Big Bang theory and matters astronomical

[2020hindsight]

Australian SKA project - AuSKA

Rudd has been lobbying senior officials to back the nation’s candidacy. Meeting with U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington, he put forward Australia’s case, and is likely to repeat this in New York, Brussels, Bucharest, London and Beijing.

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=65521

spooly ,
I understand we are making some prototypes for sure.
I was lucky enough to meet some of the visiting scientists in Perth the other day.
Apparently much greater sensitivity than current radio telescopes.

PS I told the sister in law "Would sure put Geralton on the map" -
she said "where's Geralton? "

Mr Rudd said WA’s bid — centred on Boolardy Station, 300km northeast of Geraldton — was being taken so seriously that the Government had asked New Zealand to consider building linked radio dishes to improve data collection. “The way in which this technology works is the wider the geographical span the better the capture,” the PM said.

Dr Thomas, one of 19 high-profile expatriates to be invited for a working dinner with the PM at the Australian Ambassador’s residence, said the SKA project would be a massive boon for Australia and WA.

“If that were to come to Australia, the face of Australia 20 years from now would be permanently and irrevocably changed for the better,” he said. “Australia is a prime contender for it, for a number of reasons: it’s got the economic wherewithal to do it, it’s got the intellectual capital to do it, it’s got the infrastructure you need to run that large kind of project. More than anything, it’s got a high degree of political stability that you need for running a long-term project like that.”

 

[2020hindsight]

then we were hit by a "rock" the size of Mars..

reminds me of that joke when we had the lunar eclipse ... (red moon etc)
Paddy says goodnight to his mates at the pub, staggers out the door - looks up, sees the moon -
comes racing back in .. "hey fellas, oonder the bar quick!! - Mars is aboot to hit us !!"

 

[2020hindsight]

Makes you think who's watching and from where.

pat,
hell that's an incredible photo / computer generated image whatever.

The images show trackable objects in orbit around Earth, with at least 12,000 objects doing their rounds.

Also in that article, this one about billions of tons of helium blowing the tails off comets ..
(hey I always thought you couldn't weigh helium because it kept floating up off the scales)

Meanwhile two of NASA's satellites have captured amazing images of the Sun "belching" out debris and ripping the tail of a comet, the BBC reports.

In a process known as Coronal Mass Ejections - or less informally as solar burps - billions of tons of hydrogen and helium can be hurled into space.

While the Earth is somewhat protected by its magnetic field these eruptions can still knock out satellite communications equipment, control gear on aircraft and even power grids.

But a comet was not so lucky, a scientific conference in Vienna was told yesterday, with the Sun's emissions apparently shearing the tail off

PS even with 12000 objects in the process of burning up and/or possibly making it to earth and landing on your roof etc ...
chances are "pretty slim" of being hit.
Anyone remember back a few years when Dick Smith said that if anyone was hit by a piece of the decommissioned Skylab whilst shopping at one of his shops, he'd give em a million bucks ?

 

[Wysiwyg]

Tonight on SBS at 8.30 is a documentary on the 6 billion dollar Large Hadron Collider which can simulate the events after the beginning of creation (big bang theory).
You may ask yourself how the particles came to be but that`s another question.
Maybe there was always something and that is what we have to accept.
But since we live in a world with life cycles we only know life creates life therefore making it unimaginable for any life to be created without life.

Hmmm, maybe there isn`t life but an intricate combination of particles and hence, via agreement, we called it life.

 

[2020hindsight]

Wys,
I watched "The Hawking Paradox" the other night - lol - what an incredibly difficult concept all this black hole stuff is ....

matter and "information" would be lost in black holes. (?)
light can't escape from a black hole but heat can. (?)

he ends up with a theory of parallel universes, some with black holes, some without - At that point I said something to the effect of ...

"well, in my particular parallel universe, (i.e. my bed) - this ain't gonna affect me one iota - I'm off !!"

PS but there are allegedly millions of em out there

 

[Pat]

I certainly agree that the sky is not falling...

Well maybe it is .

Another good read from Nat Geo mag.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/earth-scars/stone-text

What's most interesting-

In the Australian outback Mavis Malbunka tells her grandchildren an ancient Aboriginal tale that explains the creation of Tnorala (also called Gosses Bluff, in background). Eight women once danced across the night sky, the story goes, but one grew weary of carrying her infant. She set down the baby in its wooden carrier, which rolled off its perch and plummeted to Earth. Scientists say that an asteroid or comet impact formed this outcrop””a remnant of a larger crater, now eroded””some 140 million years ago. Science and legend share one central insight: Something sudden and violent happened here long ago””and it changed the face of the planet.

Amazing

 

[Wysiwyg]

So Pat it seems that Apophis is pulled closer to Earth on each pass.On a time scale these large collisions with Earth are rare though will happen again at some time.I suppose we have to place some faith in the telescopes exploring the skies for warnings of impending large collisions.Long time.No sweat.

 

[Pat]

So Pat it seems that Apophis is pulled closer to Earth on each pass.On a time scale these large collisions with Earth are rare though will happen again at some time.I suppose we have to place some faith in the telescopes exploring the skies for warnings of impending large collisions.Long time.No sweat.

