Dark Matter and Dark Energy, what is it?

-  1722  -  Dark Matter, Dark Energy What is it?  New instruments being developed and new theories being explored as to what this stuff is.  Or, isn’t?
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----------------- -  1722  -  Dark Matter and Dark Energy, What is it?
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-  Why is this important?  Because supposedly 95% of the Universe is made of this stuff.  Remember, matter and energy is the same thing.  E=mc^2 except that matter contains 90,000,000,000,000,000 times more energy.  Over 80% of all matter is Dark Matter. 20% is Ordinary Matter.
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-  When a supernova explodes does its shockwave plow through an enormous amount of Dark Matter?  Dark Matter interacts with gravity, but , it does not interact with electromagnetism.  See Review # 827 about the Bullet Cluster where 2 galaxies collide and Dark Matter gets separated from ordinary matter.
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-  The electromagnetic spectrum is how we communicate with our environment.  It is the source of almost all our knowledge.  This makes Dark Matter very difficult to detect even though there is so much of it, 80% of all matter.
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-  The age of the Universe is now placed at 18,820,000,000 years old.  There was no light , electromagnetic radiation, releases until 378,000 years after the beginning.  That is when we can “see”.  And, what we can see is only 5% of all that is out there.  5% ordinary matter, 27% Dark Matter, 68% Dark Energy.
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-  Because Dark Matter is so predominate it is suspected for being responsible for the large-scale structure of the Universe.  A structure of interconnected webs  and clumps of galaxies separated by giant bubbles of voids of space.  The bubbles are expanding at an accelerating rate.  Dark Energy is purported to be the force that is overcoming all gravity provided by mass in the Universe.  It is an anti-gravity force that is expanding the growth of the Universe at an ever accelerating rate.
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-  Today the rate is 47,000 miles per hour for every million of lightyears of space.
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-  One evidence for Dark Matter’s existence comes from the study of rotating galaxies.  Galaxies would fly apart if there were not 5 times more mass around than we can “see“.  More recent evidence shows that galaxies would never have even formed in the first place it were not for the predominate presence of Dark Matter.
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-  Dark Matter is composed of invisible particles that astronomers have named “ WIMPS”, for Weakly, Interactive, Massive Particles”.
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-  Billions of WIMPS pass through your body every second, ( theoretically).  Dark Matter is a mystery but an even deeper mystery is why all this matter is flying apart at an ever accelerating rate in an ever expanding Universe.  Sometime in the future , if all this continues, all the stars and galaxies outside our own gravitationally connected Local Group of Galaxies will disappear, out of sight.  They well reach such expanding speeds  that their light will never reach us.  In other words the expansion rate gets to become faster than the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second.
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-  The evidence for Dark Energy’s existence comes from exploding supernovae in remote distant galaxies.  The distances are measured by the brightness of these explosions. Astronomers determined that the galaxies were moving  away faster and were further away than they were supposed to be.  Calculations using a constant rate of expansion said they should be closer.  To be further the expansion rate must be accelerating. The explosions were 25% fainter than they should be if the rate was constant. This acceleration rate has been going on for the past 6,000,000,000 years.
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-  To measure this rate of accelerating expansion more accurately than the brightness of light from exploding supernovae astronomers are inventing new instruments.  One candidate is the “ Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey”, “ BAO Survey.
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-  11-24-2014 Sonoma State University lecture by Dr. Claire Poppett was about the 5,000 robots used to conduct this BAO survey.  Baryon density is ionized hydrogen, which the charged nucleus of the hydrogen atom, a proton.  Neutrons and protons are called “ baryons”.   Oscillations occur in the density because the push and pull between gravity and electromagnetic attraction to the charges creates “ripples in the pond” of the expansion.  The separation of these ripples will tell astronomers how fast the expansion is occurring.
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-  Dr. Poppett’s 5,000 robots will measure the distance to 24,000,000 galaxies.  5,000 robotic fiber glass positioners will focus on each assigned galaxy.  Each fiber is connected to one of ten spectrographs that will measure positions and redshifts of each point of light.  Each 170 micron diameter fiber has its own robot that will position the fiber to connect to the spectrograph to within 5 microns accuracy.  Once all these distances and velocities are measured astronomers can construct a 3-D picture of an expanding Universe.
