Saturday, January 22, 2000

The Matrix

Well, here it is! Yay, after being forced to sit through the boring parts of Transformers, I get to watch one of my favorite films of all time! WHOO!

Trinity meets up with Neo, and we see some fantastic acting from our two leads. Sorry for the sarcasm, it's just true. But the acting's not too terrible, and it doesn't really bother me. We are left wondering what the Matrix really is when Trinity leaves. Neo wakes up late for work the next day, and gets into trouble. We learn that his real name is Mr. Thomas Anderson, something that Agent Smith will never ever let us forget.

Neo is contacted my Morpheus at his job, and is warned that people (Agents) are coming for him. He is told when and where to go in order to avoid detection. The problem with this scene is that we learn that those outside the Matrix (where Morpheus is) can only view it in code, as the image renderers work for the Matrix. So...how can Morpheus see such specific images from looking at code?

Neo tries to escape by climbing on the outside of the building, but gives up quickly, letting himself be taken by the Agents. Next comes a great interrogation scene, where our hero (Neo) and villain (Smith) meet for the very first time. Smith refers to Morpheus, the mysterious man Neo's been looking for as "the most dangerous man alive." Neo resists Smith's questions by asking for his phone call, but Smith asks what use that is if he is unable to speak, and removes his mouth.

Sorry, that's horrifying, I know. Also, it's probably Keanu's best acting moment. But, anyways, Neo wakes up, believing it all to be a dream. He's contacted by Morpheus on a tapped line and told where to meet. The movie should've ended right there, with Agents capturing them. But it doesn't.

He almost leaves, but Trinity tells him that he knows what's down that road. What, the sequels?

Anyways, they remove a tracking device from his navel which was inserted during the interrogation scene. They reach the building Morpheus is in, and Neo and him meet face-to-face. You could say it's a Face/Off... sorry for bringing up such an awful movie.

So, Neo is told that the Matrix is everywhere. That he was born into a prison, into slavery. But, no one can be told what The Matrix is, they have to see it themselves, so Neo is given the classic choice, red pill or blue pill.

(To clarify: Red pill=leaving the Matrix, blue pill=staying) Obviously, Neo takes the red pill, and is then taken to a room where he is shown the cracks in reality and ejected from the Matrix into this nightmare:

But, the Machines don't do that, and Neo is flushed down what is basically a toilet and rescued by Morpheus and his crew aboard the Nebuchadnezzar, an interesting name, but one that I'm not sure what the meaning of is. If someone knows why they chose this name, please let me know. (By the way, I already know about the biblical Nebuchadnezzar, I just don't know how the story connects.)

Neo's muscles have atrophied, so they have to electrically stimulate them to repair them. The Wachowskis have covered all the bases of his body having decayed from non-use. (As far as I know, not being a doctor.) We are introduced to the vibrant colors of this film: grays, browns, and greens. We learn that, instead of 1999, it's closer to 2199. Really interesting, fish-out-of-water angle. We're introduced to the superfluous other crew members, who nobody cares about. Who's your favorite Matrix character, little Timmy? Apoc! Shut up.

Neo flips out, and Morpheus tells him that they normally recruit young, as older minds can't handle the strain. Neo is told the legend of The One, a man born in the Matrix who could change anything within it, and that the Oracle prophesied he would be reborn.

Next, we learn that one of the memorable crew members, Tank, and his unmemorable brother, Dozer, were born outside the Matrix. Then, Neo has martial arts downloaded into his brain, prompting this iconic Keanu moment:

Then, they enter a sparring program, where Neo is taught that those who know about the Matrix can bend or break the laws of physics in order to perform impossible stunts, and that they can't get tired inside the Matrix, because they're not really exercising. The kung fu (which Keanu, of course, knows) in this movie is incredibly well-choreographed and thought out, delivering a tension-filled fight which utilizes slow motion in some of the best ways I've ever seen it used in all of cinema.

Neo moves incredibly fast, and he still doesn't believe Morpheus, somehow. He's loaded into the jump program, where he fails miserably, resulting in a clip somewhat like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon.

Everyone's disappointed, but not surprised, because nobody makes the first jump. Neo finds that he's bleeding in the real world, because his mind "made it real." So, his mind caused his lip to bleed? Okay. And if you die in the Matrix, you die in the real world. Morpheus and Neo enter another training program, where Morpheus explains that the people inside the Matrix are dangerous because they will fight to protect the system. In other words, they will "Stick to the Status Quo."

This whole exercise was showcasing that anyone in the Matrix can be your enemy. Keep your focus sharp. Eyes on the prize. Getcha head in the game. No, I won't stick that video in here, I wouldn't put two HSM songs on one post.

We learn that the Agents are the guards of the Matrix, and that no one has survived a fight with them. But Neo can become faster and stronger than them, because he doesn't have to follow the rules of the Matrix.

In the real world, we are introduced to the Sentinels, or Squiddies, which are a killing machine designed for one thing: search and destroy. The ships take them out using an EMP, but have to power down all systems first, in order to remain operational.

Next, we get a scene between Cypher (the bald one) and Neo, and Cypher explains that they have to view the Matrix in code. This scene actually makes Cypher a relatable character, and quite possibly the only one (other than Morpheus and Trinity) to really connect with Neo. This makes it all the more effective when he turns evil and betrays the crew to the Agents in the next scene so he'll be allowed back into the Matrix with his memories wiped, and as someone rich and important, like an actor. They ask him for access codes to the Zion mainframe in return, which he doesn't know, but he promises them Morpheus, who does know.

