When Stars Collide, Hyperloop Pods, Propellors and Quantum Catapults

Apparently, half the missing matter in the universe has been found.

I breath a sigh of relief, as I'm sure we all do.

Personally, the idea of dark matter and black holes gives me a sense of deep dread.

All that nothingness...(shivers)

One hundred and thirty million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, two neutron stars collided.

In August, the signals from that event reached Earth, and became the first ever visual and gravitational record of such a cosmic cataclysm.

The visual and gravitational records arrived within 17 seconds of each other, which is pretty damn good for a journey spanning aeons* of time...

The image below looks underwhelming, but don't forget that you're looking at an event that took place long before we existed...

NGC 4993     When Stars Collide                   NASA/Swift

Personally, I'm still reeling with the simple fact that telescopes are time machines...

What we need is a quantum catapult, enabling us to cross the vast divide of space and time.

I'm working on it, but I need more elastic for the catapult.

It's a minor inconvenience - I'm sure Elon Musk could sort it out - speaking of whom, in a recent discussion of his hopes to use rockets as glorified 'airliners' on Mars, he displayed a masterful use of terms like 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' (rocket explodes) , and ' ...getting somewhere in thirty minutes by rocket...will be negatively affected if ...' you might die', is on the ticket.'

Fear not, though, as current tests for his (Earthbased)  hyperloop system are exceeding their own speed records, and it won't be long before intercity journey times are vastly reduced.

Google have expanded their maps to include places in our solar system: enjoy, but please don't confuse them with your own GPS...

'Propellor' imaged by Cassini    NASA

Remaining with our own corner of the cosmos, I found this article interesting, as it ponders a few discoveries of the belated (do we use this term for a spacecraft? ) Cassini, particularly the interesting 'propellors' created by moonlets in Saturns rings.

A world with moons named from figures of Greek mythos , including Janus, Pandora, Atlas, Dione and Prometheus is always worth revisiting, although my personal favourite is the little oddity known as Pan...

35km wide Pan...

Don't forget there is a little time left ( closing November 1,2017 )  to include your name on the Insight flight to Mars - get your boarding pass here

Not sure if I got a wing seat, knowing my luck, I'm probably in baggage...


...but I'll  see you there

* Using aeons as a fluid measurement

Special Snowflakes Melt - The Mediocrity Principle

For those who ponder whether we are alone in the universe, some bright sparks have combined the Fermi Paradox and the Mediocrity Principle , deducing that we are still some 1500 years from our first contact with aliens.
Not only that, but the fact is we're not special. 
'The Mediocrity Principle', basically means that we are not alone in the universe, and there are probably so many versions of humanity that we really are quite banal.
Bit of a blow for the schools of thought that say we are all special snowflakes.
So, perhaps we should get over it, and embrace our galactic banality.
Only then will we make contact with other, equally banal but possibly more technically advanced, aliens.
Personally, I find it oddly discomforting that a think - tank exists to remind us of our ordinariness...
...but 1500 years before we meet another (supposedly dull) race of beings?
The mind boggles...are we watching the galactic equivalent of  paint - drying ?
Mediocrity, indeed.
So, how will we know when we finally encounter these aliens ?
After all, if, like us , they are not special or unique, surely it's possible that we might totally miss them ?
Or will we identify them by their shapeless grey clothing with no distinguishing features ?
Will they look alike ?
Shall they all be named Derek ?
Apologies to any readers named Derek.
How can a technologically advanced race seem dull ?
Are they beyond the world of strong emotions ?

Provenance unknown

Some time ago I mentioned the discovery of a star with the mysterious property of intermittent flickering.
A kickstarter to pay for precious telescope time observing ' Tabbys star ' has just been successfully funded - so we are much closer to the truth of the mysterious star thanks to public crowdfunding - I think this is a great idea, even though it will almost certainly prove to be anti - climactic, with no evidence of sci - fi / aliens whatsoever.
Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A highly improbable  ' Dyson sphere'

Interesting trivia regarding LIGO - which is tasked with registering gravitational waves generated by the merging of black holes and suchlike - apparently, the equipment is so sensitive it can be affected by passing clouds.
To avoid too much ' background noise' , some people have mooted that perhaps it should be set up on the far side of the moon - but won't that signal be messed up by the secret alien moon-bases ?

Just kidding.
Or...

Clouds on Pluto, Distant Galaxies and Radio Signals

Following the recent announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves, you can help in the further discovery of more signals - link here.
In news from the New Horizons team, something is eating away at Pluto, creating a huge gouge in the Western hemisphere.
Don't panic though, it 's probably just material evaporating ...
Another recent discovery is what appear to be actual clouds on Pluto - caveat, I say actual clouds, but these are nitrogen with traces of methane, not water clouds.
Smelly acid rain then, don't forget your brolly.
Or breathing apparatus, obv.

Impossibly hard to see  wispy clouds on Pluto.  pic NASA

This discovery is possible through the ongoing downloads of material from the September flypast by New Horizons.