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-  In this 3-D picture we expect to see “pressure waves” similar to a spherical shell of sound waves propagating through the Universe.  The waves were generated by baryons, electrons, photons and Dark Matter particles sloshing around in a charged plasma.
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-  When the protons cooled down enough after 370,000 years they grabbed hold of electrons and became neutral hydrogen atoms.  75% of the Universe is now this hydrogen.
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-  At the point this plasma became neutral photons could escape the mix.  However, the imprint of the waves should remain as Baryon Acoustic Oscillations.  As the Universe expanded the waves spread out to where today they are 500 million lightyears radius, between peaks.
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-  By using the wave oscillations as measuring sticks astronomers can more precisely measure the distance to galaxies.  Different distances in astronomy equates to different ages of the Universe.
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-  By measuring how fast galaxies at different distances are expanding away from each other astronomer can calculate more accurately how fast the entire Universe is expanding due to Dark Energy
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-  Expanding space may not be empty.  “ Quantum Fields” may be in control of the Universe.  A theory for space is that is the relaxation, lowest level,  of the energy field.  When energy is increased matter comes alive according to E=mc^2.
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---------  Energy =  90,000,000,000,000,000 * mass   (kilograms * meters^2 / seconds^2)
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-  Protons, electrons and others particles may themselves be some form of quantum fields.  In order to understand all this we need new theories in physics that merge this quantum theory of space and time with gravity being a warping of space and time.
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-  Dark Energy is one theory for the expansion.  10-14-2014 Sonoma State lecture by Dr. Ken Freeman on Dark Matter introduced another theory which would require the laws of gravity to change over great distances.  We assume the force of gravity is a constant every where in the Universe.
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---------------------  Force of Gravity  =  G * M * m  /  r^2
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-  Maybe there is a more complex formula relating distance, “r”,  to gravity that we have not discovered yet?
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Other Reviews:
- #1516  Dark Energy
-  #1499  Using supernovae to measure Dark Energy .  Brightness is inversely proportional to the square of the distances.
-  #1290  Expanding the Universe.
----------------------------  Acceleration of Gravity =  F/m  =  G.M/r^2
----------------------------  Density of the Universe  =  8*10^-27 kilograms / meter
----------------------------  Radius of the Universe  =  10^58 meters
---------------------------  Mass of the Universe =  8.4*10^147 kilograms
-  #1047  The Universe is like Swiss Cheese.
-  #  1083,  #1084  # 822, etc on Dark Energy
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-  #1535 Gravity Lenses to find Dark Matter
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-  # 1636, #1658, #1576, #1517, #1485 #1427, etc, on Dark Matter.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Monday, January 12, 2015  ---
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Closest stars and more perfect Earths?

-  1721 -  Closest stars and more perfect Earth’s?  A star just 7 lightyears away was newly discovered. Our Earth is right at the edge of a habitable planet.  There are more life friendly habitable zones for planets around other stars.
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----------------- -  1721 -  Closest stars and more perfect Earth’s?
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-  What do your mean,” The Earth has competition?”  We live on the best planet in the Universe , right?  Maybe, the only planet perfectly suited for life?
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-  We think as earthlings everything must be measured as if we are the gold, goldilocks, standard.
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-  Astronomers have discovered over 2,000 other planets orbiting other stars.  If we extrapolate what we have found to the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy there must be more than 100,000,000,000 planets orbiting other stars in our own galaxy.
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-  Some of these planets may be more optimally suited to form and sustain biology than our own.  Hard to believe!
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-  Earth has a lot of things going for it.  Our Sun is middle aged, 5,000,000,000 years old out of a lifespan of 10 billion years.  Earth has oceans, water covering 3/4th of the planet.  Earth orbits 93,000,000 miles from the Sun which is just right for biology, not too hot, not too cold.  Water sustains its liquid state.  What more do you want?
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-  Earth is big enough to have the gravity needed to hold on to its own atmosphere.  Earth has a molten core that creates a protective magnetic field and the plate tectonics to create a life friendly and diverse biosphere.
