Showing posts with label Telescopes. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope)

Extremely Large Telescope - Deep Sky Videos">Extremely Large Telescope - Deep Sky Videos

The E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) project aims to provide European astronomers with the largest optical-infrared telescope in the world. With a diameter of 40m and incorporating a large deformable mirror, the E-ELT is expected to tackle the biggest scientific challenges of our time, and aim for a number of notable firsts, including tracking down Earth-like planets around other stars in the "habitable zones" where life could exist. It will also perform "stellar archaeology" in nearby galaxies, as well as make fundamental contributions to cosmology by measuring the properties of the first stars and galaxies and probing the nature of dark matter and dark energy. E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope)

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See Also:

The European Extremely Large Telescope

E-ELT Trailer | ESO

E-ELT Trailer | ESO

European Extremely Large Telescope

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Multiverse or Universe? - Andre Linde (SETI Talks)

Published on Jan 1, 2013

SETI Talks archive: http://seti.org/talks

Cosmological observations show that the universe is very uniform on the maximally large scale accessible to our telescopes, and the same laws of physics operate in all of its parts that we can see now. The best theoretical explanation of the uniformity of our world was provided by inflationary theory, which was proposed 30 years ago.

See: Multiverse or Universe? - Andre Linde (SETI Talks)

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See Also:

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Are Artifacts of CMB Right Next to Me?

Looking back seems strange to me and that if one is to take such a position then evidence must exist in this very moment?

Models of Earlier Events

This may seem like a stupid question to some, but for me it is really about looking at where I exist in the universe and what exists right next to us in the same space. I am not sure if that makes any sense but hopefully somebody out there can help me focus better.

ESA and the Planck Collaboration

The mission's main goal is to study the cosmic microwave background – the relic radiation left over from the Big Bang – across the whole sky at greater sensitivity and resolution than ever before.

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the furthest back in time we can explore using light.

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is detected in all directions of the sky and appears to microwave telescopes as an almost uniform background. Planck’s predecessors (NASA's COBE and WMAP missions) measured the temperature of the CMB to be 2.726 Kelvin (approximately -270 degrees Celsius) almost everywhere on the sky.

So with parsing some of these points from the link associated above with picture, I am not sure if my question has been properly asked.

A discussion about the definition of nothing.

For me then too, I would always wonder about "what nothing is" as that to relates to the question about what can exist right next to me. It was meant to be logical and not metaphysical question, so as to be reduced to those first moments.

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If BICEP2′s recent result is correct:

” -as big as a large fraction of a percent of the Planck temperature (where the universe would have been hot enough to make black holes just from its own heat) or

– as small as the temperature corresponding to about the energy of the Large Hadron Collider (where it would barely have been hot enough to make Higgs particles)”

History of the Universe-
“not of the whole universe but rather just the part of the universe (called, on this website, “the observable patch of the universe“) that we can observe today,”

Why is this “observable patch” important and where in the CMB map is this located? As strange a question as this might be, can this “observable patch” be right next to us?

So I am constructing a method here to help us see the universe as if I am on a location within this CMB map.

"The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is detected in all directions of the sky and appears to microwave telescopes as an almost uniform background. " -See: ESA and Planck Collaboration

So of course you look at the map, and for me, I wonder where we are located on that map. So with regard to that particular patch what does the background look like?-

"The contents point to a Euclidean flat geometry, with curvature (\Omega_{k}) of −0.0027+0.0039 −0.0038. The WMAP measurements also support the cosmic inflation paradigm in several ways, including the flatness measurement."- WMAP

So such a illustration and my question about our location and where we are in that "all sky map(CoBE, WMAP, and PLanck)" tells us something about the region we are in? Right next to us, in this map while seeking our placement, I am curious as to what this region looks like in relation to say another point on that map.