The downloads will continue until near the end of this year.
It's a slow process - after all, New Horizons is getting further away, heading for a rendezvous in the Oort cloud in 2019, so it is putting serious miles between us , travelling at approximately 30,000 mph in the opposite direction .
Don't forget the download speed is pathetically low; at an underwhelming 2000 bits a second - there are no Wi - Fi relay / booster stations out there !
Clouds on Pluto are exciting news because they could help in the reclassification of Pluto as a planet (remember it was downgraded in 2006) .
This would create a whole new set of problems with the ongoing search for the mysterious Planet X , which would then become a tenth planet in our solar system.

On its way out of service, Hubble has just imaged the most distant object in the known universe at 13 billion light years distant, which makes it just  aspproximately 400 hundred million years from the Big Bang.

JWST artists impression    pic NASA

Anyway, the incoming James Webb Telescope should easily surpass that, perhaps even revealing the finger of The Supreme Being hovering over the button marked ' Start .'

But I digress...

In other news, the source of the mysterious signal FRB 121102 has been pinpointed (approximately) -but they are none the wiser as to what exactly it is .
The actual signals seem to be clustered irregularly, which implies an artificial nature, perhaps designed to be noticed.
Beyond that, there is only speculation at present - but the 'alien megastructure' theory is no longer viable.
To add to the confusion, doubts have already been cast on the validity of the report - the internet is no slouch when it comes to raining on parades !
Despite this, the internet can also have its uses - for instance, here's a link to many Russian films, including the only horror film made in the old USSR 'Viy', and the mesmerising ' Stalker' - pointless and strange ? Exactly, that's why we're here !

Lightsails, Femme Fatales, Martian Maps and Matters of Faith

Photonic propulsion is very much in the news , being touted as a way of taking a crew to Mars in good time (in practical terms, about five weeks) at a potentially large ( 30% ) proportion of the speed of light.
Its simplicity (solar power) makes it economical, and its potential for upscaling makes it suitable for interstellar use - no more rockets laden with heavy fuel - it is seriously threatening the much touted SLS as a means of travel.
I imagine that light sails could become quite a common mode of travel within our solar system. It is environmentally friendly, using a renewable power source , it ticks all the boxes - the only down side to carrying humans would be the sheer scale of the thing - small is beautiful seems to be the key at present, with the possibility of tiny satellites being made of smartphones !


The excitement from the recent discovery of gravitational waves continues with news that radio telescopes can be set to do likewise, and NANOGrav are now monitoring 54 pulsars (which can witness the collision of binary black holes ).

Further news tells us that the source of a mysterious FRB has been found to be a galaxy some 6 billion light years away - it is possibly a collision from two neutron stars.
Nothing greatly exciting then - and this info comes to us from the Parkes observatory in Australia.
Last year, they told us excitedly of a massive radiation burst from deep space - which turned out to be the microwave oven next door.
Ahem.

Artist impression of AIM        image ©ESA

One craft heading into space soon (well, 2020) is the Asteroid Impact Mission - now that  ESA have proved that it is possible to land on an asteroid (although sadly, there is no more word from the lander  Philae), they have decided to launch the Asteroid Impact Mission , which along with the NASA  DART* mission will test our capability for deflection of rogue asteroids from potential collision with Earth - infact, for lovers of morbid scenarios in which doom arrives from space in the form of an errant asteroid, 30th June is Asteroid Day, raising awareness of the threat of potential global destruction.

So hurrah for that -
Any excuse for a fun day off...

Our Galaxy                           pic byESA

An indepth new view of the milky way reveals more of everything.
The view was taken by ATLASGAL - APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy.
Almost makes the DART * acronym ( Demonstration of Autonomous Reconnaisance Technology) seem simple...

Meanwhile, back on Mars...

If you watched 'The Martian' wishing you were there (despite the deadly irradiated landscape) , then you can get the next best thing - an ordinance survey map of the planet !
Yes, the standard piece of kit for any fell walker in the uk now covers the Red Planet too.
Did you know that the O.S. department in the U.K. was spawned by the volume of accurate measurements required for the building of the Embankment in London ?

Remaining on (virtual) Mars, apparently tomatoes or even strawberries would make good first crops, rather than the humble potato.
I'm not sold on the logic, although the water content of tomatoes might be a bonus on such a dry, arid world.

 Back on Earth - 

Preserved in amber, and 15 million years too late to be a crop on Mars (although I'm sure a mad scientist may see opportunity for disabling the populace), is a beautiful , but deadly strychnos flower, the ancestor of strychnine and cyanide ,  much admired by the Borgias, for example.

Lucrezia Borgia

The online world is a battlefield.

