Space and astronomy news
Time Reborn: From the Crisis of Physics to the Future of the Universe is one of those books intended to provoke discussion. Right from the first pages, author Lee Smolin — a Canadian theoretical physicist who also teaches philosophy — puts forward a position: time is real, and not an illusion of the human experience …
Caption: An artist’s view of a Pioneer spacecraft heading into interstellar space. Both Pioneer 10 and 11 are on trajectories that will eventually take them out of our solar system. Image credit: NASA The case of the Pioneer Anomaly has intrigued and perplexed scientists, engineers and the space-savvy public since 1980, when analysis of tracking …
[/caption] According to Wikipedia, a journal club is a group of individuals who meet regularly to critically evaluate recent articles in the scientific literature. And of course, the first rule of Journal Club is… don’t talk about Journal Club. So, without further ado – today’s article is about how turning complex theory into plain English …
Continue reading “Journal Club – Black Holes Made All The Difference”
[/caption] Planning a little space travel to see some friends on Kepler 22b? Thinking of trying out your newly-installed FTL3000 Alcubierre Warp Drive to get you there in no time? Better not make it a surprise visit — your arrival may end up disintegrating anyone there when you show up. “Warp” technology and faster-than-light (FTL) …
Continue reading “Warp Drives May Come With a Killer Downside”
On September 22, an international team of researchers working on the OPERA project at the Gran Sasso research facility released a paper on some potentially physics-shattering findings: beams of neutrinos that had traveled from the CERN facility near Geneva to their detector array outside of Rome at a speed faster than light. (Read more about …
Continue reading “Particle Physics and Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos…Discuss.”
[/caption] Hey. We’re all aware of Einstein’s theories and how gravity affects light. We know it was proved during a total solar eclipse, but what we’ve never realized in observational astronomy is that light just might get bent by other gravitational influences. If it can happen from something as small as a star, then what …
Continue reading “Bending The Rules – Exploring Gravitational Redshift”
[/caption]Ever since Einstein unveiled his theory of relativity, the speed of light has been considered to be the physical constant of the universe, interrelating space and time. In short, it was the speed at which light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation were believed to travel at all times in empty space, regardless of …
The concept of a space-time singularity – where time and space itself become infinite and undifferentiated – is one of the most fascinated and confounding problems of modern physics.
[/caption] There’s a line out of an early episode of The Big Bang Theory series, where Gravity Probe B is described as having seen ‘glimpses’ of Einstein’s predicted frame-dragging effect. In reality, it is not entirely clear that the experiment was able to definitively distinguish a frame-dragging effect from a background noise created by some …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Gravity Probe B”
[/caption] One of the most interesting constants and challenges in physics is the speed of light. The speed of light has a lot of important implications for physics from General Relativity to the search for a unified theory. Physicists and aeronautics engineers designing future space craft see it as the last great barrier to practical …