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How was the Universe Created?

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« Reply #90 on: August 11, 2008, 01:01:43 am »

Absonite

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  posted 12-24-2005 06:54 PM                       
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well, I guess we know why that appears offensive to you.
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« Reply #91 on: August 11, 2008, 01:01:53 am »

Andrew Waters

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  posted 12-25-2005 01:18 PM                       
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Then why is it your avatar is dark blue. Telling something about yourself are you?
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« Reply #92 on: August 11, 2008, 01:03:12 am »

Mark J McCarron

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Rate Member   posted 12-25-2005 01:39 PM                       
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quote:
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How was the Universe Created?

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Why does their need to be a point of creation?

...that's more a limitation of human thinking and a bit of fundementalism to boot...

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Mark McCarron
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« Reply #93 on: August 17, 2008, 03:19:16 am »

 
Brooke

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Cosmic Hide and Seek: the Search
for the Missing Mass

by Chris Miller

Copyright © 1995 by Chris Miller, all rights reserved. This text may be freely redistributed among individuals in any medium so long as it remains unedited and appears with this notice. Any commercial or republication requires the written permission of the author.


Scientists using different methods to determine the mass of galaxies have found a discrepancy that suggests ninety percent of the universe is matter in a form that cannot be seen. Some scientists think dark matter is in the form of massive objects, such as black holes, that hang out around galaxies unseen. Other scientists believe dark matter to be subatomic particles that rarely interact with ordinary matter. This paper is a review of current literature. I look at how scientists have determined the mass discrepancy, what they think dark matter is and how they are looking for it, and how dark matter fits into current theories about the origin and the fate of the universe.


In 1933, the astronomer Fritz Zwicky was studying the motions of distant galaxies. Zwicky estimated the total mass of a group of galaxies by measuring their brightness. When he used a different method to compute the mass of the same cluster of galaxies, he came up with a number that was 400 times his original estimate (1). This discrepancy in the observed and computed masses is now known as "the missing mass problem." Nobody did much with Zwicky's finding until the 1970's, when scientists began to realize that only large amounts of hidden mass could explain many of their observations (2). Scientists also realize that the existence of some unseen mass would also support theories regarding the structure of the universe (3). Today, scientists are searching for the mysterious dark matter not only to explain the gravitational motions of galaxies, but also to validate current theories about the origin and the fate of the universe.

Mass and Weight. What exactly is mass? Most people would say that mass is what you weigh. But to scientists, mass and weight are different things. Mass is the measure of a quantity of matter--how much stuff there is. Weight, on the other hand, is the effect that gravity has on that stuff. Weight is dependent on mass--the more mass you have, the more gravity pulls you down, and the more you weigh. When an astronaut floats in space, we say that the astronaut is weightless. But the astronaut still has a body, and so has mass.

Hide and Seek. Scientists estimate that 90 to 99 percent of the total mass of the universe is missing matter (4). Actually, "missing matter" may be misleading--it's really the light that is missing (5). Scientists can tell that the dark matter is there, but they cannot see it. Bruce H. Margon, chairman of the astronomy department at the University of Washington, told the New York Times, "It's a fairly embarrassing situation to admit that we can't find 90 percent of the universe" (6). This problem has scientists scrambling to try and find where and what this dark matter is. "What it is, is any body's guess," adds Dr. Margon. "Mother Nature is having a double laugh. She's hidden most of the matter in the universe, and hidden it in a form that can't be seen" (5).


Determining the Mass of Galaxies
How do we measure the mass of the universe? Since the boundaries (if there are any) of the universe are unknown, the actual mass of the universe is also unknown. But scientists talk of the missing mass of the universe in percentages, not real numbers. Since the majority of the matter that we can see is clumped together into galaxies, the total mass of all the galaxies should be a good indication of the mass of the universe. Although it isn't possible to add up an infinite number of galaxies, scientists can infer the percentage of the universe's missing mass from estimates of the missing mass in galaxies and clusters of galaxies (7). And because scientists (like Fritz Zwicky) use different techniques to determine the masses of galaxies, they can perceive mass that they cannot see.

The Doppler Shift. One of the tools that scientists use to detect the motions of galaxies is the Doppler Shift. The Doppler Shift was discovered in the 1800's by Christian Doppler when he noticed that sound travels in waves much like waves on the surface of the ocean (7). Doppler also noticed that when the source of the sound is moving, the pitch of the sound is different, depending on whether the source is moving toward or away from the observer. Take, for example, the horn on a train. As the speeding train passes by you, the sound of the horn changes to a lower pitch. This is the Doppler Shift. When the train approaches, the sound waves get pushed together by the motion of the train. As the train speeds away, the sound waves get stretched out.




The Doppler Shift also works with light. When a light source is moving toward you, the light becomes bluer (called a blue shift). When a light source is moving away from you, the light becomes redder (called a red shift). And the faster something is moving, the farther the light is shifted. But the Doppler shift for light is very subtle and cannot be detected with the naked eye. Scientists use a device called a spectroscope to measure Doppler Shift and determine how fast stars and galaxies are moving (7).

