DARK ENERGY and Cosmic Inflation

-   2430  -  DARK ENERGY  and Cosmic Inflation.    Something is expanding our Universe at an every faster rate.  Astronomers call it Dark Energy but that is name only, astronomers do not know what it is.  Dark Energy could be a force carrying particle like photons, or gravitons.  It could be an energy field that is some form of anti-gravity.  Or, it could be something else entirely.  We don’t know. 
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-------------------------- 2430  -   DARK ENERGY  and Cosmic Inflation
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-  Dark Energy was discovered in 1998 when astronomers measured light from supernovae exploding in distant galaxies.  The conclusion they reached was that the  galaxies further away were accelerating away faster than expected.  Gravity should be slowing expansion down.  Something more powerful is speeding it up.
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-  There is no way to detect Dark Energy directly so we have to measure its “effects“.   The main effect is the acceleration of distant galaxies.  If Dark Energy is vacuum energy in empty space it is ridiculously small.  Using quantum mechanic equations to calculate the amount of vacuum energy physicists get an amount that is 10^120 times greater than what we observe.  ( That is 1 followed by 120 zeros, a ridicules number!.)
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-  If Dark Energy comes from Einstein’s Cosmological constant, or,  if it comes from the theory of Quintessence, it will vary over time and distance.  If Dark Energy is a modification to our theory of gravity that too would vary over time and distance.  Astronomers are studying more and more galaxies to gather data that will determine how much Dark Energy has changed over time.
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-  In 1981 Alan Guth , a young physicist in Massachusetts, proposed an absurd idea.  That the Universe went through an ultra-fast expansion just after the Big Bang.  Called “Cosmic Inflation” the theory solved several major problems in cosmology.  Like, why the shape of the Universe appears flat.  Why the Universe appears the same in all directions; it is homogeneous, smooth and uniform.  And why the Universe appears the same regardless of where the observer is in it; it is isotropic.
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-  The Inflation theory has not been proven but some very good supportive evidence has come from study of the Cosmic Background Radiation.  Galaxies at 100,000,000 lightyears dimensions form chains and clusters, however, on scales of billions of lightyears the Universe appears almost uniform.  Like us standing on the surface of the Earth, the Universe is so large it appears flat from our perspective.
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-   Guth’s theory had the Universe expanding by 10^30 times in a fraction of a microsecond.  This enormous expansion was bound to flatten everything out.  He  came up with a physics explanation of how this could happen. 
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-  Guth proposed a phase transition occurred like the phase transition of water freezing.  The liquid Universe could have been in a super-cooled state and crystallization occurred in an instant.   The energy to make this happen would come from vacuum energy, and that is what Dark Energy appears to be coming from, vacuum energy in empty space.
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-  With Cosmic Inflation a tiny bubble can inflate to the size of the entire Universe  in an instant.  A factor of 10^60.  (  Thai is a one followed by 60 zeros!)
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-  When we observe the Cosmic Background Radiation we can see the inflationary wrinkles, of ripples, originally set in place by quantum vibrations when the Universe was the size of an atom.  These vibrations became wave-like density fluctuations vibrating through matter in the early Universe like sound waves.  These variations in density and pressure are what allowed the stars and galaxies to form. 
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-  The hot and cold spots which today only vary by 100,000th of a degree reflect denser and rarefied regions of space.  The denser regions had gravity that made them more dense until density and temperature created nuclear fusion and started the stars.
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-  Can we truly prove anything in astronomy?  Many theories are beautiful but that is not sufficient to prove them “right“.
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-  More observational evidence is needed to prove these theories.  The ability to measure polarization in the Cosmic Background Radiation is a breakthrough that can give us more information.  Observing gravitational waves is another opportunity. 
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-  We need data to explain “ Dark Matter” that appears to be supplying extra gravity around galaxies.  Likewise we need data to explain “ Dark Energy”  that appears to be accelerating the expansion of the Universe.
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-  Radiation travels at finite speed, 186,000 miles per second.  The further away we see a source the farther back in time the radiation was emitted.  Using visible light radiation we can see back to when the Universe was 17% its current age, when it was 2,300,000,000 years old.
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-   Using microwave radiation we can see when the Universe was 0.1% its current size, when it was 370,000 years old.  Each look back capability gets us closer to the Big Bang and to a better understanding of the Universe.
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-   See other Reviews on this topic:
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-  2337  -  A force in the Universe we do not know.
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-  2297  -  Dark Matter and Dark Energy make up 23% and 72% of the Universe.  Everything else is only 5%.  We have a lot more to learn.
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-  2257  -  What is the fate of our Universe?   This Review lists 11 more reviews on the topic.
