♥ ☼ Cosmic Wanderings ☼ ♥

Because my head often finds itself drifting off to the cosmos (in a quite literal sense), I've decided to initiate a thread of interesting space-related news/concepts/photos to share with the astronomically-inclined (or those simply inclined to "ooh" and "aah" at pretty space dust, because I most certainly fall into that category as well).

Hoping this is an appropriate place to post this, and deepest apologies if I am mistaken! All are wholeheartedly invited to kick my galactic gluteus region into another quadrant if more suitable... Otherwise, please pull up a beanbag or a captain's chair and join me in the amazing universe.

Just a short little blurb to get the Katamari junk-ball rolling.

♥ ☼ Cosmic Wanderings ☼ ♥
A to-be-updated-when-anyone-feels-like-it Astronomical Amazement Adventure

6 March 2015
NASA's Dawn probe's arrival at Ceres.

Ramblings on the Radar
I'm personally pretty excited about this as I sit and finish a cup of semi-abandoned morning coffee. Ceres is the biggest object in the Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Considered an example of a "failed planet", Ceres actually constitutes approximately one-fourth of the entire mass of the asteroid belt**, which is a pretty huge deal considering the fact that the number of total asteroids the belt contains is estimated to be in the millions**. Ceres, measuring in at 950 kilometers (590 miles for those of us inundated with Amerikanishe "the metric system is evil" mindsets in our childhood-- although I like to apply my brain to some science, I sometimes still think of distances in miles), is so large compared to most of its belt-contained neighbors that the astronomical community decided to label it as a dwarf planet. If that term sounds familiar, it's because another more controversial and older solar system friend of ours was placed into that category back in 2006.

It's thought that Ceres was unable to attain full-planet status due to the disruptively huge gravitational influence of nearby Jupiter. Because it's comprised of leftover materials from our solar system's formation (as in, little pieces of "could have been Earth" or "could have been Mars", etc), this dwarf planet can provide a lot of information for us on how our own and other nearby worlds formed-- or didn't**.

The science payload on NASA's Dawn mission, which you can read more about here, comes equipped with a toolbelt badass enough to rival Batman's... just think of Dawn as the caped cosmic crusader of science. If all goes well, this mission will be able to detect all sorts of information about Ceres' composition, radioactivity, and even moments of inertia (shoutout to all the physics bros in the house... wait... anyone? Bueller?), among other things. So, in short, that's why I'm pretty excited as I drink my cold coffee. I now shall present thee with an older and pixely but intriguing photo of lovely Ceres. Hopefully the cameras on Dawn will be able to provide even more detailed photos of one of our least understood and previously unexplored cosmic neighbors.

**

TLDR; I like space. You should too. NASA spacecraft made it to dwarf planet Ceres. Sexy picture above.

I hope you all have a lovely day.

very cool about Ceres. Can't wait for more info about it.

I'm pretty excited about the James Webb telescope that will be launched in 2018. Hopefully there won't be too many delays and we will learn and see lots of new things.

I hope this thread stays on topic, it is a very interesting to learn about the universe.

yourcorpse said:

I'm pretty excited about the James Webb telescope that will be launched in 2018. Hopefully there won't be too many delays and we will learn and see lots of new things.

Click to expand...

Corpsey, welcome to my (anyone's) protoplanetary cloud! I, too, am super excited about the Webb telescope, though some sources alarmingly just refer to it as being launched within this decade. Still, if Wikipedia says 2018, I choose to believe it until shown otherwise. Because. Just because.

yourcorpse said:

I hope this thread stays on topic, it is a very interesting to learn about the universe.

Click to expand...

Well, one could argue that since we are all composed of dead stars, that anything posted by a human being is related to the universe. At the very least, we all do exist within the universe... or some universe. Regardless, I'm with you on that one, amigo. Thanks for dropping by.

Won't you be my galactic neighbor?

Won't you be my galactic neighbor?

Won't you be my galactic neighbor?

