisis. 

-

-   The climate crisis needs a breakthrough and renewables can no longer be the primary source of energy production. As energy needs become more widespread, fusion can provide an abundant and reliable basic energy solution.

-

-  Fusion is an abundant source of zero-carbon baseload power, but unlike fission, fusion cannot produce a runaway chain reaction. If something goes wrong, fusion simply stops. Fusion also does not produce any long-term waste and cannot be weaponized.

-

-   Trenta prototype has merged and compressed “high-Beta field reversed configuration deuterium plasmas” under fusion conditions, achieving 9 keV total plasma temperature (over 100 million degrees Celsius) in bulk with operation above 8 keV ion temperature and 1 keV electron temperature.  (keV = kilo, 1,000 electron volts) 

-

-   In 2018 its 5th generation prototype produced magnetic fields of 7 Tesla and reached ion temperature of 2 keV at high density.

-

-  The system is composed of magnets that accelerate two reactors to 1 million mph from opposite ends of the 40-foot accelerator. Then they collide the plasma in the center. The plasma collides in the center of the system and is compressed by a magnetic field until they reach fusion temperatures are reached.

-

-   At these high temperatures, the deuterium and helium-3 ions move quickly, overcoming the forces that repel one another, allowing the ions to combine, or fuse. This releases energy, and the plasma expands, pushing back on the magnetic field. The change in field induces current and thus electricity to power electrical loads.

-

-  The reactor confines plasma on to closed magnetic field lines in the form of a self-stable torus. Together with the “spherical” they are considered part of the compact toroid class of fusion devices. 

-

-  The  self-contained plasma can be accelerated and super-heated to 100 M°C+.   The high Beta enables direct electricity recapture and require no particle beams, lasers, superconductors, or antimatter.

-

-  A series of analyses by X-ray spectroscopy, 1,550 nanometer interferometry, optical emission measurements and neutron diagnostics confirmed the extensive and repeatable operation of Trenta under thermonuclear fusion conditions.

-

-  These generators are compact and can produce 50 MegaWatts of power in a 20,000 square foot space. Additionally, the fusion fuel is found abundantly in water. Earth’s oceans contain enough fusion fuel to power the planet for billions of years without impacting the environment.

-

-   One glass of Helion’s fusion fuel will generate enough electricity to power a home for 865 years.  Helion-generated baseload electricity is projected to be cost-competitive with fossil fuels from day one without factoring in subsidies or economies of scale.

-

-  Helion’s pulsed-magnetic approach to fusion are the high-power semiconductor switches that enable efficient and rapid energy input into the fusion reaction.  Modern gigahertz-class fiber optic triggering, monitoring, and field programmable gate array  processing allow the reliable, synchronous, and efficient operation of Helion’s fusion system. 

-

-   Advanced computing solutions also make it possible to use highly complex mathematical models to describe the physics of plasma and simulate its behavior. 

-

-   When fusion is technologically mature enough to be used industrially, it will open up an unprecedented scenario where an extensive supply of clean, safe and sustainable energy can finally be guaranteed.

-

-  July 24, 2021            FUSION  -  to generate electricity?                 3231                                                                                                                    

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ---- 

---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----  

--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews 

---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------

--------------------- ---  Monday, July 26, 2021  ---------------------------

3230 - STARS - Name the Stars?

  -  3230  -  STARS   -  Name the Stars?   The name of the most popular star is “Polaris the North Star“, Constellation Ursa Minor.( The Bear Cub).  Polaris is the North Star and the star most often found in all our literature.  It is a stationary star in the northern sky because the Earth’s rotational pole points nearly directly at it.  Here are more of the quiz questions:

------------------  3230  -   STARS   -  Name the Stars?

-  This is a quiz.  Can you name these 10 stars and their constellations?

-

----------  (1)  Most popular star?

----------  (2)  Most powerful star?

----------  (3)  The brightest star?

----------  (4)  The biggest star?

----------  (5)  The smallest star still burning hydrogen?

----------  (6)  The closest star?

----------  (7)  The smallest star possible?

----------  (8)  The star most likely to go supernova next?

----------  (9)  The fastest star?.

----------  (10)  The first star found to have a planet?

-

----------------------------------   Here are the answers:

-

----------  (1)  Most popular star is Polaris the North Star, Constellation Ursa Minor

----------  (2)  Most powerful star is Eta Carina, Constellation Carina

----------  (3)  The brightest star is Sirius the Dog Star in Constellation Canis Majoris

----------  (4)  The biggest star is VY Canis Majoris

----------  (5)  The smallest star still burning hydrogen  is a Red Dwarf

----------  (6)  The closest star is Proxima Centauri in Constellation Centauris

----------  (7)  The smallest star possible is a White Dwarf

----------  (8)  The star most likely to go supernova next  Betelgeuse in the Constellation Orion

----------  (9)  The fastest star in the Constellation Hydra

----------  (10)  The first star found to have a planet is 51 Pegasus in the Constellation Pegasus

-

---------------------------------------  to learn more:

-

----------  (1)  Most popular star is Polaris the North Star, Constellation Ursa Minor.( The Bear Cub).  Polaris is the North Star and the star most often found in all our literature.  It is a stationary star in the northern sky because the Earth’s rotational pole points nearly directly at it.  

-

-  Polaris is in the “Little Dipper” called the Constellation Ursa Minor.  It is 430 lightyears away.  Magnitude 1.97.  It is actually a system of 3 stars.  A Supergiant of 6 Solar Mass and at 2,400 AU away there is another star and a third a t 18.5 AU.