Rotational Velocity. Using the power of the Doppler Shift, scientists can learn much about the motions of galaxies. They know that galaxies rotate because, when viewed edge-on, the light from one side of the galaxy is blue shifted and the light from the other side is red shifted. One side is moving toward the Earth, the other is moving away. They can also determine the speed at which the galaxy is rotating from how far the light is shifted (7). Knowing how fast the galaxy is rotating, they can then figure out the mass of the galaxy mathematically.
As scientists look closer at the speeds of galactic rotation, they find something strange. The individual stars in a galaxy should act like the planets in our solar system--the farther away from the center, the slower they should move. But the Doppler Shift reveals that the stars in many galaxies do not slow down at farther distances. And on top of that, the stars move at speeds that should rip the galaxy apart; there is not enough measured mass to supply the gravity needed to hold the galaxy together (7).
These high rotational speeds suggest that the galaxy contains more mass than was calculated. Scientists theorize that, if the galaxy was surrounded by a halo of unseen matter, the galaxy could remain stable at such high rotational speeds.

Seeing the Light. Another method astronomers use to determine the mass of a galaxy (or cluster of galaxies) is simply to look at how much light there is. By measuring the amount of light reaching the earth, the scientists can estimate the number of stars in the galaxy. Knowing the number of stars in the galaxy, the scientists can then mathematically determine the mass of the galaxy(1).
Fritz Zwicky used both methods described here to determine the mass of the Coma cluster of galaxies over half a century ago. When he compared his data, he brought to light the missing mass problem. The high rotational speeds that suggest a halo reinforce Zwicky's findings. The data suggest that less than 10% of what we call the universe is in a form that we can see (Cool. Now scientists are diligently searching for the elusive dark matter--the other 90% of the universe.


Dark Matter
What do scientists look for when they search for dark matter? We cannot see or touch it: its existence is implied. Possibilities for dark matter range from tiny subatomic particles weighing 100,000 times less than an electron to black holes with masses millions of times that of the sun (9). The two main categories that scientists consider as possible candidates for dark matter have been dubbed MACHOs (Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects), and WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). Although these acronyms are amusing, they can help you remember which is which. MACHOs are the big, strong dark matter objects ranging in size from small stars to super massive black holes (1). MACHOs are made of 'ordinary' matter, which is called baryonic matter. WIMPs, on the other hand, are the little weak subatomic dark matter candidates, which are thought to be made of stuff other than ordinary matter, called non-baryonic matter. Astronomers search for MACHOs and particle physicists look for WIMPs.
Astronomers and particle physicists disagree about what they think dark matter is. Walter Stockwell, of the dark matter team at the Center for Particle Astrophysics at U.C. Berkeley, describes this difference. "The nature of what we find to be the dark matter will have a great effect on particle physics and astronomy. The controversy starts when people made theories of what this matter could be--and the first split is between ordinary baryonic matter and non-baryonic matter" (10). Since MACHOs are too far away and WIMPs are too small to be seen, astronomers and particle physicists have devised ways of trying to infer their existence.


MACHOs
Massive Compact Halo Objects are non-luminous objects that make up the halos around galaxies. Machos are thought to be primarily brown dwarf stars and black holes (2). Like many astronomical objects, their existence had been predicted by theory long before there was any proof. The existence of brown dwarfs was predicted by theories that describe star formation (7). Black holes were predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity (11).

Brown Dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are made out of hydrogen--the same as our sun but they are typically much smaller. Stars like our sun form when a mass of hydrogen collapses under its own gravity and the intense pressure initiates a nuclear reaction, emitting light and energy. Brown dwarfs are different from normal stars. Because of their relatively low mass, brown dwarfs do not have enough gravity to ignite when they form (7). Thus, a brown dwarf is not a "real" star; it is an accumulation of hydrogen gas held together by gravity. Brown dwarfs give off some heat and a small amount of light (7).

Black Holes. Black holes, unlike brown dwarfs, have an over-abundance of matter. All that matter "collapses" under its own enormous gravity into a relatively small area. The black hole is so dense that anything that comes too close to it, even light, cannot escape the pull of its gravitational field (11). Stars at safe distance will circle around the black hole, much like the motion of the planets around the sun (7). Black holes emit no light; they are truly black.


Detecting MACHOs
Astronomers are faced with quite a challenge with detecting MACHOs. They must detect, over astronomical distances, things that give off little or no light. But the task is becoming easier as astronomers create more refined telescopes and techniques for detecting MACHOs.

Searching with Hubble. With the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers can detect brown dwarfs in the halos of our own and nearby galaxies. Images produced by the Hubble Telescope, however, do not reveal the large numbers of brown dwarfs that astronomers hoped to find. "We expected [the Hubble images] to be covered wall to wall by faint, red stars," reported Francesco Paresce of the Johns Hopkins University Space Telescope Science Institute in the Chronicle of Higher Education (5). Research results are disappointing--calculations based on the Hubble research estimate that brown dwarfs constitute only 6% of galactic halo matter (12).

Gravitational Lensing. Astronomers use a technique called gravitational lensing in the search for dark matter halo objects. Gravitational lensing occurs when a brown dwarf or a black hole passes between a light source, such as a star or a galaxy, and an observer on the Earth. The object focuses the light rays, causing the light source to brighten (13). Astronomers diligently search photographs of the night sky for the telltale brightening that indicates the presence of a MACHO.
Wouldn't a MACHO block the light? How can dark matter act like a lens? The answer is gravity. Albert Einstein proved in 1919 that gravity bends light rays (13). He predicted that a star, which was positioned behind the sun, would be visible during a total eclipse. Einstein was right--the gravity of the sun bent the light rays coming from the star and made it appear next to the sun.