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-  Earth is considered by science to have been more habitable in its past ,300 to 350 million years ago, the Carboniferous Period, than it is today.  Today we have much higher percentage of arid deserts, nutrient-poor oceans, and frigid polar regions.  The Carboniferous Period was much warmer, wetter, far more oxygen rich.  Great forests blanketed the continents.  Terrestrial creatures grew to gigantic sizes.
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- Earth today would be considered less habitable.
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-  And, our future is grim because in a few billion years form now our Sun will balloon into a Red Giant Star.  The Sun is getting hotter by 10% ever billion years.  Our Earth orbit is already at the edge of over heating.  In 1,750,000,000 years from now Earth will be so hot the oceans will all have evaporated.
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-  Earth is past its prime and the biosphere is nearing its end, astronomically speaking.
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-  Astronomers have always focused on planets.  But, an even better “ Earth” may be found on moons.  A biosphere on a super habitable moon could draw energy from reflected light and tidal forces creating heat for its nearby planets.  Tidal forces could create friction to heat the moon’s interior.
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-  Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus are too likely candidates for sub-surface oceans with liquid water.  Maybe even life.
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-  2.4 billion years ago on Earth the oceanic algae dumped substantial amounts of oxygen into our atmosphere.  This lead to the evolution of more energy intensive metabolisms.
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-  Rocky, super-Earths as much as twice our planet’s size should age more gracefully than Earth will because they retain their internal heat much longer.  This would keep a molten interior generating a protective magnetic field for much longer time.  A planet 25% larger in diameter has 56% more surface area for organisms to thrive.
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-  Survey to date suggest that slightly larger super-Earths orbiting smaller stars are more abundant throughout our galaxy.  Astronomers calculate that this is where a more perfect world will exist.
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-  Technology is fast improving to help us find life on a better planet.  In the next 50 years astronomers will have computers that can handle multidimensional data millions of gigabytes in size.
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-  Pulsars will be used to test the laws of physics in the most extreme conditions.  We will learn how the theory of Relativity works at the edges of discovery.
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-  Gravitational wave detectors will study blackholes and stars that are too dim to detect with light waves.
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-  Dark Matter telescopes will make visible galaxy halos.  Dark Matter is 82% of all matter.
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-  X-ray interferometers will study the Event Horizons of these blackholes.
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-  Modular spacecraft will be manufactured in orbit using 3-D printing and magnetic flux spinning.
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-  Space based telescopes and spectrographs will spit exoplanets light into wavelengths that identify biosignatures for life and geological chemistries
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-  These new technological developments will bring stars and planets even closer to Earth, metaphorically speaking.
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-  Astronomers recently discovered a close, fast, cold Brown Dwarf star just 7 light-years away.  There are only 3 other closer stars:
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--------------------  Alpha Centauri triple star  ------------  4.2 LY
--------------------  Barnard’s star  --------------------------  5.9  LY
-------------------- Brown Dwarf binary  -------------------  6.6  LY
--------------------  Wolf 359 star  ----------------------------7.8  LY
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-  This star’s motion was measured with infrared parallax.. Parallax is back and forth motion that changes the object’s position with respect to the background objects.  The back and forth in this case is Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
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-  The Brown Dwarf has a proper motion, apparent motion across the sky, at 8.2 arc seconds per year.  ( 60 arc seconds is the width of your finger at arms length ( one arc degree) . (30 arc seconds is the width of a Full Moon )  Rigel star has a proper motion of 0.004 arc seconds per year.
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-  This Brown Dwarf has a surface temperature of 250 Kelvin.  That is -10F.  It is hard to relate this freezing temperature to a star.  But, it is not a planet.  Many hopeful discoveries are anticipated studying these closer stars and planets.  Stay tuned, there is much more to learn.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Saturday, January 10, 2015  ---
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How do we know the age of the Sun?

- 1720  -  How do we  know the age of the Sun?  How fast is it “ burning” hydrogen?  What does how fast it spinning have to do with this?
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----------------- 1720  -  How do we  know the age of the Sun?
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-  That lucky ol’ Sun got nothing to do but roam around heaven all day.  Like me, stars too slow down as they get older
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-  Can we measure the ages of stars by measuring their spin rates?
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-  A star’s age tells us the likelihood if the star’s solar system will support life.  Our Sun is 4.6 billion years old out of a 10 billion year lifetime.  So it is just right for Earth’s to have a habitable environment.
