Muon Detection

An image of the shadow of the Moon in muons as produced by the 700m subterranean Soudan 2 detector in the Soudan Mine in Minnesota. The shadow is the result of approximately 120 muons missing from a total of 33 million detected in Soudan 2 over its 10 years of operation. The cross denotes the actual location of the Moon. The shadow of the Moon is slightly offset from this location because cosmic rays are electrically charged particles and were slightly deflected by the Earth's magnetic field on their journey to the upper atmosphere. The shadow is produced due to the shielding effect the Moon has on galactic and cosmic rays, which stream in from all directions. The cosmic rays normally strike atoms high in the upper atmosphere, producing showers of muons and other short lived particles.

Just an update here while looking at Sean Carroll's blog post article, entitled," Scientists Confirm Existence of Moon." While we understand the need for confirmation of the existence of things, seeing how our perception is used in order to make such a statement,  is a statement of such a measure then as to what is real.

 We report on the observation of a significant deficit of cosmic rays from the direction of the Moon with the IceCube detector. The study of this "Moon shadow" is used to characterize the angular resolution and absolute pointing capabilities of the detector. The detection is based on data taken in two periods before the completion of the detector: between April 2008 and May 2009, when IceCube operated in a partial configuration with 40 detector strings deployed in the South Pole ice, and between May 2009 and May 2010 when the detector operated with 59 strings. Using two independent analysis methods, the Moon shadow has been observed to high significance (> 6 sigma) in both detector configurations. The observed location of the shadow center is within 0.2 degrees of its expected position when geomagnetic deflection effects are taken into account. This measurement validates the directional reconstruction capabilities of IceCube. See: Observation of the cosmic-ray shadow of the Moon with IceCube,

So I have spent some time here looking at how this measure is used in term sof such clarifications and this to me is an exciting off shoot of what particle research has done for us. The skies the limit then as to our use of such a measure then is seen and understood in the post written by Sean Carroll.

The Third Dimension of Cassiopeia A

There are certain advancements when one sees in a geometrical sense as to understand the Supernova in all it's glory. So there are many materialistic things with which we can identify as to the course and direction with regard to it's evolution.

Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO

One of the most famous objects in the sky - the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant - will be on display like never before, thanks to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and a new project from the Smithsonian Institution. A new three-dimensional (3D) viewer, being unveiled this week, will allow users to interact with many one-of-a-kind objects from the Smithsonian as part of a large-scale effort to digitize many of the Institutions objects and artifacts.

Scientists have combined data from Chandra, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and ground-based facilities to construct a unique 3D model of the 300-year old remains of a stellar explosion that blew a massive star apart, sending the stellar debris rushing into space at millions of miles per hour. The collaboration with this new Smithsonian 3D project will allow the astronomical data collected on Cassiopeia A, or Cas A for short, to be featured and highlighted in an open-access program -- a major innovation in digital technologies with public, education, and research-based impacts. See: Exploring the Third Dimension of Cassiopeia A

See Also:

Cassiopeia A: Exploring the Third Dimension of Cassiopeia A

The value of non-Euclidean geometry lies in its ability to liberate us from preconceived ideas in preparation for the time when exploration of physical laws might demand some geometry other than the Euclidean. Bernhard Riemann

The concept of dimension is not restricted to physical objects. High-dimensional spaces occur in mathematics and the sciences for many reasons, frequently as configuration spaces such as in Lagrangian or Hamiltonian mechanics; these are abstract spaces, independent of the physical space we live in.

More on Spherical Cows

Hubble Heritage Project

Of course I am always drawn toward the reason for why the universe does certain things and I greatly appreciate how a scientist might explain this to me in the most simplest form, which leaves no doubts. But I do not think they can do that without explaining the basis of the reasoning but through symbolic representation in the form of an approximate.

Scientists strive to discover simple rules which underlie complex natural phenomena. For example, when making a model of some complex object a scientist may make some pretty extreme assumptions. For example, when asked to find the force of gravity produced by a complicated object like a galaxy, astronomers will usually start by assuming that it acts like a sphere, which in this and many other cases allows one to make approximate first solutions to complicated problems.