Not only can astronomers detect MACHOs with the gravitational lens technique, but they can also calculate the mass of the MACHO by determining distances and the duration of the lens effect (13). Although gravitational lensing has been known since Einstein's demonstration, astronomers have only begun to use the technique to look for MACHOs in the past two or three years.
Gravitational Lensing projects include the MACHO project (America and Australia), the EROS project (France), and the OGLE project (America and Poland). Preliminary data from these projects suggest the existence of lens objects with masses between that of Jupiter and the sun (9).

Circling Stars. Another way to detect a black hole is to notice the gravitational effect that it has on objects around it. When astronomers see stars circling around something, but cannot see what that something is, they suspect a black hole. And by observing the circling objects, the astronomers can conclude that, indeed, a black hole does exist.
In January of 1995, a team of American and Japanese scientists announced "compelling evidence" for the existence of a massive black hole at the American Astronomical Society meeting (14). Led by Dr. Makoto Miyosi of the Mizusawa Astrogeodynamics Observatory and Dr. James Moran of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, this group calculated the rotational velocity from the Doppler shifts of circling stars to determine the mass of the black hole. This black hole has a mass equivalent to 36 million of our suns (15). While this finding and others like it are encouraging, MACHO researchers have not turned up enough brown dwarfs and black holes to account for the missing mass. Thus, most scientists concede that dark matter is a combination of baryonic MACHOs and non-baryonic WIMPs.


WIMPs
In their efforts to find the missing 90% of the universe, particle physicists theorize the existence of tiny non-baryonic particles that are different from what we call "ordinary" matter. Smaller than atoms, Weakly Interactive Massive Particles are thought to have mass, but usually interact with baryonic matter gravitationally--they pass right through ordinary matter. Since each WIMP has only a small amount of mass, there needs to be a large number of them to make up the bulk of the missing matter. That means that millions of WIMPs are passing through ordinary matter--the Earth and you and me--every few seconds (Cool. Although some people claim that WIMPs were proposed only because they provide a "quick fix" to the missing matter problem, most physicists believe that WIMPs do exist (4). According to Walter Stockwell, astronomers also concede that at least some of the missing matter must be WIMPs. "I think the MACHO groups themselves would tell you that they can't say MACHOs make up the dark matter" (10). The problem with searching for WIMPs is that they rarely interact with ordinary matter, which makes them difficult to detect.

Detecting WIMPs. All hope of proving WIMPs exist rest on the theory that, on occasion, a WIMP will interact with ordinary matter. Because WIMPs can pass through ordinary matter, a rare WIMP interaction can take place inside a solid object. The trick to detecting a WIMP is to witness one of these interactions. Dr. Bernard Sadoulet and Walter Stockwell at the Center for Particle Astrophysics hope to do just that. Their project involves cooling a large crystal to almost absolute zero, which restricts the motions of its atoms. The energy created by a WIMP interaction with an atom in the crystal will then register on their instruments as heat (Cool. Because their research is still in progress, there are no results available.
A similar WIMP detection project is under way in Antarctica. The AMANDA project (Antarctica Muon and Neutrino Detector Array) is a collaboration of the University of Chicago, Princeton University, and AT&T, which is partially funded by the National Science Foundation. AMANDA scientists are placing detection instruments deep within the Antarctic ice. Instead of using a crystal, like the Berkeley team, the AMANDA group is using the Antarctic ice sheet itself as a WIMP detector (16).


Dark Matter and the Universe
The search for dark matter is about more than explaining discrepancies in galactic mass calculations. The missing matter problem has people questioning the validity of current theories about how the universe formed, and how it will ultimately end.

The Big Bang. In the mid 1950's a new theory of how the universe formed emerged. The Big Bang theory says that the universe began with a great explosion. The theory evolved from Doppler shift observations of galaxies (17). It seems that, no matter which direction astronomers point their telescopes, the light from the center of the galaxies is red shifted. (Doppler shift caused by rotational velocity can only be detected at the sides of a galaxy.) Observing red-shifted galaxies in every direction implies expansion in all directions an expanding universe.
The Big Bang theory is a current model for the origin of our universe which says all the matter that exists was, at one time, compressed into a single point. The Big Bang distributed all the matter evenly in all directions. Then the matter started to clump together, attracted by gravity, to form the stars and galaxies that we see today. The expansion generated by the Big Bang was great enough to overcome gravity. We still see the effects of that force when we see red-shifted galaxies.

Clumping. One of the problems with the Big Bang theory is its failure to explain how stars and galaxies could form in a young universe that was evenly distributed in all directions. What started the clumping? In a smooth universe, every particle would have the same gravitational effect on every other particle; the universe would remain the same (6). But something supplied the initial gravity to allow galaxies to form. Physicists suggest dark matter WIMPs as the solution. Since WIMPs only affect baryon matter gravitationally, physicists say this dark matter could be the "seed" of galactic formation (6). "We don't have a completely successful model of galaxy formation," explains Walter Stockwell, "but the most successful models to date seem to need plenty of non-baryonic dark matter" (10).