Cosmological parameters from 2013 Planck results^[23]^[24]^[25]
Parameter	Age of the universe (Gy)	Hubble's constant ( ^km⁄_Mpc·s )	Physical baryon density	Physical cold dark matter density	Dark energy density	Density fluctuations at 8h⁻¹ Mpc	Scalar spectral index	Reionization optical depth
Symbol	$t_0$	$H_0$	$\Omega_b h^2$	$\Omega_c h^2$	$\Omega_\Lambda$	$\sigma_8$	$n_s$	$\tau$
Planck Best fit	13.819	67.11	0.022068	0.12029	0.6825	0.8344	0.9624	0.0925
Planck 68% limits	13.813±0.058	67.4±1.4	0.02207±0.00033	0.1196±0.0031	0.686±0.020	0.834±0.027	0.9616±0.0094	0.097±0.038
Planck+lensing Best fit	13.784	68.14	0.022242	0.11805	0.6964	0.8285	0.9675	0.0949
Planck+lensing 68% limits	13.796±0.058	67.9±1.5	0.02217±0.00033	0.1186±0.0031	0.693±0.019	0.823±0.018	0.9635±0.0094	0.089±0.032
Planck+WP Best fit	13.8242	67.04	0.022032	0.12038	0.6817	0.8347	0.9619	0.0925
Planck+WP 68% limits	13.817±0.048	67.3±1.2	0.02205±0.00028	0.1199±0.0027	0.685+0.018 −0.016	0.829±0.012	0.9603±0.0073	0.089+0.012 −0.014
Planck+WP +HighL Best fit	13.8170	67.15	0.022069	0.12025	0.6830	0.8322	0.9582	0.0927
Planck+WP +HighL 68% limits	13.813±0.047	67.3±1.2	0.02207±0.00027	0.1198±0.0026	0.685+0.017 −0.016	0.828±0.012	0.9585±0.0070	0.091+0.013 −0.014
Planck+lensing +WP+highL Best fit	13.7914	67.94	0.022199	0.11847	0.6939	0.8271	0.9624	0.0943
Planck+lensing +WP+highL 68% limits	13.794±0.044	67.9±1.0	0.02218±0.00026	0.1186±0.0022	0.693±0.013	0.8233±0.0097	0.9614±0.0063	0.090+0.013 −0.014
Planck+WP +highL+BAO Best fit	13.7965	67.77	0.022161	0.11889	0.6914	0.8288	0.9611	0.0952
Planck+WP +highL+BAO 68% limits	13.798±0.037	67.80±0.77	0.02214±0.00024	0.1187±0.0017	0.692±0.010	0.826±0.012	0.9608±0.0054	0.092±0.013

So as we look at this map much is told to us about the Cosmological Parameters and what can be defined in this location we occupy.

Parameter	Value	Description
Ω_tot	$1.0023^{+0.0056}_{-0.0054}$	Total density
w	$-0.980\pm0.053$	Equation of state of dark energy
r	$<0.24$ , k₀ = 0.002Mpc⁻¹ (2σ)	Tensor-to-scalar ratio
d n_s / d ln k	$-0.022\pm0.020$ , k₀ = 0.002Mpc⁻¹	Running of the spectral index
Ω_vh²	$< 0.0062$	Physical neutrino density
Σm_ν	$<0.58$ eV (2σ)	Sum of three neutrino masses

See:

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See Also:

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Wavelength Views of the Sun

This movie, created by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., shows how features of the sun can appear dramatically different when viewed in different wavelengths. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Telescopes help distant objects appear bigger, but this is only one of their advantages. Telescopes can also collect light in ranges that our eyes alone cannot see, providing scientists ways of observing a whole host of material and processes that would otherwise be inaccessible. A new NASA movie of the sun based on data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, shows the wide range of wavelengths – invisible to the naked eye – that the telescope can view. SDO converts the wavelengths into an image humans can see, and the light is colorized into a rainbow of colors.NASA's SDO Shows the Sun's Rainbow of Wavelengths

Sunday, November 24, 2013

A Jet in the Milky Way

Composite image of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Image Credit:

X-ray: NASA/CXC/UCLA/Z. Li et al; Radio: NRAO/VLA

Astronomers have long sought strong evidence that Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is producing a jet of high-energy particles. Finally they have found it, in new results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope.

Previous studies, using a variety of telescopes, suggested there was a jet, but these reports -- including the orientation of the suspected jets -- often contradicted each other and were not considered definitive.

"For decades astronomers have looked for a jet associated with the Milky Way's black hole. Our new observations make the strongest case yet for such a jet," said Zhiyuan Li of Nanjing University in China, lead author of a study appearing in an upcoming edition of The Astrophysical Journal and available online now. See: NASA's Chandra Helps Confirm Evidence of Jet in Milky Way's Black Hole

Friday, March 30, 2012

Eta Carinae

Preview of a Forthcoming Supernova

At the turn of the 19th century, the binary star system Eta Carinae was faint and undistinguished. In the first decades of the century, it became brighter and brighter, until, by April 1843, it was the second brightest star in the sky, outshone only by Sirius (which is almost a thousand times closer to Earth). In the years that followed, it gradually dimmed again and by the 20th century was totally invisible to the naked eye.