Thursday, January 20, 2000

Linux 2

In this report, I will tell how open source software and Linux can be used to reduce costs in the nature of hardware, software, and operating systems in the long term.
Large corporations have been open source for years and continue to use these operations. Small businesses are beginning to look at Linux or OpenSolaris. Small businesses can use VoIP, because the operating system supports it. The software is free, but people with Red Hat Enterprise Workstation/Server or Suse Enterprise Workstation/server or Ubuntu server purchase contracts for tech support. For best performance, you can use Gnome/KDE on Opensolaris distribution and it’ll run like closed source Solaris 10 would, and why it was popular in the first place. Otherwise, you can run Red Hat Workstation Linux and some commercial mature Windows emulator such as Crossover Linux which costs $39.99 instead of $139 for Windows XP Pro/XP x64/Vista Business/7.0 Business. Then, it is possible for employees to be able to execute Microsoft Office 2007 and other specialized software off their Linux workstations through emulators if need be. Otherwise, Administrators can compile Linux Unified Kernel, Wine v1.0, and integrate it into the Linux operating system manually to run Windows applications at no charge. LUK can run Adobe Photoshop on Linux, not native Linux software. [davidtavarez, 2008][Linux, 2008][ neteasyinc, 2008][Codeweavers, 2008]
Windows Server 2008/2008R2 or Windows Vista/7.0 cost money to purchase the OEM to license tech support. The closed source 3rd party software costs money for GPO tools, because companies who develop for Microsoft are usually trying to make a profit off customers. GNU is a non-profit organization with continuously updated applications, because of endless bug reports from all over the world. The major hardware vendors submit hardware drivers to the Linux kernel team to integrate free of charge. The IBM blade servers have Cell Broadband Engines or Cell-based PPC, and Linux recognizes that RISC CPU. Sometimes Blade Servers can have two CBE and XDR RAM in it. That’s like 7 SPEs and 1 PPE per CBE at 3.2 GHz. It makes these servers very fast. Closed source software won’t recognize CBE yet. There are places like South America and Asia that want affordable PCs and that is part of the reason. Another reason is the Department of Defense, and NASA are funding Linux so that the government can see stability for all their many supercomputers. (IBM, 2006)
With Suse Enterprise Server, you can run Apache software for servers which is open source. This is cheaper than Microsoft IIS to run MySQL. Suse Enterprise also supports DHCP, Postfix, DNS, IMAP, Samba, System Statistics (Uses MRTG), User management, Proxy Server. They serve the same file systems. Personally, I always used ReiserFS over EXT3, because it is noticeably faster than the latter. However, EXT4 file system is out in Suse Enterprise 11, OpenSuse 11.2, Redhat Enterprise 5.3, and Fedora 10 so I recommend workstations switching to that file system later this year. EXT4 is supposed to be the flagship file system of Linux as of either Fedora 10 or kernel 2.6.28 and better Linux so I recommend that best solution for workstations if you have either EXT3 or ReiserFS right now. EXT4 is more stable, faster and less fragmented than NTFS for Windows 6.0. Afterwards, Suse 10.1 switched back to the flagship Linux file system, EXT3 so the administrator had to switch file systems again for a speed boost. ReiserFS can handle a lot of small files better than EXT3 and is as mature as EXT3, because both came out in 2001, not including betas. High performance Linux servers use OCFS2 file system, because it’s faster than ReiserFS or EXT4. OCFS2 isn’t as forgiving as EXT3, EXT4 or ReiserFS when concerning unintentional power offs, is but the best server file system out there not in beta. OCFS is an option in most Linuxes since 2006. OCFS2 has also less latency than NTFS. (oracle, 2008)(devx, 2004),
The installers Linux have now-a-days makes installing a breeze especially the Yast Control Panel in any Suse distribution. The ideal way would involve a small army of technicians to execute this installing on workstations so the secret administrator password may stay secret. Someone should burn a DVD per PC with the passwords and file system instructions on paper. The company should make the employees to split the cost of a DVD spindle, use the Administrator and his network technicians install Linux off the DVDs at the similar times. Either way would save a few $1000 on otherwise buying Microsoft licenses and legit Windows OEM CDs. Pirating would be a type of security fraud holding the company accountable.
A lot of open source software is highly robust at an early stage of development and mature open source projects are setting new industry standards. In comparison closed source software has typically a defect report that needs to be filed and then a delay before the vendor determines when or whether to issue new bug fix. What makes open source better is users aren’t at the mercy of the vendor. The open source developers are pride and kudo driven so they want to have the most robusts software before adding features. The motivation to fix bugs is much higher if the source code is freely available. Another important reason why open source software can reduce costs is the stability. The closed source software can be outdated and assist an task, because if it works then end users aren’t motivated to spend more money to upgrade when it suits their needs. If a software supplier can establish a monopoly, force upgrades, than profits are high. One of the motivations is to add improved file formats and applications that can decode/encode them. Users will feel isolated with older versions. With huge amounts of server space, open source provides source code to compile an old version that is compatible with the business needs. Security holes are filled much quicker, because a third party can audit the vulnerability or exploit and send the reports and easily submit a report and expect a fix within 3 months. The GNU actually claims that Linux has less virus vulnerabilities in security breaches or hack attacks with a commercial firewall, because it is newer than Windows kernel in terms of years. Open Source identifies software that is being attacked, yet unlike closed source code will see vulnerability assessment scanners. Vulnerability assessment scanners look for vulnerabilities in configured systems on purpose. [gbdirect, 2008] [DWheeler, 2008]
In terms of Apache servers, open source software can reverse engineer a draft specification into the real product very quickly outpacing that of closed source developers and business strategy. Apache was used with IBM open source since 1998 and is more popular than Microsoft IIS on a year to year basis. The idea is when these open source projects source code is downloadable, it keeps companies from monopolizing file formats. Open source believes it is more business flexible than closed source software, because it allows any business to download whatever they need instead of having features from commercial software that is less than what the company needs. The company isn’t restrained by the software this way so that it is a specifically-built IT platform. The only over-dependency in open source is the requirement of upgrade to new versions that are more stable, faster, more backwards compatible with data formats. Important projects never die, and any group of programmers can resurrect a project if need be as it is passed on. A lot of how toos are documented at Linux vendors website, official forums, unofficial Linux forums, and vendor’s wikis so there is no shortage of support. Because the source code is freely available, organizations are not limited to obtaining support from the authors. The developers of Apache, MySQL, and high profile projects speak of the amount of high-reliability these software process that tech support isn’t a high profile priority even though the vendor does that job. (IBM, PDF, 2008)
With Linux on System Z mainframes, there is more efficient server platforms increased utilization rate, almost doubling from 36% to 79% compared to Microsoft IIS. Linux would reduce possible scalable servers resulting in power savings. Cutting edge applications, especially web-centric applications, are usually made for Linux first, because it is a product of the Internet. According to IBM virtualization today is more mature on RISC and mainframe platform than x86 servers. If Linux was employed, it would have less server footprints. Linux has better compatibility with unified user management available on RISC and mainframe systems. (IBM, PDF, 2008)
Linux is more compatible with high performance computing workloads. These replaced enterprise workloads. Linux has a 10% year to year growth now which is about 13.4% of worldwide factory server revenue. (IBM, PDF, 2008)
Mainframes like System Z have Integrated Facility for Linux processors to accelerate performance of Linux that runs on their servers resulting in the total number of Linux instances increased compared to Linux without IFL. If your system is still x86 based, IBM’s chiphopper program can provide economic benefits. Although, a business doesn’t really need chiphopper. The PowerVM Lx86 emulator will run x86 Linux programs without source code modification. (IBM, PDF, 2008)
With Linux running on System Z the annual savings for 100 users could be 60% IT infrastructure improvement, 25% user productivity improvement, and 14% IT staff productivity increase. Significant cost saves were realized in terms of power/cooling and space utilization with System Z mainframes. With Linux, the downtime was 53 minutes a year compared to five hours with Windows Server. IT staff were able to optimize resources, increase IT service levels, reduce staffing in datacenters and the help desk. (IBM, PDF, 2008)
Pretty much with the hardware reorganization like Cell Broadband Engine, the free updates, the LUK/Wine emulation and fast file systems over Windows; our company is better off cost, hardware and software wise. Linux will always get better, and with closed software, you never know when it’ll go in reverse as far as stability and functionality. Most likely closed software will be unstable at the beginning of the gone gold date, while open source software has no such limitation.
References
Kerner, S.M. (2004, September 29). UNIX vs. Linux: A Vendor's Perspective.
Retrieved January 10, 2009, from CIOupdate website:
http://www.cioupdate.com/trends/article.php/3414891/UNIX-vs-Linux-A-Vendors-Perspective.htm
Anonymous. (2008). Crossover Linux. Retrieved January 10, 2009, from Codeweavers website:
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxlinux/
Anonymous. (2008). Open Source can help reduce Small Business costs in the US
Economy. Retrieved January 10, 2009, from Netasyinc website:
http://neteasyinc.com/news/2008/open-source-solutions-can-help-small-business
Drake, J. D. (2004, April 26). RedHat ES 3.0 vs. SuSE Server 8.0: Battle for the Enterprise.
Retrieved January 10, 2009, from Devx website:
http://www.devx.com/opensource/Article/20840/0/page/3
Anonymous. (2008). OCFS2 [file system].
Retrieved January 09, 2009, from Oracle website:
http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/
Anonymous. (2008). Benefits of Using Open Source Software.
Retrieved January 10, 2009, from Devx website:
http://open-source.gbdirect.co.uk/migration/benefit.html
Bozman, J. S., Perry, R., Gillen, A., & Hatcher, E. (2008, October). Adding Business Value with
Cross - Platform Solutions : Linux Running on IBM Servers. FTP: IBM. Retrieved January 9,
2009, from IBM Web site: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/linux/pdfs/
IDC-adding_business-value_with_cross-platform_solutions-Linux_on_IBM_Systems.pdf
Anonymous. (1998, December 17?). Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO.
Retrieved January 10, 2009, from Dwheeler website:
http://www.dwheeler.com/secure-programs/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/open-source-security.html
Anonymous. (2008, December 23). Linux Unified Kernel… a new age of operative systems?.
Retrieved January 10, 2009, from Davidtavarez website:
http://www.davidtavarez.com/archives/linux-unified-kernel-a-new-ag-of-operative-systems/
linooxlee (2008, November 04). Subject: Linux Unified Kernel v0.2.2 is released.
Retrieved January 10, 2009, from Linux website:
http://www.linux.com/forums/topic/3348
Anonymous (2009). developerWorks: Cell Broadband Engine Resource Center.
Retrieved January 10, 2009, from IBM website:
www.ibm.com/developerworks/power/cell/

Sunday, January 16, 2000

Telescopes

You have been assigned to a committee at your university to study the feasibility of bringing in a world-class telescope. Prepare a report by answering the following questions in a Word document.


1. What kind of ground-based telescope is currently the most important tool of scientific study of the cosmos?
The most important tool of scientific study of cosmos is the 11 meter Large Binocular Telescope, because it is the largest extremely large telescope finished in 2008. Telescopes are better the bigger they get. It only made one discovery of a galaxy cluster. I knew this, because the five European countries are planning a 50 meter telescope. By chance the Near-Earth Object threat is extremely severe; the Arecibo Observatory would clinch Large Binocular Telescope's 1st place and other telescopes due to this telescope having the best range of any radio telescope! LBT is both infrared and optinal type. (Universe and Beyond, pg 160, 2004)


2. List three to four of the most famous and advanced telescopes in use for space exploration.
My picks on most famous and advanced telescopes include the Keck space telescope (Hawaii). Gran Telescopia Canarias (Spain), Large Binocular Telescope (Arizona) and the Arecibo telescope (Puerto Rico). I picked the Kecks, because they were powerful in 2005. The two Keck space telescopes are just one of the large at 10 m long and in Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii. One was built in 1993 and the second in 1996. It runs optical, and near-infrared wavelengths. The Large Binocular Telescope is the most advanced ever built and opened in Mt. Graham, Arizona in 2008 and has a 15 meter mirror. There is also the Gran Telescopia Canarias owned by Spain which is the world's second largest in view. It has 10.4 meter mirror. It is a reflecting telescope. The University of Florida gets to use it for 55 nights annually. The largest radio telescope is the Arecibo telescope operated by Cornell University. It has a dome that shields reflectors from elements and man-made radio frequency. The first reflector is the ground reflector. Then the signal goes to the secondary reflector. Thirdly, the signal goes to the tertiary reflector. The incoming rays then focused at the receiver room. It is steered by moving the dome up and down with a curved arm. It is the most powerful telescope, and a few astronomists say without Arecibo Observatory, Earth would be in danger of meteorites. It has 40,000 aluminum plates and is equivalent of 26 football pitches. It's main purpose is to classify near-Earth objects which would take 400 years to come to Earth. Sorry for not picking the Green Bank Telescope in Virginia. I knew that I should have had at least one radio telescope and getting photos is preferable than radio signals in my opinion. (wikipedia, 2010)(telegraph.uk, 2008)(Cornell University, 2010)

3. What are the advantages of space-based telescopes compared to the ground-based ones?
Space telescopes don't have atmospheric distortion and results in significantly sharper pictures. Space telescopes cancel out scattering light caused by atmosphere where X-ray, gamma ray, and ultraviolet rays can be observed. When the Hubble space telescope is only 2.5 meters, the ground based telescopes can be beyond 10 meters. The LBT telescope should be 10 times sharper than the Hubble. Ground based telescopes are always open to 3rd party usage while the space telescopes are solely for NASA or European Space Agency usage. Put all the ground-based telescopes together, and you have a better idea sooner of meteorites in a collision course with Earth. (wikipedia, 2010)


4. What mirror diameters are proposed for the next generation reflectors?
European Extremely Large Telescope has a mirror with the diameter of 42 meters or 137 feet near an inferred wavelength for 2018. This spec was supposed to be 100 meters, but due to Greece's bankruptcy and the sorry state of some other worse off European countries, the ELT became bang for the buck instead. The 100 meter spec could read Earth-size planets for the 40 nearest stars. The United States has a extremely large telescope called the Thirty Meter Telescope, It's mirror is only 30 meters. (Wikipedia, 2010)

References

Anonymous. (2010). Overwhelmingly Large Telescope
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwhelmingly_Large_Telescope
Anonymous. (2010). European Extremely Large Telescope
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Extremely_Large_Telescope
Anonymous. (2010). Gran Telescopio Canarias
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Telescopio_Canarias
Anonymous. (2010). Large Binocular Telescope
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Binocular_Telescope
Anonymous. (2010). How the Arecibo telescope works
Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Cornell website
http://www.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro2201/ao_scheme.htm
Goddard, J. (2008, June 18). Threat to Worlds Most Powerful Radio Telescopes Means We May
Not Hear ET Retrieved June 10, 2010, from Telegraph website
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2391516/Threat-to-worlds-most-powerful-radio-telescope-means-we-may-not-hear-ET.html
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). "Chapter 10 - Telescopes for the 21st Century"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pp 160) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.

