Will we likely find life on Exoplanets and Exomoons?

-  1874  - Will we likely find life on Exoplanets and Exomoons?  Over 3,000 exoplanets have been discovered.  But, moons are the most likely first discoveries for life outside of Earth.  This review is a summary of what we have learned to date.
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-  I would like to get a survey of readers, please respond with any comment, recommendation.  I have a complete index of reviews that is easily searched for a particular topic.
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------------  1874  - Will we likely find life on Exoplanets and Exomoons?
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-  Let’s put together a scenario of how life formed on Earth, then, let’s see if the same thing likely happened on some of the over 3,000 exoplanets that have so far been discovered.  It is currently estimated that the average is at least one planet per star in the Milky Way Galaxy.  We have at least 100,000,000,000 stars, therefore, 100,000,000,000 planets in their own solar systems.
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-  Ok, back to Earth .  A billion years after formation the Earth was bombarded by large meteorites and comets.  Most of these impacts hit the oceans.  Water interacted with impact-heated rock to enable synthesis of complex organic organisms  The enclosed crater itself became a microhabitat within which life could flourish.
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-  The complex organic molecules included glycine, alanine, amino-n-butyni acid, and H2O, plus, the energy required for synthesis of these molecules.
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-  Human desire to explore new horizons has been grounded in finding life.  As we explore the planets and moons in our Solar System we often use the phrase:  “ Life as we know it”.  We accept that life as we know it defends on a very friendly environment having very limited variables.
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-  Even on planet Earth life as we know it keeps expanding as we discover new life living in extreme conditions.  Since the 1900’s when exploration of the Galapagos Rift came across giant volcanic chimneys in the depths of the ocean, alien creatures were surviving and thriving in this abyss.  Giant tube worms 10 feet tall.  Clams colonized by symbiotic bacteria.  New life forms that can replicate photosynthesis using only chemicals, no sunlight.  At 16,400 feet deep the ocean was alive with blind shrimp and anemones.
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-  This new life is know as extremophiles.  If this new life exists here in the  bottom of our oceans could it exists in other liquid oceans?  Astronomers have found liquid oceans on Saturn’s moons Titan, Enceladus, and Mimas.  On Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.  Maybe even on the Dwarf Planets Pluto and Ceres.   Could these water worlds also support life, extremophiles?
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-  Europa, one of Jupiter’s 67 moons, has deep, salty oceans beneath an icy crust.  The chemical balance of these oceans are very similar to the ones here on Earth.  On Earth our oceans make hydrogen where salty seawater soaks into cracks in the Earth’s crust.  The water reacts with minerals to produce hydrogen and heat.
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-  Oxygen could form from the frozen water molecules on the icy surface.  The molecules cold be split apart by the cosmic radiation.  Both the hydrogen and the oxygen could be recycled into the depths of the ocean.  The oxidants from the ice are like the positive terminal of a battery, the chemicals from the seafloor, reductants, are the negative terminal.  Can the biological processes complete the circuit?
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-  To pick one environment most likely it would be the saltwater oceans on Europa.   Europa has the geological activity, underwater volcanoes, water vapor plumes.  This chemistry could deliver the nutrients for life.  The chemical energy could come from the hydrothermal vents.
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-  In 1977 Voyager I was the first visitor to Saturn and Jupiter.  We witnessed the volcanic blast off the surface of the moon Io.  In 1979 Voyager II witnessed the icy surface of Europa with the long, linear cracks crisscrossing its surface.  The somewhat eccentric orbits or Io and Europa create varying gravity pulls, tides, from mammoth Jupiter.
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-  In 1989 Galileo’s spacecraft made a dozen close flybys of Europa.  The images confirmed Europa to be a spinning shell of ice atop a large liquid water ocean.  The cracks and fissures were the evidence of a form of plate tectonics.  The magnetic field was detected evidence of a salty, global subsurface ocean.  Ice alone is not conductive enough to support a magnetic field.
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-  Much more research needs to uncover the true formation of life.  Other important elements include carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulfur.  Europa’s orbit is only 400,000 miles from Jupiter, about twice the Earth-Moon distance.  Spacecraft require heavy radiation shielding from the high-energy electrons streaming off  Jupiter. A planned mission to visit Europa again in 2020 hopes to get a probe there under the ice to learn if the biological processes there are friendly to bring life into these oceans.
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-  Europa is 90% the size of our Moon, 1,944 miles diameter.  Our Moon is 2,160 miles diameter.  Europa’s ice shell is 12 miles thick with liquid water below that is 60 miles thick.
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-  The Cassini Mission to Saturn had some of the same issues.  With its last remaining life, the last 20% of its fuel, the last 155 orbits, Cassini’s flybys discovered hydro-thermal vents on Enceladus and rainfall on Titan.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more about Europa:
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-  #1788  -  Europa - moon of Jupiter.
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-  #1725  -  Europa at surface temperature of -300 F, how can it have liquid water?
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-  #1702  -  Europa gets 25 less sunlight than our Moon.
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-  #1361  -  Europa has no atmosphere to carry water vapor.
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-  #1152  -  Europa has had Pioneer, Voyager ( 1979), Galileo (1995), and Cassini ( 2004) spacecraft made flybys.