The star has continued to vary in brightness ever since, and while it is once again visible to the naked eye on a dark night, it has never again come close to its peak of 1843.

The larger of the two stars in the Eta Carinae system is a huge and unstable star that is nearing the end of its life, and the event that the 19th century astronomers observed was a stellar near-death experience. Scientists call these outbursts supernova impostor events, because they appear similar to supernovae but stop just short of destroying their star.

Although 19th century astronomers did not have telescopes powerful enough to see the 1843 outburst in detail, its effects can be studied today. The huge clouds of matter thrown out a century and a half ago, known as the Homunculus Nebula, have been a regular target for Hubble since its launch in 1990. This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys High Resolution Channel is the most detailed yet, and shows how the material from the star was not thrown out in a uniform manner, but forms a huge dumbbell shape.

Eta Carinae is not only interesting because of its past, but also because of its future. It is one of the closest stars to Earth that is likely to explode in a supernova in the relatively near future (though in astronomical timescales the “near future” could still be a million years away). When it does, expect an impressive view from Earth, far brighter still than its last outburst: SN 2006gy, the brightest supernova ever observed, came from a star of the same type.

This image consists of ultraviolet and visible light images from the High Resolution Channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 30 arcseconds across.

Links

Previous images of Eta Carinae from the Hubble Space Telescope:
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8 Comparisons of Morphology

For me this image is related to something proposed by someone else in terms of self similarity. The idea that what we might see on the microscopic level may some how be transferred to a larger rendition of that happening. I thought that appealing in a way as to how one might have mapped the star systems to orbitals and how we look look at the larger versions displayed in the cosmos.
A Classical Discription of the Quantum World?

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Probability densities for the electron of a hydrogen atom in different quantum states.(Click on Image)

In physics, a quantum state is a set of mathematical variables that fully describes a quantum system.

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Is there such a thing, as isometrical relations of orbitals, in cosmological designs? A Classical definition of the Quantum World perhaps?

See Also:

Quantum state

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Living With A Star

The Living With a Star (LWS) program emphasizes the science necessary to understand those aspects of the Sun and the Earth's space environment that affect life and society. The ultimate goal is to provide a predictive understanding of the system, and specifically of the space weather conditions at Earth and in the interplanetary medium.

LWS missions have been formulated to answer specific science questions needed to understand the linkages among the interconnected systems that impact us. LWS products impact technology associated with space systems, communications and navigation, and ground systems such as power grids.The coordinated LWS program includes strategic missions, targeted research and technology development, a space environment test bed flight opportunity, and partnerships with other agencies and nations.Living With A Star

Who would have ever thought to consider our own Sun as a member of the Cosmos, as a Star?

Solar Probe Fact Sheet(click on Image)

Solar Probe+ will be an extraordinary and historic mission, exploring what is arguably the last region of the solar system to be visited by a spacecraft, the Sun’s outer atmosphere or corona as it extends out into space. Approaching as close as 9.5 solar radii* (8.5 solar radii above the Sun’s surface), Solar Probe+ will repeatedly sample the near-Sun environment, revolutionizing our knowledge and understanding of coronal heating and of the origin and evolution of the solar wind and answering critical questions in heliophysics that have been ranked as top priorities for decades. Moreover, by making direct, in-situ measurements of the region where some of the most hazardous solar energetic particles are energized, Solar Probe+ will make a fundamental contribution to our ability to characterize and forecast the radiation environment in which future space explorers will work and live. See:Solar Probe Plus

As with anything if we want peer deeper in the construction of the world around us it is necessary sometimes to put on different glasses for different perspectives. So it is about how we can look at the universe around us.