Closed, Open and Flat. There are three current scenarios that predict the future of the universe (17). If the universe is closed, gravity will catch up with the expansion and the universe will eventually be pulled back into a single point. This model suggests an endless series on Big Bangs and "Big Crunches." An open universe has more bang than gravity--it will keep expanding forever. And the flat universe has exactly enough mass to gravitationally stop the universe from expanding, but not enough to pull itself back in. A flat universe is said to have a critical density of 1.
What does the expansion of the universe have to do with the missing mass? The more mass, the more gravity. Whether the universe is closed, open, or flat depends on how much mass there is. This is where dark matter comes into the picture. Without dark matter, critical density lies somewhere between 0.1 and 0.01, and we live in an open universe. If there is a whole lot of dark matter, we could live in a closed universe. Just the right amount of dark matter, and we live in a flat universe. The amount of dark matter that exists determines the fate of the universe.

Many Theories. Scientists are tossing theories back and forth. Some are skeptical of WIMPs; particle physicists say MACHOs will never account for 90% of the universe. Some, like H.C. Arp, G. Burbage, F. Hoyle, and J.V. Narlikan claim that discrepancies like the dark matter problem discredits the Big Bang theory. In Nature they proclaim, "We do not believe that it is possible to advance science profitably when the gap between theoretical speculation becomes too wide, as we feel it has . . . over the past two decades. The time has surely come to open doors, not to seek to close them by attaching words like 'standard' and 'mature' to theories that, judged from their continuing non-performance, are inadequate" (18). Others say there is no missing mass. In his book, What Matters: No Expanding Universe No Big Bang, J.L. Riley claims that galactic red shift is just the effect of light turning into matter as it ages, and not the universe expanding (19).
But most scientists like Walter Stockwell have faith in the Big Bang. "The theorists will come up with all sorts of reasons why this or that can or cannot be and change their minds every other year," he says. "We experimentalists will trudge ahead with our experiments. The Big Bang theory will outlive any of this stuff. It works very well as the overall framework to explain how the universe is today" (10).
Now the missing mass problem is threatening humankind's place in the universe again. If non-baryonic dark matter does exist, then our world and the people in it will be removed even farther from the center. Dr. Sadoulet tells the New York Times, "It will be the ultimate Copernican revolution. Not only are we not at the center of the universe as we know it, but we aren't even made up of the same stuff as most of the universe. We are just this small excess, an insignificant phenomenon, and the universe is something completely different" (20).
A dark matter discovery could possibly affect our view of our place in the universe. If scientists prove that non-baryonic matter does exist, it would mean that our world and the people in it are made of something which comprises an insignificant portion of the physical universe. A discovery of this nature, however, probably will not affect our day-to-day process of living. "It's hard for me to imagine people getting bothered by the fact that most of the universe is something other than baryonic. How many people even know what baryonic means?" comments Walter Stockwell, "Most of the universe is something other than human. If their philosophy already accepts that humans are not the center of the universe, then saying protons and neutrons aren't the center of the universe doesn't seem like much of a stretch to me" (10). Perhaps the only thing a dark matter discovery will give us is some perspective.


Works Cited
1. West, Michael J. "Clusters of Galaxies." The Astronomy and Astrophysics Encyclopedia. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992.

2. Griest, Kim. "The Search for the Dark Matter: WIMPs and MACHOs." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. vol 688. 15 June 1993: 390-407.

3. Gribben, John. The Omega Point: The Search for the Missing Mass and the Ultimate Fate of the Universe. New York: Bantam, 1988.

4. Chase, Scott I. "What is Dark Matter?" physics-faq/part2. sci.physics Newsgroup. 5 Dec. 1994.

5. McDonald, Kim A. "New Findings Deepen the Mystery of the Universe's 'Missing Mass'." Chronicle of Higher Education. 23 Nov.1994: A8-A13.

6. Wilford, John Noble. "Astronomy Crisis Deepens As the Hubble Telescope Finds No Missing Mass." New York Times. 29 Nov. 1994: C1-C13.

7. Zeilik, Michael., and John Gaustad. Astronomy: The Cosmic Perspective. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 1990.

8. Trefil, James. "Dark Matter." Smithsonian. June 1993: 27- 35.

9. Mateo, Mario. "Searching for Dark Matter." Sky and Telescope. Jan. 1994: 20-24.

10. Stockwell, Walter K. E-mail interview. 1 Feb. 1995.

11. McIrvin, Matt. "Some Frequently Asked Questions About Black Holes." physics-faq/part2. sci.physics Newsgroup. 5 Dec. 1994.

12. Asker, James R. "'Missing Mass' Enigma Deepens." Aviation Week & Space Technology. 21 Nov. 1994: 31.

13. Falco, Emilio and Nathaniel Cohen. "Gravity Lenses: A Focus on the Cosmic Twins." Astronomy. July 1981: 18-22.

14. Wilford, John Noble. "New Galactic Evidence of Black Holes." New York Times. 12 Jan. 1995: B9.

15. Miyoshi, Makoto., et al. "Evidence for a Black Hole from High rotation Velocities in a Sub-parsec Region of NGC458." Nature. 12 Jan. 1995: 127-129.

16. National Science Foundation. 1995 Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica: Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. In Library of Congress LC Marvel [Online].

17. Abell, George O., and Marc Davis. "Cosmology." McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992.

18. Arp, H.C., et al. "Big Bang contd . . ." Nature. vol 357. 28 May 1992: 287-288.

19. Riley, J.L. What Matters: No Expanding Universe No Big Bang. Plano TX: No Big Bang Publishing Co., 1993.

20. Wilford, John Noble. "Physicists Step Up Exotic Search for the Universe's Missing Mass." New York Times. 26 May 1992: C1-C11.