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-   Request these Reviews to learn more about Enceladus, Saturn‘s moon:
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-  #1786  -  Enceladus  is 311 miles diameter.  Cryo-volcanoes on the surface are spewing jets of water vapor and ice into space.
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-  #1714  -  There is an ocean about the size of Lake Superior under a 25 mile thick sheet of ice.
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-  $957  -  Enceladus reflects 100% of its sunlight.  Our Moon reflects 7% of its sunlight.
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-   Request these Reviews to learn more about Titan, Saturn‘s moon:
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-  #1787  -  The dense atmosphere is mostly methane.
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-  #1363  -  Titan is 3,100 miles in diameter, larger than the planet Mercury.  It orbits Saturn in 16 days.
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-  #1144  -  Titans average density is 1.88 grams / cubic centimeter.
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-  #818  -  Huygens space probe landed on January 14, 2005.
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-  #555  -  Biography of Christiaan Huygens who discovered Titan in 1655.
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Venus and Mercury, what's new?

-  1873  -  Venus and Mercury.  Space probes to the inner planets have brought us new knowledge of the Solar System formation.  Like expected new knowledge has brought new mysteries to solve.
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---------------------------  -  1873  -  Venus and Mercury.
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-  Venus and Mercury are the two rocky planets closer to the Sun.  It really shows on Venus where temperatures on the surface reach 480 degrees C.  The surface atmospheric pressure is 92 times greater than that found on Earth.  The high temperatures are not just because it is closer to the Sun.  It is shrouded in a thick blanket of clouds of sulfuric acid that trap the heat in a greenhouse effect.
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-  Size wise Venus is just 5% smaller than Earth.  A sister planet with such a harsh environment it could not have hosted life as we know it.  Venus has a similar composition to Earth but has no evidence of plate tectonics like Earth that continuously recycles the planet’s crust.  Yet, Venus has volcanoes and lava flows, so, there is evidence of the planets inner activity and dynamics.
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-  The atmosphere of Venus is equally fascinating.  The planet rotates so slowly, once ever 224 days, and opposite to the planets motion around the Sun, a retrograde rotation.  However, Venus’ clouds circulate once every 4 days, up to an altitude of 56 miles.  At the poles this atmospheric rotation creates a spectacular vortex, like the eye of a hurricane.
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-  Venus has many mysteries .  We need to learn more.  But, it’s hostile environment is not good biology for life.  So, to date science research has not given it much attention.  “Venus Express” launched in 2005 was our last attempt with a space probe.
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-  Mercury had  the “Messenger” spacecraft in 2011 that orbited the planet 4,000 times.  This probe gave us a topographic map of Mercury’s craters, ridges, volcanoes, and mountains that were 2 miles high.
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-  Mercury too has had volcanic activity and lava flows, some 60% the size of the United States.  Today the surface is shrinking due to the steady cooling of its core over time.  Evidence of this is the buckled crust and a ridge running diagonally across its surface.  Estimates are that this core cooling has reduced Mercury’s diameter by 8.5 miles since the planet formed.
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-  Unlikely as it may seem, in the north pole shadows , Mercury has areas containing water ice.  Mercury is 450 degrees C at the equator, but, there are parts of the poles that are continuously in the shadows.  Because  Mercury has no atmosphere to transport the heat around the planet this type of location could remain extraordinarily cold., sunlight never reaches it.
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-  This water likely arrived from asteroids and comets impact that came from the outer solar system.
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-  Mercury has a surprisingly volcanic history.  It surface has channels, hills  and vents formed by ancient volcanoes that are 3.5 billion years to as recent as 1 billion years old.
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-  Mercury is extremely dense compared to Earth.  It has a disproportionably large iron-rich core, 60% of the planet’s mass.  It is possible that a large impact 4.5 billon years ago ripped off its crust and mantle.  After all our Moon resulted from a large impact that splashed Earth’s curst into orbit.
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-  With little crust Mercury’s more volatile elements, like sulfur and ammonia, have vaporized away.  However, other volatiles like potassium, sodium, and chlorine have high levels on the surface.  The possible explanation is that the huge impact was at a very low angle ejecting material into space but not creating the heat needed to boil off all the volatiles.
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-  Mercury’s magnetic field is strangely off center, off by about 20% of the planet’s radius, shifted to the north.  Unlike Venus, Mars, and our Moon, Mercury has a distinct magnetic field of its own.  Again, this could be the result of the flow of the iron in its outer core.
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-  April 30, 2015 the Messenger spacecraft crashed into Mercury’s surface creating a 52 foot-wide crater.  The next Mercury space probe is planned for 2024, named BepiColombo.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more about Mercury:
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-  #1815  -   Mercury is 26% the diameter of Earth.  Plus there are 9 other Reviews listed.
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--  Request these Reviews to learn more about Venus:
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-  #1778  -      Venus has somehow managed to turn itself inside-out leaving no craters on the surface.  Plus there are 7 other Reviews listed.
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-  If you were on Venus you could walk and keep up with the stars overhead.
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-  75% of the sunlight that hits Venus bounces back before ever reaching the surface.
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How many solar systems are there?

-  1872  -  New solar systems.  The evolution of our Solar System took place 3.8 billion years ago.  Today computer simulations are attempting to duplicate the process.  New discoveries are made of other solar systems in the Universe.  Are they like ours?