HelioPhysics Research

ACE Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) observes particles of solar, interplanetary, interstellar, and galactic origins, spanning the energy range from solar wind ions to galactic cosmic ray nuclei. This mission is part of SMD's Explorers Program. This mission is part of SMD's ...	19970827 08-27-1997	Operating
AIM Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) is a mission to determine the causes of the highest altitude clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. The number of clouds in the middle atmosphere (mesosphere) over the Earth's poles has been increasing over ...	20070425 04-25-2007	Operating
BARREL The Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses mission is a balloon-based Mission of Opportunity to augment the measurements of NASA's RBSP spacecraft. This mission is part of SMD's LWS program.		Development
CINDI/CNOFS The Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigations (CINDI) is a mission to understand the dynamics of the Earth's ionosphere. CINDI will provide two instruments for the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecast System (C/NOFS) satellite, a project of the United States Air Force. This mission ...	20080416 04-16-2008	Operating
Cluster-II Cluster is a European Space Agency program with major NASA involvement. The 4 Cluster spacecraft are providing a detailed three-dimensional map of the magnetosphere, with surprising results. This mission is part of SMD's Heliophysics Research program.	20000716 07-16-2000	Operating
Equator-S Equator-S was a German Space Agency project, with contributions from ESA and NASA, related to the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics program. The mission provided high-resolution plasma, magnetic, and electric field measurements in several regions not adequately covered by any of the ...	19971202 12-02-1997	Past
FAST Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) studies the detailed plasma physics of the Earth's auroral regions. Ground support campaigns coordinate satellite measurements with ground observations of the Aurora Borealis, commonly referred to as the Northern Lights. The science instruments on board ...	19960821 08-21-1996	Past
Geotail The GEOTAIL mission is a collaborative project undertaken by the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and NASA. Its primary objective is to study the tail of the Earth's magnetosphere. The information gathered is allowing scientists to model ...	19920724 07-24-1992	Operating
Hinode (Solar-B) Hinode (formerly known as Solar-B) is a Japanese ISAS mission proposed as a follow-on to the highly successful Japan/US/UK Yohkoh (Solar-A) collaboration. The mission consists of a coordinated set of optical, EUV and X-ray instruments that are studying the interaction ...	20060923 09-23-2006	Operating
IBEX IBEX will be the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. This mission ...	20081019 10-19-2008	Operating
IMAGE IMAGE studied the global response of the magnetosphere to changes in the solar wind. Major changes occur to the configuration of the magnetosphere as a result of changes in and on the Sun, which in turn change the solar wind.	20000325 03-25-2000	Past
IMP-8 IMP 8 has deepened understanding of the space environment near Earth in many ways. Observations from IMP 8 provided insight into plasma physics, the Earth's magnetic field, the structure of the solar wind and the nature of cosmic rays.	19731026 10-26-1973	Past
IRIS The primary goal of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) explorer is to understand how the solar atmosphere is energized. The IRIS investigation combines advanced numerical modeling with a high resolution UV imaging spectrograph.	20121201 12-01-2012	Development
ISEE The ISEE (International Sun-Earth Explorer) program was an international cooperative program between NASA and ESA to study the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's magnetosphere.	19971022 10-22-1997	Past
MMS The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission will determine the small-scale basic plasma processes which transport, accelerate and energize plasmas in thin boundary and current layers – and which control the structure and dynamics of the Earth's magnetosphere. MMS will for the first ...	20140814 08-14-2014	Development
Polar Polar is the second of two NASA spacecraft in the Global Geospace Science (GGS) initiative and part of the ISTP Project. GGS is designed to improve greatly the understanding of the flow of energy, mass and momentum in the solar-terrestrial ...	19960224 02-24-1996	Past
RBSP The RBSP mission will provide scientific understanding, ideally to the point of predictability, of how populations of relativistic electrons and ions in space form and change in response to variable inputs of energy from the Sun.	20120518 05-18-2012	Development