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-  744 Universe Expansion,
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-  718 Dark Matter,
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-  715 Cosmic Dark Ages,
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-  713 Cosmological Constant,
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-  702  Birth of the Universe.
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-  August 8, 2019                                                                                 756                                                                                                                                                             
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 ---------------------               Thursday, August 8, 2019         --------------------
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DRAGONFLIES - we have a lot more to learn ?

-   2429  -  DRAGONFLIES  -  we have a lot more to learn ?   Wetlands are disappearing fast and biologists are concerned that more than 100 species of dragonflies and damselflies are endangered.
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-------------------------- 2429 -  DRAGONFLIES  -  we have a lot more to learn ? 
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-  My grandson Michael loves to watch the dragonflies over my pond.  They were mating and laying eggs in the water.  The larvae come to the surface and the dragonfly sheds its shell and fly’s off.
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-  Some new things are just being learned about dragonflies as we use some of the latest technologies.  Scientists have attached ultra light transmitters to the underside of common green darners (anax junius).  Green darners are robust fliers with blue abdomens that turn purple as the temperature rises.  The transmitters cost $200.  They attached the transmitter to abdomens using eyelash adhesive.  (Can’t you just see Michael doing this).
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-  The transmitters are one-third the weight of the dragonfly, but the dragonfly could handle the extra weight with ease.  They did this to 14 dragonflies.  They used chase vehicles and a small plane to follow the flies.  The dragonflies covered 37 miles in 6 days.  The flies behaved like a flock of birds.  They stayed put when the winds got above 15 miles per hour.
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-  Studies like these have discovered that at least 9 of the North American dragonflies are migratory.  There are 5,200 species of dragonflies and damselflies in the world.  Scientist now estimate that at least 50 make seasonal migrations.
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-  In Wisconsin the emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora hineana) are considered endangered.  The insect takes 4 to 5 years to mature from an egg into a green-eyed emerald dragonfly.  It spends the years in the water as a six legged larvae voraciously eating other little aquatic creatures.  At the end of their larval form they pull themselves out of the water onto a perch and shed their skin.  And, off they fly.
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-  Scientists can find the cast-off skins and the barely distinguishable dot on an exuvium’s underside indicates that it came from a male.  (The larvae themselves are near impossible to find and count).  The study found that the sexes reached adulthood in equal numbers.  However, in the wet land breeding grounds there were twice as many males as females.
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-  If they were to help to save this endangered species they had to learn what happened to the females.  Further exploring found the females were found in the dry meadows, not the best feeding areas.  So, what was causing this behavior?
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-  More observations and the conclusion was sexual harassment had driven females to avoid the male-dominated turf.  Males of several dragonfly species are known to sabotage each other’s mating attempts by scraping the previously deposited sperm out of the a female’s reproductive tract before delivering their own.
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-  Many males guard their mates, even dragging a female around by the neck after mating.  Some males are so relentless to mate they force a female to the ground and even with the female cooperating can spend more than an hour in an encounter.  So, no wonder the females stay away from the guy zone unless specifically seeking a mate and laying eggs.
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-  Another strange behavior occurs in the larvae stage.  Red devil crayfish (Cambarus diogenes) share the wetlands where emerald dragonflies live and dines on the emerald larvae.  The crayfish live in stream-bank borrows and the larvae were found in the same borrows.
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-  A quick decision could have been let‘s cull the crayfish and we will have more larvae to save this endangered species.  Wrong again.  The crayfish structures provide a life-saving refuge for the dragonfly larvae during the summer droughts.  Even if some get eaten it is a good trade off for the species to have a wet hole to live in during the droughts.
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-  Female dragonflies shy away from fish-filled waters when choosing sites to lay eggs.  Somehow they know that fish readily eat dragonfly larvae.  Dragonflies eat bees and some how bees are found pollinating St. John’s worts and broadleaf arrowhead plants near the edges of ponds that have fish because most of the dragonflies are around the ponds that have no fish.
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-   How do these little brains figure all this stuff out?
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-  Wetlands are disappearing fast and biologists are concerned that more than 100 species of dragonflies and damselflies are endangered.
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-   If dragonflies become rare they are one of few insects that people might miss.  Judging by dragonfly earrings, fabric patterns, Christmas lights, garden art,…..   people like dragonflies.
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-   There is a lot more that we need to learn more about dragonflies.
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-  August 3, 2019                                                                                   676                                                                                                                                                             
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 ---------------------               Saturday, August 3, 2019         --------------------
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COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT - how fast is the Universe expanding

-   2428  -  COSMOLOGICAL  CONSTANT -  -  The Cosmological Constant was invented by Albert Einstein.  When he was thinking about gravity and the birth of the Universe, he could not see how , if gravity were the only force working over long distances, the Universe would not stop expanding and begin contracting into a “ Big Crunch”.
