A Call from the Universe Next-Door

In my last post I talked about the possibility of a Universe next-door. By next door I mean, only about 10 to 35 meters away from the edge of our Universe. In that post it was suggested that the dark matter could be the gravitational pull from the Universe next door. As I kept reading posts in The Daily Galaxy I came across this post: “From the X Files Dept: Mystery Radio Waves Emitted From Nearby Galaxy Still Unsolved”. According to Tom Muxlow of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics M82 is emitting a radio wave like we have never observed before.

M82 is a nearby Galaxy, only about 12 million light-years away. This galaxy is also referred to as the cigar galaxy and can be found in the constellation of Ursa Major. According to Wikipedia, this Galaxy is 5 times as bright as our galaxy and 100 times brighter than our galaxy center. What we know so far about M82 is that this is an energetic galaxy that is creating a ton of new stars, much more then what our galaxy is creating.
Back to the radio waves. Muxlow states that the radio wave emission is not at all what we are used to see. According to The Daily Galaxy, Muxlow asks the question whether the black hole in the center of M82 is dragging material from one universe into yet another universe? The Daily Galaxy goes on and states, the nested universe concept suggests that a violent short wave gamma burst in a larger universe somehow make an appearance as a long wavelength radio wave in the smaller universe.
Nested universe concept? OK, I know we had a lot to cover in Astronomy 101, but the text book did not mention any thing about the nested universe concept. Even Wikipedia does not have an entry on nested universe. But this could be the link to the parallel universe I talked about in my previous post. This could be our ticket to our universe next door.

Is Stephen Hawking a Cyborg?

No, I don’t think he qualifies as a cyborg. To qualify as a cyborg one has to have mechanical or electronic things implanted into one’s body that enhance someone’s life experience. Using a computer externally does not make someone a cyborg, but installing a USB port on someone’s head facilitating the uploading of information directly into someone’s brain, well that is a cyborg.
How did I get started thinking about cyborg’s? This article in The Daily Galaxy got me thinking. We know, we have to leave this planet in about 3 ½ to 4 billion years. By that time the Sun will be out of fuel, and things will get unfriendly here on Earth. Starting a colony on the Moon or Mars will not help. We will have to look for a new solar system. We also know that there is nothing really close by, so we will have to travel for a while, most likely several generations.
Over the last few years we have learned how inhospitable space really is. Lack of gravity causes all kinds of problems, loss of muscles just to name one. Robots and computers are much better suited for the task in space. Take the advantage of a robot, fuse it to a brain, and the ultimate cyborg is ready for space travel.
In addition to the physical limitation of a human body in space we have this need to dominate and conquer. At the current stage of our evolution I wonder how long we would last on a space ship. Cramming several hundred people into a tin can, travel for several generations… I don’t see it. We can’t live in peace next to each other here on earth why would that change in space? But convert our courageous space travelers to cyborgs by removing the aggressiveness, have the individuals work for the good of the collective, now this would work. Maybe the story line of Star Trek and the Cyborg’s is not so far off. The Cyborg they encountered is just a borg that went bad.
Oh, by the way, if it ever comes to the choice between converting to a cyborg or left behind on Earth, I will stay behind. Losing my individuality… No Thank You!

What is Happening?

I have found something interesting! Oh yea, by the way, I love Twitter! No, I don’t care for the tweets between individuals that tweet about, “OMG this guy just spilled coffee on me”. I love the tweets from news organizations or individuals that tweet short updates on news event with a link to the full article.  This gives me a quick review on what is happening, plus if I find the news item interesting enough I can read the full article. One of the organizations I have been following is The Daily Galaxy. Some of the writing is very interesting! For example: “There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened”. This of course is kind of a “cute” thought, sort of leads to the thinking of the Anthropic Principle. “The universe had to create an intelligent live form that is capable to observe it, without an observer, the universe cannot exist.”  Personally, I don’t buy it, but what the heck do I know.
A more interesting article is titled: “Is Gravity from a Parallel Universe Dark Energy?” Now that is way more interesting! The idea is based in string theory, 10 dimensions plus time etc.  Neil Turok of Cambridge University and Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor in Science  and Director of the Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton think that there are 3 dimensional plus time branes (flat looking sheets) that collide every trillion years or so creating the big bang ultimately creating us. According to Turok and Steinhardt, the branes are still very close to each other about 10 to 35 meters apart, so gravity could bleed from one universe to the other creating the mysterious dark matter. Cool! I understand their idea in principal. There is a link to a video that shows that collision between the branes, but somehow I have difficulties to imagine a universe such as ours, about 92 billion light years across, right next to another parallel universe of similar size, only 10 to 35 meters apart. The question comes up, what is the space made off between the universes? But here is the exciting news. As a science fiction writer, this opens up the possibility for some really interesting writing. Think about it, dark matter is here, it’s everywhere, linked to a parallel universe that is only at most 35 meters away from us. All the deja vue, ghosts, un-natural stuff, alien abduction, feelings of I have seen that before, all caused by a universe that is only 35 meters away from us. Very interesting!
For the full article, check out The Daily Galaxy!