Saturday, January 15, 2000

Big Crunch

n this paper, I will give details on the Big Crunch lead to a Big Bang, my choice of the future of the universe. I will fit my description with the 1999 discovery of dark energy.

Our future might change. Our solar system will move out of the local bubble when a Local fluff (magnetic cloud) crashes into ours. That means radiation will overcome the Solar wind and enter the solar system. At the same time the Sun burns all it's hydrogen and helium in the next 7 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy will crash into our galaxy to form a new one. Right now, it is 2 million light years away. This means a new galaxy, and not many damaged stars and planets. The increased stirring of the clash will cause the stars to die out within the millions of years the collision occurs. (guardian.co.uk, 2009)

Galaxies will develop stars for 20 - 30 million years and then the nebula gas will be depleted so the least massive red dwarfs like Proxima Centauri will still be around. About 10 trillion years from now red dwarfs about 1/4 to 1/10 the mass of the sun will be dead. In 100 trillion years the last red dwarfs in the universe will die out and become black dwarfs. The other two corpses will be black holes and neutron stars. There will still be planets, comets, and asteroids around. The protons will dissolved in 100 trillion, trillion, trillion years. The black holes will decay via a the quantum tunneling process. From the very beginning, a black hole takes a million billion trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion years to burn out. The temperature of the universe would be 1 trillionth a degree above absolute zero. (Universe and Beyond, pp 149- 150, 2006)

I say that the outcome would be the Big Bounce, because since 1998, it is said that the universe would collapse and then re-expand. During the collapse, the big crunch is used half way. The Big Crunch says that the universe will collapse into a big singularity. Quantum gravity takes effect. Space reverses in size. There is a black hole singularity involved at the absolute end. This is because the speed will never exceed escape velocity and gravity will cause contraction. Until then dark energy causes the acceleration. They say that the Universe has 10 billion years before collapsing. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory can see this by observing thousands of far out supernovae to get rate of expansion of the Universe. They also discovered that if dark energy was positive, this would tear apart all objects so for that reason alone, dark energy is negative. Then the universe will re-span in the Big Bounce. (wikipedia, 2010) (UniverseToday.com, 2010)

The Big Bounce happens when density is close to infinity, then the quantum foam changes. Afterwards, the gravity would be so incredible that the Universe rebounds resulting in a branch. The loop quantum gravity would create the Big Bang, because there would be zero volume and infinite energy. New evidence shows a Big Crunch singularity would disagree with the second law of thermodynamics so the Universe death would result in a new Big Bang after a Big Bounce. (wikipedia, 2010)(UniverseToday.com, 2010)

My personal reaction is that a Big Rip will contract anyway and a Big Freeze only shows temperature which is going to be one-trillionth above absolute zero at the very end in all scenarios. I agree that the Big Crunch is obsolete due to the discovery of dark energy and a Big Bounce should take its place. The Big Freeze, no matter how popular, says the Universe is a few degrees above zero and won't say anything about events leading to a new Big Bang. I can't believe that after the Big Freeze, the Universe won't reemerge, because God always creates new Big Bang eventually. Something unexplainable always happens and leads to a Big Bounce to jump start the Big Bang. I was saddened by the clash with the Andromeda galaxy, because I feel sorry for the last of civilizations. The exterrestrials will have to build cities in gigantic space stations far away from any star system to prevent being caught in supernovas.

This paper gave details on the Big Crunch lead to a Big Bang, because of the discovery of dark energy. The paper also explained the Milky Way collision with the Andromeda galaxy.


References

Anonymous. (2002, September 23). Cosmologists Universe Big Bang

Retrieved June 3, 2010, from SFgate website

http://articles.sfgate.com/2002-09-23/news/17563866_1_cosmologists-universe-big-bang/3

Sample, I. (2009, January 05). "Get out of the way! Galactic collision will happen sooner than

scientists thought" Retrieved June 4, 2010, from Guardian.co.uk website

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jan/05/galaxy-collision-space-milky-way



Anonymous. (2010). Big Bounce

Retrieved June 3, 2010, from Wikipedia website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bounce

Villanueva, J.C. (2010). Big Bounce

Retrieved June 3, 2010, from UniverseToday website

http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-universe/big-bounce/

Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). "Chapter 9 - How the Universe will End"

The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pp 149- 150) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.

Friday, January 14, 2000

The real apocalypse

About five to six billion years from now, the Sun will die. We might imagine a final sunset, but in reality the Sun will expand into a red-giant star, swelling to many times its current size. Along the way, it will vaporize our oceans and extinguish all remaining life. Let’s say that long before this happens, all of the inhabitants of earth decide it will be safer to move to another galaxy to resettle new worlds. Where do we go? How do we prepare for that? Present your vision of this ultimate migration.

An ideal terrestrial planet would be 2 Earth masses with a 25 day orbital period around a Class M like Proxima Centari or Yellow star such as Gliese 581 which is still early in main sequence. Proxima Centari has a lifespan of 16 trillion years light years (Sun only has 10 billion year lifespan) and suppose there happens to be a extrasolar planet in that star system less than 3 AUs. It is 25 trillion miles from Earth. If the sleeper ship had nuclear pulse propulsion or laser beam and solar sail surfacing than it would take 85 years to reach Proxima Centari. And ideal location would be a planet between 1 AU and 3 AUs from a star with nitrogen, oxygen and Argon and Earth's temp, a dense atmosphere.

The humans would have these ships called sleeper ships. The crew would be in hibernation and suspended animation full of 2000 capsules. cryopreservation at 145 Kelvin. A combination of cryoprotectants and ice blockers won't lead to ice formation and the blood cells won't be dehydrated (which results in them to explode). If there was a crew of 200 astronauts than the computer can activate the 'pod's if something goes wrong . An alternative way is to have two astronauts awake for 4 months at a time for routine maintenance or emergencies. You would want to put any kind of animal you would want to eat in suspended animation. You would need to bring a communication satellite with you for video transmissions, weather gathering and GPS. A remote control weapon system with pulse rifles and would be great defense for base camp and also to kill predators that eat Earth livestock.
You would need blueprints for everything human made up until then. One thing I learned is you can do anything without a computer. So you would need basically a factory on board the ship that covers a room. You would need a machine to forge steel. The sleeper ship must be the base camp. There must be all the ingredients to make any type of medicine invented on Earth. You can't leave Earth without a hologram for an Autopilot and state-of-the-art medical bay. You would need dune buggies on board, some appliances. You would need 30,000 hours worth of TiVo recordings so astronauts would never get overly board (100 Petabytes of data). For entertainment, you emulate every console known to man and emulate DVD images or ROMs. You would need a couple terabytes of compressed audio. An encyclopedia would be great. A computer automated diploma and degree program done thru wireless connections on the future planet would be helpful so people could get trained without actual professors. It would keep civilization from regressing. Every student gets a computer manufactured by the ship to complete this degree. There would be 100,000 degrees loaded in software. The UNIX operating system of this time would be self-supporting.

The economic system would be based off capitalist/mixed economy of US in two party representative republic form and upper house and lower house legislature. The planet would be a federal republic form of government. The planet would be covered with state governments. It would be center-right and center-left and wouldn't have far left parties at all. The left wing party would practice liberal-libertarian and populism and the right wing party would practice liberal economics and neo-conservatism. Independent politicians would be everything else. the whole planet would have the US Constitution . This new planet we're on wouldn't be a marxist "United Earth" as seen in Star Trek.

Thursday, January 13, 2000

Exterrestrials imagination test

All organisms on our planet are based on carbon-containing molecules. It is the main building block of living tissue. As a consequence, chemical reactions involving oxygen, hydrogen, and water are just several examples of the essential processes that must take place to sustain such life.

It is conceivable that life could emerge on other worlds that is not carbon based. Some propose silicon-based life as a possibility. In which case we might discover a brave new silicon valley on a distant planet. Try to imagine such a world. What do you see? Respond to what one of your classmates sees.

Carbon and silicon share characteristics. Silicon and carbon atoms have individual atoms that have four bonds with other elements like Oxygen. Carbon and silicon creatures would have polymers that interact with oxygen. Silicon oxidizes to a solid (sand) over carbon oxidizes to a gas, so it's highly doubtful that silicon would be a life form. One reason is if everything is solid, how is the life from supposed to "unload" waste? Carbon life forms also have Glycogon in their livers and silicon life forms don't. The life forms made of silicon was made by Julius Sheiner and these life forms could survive at very hot temperatures. These are crystal, metal or aluminum creatures from material from volcanoes. One would imagine that these fictional life-forms would be solar powered with silicone fluid as it's blood, but since everything turns into solid or doesn't have many handiness compounds (not as many as carbon-based organisms) Silicon life forms wouldn't regulate functions as well as us carbon life-forms so that's why it's fiction as well. A lot of silicon compounds are reactive or unstable. Star Trek had some colorful blobs for silicon creatures. Fictional silicon creatures has animated crystals for appearance.
I found out some other ways silicon creature could look like Silicon creatures would look like something out of fiction, because what organic heart or organ can function inside metal unless you're a technologically advanced cyborg? I can tell this whole idea comes from androids. It would be a planet full of alien cyborgs or androids in a civilization. Alien androids fits this week's description of silicon-based life very well. Alien androids would range from stupid to really intelligent depending on their 'brain'. These things sound like the sentinels in The Matrix or the sentinels of Crysis (PC) or the smart ones you see in Transformers. I see war in these types of silicon worlds. The machines would want resources like of like Star Trek's (silicon lifeforms) Borg require large amounts of natural resources. There wouldn't be any form of architecture; just life-support and basis needs in the Borg's dystopian civilization. They would have technologies not known to man, because their alien brains have so much better accuracy than ours.

