Astronomy and Cosmology

Could someone explain this news story to me : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/20/two-suns-twin-stars_n_811864.html How does a star going supernova some 1300 light years away cause our Sun to double, and night to be non-existent?

Oh no!, We're all in trouble now, somebody just bought me a subscription to Astronomy Magazine. Ahgggg! Seriously, Here on page 12 of the new Febuary issue I'm reading about the great "Fine Structure Constant" that is always, no matter what, always equal to 1/137. Until now. Back in 1998 astophysicist in New Zealand studied some light from distant quazars as it passed through ancient nebulae. The way the light was absorbed revealed the value of the great constant long ago. They found that in the distant past the constant was slightly smaller than it is today. This info was in large part ignored and rejected until a few months ago when things got real screwy! …

There is a theory about Earth's magnetic fields origin. But, how about this origin theory possibility, i.e., nuclear reaction in the core? I think the nuclear reaction makes heat and radiation, and the heat and radiation make electric current in the Earth inside. The electric current movement induces the Earth's magnetic fields. And, the heat generated from the nuclear reaction induces the Earth cluster movement, and the movement caused to volcanic eruption and earth quake. This is one possibility.

Our Galaxy is moving some direction, and emits light to all directions. If so, dose our Galaxy have another interface like Heliosphere?

From simplistic assumptions of circular orbits, dominant central masses, etc., one can derive, from Newton's laws, Kepler's equations, including: [math]\frac{\left( \frac{r}{1 \, AU} \right)^3}{\frac{m}{M_{\odot}}} = \left( \frac{t}{1 \, yr} \right)^2[/math] Now, knowing that [math]1 \, ly \approx 64,000 \, AU[/math], cubing that value on the LHS, moving the result (~2.6e14) to the RHS, and calculating the square root, wht: [math]\frac{\left( \frac{r}{1 \, ly} \right)^3}{\frac{m}{M_{\odot}}} = \left( \frac{t}{16 \, Myr} \right)^2[/math] Thus, if the mass of the Local Group is roughly [math]5 \times 10^{12} M_{\odot}[/math] (PF), and if its 'effective rad…

While metal detecting in and around a small creek, I came across this. At first I could only guess at what it may be. One of my guesses was a meteorite. I looked up other images and it does resemble some of them. Also, a day or two later while looking at it, it dawned on me, that it looked like it could have been a Native American cutting tool. So by gripping it, you can feel that it fits comfortably in your hand, exposing the sharp edge ready for cutting. Now whether it is a meteorite or not is still up for debate and any insight would be helpful. But I'm quite confident it has been used as a cutting tool. Anybody? ">">

If the moon orbits the earth, and the earth orbits the sun, what does the sun orbit? Does it directly revolve around the milky way or does it orbit an even bigger star?

(acording to popular and accepted theories in the scientific community) Is time a one dimensional entity? I've heard that space is made up of length, width, depth, and time making it a four dimensional entity, But isn't time itself three dimensional, being past, present, and future? If time is three dimensional then would'nt each instance have similar but seperate attributes makeing space/time a six dimensional entity?

Do these have a orbital difference turning around the sun between the Earth which contains Earth plus Moon mass and the Earth which has separated mass like present?

Mercury is a prime example of a dead planet, and Mars could well soon join its ranks. If any hope of enhabiting Mars one day is to be achieved, we should look into reviving it. The two problems that REALLY need to be fixed to save it, is recreating a Magnetic field, and improving the atmosphere. The Magnetic Field is produced through all the nickal and iron in its core correct? Well, how does the core diminish in the first place? And How can we stuff iron and nickel back inside the core? The Atmosphere is useless without the Magnetic Field. But an Atmosphere is created through Volcanos correct? Well, how can we CREATE artificial volcanos? Or just fool the environment into…

Scientist describe the big bang theory as starting out a mere speck of near infinite density. A very poetic statement but not very scientific. Within an infintie scale everyting is realtive. Exactly what are they saying? At some point within an infinite scale, a neutron star is no more dense than bubble wrap. It's all matter of relative perspective. They describe a universe that started off smaller than the head of a pin, and expanded to it's present size and it is still expanding. Within an infinite scale of size, it is still smaller than the head of a pin. It's all a matter of relative perspective. Scientist say that outside of the speck, nothing existed. No spa…

I've heard that the Saturn has a storm. But there is no water to drive storm making. In the Earth, the liquification of the water vapor is a big driving force for a storm creation. How is a storm made in the Saturn? Do you have any clue?