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---------------------------  1872  -  New solar systems.
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-  Our Solar System appears to be unique by comparison to the 2,325 exoplanets that have been discovered to date.  We have inner rocky worlds, outer gas giant planets and no planets closer to the Sun than the planet Mercury.
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-  That number, over 2 thousand other planets, are orbiting their star.  Our proto star started out as an opaque ring of gas and dust.  From this disk 4 rocky planets evolved with 88 day to 687 day orbits.
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-  What has been discovered to date are giant gas exoplanets with 12 year to 165 year orbits.  These gas giants are 150 times the mass of our 4 terrestrial planets.  How different can you get?
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-  The first discoveries of exoplanets occurred in 1996.  They were all gas giants planets orbiting very close to their star, completing an orbit in a few days.  This extremely hot environment for planet formation is contradictory to classical theories for a solar system.  To reconcile, the theorists concluded the planets formed farther out and then migrated inward to these tighter orbits.
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-  After thousands of exoplanet solar system discoveries the further conclusion is that they are all different.  There does not appear to be a standard model for solar system formations.  The “average” system contains “ super Earths” orbiting shorter than 100 days.  Only about 10% of the systems have gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn.
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-  So, why is our inner solar system depleted in mass, ( i.e. only the 4 rocky planets), rather than the super-Earths inside the orbit of Mercury , which is 88 days.  The best theories today is that planet orbits “drift“.  Once a planet grows large enough its gravitational influence propagates through the rotating disk.  This perturbation causes positive and negative feedback forces between the planets.  Exchanges of momentum and energy occur.
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-  Computer simulations are busy trying to simulate is happening for our Solar System.  One working theory is that because Saturn has lower mass its inward migration rate is faster than Jupiter’s  When their orbits reach a point of “mean motion resonance”, Jupiter completes 3 orbits as Saturn completes 2 orbits.  A 3 to 2 resonance occurs.
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-  The resonance orbits exchange momentum and energy to achieve an amplified common gravitational influence on each other.  These two giant planets cleaned out a giant gap in the planetary disk.
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-  Jupiter migrated outward from the Sun shepherding planetesimals in its path through the disk.  This triggered a collisional cascade that eroded the inner orbit planetesimal population.  The inner planets received swarms of debris bleeding off their orbital energy.  The 4 terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus Earth, Mars, coalesced hundreds of millions of years later is all the remains.
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-  Jupiter - Saturn resonance locked in Uranus and Neptune into resonance orbits as well.  Their nearly circular orbits and resonances settled down into enduring stability for our Solar System.
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-  Beyond Neptune another mystery appeared.  The Kuiper Belt objects have an unexpected structure.  The orbits of the larger objects are highly clustered.  They seem to be subject to a common , large perturbation  To get the computer simulations to work we need an unobserved 9th Planet 10 times the mass of the Earth.  Its eccentric orbit would take 20,000 years.
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-  We have  more to learn to write the complete biography of our Solar System over its 4.6 billion years lifetime.  Here is the short story:
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-  Halfway out from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy a giant molecular cloud collapsed into its core creating a proto sun and a disk of gas and dust.  The spinning proto sun created  magnetic field that accreted into a star.  The orbiting disk was full of growing planetesimals , a few super Earths, and began accreting gas into proto-Jupiter and proto-Neptune.  Jupiter and Saturn lock in resonance and drift to the outer Solar System.
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-  The inner gap to the Sun was occupies by rocky debris.  The outer giant  planets were encircled by a ring of “icy” debris.  The 4 rocky planets and the asteroid belt formed from the rocky debris.  The outer planets shifted out of resonance creating chaotic shifts that may have ejected a 9th planet until the system restabilized their orbits.  The Kuiper Belt sent a barrage of impactors hurtling through the inner solar system.  Possibly bringing water and life to the planet Earth 3.8 billion years ago.
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-  The Earth’s and life’s biography continues to be written.  The miracle resides in the fact that we are here writing and reading this biography.  It is like your hand drawing a sketch of itself drawing a hand.  Whose hand is guiding the whole process?
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-  This past year 1,284 more exoplanets have been discovered in “other solar systems“.  Previously 1,041 planets had been discovered starting in 1996.  The breakthrough in the rate of discovery was made by software.  The NASA Kepler telescope collects the data on hundreds of candidates at once.  The software parses out the true signal from the noise.  Astronomers were working on one at a time.  The new software analyzes 100’s all at once.
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-  Kepler requires 3 planet transits to  prove the candidate is an orbiting planet.  84 have orbital periods longer than 100 days.  The longest period is 510 days.  Obviously , we need to watch the same spot for a long time to capture 3 of these transits.  It is 15 years of hard work ( See Review #   1070  The Kepler Space Telescope )
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-  Today there are over 3,000 planet candidates to be validated.  1,284 that have been validated our mini-Neptunes in size, at the lower limits of being a giant gas planet.  The biggest sample are super-Earth size, some Earth size and some Neptune size.
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-  How do astronomers measure orbits to tell if a candidate is a transiting planet?
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-  They measure the redshift of lightwaves.  It is the Doppler Effect like with sound waves except with lightwaves.  As the light source is coming towards us the wavelength is shortened, the frequency appears to increase, and the lightwave is shifted towards the blue end of the light spectrum.