I'm not sure if I'd like to know. I think we got no chance of stopping and asteriod. Imagine the panic Time for some Mad Max

 

[spooly74]

I'm not sure if I'd like to know. I think we got no chance of stopping and asteriod. Imagine the panic Time for some Mad Max

Dunno Pat, given enough time, say 1-2 years from impact would be plenty to nudge it off course.
The idea would not be to stop it with a bomb, but gently nudge it off it`s trajectory....some bizzarre ideas!

If anything was to keep me awake at night it would be a comet, they only start to show themselves inside the orbit of Jupiter .... we`d be stuffed, not enough time.

A couple of days ago, a binary asteroid system came close ... if you consider1.4 million miles to be close

A rare event has given astronomers a great view of a binary asteroid system. Tonight, asteroid 2008 BT18 passed 1.4 million miles from Earth, shining like a 13th magnitude star. Before July 7th, astronomers believed 2008 BT18 was "just another" near-Earth asteroid, but then the Arecibo radio telescope obtained a "delay-Doppler" image of the asteroid and found it in fact had a binary partner.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/07/14/binary-asteroid-glides-past-earth/

 

[Pat]

Dunno Pat, given enough time, say 1-2 years from impact would be plenty to nudge it off course.
The idea would not be to stop it with a bomb, but gently nudge it off it`s trajectory....some bizzarre ideas!

If anything was to keep me awake at night it would be a comet, they only start to show themselves inside the orbit of Jupiter .... we`d be stuffed, not enough time.

A couple of days ago, a binary asteroid system came close ... if you consider1.4 million miles to be close



http://www.universetoday.com/2008/07/14/binary-asteroid-glides-past-earth/

There are some pretty sci-fi ideas about taking on an asteroid. I guess it will be just like the movies Armageddon or Deep Impact.

 

[CoffeeKing]

And where you gonn'a be when this happens?

 

[Wysiwyg]

I sent an e-mail to NASA over a year ago asking if there is going to be or is a galactic alignment and did not get a reply.This confirmed to me the Mayan calender `connection` is a hoax/hype perfect for internet circulation.

 

[Wysiwyg]

What could be closer to truth is a magnetic pole shift.Apparently the Earths north and south poles move or reverse and north becomes south.When is an unknown but it takes a while as the excerpt below shows.The process might be in play now.

This article from National Geographic says the Earths magnetic field is 10% weaker than it was in 1845.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0909_040909_earthmagfield.html

Polar Reversal

Change in polarity of Earth's magnetic field. Like all magnets, Earth's magnetic field has two opposing regions, or poles, positioned approximately near geographical North and South Poles. During a period of normal polarity the region of attraction corresponds with the North Pole. Today, a compass needle, like other magnetic materials, aligns itself parallel to the magnetizing force and points to the North Pole. During a period of reversed polarity, the region of attraction would change to the South Pole and the needle of a compass would point south.

Studies of the magnetism retained in rocks at the time of their formation (like small compasses frozen in time) have shown that the polarity of the magnetic field has reversed repeatedly throughout geological time.

The reason for polar reversals is not known. Although the average time between reversals over the last 10 million years has been 250,000 years, the rate of reversal has changed continuously over geological time. The most recent reversal was 780,000 years ago; scientists have no way of predicting when the next reversal will occur. The reversal process probably takes a few thousand years. Dating rocks using distinctive sequences of magnetic reversals is called magnetic stratigraphy.

 

[spooly74]

And where you gonn'a be when this happens?

And where were you when this happened?

The Harmonic Convergence was a loosely organized new age spiritual event that occurred on August 16 and August 17, 1987, when groups of people gathered in various sacred sites and "mystical" places all over the world to usher in a new era. The date was based primarily on the Maya calendar, but was also affected by interpretations of European and Asian astrology. It also marked a time in astronomy when a number of planets in our solar system came into alignment with one another.

The Harmonic Convergence was supposed to be a global awakening to love and unity through divine transformation. It was initiated in 1987 by Jose Arguelles. According to his interpretation of Maya cosmology (an interpretation held as completely unfounded by Mayanist scholarship), this date was the end of twenty-two cycles of 52 years each, or 1144 years in all. The twenty-two cycles were divided into thirteen "heaven" cycles, which began in AD 843 and ended in 1519, when the nine "hell" cycles began, ending 468 years later in AD 1987.

 

[CoffeeKing]

And where were you when this happened?

Sunday session at the "Mermaid Hotel" Dampier, my mystical place in those days!
:alcohol: :alcohol: :alcohol: :alcohol:

 

[2020hindsight]

Incidentally, you read that when two twins are born, and one goes on a trip at speed of light , and returns , then ( the myth goes) when he lands, he is young and his brother old.

A couple of good websites ...

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/TwinParadox/twin_gap.html

The Twin Paradox: The Time Gap Objection
Try this on for size.

Make the turnaround instantaneous. Relativity puts an upper on speed, but no upper limit on acceleration. An instantaneous Turnaround Event is the limiting case of shorter and shorter turnarounds, and so the theory should handle it.