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----------------------- 2428  -  COSMOLOGICAL  CONSTANT -  how fast is the universe expanding?
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-   At the time of Einstein‘s theories, in  the early 1900’s, the observed Universe appeared to be “static”, neither expanding not contracting.  Albert thought that another force had to be present to prevent gravity from stopping the expansion of the Universe and sending it into reverse.
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-------------------  Gravity = - m*M*G / R^2
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-  The force of gravity is equal to the product of the two masses, m and M,  and inversely to the square of the distance between them, R.  G is the Gravitational Constant that Isaac Newton discovered and its value depends on the units of measurement.
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-------------------  G  =  6.67 * 10^-11  meters^3 / Kilogram * second^2
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-  Albert simply invented another force to put into his equations and called it the “Cosmological Constant“.
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------------------  Force in the Universe  =  - m*M*G / R^2 + Lambda * m*R
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-  The Greek letter Lambda is the symbol for the Cosmological Constant.   The product of Lambda*mass*distance defines the anti-gravity force responsible for the expansion of the Universe counteracting gravity.  Albert arbitrarily set the force of expansion exactly equal to the force of gravity so the two balanced and the Universe became static.
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-  A few years later Edwin Hubble discovered that the Universe was expanding.  He discovered that galaxies farther away were expanding faster than galaxies closer to us.  He determined the expansion to be a direct relationship between the velocity of expansion and the distance from us. 
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-----------------------  The ratio became “Hubble’s Constant” = Ho = velocity / distance:
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-----------------------  Ho  =  150,400 miles per hour per mega parsec
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-----------------------  Ho  =  .046107 miles per hour per lightyear
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-  So, if a galaxy was a million light years away it would have a receding velocity of 46,107 miles per hour.
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-  The Universe was not static, it is expanding.  The repulsive force that is opposing gravity was not zero it is some positive number.  Most recent discoveries measuring supernova in these far away galaxies have determined that the Universe is not only expanding its rate of expansion is accelerating. 
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-  The conclusion is that the fate of the Universe is to expand forever into a “Big Chill”.  For the first 8.2 billion years matter was dominate and gravity was slowing the Universe expansion down.  However, 5.5 billion years ago the reverse occurred and the repulsive force of vacuum energy took over.
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-   As the Universe expands matter becomes rarefied and the gravitational forces become less and less.  The “vacuum energy of space“, that is the “Cosmological Constant“, does not change as the Universe expands.  It becomes the dominate force and the recession velocity of the galaxies grows ever larger.
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-  To explain the repulsive force the vacuum of space must contain some intrinsic fundamental energy.  It is called vacuum energy, and Dark Energy, because we do not know what causes it.  It just must exist to explain what we observe.
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-  Measurements made on the expansion rate of the Universe verses gravity determine the value of the Cosmological Constant.  It must be very, very small, very nearly zero but not quite zero.
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-   The value of Lambda is 1.9 * 10^-29 grams / cm^3.  Planck units are based on natural constants and not man’s defined standard units.   Expressed in Planck Units Lambda is 2 * 10^-120 units.  That is a decimal point followed be 119 zeros then a 2.  That is so close to zero, but it is not zero, it is just very, very small. 
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-  The amazing point is that if it were just 100 times larger, a decimal point followed by 117 zeros then a 2,  the Universe would change and life as we know could not have evolved.  The Universe would have expanded too fast.  On the other hand, if the Constant was even a little bit smaller, a decimal point followed by 122 zeros and a 2, then life would not exist because the galaxies would never have a chance to cool and form stars and planets after the Big Bang.
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-  It appears that  the Cosmological Constant is very finely tuned and the expansion rate of the Universe is “just right” to allow life to have formed at this time.  “There is no reality without observers.”  The natural constants appear to  be finely tuned to allow life to be here and observers to make these inquiries.   
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-  Of course if it were any other way we would not be here so the natural constants have to be what the are.  But why?  No equation can derive these numbers.  Scientists can measure them to many decimal places but they have no idea why they are what they are.
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-  The Cosmological Constant is one of the most dramatic examples of fine tuning of natural constants.  But, they are dozens more natural constants fine tuned for life as well.
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- Some of these natural constants include:
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---------------- Speed of Light  =  c  =  2.99792458 * 10^8 meters / second
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----------------  Planck Constant  =  h  =  6.626076 * 10^-34 joule * seconds
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---------------  Gravitational Constant  =  G  =  6.67259 *10^-11 meters^3/ kilogram*sec^2
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---------------  Boltzman Constant  =  k  =  8.617385 * 10^-5 electron volts / Kelvin
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---------------  Electron Charge  =  e  =  1.60217733 * 10^-19 coulombs
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---------------  Electron Mass  =  Me  =  9.193897 * 10^-31 kilograms
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---------------  Proton Mass  =  Mp  =  16,726.231 * 10^-31 kilograms
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---------------  Avogado’s Number  =  N  =  6.0221367 * 10^23 / mole
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-  There are dozens more natural constants expressed as quantities in units defined by scientists, such as kilograms, seconds, meters, etc.  There is a system of units based on natural constants independent of any of man’s definitions or standards. 