As I drink my actually quite warm and delicious morning coffee, I find myself excited about the past-day's announcement that researchers at Cambridge may have discovered as many as nine new satellite galaxies orbiting our own Milky Way. They're actually only positive about three of these, but they're working on sciencing SUPER HARD (the only way to science) to verify the others.

Here's a super nerdgasmic and interactive demonstration of some of the nearest satellite galaxies to our own. Estimates of the total number of these satellite galaxies vary--and obviously we're still discovering new ones today. The biggest, and arguably the sexiest (because you can actually see them with the naked eye under the right conditions) are the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Below are the SUPER SMEXY Small Magellanic Cloud (left) and the Large Magellanic Cloud (right):



They're super diffuse and lack the organized structure of larger galaxies such as our own Milky Way, but you can view them in the night sky--that is, if you're located in the Southern Hemisphere, which points toward the center of our galaxy as well as these particular neighbors.

This picture, taken to capture Comet Lovejoy back in 2012, shows what the SMC and LMC might look like in the sky.



Dwarf galaxies such as the newly discovered satellites are badass, and here's why, according to Dr. Belokurov, one of the study's authors:

"Dwarf satellites are the final frontier for testing our theories of dark matter. We need to find them to determine whether our cosmological picture makes sense. Finding such a large group of satellites near the Magellanic Clouds was surprising, though, as earlier surveys of the southern sky found very little, so we were not expecting to stumble on such treasure." **source

Yes, Dark Matter.

It's a song I quite like by Mr. Andrew Bird. It's also the mysterious substance which is thought to comprise about one-fourth of the Universe. In comparison, normal matter (you, me, protons, neutrons, the lovely things you grow) is thought to only make up about 4% of the entire universe... so that makes dark matter a big deal. Since dark matter doesn't interact with light the way normal matter does, it's harder to find and much harder to understand. Here's a bit more info from CERN about dark matter and dark energy (if you thought dark matter was a big deal, dark energy is actually thought to comprise almost three-quarters of the entire universe).

So, basically, I'm excited because more satellite galaxies equals more dark matter study opportunities, which means more epic cosmic knowledge. Hells yeah.

The idea


Physics knows four forces. However, the 20th century was convinced that one of the them the electric force plays no macroscopic role in the Universe. For example, positively charged atoms exist, but positively charged stars should not exist.

This strong belief was not the result of 100 symposiums held yearly on the "Non-electric Universe". It was the result of a simple idea: the electric force is too strong to act. In the case of two free protons, a 1036 times higher repulsion than attraction comes into existence (in vacuum). Although matter of the Universe everywhere consists of huge positive and negative charges, the incredible strength of the electric force seems to inhibit the macroscopic separation of these charges. Therefore, the theoretical infinite radius of the electric force seemed to be as superfluous as the fifth leg of an antelope. An improbable exception should be easily observed in this alleged 'neutral Universe'. For example, only 0.003 gram of free protons (in overbalance) should blow up the Sun, because their electrostatic repulsion would be by 50% stronger than the huge gravity of the 2·1033 gram mass of the Sun. 1 µgram of free protons cannot destroy the Sun, but they should deform the Sun to a big egg if they were distributed unevenly! The strengh of the electric is force far beyond our imanigation. Even microscopic charges should produce such macroscopic results. New measurements show that macroscopic electric charges have cosmological results e.g. galaxies which do not move according to the gravity-law or the accelerated expansion of the Universe. Such cosmological results are explained with mysterious dark matter or with mysterious dark energy. Also the fact is known that the Sun emits not only 1 µgram but also billions of tons of charged matter which stopped electric plants in Canada and Sweden in 1989 March. Therefore, something is wrong in this old basic idea.