RHESSI Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager (RHESSI) studies solar flares in X-rays and gamma-rays. It explores the basic physics of particle acceleration and explosive energy release in these energetic events in the Sun's atmosphere. This is accomplished by imaging ...	20020205 02-05-2002	Operating
SAMPEX The Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer is investigating the composition of local interstellar matter and solar material and the transport of magnetospheric charged particles into the Earth's atmosphere.	19920703 07-03-1992	Past
SNOE SNOE ("snowy") was a small satellite investigating the effects of energy from the Sun and from the magnetosphere on the density of nitric oxide in the Earth's upper atmosphere.	19980226 02-26-1998	Past
SOHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a solar observatory studying the structure, chemical composition, and dynamics of the solar interior. SOHO a joint venture of the European Space Agency and NASA. This mission is part of SMD's Heliophysics Research program.	19951202 12-02-1995	Operating
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is the first mission and crown jewel in a fleet of NASA missions to study our sun. The mission is the cornerstone of a NASA science program called Living With a Star (LWS). The goal ...	20100211 02-11-2010	Operating
Solar Orbiter Solar Orbiter is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to study the Sun from a distance closer than any spacecraft previously has, and will provide images and measurements in unprecedented resolution and detail. This mission is part of SMD's LWS ...		Under Study
Solar Probe Plus Solar Probe Plus will be a historic mission, flying into one of the last unexplored regions of the solar system, the Sun’s atmosphere or corona, for the first time. This mission is part of SMD's LWS Program.		Under Study
Space Environment Testbeds The Space Environment Testbeds (SET) Project performs flight and ground investigations to understand how the Sun/Earth interactions affect humanity.	20121001 10-01-2012	Development
Spartan 201 Spartan is a small, Shuttle-launched and retrieved satellite. Spartan 201, whose mission is to study the Sun, has a science payload consisting of two telescopes: the Ultraviolet Coronal Spectrometer (UVCS) and the White Light Coronagraph (WLC). Spartan 201 was launched ...	19940913 09-13-1994	Past
ST5 Space Technology 5 (ST5) flight tested its miniaturized satellites and innovative technologies in the harsh environment of Earth's magnetosphere.	20060322 03-22-2006	Past
STEREO The goal of STEREO is to understand the origin the Sun's coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and their consequences for Earth. The mission consists of two spacecraft, one leading and the other lagging Earth in its orbit. The spacecraft carries instrumentation ...	20061025 10-25-2006	Operating
THEMIS Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) is a study of the onset of magnetic storms within the tail of the Earth's magnetosphere. THEMIS will fly five microsatellite probes through different regions of the magnetosphere and observe ...	20070217 02-17-2007	Operating
TIMED Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) explores the energy transfer into and out of the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere (MLTI) region of the Earth's atmosphere. This mission is part of SMD's Solar Terrestrial Probes Program.	20011207 12-07-2001	Operating
TRACE Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) observes the effects of the emergence of magnetic flux from deep inside the Sun to the outer corona with high spatial and temporal resolution. This mission is part of SMD's Heliophysics Explorers program. This ...	19980401 04-01-1998	Past
TWINS A & B TWINS will provide stereo imaging of the Earth's magnetosphere, the region surrounding the planet controlled by its magnetic field and containing the Van Allen radiation belts and other energetic charged particles. This mission is part of SMD's Explorers Program. This ...	20080313 03-13-2008	Operating
Ulysses The Ulysses Mission is the first spacecraft to explore interplanetary space at high solar latitudes, orbiting the Sun nearly perpendicular to the plane in which the planets orbit. This mission is part of SMD's Heliophysics Research program.	19901006 10-06-1990	Past
Voyager The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft continue exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. In the 25th year after their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the Sun than Pluto is and approaching ...	19770905 09-05-1977	Operating
Wind Wind studies the solar wind and its impact on the near-Earth environment. This mission is part of SMD's Heliophysics Research program.	19941101 11-01-1994	Operating
Yohkoh Yohkoh, an observatory for studying X-rays and gamma-rays from the Sun, is a project of the Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences, Japan.	19910830 08-30-1991	Past