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-  These are Planck Units.  They are defined using the Gravitational Constant, the speed of light and the Planck Constant of 6.626076 * 10^-34 joule* seconds set to equal 1.  Under these unit’s the Planck length is equal to 1.61599 *10^-35 meters.  The Planck length squared is equal to G * h / 2*pi*c^3.
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-  Again, physicists have no clue why these natural constants are the size they are but if any of them were a little bit bigger or a little bit smaller our Universe would change to the degree that life as we know it would not exist.  We would not be here to observe the Universe or measure these constants.  This fact is known as the Anthropic Principle.
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-  Some of the scientists to credit for this insight into our Universe:
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(1)   Alexander Friedman ( 1888 - 1925) was a Russian mathematician.  During WWI he was on the Russian front with the Russian air force.  In 1922 he was the first to recognize that Einstein’s equation was an impossible balance.  Just the slightest fluctuation would cause the Universe to expand or contract, in no way could it be balanced at static.  He adjusted Einstein’s Cosmological Constant so the Universe was expanding.  He proposed that  in the distant past  the Universe started at a single point with a  Big Bang.  He died of typhoid fever while still in his thirties.
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(2)  Abbe Georges Lemaitre (1894 - 1966) was a Belgian astronomer.  He served in WWI in the Belgian army as an artillery officer.  He became an ordained priest in  1922.  In 1927 with a degree in astrophysics he developed the theory of an expanding Universe and extrapolated backwards in time to where all of matter first exploded in a Big Bang, billions of years ago.
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(3)  George Gamow (1904 - 1968) was a Russian-American physicist who studied under Friedmann.  In 1948 he worked out a method by which the explosion of Lemaitre’e cosmic egg would lead to the formation of all the elements in a very short time.  Gamow also predicted that there would exist the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation left over from the Big Bang.  The CMB radiation was not detected until 1964
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-  August 2, 2019                                                                                   713                                                                                                                                                         
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 ---------------------               Friday, August 2, 2019             --------------------
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ASTRONOMY - A New Astronomy

-   2427  -  ASTRONOMY  -  A New Astronomy.  -  The new astronomy keeps coming up with new ways to study the Universe using the information in electromagnetic radiation.  Astronomers today are not limited to electromagnetic photons.  Use is being made of neutrinos and gravitons, gravity waves, to make new discoveries in the Universe. 
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---------------------  2427  -  ASTRONOMY  -  A New Astronomy
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-  For 3 million years our ancestors had only the naked eye to view the heavens.  These first astronomers were still able to contemplate the 5 planets, the Moon, the stars in the Milky Way and even Andromeda our neighboring galaxy.
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-  It was only 400 years ago that astronomy changed with the invention of the telescope, in 1609 by Galileo.  Suddenly new horizons were visible with higher resolution for the human eye.
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-  By 1929 telescopes had grown to 200 inches in diameter and Edwin Hubble used the first one to discover galaxies.  He learned that the further away a galaxy was the faster it was receding.  Therefore the Universe was expanding.
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-  The visible light spectrum is only a very small part of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum.  It is only 400 to 700 nanometers in wavelengths from blue to red light.  Astronomers soon realized that there was radiation above the red into the infrared and beyond the blue into the ultraviolet.
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-    The infrared is essentially heat radiation and spans from 700 to 450,000 nanometers wavelength.  Ultraviolet are the wavelengths of 90 to 350 nanometers.  Ultraviolet astronomy, starting in 1946, is used to study chemical compositions, densities, and temperatures of interstellar gas and dust and the birth of young stars. In 1962 the first satellite made ultraviolet measurements.
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-  Spectroscopy actually started in 1666 with Isaac Newton passing a light through a glass prism.  In 1857 Kirchhoff and Bunsen began identifying the chemical element’s signatures in the spread spectrum.  Astronomers use this same technique to identify the elements in the light from stars. 
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-  When elements in spectra are redshifted, shifted toward the red end, longer wavelength, of the spectrum the velocity of recession can be calculated.  Using the Hubble constant astronomers can then estimate the distance to the source star.
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-  Beginning with WWII astronomers realized that there was much more beyond the spectrum of light that could be used in the study of astronomy.  In 1938 the first discoveries were made using radio astronomy.  In 1946 higher resolution was made possible by a new technology using radio interferometers.  These tools were used to discover pulsars, quasars, and radio galaxies.