This tendancy to simplify gave rise to the joke of a science professor who begins a lecture, "Consider a spherical cow..." Since Wisconsin is well known to have a large population of dairy cows, it is not too surprising that the University of Wisconsin astronomers and astrophyscists selected this picture of a spherical cow made by Ingrid Kallick as their symbol for a recent national meeting of astronomers in Madison. Hubble Heritage Gallery Page

So herein lies the framework with which I had already envisioned so that I may understand the evolution of the Supernova as to ascertain what drove it to become what it is today in the universe.That evolution leaves it's tale in the history of our universe, and together,  with other local regions to me are contributors to what said the universe must expand all together in it's own way.

There’s absolutely no reason why a non-scientist shouldn’t be able to follow why dark energy makes the universe accelerate, given just a bit of willingness to think about it. Dark energy is persistent, which imparts a constant impulse to the expansion of the universe, which makes galaxies accelerate away. See: Why Does Dark Energy Make the Universe Accelerate?

So the issuance of a contributor would make it so much easier to suggest that what we do not see in the form of dark energy, yet, can be explained particle wise as to suggest it operates within a certain parameter of energies? For any continued expansion to exist, the derivative of that evolution spherically approximated too should be described by some correlation? To suggest the fluid nature is calming to me.:)

See Also:

• Spherical Cows
• Spherical Cows and their X-ray Sources

Energy Flow Without Impedance

It has always been of interest to me how one could get energy to flow quite freely without it succumb too the impurities that may have blocked that flow. I mean the correlation in my mind and being the layman that I am, could in itself demonstrate how my noise provided for the ability of someone not to seeing,  so as to just bungle up the message.

The development of superconductors that could be used in real-world applications, particularly power transmission, could transform the U.S. energy landscape. In addition to huge cost-savings, the higher capacity enabled by superconducting cables would help overcome urban power bottlenecks in today’s power grid, reducing the potential for blackouts and other power interruptions. It would also improve the cost-effective control of power flowing across the national grid and extend the operating life of existing high-load power lines. Furthermore, zero-loss transmission would enable the transfer of solar energy generated in parts of the U.S. where sunlight is most abundant to those where it is not, thus making other energy-saving technologies more practical and affordable. Complex Materials Unusual properties may lead to new superconductors

So I paragraph more those whose words who are not mine to see how the issues around that flow may be considered.. I must say a blog spot piece from Scientific American had got me thinking.

Photo Credit: “Superconducting wires by epitaxial grown on SSIFFS at Oak Ridge National Laboratory” taken on July 29, 2009 by the U.S. Department of Energy

 Photo Friday: Superconducting wires for long-distance electricity transmission By Melissa C. Lott

So to me I am always looking for processes that make energy flow in such a way, as to be correlated in the cosmos. I am looking for ways that energy can travel through and be described as cosmic particle collisions and subsequent, cosmic spallations that demonstrate the list of the ways in which this energy is being accounted for.

So it is important that the views we may of held in regard to how we see energy leak into unaccountability  had its day,  so as to see the current status of what is no longer counted as the missing energy any more.

Later studies and the investigation of much larger data samples have concluded that the event could not be ascribed to new physics but rather to some odd coincidence of detector effects and rare, but known, standard model processes. The Event From Another World

So what is left for me is this nagging feeling about what is explained as processes we do not quite understand and what we have always herald it as some inexplicable description of an unknown process. Herein,  it still remains a mystery and if you can move forward and make clearer the understanding of these processes in particle examinations then how much clear the impedance that such a mystery brings to our examination of the science behind these energy flows?

Of course these are materialistic version of ones grasp of the realities of things in the objective sense, but there is always more we can correlate in mind that we would have found such processes as similar in their expressions? So yes analogies also have to be most certainly clear as to those demonstrations as well.

Sleep Deprivation?