Saturday, March 12, 2011

A Microscope on a Macroscopic World?

"Nothing to me would be more poetic; no outcome would be more graceful ... than for us to confirm our theories of the ultramicroscopic makeup of spacetime and matter by turning our giant telescopes skyward and gazing at the stars,"

Greene said.

Friday, January 07, 2011

Crab Nebula

This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans.

The orange filaments are the tattered remains of the star and consist mostly of hydrogen. The rapidly spinning neutron star embedded in the center of the nebula is the dynamo powering the nebula's eerie interior bluish glow. The blue light comes from electrons whirling at nearly the speed of light around magnetic field lines from the neutron star. The neutron star, like a lighthouse, ejects twin beams of radiation that appear to pulse 30 times a second due to the neutron star's rotation. A neutron star is the crushed ultra-dense core of the exploded star.

The Crab Nebula derived its name from its appearance in a drawing made by Irish astronomer Lord Rosse in 1844, using a 36-inch telescope. When viewed by Hubble, as well as by large ground-based telescopes such as the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, the Crab Nebula takes on a more detailed appearance that yields clues into the spectacular demise of a star, 6,500 light-years away.

The newly composed image was assembled from 24 individual Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 exposures taken in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000. The colors in the image indicate the different elements that were expelled during the explosion. Blue in the filaments in the outer part of the nebula represents neutral oxygen, green is singly-ionized sulfur, and red indicates doubly-ionized oxygen.

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January 6, 2011 - Fermi's Large Area Telescope Sees Surprising Flares in Crab Nebula

Each of the two flares the LAT observed lasted a few days before the Crab Nebula's gamma-ray output returned to more normal levels. According to Funk, the short duration of the flares points to synchrotron radiation, or radiation emitted by electrons accelerating in the magnetic field of the nebula, as the cause. And not just any accelerated electrons: the flares were caused by super-charged electrons of up to 10¹⁵ electron volts, or 10 quadrillion electron volts, approximately 1,000 times more energetic than the protons accelerated by the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, the world's most powerful man-made particle accelerator, and more than 15 orders of magnitude greater than photons of visible light.

"The strength of the gamma-ray flares shows us they were emitted by the highest-energy particles we can associate with any discrete astrophysical object," Funk said. January 6, 2011 - Fermi's Large Area Telescope Sees Surprising Flares in Crab Nebula-Date Issued: January 6, 2011 Contact: Melinda Lee, SLAC Media Manager

Saturday, February 24, 2007

NASA's Hubble Telescope Celebrates SN 1987A's 20th Anniversary

A String of 'Cosmic Pearls' Surrounds an Exploding Star-NASA, ESA, P. Challis, and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Twenty years ago, astronomers witnessed one of the brightest stellar explosions in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova, called SN 1987A, blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following its discovery on Feb. 23, 1987.

Observations of SN 1987A, made over the past 20 years by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and many other major ground- and space-based telescopes, have significantly changed astronomers' views of how massive stars end their lives. Astronomers credit Hubble's sharp vision with yielding important clues about the massive star's demise.

"The sharp pictures from the Hubble telescope help us ask and answer new questions about Supernova 1987A," said Robert Kirshner, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "In fact, without Hubble we wouldn't even know what to ask."

Kirshner is the lead investigator of an international collaboration to study the doomed star. Studying supernovae like SN 1987A is important because the exploding stars create elements, such as carbon and iron, that make up new stars, galaxies, and even humans. The iron in a person's blood, for example, was manufactured in supernova explosions. SN 1987A ejected 20,000 Earth masses of radioactive iron. The core of the shredded star is now glowing because of radioactive titanium that was cooked up in the explosion.

The star is 163,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It actually blew up about 161,000 B.C., but its light arrived here in 1987.

If you get the chance take a look over at the post "Supernova 1987A" done by Stefan of Backreaction in regards to this issue. It is nice to be able to reflect where one was when such a event took place. Maybe you remember where you were and can comment?

About the event itself I must say it has not triggered any remembrances other then what I choose to reflect on my own life, and that's something different.

What is of interest to be is how these events unfold and what geometrics play within the design of this unfoldment. I do speak on that in various posts.

Kepler's Supernova

Four hundred years ago, sky watchers, including the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler, were startled by the sudden appearance of a "new star" in the western sky, rivaling the brilliance of the nearby planets. Now, astronomers using NASA's three Great Observatories are unraveling the mysteries of the expanding remains of Kepler's supernova, the last such object seen to explode in our Milky Way galaxy.

See here for link to this story.

This combined image -- from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, and e Chandra X-ray Observatory -- unveils a bubble-shaped shroud of gas and dust that is 14 light-years wide and is expanding at 4 million miles per hour (2,000 kilometers per second). Observations from each telescope highlight distinct features of the supernova remnant, a fast-moving shell of iron-rich material from the exploded star, surrounded by an expanding shock wave that is sweeping up interstellar gas and dust.

By designing the types of satellites we wish to use to measure, we create the image of the events as beautiful pictures of unfoldment within our universe as seen above. Maybe you can see something in "the theory proposed of SN1987a pictures" that will help understand what I mean?