-

-  All the circumpolar stars rotate around Polaris as the world turns.  The rotation axis of a spinning Earth wobbles like a spinning top.  The wobble is called precession.   In 12,000 B.C. Vega was the North Star and will again be our pole star in another 12,000 years.

-

----------  (2)  Most powerful star is Eta Carina, Constellation Carina ( The Keel of Argo Navis)..  Take the time to see the Hubble picture of Eta Carinae if you have never seen it.  It is spectacular.  

-

-  Eta Carinae  is 8,000 lightyears away. Magnitude 6.21, so visible with the naked eye.  It is a 2 star system with an enormous nebula created by a supernova that did not quite go all the way.  Its total luminosity is 4,000,000 times that of our Sun.

-

-    Mass is 100 Solar Mass.  It should explode into a real supernova any day now.  Of course, if it exploded 7,999 years ago we would not see it until next year.  Its last eruption that created the spectacular nebula reached us in 1843.  Eta Carinae is classified as a Luminous Blue Variable Binary Star.

-

----------  (3)  The brightest star is Sirius the Dog Star in Constellation Canis Majoris. (The Greater Dog).    Sirius is Magnitude -1.48.  It is twice as bright as the next brightest star Canopus.  Sirius is a Red Giant star , a binary with a White Dwarf companion star.  It is 8l6 lightyears away and so bright because it is so close.  It is 300,000,000 years old.

-

-  The rising of Sirius in the Southern sky marked the flooding of the nile River fo the Ancient Egyptians.  Sirius was the 1st star to have its velocity measured with the Doppler Redshift  Sirius, Procyon and Betelgeuse are the vertices of the Winter triangle. 

-

-   Sirius, the 5th closest star, can even be seen in the daylight under the right conditions.  25 times luminosity of the Sun, abbreviated Ls.     Solar Mass 2.1.  20 AU away is White Dwarf 0.6 Solar Mass orbiting every 49.9 years.

-

----------  (4)  The biggest star is VY Canis Major a hyper giant star with a radius of 2,600 times our Sun’s.  It is 4,900 lightyears away.  A single star of Magnitude 8.  It radius would extend all the way out to the orbit of Saturn.

-

-    It would take light 8 hours to travel around the star’s circumference.  (It would take light 14.5 seconds to travel around our Sun.)   It would take 7,000,000,000,000,000 Earth’s to fill the volume of Canis Major.(The Greater Dog).    It is 450,000 times the Sun’s luminosity.

-

----------  (5)  The smallest star still burning hydrogen  is a Red Dwarf.   The name is MOA-2007-BLG-192L in the Constellation Sagittarius.  9% Solar Mass.  If it were 6% Solar Mass it would stop nuclear fusion and be a “ Brown Dwarf”.  

-

-  The Red Dwarf is 100 times brighter than a Brown Dwarf, but, 1,000 times fainter than the Sun.   It would be about 100 Jupiter mass with 1.2 times the radius of Jupiter.  It would be very dim and dimmer still if it evolved to a Brown Dwarf.

-

----------  (6)  The closest star is Proxima Centauri in Constellation Centauris.( The Centaur).    A Red Dwarf star 4.2 lightyears away.  1/8 Solar Mass.  40 times the density of the Sun.  Magnitude 5.5.  17% Solar Luminosity.  85% of its radiation in is infrared.  1/7 diameter of the Sun and 1.5 times the diameter of Jupiter.  129 times the mass of Jupiter.

-

----------  (7)  The smallest star possible is a White Dwarf, which is a neutron star.  17% the mass of our Sun but so small because it is so dense.  Its gravity has collapsed the electrons of hydrogen into the protons forming neutrons, called electron degenerate matter.  It is the mass of the Sun but the diameter of the Earth. 

-

-   6% of all known stars in our neighborhood are White Dwarfs.  They represent probably 97% of all the stars in our Galaxy.  When stars die, they burn all their fuel, no radiation exists to push back from the force of gravity.  The star collapses into the densest form of matter.  If it gets any denser it turns into a Blackhole.

-

----------  (8)  The star most likely to go supernova next.  Betelgeuse in the Constellation Orion. (The Hunter).  It is the second brightest star in the Constellation of Orion, the 9th brightest in the sky.  It is a Red Supergiant only 8,500,000 years old.  But, because it is so massive it could go supernova any day now. 1,000 times Sun’s diameter.  20 times Solar Mass. And, only 640 lightyears away when it goes supernova its Gamma Ray Bursts could damage our planet.

-

----------  (9)  The fastest star in the Constellation Hydra ( The Water Snake).  SDSS is traveling 1,500,000 miles per hour, which is twice the escape velocity of the Milky Way Galaxy.  It will someday fly right out of our galaxy.  Discovered in 2005 it is traveling 0.002 times the speed of light.

-

----------  (10)  The first star found to have a planet is 51 Pegasus in the Constellation Pegasus. (The Winged Horse).    It is a sun like star 50.1 lightyears away.  Discovered in 1995 the planet in orbit is 5.49 Solar Mass.  The star is a yellow Dwarf star visible with binoculars.  It has planet 1/2 the size of Jupiter but orbiting only 0.052 AU with a period of 37 days.

-

-  Now, you know a lot more about stars.  We are happy to live near one.

-

-  July 24, 2021            STARS   -  Name the Stars?           1082          3224                                                                                                                    

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ---- 

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