During the Outbound Leg, Terence ages less than two months, according to Stella. (12 Stella-months / time dilation factor of 7.) During the Inbound Leg, Terence also ages less than two months, according to Stella, by the same computation. The Turnaround Event is instantaneous. Total Terence ageing: less than 4 months, it would seem. Yet Terence is supposed to be over 14 years older when Stella returns! Where did the missing time go?

The Doppler Shift Analysis makes short work of this. Stella sees (through her telescope) Terence age hardly at all during her Outbound Leg, and nearly the full 14 years during her Inbound Leg. No gap.

Of course, she calculates something different, taking into account Doppler shifts and the finite speed of light. These calculations must be based on reference frames. In fact, for Stella to get two months for the Outbound Leg and two months for the Inbound Leg (as in the paragraph above), she has to switch inertial reference frames midway through her journey.

Now different inertial reference frames have different notions of simultaneity. The Outbound reference frame says: "At the same time that Stella makes her turnaround, Terence's clock reads about two months." The Inbound reference frame says: "At the same time that Stella makes her turnaround, Terence's clock reads about 13 years and 10 months." The apparent "gap" is just an accounting error, caused by switching from one frame to another.

The Spacetime Analysis offers the same elucidation, graphically expressed.

So much easier (I think lol) if you just think of red shifts and blue shifts (Doppler effect) as per this site:-

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/TwinParadox/twin_vase.html#gap

 

[2020hindsight]

... (post amended - apologies - to stick with one concept - jpegs from previous post still apply)...

So much easier (I think lol) if you just think of red shifts and blue shifts (Doppler effect) as per this site:-

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/TwinParadox/twin_doppler.html

The Twin Paradox: The Doppler Shift Analysis
.....
Let us focus on what Stella and Terence actually see with their own eyes. To make things interesting, we'll equip them with unbelievably powerful telescopes, so each twin can watch the other's clock throughout the trip. If each twin saw the other clock run slow throughout the trip, then we would have a contradiction. But this is not what they see.

Just in case it's too hard to read the clock hands through the telescope, we'll add a flash unit to each clock, set to flash once a second. You might guess at first that Terence sees Stella's clock flashing once every 7 seconds (with the time dilation factor we've chosen) and vice versa. Not so! On the Outbound Leg, Terence sees a flash rate of approximately one flash per 14 seconds; on the Inbound Leg, he sees her clock going at about 14 flashes per second. That is, he sees it running fast! Stella sees the same behavior in Terence's clock.

What gives? Well, the section title gave it away: just replace the words "flashes per second" with "cycles per second", and you'll recognize the familiar Doppler shift at work. The regular pulses are redshifted to lower frequencies during the Outbound Leg, and blueshifted to higher frequencies during the Inbound Leg.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/TwinParadox/twin_vase.html#gap

(PS I didn't say it was easy lol - but at least - after reading it 10 times with a slab or two of beer - you end up with the right answer - that they end up at the same place doing the same speed and at the same age )

 

[Wysiwyg]

So it`s a visual thing then.Time is relative to light!What of actuallity?Just looking around I get an instant (speed of light) response from the visual cortex in my brain.Terrifically designed by nature in it`s quest for eternal survival.

Light is converted into electrical impulses and sent down the optic fiber, it goes all the way to the back of the brain (after making a few stopovers), where the visual cortex is located. In the visual cortex, a hierarchy of detector cells isolates useful regularities in the visual data, discarding superfluous information. One layer of cells detects things like lines and curves.

A higher-up layer would detect regularities like motion and 3D shapes. The highest layer is where gestalts - overall symbols - appear, responsible for the conscious experience of sight under normal circumstances. The visual cortex is among the best understood of all brain areas, with a voluminous neuroscience literature.

For the time being, what you see is what you get.The rest is imagination.

Here is an optical illusion that works on our 2d/3d interpretation. Left click on the monster and drag him over his little brother.

This is a particularly nice example of the classical “Ponzo Illusion”, where the context suggests different depths in the drawing – here by the subterranean catacomb. Assuming size constancy, our visual system estimates the size of any object as follows: retinal size multiplied by the assumed distance. Thus, the two monsters, though identical, look quite different in their differing contexts.

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/sze_shepardTerrors/index.html

 

[2020hindsight]

well wys, I'm guessing if every planet our there in every galaxy was in phase with the evolution of animals and the other events of history that we've had here on earth,

- and if you had a powerful enough telescope

then in a look at the night sky, you would see everything from WWII back through WWI - back to dinosaurs ...

and (I'm guessing) because the older they appear also implies
a) further away, and
b) moving faster away from us than the close ones,

they the dinosaurs would appear a bit redder that normal

(speaking of seeing pink (early) elephants)

 

[spooly74]

...
(PS I didn't say it was easy lol - but at least - after reading it 10 times with a slab or two of beer - you end up with the right answer - that they end up at the same place doing the same speed and at the same age )

Is this the paradox where one twin travels close or at the speed of light, while the other stays put for a few years??

http://mentock.home.mindspring.com/twins.htm
http://mentock.home.mindspring.com/twin2.htm