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-    Recently this technology has been used to measure the rotation of galaxies and to discover the magnitude of Dark Matter.  Because the rotational velocities remained constant for stars orbiting far out from the center of the galaxy there had to be a missing mass far greater than that emitting visible light.  They determined that Dark Matter, whatever it is, comprises 90% of all the matter in the Universe.
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-  In 1949 cosmic X-rays were discovered. The Chandra X-ray satellite was launched in 1999 advancing the study of neutron stars and black holes.  Black Holes emit X-rays at their accretion disks, just beyond the event horizon, when in falling gas reaches enormous temperatures.
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-  In 1960 gamma rays were first detected in space.  Gamma ray satellites are being used to study large supernova explosions that create black holes.
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-  In 1965 the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation was discovered in the microwave part of the spectrum, at 1.4 Ghz, equivalent to a temperature of 2.7 degrees Kelvin.  The CMB is a blackbody radiation that covers a wide spectrum of frequencies, up to 160.4 Ghz, or a wavelength of 1,900,000 nanometers..
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-   Satellites detected polarization at the level of a few micro Kelvin in this radiation.  This has opened up a new dimension in the study of CMB astronomy.
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-  In 1949 polarization of light was first discovered in astronomy.  When starlight travels through interstellar dust its scattering becomes polarized.  Astronomers have recently used polarization to determine the shape of exploding Type 1a supernova which are the “standard candles” used to determine the distance of far away galaxies. 
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-  The supernova explosion starts out clumpy and uneven until it is over come by a second, spherical blast that overwhelms the first creating a smooth residue.  The shape of the blast sets the limits of uncertainty on the distance measurements astronomers make using the brightness light curve.
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-    Electromagnetic waves oscillate in certain directions.  Reflections or scattering of light favors certain orientations of the electric and magnetic waves.  When light scatters through the exploding debris of a supernova it retains information about the scattering layers. 
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-  These observed polarization phenomena are analogous to explosions in the internal combustion engines of cars.  The clumpiness is caused by “deflagration”, a slow burn with turbulence.  The smoothness occurs when “detonation”, traveling at super sonic speeds, overcomes the “deflagration” stage and creates a smooth burn.
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-  In 1952, as part of radio astronomy, the first maps were made of our own Milky Way Galaxy.  The signals being detected were from the radiation of neutral hydrogen.  A hydrogen atom is a single proton and a single electron.  Both have properties of spin .  Any spinning charged particle has magnetic interactions.
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-   If the proton and electron are spinning clockwise, in the same direction, they have slightly more energy together then if the electron and proton are spinning in opposite directions.  If the spin reverses the excess energy is released with photons at 21 centimeter wavelengths, exactly 1.42040575 Megahertz frequency .  When this frequency is redshifted coming from a distant source that is receding, it is detected on Earth at the radio frequencies between 200  and 9 Megahertz.
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---------------------- Frequency = speed of light / wavelength 
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----------  Frequency = 2.998*10^10 cm/sec / 21 cm  =  1.427 * 10^9  cycles per second
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-  In 2005 this 21 centimeter astronomy was used to detect the first Dark Galaxy.  This galaxy, Virgo HI21, located in the constellation Virgo, consists of hydrogen gas and Dark Matter and no visible, or detectable stars.  With 21 centimeter astronomy  it was determined that the galaxy was 52 million lightyears across, 200 million solar mass, or about 10% the size of the hydrogen mass in the Milky Way.
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-    The hydrogen atoms in this galaxy have orbital velocities of 500,000 miles per hour.   In order to keep these high speed atoms from escaping the gravitational mass must be greater than 90,000 million solar mass.  This would mean that 97% of the galaxy was composed of undetected Dark Matter.  It is hoped that further study of this galaxy might give us some insight of what Dark Matter really is.
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-  21 centimeter astronomy is only possible because the Universe is filled with lots of hydrogen.  If left alone a hydrogen atom has an extremely low probability of reversing electron spin and releasing this energy.  It is 2.9 * 10^-15 events / second.  That translates to one event every 10 million years.  However, there is so much hydrogen out there that 21 centimeter radiation is easy to find using modern radio telescopes.
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-  The new astronomy keeps coming up with new ways to study the Universe using the information in electromagnetic radiation.  Astronomers today are not limited to electromagnetic photons.  Use is being made of neutrinos and gravitons, gravity waves, to make new discoveries in the Universe.  Who knows what they will think of next?
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-  Stay tuned , there is much more to learn.