Interesting Developments

MSNBC.COM has a nice write up with a bunch of great photos on Jupiter. The title of the article is: Jupiter and the Moon take over the Night. Of course I had to go out and see if that is so, and tonight was just the perfect night to do it. Clear, no clouds, but boy was it cold here at the coast. OK, I did not dress right, but it is summer, it's supposed to be hot, even at night. The article is right, the view is spectacular.

What else is happening in Astronomy? I have read a bunch of interesting news. The Swiss (they are so clever) discovered a bunch of exoplanets. According to the article, the planetary system has some similarities to our own system, including one planet that is only 1.4 times the mass of Earth, and very close to the star. This is it! Time to pack your bag and explore a new planet. Travel time is only 127 years assuming we can travel at the speed of light. At a more conventional speed it will take a bit longer… Check out the article, it features an interesting video.

There was another interesting news article, this time published by the BBC, "Supercomputer clue to black holes". What grabbed my attention in this article was the speculation that gas with a mass of millions of Suns could accumulate and collapse directly into a black hole, without forming a star first. Now that is some interesting stuff. This idea certainly challenges the conventional thinking of how the super massive black holes have formed in the center of the Galaxies. 

This is so great, just when we thought we understood something, some new theory comes along and challenges everything. Let's see how long this latest idea about the forming of the massive black holes in the center of the galaxies will survive.

Most Massive Star Ever

This is interesting; according to an article published in The Great Beyond astronomers discovered a cluster of super massive stars, up to 300 times the solar mass and 10 million times more luminous than the Sun. According to the official press release this massive star would outshine the sun in the same way as the sun outshines the full moon.

Scientists are not certain if those massive stars were born big or were they the result of several massive stars merging. However they were formed, very impressive, but as we know, big stars don't last very long. In a few million years we should be able to observe a huge type II Supernova. Yes, our Sun will outlast those huge stars by billions of years, so someone here on Earth should be able to make the observation.

Rock-Star Physicist

A rock-star physicist, what a cool title! I want to put on my resume that I am rock-star physicist. Brian Cox does deserve that title, his presentation is… well decide for yourself:

Cosmic Zoom Lens?

Talking about pushing the envelope, this story is incredible. The European space agency launched the Far Infrared and Sub-millimeter Telescope (FIRST) in May of 2009. This space telescope was later renamed to Herschel after the incredible female astronomer Caroline Herschel who did some amazing research in the late 1700 and early 1800. Herschel is the largest single mirror space telescope ever built to look deep into the past.

So, here we have one of the most powerful space telescopes ever built, gathering long-wavelength radiation from some of the coldest and most distant objects in the universe. But that is not enough; using something called a gravity lens Herschel is able to detect a Galaxy that is 11 billion light years away.

First, here is an example how a gravity lens works:




 

By observing a distant Galaxy cluster Herschel was able to detect a Galaxy that is even further away. The telescope observed a Galaxy that emitted its radiation over 11 billion years ago. Thinking about this for just a minute, I have the following question: What does that Galaxy look like today? Does it still exist? If the Galaxy does still exist, where could it be? Apparently our Galaxy, the Milky Way is about 8.8 billion years old, plus or minus 1.7 billion year. (This is according to Wiki, I know… but Wiki is good enough for this thought experiment!) Assuming the oldest possible age of the Milky Way, 10.5 billion years, is it possible we are looking at baby picture of our Galaxy? Given the fact that there are 100 billion other Galaxies out there it is highly unlikely that this specific Galaxy is the baby Milky Way, but the question is still valid, could we see a picture of a baby Milky Way? We know that space is not flat; space is curved so… naw… that is just too wired.

Bottom line still is, it is amazing that we are able to observe a Galaxy that is some 11 billion light years away from us. What is even more amazing is the technique used to make that observation.

The Astronomy Class is Over

Just because the quarter is over does not mean I have to stop blogging about the sky. There are a few things in respect to astronomy I still want to do, and blogging about it forces me to be serious. The few things I still want to do is more sky observations. During the quarter we really did not have too many days when going out and making sky observation was possible. The weather in the spring is just a bit too unpredictable. Maybe this summer we will have a better chance to do that.