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-  If the edge of the star is rotating towards us the frequency is “ blue shifted”  Lightwaves sourced on the opposite side of the star are traveling away form us.  They are  “redshifted”.  The wavelengths appear wider, or stretched, towards the red end of the spectrum.
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-  If there is a planet orbiting the star, And, if its orbit plane is in our line of sight, the planet will block the blue-light shift and an orbit time later will block the red-light shift.  Repeat this several times to make certain the data is pure and not corrupted by sunspots of interstellar clouds, or systematic errors in measuring the light intensity.
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-  Then the data can be used to calculate the rotation  rate of the star, the rotation rate of the planet’s orbit, and the distance of the planet from the star.
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-  This artificial color shift created by the planet blocking the light is called the “Rossiter-McLaughlin Effect”
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-  If the orbit is “ retrograde” with the star blue-red sequence is reversed.
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-  It is only a couple decades ago we had only 9 planets to study, including Pluto.  Today we have “ Dwarf Planets” outside Pluto and possibly another 9th planet in our Solar System.  And, we have another 2,325 exoplanets to study , with more discoveries to come.  Stay tuned, an announcement will be made shortly.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1826  -  How big is our Solar System?  Does the math for calculating the mass in our Solar System.  Evidence of Dark Matter and Planet X.
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-  Lists 5 other Reviews about our Solar System.
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Asteroids and their Trojan orbits..

-  1871  -  Asteroids and their Trojan orbits.  In order to predict asteroids trajectories we need to learn about their composition.  Missions will soon visit two asteroids to learn more.  Maybe, where life originated.
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---------------------------  1871  -  Asteroids and their Trojan orbits..
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-  4.6 billion years ago the Solar System was a tumultuous landscape of giant planets mixed with small planets, asteroids , and comet nuclei.  The bigger planets consumed millions of these smaller bodies.  The Earth consumed such a large body the impact “splashed” the Earth’s surface into orbit that eventually coalesced in to our Moon.  Our Moon is made of Earth earth.
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-  Some of these smaller bodies were still orbiting in our Solar System.  Some have acquired “ stable ‘ orbits and are known as Trojan asteroids.  These small bodies occupy gravity balancing points 60 degrees ahead and behind our planet’s orbit.  Called the Lagrangian Points because Joseph - Louis Lagrange first discovered them.
(See Footnote 1)
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-  In 1765 Leonhard Euler defined these gravity balancing points mathematically.  There are 5 balance points.  3 are in “ convex  stability”. One point lies between the Sun and the planet (L1), a second just beyond the planet in line with the Sun (L2), a third 180 degrees on the opposite side of the Sun (L3).  These 3 balancing points are “ convex” because the slightest shift away and these asteroids will leave their stability regions.
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-  The 4th and 5th points are in “ concave stability”.  These balance points are preceding and trailing the planet by 60 degrees.  These points are “ concave” because if they shift away they will tend to return to the stability area.  They can remain in these stable orbits over the age of the Solar System.
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-  The first Trojan asteroid was discovered to share Jupiter’s orbit in 1906.  Today 6,300 Jupiter Trojans have been identified.  Saturn and Uranus have no known Trojans likely because of the massive gravity pulls of Jupiter and Neptune on either side.  Earth lacks Trojans because of the pull of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter.
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-  Although Earth has captured a small asteroid a few thousand years ago in the L3 balance point.  Mars has a few Trojans at L4 and L5 balance points.
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-  Studying these balancing orbits astronomers are convinced that the major planets did not always have today’s circular orbits.  The early Solar System was a chaotic place and the gas giants were closer together in their orbits.  Trojans were captured when the friction of gas drag, or collisions , brought them into a balance region with the right orbit speed.
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-  As the gas giant planets navigated out from where they first formed their gravity scattered  smaller objects allowing more  Trojans to be captured.  Planet - planet interactions even suggest there was a massive, eccentric 9th planet a few hundred  AU’s from the Sun ( AU = Earth - Sun distance)
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-  A pair of asteroid binaries orbiting each other allow the masses to be calculated.  Estimating their size gives a density calculations of 0.8 grams per cubic centimeter (water is 1.0 gm/cm^3). This would suggest asteroids are mostly porous ice.  This also suggests they are more like comets and less like rocky asteroids.  This in turn suggest these Trojans originated in the outer Solar System and migrated inward.
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-  Trojans will continue to be studied to help us understand the origins and evolutions of the planets.  We live one of eight , or is it nine?  We will soon be visiting two asteroids orbiting between Earth and Mars, named Bennu ( ¼ mile across)  and Ryugu ( ½ mile across).
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-  The NASA mission will visit Bennu in 2019.  The Japanese mission, Hayabusa 2, will land 3 times on Ryugu.  The first landing in 2018 will come a year before NASA gets to Bennu.  Each mission will spend 1.5 years studying the asteroid.  Each will attempt landing, collecting samples, and returning them to Earth.
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-  The 2 missions hope to learn more about possible asteroid impacts on Earth and secondly how likely life could have evolved due to the asteroid impacts on Earth.