21. Miller, Christopher M. "Cosmic Hide and Seek: the Search for the Missing Mass" online in Chris Miller's Home Page, 1995. http://www.eclipse.net/~cmmiller/


http://www.eclipse.net/~cmmiller/DM/

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"The most incomprehensible thing about our universe is that it can be comprehended." - Albert Einstein

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« Reply #94 on: August 17, 2008, 03:19:43 am »

Brooke

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   posted 01-25-2006 12:34 AM                       
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Black Hole Puts Dent In Space-time Ker Than
Staff Writer
SPACE.com
Tue Jan 24, 8:00 AM ET




A spinning black hole in the constellation Scorpius has created a stable dent in the fabric of spacetime, scientists say.

The dent is the sort of thing predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. It affects the movement of matter falling into the black hole.


The spacetime-dent is invisible, but scientists deduced its existence after detecting two X-ray frequencies from the black hole that were identical to emissions noted nine years ago. The finding will allow scientists to calculate the black hole's spin, a crucial measurement necessary for describing the object's behavior.


Blinking X-rays


Black holes form when very massive stars runs out of fuel. Their cores implode into a point of infinite density and their outer layers are blown away in a powerful supernova explosion. Within a theoretical boundary called the event horizon, the black hole's gravity is so strong that nothing, including light, can escape.


The X-ray frequencies detected by the team of researchers came from outside the event horizon of GRO J1655-40, a black hole located roughly 10,000 light-years from Earth. It is about seven times more massive than the Sun and siphoning gas from a nearby companion star.


GRO J1655-40 undergoes short periods of intense X-ray emissions, followed by longer periods of comparative quiet. Scientists think this blinking pattern of X-ray activity is related to how matter accumulates around the black hole.


Gas siphoned from the companion star builds up steadily in an accretion disk around the black hole. This process continues for several years. While the accumulation is taking place, the black hole consumes very little gas from the disk.


Every few years, however, something--scientists aren't sure what--triggers a sudden binge fest on the part of the black hole, causing it to guzzle down most of matter in the disk within a period of only a few months.


Black holes emit millions of times more X-rays during these periods of increased activity than when they're quiet.


In recent years, NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer has caught GRO J1655-40 binging twice, once in 1996 and again in 2005. Among the X-ray frequencies observed in 1996 was one at 450 Hz and one at 300 Hz. These two frequencies were observed again in 2005.


This was surprising because when it comes to X-ray emissions, black holes are not known for stability. X-rays are emitted from particles of superheated gas as they swirl into a black hole and rub against each other. However, the luminosity and the frequency at which the X-rays flicker varies from moment to moment because the rate at which the black hole consumes the gas is not constant.


Therefore, detecting two stable frequencies nine years apart strongly suggests they are not caused by fluctuations in the black hole's gas consumption, but by something else.


"Because it's very hard to get gas to behave the same way twice, it argues strongly that these frequencies are being anchored by the black hole's mass and spin, fundamental properties of the black hole itself," study co-author Jon Miller of the University of Michigan told SPACE.com.


Because the black hole is so massive and spinning so fast, it warps spacetime around it.


Spacetime


While devising his general theory of relativity, Einstein combined the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single useful concept he called spacetime.


Spacetime can be thought of as an elastic sheet that bends under the weight of objects placed upon it. The more massive the object, the more spacetime bends. If the massive object is also spinning, it causes spacetime to not only bend but to twist as well. Scientists call this effect "frame dragging."

Twisted spacetime will cause gas falling into a black hole to move in certain ways. The phenomenon can be roughly compared to the movement of a needle on a record player: as the needle moves along an etched groove on a record, it produces a sound, the exact nature of which is determined by physical deformations in the groove itself.

Similarly, the black hole has created stable deformations in the fabric of spacetime that affects matter moving around it. Gas swirling around the black hole acts like the record needle, but instead of producing specific sounds, it produces certain frequencies of X-ray light.

Two peaks

Scientists think that gas particles moving in warped spacetime near the black hole exhibit two types of motions, each giving rise to a unique frequency. One motion is the orbital motion of the gas as it goes around the black hole. This produces the 450 Hz frequency. The lower 300 Hz frequency is caused by the gas wobbling slightly due to the spacetime deformations.

"If spacetime were not curved, we'd probably just see one peak," said study co-author Jeroen Homan from the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at MIT.

Scientists think that all spinning black holes emit two stable frequencies, and that the frequencies are closely tied to the black hole's mass and spin.

GRO J1655-40's mass had already been calculated based on observations of the companion star's orbit. The missing piece of information was the black hole's spin rate. The new frequency findings will help resolve this problem.

"We can now begin to determine the spin and thus, for the first time, more completely describe the black hole," Miller said.

The finding was announced earlier this month at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060124/sc_space/blackholeputsdentinspacetime

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« Reply #95 on: August 17, 2008, 03:19:59 am »

 
Brooke

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   posted 01-26-2006 12:28 AM                       
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Anyone care to discuss dark matter and dark energy..?

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"The most incomprehensible thing about our universe is that it can be comprehended." - Albert Einstein

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« Reply #96 on: August 17, 2008, 03:20:10 am »

Ishtar

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  posted 01-26-2006 07:09 AM                       
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I created the universe,but I am not going to tell you how because it could be dangerous in the hands of the wrong people, I mean look at us, after all.