In the meantime, I am posting a few interesting items. Here is something I came across just the other day. During class we were studying dark clouds, what they are etc. Dr. Tom Megeath from the University of Toledo reported the following oddity. What looked like a dark cloud is in fact not a dark cloud, but a hole in the sky. Here is his interview on the Canadian Quirks & Quarks Show. (Follow the link, the fourth topic in the May 15 show, hosted by Bob McDonald, with the title, There's no There, There is and interview with Megeath discussing the discovery.)

 
Herschel finds a hole in space

Herschel, The Mission

Dr. Tom Megeath

News Flash!

Now here we have some exciting news! This seems to indicate why we have not observed the expected number of neutrinos in our neutrino detectors.
Here are two links to the relative articles:

• Particle Chameleon Caught in the Act of Changing
• Scientist Confirm Long-Held Theory About Source of Sunshine

I guess we will need to re-write the astronomy textbooks...

Week 9 Review

Galaxies, Space, Distances, Black Holes… who cares? On Friday we had a short discussion at the end of the period centering on the question, does all this really matter? Does it really matter if there is a black hole in the center of our Galaxy? Does it really matter how our universe evolved, the big bang, the expansion and so on. Some of my class mates simply state that all this really does not matter. If our Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda, who really cares? It will not happen in our life time, so why thinking about it?
Those are all very valid points but… where would we be if we never crossed the Atlantic Ocean west bound? Many will argue it is not the same thing, but it is! During the dark ages in Europe, when questioning just about anything of authority, especially linked to religious believes was a certain death sentence, some still questioned. It certainly would have been much easier for Copernicus to stick with the common believes of those days and keep the Earth in the center of the universe. But he couldn’t! It did not work, the observation did not agree with the model. So he asked the question why, and he came up with a very unpopular answer in those days.

For whatever reason, we will always ask questions. Why is the universe expanding? What about a black hole. How about that string theory with 6 additional dimensions? Not all of us have that need to know, and that is OK. But all of us (most of us?) benefit from those who asked the question, starting with the question what happens if we sail west. I admit sailing west was a good thing for us Europeans, but not the best thing for the natives of the Americas.

The cost of CERN is about 3 billion dollars. So what will we get out of CERN? Will we find the elusive hadron particle? Will we be able to confirm additional dimensions? May be not! May be all what CERN will do is answer a few questions but ask many more! Even if we find the elusive hadron particle, and suddenly everything falls into place how will that help in our other challenges we face, such as war, hunger, health etc. CERN will not help the unfortunates on our planet. But 3 billion dollars would have made a big change in the life of some of the unfortunate on our planet.

I am not sure what the right answer is. I am not sure if knowing that the universe is expanding, and the sun will run out of fuel in 4 billion years really matters. But for me it is important to know those things. Even if I am not a scientist on the leading edge of discovery, I feel richer having the knowledge and the ability to understand what they are talking about. I want to know if the string theory is a valid theory. It will not change my life, but I still want to know. I also want us to continue to explore space. I do think we are doing it wrong! Exploring space is such a huge task, a task that will take many generations to accomplish, and for that we should work as a united force. Not in competition with each other. Similar to the CERN experiment. CERN is an experiment that has the support of over 100 countries, hundreds of universities and over 10,000 scientists. The track is built in two countries, France and Switzerland, it is a common effort with an outcome that will benefit everyone. We need the same vision on space exploration.

The End of the Quarter

We are approaching the end of the quarter. The following are my personal comments on the 3 movies we were to watch sometimes during the quarter:

• The Right Stuff

• Contact

• Apollo 13

Click on the links and it will get you to the respective papers.

The Universe according to Me

Here is my view on the universe. Dark Matter the way it is described by George Smoot and how the rest of the visible matter fit's in does make a lot of sense. Is this really the multidimensional highways of our universe?

In this artistic impression the white filaments is dark matter, where those filaments intersect is where the Galaxies are.

Here is the link to my short essay on my view of the universe:

The Universe According to JC

The Universe has 10 Dimensions!

As I was looking around the web, trying to come with some good ideas on how to describe the universe, I found this little jewel. This is the first time that I can say that I understand the concept of the String Theory. It also makes sense how mathematics fits in and why. Cool!

You got to watch this!

This is, in my opinion the most interesting presentation on our universe I have ever seen. So far every thing that I have seen were individual blocks, this is for the first time a presentation that puts it all together.


I still think the answer is 42.

M81 APOD

Reviewing the M81 Galaxy in Ursa Major. 