Wednesday, January 12, 2000

Living in space

It has been a long time since we crossed paths. Being a dark energy kind of makes you feel like an individual, doesn't it. Have you heard the latest? The Big Bounce is just another theory how the universe started prior to the Big Bang. I heard we're going to get a jump on a new Big Bang. I doubt it, because I don't feel anymore energetic than I felt yesterday. The new Universe expanded and cooled. Within 300,000 years, it dropped 3,000 degrees Celsius. The protons and electrons eventually became hydrogen and helium atoms. I follow the de-facto explanation in chronological order, Planck epoch, Grand unification epoch, Electroweak epoch, Inflationary epoch, Reheating, and Baryogenesis stages. The Plank epoch had four forces such as electromageticism, weak nuclear forces, strong nuclear forces and gravitation. The second stage, Grand unification epoch, gravity would have separated gauge interactions epoch. The third stage, electroweak epoch, starts up cosmic inflation. The particle interaction beings W and Z Bosons and Higgs bosons. The fourth stage of cosmic inflation, inflationary epoch is when the universe has a phase where there is rapidly expanding homogenous and isotropic particles. There are some visual quarks and hyperons that decay very fast. This is the first time dark energy is present and existed for 9 billion years. Afterwards, the heating process is filled with quarks, radiation, neutrinos, and electrons. In the Baryogenesis stage, there are more baryons than anti-baryons.

Then after it was filled with quark-gluon plasma after the cosmic inflation ends; it proceeds to the second generation. In chronological order, it goes Supersymmetry breaking, Quark epoch, Hadron epoch, Lepton epoch, Photon epoch and Nucleosynthesis stages happen at the same time, but nucleosynthesis was 20 minutes. Supersymmetry is broken in energy as low as 1 TeV, electroweak symmetry scale. The particles and super partners are no longer equal in this stage. Secondly, in the quark stage the particles acquire a mass (Higgs mechanism), because it has a vacuum expectation value. In the hadron epoch stage, the quarks form hardon. Protons and neutrons can form now. In the Lepton epoch, the hardons and anti-hardons destroy one another forming leptons and anti-leptons. The temperature falls so due to annihilation reactions, there are very few leptons. This goes on between the first 1 – 10 seconds. The Photon epoch is where the universe is dominated by photons and this goes on between 10 second, and 380,000 years. Necleosynthesis happens when the atomic nuclei, protons, and neutrons combine for 17 minutes before the temperature of the universe falls below fusion temperature.

Thirdly, 70,000 years after the Big Bang, atomic nuclei and photons are the same percentage. The cold dark matter can form and not be wiped out by free-streaming radiation.

Fourthly, after 377,000 years, atoms with hydrogen and helium form. The electrons are neutral, because the electrons and ions mix. All the atoms are now neutrons, called recombination) and the protons can now go anywhere in the Universe. It has cosmic microwave background radiation After this happens, there is ionized plasma from 150 million to a billion years. Metal free stars begin to form. Fifth, after this between 150 million to 1 billion years, Quasars are formed due to reionization. Sixthly, after reionization, metal-free stars develop. Seventh, after stars develop, then galaxies form. Afterwards, galaxies develop, and at the same time, stars with poor metal are formed early in this stage. At later stages, metal rich stars are formed.

Fifth, the universe is filled with protons and they expanded the universe when the protons turned into neutrons in the beginning. Now-a-days, the dark energy expanded the Universe, because the energy is speeding up. It has the cosmological constant which is a major influence. It has some gravity that is has attractive forces and is speed up by Dark Matter’s repulsion. Farther out, the gravity weakens, yet the dark energy increases. Dark energy became dominate billions of years ago. It’s been accelerating too.

Sixth, the Milky Way galaxy formed when some satellite galaxy clusters formed and made the galaxy bulge while other satellite galaxies had a rapidly rotating disc. There is a disc present in the present Milky Way leading to this theory. Near the beginning of a billion years, there were only 1,500 galaxies. The oldest stars started out in the galactic halo. The stellar population hidden with dust clouds. Near the present, the Milky Way is merging with the Canis Major dwarf galaxy only 25,000 light years from the solar system. Our galaxy became apart of the Virgo Supercluster like the Andromeda galaxies became apart of our neighborhood. It is made up of our local group; then it is made up of M66 Group (35 billion ly), Draco Group (40 billion ly), M81 Group (11 billion ly), Leo1 (38 billion ly), M101 Group (24 billion ly), and Ursa Major Galaxies (55 billion ly). Our solar system is in a local bubble that shields us from radiation. The local fluff cloud is 50,000 years from entering the bubble which might threaten life. The Universe evolved as much we're going to evolve billions of years ago and now it grows in size. Goodbye dear friend, until next we meet. I feel like I have always felt for billions of years; pretty healthy. I feel like Q on Star Trek – The Next Generation; pretty darn bored.

Tuesday, January 11, 2000

Big Bang etc, etc,

How does the theory fit in with your scientific perspectives and personal views of creation?

I believe God made Planck matter (predates Quark matter) that created by the implosion of the first Big Bang and latest big bang. God created the big bounce as well. Scientists make Planck or Quark matter in heavy ion matter machines like the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, Large Hadron Collider, and Super Proton Synchrotron. There has been a Big Bounce to jump-start the Big Bang. A Big Bounce took place after the Big Crunch due to heavy gravity of predecessor universe. There is one universe at a time, because there aren’t parallel universes, right?
I follow the de-facto explanation in chronological order, Planck epoch, Grand unification epoch, Electroweak epoch, Inflationary epoch, Reheating, and Baryogenesis stages.

Then after it was filled with quark-gluon plasma after the cosmic inflation ends; it proceeds to the second generation. In chronological order, it goes Supersymmetry breaking, Quark epoch, Hadron epoch, Lepton epoch, Photon epoch and Nucleosynthesis stages happen at the same time, but nucleosynthesis was 20 minutes.

Thirdly, 70,000 years after the big bang, atomic nuclei and photons are the same percentage.

Fourthly, after 377,000 years, atoms with hydrogen and helium form.
Fifth, after this between 150 million to 1 billion years, Quasars are formed due to reionization.

Sixthly, after reionization, metal-free stars develop.

Seventh, after stars develop, then galaxies form. Afterwards, galaxies develop, and at the same time, stars with poor metal are formed early in this stage. At later stages, metal rich stars are formed.

Eighth, then after the universe accelerating over 20 billion years from the present, the dark energy will become Quintessence energy may rip apart the Universe.

Ninth, at 100+ billion years, the big crunch occurs.

What is your thought on how "dark matter" and "dark energy" within an expanding universe might indicate ongoing "results" of the "Big Bang"?

Dark Energy, founded in 1999, explains why the Universe is speeding up. The universe has ‘energy’ to speed up. Get it? Twenty percent of the matter is dark matter. Dark matter is pressureless. Dark matter is around either galaxies and galaxy clusters. Dark matter would interact with both nuclear forces and gravity. Stars are nuclear forces when hydrogen and helium is being fused. The matter that evolved into atoms is 5% of the Universe. Scientists know that dark matter isn’t an atom. The heavy ion machines that make types of matter have yet to prove dark matter are in atoms. Dark energy is negative vacuum energy. Dark energy interacts through gravity. Dark energy is radiation.

Sunday, January 09, 2000

Black holes/worm holes

When matter is sucked into a black hole, it vanishes, leaving only its gravity behind. It is a situation difficult to comprehend. What makes it even more mysterious is the fact that nothing can be learned of what goes on inside a black hole since nothing can leave it! This mystery sparks the imagination of scientists and writers alike. Some say that, upon entering a black hole, things simply cease to exist as matter, turning into some form of energy. Others say that whatever enters gets into a different reality, a parallel universe, or a different dimension. What do you think happens inside a black hole? Use your imagination, powered by what you have been learning in astronomy these past weeks.

A black hole is a disruption is space where when an object (like light) passes the Schwarzschild radius, it can't escape massive gravitational pull and eventually collapse in on itself. Although we can't see black holes, objects have this X-ray when heated to multi-million Kelvin before passing through the point-of-no-return. The object is crushed, because of no second black hole connecting it. The event horizon is the opening of the black hole. Light can't escape the event horizon, because it's collapses into atomic smithereens inside.

To answer the second question, there must be a worm hole involved! A worm hole is supposed to be two black holes on either end which create a tunnel between them. The tunnel is called a 'bridge'. I am guessing most wormholes are "Morris-Thorne" type over "Einstein-Rosen bridges", because I'm not into time travel that much. The Einstein-Rosen theory says once you pass through an "event horizon"; the spaceship will end up in a parallel universe or a different timeline when it comes out the other worm hole. Star Trek does this a lot. Due to Groom Lake, I suggest most theoretical worm holes are of the Morris-Thorne type. The Morris-Thorne type wormholes use the exotic matter and negative dark energy to stabilize it though a vacuum fluctuation. This has been proven by the "Casimir effect". The Casimir effect says that objects move to other objects, because energy fluctuations (or vacuum fluctuations),vacuum energy, and a electromagnetic field make it so. The "Morris-Thorne-Kuhfittig" wormhole is a more detailed description of the Morris-Thorne type which allows human hibernation at 10 G-forces acceleration to achieve 32 days to travel a full light year! Peter Kuhfittig wants a wormhole to be lower mass, because the less resources used to travel the bridge. His suggestion is a 1.36×1017 kilograms mass wormhole for traveling. The spaceship would need a functioning version of the alcubierre drive where the spaceship rides a wave through space through the Morris-Thorne-Kuhfittig wormhole tunnel. A second way of spaceship propulsion used through a "Morris-Thorne-Kuhfittig wormhole" I suggest should be the inferior electromagnetic catapult (coilgun engine) design on-board. This will slingshot the spacecraft across the bridge tunnel in 32 days per light year. The spaceship would need a nuclear reactor for electrical power to accelerate matter to create boost power in the opposite direction.