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-  A star’s spin rate steadily slows down over time.  Larger, heavier stars tend to spin faster.  So, given these variables we would really like to discover the math that relates mass to spin to age.
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-  We measure spin rates by detecting a sunspot and timing how fast it moves across the surface of the rotating star.  Our Sun’s spin rate is 26 days, a weighted average.  The equator of the Sun rotates in 25 days.  Near the poles its rotation is 30 days.  26 days is the weighted average for a mass of 2 * 10^30 kilograms.  Remember the Sun is a rotating ball of gas.
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-  If the star is too far away astronomers can measure a brightness decrease when the sunspot appears then a brightness increase when the sunspot rotates out of view.  The Sun’s surface is 5,800 Kelvin, but a sunspot is cooler, 4,000 Kelvin.
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-  The dim rate is typically less than 1% the star’s brightness, so, this is a very difficult measurement to make.  The Kepler space telescope can do this. ( See Review # 1717 to learn about Kepler).
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-  The mass of the Sun is 300,000 times the mass of Earth.  Its radius is 696,000 kilometers , or, 109 times the radius of Earth.  The Sun’s composition is 70% hydrogen, 28% helium and 2% the heavier elements.  The surface temperature is 5,800 Kelvin, but the photosphere above the surface, the gas, is 6,000 Kelvin.  Why it is hotter is an on going mystery.  The temperature of the Sun’s core is 15,000,000 Kelvin.
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-  The luminosity of the Sun is 3.8 *10^26 watts.  If we could capture and store it for one second it would meet the Earth’s total energy needs for the next 500,000 years.  Only 3,000 watts per square meter of the Sun’s energy reaches Earth’s surface.  All the rest goes into space and some other civilizations sees it as a twinkling star.
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-  Star’s shine because they are fusion machines, mostly fusing hydrogen into helium.  2 hydrogen ( protons)  nuclei are slightly heavier the one helium nuclei ( 2 protons).  The 0.7% difference gets converted into energy according to E = mc^2.
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-  One kilogram of hydrogen fuses to 993 kilograms of helium.  7 kilograms gets converted into energy, sunshine.
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-  So, how do we know the Sun’s age or how long it will live?
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-  Back to the fusion and the 0.7% that is converted to energy and the photons leaving the Sun to make it shine.  When 4 hydrogen nuclei (protons) fuse into a helium nuclei we can calculate the mass loss:
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-----------------------  Hydrogen nuclei  =  1.6726*10^-27 kilograms
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----------------------- 4 Hydrogen nuclei  =  6.6904*10^-27 kilograms
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------------------------ Helium nuclei  =  6.6465*10^-27 kilograms
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--------------------  Therefore the mass loss =  0.0439*10^-27 kilograms
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---------------------  E  =  mc^3
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---------------------  Energy =   0.0439*10^-27 kilograms  * (3*10^8 meters / second)^2
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----------------------  Energy  =  3.95*10^-12 Joules
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-  Only 10% of the Sun’s mass will be involved in fusion.  When the Sun gets to 90% of its current mass its gravity will not be great enough to continue the fusion at its core.
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---------------------  Sun’s Luminosity  =  3.8*10^26 watts  =  3.8 *10^26 kg * m^2 / sec^2
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---------------------  Mass equivalent to that energy  =  E / c^2  =  3.8 *10^26 kg * m^2 / sec^2  /  ( 3*10^8 m/sec)^2  =  4.2*10^9 kilograms / second
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------------------  4,200,000,000 kilograms / second is equivalent to the mass of 10 oil tankers each second, or , 600 oil tanker mass each minute.  Starting out with 600*10^9 kilograms of hydrogen and 4.2*10^9 kilograms is converted into energy, that is 0.7%.  10^38  individual hydrogen / helium nuclei fusion reactions are occurring each second.
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--------------------  Sun’s mass =  2*10^30 kilograms
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---------------------  10%  =  2*10^29 kilograms.
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--------------------  One gram of hydrogen into helium releases 6 * 10^11 joules.
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-------------------  The Sun is “burning” 600*10^9 kilograms of hydrogen every second
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---------------------  There are 3.16 *10^7 seconds in a year.