Link to the Document

M81 Is a fascinating Galaxy, in fact it is a cluster of Galaxies. Researcher speculate that there are as many as 25 different size and shapes of Galaxies that are interlocked in an eternal dance lasting billions of years.

Brown Dwarf

This is my APOD project for Stellar Evolution.

Brown Dwarfs are a type of stars that do not share the spotlight of the red, yellow or blue stars. They are dismissed as a "failed" star. But be aware, there are as many "failed" stars as there are stars in our Galaxy.
Check it out:
Brown Stars

Week 7 and 8 Review

Busy two weeks, and unfortunately not very successful for real life observations, at least not planned observations. The other day I was driving to my mother in law’s place in Anacortes, north on Highway 5, just shortly after sunset. It was one of those stormy days we recently had with lots of cloud build up in the mountains, but the sky was a bit clearer in the West. Right away I observed Venus to the WNW, at about an altitude of 20 degrees, Just a bit higher up was the moon, waxing crescent, and then a bit further up and more to the west was Mars. OK, to be honest, I was not sure if it was Mars. After all I was driving, but based on the location of Jupiter, the Moon and the way the ecliptic arcs across the sky, it is where I would expect Mars to be. I also knew that the constellation of Gemini should be right there to the west, so if it gets a bit darker I should be able to see Polux and Castor. Below Gemini and a bit further west is Canis Minor with Procyon. I really like to be able to have a look at the sky and find my way around.

I watched Apollo 13, and I read, actually listen to, Contact. I will have a more detailed review of those two movies for my extra credit, but here is a preview. Apollo 13; I forgot what a great movie that is. I forgot when I saw the movie the first time, but it did not make the same impression then as it did now. As I was watching the movie, two thoughts went through my mind. David Bowie’s song, Space Oddity, especially the part when he says, “I am floating in my tin can…”. My other thought was, they were too eager to step onto the Moon, and overlooking too many little signs that should have forced aborting the mission. In accident prevention we learn accidents never happen because of one event. Accidents are a chain of events that lead to the crash site. The truth is it is very difficult to break that chain before the accident happens.

The second movie to watch is Contact. I have seen this movie several times, so I looked for an alternative. I am a big fan of listening to books. I have a huge library of audiobooks I listen to. Audible.com offers the audiobook Contact, it is an abridged version, read by Jodie Foster. I loved it! It was way better than the movie. I especially liked the ending of the book with Pi. What a cool idea, a message hidden somewhere in Pi. I don’t know why the movie did not use that, except that whoever wrote the screen play thought we are too dumb to understand the concept. You got to read (listen to) the book. 

 I will write up a more detailed review of those two topics, Apollo 13 and Contact.

The big idea over the past 2 weeks for me was, size and distance. There is this pyramid of ways to measure distance. Stellar Parallax, Luminosity and Apparent Brightness, Stellar Temperatures. Take each one of those procedures on how to measure the distance of a star individually, and it is not very convincing. It sounds too much like guessing. But somehow, together, one way of measuring confirming the other and vice versa, it works. It is really neat how astronomers do this. On the whole, there is no doubt in my mind, the distances they are calculating are accurate. Impressive!

Constellation of Gemini

This is just a quick update. I did a short review of the constellation Gemini. Interesting constellation, in real and in myth!

Constellation of Gemini

More updates are pending, a week 7 review and a short comment about some observations. Stay tuned.

Week 6 Reflection

Getting ready for the exam this week… not my strong suite. The chapter on the sun is fascinating. The point that was made over and over again, the sun is just average, not too hot, not too cold, not too big, not too small. The sun is so very average, but to us, the sun is anything but average. Without our average sun we would not have any life here on earth.

Solar winds, sun spot, solar flares it is scary how big of an influence those solar activity have on our way of life. Imagine if a sudden solar storm would wipe out our electric/electronic infrastructure. No communication, no satellites, black outs, not a pretty picture. I understand now why studying the sun, more importantly studying of the space weather driven by the sun is so important. The ability to predict solar activity is now just as important as predicting local weather system on earth.

Next week we are moving on to the stars. That will be interesting!

Talking about moving to the stars, this is an interesting bit of news. Follow this link to read more:

Hole in Space found by Orbiting Telescope

I love that title, Hole in Space... That must be a portal to the next dimension right?

Sky Observation Friday May 7.