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“Ad initio, alea iacta est.”
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
it's Later Than You Think
http://forums.atlantisrising.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=28;t=000023;p=1

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« Reply #97 on: August 17, 2008, 03:20:30 am »

Huggy

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dark matter and energies are in the future, but they are, so it's felt.

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As Above So Below.

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« Reply #98 on: August 17, 2008, 03:20:42 am »

James Fullsome

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Dark matter and dark enegery compose up to 90% of the matter of the current known universe, they are not in the future, but what is here, and what is now.
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« Reply #99 on: August 17, 2008, 03:21:05 am »

James Fullsome

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The Big Bang and matter formation

Simplified model of the Big Bang and the Universe's subsequent expansion

The Primordial Age - from 0 years to 379,000 years

The Planck Epoch: 10-43 seconds

The Universe, which includes time, space, and everything in it, begins with the Big Bang 13.7 ± 0.2 billion years ago. Data that pinpointed the Universe's estimated age and when the Big Bang occurred came from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Extensive supporting data comes from the Hubble Space Telescope, among others. The earliest point of time scientists can theoretically pinpoint is the Planck Epoch, or 10-43 seconds after the Big Bang, so therefore this period is actually regarded as the Big Bang Era. This moment, though definable, is poorly understood because what happens to gravity at such high energies and small scales is very complicated to explore. The Grand Unified Theory is a project to define

Planck Epoch

The Planck Epoch covers the time from 10-43 to 10-35 seconds after the Big Bang. The temperature during this epoch is estimated to decrease from 1032 K to 1027 K.

10-43 seconds

A length of 10-43 seconds is known as Planck time. At this point, the force of gravity separated from the other three forces, collectively known as the electronuclear force. A complete theory of quantum gravity such as superstring theory is needed to understand these very early events; however the present understanding of cosmology in string theory is very limited. The diameter of the currently observable universe is theorized as 10-35 m which is known as the Planck length.
10-36 seconds

Separation of the strong force from the electronuclear force, leaving two forces: electromagnetic, and electroweak forces. The particles which are involved in the strong force are considerably more massive than the particles which are involved with the other forces and so are believed to "condense" out earlier.


The Inflationary Epoch: 10-37 seconds
The Universe undergoes hyper-inflation, where expansion is greatly speeded up.

[ 01-28-2006, 09:05 PM: Message edited by: James Fullsome ]
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« Reply #100 on: August 17, 2008, 03:21:34 am »

James Fullsome

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The Grand Unification Epoch: 10-35 seconds
The Grand Unification Epoch covers the time from 10-35 to 10-12 seconds after the Big Bang. The temperature during this epoch is estimated to decrease from 1027 K to 1015 K.

10-35 seconds

For the period of time between 10-35 seconds and 10-33 seconds, it is believed that the size of the universe expands many orders of magnitude. Postulating the existence of inflation solves a number of problems which are described in cosmic inflation.
This period is also very important for the existence of matter in the universe. Individually, the strong and the electroweak forces behave exactly the same way toward matter and antimatter, which means that there is no opportunity after this time for more matter to be created than antimatter. The electromagnetic and the electroweak forces are mixed and act as a single force. Grand unification theories suggest that when this is the case, it may be possible to have particle reactions which create more matter than antimatter.
10-33 seconds

The temperature of the Universe is approximately 1025 kelvins. The Quark-Antiquark Freezeout begins and lasts until 10-5 seconds. At these temperatures, quarks are able to condense out but the temperatures are still too hot for protons and neutrons to exist.
Birth of quarks, which appear in particle-antiparticle pairs. Quarks and anti-quarks annihilate each other to create photons, but quarks are created at a ratio of approximately 109 (1 billion) anti-quarks to 109+1 (1,000,000,001) quarks, resulting in one quark per billion matter-antimatter interactions. The mechanism causing this asymmetry, called baryogenesis is under active research and different theories are offered.
Free quarks multiply rapidly.

The four forces of the Universe differentiate themselves; gravity, the strong force, the weak force, and the electromagnetic force. The Universe starts off with the Grand Unified Force, which then differentiates into gravity and the electronuclear force. The electronuclear force, in turn, differentiates into the strong force and electroweak force.


The Electroweak Epoch: 10-12 seconds
Finally, the electroweak force differentiates into the weak force and the electromagnetic force.

The Electroweak Epoch covers the time from 10-12 to 10-6 seconds after the Big Bang. The temperature during this epoch is estimated to decrease from 1015 K to 1013 K.

10-12 seconds

The diameter of the observable universe increases to approximately 10-13 meters. The weak force, which involves massive particles, condenses and separates from the electromagnetic force, which involves a massless particle, leaving us with the four separate forces we know today.
Note:Currently, particle accelerators can reproduce the conditions that cause these two forces to act the same thereby reproducing the general conditions of the Universe during this epoch, but no farther. No one has experimentally recreated the high-energy states necessary for the electroweak and the strong forces to merge into the electronuclear force.
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« Reply #101 on: August 17, 2008, 03:22:06 am »

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The Hadron Epoch: 10-6 seconds
Quarks, gluons, and leptons begin to form. Battered by radiation and unable to combine into heavier particles, they float about in a quark-gluon plasma.

The Hadron Epoch covers the time from 10-6 seconds to 10-3 seconds after the Big Bang.

