Astronomy and Cosmology

How could everything in the very early universe occupy such a small volume? Is it because particles are described as point-like meaning on there own they take up no space or volume? Please help.

http://history.nasa.gov/spaceweek.html http://www.worldspaceweek.org/ http://www.worldspaceweek.org/calendar_2010.php?NOF_StartRow_EventLocationsAndNames2010_Iterator=271 Perhaps something is happening near you.

Hi all! I have a little bit of homework I need to do, however i'm trying to make a good impression early on in the year to my teacher, (i've alrerady asked him bout angular momentum!). I wondered how comets form, can I have a semi-technical explanation please? I have searched on the web but most places just say " Oooo they come from the Kuiper belt or the Oort cloud" which isn't particularly helpful. Also if you have the time how do asteroids form?? I think this one is a bit more simple though. THANKS!!

The Big Bang is a theory that I have been wanting to subscribe to, but it is its origin that I have difficulty grasping. It claims to occur out of 'nothing,' but to me that sounds like a more scientific explanation that could metaphorically equate to God's creation. Was the Big Bang the beginning of space as well? It seems space would have had to already be there in order for all this matter to spread out in. Or was space born within the explosion with matter already born inside of it? I suppose it would make sense that the universe would have to expand from a particle, but it seems that there would of have to be space there for that particle to emerge in and even time wo…

With space tourism becoming a real possibility in the near future, brewers are trying to figure out how to provide a good beer in space. The non-profit space research corporation Astronauts4Hire will begin testing an Australian brew created to be enjoyed in microgravity.

They say for every billion antimatter there was 1 extra matter, & there is SO much matter still in our universe. So is it accurate to say in the early universe there was billions x the total mass of the universe now? All the matter & antimatter is now just radiation & neutrinos zipping around space? There must be an absurd amount of radiation then? Please correct me if wrong. thanks

We are used to thinking of Universe but not multiverse (many universes). Can we see the other universe through black hole ?

i started this thread to get peoples opinions of how humans can travel to even the distant star in a humans average lifetime. got any ideas?

yes it migth be a simple question (or not) but im 15 and not som damn brainy astronom well, thise has bugged me some time, why dose it realy do that, why dose the earth spin araund the sun? usealy you just get the answer "gravity!" but if i understand it rigth gravity would make the eart crash into the sun, but it spinns making centrifugal force or what its calld creating a midstate of not geting flung oute into the nothingnes and not crashing into the sun. (lagom is da shitz^^) but iv never got the question why dose the earth spin to startwhite? why did it start? so can anyone answer it and put me oute of my missery (and yeah im 15 so dumb it down abit…

I know that Jupiter doesn't have a solid surface only a layer of hot and dense metallic hydrogen surrouding it's core but measuring from there what is the height of Jupiter's atmosphere? Is it less than 800 km?

I watched a show on the NGC about colonizing the Moon last night. Then I realized before the mentioned it, if you networked solar power stations in a circle around the Moon, you could have a power grid that's always receiving solar energy and can be beamed back to Earth. The Moon does have the raw materials to construct solar panels. Now, do we currently have the technology to do this and can anyone guestimate cost vs. other energies?

I would like to know if when viewed from the same point in space, the planets of HD10180 are rotating in the opposite direction when compared to the Solar system?

Is it totally confirmed that earth revolves around the sun or after sometime scientists will change their theory as it usually happens in many fields of science. Please post the links,reasons, and derivations proving the phenomena.And also the base upon which it has concluded that earth revolves around the sun.Thanks.

Once I saw on Discovery channel that scientists use twin telescope system to create a virtual aperture which is larger than sum of two telescope aperture. Anybody knows about this and how it happens?