Friday night I went out observing the sky on my favorite spot. The sky was clear, but it was still cold, perfect to see how good I am in getting my way around the sky. Rather than just go out and look what’s out there, I made a plan of what I wanted to see. This is relatively easy to do with some of the programs available such as Microsoft World Wide telescope. My plan was to find two planets, Venus and Mars. Next I wanted to find the Gemini constellation. Next to Gemini I should be able to find Canis Minor, two stars that make a horizontal line. Going South, I should be able to see the constellation of Cancer, the upside down Y. Planet Mars should be right in the constellation of Cancer. Right next to Cancer but higher up in the sky will be Leo. I also marked down two stars, Arcturus in the S.W. and Alpha Virgins in the SSE. No problem, I know exactly where to look, piece of cake.
I noticed Venus earlier on my way home just after sunset in the NW, really can’t miss it. It is really cool to look at the sky and point to an object and say with confidence, this is Venus. This of course built my confidence to be able to recognize all the other stars and constellations. At shortly after 10pm I was at my favorite spot and ready to do my observing. It was cooler than I thought it would be, quiet and dark, well sort of dark. It just does not get completely dark that close to the city. First thing I did I looked for Venus, but Venus was already below my observable horizon. That’s OK, I discovered Venus earlier, so next I looked for Gemini. Directly W, at an altitude of about 20o and there it is, the constellation Gemini… or is it? I am not sure! I think I observed Pollux and Alpha Geminhorum, the two stars defining the upper limit of the constellation, the rest, I am not sure. Looking at the star wheel did not help, it only confused me more. Next to Gemini is Canis Minor, a very simple constellation, a horizontal line, two stars about 4o apart at an altitude of about 20o. I think I got this one right on. Next I was looking for the constellation Cancer which should be about 10o above Canis Minor and looks like an upside down Y. Not a chance, I did not see that constellation. I did see the planet Mars that was right in the constellation, so I knew where to look, but I did not see the upside down Y. Next to cancer is Leo, just a bit further S and higher up in the sky. All I can say, I think I did see part of Leo. I think I did identify the brightest star, Regulus in the constellation. Leo is a big constellation, from the head of the Lion to the tale it is close to 30o, easy to get confused. I wonder how the ancient made a Lion out of all those stars. I think there was more involved than just looking at the stars. Straight above Leo was the familiar Big Dipper, or Ursa Major.

From the big dipper I always find my way to the North Star. The two stars I was looking for, Arcturus in the SW and at an altitude of 50o and Alpha Virgins in the SSE at an altitude of just a bit more than 25o, I am sure I identified Arcturus, but not Alpha Virgins. Looking to the S is looking towards Seattle, and the light pollution from the city is just too great to make a positive identification.
This was a great evening of looking at the stars, but I must admit, finding constellations, especially big constellations such as Leo is not easy. It is easy to get confuse which star belongs to which constellation. What really helped me was to plan out what to look at. For next time I will improve my planning, in addition to the general direction and the altitude, I will add how big the constellations are. That should help me to better define the boundaries of a given constellation. Looking forward to the next clear night.

If we cold see the stars during the day...

Ever wondered what the sky looks like during the day if we could see the stars? The other evening as I was watching the sunset and I asked myself this question. There is a way to find out. Check this out:
Here is the sunset:

And this is what it would look like if we could see the stars:

(Click on the picture to get a better look)

You can see the constellation Taurus and right next to it to the left is Orion  setting. On the lower right, right at the edge, is the sun, just going below the horizon. So if you look at the original sunset picture, to the left of the Sun is the constellation Taurus and right next to it is Orion. You see, constellation do not go away, they are still there, just the light of the sun makes them invisible.

Week 5 Review

Week 5 and the weather continues to be very challenging. It has been wet and windy, but we might get a chance to look at the sky tonight.

This week we discussed the moon, craters and satellites, manmade or natural. The movie, If we had No Moon fascinated me the most. The most current view of how the Moon became is the theory that the Earth was impacted by a Mars size planet referred to as Orpheous or Theia. I wish the Greeks would get their story straight. Apperently Orpheus is the son of Calliope and either Oeagrus or Apollo… common you guys, this is a myth, one would think you could get it straight – use DNA to figure it out. Anyway, Orpheus slammed into Earth more than 4 billion years ago when things still were hot and soft. The trajectory of Orpheus was shallow enough so Orpheus kind of ricochet off the Earth's surface flew back into space re-coalesced and fell back onto Earth. According to Dr. Robin Canup this and only this scenario puts sufficient stuff into an orbit outside the Roche radius to form the Moon. Well, if that is what they say, I guess they know what they are talking about. I certainly do not have a better theory but… Whenever there is a scenario that indicates to be unique and inimitable I get suspicious. Orpheus had to come in on a precise angle, bounce off the Earth, enough to get stuff back into space but not so far so as to be outside the Rosh radius, other ways it would not fall back onto Earth but some of the stuff had the be outside the Rosh radius to form the Moon… But what the heck, they know what they talk about. Watch the movie, and decide for yourself. (By the way, click on the Pictures to see full size)

I just discovered the coolest web site in respect to astronomy. You got to check this out: Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There is so much stuff there, you will get lost for days. The best part I discovered so far is a Java aplet that shows an interactive model of the planetary system plus many of comets and asteroids. The best way to get to that page, follow this link to Solar System Bodies. From here, click on an option, either Comets, Asteroids or Meteor Streams. From here start exploring. Just in case you get lost, here is a direct link to the 1P/Halley Comet.
Enjoy the journey, don't get lost!