10-6 seconds

Electrons and positrons annihilate each other during the hadron epoch.
10-5 seconds

Quarks combine to form protons and neutrons. The lowering temperature allows quark/anti-quark pairs to combine into mesons. After this period quarks and anti-quarks can no longer exist as free particles.
Some scientists theorize that primordial black holes first appeared during this period.
10-4 seconds

The existence of antimatter is cancelled out, as lepton/anti-lepton pairs are annihilated by existing photons. Neutrinos break free and exist on their own.

The Lepton Epoch: 10-3 seconds
The Lepton Epoch covers the time from 10-3 seconds to 1 second after the Big Bang. Hydrogen nuclei begin to form, and the process of nuclear fusion begins as more elements such as helium form. Baryogenesis occurs (not to be confused with genesis of baryons).

1 second after the Big Bang

Nuclear fusion begins to occur as the universe is now cool enough for atomic nuclei to form and still hot enough for them to collide to form heavier chemical elements.
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« Reply #102 on: August 17, 2008, 03:22:27 am »

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The Epoch of Nucleosynthesis: 1 minute
The Epoch of Nucleosynthesis covers the time from 1 second to 3 minutes after the Big Bang. The temperature during this epoch is estimated to decrease from 1010 K to 109 K.

Three minutes after the Big Bang, the universe is too cool for nuclear activity to continue, and these reactions stop. At this point the universe's nuclei consist of about 75% hydrogen, 25% helium and trace amounts of deuterium, lithium, beryllium, and boron. Elements heavier than this do not have time to form before nuclear reactions stop. By looking at conditions between 1 second and 3 minutes after the Big Bang, one can predict the elemental abundance of the Universe. These predictions are broadly in agreement with observations.

The Deionization Epoch: 379,000 years
Epoch of Recombination
379,000 years after the Big Bang

The temperature of the Universe is approximately 3000 kelvins. At this temperature hydrogen nuclei capture electrons to form stable atoms. This event known as recombination is particularly significant because free electrons are effective at scattering light, which is why fire is not transparent, while hydrogen atoms will allow light to pass through.
This implies that this is the time at which space becomes transparent to light, since photons no longer interact strongly with atoms. This means that what we normally think of as matter and what we normally think of as energy become separate.
The light from the moment at which the universe became transparent has been redshifted to radio waves and makes up the cosmic microwave background.

Light energy from the initial expansion of the Universe stretches out and weakens to the point where matter finally dominates in influence (this is the generally agreed-to end of the Big Bang era). Telescopes are not able to see further back in time than this time because before this time, the Universe was too hot for atoms to be stable. The matter existed as ions because the electrons had too much energy to stay in atoms. The ions caused the Universe to be opaque to light because free electrons can absorb any wavelength of light. Once the universe cooled enough for the combination rate of atoms to be greater than the rate of ionization, the electrons and light nuclei formed atoms. The electrons in atoms can only absorb specific wavelengths of photons. Photons of other wavelengths pass by without being absorbed. This made the universe transparent to most wavelengths.

Since they cannot get images from before deionization, scientists must use particle accelerators and theoretical physics to infer what occurred indirectly. The most direct evidence scientists can measure from the Big Bang is the cosmic microwave background radiation that is uniformly pervasive throughout the Universe. It is thought this background radiation is actually a snapshot of the early Universe and provides the best evidence of the creation of matter during the early epochs.
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« Reply #103 on: August 17, 2008, 03:22:49 am »

 
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Galaxy and star formation

The Stelliferous Age - from 106 to 1014 years

The Matter Domination Epoch: 379,000 years
Hydrogen nuclei (protons) capture electrons, forming the first atoms. By now the Universe has created all the matter it will create and the resulting primordial hydrogen and helium are already clumping into primordial galaxies and quasars. Big Bang Era ends as we move into the Stelliferous Era, which continues to this very day.


The Galaxy/Star formation and reionization Epoch: Between 100,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 years
The formation of first mature galaxies and quasars begins to occur. Reionization of hydrogen nuclei occurs. This marks as the farthest back in time optical telescopes can see. Heavier elements begin to form as early massive stars supernova. The oldest stars in our Milky Way galaxy date from this era.

Formation of the Solar System: 9,100,000,000 years
The solar nebula from which the solar system evolved was probably initiated by a supernova. The Earth formed shortly thereafter.


Present Time: 13,700,000,000 years
The Stelliferous Era of the Universe continues to this day as galaxies and stars continue to form and die, although the most active period of the Universe has already occurred far in the past.

For more recent timescales, see Geologic time scale, Timeline of evolution.


End of the Stelliferous Age: 100,000,000,000,000 years

Star and galaxy formation eventually ceases, leaving just the oldest stars that eventually burn out. The synthesis of heavy elements stops because fusion eventually ceases, and matter now undergoes slow and inevitable destruction as proton decay starts to set in. All matter is now contained in distributed gas clouds or compact bodies (a class of objects in the Universe that isn't luminous, like planets, black holes, etc.).
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« Reply #104 on: August 17, 2008, 03:23:39 am »

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Logarithmic timeline of the universe
Jorn Barger May 2003 (updated Mar2005)

