Tuesday, March 27, 2012

‘We Don’t Know What’s Driving 96% Of The Universe’


I just watched an online video featuring astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I kind of equate Neil as sort of the “Carl Sagan” in this new era of future generations. He is incredibly intelligent and also has the ability to show and explain the intricacies of the Universe in ways that are palatable to the average person – like me…

In this recent online video, he claimed we as humans only see and understand a staggering 4% of the working energy and matter of the Universe. That means we do not know what is driving the other 96% of the Universe. WOW…

4% of the Universe? And yet he muses, we consider ourselves an intelligent species. What defines intelligence? Neil makes it clear humans define this term “Intelligence”. He asks, would an advanced alien species think of the human race as intelligent?

He notes that Chimpanzees have very similar DNA to humans. In fact, it may surprise some right-wing Christians that chimp DNA differs by 1% to that of humans. That one 1% difference is a lot though. Humans can create poetry, build telescopes and space stations. A chimp can poke a stick into a termite hole to flesh out a tasty treat. Still, there is only a 1 % difference in DNA evolution between chimps and humans – amazing…

But imagine an alien species whose DNA is say 1% more advanced than that of humans. One could surmise that there would be huge differences based on our similarity with chimps? Would an alien race consider us as primal and unintelligent as chimps? It makes you wonder.

It also makes you wonder about our place in this vast Cosmos. It makes you wonder about religion, war and our place on Earth in relation to something so vast and undiscovered as the Universe. It makes me want to take a deep breath and simply revel in the immensity of it all; making no claims about genesis or dogma – just reverence; that I am apart of this amazing system of order that is the Cosmos.

John C. Bader
www.responsiveuniverse.com
New Responsive Universe Promo Video

Monday, August 29, 2011

Meteor Crater, AZ

I recently visited the Meteor Crater in Arizona. It was interesting to peer inside the massive crater and fathom that magnitude of the explosion that must have rocked this region. Located about 45 miles east of Flagstaff, it has a blast diameter of approximately 4000 feet. The crater was created about 50,000 years ago. Please keep in mind you will have to pay a moderate fee to access the museum and viewpoints - well worth the visit!

Plato


Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another
- Plato

Monday, October 25, 2010

Edge of the Universe?

A recent image taken by the Hubble Telescope offers a glimpse at what scientists are calling the oldest object so far discovered in the Universe – a young Galaxy. Well, it was a young Galaxy: Estimated at 13.1 billion years old, it may be just 600 million years of age. Remember, when looking at star light, one is really looking back in time as it takes millions if not billions of years for light to cross the galaxy and find Earth (depending on the lights origin). Our solar system did not even exist when this Galaxy was formed. Looking at light signatures of cooling hydrogen gas, Astronomers can determine the age of stars based on the heavy metals that accompany stars – especially as they age. Coupled with Red Shift, one can estimate not only the age of a specific group of stars but also where they reside in the universe. The farther away, the younger they are (or were). This specific galaxy yet to be named, sits nears what scientists coin the edge of the Universe. According to current Big Bang calculations, the Universe may only be 100 million years old from the onset of this galaxies formation – truly the infant stage of our universe.


This means we could be close to taking our first glimpse of the edge of the universe. What then? Is that God? What exists beyond the edge? Is there an edge? According to Stephen Hawking, a renowned astrophysicist, “It obviously matters because if there is an edge, somebody has to decide what should happen at the edge. You would really have to invoke God.” He also has remarked, “if you want a complete theory, then we would have to know what happens at the edge. Otherwise, we cannot solve the equations”.

I have read several theories that speak about a gravitational boundary at the edge of the universe. This gravitational boundary actually causes light to bend, arc or even reflect in a circular path around that invisible border. In theory this idea would be similar to the way that light hypothetically tries to escape the event horizon of a black hole? It certainly could explain an edge.

Are we living in the confines of a black hole? A Universe within a Universe? Is the center of the Big Bang a point in space or a point in time? According to a Sten Odenwald's article, "the center of the Big Bang was not a point in space, but a point in time! It is a center, not in the fabric of the balloon, but outside it along the 4th dimension...time. We cannot see this point anywhere we look inside the space of our universe out towards the distant galaxies. You can't see time after all. We can only see it as we look back in time at the ancient images we get from the most distant objects we can observe. We see a greatly changed, early history of the universe in these images but no unique center to them in space."

Hawking has also been on record stating, “At the moment there's not much evidence either way. It seems that we can explain the present state of the universe on the assumption that there wasn't any edge”. Another statement expresses this,” It's very difficult to prove that there isn't any edge, but if we could show that we can explain everything in the universe on the hypothesis that there is no edge. I think that would be a much more natural and economical theory”. The Universe is infinite right? Therefore in theory, there would be no edge? Yet, recent observations show that very little exists before 13 billion years ago; And what about before the Big Bang? Is that space before what would constitute an edge? What defines space that is made up of nothing?

I am confident that in my life time, we will be able to see to the edge of the Universe. What will we learn? What conclusions might we find? I am sure there will be many theories abound – many unexplainable ideas and concepts. Make no mistake, not only is this the final frontier, it is the key to understanding everything – it may even prove or disapprove the concept of God. Though, maybe such concepts are not meant to be understood. How is one to exist in a world with no unknown? What would be left to live for?

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Double Stars do not suck!

9/13/2010
8:30pm CST
Partly Cloudy - Calm
65 degrees
10" Dobsonian
Wauconda, IL


Last night at dusk it was clear and calm - well, at least until I got my GPS dialed in and I was ready to computer navigate the summer heavens for the first time in a couple months - then, enter the clouds... Before, I was able to dive deep into the Messier catalog, a cloudy haze revealed itself first coming from the west and slowly carpeting the heavens to the east. After a quick accidental bump of the telescope mount, knocking it out of alignment, I had about 5 minutes before the clouds overtook the sky. Still, the Big Dipper remained unscathed, and I instinctly scanned the telescope to the second star from the handle tip - Mizar. Mizar is a double star: Its smaller pair is called Alcor. I have read that on a dark night and with keen eyes, one can make out the seperation between the two stars which are thought to be seperated by as many as 3 light years (the pair sits about 78 light years from Earth) - I had no such luck with the naked eye. With a 25mm lense using my 10" Dob, I could easily make out the seperation. Then using a Barlow I rolled on the the pair with 5mm power and really got a nice view of the two. Mizar is clearly larger and both exhibit similar color. Mizar and Alcor are not binaries - though, Alcor actually is itself a binary, consisting of Alcor A and Alcor B, and that this binary system is most likely gravitationally bound to Mizar, bringing the full count of stars in this complex system to six. Always a nice view!

I also struck luck and caught the International Space Station zooming west to east as the sun just set. It was difficult, but I was able to track it with my 25mm lense panning the telescope as it raced across the sky. I could easily make out a rectangle shape which was clearly the solar panels.

A glass of red wine, the space station and a double star... I guess life could be worse...

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Waxing Crescent

3/23/2010
8:35pm cst
Clear - Calm
51 degrees F
10"
10mm
moon filter 13% T

Mars revisited




3/23/2010
7:35pm CST
Clear - Calm
52 degrees F
10"
10mm


3/23/2010
7:35pm CST
Clear - Calm
52 degrees F
10"
10mm
with #25 Red Filter

Images by Ethan Bader (8 years old)