Last but not least, this pictures is not necessarily a astronomy picture, but it was captured by NASA's Terra spacecraft so it is kind of space related. This is awful! This oil leak disaster 50 miles off the Louisiana coast is now bigger than the Exxon Valdez eco disaster in Alaska in 1989. Look at the size of this oil slick. To learn more, follow this link.  If there is something I have learned so far in this astronomy class, we won't be leaving this planet any time soon, so let's take care of it and let's stop messing it up!

Week in Review

The weather has not been too supportive for viewing the night sky, except I did see the moon yesterday, Sunday evening when I was goofing around with my dogs. The moon was in the South East at about 20 degrees above my horizon, it was a waxing gibbous moon. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, full moon will be on April 28th. Lots of interesting stuff in that Almanac. For example: Tonight (Monday, April 27.) the moon will rise at 6:41pm, the sun will set at 8:34pm, so the moon is chasing the sun around the sky. Well, we know better, but from my vantage point, that’s what it looked like. If we get a clear night, we might be able to find Saturn, but the light from the approaching full moon might make it difficult to spot anything in the sky. Saturn will rise at 4:33pm and will be in the South, about 40 degrees above the horizon or about half way between the horizon and the zenith at about 10pm.

Most of this week was devoted finishing our labs, making sure all documents were submitted and getting ready for our online test. Never cared much for tests, but what the heck. Got to do them. Love the math stuff; wish I had just a bit more time working with it. The gravity formula or knowing how to calculate the mass of the sun or any other planet, not sure if that is really that important for my business major, but it sure is fascinating. Let’s talk about big numbers. For example, F=gm1 m2/r^2 OK, I can memorize this, plug in then numbers in a calculator and come up with an answer. We know that Newton’s constant is really small; mass of the sun is really big, the result is the force of gravity – but I am not sure what to do with that number.  It means something, but I am not sure what.

I think our brain is not wired to handle really big ideas. The cosmos is such a thing; it is difficult to grasp the idea of size and space, especially for amateurs like me. It is not just astronomical numbers we have difficulties to grasp; we have difficulties to understand the size of our national deficit. What is a trillion dollar? One can find all kinds of description of how large a stack of a trillion dollar bill would be, and yes we understand it is big but we really don’t know until we see it. The first time I truly understood how big the universe is when I was driving from somewhere to somewhere in the middle of Idaho or Montana in the middle of the night. I had to stop for a pee break and I pulled over to the side of the road, shut down the engine, shut off the lights and went out to do my business. It was a perfect still night, cold and clear, not a sound except the occasional pinging sound from the cooling engine and exhaust from my car. The air smelled clear and fresh. As I was standing there I looked up into the sky and I saw the most amazing thing. A sky with billions and billions of stars, I don’t remember ever seeing so many stars. That sight was so overwhelming, I just about fell over. There is no computer animation, no picture, and no description that can duplicate what I saw. It was immense; I still remember that night as if it happened yesterday. In a way it was intoxicating. To this day I continue to have this urge to go to Montana, somewhere far away from any artificial light and look up at the sky… just look and wonder.

The Spitzer Space Telescope

This week we were also working on review of telescopes. My pick was the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Cool dude that is looking for hot stuff.
Follow this link to the report:

Spitzer Space Telescope

Week Review

The real cool thing about learning something new is when you listen to a presentation by a scientist and you actually understand what he is talking about. I am a real big fan of TED. "TED", according to their about page, "is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading". Rather than watching an uninteresting show on TV that is really designed to force you to watch advertisements, spend 20 minutes watching any of the TED presentations on any topic you are interested in, you'll be glad you did.
Last night I was watching a presentation by Garik Israelian, on spectroscopy. The title was: How Spectroscopy could reveal Alien Life. And yea, all the stuff he was talking about, I understood. In fact, I looked at those spectral lines produced by the different gases in our lab. I understood how those lines were created and why. I understood how one can look at those lines and deduce that this star is made of those elements. And that is real neat!
Now here are a few things I did not know. The sun has 24,000 absorption lines.