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--------------------  600*10^9 kg/sec * 3.16*10^7 sec /year  =  1.9*10^15 kg / year
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---------------------  2*10^29 kilograms /  1.9*10^15 kg/year  =  10 billion years.
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-  The lifetime of the Sun with fusion at the same rate is 10 billion years, before fusion stops and it turns into a Red Dwarf Star and then a Planetary Nebula.  Stay tuned we only have 5 billion more years to wait to see if this is how it turns out.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Friday, January 9, 2015  ---
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Humans, 5 million years of good luck?

- 1718  -  The Detrick Genealogy.  5 million years of good luck.
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----------------- 1718  -  The Detrick Genealogy.
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-  For my birthday I thought I would document our Detrick Genealogy.
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-  This genealogy starts pretty far back.  We were called “Hominins” in the beginning.  We were later called “ Homos”.  Before that we were called “ primates”.
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- For 5,000,000 years we hominins evolved very much like any successful primate.  Our family “ tree” was a “ bush” of numerous species occurring at the same time.  Our evolution started as we came down out of the trees with long arms and walking on short legs.  We began as knuckle draggers..  Averaging 20 years per generation we have had 250,000 great grandfathers.  I am the latest grandfather in that line.
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-  2,000,000 years ago Homo species evolved.  Stone tools became prevalent, some dated in Africa at 2,600,000 years old.  With stone flakes to butcher animals the hominin’s diets expanded beyond fruits and vegetables into meats.  Animal fats, and proteins  were a richer diet.  I still favor this diet, meat and potatoes.
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-  The earliest Homo had brains only somewhat larger than the early bibeds, which were apes walking upright.  In a million years their brains doubled in size.  And, by 200,000 years ago they had doubled again.  To:
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----------------  Homo Neanderthalensis  in Europe
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----------------  Homo Erectus  in Asia
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----------------  Homo Sapiens in Africa
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-  Homos became the most dangerous predators competing for the most economy in gathering resources.  They still are today.  Completion was fearsome.  Still is today.
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-  Bigger brained individuals survived across successive generations.  Homo predecessors became more intelligent and their behavior more complex.
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-  About 1,400,000 years ago climate changes became more pronounced.  Swings from warmer then to dramatically colder conditions ( ice ages ) occurred several times.  Homos had to react to their environmental changes.  77,000 years ago Homo Sapiens evolved with breakthroughs  of intellectual advancement.
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-  Small, isolated populations advanced in different cycles.  Hominins were mobile hunter -gathers and were thinly spread across the Old World.  They were constantly buffeted by climate change.
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-  Some 1,000,000 to 500,000 years ago hominins were expert tool makers, cooking food, building shelters.  Exceptionally fast evolution occurred from that point.
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-  We homos stand alone the serendipitous beneficiaries of cognitive advances and cultural innovation.  If you think this is just luck, without Devine intervention, you have overcome tremendous odds to date.  Only He knows if you can keep it up.
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-  We scheme and plan in unprecedented ways.  Language (and later typing) was one of the inventions.  I get to type this Review thanks to many, many successful grandparents.
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-  So ,we see our amazing species as an evolutionary accident fitted to our environment and tailored to a purpose of survival.  We evolved a free will and the ability to make choices.  Our continued survival still depends on the choices we make.  Stay tuned, it ain’t over yet.
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Let me summarize:  ( “ya”  means “years ago“):
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-----------  4,000,000 ya  ---------------  Bipeds walked on 2 feet but could still climb trees.
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-----------  2,600,000 ya  --------------  First use of stone tools
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----------- 2,000,000 ya  ---------------  Homo genus appears walking in striding gait.
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----------- 1,500,000 ya  --------------- hand axes were used, brain size doubled.
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-----------  700,000 ya  ---------------- Hominins used fire, clothing, shelters
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-----------  200,000 ya  ---------------  Brain size doubled again
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-------------80,000 ya  ----------------  symbolic behavior writing and language.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Tuesday, January 6, 2015  ---
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Kepler Space Telescope discovers 1,000 planets

- 1717  -  Kepler Space Telescope, has identified 1,000 planets orbiting other stars. After 4 years its gyroscopes gave out, but, creative astronomers have found a way to give the telescope new life.  It is still discovering more planets.