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-  Asteroid trajectories are difficult to predict due to the “ Yarkovsky Effect”.  The asteroid is rotating.  It absorbs sunlight from one direction.  The asteroid surface heats up, then radiates infrared energy in a different direction.  This release of heat can push the asteroid off its original trajectory.  The degree of the effect depends greatly on the composition of the asteroid surface.
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-  Each mission has a different method in collecting the composition samples.  NASA (OSRIS-Rex) in 2019 lands on Bennu’s surface and extends a mechanical arm that will release a jet of nitrogen gas.  Loose rocks and grains will be collected in a chamber on the end of the arm.  It plans to collect between 2 ounces and 4 pounds of different sized particles.  It is designed to attempt this same landing 3 different times if necessary.
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-  The Japan mission to Ryugu , Hayabusa 2, plans to land 3 times on different sites to learn of any variations in surface composition.  Japan has done this once before when Hayabusa 1 visited asteroid 25143 Itokawa returning a handful of pebbles in June 2010.
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-  Hayabusa 2 will fire a bullet into the asteroid and collect the debris.  On the 3rd landing they intend to use a 10 pound explosive to carve a 33 foot crater.  The spacecraft plans to be on the opposite side of the asteroid when the explosion occurs, leaving only a camera, then swoop around to collect the freshly exposed rock.
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-  In addition to learning enough to better predict the motion of asteroids, 100’s of years into their future to avoid Armageddon, science hopes to learn if life on Earth may have come from space.  The theory is that desert Earth gained its oceans from the arrival of ice-laden meteoroids.  This water may have contained the first organic molecules.
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-  Comets that originate beyond Neptune are unlikely carriers because measurements of water vapor in the tails of these comets are different nuclei, containing ah higher ratio of deuterium ( hydrogen with a neutron).
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-  Bennu and Ryugu are carbonaceous chrondites formed in the early Solar System unchanged for 4.5 billion years.  We would like to learn if their molecules are the same as found on our planet.
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-  Both missions NASA and JAXA have very active websites if you yearn to learn more.   The idea of what they bring home could tell us about life on Earth in the past and life on Earth if our future.
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-  In the meantime we can learn more from meteorites that visit our planet.  Meteorites are meteors that avoid burning up in the atmosphere and manage to reach the surface of Earth.  Lawrence Livermore Labs just received two walnut size meteorites the are discovered in the Antarctica.
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-  If we are going to be successful in deflecting an incoming asteroid from impacting the Earth, we need to learn more about their composition.  These meteorites will be cut and polished down to a thickness of a few hundred microns.  Then, they will receive a nanosecond laser pulse that will vaporize the sample.  Detailed spectroscopy data will be collected to understand their composition.
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-  To deflect an Earth-bound asteroid a nuclear explosion or a hypervelocity projectile will be sued.  The goal is not to destruction but a nudge to  redirect its trajectory.  Knowing the composition will allow scientists to design the best plan to deflect it without shattering it.  A near miss rather than hitting the Earth with buckshot.
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-  NASA has identified 14,000 of these near Earth objects.  ( discovering 1,500 per year).  Already 1,600 have been identified as “ potentially hazardous”.  Hopefully our planning and research will be completed before we need to use it.   Stay tuned, an announcement will be made shortly.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1829  -  Dwarf planets and asteroids.  Pluto has greatly exceeded expectations with its diversity of land forms and environmental processes.    This review lists 11 other reviews about asteroids.
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-  Footnote:  (1)  Joseph Louis Lagrange ( 1736 - 1813) was French but raised in Italian Piedmont.  Youngest of 11 children.  By age 18 he was teaching geometry in Turin.  He became the head f the Berlin Academy at age 40.  He published “Analytical Mechanics” in 1788.  Newton’s law of gravity works with two bodies.  Lagrange worked out the math for 3 bodies.  He named them the “ Trojan System”.  In 1795 he helped devise the “ metric system of measurements”.
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How fast does gravity move?

-  1870  -  Is Gravity a Quantum Force?  At the smallest scales is Gravity granular?  Each grain being a “ Graviton”?  Is space-time a foam with voids?  Do gravity waves travel at the speed of light?
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---------------------------  1870  -  Is Gravity a Quantum Force?
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-  “There is plenty of room at the bottom”.  Meaning when you get to the smallest microscopic structures there is a wide world of diversity and opportunity.
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-  Your eye makes visible 10^-3 meters ( a tenth of a millimeter).  Using our best technology instruments we can resolve down to 10^-19 meters, that is the wavelength of a proton.
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-  The quantum effects of gravity are estimated to be at 10^-35 meters.  This length has been given the name “ Planck Length”  We have 16 more orders of magnitude to get down to this resolution.  From the above paragraph you can see it took 400 years to get the first 15 orders of higher magnitude resolution.  How long will it take to get to the next 16 orders of magnitude?
-
-  The name given to this undiscovered granular gravity is “ gravitons”, a single quantum of a gravitational field.
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-  Direct detection of these smallest of small particles may be impossible.  But, indirect detection may still work for us to learn more.
-
-  How to test for Gravitons?
-
-  There is a technique called “ Lorentz-Invariance” that is evidence of a violation of symmetry.  Other tests look for the “ weak field limit of quantum gravity”.  In the early Universe quantum fluctuations of space-time would lead to temperature fluctuations appearing in matter.  Today we can detect these temperature variations in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation.  Temperature variations of only 1 part in 100,000 around an average temperature of 2.73 Kelvin.