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-  August 2, 2019.                                                                                   714                                                                           
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-----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com ----- 
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---  to:  ------    jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ------  “Jim Detrick”  -----------
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 ---------------------   Friday, August 2, 2019               -------------------------
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LIFE - Exploding Stars Create Life

-   2426  -  LIFE  -  Exploding stars create life , and destroy life. Our galaxy is big and mostly empty space, but it harbors millions of blackholes that are remnants of supernovas and collapsing stars.  When a giant star burns all it’s fuel, no heat remains to create the pressure withstanding the compression of gravity.  The force of gravity collapses the stars mass into a singularity at the center of a blackhole.   These creators of life are every where. 
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--------------------------------- 2426  -  LIFE  -  Exploding Stars Create Life
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Scientists estimate it takes 100,000,000 to 200,000,000 years for intelligent life to emerge and colonize a planet.  65,000,000 years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) period, 50% of life on Earth was extinguished.  The dinosaurs did not survive.  But, some half of marine invertebrates, plankton, marine reptiles did survive.  65,000,000 years later here you are reading about this stuff.
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-  The iridium layer found at the K-T boundary around the globe is evidence of an asteroid impact on Earth that so changed the environment half of all life was extinguished.
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-  Further back in our history is evidence of other mass extinctions:
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-  210,000,000 years ago, the end of the Triassic period, 48% of marine invertebrates, mammal-like reptiles, and amphibians were killed.
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-  250,000,000 years ago, at the end of the Permian period, 83% of all marine invertebrates and mammal-like reptiles were killed.
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-  365,000,000 years ago, at the end of the Devonian period, 50% of marine invertebrates, plankton (trilobites) and primitive fish were killed.
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-  440,000,000 years ago, at the end of the Ordovician period, 57% of all marine invertebrates were killed.
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-  What were these weapons of mass destruction that caused these extinctions?
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-  Archeologists learn of the extinctions by studying the bones and fossils in descending layers of the Earth’s crust.  Distinct lines in the ages show extinctions where certain fossils no longer exist beyond that point.  But, so far, archeologists have not found the evidence for what caused these other mass extinctions.
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-  On December 27, 2004 the brightest flash of light ever seen in our Solar  System occurred.  This flash of electromagnetic energy (called a Gamma Ray Burst) occurred in 0.2 seconds and contained the amount of energy the Sun emits in 250,000 years.  Earth was hit with the blast, but fortunately it came from 50,000 lightyears away.  If it had been 10 lightyears away we would have had another mass extinction here on Earth.
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-  The damage of these bursts of radiation only lasts a short time, about 15 years.  The primary effect is on the Earth’s atmosphere.  The Earth is surrounded by a blanket of oxygen (O2) and nitrogen (N2).  In the middle of this blanket, in the stratosphere, is a layer of ozone (O3).  The ozone layer blocks the penetration of ultraviolet light from the Sun.
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-  During a 10 second Gamma Ray Burst the radiation would break up the O2 and N2 molecules.  The chemical reactions in the atmosphere would create nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).  The nitric oxide would destroy the ozone (O3) layer and the NO2 would become a toxic brown gas in the atmosphere.
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-   As the ozone (O3) layer is destroyed ultraviolet radiation penetrates the atmosphere and reaches the surface of the Earth.  This UV radiation would damage DNA in all living creatures.  After a few months the toxic brown gas (NO2) will cover the entire planet.  Over time, say 10 years later, the NO and NO2 falls onto the Earth’s surface and reacts with water to form nitric acid.  Acid rain and acid snow falls out of the sky.
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-  After 15 years the atmosphere is pretty much back to normal.  But, on Earth much of the land life is extinguished, much of the near-surface marine life is killed, and the climate is tipped toward global cooling possibly causing another ice age.
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-  From geological evidence this 15 year event is too small to be noticeable.  The ice age may leave some evidence but it is unlikely that scientists will be able to tie mass extinctions to supernova explosions or gamma ray bursts.
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-   The other difficulty is that the Earth is rotating around the Milky Way every 250,000,000 years.  The Milky Way is not a solid disk.  The stars in the Milky Way are rotating at different radii and different speeds.  After a few rotations the stars are hopelessly scrambled making it impossible to identify a supernova that could be the smoking gun for mass extinctions.
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-  At the same time exploding supernova may be extinguishing life they are creating life.  To begin with the exploding supernova create all the higher level elements in the periodic table above hydrogen, helium, lithium, and beryllium.  Oxygen, carbon, iron, magnesium and 90 other elements are all created in the explosion of stars.
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-   Also, the radiation from the explosion that destroys life’s DNA, killing 50% of life, mutates life’s DNA that remains causing the diversity of life and the foundation for evolution to create higher life forms, us.
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-  Our galaxy is big and mostly empty space, but it harbors millions of blackholes that are remnants of supernovas and collapsing stars.  When a giant star burns all it’s fuel, no heat remains to create the pressure withstanding the compression of gravity.  The force of gravity collapses the stars mass into a singularity at the center of a blackhole.
