Ordinary matter makes up only 5% of the universe and rest is still undetected. Using numerical simulations, it has been predicted that the rest of the ordinary matter might be located in large-scale structures that form the ‘cosmic web’, but a new study has presented new hypothesis showing where majority of these ordinary matter is found.
Physicists have found a new model that could explain the origin of the universe without needing the Big Bang theory.
Try to contemplate that one. Try..
I dare you.
This is an artist’s concept of a gamma ray burst.
It amazes me how little we actually know—but equally astounds me when people claim to have answers to things that they don’t. They may have theories.. observations. Hunches.
Pete Spotts with the Christian Science Monitor wrote it up this way:
In October, a team led by Dong Xu, an astrophysicist at the University of Copehagen, found evidence for a stellar explosion, or supernova, at GRB 130427A’s location. The evidence pointed to a type of supernova that involves a star with at least 20 to 30 times the sun’s mass.
Such stars are so large than when they finally collapse, they form black holes. In the process of collapsing, the black hole sends jets of electrons and ionized gas spiraling out along along magnetic fields forming near the black hole’s poles.
These jets punch their way through the turbulent, expanding layers of material the star shed in the explosion and its prelude. And they collide with the interstellar medium – the dust and gas between stars. Collisions inside and outside the expanding layer can generate gamma rays, which tend to be focused in the direction the jets point. This makes the object an extremely bright gamma-ray beacon, if briefly, when the viewing angle is just right.
Indeed, GRB 130427A “topped the charts” in the amount of gamma-ray photons it released, the energy levels some of those photons achieved, total explosion energy, and its gamma-ray brilliance, added Paul Hertz, who heads NASA’s astrophysics division in Washington. At visible wavelengths, the burst was the second brightest GRB researchers have seen.
That made possible the detailed measurements that have left researchers scratching their chins.
For instance, ordinarily, one might expect the gamma-ray photons with the highest energy to appear immediately following the star’s explosion, researchers say. But with GRB 130427A, some of the highest energy photons, including the new record-holder, appeared hours after the blast.
“This is hard to explain with our current models,” Dermer said.
In addition, gamma rays and emissions at visible wavelengths brightened and dimmed in tandem, quite unexpected because theory suggested they come from different regions of the expanding shells of material and thus should have peaked and dimmed at different times.
Finally, theorists had posited different mechanisms for generating gamma rays and X-rays that are part of the light show a long-duration gamma-ray burst puts on. The result should have been a fadeout for the two forms of light punctuated by periods where emissions were interrupted. Instead, the two dimmed smoothly.
So what we thought isn’t the case.
It really never is.
I do not profess to know much about gamma ray busts besides how to sometimes spell the words correctly, but I will say this: There is a whole lot of shaking going on out there in this massive universe. While we do our daily drives to work, we complain about nonsense, and chow down on fatty fast food, a vast and immense universe is growing, expanding, and bursting at the seems.
Gamma ray bursts.. multiple universes.. Endless possibilities.
Finally.. there’s something me and science agree on: We are left scratching our heads in confusion at the magnificent universe that we’re in, on this small dot planet earth.
What you see here is an image of the universe, about 500 million years after the big bang 13.7 million years ago. You are seeing a universe in chaos. You are seeing the past. And we’re just getting a glimpse of it now thanks to the Hubble Telescope, with it’s new “extreme” view of history, peering deep into the past like no other piece of technology that has existed— at least that we know of.
If you sit and contemplate this image long enough, you won’t be able to not just sit in amazement at the big picture of this picture. What are we ? who are we ..? and WHY are we? All of those questions are now present in my mind as I see this mixture of galaxies and other objects.
Absolutely amazing.
The UK DAILY MAIL reports what we already seem to be aware of: Solar flares just seem to be stronger and stronger in recent months..
Last week we have been seen numerous M class flares and one strong X class flare explode from our sun. Some sunspots have been so large that they 15 Earths strung together..
2013 is expected to be the big year for solar events as the sun heads to its peak of its 11 year cycle…
And if just the right elements come together, perhaps the Ed Dames Killshot will happen. But Ed Dames is just crazy… Right?
…that I am so infatuated with solar flares. I don’t think I am. I think we all should be.. news recently has come out about how influential these flares actually are to our environment, weather, and long term global situation. Even more, there have been incidents in the past when solar flares knocked out technology—then telegraph machines.. Imagine a world in our modern age with no technology for a bit of time? It’s more important than ever, in my mind, to understand and watch the sun.
Sunspot 1289 just hurled a flare our way. A glancing blow is coming.. watch for auroras for those way up north.
….call me crazy but something makes me think they are actually trying to find a new home, rather than a home already inhabited by people. Real estate… location! location! location!!
What scares you the most:
Just wondering.
For me, it’s probably solar fares… At least there’s the possibility we’d be hit with an asteroid by surprise, but a solar flare? …we got hours of knowledge before it strikes. The ‘knowing’ scares me more than the unknowns…
Solar flared out? …not the sun. A sunspot, 1263, is only getting bigger.. As a matter of fact, here is how SpaceWeather.com reports it:
Behemoth sunspot 1263 has almost doubled in size this weekend. A 28-hour movie from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the spot developing a tail that has added some 50,000 km of length to the active region. This development may increase the likelihood of a strong flare.
Watching and waiting… staring at the sun….
Amazing show that I have recently become addicted to
We need more lerts.
And
The Solar Dynamics Observatory has released a new video of a very active sun.. A ‘sun tentacle’ was seen.. You can always find the latest and greatest—or not so great—news on solar eruptions and other space news on SpaceWeather.com.. It’s worth a visit..
Just one last Supermoon image. And might as well, since we don’t see another one for decades. It was bright Saturday night.. Brighter than normal as spring begins.. Beautiful image here from Fred Thornhill of Reuters of Greg Kerr and Allie Mahoney skating under a full moon on Pigeon Lake near Bobcayeon Ontario March 19, 2011..
I found this interesting article from a Canadian source on UFO sightings in Pennsylvania, which apparently is at a level 4 for sightings.. didn’t know. But what is interesting is the location, I81 and 83, described in the article, are both highways I often frequent in my day-to-day life.. And supposedly there was a cigar shaped UFO sighted over the general area of Enola, Harrisburg, etc..
This all occurred around October of 2010 — one more before I too had what I can only call an interesting experience. In the oldest archive of Coal Speaker, on Friday November 19, 2010, I saw something cigar shaped in the sky..And I felt lucky that for the first time in 30 years of life I saw something completely unexplainable in the sky..
Perhaps I saw the same cigar shaped UFO.. Perhaps I was simply tired. Maybe now, with a newborn in my life, I will get less sleep and hallucinate and see more.
But the notion that we are alone in this vast galaxy of planets and star systems is ludicrous. Ludicrous speed at that.
The earth almost had a possible significant impact from an asteroid on February 4 .. While these events occur all of the time, the troubling aspect of this most recent earth-danger was that it was only noticed hours before potential impact. Richard Kowalski at Mount Bigelow Observatory near Tuscon, Arizona found it, and quickly notified the rest of the scientific community.
The name: 2011 CQ1. It was small, only 6.5 to 10 feet across — but that still could have caused serious problems for wherever on earth it would have struck.
Some other sources for the news:
Space: Tiny Asteroid Zips Close By Earth
Universe Today: Small Asteroid Just Buzzed Earth
…with all of our modern technology and our advanced knowledge, we only notice a possible earth changing event hours before it hits.. Wow.