A loop on the sun

Not only the strength but also the direction of the electric force should easily reveal it, if the charges are not neutralized. Gravity can only attract, but the electric force can also repulse. Therefore, a simple method to detect this separation of the electric charges in the Universe is the search for this repulsion. The 1 microgram free protons should produce at least an electrostatic solar geyser which was not found in the time between Galilee and Hale. However, these geysers were observed by G.E.Hale in 1892 with his spectro-heliograph. These prominences were not hot and therefore not round clouds but filaments, clearly of electric origin due to their pinch effect and ions. Hale´s invention should be the start of the electric astronomy. Yes, the genial inventor Hale was convinced that the electric charge of the Sun produces the magnetic field of the sunspots. In 1941, R.S. Richardson tested again the electric explanation of Hale but the supposition of a constant electric charge of the Sun led to contradictions.

Soon, the solar dynamo was introduced to explain everything. But this dynamo itself remained a mystery. Its site, voltage, current, power, dimensions, electric circuit could not be shown. SOHO was constructed to find it, but neither the dynamo, nor its alleged products: the deep, long magnetic tubes could be found. Also the heating of the corona, the emission of the wind remained intriguing mysteries. Many astronomers e.g. Bachcall (1997), Haxton (1995), Hoeksema (1994), Lang (1995), Longair (1994), Phillips (1992 ) in many hundred pages pointed out these and other hundreds of contradictions but without any hope of a solution. However, my book The Electric Universe shows also the solution. No new measurements (of the e.g. strings), no new physics of WIMPs or neutrinos, only two facts in addition must be taken into account:
•the electron has a 1836 times smaller mass than the proton and
•all photons move in a plasma along a very long zigzag course.

Both facts are well known since a century. But, consequently, the electrons have 43 times higher velocity than the protons in the same temperature and, therefore, much more electrons than protons leave the solar core. Therefore, the solar core is continually charged positively. Simply, the fusion-energy separates the electric charges via its produced temperature-gradient.

Why did the Sun not explode electrostatically when the first 0.003 gram of free protons remained alone without their electrons in the solar core ? As long as the solar core is a plasma, all of its photons have a zigzag course of a length of light-years in it. This ineffectivity of the photons is valid not only in the case of the photons which carry out the heat radiation of the solar core (this process is well known) but, obviously, also in the case of those photons, which carry out the electrostatic positive field of the free core-protons. One of these free protons accepts the photons of the repulsion from the other free protons along zigzag courses in the lengths of light-years, therefore very weakly. The plasma obeys all gas-laws, but it is no gas. It is not transparent for the heat radiation and electric force which are carried by the same photons.

However, the Sun will explode electrostatically, in a cold way, when its positive core (as a white dwarf) will be colder than about 7 000 K, when the ion-electron pairs recombine and many ions remain without electron-pair. The photons suddenly fly along short and straight lines in a gas and carry the strong electrostatic repulsion of one ion to other ions ! This will be a gamma ray burst. This is why a red section of the white dwarfs is totally missing in the Herzsprung-Russel diagram! Without this electrostatic explosion, the number of the cold (therefore red) white dwarfs should be even much higher than the hot (therefore blue and white) white dwarfs due to their slower cool down

. Our universe! every spot is an galaxy!

My astronomy book explains a very conspicuous form of matter: the various filaments of the Universe. All filaments must be made by a force of infinite radius, not by nuclear forces. It cannot be gravity, therefore, it must be the electric force which creates sparks, lightnings, spiculae, filaments of the penumbra, chromosphere, corona, flares, coronal mass ejections, filaments of supernova remnants, jets of young stars and radiogalaxies, many filaments of superclusters, e.g. the Aquarius filament of 23 superclusters in the length of about 1 gigalightyear! The motion of the charged matter is caused by electrostatic repulsion and/or attraction. This motion produces also the observed exact circular cross sections of all these filaments via pinch effect. Is it not beautiful that gravity makes spheres and the electric force filaments, both of circular cross sections independently of their very varying sizes? The whole Universe mainly consists of filaments and big voids. Therefore, the infinite radius of the electric force is not superfluous! It shapes not only sparks but also the largest bodies of the Universe.

