Astronomy and Cosmology

correct me if im wrong, but its pretty well accepted that the universe is spherical. Since spheres have a center you can find if you know its radius, the universe logically has one as well. I often go to my science teacher with this type of question, but even after i explain the above paragraph to them, they still tell me the center is relative. How can this be?

Something's been puzzling me, why is it considered that at the time of the big bang, the universe started by expanding "normally" then, underwent a period of accelerated expansion, then went back to "normal"? Could it not have started out at the increased expansion rate (inflation from the very start of the universe at the big bang), before settling into the rate we see now?

More questions woohoo! I always come up with a handful of questions while in class, but never can think of them when I'm at home. So I'll just post them as I think of them. Frequency= © / (wavelength) Energy=(planck's constant)(frequency) So when the wavelength increases, the total energy decreases. Now, here's my question.. Say a star is speeding away from the earth. If I'm traveling behind the star at the same speed as the star in my rocketship, my wavelength measurement will be lets say 600nm (just for example). Now, someone on earth who takes measurements gets the wavelength measurement of 800nm. The earth's measurement of energy will be les…

Hi all Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this but could one of the mods just move it if it is....Thanks. Anyway i have done searches on singularities and i keep coming up with stuff explaining them but the words they use i cannot understand yet. So could any body please just give me an idea of what a singularitie is and any more info would be greatly appriciated.

Surely as a explosion occur the lighter parts travel away from the centre at greatest velocity. Therefore after a given time are further away from the centre of the explosion. Therefore surely we can locate the position of the Big Bang by measure where most of the mass is and therefore this is the position of the Big Bang. How come we are not therefore able to say where the Big Bang occurred?

Ok, I am by no means an intellect in science. I completely suck at it. Actually I did well in geology. Anyway, I was hoping one of you guys can clear up some misconceptions I might have. Please try not to get to technical; I am a Film major, so this stuff isn't my field of expertise...In fact I think it’s my mortal enemy. Ok from what I know, when the big bang occurred matter expanded outwards in all directions. Soon this matter collected and the stars/planets where born. Now today we can look at a star/planet and based on the color the wavelengths emits (blue and red shift) we can determine how old it is. Now am I right so far? With the use of blue and red shi…

How will the Cosmos end? As universes move away from each other and suns die..will the Cosmos, simple take on the big freeze. Or in a ball of individual burn up as the Suns enter their last stages will each Universe be burnt to a crisp....crashing into each other... Shades of Worlds in Collision!!!!!

This may be a very silly and simple to answer question, but it's kind of bugging me. When I was 12 I thought of the idea of infinite universes to try and get round the whole boundary of the universe problem. I found out later on in life I wasn't the only one that thought this could be possible. However supposing the big bang was at the start of the universe, and for the possibility of infinite universes being created, wouldn't the rate of expansion have to be infinite ? If the rate of expansion is infinite, how would matter have time to cool and create uniformed bodies such as planets ? Wouldn't the highly disordered state at the beginning of the universe stay in…

Is it possible for a planet like earth orbiting another star to at one time have orbited in a very eliptical path and then somehow eventually settle into a more circular orbit? Perhaps via a giant collision or a number of smaller collisions with astroids? I know this question has a lot of unknows but I'm just wondering if something as massive as a planet can drastically change its orbit wiithough breaking apart or falling into the star or flying off into deep space (I'm not sure any of these other three options are possible either). Is it possible for an advanced alien race to alter its home planets orbit with technology?

All light waves cannot "leave" the black hole, why? The black hole reduces their speed or affects their gravitational field?

Gravity is a cosmology. If space-time curvature is positive everywhere then we live in closed universe. It curves back on itself as a seemless whole. As Einstein said: finite but unbounded. Hawking is in agreement: The No Boundary Proposal. But there is a problem. Its if Hawking starts the universe out without gravity. He has to because if he includes the gravity it would make the universal singularity a black hole without any possibility of expanding or inflating. Its infinite gravity would prevent it. There was no original mass singularity at the Big Bang. Instead matter was created spread out with a finite density. This is why the Big Bang's gravity …

well..this is a new theory ive been working on. i dont know everything about stars,but neither does anybody so think about its possibilities before flaming it..its not complete either..i just thought about it a few days ago. here goes.. the big bang is not the creator of the whole universe..only the reaction that fills up an empty space in the universe imagen the universe is unlimited..just like numbers..it never ends i can count 1,2,3,4,5 and never stop and i can also count -1,-2,-3 and never stop... now,on one side of the universe is a system of stars...not a single single solar system but millions. on the other side there is that as well.. in the middle it is…