1. Underlying all of modern cosmological theory (The Standard Model) is the assumption that the observed cosmos is part of a singular coherent entity, the Universe. There is no scientific basis for this belief; it is merely an archaic cultural artifact. 2. It is a further assumption of modern cosmology that the observed cosmological redshift of light from distant galaxies is a consequence of the expansion of the assumed 'Universe'. This further assumption is also unsupported by any empirical evidence. 3. Combining these two scientifically baseless assumptions cosmologists reason backwards to an origin point for the entire 'Universe' at a singularity some 13 billio…

If I was an outside observer and noticed that two galaxies were farther apart from each other today than they were yesterday, is there some way to determine if they are farther apart due to expansion, motion through space, or some combination of the two? Is it possible to measure the decrease in density of space between galaxies separating due to expansion?

In round numbers, a lunar sidereal month (360 degrees rotation, not the same as New Moon to New Moon), is 28 days, and there are almost exactly 13 such sidereal months per Earth orbital year. Might this mean, that the Earth-Moon system, is "semi-locked", into some sort of "orbital resonance", between their mutual orbit (4 weeks), and mutual solar orbit (52 weeks) ??

The Universe radiates much electromagnetic waves to all direction. So the mass should be decreased at every second. Can we calculate the total mass? And, how about the decrease rate per second?

There are many papers about the Galaxy radial velocity distribution. And the data is used for explaining the Dark Matter existence. Then, How about the gravity distribution of the our Galaxy? In the solar system almost all of the gravity is concentrated on the Sun.

The biggest blunder I always notice is when scientists use per minute (e.g. revolutions per minute) when revolutions are faster than 60 rpm. Better to call it RPS (revolutions per second) out of respect for the fact the receiver of your message may be someone who cannot easily divide and multiply mentally in order to comprehend your message. I sure cannot. Also it is ludicrous to call any speed faster than 3,600 miles per hour anything other than one mile per second (mps, or if you live outside the US, kps (kilometers per second). People can visualize a second. Few can visualize the goings-on during a minute, and probably almost nobody can visualize what can happen d…

When large asteroids collide, wouldn't they emit (some) Gravity Wave radiation "ripples" through spacetime ? When large stars Supernova, wouldn't they also emit such "spacetime sound-waves" ?? Couldn't GW detectors be used, to "hear" the "crashings" of asteroids & comets, in the asteroid belt (say), or the "snap crackle pop" of distant SNs ?? In the cold darkness of space, a "good pair of ears" (GW detectors) could conceivably be beneficial.

There are many electrons in the Universe. I'm curious about the electric discharge in the Universe. Some place this phenomena would happen. In the planet scale , I've heard,in Saturn and Jupiter have many lightning. But, Are there more big scale lightning can not happen in the Universe? For example, stellar scale or Galaxy scale lightning.

A friend of mine believes that there is some significance to the lunar eclipse occurring at the same time as the winter solstice. At first I thought not since the solstice has to do with the Earth's tilt and the eclipse has to do with alignment between sun, Earth, and moon. However, I am beginning to wonder if the tilt puts the northern hemisphere closer to the moon's orbit. If this was the case, I think it would please her because she thinks that gravitational alignments have some astrological effect on terrestrial life. Thanks in advance for your support of astrological musings on the basis of legitimate astronomical facts.

According to Wiki quasars are too energetic for mere nuclear fusion: "...The emission of large amounts of power from a small region requires a power source far more efficient than the nuclear fusion which powers stars. The release of gravitational energy by matter falling towards a massive black hole is the only process known that can produce such high power continuously." I also heard the energy of a quasar is simply gas and dust getting heated to extreme temperatures. What do they mean by "gravitational energy". Is that just fancy talk for heating gas and dust to extreme temperatures? Or can the awesome energy output be explained by matter and antimatter b…

Let's consider a system of 3 axis, X,Y,Z, determining a 3D graphic. let's put X,Y as the representation of reduced regular space in 2D. let's put Z as the axis of Time. Intentionaly, the Z axis will be represented horizontal. It becomes something like fig.1 fig.1 the ellipse represents a circle as viewed from an angle. Let's plot on this diagram all stars and galaxies that we observe at a certain distance from us, let's say a distance of 1 billion Light Years. In order to do this, we first have to put ourselves. Let's put ourself upon Earth at present time, on the right side of the arrow of time. It becomes something like fig.2 fig.2 Not consideri…

This a diagram from another thread fig.2 (see the other threadfor explanation) WARNING in the following diagram & explanations, there is a small intentional error. Just in order to enhance argumentation. The error will be corrected afterwards. Now, for the sake of simplicity, let's forget for a while existing Theories, and say that we are living in a stable Universe where nothing moves & nothing expands. Let's pin all these stars & galaxies on a gigantic cardboard. Now, nothing can move. And let's wait till next year, the same epoch, to see what happened. And here we are, a year has passed, and we look back at our cardboard. What do we see? …

I stole this diagram from a recent post by Spyman, although I have had the same diagram in my desktop pics for years. It seems misleading to me: This seems to be a good visual of the 'rate' of expansion, but not the expansion itself. Shouldn't the diagram be much more cone shaped to represent the expansion? Here's a link to the 'nasa site'