Astronomy and Cosmology

Can anybody expalin what the greater implications of frame shifting/dragging are? I understand that any rotating body effects space time, with the larger bodies creating the greater disturbance, but what i really would like to know is, what (if any) are the reasons to be exited about this?

I was thinking about the so called vacuum of space a while back, and wondered how gas takes the form it does in a perfect vacuum. In a perfect vacuum, all the particles of gas would just sink, like anything else. I saw on the science channel recently that there is something called antiparticles. I cant remember for sure, but i think that is what they were called. And these antiparticles seem to appear and disappear in and out of the physical world that we know of. So this accounts for part of what could make up the "atmosphere" of space. To get to my point, on the same show they were talking about photons, particles of light. I thought, there are endless numbers of ph…

What is Solar wind?

Ive just been watching Die another day and I was wondering whether a huge solar reflector (salaite based) is realistic for the future?, and what would be the reprocussions (and no im not talking about the concentrated light beams of which the rest of the film is based on)

These were taken with my digital camera and my 6" Meade reflector scope http://www.scienceforums.net/misc/

This kind of caught be by surprise, there is a total lunar eclipse tonight and it is the last one until 2007. I am excited for this, especially because I just moved out into Amish country and there are no lights around us; it is extremely dark out there - great viewing area. Nice article on it: http://space.com/spacewatch/eclipse_041027.html Live webcast and maps of the eclipse area: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2004Oct28/TLE2004Oct28.html It looks like it will be viewable from most of the earth besides S.E. Asia and Australia. See how your viewing area will be: http://cleardarksky.com/csk/

A comet smashes into our planet and wipes all of humanity out. When the dinosaurs got wiped out small mammals survived which we evolved from. So the same thing happens again and a new intelligent species evolves on Earth. I was just wondering what are the chances of that happening?? Because I was thinking of the implications. Our archeologists get exited about finding a new species of dinosaur or something like that. Imagine what the archeologists of the new intelligent life will be digging up. It'll be millions of years into the future but surely some evidence of us will survive, won't it?? Our descendants might get off this rock and their descendants com…

My friend and I were having a discussion on the universe. We both agreed that it was expanding, but into what. Would it be possible for the universe to be expanding into time?

For a long time, people have been wondering about the Great Red Spot. How could a storm become so big that it swallows up other storms? Can someone explain the physics behind this? I vaguely remember a simulation where colored dyes were dropped into some liquid that revolved causing it to swirl. After time, one swirl dominated over the others. Can someone verify this?

I have never seen an extraterrestrial from another planet but that doesnt mean they dont exist. The government might know about them but I doubt it. Extraterrestrial space ships visiting earth would have nothing to gain in contacting us, humanity is paranoid, violent, and ignorant. I believe the 1st requirement for a species to survive long enough to advance beyond the elementry level of human scientific understanding would be for them to resequence their genome and throw away any agression and greed, then replace it with pure reason. Humanity is so ignorant, they are overpopulateing, depleating, and contaminateing the earth to no end. According to Steven H…

I know a few months ago there was a lot of debate on whether or not they should go up and maintain the Hubble Telescope. And with all of NASA's budget going towards Mars and a possible space station on the moon in the next ten years, NASA has decided to forget about Hubble. I dont know if this is old news, but i just started reading a book and it seems that there is no need for worry about the loss of Hubble. Planned for a 2011 launch NASA will replace the Hubble with what will be called the James Webb Space Telescope. Its being constructed with what they called "next generation" technology. It will be the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built. The Jam…

My first time here, so go easy please! - what a place. They say believe ten impossible things before breakfast!! Okay, I have done a search and haven't seen any reference to this.. The current thinking on the State of the Universe appears to have a number of issues to be resolved, including: - It is too hot - It is not dense enough - resulting in the invention of Dark Matter. - It is expanding too rapidly Everything we know about the Universe is based on supposition, deduction and measurement, rooted in observation - after all we can't go and visit just yet! These observations are further reliant upon the phenomenon called Redshift. Of course,…

Just put this on Alexa's "Astronomy Links" thread http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?p=94886&posted=1#post94886 It is an actual movie---timelapse photography taken over several years---of some four or more stars doing various shape orbits around the central black hole of our galaxy. Also you might be interested in another timelapse movie of variable stars actually going through their cycle this is a movie of globular cluster M3 taken in the course of a single night, with timelapse photography, showing RR Lyrae stars going thru their cycles where they change brightness and color over the course of a few hours http://cfa-www.harvar…

What makes galaxies spin? Why so much empty space between galaxies? Are all galaxies as old as the "big bang?" Do galaxies live forever?

http://www.fuchsiashockz.co.uk/articles/astro/Cruithne%20Earths%20second%20moon.shtml

Why gravitation pulls everything towards center?

Hi Just wondered if someone could explain to me the dimensions of the world. I only thought there were 4, but someone told me there were 9 or 12?! Is this true? Thanks

How long do you think it will take before space flight will be affordable for the average person? Where are we at today?

Gravity pulls every thing (matter) towards itself (solid,liquids and gases). My question is that gravity is like magnet for matter,If the body has larger mass it ‘s gravitation pull is greater e.g. earth gravity is greater than moon’s ,therefore moon revolves around earth. But in the case of solids, liquids and gases the situation is puzzling for me, because gases are lightest still solid and liquids are more in the control of earth’s gravity .Can anyone explain the reason?

WARNING: THIS IS NOT FACT. I AM UNABLE TO PHYSICALLY TEST IT. Dark energy doen't exist. It is an illusion caused by relitivity. Objects aren't just moving farther apart, spacetime is expanding. When time expands it runs faster (as observed by an observer in contracted time, say on a planet). The expansion continues so, to us, the time of an observer in space with minimal gravity is always going faster. To the said observer, the expansion of the universe is slowing down due to gravity. To us, it is speeding up because we live in "slower time" and thiers is always speeding up. If you were a few kilometers from a black hole's event horiz…

Hi Everyone! I have been studying the Solar System in my Science class and particularly the gas giants. I just wanted some clarification. Aside from today's limited ability for us travel to another planet and live there, because of limited oxygen, etc. Would it be possible to live on a gas giant? The project we have been working on was basically a presentation in the future persuading people to move to another planet. The would take place so far in the future that transportation and necessities of life would all no longer be an issue. From my previous knowledge, I would have thought that the only planets that could actually sustain Human life in the fu…

Space is mostly vacuum (empty) ,no gas present or we can say any form of is not present ,but can we say that space is not empty but has some thing that is beyond our understanding because we can travel in space it means it is some kind of medium .

Ok.....so everybody tells me that the Big Bang theory is the cause of the universe' existence......... Also, the theory tells us that the big bang started with a "bang". So what type of matter is this material that exploded and where exactly is it located??

How does one measure position/direction in space? Not how the acutal data is collected, but how it is written, and what refference point is used. Would position be maesured in refference to the earth, or to the sun? Is direction the same, such as degrees off of the axis of the earths orbit? Does such a system even exist? I am considering writing a sci-fi short story, possibly for a school project, and I want to know how this would work in space.

When light comes out of source and has traveled some distance and then if the source is shutout instantly the all become dark. My question is “where light goes which had traveled some distance”? * Does this light changes to heat energy? * What about light traveling through space in that case would the light keep traveling even if the source is shutout? *When the star dies sometimes its light reaches after many thousands years. Does this light reach the earth at the time when that particular star is completely dark?