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----------------- 1717  -  Kepler Space Telescope.
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-  Kepler  Space Telescope is a unique instrument.  It has a wide field of view and can detect the slightest changes in the brightness of the points of light it is observing.  It looks at one spot in the sky for a continuous period.  If a planet transits in front of a star it blocks a small amount of light.  Kepler can detect that change with unbelievable precision.
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-  Kepler’s brightness data can tell astronomers the size of the planet, the size of its orbit around the star.  After 4 years staring into the same area of sky Kepler has detected over 5,000 planet candidates.,  1,000 of these have been confirmed with precision measurements. In addition Kepler has studied over 2,000 binary stars that are eclipsing each other.
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-  The goal is to find Earth-like planets that may sustain life in another solar system.  Most of the planets discovered to date are large, like Jupiter, easier to detect  but gas planets that are orbiting too close to the star to have habitable planets or moons.
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-  Kepler telescope uses an array of 422 Charge-Coupled - Diodes, , CCDs,  at its focal plane.  The diode detectors are equivalent to a 95 mega pixel camera.  The camera stares at a single spot in the sky.  Its original field of view was a spot in the Constellation Lyra and Cygnus which contains 150,000 average size stars and possibly hosts orbiting planets and moons.
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-  The Kepler telescope was launched in March 2009.
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-  Astronomers have over 4 years of data.  Then, the second reaction wheel failed.  The telescope lost its ability to stay focused on the same spot in the sky.  The reaction wheels are gyroscopes.  Spinning top hats that can be controlled to spin in one direction.  Action equals reaction causing the telescope to slowly rotate in the opposite direction.  With 4 reaction wheels a precise pointing direction could be maintained.  With only two this ability was lost.
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-  In May 2013 Kepler had lost 2 of its reaction wheels .  Friction and instability prevented them from spinning properly.  The science had to come to a halt.  It was 40,000,000 miles away.  No hope of repairing it like was done for the Hubble Space Telescope.
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-  Astronomers and engineers are challenged by failures.  They figured out a way to resurrect the Kepler mission.  Rotate the telescope perpendicular to the ecliptic, the path the Sun travels across the sky.  Then, use the solar pressure of the photons of sunlight striking the blocking shield to stabilize the spacecraft and keep it pointing in the same direction.  This would work for one spot in the sky for 83 days before the sunlight got into the telescope and it had to point to a different area of the sky.  But, it could repeat this mission for another 83 days.  It could do this 9 times in its journey across the entire ecliptic.
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-Kepler has a solar orbit of 372.5 days in the ecliptic which is the Sun’s apparent annual path traveled across the Constellations in the background.  It corresponds to the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
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-  One of Kepler’s most recent discoveries is 5 planets orbiting a “K0” Dwarf star, a cool star with planets only 0.1 AU distant in orbit.  AU  =  Astronomical Unit which is the Earth -Sun distance, 93,000,000 miles.  Five planets inside 10% of that distance from the star.
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-  Adjacent plane pairs have orbital resonances of 5/4, 4/3, 5/4, 5/4.  All 5 planets are sub-Earth size with the inner most planet about the size of Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede.  When the orbital periods are a simple ratio they periodically line up with each other and the extra gravitational attractions tend to align their orbits with repeated passes.
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-  K0 Dwarf stars refers to its spectral type.  That is a way of classifying stars by their lines that appear in their spectrum.   Spectral lines are emission lines related to the star’s surface temperature and absorption lines that the light passes through. “O” is the hottest stars.  “M” is the coolest stars.  OBAFGKM is the series each subdivided by the numbers 0 through 9.    Our Sun is “ G2”  This Dwarf star is “ K0”.  The temperatures range from 35,000 Kelvin to 3,500 Kelvin.  Our Sun is 6,000 Kelvin.  To remember this:” Oh be a fine girl kiss me”.
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-Johann Kepler was a German astronomer born in1571 ,died in 1630, at the age of 59.  He was the son of a professional soldier and the grandson of the town mayor.
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-  He had smallpox when he was 3 that crippled his hands and weakened his eyesight.  He studied at the University of Tubingen graduating in 1588  at age of 17.  He went on for a masters degree graduating in 1591.
