a blog by Andrew M. Ryan
I just described what could be called a generic GRB. However, astronomical observations have shown that GRBs have a wide variety of energy signatures typically coming in a series of pulses. There are several possible candidates for these pulses that, depending on the mass of the parent star, will be more or less important in [ ]
So far, we have been discussing the dynamics of what are referred to as main sequence stars. Such stars burn protons on their neutrogenic shells and gradually accumulate neutrons in their cores. As mentioned, nuclear fusion is not a relevant phenomenon, and these stars do not burn at different temperatures depending on which elements they happen to be fusing. [ ]
When the resistance of spacetime to additional compression finally overcomes the tremendous kinetic energy of its collapse, it is left as a hyper-compressed sphere of perfectly uniform density. This uniformity is critical and is the result of the snap, the tearing of space, along the surface of an infinite bounded region. Every point in space is accelerated [ ]
Easily the most perplexing question one can possibly ask is, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” Existence is not an obviously reasonable state of affairs, whereas nothingness does not seem to require any explanation at all. Confronted with an endless void, utterly empty, barren, and cold, one might say, “Well, of course. What did you [ ]
Problem: Why is the distant universe so homogeneous when the Big Bang theory seems to predict larger measurable anisotropies of the night sky than those observed? In the section in Chapter 4 entitled Cosmic Expansion (Dark Energy), I argued that this is a very simple problem, though only when armed with the theory described here. The reason [ ]
Problem: Why is the Sun’s corona (atmosphere layer) so much hotter than the Sun’s surface? Coronal heating is a fascinating phenomenon that refers to the extreme difference in temperature between the sun’s surface (~5800 K) and its corona (1–3 million K), located anywhere from a few dozen to a hundred or so kilometers above the surface. The obvious challenge [ ]
To date, at least 19 galaxies have been discovered that appear to be missing dark matter altogether. What this means, in practice, is that these galaxies are rotating so slowly that no additional matter, beyond their complement of visible baryons, is required to explain their gravitational coherence. Only fast-spinning galaxies need the gravitational attraction of extra matter to hold them…
Now that we have some familiarity with spacetime and the manner in which it generates gravitational fields, we can turn our attention to another of the great unsolved mysteries of the universe: the curious rotational characteristics of spiral galaxies. Back in the 1930s, a physicist named Fritz Zwicky discovered that objects in spiral galaxies do not [ ]
Here’s an interesting article about the source of Earth’s magnetic field Earth s inner core is doing something weird by Maya Wei-Haas. Back in the 70s, the Soviets tested some huge atomic bombs. The shockwaves bounced off the Earth’s core and were picked up by geologists in Montana. Recently, scientists revisited the data and have [ ]
If we extrapolate from the discussion above to the behavior of pulsars, we see a very compelling picture. By comparison with a pulsar, the Sun is a soft, slow, lumbering affair. It is spread out over a huge volume and rotates only about once a month, and yet the solar cycle, though far from perfect, [ ]