No professional astronomer could find this new astronomy because they learned (as I) that a thermoelement needs two wires. It was my luck to find a new thermoelement-law which shows that the two thermowires are two generators ! After this new law (in 1978), I needed 16 years to discover that conducting stars function similar to a thermowire, charging the hot parts positively and the cold parts negatively, without any motion, simply by heat-difference. No problem is the Lenz law which would stop the solar rotation via inducted currents. The Electric Universe is fantastical beautiful in its elegant simplicity, already in its first description. However, the 20th century remains for ever the century of astronomical mysteries because of the unleveled effects of the electric force.

Dr. László Körtvélyessy physicist and engineer of high temperature process technics,

candidate of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

http://www.the-electric-universe.info/The_idea.html

Humans frolicking "up there"

Humans frolicking "up there"

Humans frolicking "up there"

Yesterday, astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko successfully docked with the International Space Station. Kelly and Kornienko (far right and far left, respectively) will be remaining in the station for an entire year, which isn't too far off from breaking the longest human spaceflight record.



A primary motivating factor in sticking some peeps in space for a year is to examine the effects of long-duration space flight on the human body... and why might we want to test that? Answer: So we can gather necessary information for sending humans to FREAKING MARS (which, as a round trip, could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months). Everything from cognitive abilities to eyesight to bodily fluid volume (giggity) will be scrutinized. Yeah, that's right. We put humans in space and then poke at their bodily fluids. No big deal.

Another neat tidbit is that Scott Kelly's identical twin brother, who also happens to be a (retired) astronaut, will be remaining on Earth to provide a sort of control group for some of the experiments.

Happy to be part of the human race today.

Ancient light hits our eyes (telescopes)

Ancient light hits our eyes (telescopes)

Scientists have located the most distant galaxy ever discovered

So this here neuron-amoeba-looking-blob-thing is the most distant galaxy of which we know currently. It's so far away that the light hitting our telescopes (and we need super powerful telescopes to detect it since it's so far away-- we're talking Hubble and the ground-based Keck) has traveled for 13 billion years to reach us.

http://en.es-static.us/upl/2015/05/oldest-galaxy-e1430850512663.jpg

This 13 billion year old light allows us to time-travel in a sense, and gives us a glimpse of star formation when the universe was only about 5% of its present age.

HA! How interesting! Don't ruminate or try to read between the lines too much with me, I am mostly quite literal and mean to be honest and sharing of myself, not irritating. I guess I just can't believe I have not seen this yet.... and yet the last post was May, why am I seeing it now?! Weird and freaky as I am Anyway, I hope this thread can find new life now as it is an interesting idea. I too feel like I wander the whole cosmos every night in my "dreams", I put it in quotes because it is not a figment of the imagination but every bit as real as the "waking world" we all call "reality", sometimes I feel even moreso and thoughts from dreams recent and long ago linger with me in the "real world" and sometimes wonder which world is more real. OK putting too many things in quotes lately but feel like I have communicated with living and otherwise mind to mind lately and it is mind blowingly profound! I feel some have ability to share thoughts or their total selves mentally and I have been rocked to the core by that. People on my father's side had a tendency to go nuts at my age and kill themselves, hope that is not what's happening here.. I think the chance is infentesimal and that I am on a new journey that will hopefully help the world 10000x more than me but do both. we'll see, one can only hope. Good luck in your quest as well as fellow space cadets!

PS I recently complained how many views and how few responses a thread of mine was getting, but 643 views and 7 responses?! I have nothing to complain about... it may be most are too simple minded to formulate a response for profound wisdom like ours!

but yeah Dawn and now New Horizons, it has been epic of late in the space returns of late! Sadly, the average sheeple doesn't seem interested and we are destined to look out our own butthole and not explorer the cosmic prairie as it were.. Mars news as far as terraforming looks sour of late but that keeps changing between lush former water world and current episodic running water to utter cold dry wasteland... I can only be optimistic and hope this resolves itself favorably eventually.