When one is doing mathematical work, there are essentially two different ways of thinking about the subject: the algebraic way, and the geometric way. With the algebraic way, one is all the time writing down equations and following rules of deduction, and interpreting these equations to get more equations. With the geometric way, one is thinking in terms of pictures; pictures which one imagines in space in some way, and one just tries to get a feeling for the relationships between the quantities occurring in those pictures. Now, a good mathematician has to be a master of both ways of those ways of thinking, but even so, he will have a preference for one or the other; I don't think he can avoid it. In my own case, my own preference is especially for the geometrical way. Paul Dirac

This universe has events at a time in space, which allows us to construct this event as as geometrical function. Some of the values seen in the microscopic world have placed an interesting role for me in how I see this relationship of what unfolds within our microperspective views, as to what is on display in our cosmos.

The Bohr model is a primitive model of the hydrogen atom. As a theory, it can be derived as a first-order approximation of the hydrogen atom using the broader and much more accurate quantum mechanics, and thus may be considered to be an obsolete scientific theory. However, because of its simplicity, and its correct results for selected systems (see below for application), the Bohr model is still commonly taught to introduce students to quantum mechanics.

While I appreciate these events in the cosmos I also needed to understand how such microperspective were motivating the geometry within that event, so it is not possible for me not to include the arrangements of the physics of reductionism and not compare it to these motivations that create these beautiful events

Update: It's 9:20 am and I was just over at Quasar9's blog and notice this entry in relation to SN1987a as well.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Back to the Beginning of Time

While some of us who had been engaged in a little prehistory examination of earliest QGP states as glast determination of high energy photons, the question, "to Be or not to be," how could we not ask what Professor Susskind offered up for examination under the title, "the elephant and the event horizon?"

What happens when you throw an elephant into a black hole? It sounds like a bad joke, but it's a question that has been weighing heavily on Leonard Susskind's mind. Susskind, a physicist at Stanford University in California, has been trying to save that elephant for decades. He has finally found a way to do it, but the consequences shake the foundations of what we thought we knew about space and time. If his calculations are correct, the elephant must be in more than one place at the same time.

I think there is still this far reaching philosophical question about what really started time? If "nothing" existed then how could we assume anything could arise from it?

While empirically Aristotle has lead the thinking, you know how I think don’t you:) Do you see me stand apart from Aristotle?

So I resolve this question in my own mind, even if I do refer to Gabriele Veneziano and his introduction of what began as string theory.

How could I resolve "anything" that has been taken down to the very first microseconds, while recognizing the value of anything "underneath the guise of building blocks of matter," and have said, "that this is the theory of everything?"

It only helped us to the point of the singularity, but it is much different then a complete death. The whole time reductionistic thinking has dominated the move back in history, there were other things going on, that us simple lay people were not aware of. Maybe for some scientists too?:)

Colliding galaxies, NGC 4676, known as "The Mice" (credit: Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA )

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2013. JWST will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. JWST will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. JWST's instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.

JWST will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won't fit onto the rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open only once JWST is in outer space. JWST will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth.

JWST Science

The JWST science goals are divided into four themes. The key objective of The End of the Dark Ages: First Light and Reionization theme is to identify the first luminous sources to form and to determine the ionization history of the early universe. The key objective of The Assembly of Galaxies theme is to determine how galaxies and the dark matter, gas, stars, metals, morphological structures, and active nuclei within them evolved from the epoch of reionization to the present day. The key objective of The Birth of Stars and Protoplanetary Systems theme is to unravel the birth and early evolution of stars, from infall on to dust-enshrouded protostars to the genesis of planetary systems. The key objective of The Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life theme is to determine the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems including our own, and investigate the potential for the origins of life in those systems.

So again, we are being lead by science here to look ahead to what plans for the future may have influenced, or caused the decsisons they did, on another trip to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope?

The Dark Ages of the UniverseBy Abraham Loeb

What makes modern cosmology an empirical science is that we are literally able to peer into the past. When you look at your image reflected off a mirror one meter away, you see the way you looked six nanoseconds ago--the light's travel time to the mirror and back. Similarly, cosmologists do not need to guess how the universe evolved; we can watch its history through telescopes. Because the universe appears to be statistically identical in every direction, what we see billions of light-years away is probably a fair representation of what our own patch of space looked like billions of years ago.

So then I am at a loss to explain that what happened billions of years ago near the beginning of this universe, could have ever been created in this universe now? Some body may say to you, "that the beginning of time and the distance of the beginning of the universe to now, has no correlation?"