Saturday, January 08, 2000

The Office (2005)

I typically do movie reviews, but here is something new. It has been (to me) one of the greatest American television shows for the past decade. A show that ran for nine years, The Office, touched the hearts and tickled the funny bones of Americans across the country and sadly concluded after nine seasons, not so long ago. Some say that the humor was dry and the emotions weren't real, but I am here to tell you otherwise. When The Office first launched it's pilot episode it received terrible reviews, leaving the cast to think that they wouldn't be returning for a second season. Of course this was a remake of the British version, which many viewers were comparing it to. What viewers really needed, was a chance to warm up to a show that was so different from average programs. What made The Office unique? Other than a cast ever so fantastically put together, The Office took an interesting television show perspective by having it set up as a "documentary" on the office employees. This way, the employees of the paper company, Dunder Mifflin, would know they were being filmed, and could even be interviewed individually from the rest of the office allowing the viewers to learn more about each interesting character. At first glance, it doesn't look like much, but what TV show does? If you know nothing about a TV show then you will be quick to judge it, ruling it in your list to watch or marking it off. You can't look at The Office as just a comedy. Sure, there is an abundance of jokes and moments that will have you rolling over, but this show is about the characters and their relation to people like you and I. They don't kill people, live on the edge, become millionaires by selling drugs, or work as spy's for the government. They are people we can relate to, and in time you come to love them for who they are, far from perfect, yet fascinating in so many aspects. The drama, the hilarious awkward moments, the relationships, the disagreements, and general interaction between co-workers make this show what it is. Fans all over the country have shared the laughs and the tears because they have had their own similar experiences. Just think about it...How do you get to know someone? You spend time with them, and over the last nine years I feel like I have spent time with every one of these amazing characters, played by incredible actors such as John Krasinski, Ed Helms, Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, and Rainn Wilson, just to mention a few. The Office is powerful enough to reach you in ways never before achieved by a television show. It makes you want to be there, in the office, with the employees, even if only for a moment so that you can have a feel of what it's like for yourself. The relationships feel real, the characters seem real, and whether you know a particular actor from other movies or shows, you'll only think of them as their office character after watching it. So what's it about? The Office, seasons 1 through 7, feature Michael Scott (Steve Carell), who is a excellent salesman, but an ill-qualified idiot when it comes to managing a branch of a paper company. His heart is always in the right place and he cares for his employees, seeing them as his family, but his absent minded, luny self, prevents him from ever "properly" managing them. He is always procrastinating, causing office disturbances, wasting his employees time with senseless meetings, searching for his true love, and trying to be (in his mind) the best boss he can be. Though annoying to his employees half the time, Steve's character is a great guy who helped make the show such a success along with the other fantastic roles of every office member. No two characters are alike, and that kind of diversity shouts success in my mind, because without character uniqueness, The Office wouldn't have become what it did. Characters of different beliefs, race, sexual orientation, senses of humor, and backgrounds showed the world just how well they could work through the rough times and continue to strengthen a bond that no force could penetrate. A bond felt by viewers for nine years and a bond felt by the characters and the actors playing them. A bond that only derives from The Office.

Heat

1a.) What is the source of the heat produced by the Sun?
A sun is million times Earth's volumes and 333,000 Earth's mass. The source of heat that is produced from the Sun comes from the hydrogen and helium fusion in its core which is called thermal nuclear fusion. The Sun's thermal nuclear fusion produces about 400 trillion-trillion watts of energy that is eventually radiates through its surface into space in the form of light. (Universe and Beyond, pp 73 - 99, 2004)

1b.) How long (approximately) will the Sun maintain the current levels of heat and brightness?
The Sun will maintain the current levels of heat and brightness approximately 5 - 6 billion years. (Universe and Beyond, pp 73 - 99, 2004)

1c.) What is likely to happen afterwards?
The Sun will evolve into a red dwarf into an eventual white dwarf. This death will come gradually due to its depletion of hydrogen. The depletion of hydrogen will start at the core and work its way out word while at the same time contracting the core. This gradual gnawing away at the hydrogen will produce more energy/heat/light; whereby, the sun becomes brighter and larger in size like an overfilled balloon. It continues to get so hot that the helium around the core starts heating up and fuses with the carbon while at the same time, continues to enlarge the sun along with increasing its brightness. This process compresses the sun's mass at the same time. Eventually over 100 million years, from the beginning dying sequence to the end, the Sun will become a elderly white dwarf with its stellar wind acting as its last burp. It will maintain its original path in the galaxy except it will no longer produce heat and eventually will turn into a black dwarf, cold and lifeless. (Universe and Beyond, pp 73 - 99, 2004)

1d.) What is likely to happen to Earth as the Sun evolves?
Meanwhile, the expanding dying Sun is impacting Earth by means of a gradual climate change. With the gradual increased temperatures, it will have a disastrous effect on Earth; thereby, temperatures will eventually climb to above boiling point making oceans evaporate into the sky, polar ice caps and the atmosphere toxic volcanic activity. Eventually, Earth will become a rock of charcoal while being invaded by stellar winds produced by the dying Sun. At this point, no one really knows if Earth will exist. (Universe and Beyond, pp 73 - 99, 2004)

2.) What is the "main sequence?"
The main sequence shows stellar temperatures and luminosities and is a plotted from high temperatures/luminosity to low temperature/luminosity. The main sequence is an graphical curve that 90% of the stars in our solar system fall into. These are viable stars that are still burning hydrogen in their cores. They will maintain their present position on the main sequence band for most of their life time. Stars that deviate from the sequence are stars with changes in their core physics and life span. This usually indicates the star's hydrogen core is becoming depleted along with the change in their energy source. The star's mass determines its brightness, its life span, its temperature and its size. All stars are fixed into the sequence accordingly. Stars in the blue zone on the left side of the diagram are the hottest, while stars in the red zone on the right side are the coolest. The sun is fixed in the yellow zone of the sequence. The other regions include the brightest supergiants that are located on upper part of diagram, then the cluster of stars called giants located above the sequence and below the sequence band are the dimmest, coolest and smaller stars called the red dwarfs. (Universe and Beyond, pp 86 - 87, 2004)

3.Name the possible ways a star can evolve after the main sequence.
The star won't fluctuate from the main sequence until all its hydrogen fuel has been depleted. When this happens, it will no longer be a main sequence star and the star will migrate to the upper red zone. For example, our sun will become a red giant during its dying days that will land it between Aldabaran and Antares in the red zone. Afterwards, the Sun will migrate down to the white dwarf area and finally rest as a black dwarf. (Universe and Beyond, pp 73 - 99, 2004)

Stars with 1% luminosity of our Sun are already red in color and will last 100 billion years. Stars evolve naturally through their life span depending on their mass . The larger its mass the hotter and shorter its lifespan is in the main sequence. The cooler smaller stars maintain a longer life in the main sequence zone. The main reason for this difference is the larger, hotter star depletes their hydrogen core at a faster rate. (Universe and Beyond, pp 73 - 99, 2004)

Dying six solar mass stars usually will abrupt into a supernova. In this case, the explosion is about million times hotter than the Sun's surface. Near the star's ending stage, the continued struggle with its depletion of hydrogen, helium and finally the heavier elements such as, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc; it is finally left with only iron to produce its energy. With the residual iron element becomes no fuel for the star; thereby, gravity wins the battle and produces the big bang. It usually takes the explosion to create new stars. In 1054 AD, a supernova exploded and now it is the crab nebula, home of a pulsar/neutron star. A teaspoon of neutron star would equal a 3 KM mountain. If the star has a certain type of mass, or becomes a giant red dwarf, it may become a black hole instead of white dwarf of a smaller sun. (Universe and Beyond, pp 90 - 93, 2004)

Neutron stars are created by collapsing stars supernovas and have degenerated neutrons. Neutron stars exist in main sequence forever until otherwise proven. Dark energy in space is also negatively charged and should why neutron stars never die. The star from the super nova must be less than 3 times the Sun to become a neutron star.

Black holes are created by collapsing stars from supernovas that are approximately 3 times or greater. The spaceship needs to generate speeds greater than speed of light to escape the event horizon's gravity. (Universe and Beyond, pp 73 - 99, 2004)

Friday, January 07, 2000

Solar System

Answer the following questions in a Word document, using your text as a resource.

1. What is an astronomical unit?

An Astronomical unit is a mean distance between the Earth and Sun. It is 150 million KM or 93 million miles. It is 1.496e11 meters. Giovanni Cassini developed the original lower number in 1671.

2. What are the Kuiper Belt and the OortCloud?

The Kuiper belt is a belt full of trillion+ comets and 100,000s of 100 KM rock. It is said to be excess rocks that were formed by the solar nebula. The Kuiper belt has three dwarf planets called MakeMake, Sedna and Haumea. The book only mentioned Sedna. Kuiper belt starts at 30 AU. The oort cloud starts at 50 AU and has trillion or more iceballs circling the Sun. Icy chunks come into the inner solar system as a comet.
3. What direction do the comet tails point?

The Comet tails point away from the Sun, because the solar wind is burning it up and pushed to the rear. A comet is made up of ice or is a huge snowball.

4. Why do some of the large moons of the Giant Planets have surfaces full of craters and others are smooth?

Some moons have no atmosphere so the meteorites wouldn’t be burnt up. Others have large atmospheres and aren’t acceptable to small meteorite or Asteroid damage. Saturn and Jupiter have a lot bigger atmosphere then Earth which allows them evaporate gigantic meteorites or asteroids to the point where there is only a little bit of the rock left on ground.

References

Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). "Chapter 1"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 11 - 19) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). “Chapter 2 "
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pp 21-39) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). “Chapter 3"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 41-53) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). “Chapter 4"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pp 55-71) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Anonymous (2010). MakeMake
Retrieved April 30, 2010, from Windows2Universe website
http://windows2universe.org/our_solar_system/dwarf_planets/makemake.html

Anonymous ( September, 2008). Fifth Dwarf Planet Named Haumea
Retrieved April 30, 2010, from ScienceDaily website
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080918234427.htm

internal composition between two classes of planets

This paper will explain the internal composition between two classes of planets displaying differences in densities. Secondly,this paper will explain why their compositions are different.