10.137 = 13,700,000,000 years BC = Big Bang []
10.13: release of Cosmic Microwave Background []
10.12: first galaxies, of iron-free stars []
10.11: quasars with (unexpected) iron [], carbon monoxide []
10.10 = 12,500,000,000 yrs BC: red galaxies stop forming stars []
10.09: big stars explode after fusing H into He-C-O-Mg-Si-S-Fe
10.08
10.07: small stars consume H-He leaving C-O as white dwarfs
10.06
10.05: daily gamma-ray bursts sterilize vast areas? []
10.04: (~3 per galaxy per billion years: cite)
10.03: quasars numerous
10.02: Milky Way captures small galaxy w/retrograde clusters
10.01: universe one-eighth current size?
10.00 = 10,000,000,000 yrs BC

9.99: interstellar gas gradually incorporated by stars
9.98: (gas -> dust -> grit -> lumps)
9.97
9.96 = 9,000,000,000 years BC
9.95
9.94
9.93: Milky Way rotates 5 times per billion years
9.92
9.91 = 8,000,000,000 years BC
9.90

9.89: star-formation in elliptical galaxies mostly stops
9.88
9.87
9.86: galaxy-clustering weaker than today []
9.85 = 7,000,000,000 years BC
9.84
9.83: expanding universe is 1/4 current size
9.82
9.81
9.80: star-formation in spiral galaxies slows (~1 per millennium)

9.79
9.78 = 6,000,000,000 years BC
9.77
9.76: several supernovas per century in Milky Way
9.75
9.74
9.73: interstellar gas from local supernovas begins condensing
9.72: H-C-O-etc form water and simple organic compounds
9.71: angular momentum produces cool?, spinning, flattened disk
9.70 = 5,000,000,000 years BC

9.69: birth of Sun (30% cooler than today: cite)
9.68: condensing interstellar silicon&metals forms planetesimals
9.67: meteorite with purple salt []
9.66: Earth condenses [] cold but heated by isotopes; Fe sinks
9.65: Moon created by catastrophic glancing impact [] [more]
9.64: global ocean; 1st zircon crystals on Earth [] []
9.63: upwelling Si and Al begin forming island-continents
9.62: iron-rich primordial soup reaches modern salinity (Gaia/life?)
9.61 = 4,000,000,000 years BC: universe is half current size
9.60: massive meteorite storm ends []; left-handed serine? []

9.59: widespread volcanism releases H2, N2, CO2, CO, SO2, HCl []
9.58: Isua graphite from life?; Earth's core 3x as hot as now
9.57: ultraviolet inhibits life by freeing bound nitrogen []
9.56: RNA World? []; anaerobic life at hydrothermal vents? []
9.55: stromatolites of bluegreen algae trickle O2 into air []
9.54: early oxygen precipitates banded iron formations []
9.53: giant meteorite impact []
9.52: diamonds created in south Africa []
9.51: earliest oil []; month only 20-days long? []
9.50: short genome with frequent mutations

9.49: Si-Al island-continents form Gondwana
9.48 = 3,000,000,000 years BC
9.47: Antarctic geology formed []
9.46: Moon and Mercury cool to geologic inactivity
9.45
9.44: greenhouse gases warm Earth to current temps []
9.43: CO2 in oceans begins creating limestone
9.42: Earth's core twice as hot as now (faster drift)
9.41: possible bacteria on land []
9.40: 1st oxygen-based metabolism []

9.39: island-continents form N Amer (Laurentia)
9.38
9.37: gold deposits accumulate in S African streambeds
9.36: abundant stromatolites
9.35: oxydised iron 'red beds' [] [more]
9.34: widespread glaciation (followed by 1.5B yr warm spell)
9.33
9.32: spontaneous uranium meltdown in w Africa
9.31: ***may mountains in north Canada (long-since eroded)
9.30 = 2,000,000,000 yrs BC: eukaryotes with mitochondria

9.29: atmosphere finally reaches 1% oxygen
9.28: ozone layer blocks destructive ultraviolet []
9.27: fossilised bacteria in Gunflint chert near Lake Superior
9.26: continents converge as Columbia? []
9.25: meteorites deliver nickel, platinum, chromium?
9.24
9.23
9.22: continents begin to re-converge as Rhodinia
9.21: sexual reproduction
9.20

9.19
9.18 = 1,500,000,000 yrs BC: Siberia breaks from w N Amer?
9.17: cilia?
9.16: eukaryote fossils (mainly acritarchs)
9.15: 1st multicellular experiments
9.14
9.13: lichens on land []
9.12
9.11
9.10 = 1,250,000,000 yrs BC

9.09: cell specialisation
9.08
9.07: gradual cooling as lichens absorb CO2? []
9.06
9.05: Gondwana (SAmer, Africa) collides with Laurentia (N Amer)
9.04: divergence of animals, plants, and fungi []
9.03: 1st coelenterate nervous systems?
9.02: O2 increases after surface rocks reach saturation []
9.01: 1st worm-tracks? []
9.00 = 1,000,000,000 yrs BC

8.99: continents emerge from ocean? []
8.98: ice age?
8.97: CHOANOFLAGELLATE-LIKE HUMAN ANCESTOR
8.96 = 900,000,000 years BC
8.95: adaptive radiation of acritarchs
8.94: start of 250M yr worldwide Ice Age [] [more] [more]
8.93: mtn-building in Africa (Zambia) and Asia (Lake Baikal)
8.92: seaweed (multicell algae) in nw Canada
8.91 = 800,000,000 years BC: SPONGE-LIKE HUMAN ANCESTOR
8.90: vase-shaped protozoans in Grand Canyon
 
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