If the circumstance are to be created in our colliders, then what said that mass determinations will ever arise from our research into the HiGG's, is not relevant, to what can be created in this space and time now?

Remember, everywhere you look in the cosmos this possibility exists. The WMAP is indictive of what I am saying.

So you say, the beginning of the universe and "the time created" to produce the particles of new physics, has no correlation into how this universe came into being?

Perhaps you may like to read Stephen Hawkings perspective on the beginning of time?

The conclusion of this lecture is that the universe has not existed forever. Rather, the universe, and time itself, had a beginning in the Big Bang, about 15 billion years ago. The beginning of real time, would have been a singularity, at which the laws of physics would have broken down. Nevertheless, the way the universe began would have been determined by the laws of physics, if the universe satisfied the no boundary condition. This says that in the imaginary time direction, space-time is finite in extent, but doesn't have any boundary or edge. The predictions of the no boundary proposal seem to agree with observation. The no boundary hypothesis also predicts that the universe will eventually collapse again. However, the contracting phase, will not have the opposite arrow of time, to the expanding phase. So we will keep on getting older, and we won't return to our youth. Because time is not going to go backwards, I think I better stop now.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Early Universe Formation

An Energy of Empty Space?

Einstein was the first person to realize that empty space is not nothingness. Space has amazing properties, many of which are just beginning to be understood. The first property of space that Einstein discovered is that more space can actually come into existence. Einstein's gravity theory makes a second prediction: "empty space" can have its own energy. This energy would not be diluted as space expands, because it is a property of space itself; as more space came into existence, more of this energy-of-space would come into existence as well. As a result, this form of energy would cause the universe to expand faster and faster as time passes. Unfortunately, no one understands why space should contain the observed amount of energy and not, say, much more or much less.

I had been doing some reading and some thoughts came to mind about the measures one may use to see how our universe is doing. While it is really early here for any great revelation :) it did seem that issues could arise in my mind, if we used the "distance" to measure what exactly the universe is doing.

A Determinism at Planck Scale?

I'll tell you why in a second and then leave for now, as I have to continue with finishing the "foundation" with my son. Getting ready for backfilling tomorrow.

Andrey Kravtsov's computer modelling comes to mind, and how I was percieving early universe modelling in terms of a supersymmetrical state of existance. Holding this very idea in terms of this whole universe, it seemed to me, that the very "dynamical situation" and rise from such motivations, would have revealled principles as inherent in how "GR" would arise from this beginning. If the 5d consideration ha dbeen reduced to the 4 spacertime coordinated frame of reference, then what use any supersymmetrical state, or the motivation for such universe expressions?

Scientists have detected a flash of light from across the Galaxy so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's upper atmosphere. The flash was brighter than anything ever detected from beyond our Solar System and lasted over a tenth of a second. NASA and European satellites and many radio telescopes detected the flash and its aftermath on December 27, 2004. Two science teams report about this event at a special press event today at NASA headquarters

So there are two issues here that in my mind which make measurement extremely difficult. Two events within each other, that reveal something acute about the closeness of the beginnings in the universe, as very closely mappped to what exists now in our views revealled in GRB events

It was further complicated in my mind by two more issues that hold reference to these high energy events releases, that layout the schematics drawings, that the new WMAP indication holds in regards to analogistical sounds, revealled as the underpinnings of movement within this same universe.

So what about the WMAP and it's current reveallings?

If such equillibrium states are recognized as they are in placing detectors to position. Wouldn't this also reveal an opportune time for how we see this information, and provide for quick travel?

How did these "holes" create a problem for me?

If energy from these events found the "fastest route," then what would any lensing have looked like, effected by the very influences that the photon's travelled held, unduly holding to a fifth dimensional view?

The universe may of then looked like a swiss cheese? :)

Within conventional big bang cosmology, it has proven to be very difficult to understand why today's cosmological constant is so small. In this paper, we show that a cyclic model of the universe can naturally incorporate a dynamical mechanism that automatically relaxes the value of the cosmological constant, including contributions to the vacuum density at all energy scales. Because the relaxation time grows exponentially as the vacuum density decreases, nearly every volume of space spends an overwhelming majority of the time at the stage when the cosmological constant is small and positive, as observed today.

Link for article above here. Paul Steinhardt's homepage here.

If gravity and light are joined in the fifth dimension, what would this mean?