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-  He was teaching science in Austria.  He studied astrology attempting to use astrological techniques to solve biblical mysteries.  He came up with creation occurring in 3992 B.C.  He wrote horoscopes for Emperor Rudolf.
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-  Kepler moved to Prague in 1598.  When his cohort Tycho Brahe died in 1601 he inherited Tycho’s invaluable data.
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-  September 30, 1604 he observed a supernova later to be called “ Kepler’s star”.  He used his mathematical genius to try to understand the paths of the planets.  He found that an ellipse could be defined to fit their orbit data.  This is now known as Kepler’s 1st law”
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-  “A line connecting the planet and the Sun will sweep over equal areas in equal times.”  The closer to the Sun the faster the orbital velocity.  His book published in 1619 included his 3rd law:
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-  “ The square of the period of revolution of a planet is proportional to the cube of its distance from the Sun.”
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-  Kepler and Galileo carried on correspondence and Galileo sent Kepler one of his telescopes.
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-  Kepler fathered 13 children.  One of his last feats in astronomy is to predict the transit of Mercury across the Sun in 1631.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Sunday, January 4, 2015  ---
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Sometimes there are disappointments in Astronomy Explorations?

- 1716  -  Astronomical Disappointments.  2014 had some explorations that did not pan out so well.  Not much reporting on the flip side of discoveries.  Here are a few disappointments.
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----------------- 1716  -  Astronomical Disappointments
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-  Exploring the Universe.  Sometimes experiments go wrong.  Stuff happens.  Missions are unsuccessful, or, sometimes we just don’t get the exciting results we were expecting.  Here are a few 2014 examples to start of the new year, 2015:
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-  The Orion spacecraft:  The Orion had it first test flight and it was flawless..  But, there is no funding to continue the development of the spacecraft, and there is no destination in which to use it.  Maybe, something might come up as a plan to explore or relocate an asteroid.  Mars is still a pipe dream funding wise.  In 2014 the NASA space program went no where.  Fortunately several other missions were launched years, even decades, earlier.
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-  BiCep2 South Pole telescope:  BiCep2 announces it has found gravitational ripples in space-time that originated in the birth of the Universe.  But, data from the European Planck satellite produced contrary evidence.  More data needs to substantiate these bold announcements of discovery.
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-  BiCep2 scans the microwave sky from the South Pole.  Cosmologists claimed they found a swirl pattern in the Cosmic Microwave  Background radiation (CMB).  This background is a snapshot of what the Universe looked like 380,000 years after the Big Bang.  That is the moment charged particles first combined to form neutral atoms.  When that happened photons of light were finally free to expand in to the space of the expanding Universe.
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-  Microwaves are a form of light.  It too has a characteristic called polarization.  E-mode and M-mode polarization of electromagnetic radiation.  Electric and Magnetic waves travel perpendicular to each other at the speed of light.
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-  Gravity waves are ripples in the fabric of space -time.  These ripples create temperature variations, density variations.  These ripples might also create polarization variations in light.
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-  10^-37 seconds after the Big Bang extreme acceleration in the expansion of the Universe called “ inflation”, created the gravity waves.  Could these gravity waves be detected as ripples in polarization of the CMB?
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-  The BiCep2 telescope was observing at 150 gigahertz.  Planck telescope was observing from 30 gigahertz to 857 gigahertz.  Plank did not find the same polarization results.  so, the debate continues.  More experiments, more data is needed to confirm do “gravity waes” exist?  Stay tuned. and don’t jump to conclusions.
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-  Life on Mars:  The spacecraft on Mars names “ Curiosity” has re-confirmed the existence of water.  But, we already knew that.  But, another finding was traces of methane gas.  That could be associated with life forms.  But, Curiosity can not get much further in its analysis.  It is stymied in its efforts to find the “golden fleece“, some form of life on Mars.
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-  Virgin’s Galactic spaceship:  A test flight crashed in the Mojave dessert.  Prior to this accident that killed a test pilot Galactic had completed 54 successful test flights.  That record of 2 out of 100, 98%, returning safely is going to limit the number of tourism space travelers.