-
- LIGO has detected gravity waves for the first time in 2016.  ( See Review # 1858 ).  Maybe now it is possible to detect these primordial gravitational waves in the CMB.  This could become evidence of quantized gravity.
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-  The search is on to prove if gravity truly is a “ quantum force”.
-
-  Our experience is that space-time is a continuous object, without gaps of discontinuities.  However, quantum Gravity would have a “ texture”, a granularity at the tiny scale of 10^-35 meters.  A texture of a variable mesh of solids and voids, a “ complex foam”.
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-  This concept of smallest scale granularity runs contrary to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.  Distance shortens as motion approaches the speed of light and time slows.  But, what happens to the shortest unit of measurement in space.  By definition it can not shorten even traveling at the speed of light where matter shortens and time stops.
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-  This idea is called a violation of the “ Lorentz Invariance”.  String Field Theory and Causal Set Theory are trying to find scenarios that are compatible with both Granularity and Special Relativity.  The goal is to define the boundary, a transition zone, where space-time becomes “ granular” and physics becomes “ non-local”.
-
-  The Lorentz Invariance is a little too deep for me to explain.  When theories go too deep try something else, that is easier.  “  Is the speed of gravity  the same as the speed of light?”
-
-  The Sun is 93,000,000 miles away and it takes light 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach us.  Does gravity get here at the same time as sunlight?  Is gravity too moving at 186,282 miles per second?  Isaac Newton thought gravity was instantaneous.  Einstein thought otherwise.
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-  If the Sun instantly winked out of existence would Earth instantly fly off in a straight line, or, would we have to wait another 8 minutes?
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-  It is not the mass of the Sun that determines this, it is the mass that is curving space-time that determines this.  So, how long will the curvature of gravity last?  How fast would space-time go from curvature to flat?  Recently discovered, September 2015, and announced, February 2016, gravitational waves were detected by LIGO, Laser Interferometer Gravity-wave Observatory.  The snapping motion of the Sun disappearing would send very large gravity ripples propagating across the Universe (at the speed of light?)  ( See Review #          for more about LIGO)
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-  Since gravitational waves are massless., like light photons, with finite energy levels they must move at the speed of light.
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-The other variable for us on Earth is that each planet’s velocity affects how it experiences gravity.  However, the two effects of changes in the gravitational field and velocity-dependent interactions observationally nearly cancel out.  If something moves at a constant velocity in a constant gravitational field there is no observable affect of time difference of the speed of gravity.
-
-  To see this affect we need to observe “ massive objects” in “ close orbits” like two Neutron stars.  One being a “ pulsar” that allows the time change of orbits to be precisely measured.  This measurement was done in 1980 concluding that light and gravity have the same speed to within a 0.2% measurement error.  ( the Hulse-Taylor binary).
-
-  In 2002 Earth , Jupiter, and a radio Quasar lined up.  The gravitational bending of Jupiter moving between Earth and the Quasar allowed a measurement of the speed of gravity.  The conclusion was gravity’s speed was between 255,000,000 and 381,000,000 meters per second ( The speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second).
-
-  February 2016 LIGO concluded that gravity waves could be measured with two observatories located in Washington State and Louisiana.  But, the inability to accurately triangulate from where these waves originated, an accurate gravity speed could not be calculated.  Ballpark estimates supported earlier results but precision was not good enough to improve on these previous measurements.
-
-  Now that gravity waves can be detected more measurements are sure to follow.  The speed of gravity waves will be accurately measured one of these days.  What do you want to bet Albert Einstein was right 100 years ago, light and gravity travel at the same speed?
-
-  Albert’s ideas are always being tested.  Space-time is curved by the presence of matter, energy and momentum.  Another attempt to prove this is happening is occurring on a satellite named “Microscope”.
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-  The satellite contains two different metals, one titanium, the other platinum-rhodium alloy.  Both together in free-fall orbit.  Will both move identically.  If there is any difference detected then Einstein’s theory needs some modification.
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-  Given the theory of gravity and the theory of Quantum Mechanics it is evident that us humans have not yet grasped all there is to grasp about the Universe.  Learning something new will propel humanity to the next level.  Stay tuned, an announcement will be made shortly.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1858  -  Gravity, LIGO, and Gravity Waves.  Plus 10 other references about gravity.
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---   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”  -----------
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What do Neutron lifetimes have to do with it?

-  1868  -  What do Neutron lifetimes have to do with it?  Why do we need to know what happened to anti-matter?  How can pure science lead to a single atom engine?
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----------------------  1868  -  What do Neutron lifetimes have to do with it?
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-  A Neutron is a proton and an electron combined to become a neutral charge.  Normally protons are in the nucleus and electrons in orbital rings around the nucleus.  Protons are positive charge and electrons an equal and opposite negative charge.  The Neutron in the nucleus is a combined proton and electron that unstable over time.  But how much time?
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-  How long does the Neutron live before radioactive decay and it separates into its two components again?  Decaying back to its fundamental particles is a question known as the “ Neutron Lifetime Puzzle”.
