The WOW Science Thread

[Chromeman]

Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in his theory of general relativity, but he was also a big opponent of the big bang idea.

[Frank La Rue]

Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in his theory of general relativity, but he was also a big opponent of the big bang idea.

Newspapers report this morning scientists have found the echo of the Big Bang, apparently a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the 1st second after the Big Bang. How to demonstrate or explain to the rest of us that it's really The Echo.........

[Chromeman]

Yes, the Universe had a big and rapid increase in size from infinite small to about marble size...

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/scien ... onal-waves

[Henry 14th]

There is a cracking documentary on at the moment that covers the cosmos in simple mans terms.

Cosmos. A space time odyssey.

I think it's on Fox on the US but I know it's available on the torrent sites.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PeteC]

There is a cracking documentary on at the moment that covers the cosmos in simple mans terms.

Cosmos. A space time odyssey.

I think it's on Fox on the US but I know it's available on the torrent sites.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's on National Geographic channel here. Episode 1 was earlier this week. I think one episode per week with repeats in between. This is not a repeat of the Cosmos series of the 1980's with Carl Sagan, but an updated sequel. Pete

[Frank La Rue]

There is a cracking documentary on at the moment that covers the cosmos in simple mans terms.

Cosmos. A space time odyssey.

I think it's on Fox on the US but I know it's available on the torrent sites.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's on National Geographic channel here. Episode 1 was earlier this week. I think one episode per week with repeats in between. This is not a repeat of the Cosmos series of the 1980's with Carl Sagan, but an updated sequel. Pete

Have you checked whether it is available on You tube? I watch many things like that on Youtube, like my favourite in popular physics, MIchio Kaku, his TV shows are posted there. I'll do some search

[Chromeman]

As far as I can see, only the original series with Carl Sagan is available on Youtube.

The new version is being broadcasted in the US every Sunday with episode 3 (of 13) is on this Sunday.

The 2 first episodes are available on torrent sites.

[Frank La Rue]

As far as I can see, only the original series with Carl Sagan is available on Youtube.

The new version is being broadcasted in the US every Sunday with episode 3 (of 13) is on this Sunday.

The 2 first episodes are available on torrent sites.

Thanks - I will watch this over the weekend

[Chromeman]

NASA Releases 681 Gigapixel Interactive Map of Lunar North Pole

[hhfarang]

Wow indeed. I was under the impression that our solar system had been well and truly explored with today's spacecraft and modern telescopes and only deep space held the yet unknown, but it seems there may be a lot more to our own system that is yet to be discovered:

http://news.yahoo.com/dwarf-planet-foun ... 38618.html

[Chromeman]

Only the inner parts of our solar system that has had any exploration worth mentioning. The outer (and largest) parts of our solar system still contains many secrets.

And there are many secrets still to unravel in the inner parts of the solar system too, like if there is life in the probable oceans under the ice on Europa and some of the other big moons.

The first probe, New Horizons, to visit Pluto will fly by in a very high velocity in July next year.

So for any one interested, there will be fascinating discoveries to learn about for years and years to come!

[hhfarang]

Kepler 186f - Earth's cousin:

http://news.yahoo.com/5-things-know-ali ... 06316.html

[pharvey]

Fascinating stuff........

"Simulating time travel"

University of Queensland researchers have simulated time travel using light particles. Lead author and PhD student Martin Ringbauer, from UQ's School of Mathematics and Physics, said the study used photons – single particles of light – to simulate quantum particles traveling through time and study their behavior, possibly revealing bizarre aspects of modern physics.

"The question of time travel features at the interface between two of our most successful yet incompatible physical theories – Einstein's general relativity and quantum mechanics," Mr Ringbauer said.
"Einstein's theory describes the world at the very large scale of stars and galaxies, while quantum mechanics is an excellent description of the world at the very small scale of atoms and molecules."
Einstein's theory suggests the possibility of travelling backwards in time by following a space-time path that returns to the starting point in space, but at an earlier time-a closed timelike curve.

This possibility has puzzled physicists and philosophers alike since it was discovered by Kurt Gödel in 1949, as it seems to cause paradoxes in the classical world, such as the grandparents paradox, where a time traveller could prevent their grandparents from meeting, thus preventing the time traveller's birth.
This would make it impossible for the time traveller to have set out in the first place.

UQ Physics Professor Tim Ralph said it was predicted in 1991 that time travel in the quantum world could avoid such paradoxes.

Full story: http://phys.org/news/2014-06-simulating ... nberg.html

[pharvey]

A further step towards Mars?

NASA finalizes contract to build the most powerful rocket ever

NASA has reached a milestone in its development of the Space Launch System, or SLS, which is set to be the most powerful rocket ever and may one day take astronauts to Mars.

After completing a critical design review, Boeing Co. has finalized a $2.8-billion contract with the space agency. The deal allows full production on the rocket to begin.

“Our teams have dedicated themselves to ensuring that the SLS – the largest ever -- will be built safely, affordably and on time,” Virginia Barnes, Boeing's Space Launch System vice president and program manager, said in a statement.

The last time NASA’s completed a critical design review of a deep-space human rocket was 1961, when the space agency assessed the mighty Saturn V, which ultimately took man to the moon.

http://www.latimes.com/business/aerospa ... story.html

[pharvey]

THE SLEEPER AWAKES

Stealing the quote from one of my favorite sci-fi epic novel series DUNE, as Paul Muad D'Ib says: The Sleeper Has Awoken.

After three years of drifting through the great beyond in "deep sleep" the ESA's Rosetta space vehicle, designed to monitor and investigate comets, has been successfully woken up and retasked.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014 ... t-wakes-up

One more small step

Great news for the European Space Agency (and a collective sigh of relief no doubt), as the Rosetta Space Probe makes history in rendezvousing with "Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko"...

Paris (AFP) - The space probe Rosetta made a historic rendezvous with a comet on Wednesday, climaxing a 10-year, six-billion-kilometre (3.7-billion-mile) chase through the Solar System, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

"We're at the comet," Rosetta's flight operations manager, Sylvain Lodiot, declared in a webcast from mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.

It marks the first time a spacecraft has been sent into orbit around a comet, a wanderer of the Solar System whose primeval dust and ice may hold insights into how the planets formed.

In November, a robot scientific lab called Philae will be sent down to the surface to make the first-ever landing on a comet.

BIG hand to all those involved....