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-   These creators of life are every where.  Our galaxy and other galaxies could be teeming with life and we would not know about it.
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-  We are still learning.  To learn more here are other book reviews on the topic:
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-  2361  -  How did life start on Earth?
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-  2288  -  The diversity of life.
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-  2165  -  The evolution of life.  -  609.
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-  2122  -  Are we alone in the Universe?  -  716
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-  2148  -  The origin of life in the Universe.
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-  1942  -  What is the earliest life on Earth?
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-  1874  -  Will we likely find life on exoplanets and exomoons?  Includes index of 17 more Reviews on this subject. 
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-  476 - Gamma Rays and Cosmic Rays
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-  508 - You Are Made of Star Dust 
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-  504  -  Accelerating Universe from Unknown Force.
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-  510 - Supernova You Can See
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-  455 - Supernovae - A Cosmos, Everything but Quiet.  It is violent out there.
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-  541 - Cosmic Rays
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-  542 - Neutron Star Flare - Magnetar 1806-20
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-  342  - The whole shebang.  The Universe is under no obligation to make sense. 
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-  July 30, 2019                                                                                   579                                                                                                                                                             
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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
 ---------------------               Wednesday, July 31, 2019          --------------------
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Our Political Calendar

-  1939  -  Our political calendar.  Beware the Ides of March and those politicians that meddle with our calendar, beyond just April 15.  This review tells you how our calendar got so messed up.  Like Trump says “it’s a mess“.  No one paid any attention to astronomy or things would be simpler.
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-   22 years of our Sun
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-----------------------------  1939   -  Our Political Calendar.
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-   Our calendar is messed up.   The real reason is astronomical not biological.  Yep!  Here’s why.  Patterns of the Sun, Moon, and even Venus are the real time keepers in your brain.
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-  The Sun reaches its high point at “noon”.  We knew this since medieval times.  The period from one noon to the next noon is a “day”.  This works like clockwork.  You can depend on it.  However, there are some subtle adjustments needed.
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-  The Earth’s orbit is not a perfect circle.  It is an ellipse.  The Earth travels faster when the ellipse axis is shortest the month of January.  That is when we are closest to the Sun.  believe it or not, that’s true.  I know you thought it was in July.
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-  Because the ellipse is closer to the Earth-Sun center of gravity the Earth is traveling 2,236 miles per hour faster in its orbit.  No wonder the days are shorter.  Well, that has more to do with our rotating axis being tilted.  That is a different Review. 
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-  But, that does change the “astronomical” clocks.  The Earth most rotate 8 seconds longer than average in order to get back to noon the next day.
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-  And, that adds up.  The month , February 2017, put our clocks at 14 minutes out of sync to getting to noon each day at the same time.  The highpoint is at 12:14 not 12:00 like you kitchen clock is telling you.
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-  The Moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle either.  The month measured astronomically varies from 29.18 to 29.93 days.  The month measured politically varies from 28 to 31 days.
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- The Mayans knew better. They were astronomers. They even had Venus, the Evening Star , being the most luminous , the closest, every 19 months.  That is why the Maya had a 19 month calendar. 
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-  This stuff was not easy for the ancient astronomers to figure out.  After all Venus circles the Sun 13 times for the Earth circling 8 times.  And, at the same time Europeans still had the Sun and the stars circling the Earth, not the other way around.
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-  In February every 3 days the Sun gets 2 Solar Diameters higher over the horizon.  The days get longer.  The Sun’s warmth is growing at its maximum “ rate”.  February 2 is the half way point between the solstice and the equinox. 
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-  Solstice is December 22 when the Sun is lowest in the southern sky.  The equinox happens March 21 when the days and nights are equal length.  The Earth is crossing the plane of the equator.  So, is that what makes February the shortest month?  No!
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-  Augustus Caesar wanted the month named after him to be just as long as the one named after Julius Caesar.  August and July and why we have two months with 31 days in a row.  Politics!
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-The March equinox is on March 20.  The September equinox is on September 23.  So we have to be traveling 1,000 miles faster in orbit to get through these winter months.  We have fewer days in which to do it.  The winter half of the year is one week shorter than the summer half.  I should get an extra weeks vacation this summer, now that I know that.
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-  Nobody notices these subtle differences the equinox gets put off for 3 days and February loses a few days.  We do all this so a couple Roman politicians can have a month named after themselves.
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-   I wonder what Trump will do to screw up the calendar.  He probably never took a course in astronomy either.  He will be lucky to get through the Ides of March.  I have already ordered next years calendar.  I get a teacher’s calendar June 2019 to September 2020.  I get more for my money that way.
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-  Request Review1488  -  The end of the world according to the Mayan Calendar.