See: Why Do We Sleep
 

(HD) Dark Matter & Dark Energy in the Universe - Full Documentary

See:(HD) Dark Matter & Dark Energy in the Universe - Full Documentary

The Xenon Dark Matter Project

Model of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search which translates actual data into sound and light. We have not yet had a dark matter interaction, but we have lots of particles hitting the detectors and that is what you are watching. A downloadable version is at my webpage http://www.hep.umn.edu/~prisca More info on our experiment can be found at http://cdms.berkeley.edu and http://www.soudan.umn.edu

There is current data that deals with this topic that has been transformed in how we look at this issue.  I leave that up to viewers to think about all the other bloggers that have already spoken to this. I wll give one link below for consideration.

See:

• Breaking News: Two Great New Measurements

Analogies Make You Think

See:

Falling into a Blackhole- On Sept. 25, four theoretical physicists — Raphael Bousso (U.C. Berkeley), Juan Maldacena (Institute for Advanced Study), Joseph Polchinski (U.C. Santa Barbara) and Leonard Susskind (Stanford University) — answered your questions about the latest theories about what happens when matter falls into a black hole and how these ideas are prompting researchers to reconsider our understanding of gravity.

See Also:

• Metaphors and analogies: scientists’ friends or foes?

Gravity The Movie and the Expanse of Space

Went and saw the movie yesterday. I must say it had a crazy effect on me seeing the movie in 3d.

It seem to capture some of my fears about having lost some constraint on how one is attach to the matters with which we are held bound. The grasping continuously,  of trying to grab onto and hold too, as if the need exists for all humanity to be grounded.

Effectively as a participant once fully engaged, it showed me a glimpse into the future, one way or another, of being involved in the process. While being to old to ever consider such a process now in space exploration, if there is a future life,  I have already glimpsed it,  and seen some of the work I was going to do.

Wishful thinking on my part perhaps, but equally real that the fear of being lost in space, ever so real as to the understanding of what we may call home to many of us. It is as fragile to realize that what we call home here on earth could have ever lost such bounds as to what we all remain attached too. In that moment of realization perhaps to see all around, us, as no longer being held to Earth as the mass between us somehow looses it gravitational hold.

You must forgive me for my layman pondering. How is it that we can change this gravitational connect between the masses without altering the mass of one? It seems to me that there is a  link  to mind somehow in what I come to believe to be true, is an ability to change how that mass is viewed? Is there any scientific proof for this that we can change the laws of gravity, by either injecting something into the space between these masses, or,  by altering the nature of the mass itself?

As Sandra Bullock is shown on the shore,  we find we are safe again.



Such a feeling had been deeply entrenched in my mind as I moved closer to the edge of a viewing point over looking  the Grand Canyon. That such an expanse of space was to have been found with such familiarity,  as in the movie just seen.

So in a way this idea of releasing the matters is a strange thing in my mind as to have ever considered it beyond the materialistic binds with which this process is viewed. That there are other and thought provoking ideas about what the spirit of ourselves can ever be held so tightly so as to see the way in which we are connected to the experiences in life.

What would it mean to have found that the attachments of life can be so easily held in perspective that we can release those things which keep us grounded. Not that we feel safe, but to realize that there is another kind of gravity that holds us to the materialistic binds which make our lives human here on earth.

See Also:

• Spacecraft propulsion
• Nature of Mass

CERN Courier: AMS-02 provides a precise measure of cosmic rays

Fig. 1. AMS, far left, was installed by NASA on the International Space Station on 19 May 2011, where it is the only major physical science experiment. It will operate there for the station's lifetime of approximately 20 years.
Image credit: NASA.

AMS-02 is a large particle detector by space standards and built using the concepts and technologies developed for experiments at particle accelerators but adapted to the extremely hostile environment of space. Measuring 5 × 4 × 3 m³, it weighs 7.5 tonnes. Reliability, performance and redundancy are the key features for the safe and successful operation of this instrument in space (CERN Courier July/August 2011 p18 and p23). See: AMS-02 provides a precise measure of cosmic rays

It's important I think to see the context of particle  reductionism in the proper light  as we examine what goes on in LHC. Doing AMSII work on space station at the same time, we see from space those energies which help us  to understand the naturalness of the work being done.

Data: CERN computing through the ages and Quantum AI Lab

Video: CERN computing through the ages

A peek at the early days of the Quantum AI Lab: a partnership between NASA, Google, and a 512-qubit D-Wave Two quantum computer.