Everyone thinks they have the answer, and social media is full of opinions - like this one.
Of course, in this topsy - turvy world we now live in , we get extremes - hence the re-appearance of  Flat-Earthers .
Ahem.
I'm sure there are those who deliberately 'farm' strong opinions - certainly on FB, after all it adds a degree of interest to any newsfeed - and people like the opportunity to air their views; we tend to surround ourselves with like - minded friends, and so are often ' preaching to the converted', whereas a wider audience involves fresh opinions and input.
Of course, occasionally things descend into the 'trolling' level of personal insults , but that is generally the response from someone who feels cornered and threatened - either through a lack of ability to reason or to argue a point, or just through playing 'devils advocate'.
This pointless waffle brings me neatly to a potential image for debate - a map of the world according to the  friendliness of nations !
I was in two minds about including the map purporting to show nations according to how welcoming they are, on the grounds that it may be biased , and lets not introduce political favour - but although this is generated in the U.S.A, it doesn't favour that country - infact the U.S.A. is about halfway - Canada seem to be the friendly guys here - and speaking of friendly (and outwardly hostile) , this link takes you to a map showing hostilities worldwide - if you drill down to the original site, you can manipulate the dates etc, for greater accuracy. It's obviously incomplete, and very Euro-centric, but even so, a rather grim rendition of battles mostly around us.

It's almost midnight here (GMT), and the candle is guttering here in the shed, so I shall post this piece, and repair to the great beyond.
It's almost impossible to know when to stop at the moment, as there is an abundance of space related stuff out there - perhaps it's the season, or just an exponential increase, following high profile stuff like Ceres and the asteroid landing and last years Pluto flypast.
What I'm saying is goodnight, and watch the sky, and this space !
TTFN !

Solar Sails, Ripples in Spacetime, and Holidays on Distant Moons

Of course, the big news this week is the proof of the existence of Gravitational Waves .
The dedicated team at LIGO made the announcement on Thursday, 11th Feb.
Some of those involved have made the search their lifes work , and the initial team was assembled back in 1975.
It brings to a conclusion the decades of speculation (and false signals), and the vindication of Albert Einsteins prediction , over a hundred years ago.
It also tells us that 'spacetime' is flexible, and not rigid, as a medium: this will fuel all manner of sci-fi conjecture.
This is a truly amazing revelation , which will lead to game - changing discoveries.
It enables us to better understand gravity, but also opens a whole new realm of exploration.
In essence, visual wavelengths have been used to observe stellar phenomenon - but this discovery brings the dimension of sound into play.
The initial sound of the  two black holes merging which led to this discovery has already been timestretched into an ambient, hour - long piece - it is essentially a rising scale on a cosmic keyboard up to middle C - (maaan).
The number crunching is mind blowing in itself - the gravitational wave began with two black holes colliding 1.3 billion years ago, unleashing an energy equivalent to the observable universe x50 - but which ultimately only affected the measuring devices by one ten thousandth the width of the nucleus of an atom.
Cue my mind melting.
We are dealing with next level science here, way beyond my own ability to fathom : infact, it's so far out, that I found myself drawn to the human element of the story - Dr Ron Drever, one of the earliest members of the team, could not join in the celebrations as he is now in a nursing home in Edinburgh, suffering with dementia.
His colleague, Dr  Rainer Weiss maintains that it was Dr Drevers creative genius that helped to propel the discovery.

Planetary Society LightSail

Solar Sails

In the last post, I extolled the virtues of nuclear fusion, and have decided to redress the balance by writing up solar sails, which are unrivalled as a means of distance travel through deep space .
I don't want to get bogged down in the arguments for and against , but certainly in terms of deep space, the solar sail has the edge.
Although the force employed (photons) is very small, the push is continuous, so the acceleration is constant.
It's been estimated that a craft with a 1300 foot sail could travel 1.3 billion miles a year, and leave our solar system within ten years
The only real issue for deep space travel would be the need for a huge laser firing photons at the sail, in lieu of sunlight.
In 2010, the Japanese craft Ikaros employed a solar sail 46 feet wide, and recently (albeit with limited success) the Planetary Society unfurled a larger sail.
The sheer scale of the sails required for interstellar journeys is incredible, and would create quite a visual impact in the darkness of space.
Attempts to guess the fastest method of travel to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) give us a possible 9 years using a massive solar sail (600 miles / 945 km diameter) .
Nine years travel may sound a lot , but Proxima Centauri is 4 light years distant, so 9 years is actually pretty fast - well, unless you compare it to your daily commute.
Quite apart from the sheer scale of the thing, it would need boosting from a giant laser once it leaves the area of influence of our sun, so for now at least, this is in the realms of sci-fi.

©NASA

In Other News...

NASA have released a series of retro 'travel' posters extolling the virtues of 'space breaks'- if you were uncertain as to choosing a holiday on Enceladus as opposed to Titan, for instance.
I think they are great, although my past playthroughs of the computer game ' Bioshock ' gives  me reservations about such Art Deco styling.

Bioshock

Apparently, an asteroid heading our way on March 5th could fly past Earth at a distance of 11,000 miles, which is a mere whisker (in cosmic terms).
The comet in question ( designated 2013 TX68 ) - was only discovered three years ago, and as such, has no given name.
There is a one in 250 million chance of impact, hardly enough to cause sleepless nights - but then, what about the comets we didn't discover yet ?
Goodnight