Whenever US Global hegemony is challenged, as it is now by Russia (Putin), cut-backs in the space programme appear to be threatened. See http://www.space.com/31886-nasa-2017...ekly_2016-2-10
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Whenever US Global hegemony is challenged, as it is now by Russia (Putin), cut-backs in the space programme appear to be threatened. See http://www.space.com/31886-nasa-2017...ekly_2016-2-10
Gravitational waves look likely to be confirmed today.
Its not clear why this would be so revolutionary, Einstein predicted this way back, but EarthSky seem to think it would be.
Another source... 'chirp': http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/sc...tein.html?_r=0
Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),Quote:
A team of scientists announced on Thursday that they had heard and recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light-years away, a fleeting chirp that fulfilled the last prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
That faint rising tone, physicists say, is the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago (Listen to it here.) It completes his vision of a universe in which space and time are interwoven and dynamic, able to stretch, shrink and jiggle. And it is a ringing confirmation of the nature of black holes, the bottomless gravitational pits from which not even light can escape, which were the most foreboding (and unwelcome) part of his theory.
More generally, it means that a century of innovation, testing, questioning and plain hard work after Einstein imagined it on paper, scientists have finally tapped into the deepest register of physical reality, where the weirdest and wildest implications of Einstein’s universe become manifest"
tailor STATELY
I'm glad they got LIGO to detect something of interest. Now to overcome my cognitive dissonance over the existence of black holes.
What cognitive dissonance is that, YesNo?
Like all cognitive dissonance, it's confusing to explain.
A few weeks ago, I had no problem with black holes. I didn't think about them. Then I heard they could not exist. That was the first cognitive dissonance I had to confront on the subject. So I thought about it and checked out some internet sources and I figured it makes sense that they do not exist since we didn't see what we expected at the center of our galaxy. So I overcame that cognitive dissonance by changing my mind about black holes.
Now I hear that gravity waves are supposed to imply the existence of something like black holes causing those gravity waves. That is the second cognitive dissonance. It sort of puts me back into my original position, but that isn't very comforting. Now I will have to learn more about black holes. If they are neutron stars, it relieves the dissonance a bit, because they are larger than a point in space about the size of what started the big bang.
I don't have any problem with gravity waves as such because I never thought of them.
I didn't either. Clearly, great minds don't think alike.Quote:
Originally Posted by YesNo
There has still nothing been said about how this changes things. Just knowing about the existence of gravity waves isn't enough. Can we use the knowledge, perhaps by utilising their existence in some way or other. A bit like how sailing can utilise water waves? Which direction do the waves go? From the black hole outwards or into the black hole?
I think of the black hole as a pebble dropped into the ocean, but that would mean it is pushing waves away from it. The black hole would likely be attracting those waves--at least metaphorically.
Also, how did they know where to point their instrument? And doesn't it seem a little too convenient that those black holes merged together just in time for this instrument to detect it? And how did they separate those specific black holes from all the others out there making gravity waves?
There is nothing like cognitive dissonance to generate skepticism.
I think of black holes as being either pushing waves away from it or drawing waves into it. But its all speculation at this point in time. A bit like the warp drive in Star Trek. Some galaxies, like the Milky Way, are quiescent and others are very active, producing many new stars.
The warp drive is interesting. I suspect the speed of light even in a vacuum may have some variance, that is, it is not a mathematical constant. If that is the case light might be able to go faster or slower. North Star pointed out in another thread that Lene Hua found a way to make light stop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Nj2uTZc10
If one thinks about light's speed then we are within space and time, otherwise we couldn't measure anything. However, the non-local behavior of entangled particles is not just "faster" than light. It is instantaneous. There is no space or time to restrict it. Or at least, so I suspect at the moment.
Its odd that we are only just learning more about other galaxies than our own. All the fancy telescopes like James Webb Space Telescope. We now see how galaxies collide and produce new stars. It is a whole new world out there.
More news on Black Holes and Gravitation Waves.
That article makes me wonder what is a black hole. If it is a collapsed star so that the light can no longer escape, that seems possible. That is not a "singularity". It is just a kind of star.
It is interesting that the pairs were calculated as having 29 and 36 times the mass of our Sun. That doesn't seem very large. Also they don't know precisely where this occurred, just a certain region of space. I guess what we need is another LIGO to pin point better the location of these objects.
Another thing I wonder about is when we are given a number like 29 times the mass of the Sun what is the margin of error for that calculation? I assume the margin of error is 0.5 because we are given a number precise to the units position, but it could be anything.
Another theory is that instead of a massive planet 9, there is a second Kuiper Belt of many smaller objects: a Kuiper Belt 2.