Watching the images & movies @ the NASA site on Deep Impact. When you see a comet from the sky (ie Hale Bopp),a visible tail is seen.Looking at the images of the impactor approaching Tempel- Why is it so well defined? With all the dust/gas surrounding,wouldn't it be obscured? Thanks Doug

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/28jun_deepimpact.htm?list45222 "The target: a 10-mile wide comet named Tempel 1. ...Deep Impact is going to shoot an 820-pound projectile into the rocky, icy nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. The 23,000 mph collision will form a big crater, and Deep impact will observe the stages of its development, how deep it gets and how wide it becomes. Researchers expect a plume of gas and dust to spray out of the crater..." the comet will be near the bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo here is a star map for 11PM Pacific Daylight Time on July 3, when virgo will be near setting in the west http://science.nasa.gov/headlines…

can anyone give me any information on the mascons thank you

J'Dona reported http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=12124 the finding of a third planet in the Gliese 876 system 15 lightyears away. This planet is too hot to be considered habitable. However there are two other planets in the system, one at 0.13 AU and one about 0.2 AU. the absolute luminosity of the star, Gliese 876, is estimated at 0.0124 solar. The middle planet, at distance 0.13 AU receives roughly as much watts per square meter as the earth does. It could have a surface temperature similar to the earth's. It is a massive planet and could have satellites, as Jupiter does, which could also have an earth-like surface temperature. t…

MECHANICAL ACCELERATION:- The mechanical Accelerator combines both centrifugal & gravitional forces. A revolving ball was used in experiments which obtained an energy velocity which doubled after each impulse & amazingly, after twenty impulses more energy was manifested than was originally required to accelerate the ball! It will be able to lift great weights & to overcome Earth's gravitional field by developing it's own gravitional field. It is also thought that an object powered by this method could be suspended in mid-air & move at an incredible velocity, maybe even exceeding....'The Speed Of Light'.......us2u PROPULSIVE METHOD: Developed by…

Hi i here alot about supernovas but i dont here that much about hypernovas why is this and could some1 please give me a the brief life of a star. Thanks

This is all hypothetical and probably never happens this way. I'm trying to picture a particle that occupies the very centre of gravity for a planet for instance. Is that little particle generating the gravitational pull that is holding the planet together? Why isn't that particle pulled away from the centre by the surrounding mass? Could gravity be pulling in all directions within an object with mass? Seems as if mass doesn't do the attracting but its something else. Can someone clear this up for me? I know you guys/gals have come through before.

Long read. Anyways, when I was young I would always rack my brain as to how everything could be the way it is now today. I developed this idea probably when I was 14 or so.. I see that many scientists are starting to pick up the idea of what I had when I was young. I would always be confronted with the idea of the big bang. I always thought the big bang was ridiculous and impossible for a possibilty to explain how the universe was created. My idea was that the Universe was of pure white light in the beginning. Kind of like that scene in the Matrix where the room is full of white light. Except in the beginning, there was really nothing around.. If this were p…

Primary hypothesis: The evolutionary process (and the order it garners) will eventually overcome chaos/spontaneously broken symmetries in shaping the future cosmos Conjecture: Humanity and its descendants will able to anticipate/avoid any future cosmological events which would completely annihilate its existance AND/OR there is other sentient life in the universe which will do so (i.e. genes/memes have the potential for immortality, so let's briefly assume they are immortal) Conjecture: Consciousness will control everything within the universe but will eventually encounter the unknowability of the universe's origin per Godel's incompleteness theorem Secondary …

Are planets and matter etc still being created/evolving as part of the Universe,or had the Universe reached it's maximum a certain number of years after the so called Big Bang? The Universe now would not have the heat of billions of degreesC like it did in the begining to cause any new planets ect to be created

Hi I found that webpage http://www.newtonphysics.on.ca/hydrogen/index.html It tells that molecular hydrogene (H2) is very hard to detect and that there maybe enought undected H2 to explain the rotations curves of galaxies. I find it very attractive theory but I would like to have your opinion on that Who is Paul Marmet ? Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Please refer, http://murugan.org/research/valluvan.htm Thanks & Regards, N.S.VALLUVAN. Reviews & Replies from Scholars 2.doc indus valley astronomy.doc

I recently watched a documentary regarding Saturn's rings. It spoke of a theory which stated the rings were possibly formed from the destruction of a moon orbitting Saturn. It caused me to wonder - theoretically, of course - what would happen if our own Moon was destroyed in some way - would Earth eventually (I presumed there would be a nuclear winter-style fallout over Earth's atmosphere for X amount of time) gain similar rings? What would the immediate and long-term effects be? Any of you care to shed light on my query?