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-  Titan and Enceladus:  Return visits to the Saturn moon Titan and Enceladus were de-funded.  Titan is a moon the size of the planet Mercury.  It has a methane rainfall, organic chemistry, and possible subsurface oceans.  Enceladus has geysers and a large subsurface ocean.  They deserve more exploration, but, the money is not forthcoming.  ( See Review # 1714 on Enceladus)
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-  Milky Way’s Blackhole:  Astronomers had predicted a large gas cloud would be swallowed up by the Blackhole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.  Astronomers expected fireworks and a ream of data to learn more about blackholes.  Somehow that did not happen.  Astronomers now need to figure out what did happen that was a dud.
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-  Dark Matter:  83% of the matter in the Universe is Dark Matter.  We don’t know what it is.  We measure its existence through gravity and nothing else.  We have not been able to crack this mystery even a little.
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-  Warp Drive Spaceship.  Replace chemical rockets with another form of propulsion?  Reports galore of  a warp-drive spaceship on the horizon.  But, so far they are only found in the movies.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Saturday, January 3, 2015  ---
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Stars, looking back in time?

- 1715  -  Stargazers  -  Looking back in Time?.  The seven brightest stars in the sky and how far away they are.  Star viewing the month of January, 2015.  Happy New Year.
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----------------- 1715  -  Stargazers  -  Looking back in Time.?
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-  Looking backwards in time is a difficult concept to wrap our head around.  Even the sunlight is 8 minutes old when it reaches your eyes.  That is how long it took to reach you since it left the Sun.
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-  One of the brightest stars in the southern night sky is Sirius, in the Constellation Canis Major.  It light is 8.6 years old.
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-  So, the concept is to measure distance with age.  8.6 lightyears is how far Sirius is away form us.  One light year is  ho far light can travel over one year. Light is traveling 670,633,500 miles per hour and over one years time it travels:     5,880,000,000,000 miles.  A light minute is 671,000,000 miles.  A light second is 186,000 miles.  One nanosecond is 1 foot.
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-  Each of the bright stars is farther away.  Sirius is the closest Then comes Procyon, Pollux, Capella, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Rigel.
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-  The 8.6 lightyears to Sirius is the same as traveling 50,600,000,000,000 miles ( one way).  What were you doing 8.6 years ago when the light first left the star?  I just retired.  Well that.  I left full employment the same time the light left the surface of the star.
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-  Procyon is 11.4 lightyears away.  Procyon is in the Constellation Canis Minor.  Most of your entire elementary and high school education transpired while light was traveling form Procyon to Earth.
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-  Pollux is 34 lightyears away.  Pollux is the twin Constellation of Gemini.  That light left in 1981 the same time the Space Shuttle Columbia was first flown.  Ronald Reagan was President.
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-  Capella is the Constellation Auriga is 42 lightyears away.  It left in 1973.  That was the first year we lived in Santa Rosa.  We were living in the Hillside Motel on Highway 12.  One room with two kids.  Debbie was 7 years old and Doug was 4.  And the light from Capella left 42 years ago.
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-  Aldebaran is 65 lightyears away.  It’s light left in 1950.  that light took a hourney of a lifetime.  On January 1. 2015 Aldegaran will e next to a full moon.  It will happen again on January 29.
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-  Betelgeuse is in the Constellation Orion.  It is 640 lightyears away.  Those are old photons entering the retina of your eye.  If you could see back that far on Earth you would be witnessing the European Renaissance in history.
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-  Rigel also is in the Constellation Orion.  It is 860 lightyears distance.  It is the 7th brightest star in the sky, and, that far away.  Now we are talking about a lookback time to the Crusades in Earth history.
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-  On January 8, Nathan’s birthday, the Moon will be next to Jupiter.  It is the farthest distance in its orbit around the Earth, 251,909 miles ( the apogee ).
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-  On January 16 the Moon passes by Saturn.
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-  On January 21 the Moon is at its closest to Earth, 223,473 miles. ( the perigee ),  and, it pass by Venus ( 6 degrees ).  10 arc degrees is a closed fist at arms length.
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-  On January 22 the Moon passes by Mars ( 4 degrees ).
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-  On January 23 Europa, Callisto, and Io , moons orbiting Jupiter have their shadows transit the surface of the planet.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Thursday, January 1, 2015  ---
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