There are two ways to view the expansion of the universe. The expansion of matter is causing space-time to expand. Or the expansion of space-time is causing matter to expand. There is a simple experiment that can prove which of the two is true. Before getting into the experiment, I would like show how both create very similar visual effects. In scenario one, we have a zone of high mass density, with a deep space-time well around the mass. If we expand the mass, so the mass density lowers, the space-time will expand within the volume. In scenario two, if we expand space-time about the starting mass, this will cause the mass to expand. The question becomes, do the…

Prof. Hawking said the world is like a goldfish bowl. Just as the fish knows only the bowl, we only know what we see. Hawking simply does not understand what science is, for him to make such a statement! A science theory is based upon mathematics, which is a collection of arbitrary fully consistent statements. The theory must also agree somewhat with observations and experiments. The fish does not understand mathematics, as mathematics is a human creation, and so the fish does not have a scientific understanding of the world. General Relativity is a valid theory, as the mathematics is consistent, and many observations (not all) agree with the theory. Quantum mecha…

Arthur Eddington discovered conspicuous coincidences, amongst the ratios, of various physical & cosmological constants, for our cosmos (Wolff. Exploring the Physics of the Unknown Universe, pp. 173-4), including: [math]\frac{time \, since \, the \, Big \, Bang}{time \, for \, light \, to \, cross \, a \, hydrogen \, atom} \approx 10^{36}[/math] [math]\frac{electrical \, repulsion \, between \, two \, protons}{gravitational \, attraction \, between \, two \, protons} \approx 10^{36}[/math] [~1042 for electrons] [math]\frac{mass \, of \, visible \, cosmos}{mass \, of \, proton} \approx 10^{79}[/math] [~1082 for electrons] The last ratio, is conspicuousl…

What caused it to suddenly create a universe? What caused the singularity to change into the Big Bang? Can anyone explain how ALL the mass-energy was accumulated into the "singularity"? Where did the Energy in singularity come from? Could it be that human cosmologists are only stating an unproven Theory? We know that energy can be transformed into mass, and mass into energy. My ultimate question: (If the "singularity" contained all the energy and mass in the present universe, then you will have to admit that said energy and mass came from somewhere or something) Where did it come from? Any ideas?

First off, hi everyone! This is my first post because I just found these forums (by Googling "science forums" in hopes of finding a good forum to ask science questions!). Anyway, lately I've been really interested in the moon and I've been reading about the lunar phases. (I assume this is the appropriate sub-forum? Or perhaps it should be moved to "Other Sciences"?) My question involves something I've noticed on a couple of different websites that list the optimal time to view particular phases of the moon. In at least two different sources I've seen that the full moon is best viewed around noon local time. But I don't understand how this is possible if, in order for …

There has to be an outer limit, and then, what is on the other side of this outer limit?

Hi everyone, I found this story on the National Geographic website, take a look: http://news.national...024_600x450.jpg Sharpest photo in visible light, apparently. Now we know where Sauron from Lord of the Rings went when his tower got destroyed.

This article is a compendious presentation of a model which concerning the Hawking field for small black holes. In this model there is a modification of the Hawking-Plank mass, because it fits with the energies of the atomic and subatomic particles and explains the phenomenon of the microwave background radiation. The model is cosmological with astronomical approaches.

Dose dark matter interact with dark energy? If so Can dark matter slow or contain dark energy?

Musical meditations over interesting pointless matters a few years ago After a long session I came up with an idea that if something was present before the big bang, this could be the dark matter. Therefore it would be of a different origin, and above the gravity laws of the universe. Dark matter could be like a canvas where the universe is the painting. Theory 1 Dark matter= Picture yourself a gigantic sphere of air with gravitational force from the equator of the perimeter all around. Big bang = Imagine a small firecracker set of inside this gigantic sphere. Accelerating universe=There was not any big bang in the sense of a detonation. The gravitation…

A lot of people think that the universe is infinite. But, it isn't, is it? If you asked most people that if you could get in a spaceship and go to the end of space what would be there, they would say "more space." But is this true? What a lot of people don't know is that the big bang didn't just "create" all the matter and energy in the universe. It created space itself. That there was no space around the singularity before the big bang. Though, I'm not sure how we discovered this/what evidence there is to support it. But, assuming this is true, and that space is still expanding per the big bang (as it is still in progress) if you go in any direction eventually they'l…