So the picture on the left is the spectrum of the sunlight with all those dark lines, the absorption lines, which indicate what elements are on the sun. I knew that. But what I did not know was that we have no idea what 15% or 3,500 of those lines are. It's the year 2010, the biggest particle collider ever built, CERN, just smashed a bunch of particles, but we still don't exactly know what some of the elements are that appear to be on the sun.
Israelian also talked about a spectrograph from a star they were looking at and the conclusion was, the atmosphere of this star was polluted by a Supernova, which has collapsed and became a black hole, and this star is now orbiting in a binary system around the black hole. All that by essentially looking at light emitted from a star!
But that's not all, according to Israelian, spectroscopy can be used to detect sound waves on stars. But wait there is more, we can detect if there is tectonic and volcanic activity on a distant planet, in fact, spectroscopy can be used to see if there is vegetation on a planet. All this by looking at a spectrum and some dark lines that occur at certain wavelength, amazing!

Weeks Reflection

Reflection:
This was a very interesting week in astronomy. What amazed me the most was how the agent Greek philosopher, Eratosthenes, used geometry to calculate the size of the Earth. Wow! That is just so amazing; especially knowing that in those days to most people the earth was flat.



I am also fascinated what techniques we are using to measure the distance to the sun. Since we can’t use modern gadgets such as radar waves or any other wave we have to use tricks. Fascinating!

Friday Night Sky Observatin

April 9. 2010, 9.00pm
Perfect night! Not a cloud in the sky! Audrey, my wife, and our two dogs went to look for a dark open field to look at the sky.

Not far from our house is an abandoned development where developers clear cut a huge area. Except for a few access roads nothing was ever built. No street lights, perfect dark… well as dark as it can get in close proximity to the city. First I situated our vehicle so we would be in line to a North – South direction, just to make it a bit easier to find our direction in the sky. After a few minutes of setting up we were sitting in the back of our pick up, looking at the sky. Big dipper was straight above us with Dubah more or less at our Zenith. Following the end of the big dipper leads straight to Polaris. I used the position of Polaris to confirm where North is. Back to the Big Dipper, looking at the handle, right where the handle makes a bend is the star Zeta Ursae Majoris. If your eyes are still good, you can see a fainter star, Alcor, right next to it. It has always been said, if you can see that little star, you still have good eye sight. Those two stars are the first known true binary stars, two stars that orbit each other. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Science those two stars are about 500 Astronomic Units (AU) apart and take about 5,000 years to complete one evolution around each other.

Next we looked for Orion, which was in the western sky and slowly setting. At the time of the observation, the belt was about 15 degrees above the horizon, and the azimuth was W. Because Orion was so low over the horizon, we really were only able to see the belt and the sword that is hanging down from the belt. We recognized Betelgeuse, the giant red star that marks the left shoulder of the hunter.  With our binoculars we were able to have a better look at the sword, a fuzzy cluster that make out the Orion Nebula. With our hand held binoculars, the best we could make out was a fuzzy kind of star cluster, interesting but that’s about it. Looking at pictures that were made by the big telescopes or by the Hubble telescope is when things start to look interesting. Knowing what we are looking at, and knowing that this Nebula is over 1,200 light years away from Earth makes sky watching so much more interesting.

From the Orion constellation we moved our field of observation a bit higher up and South to Gemini. The location of Gemini was at an Azimuth of about SW and an altitude of about 50 degrees. There is a bunch of interesting stuff in the area of the Gemini constellation, such as the Eskimo Nebula which is over 2,870 light years away. This nebula is too far away and too small to be visible to the naked eye, at least not in the light polluted area of the city. Once we found Gemini we were looking for Mars, and sure enough, there was Mars again traveling through the constellation.

Right next to Gemini, at the same altitude but a bit more South is the constellation Leo, or so did the Planisphere say. I think I did see some part of the Leo constellation, but I am not sure. It was not easy to trace out this constellation.

We were sitting out there for about one hour, but then it got cold. For our first sky observation, this was a great success. We got to recognize  some new constellations, Gemini and Leo, plus had a better understanding of what we looked at in the constellation we knew, such as the big dipper and Orion. For our next sky observation trip we made notes of a few things we need to have.  The lounge chairs on the back of the pickup was good, but we will definitely need a thermos with hot coca to keep warm. The planisphere is a very good tool to get a rough indication of where is what, but because the actual sphere is small and difficult to see and read in the dark I will try to plan out what to look for and make separate notes that are easier to read in the dark.  We need to make sure we have flashlights with red or green colored light. We found it very difficult to use the bright white flash light to read what’s on the planisphere and then to look at the sky. It always took a while for the eyes to re-adjust to the darkness.