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-  July 29, 2019
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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, July 29, 2019  -----
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CALORIES - how to count them?

-   2425  -  -  CALORIES  -  how to count them?    A calorie is a measure of energy.  It ia the difference between the energy you consume and the energy you burn during exercise.  If you consume more than you burn the excess is stored in the body as fat, to be burned at some future date.
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--------------------------------- 2425  -  CALORIES  -  how to count them?
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-  Gaining weight is simple math.  You just have to count the calories, input minus output.  Then limit the number of calories input to only what is needed for your daily exercise.  Washing dishes is considered exercise.  So is vacuuming.
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-  You can study weight gain and loss by adding and subtracting calories using simple math.  You eat calories in the food you swallow and you burn calories in the exercise you do.
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-  A calorie is a measure of energy.  So, we are talking about the difference between the energy you consume and the energy you burn during exercise.  If you consume more than you burn the excess is stored in the body as fat, to be burned at some future date.  Of course, if the future date remains in the future the fat remains on your body.
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-  We use a thermometer to measure energy that is in the form of heat.  When heat is at the temperature of frozen water we say it is zero degrees Centigrade ( or, 32 degrees Fahrenheit) and when the energy level is to the boiling point of water we say it is at 100 degrees Centigrade (or, 212 degrees Fahrenheit).  The temperature in each case may be regarded as the “intensity of heat”. 
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-  Your body maintains a temperature of 37 degrees Centigrade (98.6 F)  You need food to burn in order to maintain this temperature.  If you body gets to room temperature you are most likely dead and you do not need any more food.
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-  A calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree C.  A Calorie in a food package (notice the capital C in Calories) is actually a kilocalorie, or 1000 calories, the heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 “kilogram” of water 1 degree C.
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-  If you weigh 150 pounds, 68 kilograms, to keep your temperature at 37 C you need to burn 2516 calories, assuming your body is mostly water, 68*37 = 2516 calories.  If you consume 4,516 calories today and you only need 2,526 to stay alive, you have to burn up the other 2,000 calories or they will be stored as fat.
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-   You have to run a mile to burn 100 calories, so that is a 25 mile run you signed up for.  See yuh!  (Actually, it is amazing how many calories you can burn just walking up and down stairs, sweeping off the deck, or washing the windows.  It doesn’t always have to be a marathon.)
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-  The Calorie on a food package is 1000 times larger than a calorie used in chemistry or physics.  Originally, food was placed in a sealed container surrounded by water.  This was called a “calorimeter“.  The food was burned and the resulting rise in water temperature was measured.  You knew the mass of the water, so the math is:
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---------------------------  Quantity of Heat  =  mass ( Change in Temperature)
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---------------------------  Q  =  m ( t2 - t1 )
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-  You body radiates heat about an equivalent toa 100 watt light bulb, which is 100 joules per second or 24 calories per second.  There are 86,400 seconds in a day so that is 2,073,600 calories/day (chemistry type), or 2,074 Calories/day (food type).
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-  Nutrition labeling does not burn food anymore.  Instead they commonly use “food tables“.  They identify the amount of each component in the food and add up the calories in each.
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-    For example:    10 grams of protein at 4 kilocalories per gram = 40 kilocalories, plus 20 grams of carbohydrates at 4 kilocalories per gram = 40 kilocalories, plus 9 grams of fat at 9 kilocalories per gram = 81 kilocalories , plus 1 gram of alcohol at 7 kilocalories per gram  = 208 kilocalories, or Calories, in the food.
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-  The study of heat is called “thermodynamics” and it has four laws:
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----------  0.  No heat flows between bodies at the same temperature.
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----------  1.  When heat is converted to work it is never totally efficient.  This is also known as the law that energy can not be created or destroyed.
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----------  2.  Heat only flows from the hotter object to the cooler object.  Heat like time only flows in one direction.
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----------  3.  The temperature of absolute zero, - 273 C, is the point where all molecular motion stops.  Perceived heat is molecular motion, or the kinetic energy of molecules.
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----------  4.  Entropy always increases. 
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-  Entropy is the quantitative measure of “disorder” or “randomness“.  When you reach temperature equilibrium it is considered “orderly”, or a low entropy.  When temperature is high it is considered “disorderly”, or high entropy. 
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-  Life needs a high entropy in order to exist.  Heat flows downhill and as molecules reach equilibrium they become more random or higher entropy.  If the law is correct in the extreme the whole Universe will eventually be in equilibrium, with maximum randomness and maximum entropy.
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-   A “heat death” for the Universe.  No point in counting Calories when that happens.
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-  July 29, 2019                                                                                   673                                                                                                                                                             
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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
 ---------------------               Monday, July 29, 2019--------------------
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