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-  Science knows the decay process involves the nuclear “weak force” interactions.  The “strong nuclear force” is what holds the protons together, like  positive charges, in the nucleus.  If science knew the Neutron Lifetime they could calculate the abundance of the other elements and support or refute current theories that are addressing this puzzle.
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-  The physics of nuclear decay is well understood ( we think?).  In “ beta decay” a Neutron breaks down into a proton, and electron, and an anti-neutrino.  The resulting particles carry the difference in mass in the form of kinetic energy ( the energy of motion).
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-  The timing of this decay is a “random quantum phenomenon”.  Science gets an average lifetime by studying the decay of many, many Neutrons.  But, any single decay is random.  Statistics is the math that comes up with the answer using large numbers.
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-  Neutrons easily pass through the walls of any container making them difficult to count.  The trick is to tarp extremely cold Neutrons that have very low kinetic energy.  The kinetic motion must be reduced to speeds of a few meters per second.  Neutrons are normally traveling at 10,000,000 meters per second.
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-  Statistical error arises because any experiment can only measure a finite sample size of neutrons.
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-  Having 2 different methods of measurement help to reduce these measurement uncertainties.  Another experiment uses the “ beam method” sending a stream of cold Neutrons through a magnetic field.  A ring of high voltage electrodes trap positively charged particles.  If a neutron decays within the trap the protons are counted as the decays occur over time.
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--------------------  The beam experiment got a lifetime of 887.7 seconds + or - 0.3 seconds statistically and + or - 1.9 seconds systematically.  So, a 2.2 second uncertainty.
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-------------------  The bottle experiments measured a lifetime of 878.5 seconds + or - 0.7 and + or - 0.3 seconds.  A + or - 0.8 second uncertainty.
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-  What we have left is 9 seconds of disagreement.  This is not good enough.  We need more accurate knowledge of Neutron decay in order to understand the Weak Nuclear Force responsible.
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-  Determining the “ exact” rate of decay should help us understand Big Bang Theory and the early evolution of the Cosmos.  In the first seconds the universe temperature was 10 billion degrees, which is too hot for nuclei to even form.  After 3 minutes the expansion and cooling allowed protons and neutrons to form.  Deuterium, a heavy hydrogen isotope, first formed.  Deuterium atoms combined to form helium, and some lithium.
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-  Neutron decay rate versus cooling rate is critical to understanding the ratios of hydrogen and helium in the early Universe.  All the heavier elements in the Periodic Table were formed in the cores of stars composed of just these first, lightest, two elements, hydrogen and helium.
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-  In order for science to mathematically predict the ratios we observe we need to know the precise value of Neutron lifetimes.  If predictions disagree our theory might indicate we are missing other exotic particles yet to be discovered.  Maybe Dark Matter particles?
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-  Deeper knowledge may explain why matter out-numbers anti-matter.  Our theories tell us equal amounts of each had to come form “ nothing” in the Big Bang.  If an asymmetry did not happen we would have an empty, cold Universe instead of the one we live in?
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-  Discovering the matter-anti-matter imbalance is the search for “ new physics”, rare decays of Bottom Quarks, Charm Quarks, and Tau Leptons.  This stuff really gets complex.  It can only be studied in very high energy particle accelerators or in the stars.  In effect science is trying to recreate the first seconds of the Universe.
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-  This new physics is not just theoretical stuff you are not interested in.  Spin models of atoms may lead to new digital computers, new neural networks, even understanding proteins and social networks.
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-  Even the design of the smallest engines, a single electrically - charged calcium atom.  The single atom is both the fuel and power plant with equivalent thermodynamic efficiency of an automobile engine.
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-  The atom power plant is heated by electrical noise and cooled by a laser beam.  This could lead to tiny motors, single-ion refrigerators, heat pumps.  Who knows/  new science leads to new innovations. These innovations you should be interested in. Stay tuned, an announcement will be made shortly.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more  Particle Physics:
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-  #1848  -  Particle physics a history lesson.  Biographies of the famous physicists.
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-  #1799  -  Primer on particle physics.
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-  #1693 -  How can a Quark and an anti-Quark decay into an Electron?
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-  #1512  -  Getting familiar with the Standard Model.
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-  #1573  -  The math is beautiful.  The challenge of physics is to discover evidence that it represents reality.
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-  #1511 -   Sterile Neutrinos in particle physics.
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-  #1217  -  How to find the Higgs Boson.
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-  #1136  -  Our whole world in only 6 particles.
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-  #1097 -  Nature’s constants and particles.
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-  #1046  -  Particles of everything.  18 fundamental particles?
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-  #977  -  Fermions and Bosons
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-  #973  -  Physics in a nutshell.
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-  #960  -  Phonons, Plasmons, and Magnons
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-  #811  -  Large Hadron Collider.
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-  #632  -  The force carriers, gluons , bosons, and photons.
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-  #631  -  Mass , momentum, and inertia.
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----  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”  -----------
-  https://plus.google.com/u/0/  -- www.facebook.com  -- www.twitter.com
 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Monday, May 9, 2016  -----
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Blackhole mysteries, how big can they get?

-  1869  -  Blackhole mysteries, how big can they get?  How do you calculate their mass?  Is the firewall of destruction actually visible?  Can entangled particles actually escape the Blackhole?