The density difference between the giant planets and the inner planets derives from the planet’s internal composition. As in chapter 2 in the textbook, the origination of our planets derived from an original cloud formation, which orbited around the young sun and contained the following gas elements: hydrogen, helium, oxygen, nitrogen and neon. It also contained the following rock and metal elements such as iron, magnesium, silicon, and sulfur. After millions of years, these elements eventually formulated into huge rock-like material called planetesimals. The planetesimals that were closer to the Sun contained mainly rock and metals which are the prominent elements in the inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The main reason for this inner planet composition was due to the dissipation of the light gases from the Sun's radiation. The further away the planetesimals were from the sun, the less gas dissipation occurred; thereby, leaving mostly ice and rock. Eventually, over time hydrogen and helium became the two main dominant elements found in the giant planets (Jovian planets): Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. For example, the composition of Jupiter is liquid hydrogen [light weight gas] and helium, 318 times the Earth’s mass. The Earth’s size core in Jupiter is composed of metal and rock which is 10 times the mass of Earth.In summary, these massive gas filled planets are very conducive to the density of water (water = 1) versus the inner planet’s density which is composed of rock/metal. The tremendous gravity is an essential force to hold the gas filled planet together. (Universe and Beyond, pg 21, 41-42, 2004)

In the regard to the density and composition of the four giant planets, the following can be noted. The main composition difference between the four Jovian planets is that Uranus and Neptune have methane, ammonia and water in the middle layer instead of the metallic hydrogen that Jupiter and Saturn both have. In both Jupiter and Saturn, the gas elements consist of 4/5 hydrogen and 1/5 helium. The density of Jupiter is 1.133 grams per CM3. Beginning from the top layer to the core, Jupiter is composition consists first withgastric hydrogen cloud covered top; next with the liquid hydrogen layer; then the metallic hydrogen layer; ending with an iron and silicate core. Temperature and atmospheric pressure in Jupiter starts out as a minus 120 degrees Celsius with an atmospheric pressure that is 70% of Earth’s surface pressure. The pressure and temperature increases with depth. By the time you get to the core, the temperature reaches 30,000 degrees Celsius or five times hotter than the sun’s surface; however, not hot enough to cause a thermo-nuclear fire which is why Jupiter can be called “the star that failed”. Jupiter’sdensity is1.33 g/cm3. Due to the planet’s significant rotation speed, atmospheric storms within the planet distribute the gases from high to low pressure. Saturn, the second largest planet has the same composition as Jupiter except it is cooler and less active. The density of Saturn is .71g /cm3. The thick atmosphere consists of 7/8th hydrogen, 1/8th helium. The rest of the planet is made up ofhydrogen compounds and has a rocky core. The density of Uranus is 1.24 g/cm3. Uranus consists of somewhat of a soupy atmosphere which is 7/8 hydrogen and 1/8th helium with the mixture of hydrogen compounds such as methane, ammonia, ethane, acetylene, and ethylene. The rocky core is covered with liquid methane, carbon monoxide and ammonia. The temperature starts out a minus 215 Celsius where it eventually increases with depth along with increased pressure. The whole planet has more of a liquid consistency to it. The density of Neptune is 1.67 g/cm3. Neptune composition is composed of Hydrogen compounds(methane, ammonia, and water) with smaller traces of hydrogen, helium, metal and rock. Uranus has compositions of Hydrogen compounds, rock, hydrogen, and helium. One interesting fact of Neptune is that the outer atmosphere rotates slower than the core and at different rates depending on latitude. This causes friction and produces heat for the planet.(Universe and Beyond, pp 46, 47-48, 50- 52, 52-53, 2004)

This paper explained the internal composition between two classes of planets displaying differences in densities. Secondly, this paper will explain why their compositions are different.
will explain the four scenarios astronomers consider for Earth-Moon binary system formation. Moreover, this paper will tell what the main points of each scenario are including modern view and why that is. For the second section of atmosphere composition and characterizes, this paper will describe some of the important factors. These important factors tell the shaping, the surface and atmospheric conditions for the inner region planets and Earth's moon. Earth's moon is twice the size of Mercury.

There are four scenarios astronomers considered for the Earth-Moon binary system formation which are the following: the adopted-cousin theory, the sister theory, the daughter theory and the chip-off-the-old-block theory. The adopted cousin theory says that a small planet was captured by Earth's gravity. The sister theory says it is a double planet. The daughter theory states the moon broke apart from the spinning original Earth also known as primordial Earth. The chip-off-the-old-block theory was originated by computers simulation of the solar system. Billions of years ago, the evolving Earth had nearby neighbors called planetesimals (large mountain sized debris that was orbiting around Earth). I like the bull’s-eye concept in the book. From the initial supernova gave birth to the solar nebula with its orbiting cloud of gases and other elements such as iron, magnesium and sulfur. There was ice crystals that formed water molecules and combined over millions of years. The orbiting cloud of elements contained gases such as hydrogen, helium, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon and other elements such as iron, silicon, magnesium and sulfur. The lighter gases evaporated from the sun’s radiation. It depended on the distance from the sun; which has eventually left the heavier elements such as rocks and metals which then formed the planetesimals that formed Mars, Mercury, Venus and Earth. Planetesimals were made in million years of evolution. It was the collision of one of these planetesimals with Earth which caused spewing matter from the Earth crust and material from the planetesimals to fly into space. Scientists have concluded the moon is actually a by-product of this earlier collision. To substantiate this theory, moon samples were obtained from Astronauts and other space exploratory devices. Moon rock is different from Earth rock. The chip-of-the-old block has become a de-facto modern theory accepted today. The chip-off-the-old-block theory pretty much debunks the other three theories. (Universe and Beyond, pp 22-23, 2004)

There are important factors that shape the surface and atmospheric conditions on the four inner region planets Earth-Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury. In the following paragraphs, I will address these factors.

The Earth is the only planet to this day known to have life. There are three factors that helps maintain Earth's atmospheric composition which are as follows: the decomposition of the air molecules that takes place from the Sun's rays, the volcanic activity and the Earth's gravity. Over the early years, Earth had been bombarded by the elements from space and gradually over time, volcanic activity and collisions with comets has provided the Earth with atmospheric gases. Gravity helps maintain the gases and how much escapes through evaporation from the Sun's rays; therefore, Earth has been blessed with just the right atmospheric chemistry in order to maintain life. As far as geological landscape, the Earth landscape has evolved over the years, because of the wind, the rain, the volcano activity. We now have oceans, rivers, streams, mountains, and vegetation that prospers on Earth as we know it. The Earth's temperature is mostly maintained through our permeable cloud cover, Earth's mass and axis tilt and the atmospheric exchange of gases. (Universe and Beyond, pg 24, pp 36-37, 2004)

The moon has no atmosphere, no gases and minimal gravity to maintain its environment. If once there was volcanic activity on the moon, any gases derived from that volcanic activity would dissipate into space. This is mostly due to the moon's minimal gravity and the sun's assistance with evaporation. The moon is pretty much a battle scared, lifeless Antarctica. The temperature varies from space cold in the hemispheric section away from the Sun compared to sizzling hot in the hemisphere facing the Sun. (Universe and Beyond, pp 22-24, 2004)
The Mars atmosphere is less than 1% of Earth's of which carbine dioxide pretty much fulfills the 1%. Ultra-violet light dominates the planet due to the thin atmosphere. The temperature on Mars is cold all year around. In the winter, it is so cold, the atmosphere forms frozen CO2 crystals. It is obvious that there is no liquid form on Mars. Again, the temperature is relevant the thin atmospheric radiation exchange from the Sun. The terrain has a combination of sand dunes, canals, and rock surfaces. Mars is very windy especially in summer which might have gust of 300 KM per hour. Through satellite and pictures taken from robotic rovers, the landscape takes on a orange like hue. This is because the dust particles are stirred up by this windy planet. There is evidence that the planet once held liquid, but at present, scientists believe it is frozen deep into the ground. However, there are signs at one time liquid water did exist since space rovers have recovered sedimentary rock specimens which can easily be found in Earth's lakes and streams. One interesting fact about Mars, is that the tilt of the axis point is closely related to the Earth's. A day in Mars is 24.6 hours vs. Earth's 24 hours. Mars has a larger orbit area; therefore, one year on Mars equals 1.9 Earth years.
Mars is ½ the size of Earth, but 1/10 its mass. (Universe and Beyond, pp 24-30, 2004)
Venus, not like the Roman Goddess Venus, is comparable to Earth in size, mass and surface gravity; however, the temperature far exceeds our boiling point at 460 degrees Celsius hotter than melting lead. The atmosphere is 90% denser than Earth's and composed with mostly carbon dioxide. Since the atmosphere is so dense with carbon dioxide ,the constant volcanic activity produces additional gases enough to produce a greenhouse effect. This greenhouse cloud covering in the upper atmosphere then traps the gases and prevents the sun's infrared radiation from escaping. This makes the planet sizzling hot. The landscape is dominated with active volcanoes. The rotation of Venus is so slow that a day for Venus is equal to 59 Earth days, and the nights are equally long. The snail like rotation does not provide a magnetic field like the Earth's rotation does. (Universe and Beyond, pp 30-33, 36, 37, 2004)

Mercury, the closest to the sun, has temperatures of 400 degrees Celsius. Mercury's atmosphere is completely missing. It also has one third the Earth's gravity. Mercury is half the size of the moon. The landscape looks very much like the moon cratered by the insults of space debris. Mercury has little gravity and rotates slower than Venus. It rotates its axis three times the same time it orbits the Sun twice. One Mercury day equals 176 Earth days. (Universe and Beyond pp 38-39, 2004)

This paper showed the four scenarios astronomers consider for the Earth-Moon binary system formation. Second it showed the main points of each scenario are including modern view and why that is. The paper also concludes the atmosphere composition and characterizes, and described some of the important factors including shaping, the surface and atmospheric conditions.

References
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). "Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 22-23) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 24) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 36-37) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 24-30) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 30-33) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 36) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 37) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 38-39) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.

Thursday, January 06, 2000

Organisms of Europa

Some of the large moons in our system have environments that allow for the theoretical possibility of harboring life organisms. If life were found on a moon, which moon do you think would be most suitable? What do you think would be some of the characteristics of such organisms?