With those few adjustments, we are looking forward to our next expedition exploring the night sky.

Looking at the Sky

Thursday, April 8, 2010, 06:00 Zulu

Finally a nice day and I forgot to go outside to make some observations for my sky blog until just now. Finally at 9:10pm local time I step outside and look at the sky, ever so briefly. Unfortunately, I live on a piece of property that is in the middle of trees, well it's more like a forest. I do not have a good view of the sky, except straight up.

What did I observe? The big dipper was straight above me, I think the star called Dubhe was right at my zenith. Dubhe is the star that defines the upper rear part of the wagon. According to my MS WorldWide Telescope, this is a circumpolar star, meaning this star never sets in our latitude.

Next I noticed an orange looking heavenly body, I think it was Mars. The position of Mars was at an altitude of about 60 degree and an azimuth of SW. According to my WorldWide Telescope, that is about where Mars was supposed to be. Using the virtual telescope I was amazed how difficult it was to have a close look at Mars. Zooming in on Mars without a tracker made it impossible to stay with it. Because of the Earth’s rotation Mars moved out of view in flash. But that’s why we have technology.

The clip on the right is where Mars was, right where the cross hair is. According to my planisphere that is in the constellation of cancer, but I did not see that upside down Y. The stars tracing out the Y are Acubens and Altarf on the top of the Y, Asellus Australis in the center, and Iota Cancri on the base. Apparently there is nothing special about those stars, just four twinkling stars between 100 and 300 light years away from us.

Then the clouds came and covered up the spectacle.

Next time I need to get out in an open field to make better observations. By the way, check out MS WorldWide Telescope. It is a free down load, and works incredibly well. It is an amazing tool. Some of the pictures and how one can explore the sky, it is just incredible. Go check it out, it is worth it!

How Much would You Pay for the Universe?

This topic may technically not qualify as a sky observation but since we really don’t have a sky to observe tonight let me share with you the following 4 minute video clip. I met Neil DeGrasse Tyson the first time on the Daily Show, hosted by John Stewart. Yes, I do get my daily dose of “fair and balanced” news from John Stewart. What fascinated me about Tyson is his energy. Tyson who has a PhD in Astrophysics, is so passionate about his field, it is absolutely contagious.

My major is business, so the question does come up is there an economic benefit in exploring the universe? It made sense to conquer the lower orbit of our planet, all kinds of useful stuff is now hanging up there. Looking for hidden ore bodies is definitely more economical when looking down at the Earth's surface from 100 miles flying at 17,000 miles per hour than crawling over it on hand and foot. Having a GPS receiver definitely means us males never have to ask for directions ever again. But does it really make sense to spend a ton of money looking for an exoplanet? Does our society really need to know what went on one tiny fraction of a second after the big bang? After all, I had the idea of what caused the moon phases wrong and still I did just fine. Tyson makes an excellent point why we need to spend money on NASA, and yes, it should be more than ½ a penny on the dollar.

Enjoy:



To visit Tyson's website, follow this link

Sky Blog, in the beginning...

This is the first post on my Sky Blog. As part of my Astronomy Course at Mt. Vernon College I am required to keep a Sky Journal. A journal of course is so passé in the age of computer mobility. Rather than keeping a journal, let's blog about my observation and discoveries and save some trees!

On Friday in class we discussed the moon phases. I know… how boring! But… I think of myself to be very observant and knowledgeable about things around me. I am good with weather prediction, I look at the sky all the time, and I can tell, within reason, what is going on in the atmosphere, what kind of changes we can expect over the next few days and so on. Same with the moon, one look and I know what phase that moon is in, waxing or waning. I use an old Swiss trick to establish the phase of the moon. If the moon looks like a small "a" an "a" as used in hand writing, the moon is waning as in the German word “abnehmend”. If the moon looks like a "z" as used in hand writing the moon is waxing, as in the German word “zunehmend”. Being in touch with the environment comes from being involved with outdoors sports that depend on knowing the weather, such as sailing, mountaineering and aviation. So when the question in class came up about the moon phases, of course I knew why we have moon phases. Earth casts a shadow onto the moon… everybody knows that! WRONG! I have no idea how I came to believe that the Earth casts a shadow onto the moon. Somehow I did, I guess someone must have told me, and it made sense in my mind and I just believed it, never ever questioning it.
After a few minutes in the dark room and a single light bulb representing the Sun and a golf ball representing the moon I got it! It makes sense, this is great! I love to clear up stuff that I thought I knew but was not sure. The moon phases, I got it.

This web page shows a good animation of how the phases work.