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------------------  -  1869  -  Blackhole mysteries, how big can they get?
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-  Jupiter is 17 times the mass of the Earth.
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-  The Sun is 500 times the mass of the Earth.
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-  The Milky Way Blackhole is 4,000,000 times “the mass of the Sun“.  Called the Solar Mass. One Solar Mass is 2*10^30 kilograms.
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-  Astronomers have found a Blackhole that is 17,000,000,000 Solar Mass.  In an isolated galaxy 200 million lightyears from us is a Blackhole 17 billion times the mass of our Sun.  That is an extremely massive Blackhole at the center of a large galaxy in a relatively empty area of space.  It is over 4,000 times bigger than the one at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
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-  Astronomers expected to find these super massive Blackholes in Galaxy Clusters, not in isolated space like this particular galaxy, NGC1600.  Astronomers are studying this galaxy closely to learn how such a massive body could form all by itself.
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-  As stars and interstellar gas orbit closer to the Blackhole their velocity increases in order to stay in orbit  and to not be swallowed up by the immense gravity.  For over a century astronomers have known that the “period of orbit squared” is equal to the “ radius of orbit cubed”.  The period is the time of orbit in years.  The radius of orbit is in Astronomical Units ( AU).  An AU is the Sun-Earth distance which is 93 million miles.
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---------------------------  p^2  =  r^3
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-  Converting this formula from years and AU to metric units, kilograms, seconds, and meters:
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------------------  p^2  =  4 * pi^2  * r^3  /  G * M
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------------------  M  =  4 * pi^2  * r^3  /  G * p^2
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------------------  p  =  2*pi*r / v
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--------------------  M  =  r * v^2  / G
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----------------  G  =  the gravitational constant  =  6.6710^-11  m^3 / kg * sec^2
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-  Using the Doppler Shift , redshift, blueshift, of the frequency of light of orbiting ionized gas we get the speed of orbit to be 800 kilometers per second, ( 1,790,000 miles per  hour).  The radius of orbit is measured to be 60 lightyears ( 5.6 * 10^7 meters).
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---------------------  M  =  ( 5.6*10^17)  *  ( 8.0*10^5)  /  (6.67*10*-11)
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---------------------  M  =  5.4*10^39 kilograms
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-  Converting this to Solar Mass, which is 2*10^30 kg:
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-------------------  M  =  2.7*10^9 Solar Mass
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-  Therefore the mass inside the orbit is 2,700,000,000,  2.7 billion ,  times the mass of the Sun.  Nearly all this mass must be in the Blackhole.
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-  Our theory of how massive Blackholes form coming from the study of NGC1600 is that two galaxies collided and merged.  The Blackholes at the centers became a binary system orbiting each other.  The binary system would destabilize the orbits of nearby stars.  Some stars would be swallowed by the Blackhole.  Some stars would get sling shot out of the galaxy into free space ( action equals reaction).  Each ejection would be a loss of energy and the binary orbits of the Blackholes would get smaller.  Eventually the two Blackholes would merge into a single suppressive Blackhole.
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-  Blackholes are still the most mysterious objects in the Cosmos.  And, our Universe could be riddled with these monster Blackholes.
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-  Another mystery with Blackholes is the math tells us there is a “ firewall” orbiting any Blackhole that annihilates any matter that crosses that boundary.  The math comes form Einstein’s’ Theory of Relativity.  The massive object bends space-time so steeply it folds back on itself and not even the sped of light does not have the escape velocity needed to get past this boundary.
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-  However, in 1970 Stephen Hawking proposed that if particles were “ entangled” they could get separated at the boundary.  One would get sucked into the Blackhole and the other would be flung into outer space to escape.
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-  Quantum Mechanics has two principles, “ Quantum Determinism” and “ Reversibility” that suggest that “ Information” must always be preserved, even inside the Blackhole.  The mystery is if Information is lost when it crossed the “firewall“?
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-  Hawking suggested that his Hawking Radiation allows matter to escape from a Blackhole.  Does information escape with it?  In 2012 physicists proposed that the high-energy density firewall did not exist because the space-time curvature is negligibly small at the Event Horizon of  very large Blackholes .
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-  Would the “surface” of the Blackhole destroy anything falling in?  Including information?
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-  This new math analysis suggests that the region of quantum-mechanical destruction can migrate outside the Blackhole due to Quantum fluctuations in Hawking Radiation.  In this case the actual “ firewall” would be visible from outside the Blackhole.  In this case the actual destruction of in falling material would be visible.
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-  So, the mysteries continues.  Just how black is a Blackhole?  Is all information on the structure of matter lost inside the Blackhole?  Is some entangled matter allowed to escape?  Would these entangled particles that escape duplicate the  information that is inside the Blackhole so information can be preserved?  Stay tuned , an announcement will be made shortly.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more about Blackholes:
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-  #1843  -  Great walls in space with Blackholes.
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-  #1819  -  new discovies many close the gap between stellar Blackholes and galactic Blackholes.  It is estimated that there are 100,000,000 Blackholes in our own galaxy.

-  There are 21 more reviews available listed in these reviews.  Too many to list here.
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----  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”  -----------
-  https://plus.google.com/u/0/  -- www.facebook.com  -- www.twitter.com
 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Monday, May 9, 2016  -----
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