Hypothetically Titan and Europa are two moons with somewhat of a same axis tilt as Earth; therefore, they have seasons. All the Europa life would live off of keimosynthesis in the deep oceans near its submarine volcanoes. I believe that complex life is more likely underwater such as Europa rather than Titan.NASA believes that Europa is warmed by Jupiter’s gravity and other moons to make tides in Europa’s oceans and submarine volcanoes. NASA suspects salt under Europa’s slushy oceans. Some characteristics of the life forms are deep-sea bathypelagic fish and other bioluminescent (glow-in-the-dark) organisms in the Europa’s deep water. Creatures under these waters may bebioluminescent organisms such as vibrionaceae, dinoflagellates, andmarine invertebrates (sea pen, coral, ostracoda, copepod, Whip-lash squid, bolitaenidae, Nudibranch, clam)over Titan’s bacteria any day.
Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon, has methane and nitrogen into its atmosphere. Methane is a byproduct of organisms which is constantly being destroyed by sunlight. It doesn’t have H2O so the living things would have to live in methane and ethane oceans. I don’t see how life is possible even though Titan’s rain clouds containing hydrocarbon. Titan doesn’t have oxygen elements in the lakes, streams, and oceans. Due to the liquid methane and nitrogen elements found on Titan, only some bacteria may survive, nothing more advanced.

Wednesday, January 05, 2000

internal composition between two classes of planets

This paper will explain the internal composition between two classes of planets displaying differences in densities. Secondly,this paper will explain why their compositions are different.

The density difference between the giant planets and the inner planets derives from the planet’s internal composition. As in chapter 2 in the textbook, the origination of our planets derived from an original cloud formation, which orbited around the young sun and contained the following gas elements: hydrogen, helium, oxygen, nitrogen and neon. It also contained the following rock and metal elements such as iron, magnesium, silicon, and sulfur. After millions of years, these elements eventually formulated into huge rock-like material called planetesimals. The planetesimals that were closer to the Sun contained mainly rock and metals which are the prominent elements in the inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The main reason for this inner planet composition was due to the dissipation of the light gases from the Sun's radiation. The further away the planetesimals were from the sun, the less gas dissipation occurred; thereby, leaving mostly ice and rock. Eventually, over time hydrogen and helium became the two main dominant elements found in the giant planets (Jovian planets): Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. For example, the composition of Jupiter is liquid hydrogen [light weight gas] and helium, 318 times the Earth’s mass. The Earth’s size core in Jupiter is composed of metal and rock which is 10 times the mass of Earth.In summary, these massive gas filled planets are very conducive to the density of water (water = 1) versus the inner planet’s density which is composed of rock/metal. The tremendous gravity is an essential force to hold the gas filled planet together. (Universe and Beyond, pg 21, 41-42, 2004)

In the regard to the density and composition of the four giant planets, the following can be noted. The main composition difference between the four Jovian planets is that Uranus and Neptune have methane, ammonia and water in the middle layer instead of the metallic hydrogen that Jupiter and Saturn both have. In both Jupiter and Saturn, the gas elements consist of 4/5 hydrogen and 1/5 helium. The density of Jupiter is 1.133 grams per CM3. Beginning from the top layer to the core, Jupiter is composition consists first withgastric hydrogen cloud covered top; next with the liquid hydrogen layer; then the metallic hydrogen layer; ending with an iron and silicate core. Temperature and atmospheric pressure in Jupiter starts out as a minus 120 degrees Celsius with an atmospheric pressure that is 70% of Earth’s surface pressure. The pressure and temperature increases with depth. By the time you get to the core, the temperature reaches 30,000 degrees Celsius or five times hotter than the sun’s surface; however, not hot enough to cause a thermo-nuclear fire which is why Jupiter can be called “the star that failed”. Jupiter’sdensity is1.33 g/cm3. Due to the planet’s significant rotation speed, atmospheric storms within the planet distribute the gases from high to low pressure. Saturn, the second largest planet has the same composition as Jupiter except it is cooler and less active. The density of Saturn is .71g /cm3. The thick atmosphere consists of 7/8th hydrogen, 1/8th helium. The rest of the planet is made up ofhydrogen compounds and has a rocky core. The density of Uranus is 1.24 g/cm3. Uranus consists of somewhat of a soupy atmosphere which is 7/8 hydrogen and 1/8th helium with the mixture of hydrogen compounds such as methane, ammonia, ethane, acetylene, and ethylene. The rocky core is covered with liquid methane, carbon monoxide and ammonia. The temperature starts out a minus 215 Celsius where it eventually increases with depth along with increased pressure. The whole planet has more of a liquid consistency to it. The density of Neptune is 1.67 g/cm3. Neptune composition is composed of Hydrogen compounds(methane, ammonia, and water) with smaller traces of hydrogen, helium, metal and rock. Uranus has compositions of Hydrogen compounds, rock, hydrogen, and helium. One interesting fact of Neptune is that the outer atmosphere rotates slower than the core and at different rates depending on latitude. This causes friction and produces heat for the planet.(Universe and Beyond, pp 46, 47-48, 50- 52, 52-53, 2004)

This paper explained the internal composition between two classes of planets displaying differences in densities. Secondly, this paper will explain why their compositions are different.

Tuesday, January 04, 2000

Jupiter is huge

Jupiter is huge. To find out how huge, use the Internet to conduct research on both Earth and Jupiter. See how their diameters and surface areas compare. Now imagine that Earth is as big as Jupiter. In what ways do you think our civilization would develop differently? Would it bring more chaos into our troubled history or make us more civilized?
Jupiter [1]
Earth [2]
Ratio
Mass (10 24 kg) 1,898.6 5.9736 317.83
Volume (1010 km3) 143,128 108.321 1321.33
Radius at Equator 71,492 6,378.1 11.209
Radius at Polar 66,854 6,356.8 10.517
Gravity 24.79 9.80 2.530
Surface Pressure >>1000 bars 1014 mb
Surface Density 0.16 kg/m3 1.217 kg/m3
Total mass of Atmosphere NA 5.1 x 1018 kg

Atmospheric composition (volume) Molecular hydrogen (H2) - 89.8%; Helium (He) - 10.2% 78.08% Nitrogen (N2), 20.95% Oxygen (O2)

Average Temperature 165 K (-108 C) 288 K (15 C)

Wind Speeds <30 LAT Up to 150 m/s
>30 LAT Up to 40 m/s 0 to 100 m/s


The question that I may ask myself if Earth is as large as Jupiter, my conclusion would be gravity force would increase. If the orbit and tilt doesn’t change, it wouldn’t change our 24 hour day, but it would give Earth more time zones. As far as increased gravity force, would our body build be different to compensate for the increased gravity force? Yes, people would weigh more and possibly be shorter. Another question that I may have how does the massive size of Earth affect the moon. I think it is possible that the moon would be closer to Earth due to gravitational pull. The tides would possible be out of sync; therefore, our weather may change, because of the weaker gravitational pull from the moon. If everything stayed the mostly the same, except our body build, time zones, and weather changes, I believe we have more exploration, more resources to sustain ourselves such as oil, fossil fuel, uranium etc. We could have more solar power and wind power, because of the surface area. We would be less dependent on other countries to supply our resources such as oil. We would develop high tech technology quicker such as military tactical high energy lasers, because the resources to create those are available in abundance. There may be a more precious metal than gold, because Jupiter is composed up from Star elements. There may be stronger metals than Osmium. We could even have more continents equal less chaos. It would be possible that countries that cause chaos; distance can separate us with them by a larger margin. All and all, things would pretty much stay the same unless the effects of the increased Earth’s gravity pull causes problems with other orbiting objects in space being attracted to Earth causing collisions which may upset our whole ecosystem on Earth. Also as stated in our lecture notes, if the internal temperature rises, because of increased gravitational force which the Earth may have with its massive size than all bets are off for life as we know it. There wouldn’t be any civilization unless adaptation took place to shelter us from the extreme climate.

Monday, January 03, 2000

Earth-moon binary

will explain the four scenarios astronomers consider for Earth-Moon binary system formation. Moreover, this paper will tell what the main points of each scenario are including modern view and why that is. For the second section of atmosphere composition and characterizes, this paper will describe some of the important factors. These important factors tell the shaping, the surface and atmospheric conditions for the inner region planets and Earth's moon. Earth's moon is twice the size of Mercury.

There are four scenarios astronomers considered for the Earth-Moon binary system formation which are the following: the adopted-cousin theory, the sister theory, the daughter theory and the chip-off-the-old-block theory. The adopted cousin theory says that a small planet was captured by Earth's gravity. The sister theory says it is a double planet. The daughter theory states the moon broke apart from the spinning original Earth also known as primordial Earth. The chip-off-the-old-block theory was originated by computers simulation of the solar system. Billions of years ago, the evolving Earth had nearby neighbors called planetesimals (large mountain sized debris that was orbiting around Earth). I like the bull’s-eye concept in the book. From the initial supernova gave birth to the solar nebula with its orbiting cloud of gases and other elements such as iron, magnesium and sulfur. There was ice crystals that formed water molecules and combined over millions of years. The orbiting cloud of elements contained gases such as hydrogen, helium, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon and other elements such as iron, silicon, magnesium and sulfur. The lighter gases evaporated from the sun’s radiation. It depended on the distance from the sun; which has eventually left the heavier elements such as rocks and metals which then formed the planetesimals that formed Mars, Mercury, Venus and Earth. Planetesimals were made in million years of evolution. It was the collision of one of these planetesimals with Earth which caused spewing matter from the Earth crust and material from the planetesimals to fly into space. Scientists have concluded the moon is actually a by-product of this earlier collision. To substantiate this theory, moon samples were obtained from Astronauts and other space exploratory devices. Moon rock is different from Earth rock. The chip-of-the-old block has become a de-facto modern theory accepted today. The chip-off-the-old-block theory pretty much debunks the other three theories. (Universe and Beyond, pp 22-23, 2004)

There are important factors that shape the surface and atmospheric conditions on the four inner region planets Earth-Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury. In the following paragraphs, I will address these factors.

The Earth is the only planet to this day known to have life. There are three factors that helps maintain Earth's atmospheric composition which are as follows: the decomposition of the air molecules that takes place from the Sun's rays, the volcanic activity and the Earth's gravity. Over the early years, Earth had been bombarded by the elements from space and gradually over time, volcanic activity and collisions with comets has provided the Earth with atmospheric gases. Gravity helps maintain the gases and how much escapes through evaporation from the Sun's rays; therefore, Earth has been blessed with just the right atmospheric chemistry in order to maintain life. As far as geological landscape, the Earth landscape has evolved over the years, because of the wind, the rain, the volcano activity. We now have oceans, rivers, streams, mountains, and vegetation that prospers on Earth as we know it. The Earth's temperature is mostly maintained through our permeable cloud cover, Earth's mass and axis tilt and the atmospheric exchange of gases. (Universe and Beyond, pg 24, pp 36-37, 2004)

The moon has no atmosphere, no gases and minimal gravity to maintain its environment. If once there was volcanic activity on the moon, any gases derived from that volcanic activity would dissipate into space. This is mostly due to the moon's minimal gravity and the sun's assistance with evaporation. The moon is pretty much a battle scared, lifeless Antarctica. The temperature varies from space cold in the hemispheric section away from the Sun compared to sizzling hot in the hemisphere facing the Sun. (Universe and Beyond, pp 22-24, 2004)
The Mars atmosphere is less than 1% of Earth's of which carbine dioxide pretty much fulfills the 1%. Ultra-violet light dominates the planet due to the thin atmosphere. The temperature on Mars is cold all year around. In the winter, it is so cold, the atmosphere forms frozen CO2 crystals. It is obvious that there is no liquid form on Mars. Again, the temperature is relevant the thin atmospheric radiation exchange from the Sun. The terrain has a combination of sand dunes, canals, and rock surfaces. Mars is very windy especially in summer which might have gust of 300 KM per hour. Through satellite and pictures taken from robotic rovers, the landscape takes on a orange like hue. This is because the dust particles are stirred up by this windy planet. There is evidence that the planet once held liquid, but at present, scientists believe it is frozen deep into the ground. However, there are signs at one time liquid water did exist since space rovers have recovered sedimentary rock specimens which can easily be found in Earth's lakes and streams. One interesting fact about Mars, is that the tilt of the axis point is closely related to the Earth's. A day in Mars is 24.6 hours vs. Earth's 24 hours. Mars has a larger orbit area; therefore, one year on Mars equals 1.9 Earth years.
Mars is ½ the size of Earth, but 1/10 its mass. (Universe and Beyond, pp 24-30, 2004)
Venus, not like the Roman Goddess Venus, is comparable to Earth in size, mass and surface gravity; however, the temperature far exceeds our boiling point at 460 degrees Celsius hotter than melting lead. The atmosphere is 90% denser than Earth's and composed with mostly carbon dioxide. Since the atmosphere is so dense with carbon dioxide ,the constant volcanic activity produces additional gases enough to produce a greenhouse effect. This greenhouse cloud covering in the upper atmosphere then traps the gases and prevents the sun's infrared radiation from escaping. This makes the planet sizzling hot. The landscape is dominated with active volcanoes. The rotation of Venus is so slow that a day for Venus is equal to 59 Earth days, and the nights are equally long. The snail like rotation does not provide a magnetic field like the Earth's rotation does. (Universe and Beyond, pp 30-33, 36, 37, 2004)

Mercury, the closest to the sun, has temperatures of 400 degrees Celsius. Mercury's atmosphere is completely missing. It also has one third the Earth's gravity. Mercury is half the size of the moon. The landscape looks very much like the moon cratered by the insults of space debris. Mercury has little gravity and rotates slower than Venus. It rotates its axis three times the same time it orbits the Sun twice. One Mercury day equals 176 Earth days. (Universe and Beyond pp 38-39, 2004)

This paper showed the four scenarios astronomers consider for the Earth-Moon binary system formation. Second it showed the main points of each scenario are including modern view and why that is. The paper also concludes the atmosphere composition and characterizes, and described some of the important factors including shaping, the surface and atmospheric conditions.

References
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). "Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 22-23) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 24) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 36-37) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 24-30) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 30-33) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 36) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 37) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). " Chapter 2"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 38-39) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.

Sunday, January 02, 2000

Mars

The four inner planets of our solar system exhibit different day and year durations. Based on your reading so far, how might these differences impact the possibility of sustaining life as we know it? As a result of these variations, what differences do you think would emerge in the hypothetical life forms on the four planets?

Mars may of had life about 4.5 billion years ago. The ALH 84001 meteorite suggests that Mars was 'terraformed' on some continent during this era. The ALH 84001 meteorite had polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that used to be microfossils. These indents are 20 to 100 nanometer. The scientists say that the PAHs weren't leaked into them. PAH are the remains of micro-organisms. Astronauts would have to put plants inside greenhouses on Mars to shield them against dust storms. Mercury and Venus wouldn't have life, because both are full of volcanic activity and are way too close to the sun. There is ice near the poles, which all came from meteorites. Maybe the micro-organisms live in the fungus which is frozen with the water. I think that day and year variations have little to do with it life as we know it, rather the distance Earth and Mars are from the Sun, how much ice or water there are, and the denser atmosphere. Mars's air pressure is too low for liquids. Mercury has a strange orbit and it's gets too close to the sun at times and one side of the planet is scorched. Plants won't survive on Mercury, because sunlight is six times brighter than ours. Mars would have to have some micro-organisms. I was thinking as far as life forms, Mercury and Venus would have to have androids working on the planets. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus could have androids working on them too. I think, the more gravity, organic life forms would be shorter and weigh more. In less gravity, organic life forms would be taller and leaner. Another life form could be a virus I refer to as "Andromeda Strain" found on these planets (under a rock) where it is extremely difficult to make an antidote. I don't agree that the Groom Lake area in Nevada is restricted, because of Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune or Venus! Anything at Groom Lake goes beyond!

Saturday, January 01, 2000

Stars sizes

1. How would you rank the following according to their size (starting with the smallest): A galaxy, a planet, a star, solar system, a galaxy cluster. Share where you found your information.
2. Which of the objects in #1, if any, are within a 1 light-year radius from Earth? More than 1 light-year, but within 100 light-years?
3. Share one interesting fact or explanation from your readings this week that illustrates the vast size of the universe. Explain why this strikes you as interesting.

(smallest to largest) Diameter
1.) Planet (Earth) Earth's Circumference at the Equator: 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 km); Earth's Diameter at the Poles: 7,899.80 miles (12,713.5 km); Earth's Circumference Between the North and South Poles: 24,859.82 miles (40,008 km) [1]

2.) Star (Sun) 1,392,000 KM (865,000 MI.) [1]

3.) Solar System Sun to Pluto (dwarf planet) 78.88 AU; Sun to end of Oort Cloud 100,000 AU [1] Oort cloud starts at 50,000 AU AU stands for Earth-Sun distance.
4.) Galaxy 4 billion, 8 thousand, 3 hundred, and 29 miles big or 100,000 lightyears diameter [1][2][3]

5.) local group cluster 3,000 kiloparsecs (10 million light years) diameter [1]

6.) Virgo Cluster (galaxy supercluster) 15 million light years diameter [1]


2.) All the planets or dwarf planets that don’t pass Pluto, and the Sun are all within a light year. I read the true distance of the solar system is 2 light years in distance that includes the comets that orbit the Sun. Other stars within 100 light years include Barnard’s Star, Alpha Centauri, Sirius, Procyon, Tau Ceti, Epsiton Eridani, and Tau Ceti, and 93 other stars. [Universe and Beyond, pg 13, 2004] [1: Greater Distances]

3.) It took until 2002 to upgrade Hubble’s camera to get a blurry glimpse of the first galaxies. The book says that 99% of the universe is invisible (gas and dust) full of dark matter (23%) and dark energy (73%) and 3.4% of other elements. The book also says that the distance between stars is 20 times the Pluto orbit so that’s really far apart. Stars can be as close as 10 AU each other. [Universe and Beyond, pg 99, 110, 2004] This is interesting, because when I think of light years; it took 3-4 minutes for to travel to new star systems in various Star Trek episodes going five or six times light speed per second. Also Alpha Centauri seems very close at 4.4 light years when the average distance between stars is 20 light years. [Universe and Beyond, pg 74, 2004]

Scientists use the Hubble Deep Space Field to see the Andromeda Galaxy. Astronomers reduce the size of space objects to walnuts, cherries, oranges, and peas. If Earth was a dime sized and every other space object was relevant to Earth; it would take minutes to travel to new star systems, and more than a lifetime to travel to new galaxies. The reading also says that the speed of light is 674,533,030 mph and is 5,908,909,342,800 miles total in length. I can see why traveling to other solar systems take that long, because there are billions of star systems in the Milky Way Galaxy. A billion seconds is roughly 31 years, 8 months, 8 days according to my graphical calculator so I won't have seen most of the galaxy before I die even if fictionally I travel to a new star systems every few minutes. The second example I've chosen is a rotating neutron star, also known as a pulsar. Pulsars blink at you, and are easy to discover with a telescope. Stars expel gas and radiation and astronomers can tell the composition by how fast these evaporate. (Universe and Beyond, pg 16 – 18, 2004) (Gino, 2010)
I asked myself when reading the first chapter why scientists scale down the distances to fit in the palm of your hand and using atoms, peas, ping-pong balls to visualize scaled down objects seems crude and my brain refuses to melt. I also like the conversions of light-years and Astronomical Unit (AU) into more recognizable measurements such as miles. Overall, I like the technical jargon explanations over the scaled down references. However, I have found crossing star systems every couple of minutes until traveling to another galaxy in my life time impossible.
This paper explained how astronomers read the cosmos and my personal opinion on the reasons behind it.
References
Dickinson, T. (Ed.). (2004). "A Journey Through Time and Space"
The Universe and Beyond, 4th Edition. (pg 11-19) Canada: Firefly Book, Inc.
Gino, C. (2010). Week 01 - The Universe as We Know It
Retrieved April 9, 2010, from Rasmussen website
http://rasmussen.learntoday.info/section/default.asp?id=SPR10-G239-10