January 5, 2021 The Universe is composed primarily of dark matter, according to modern cosmologists. More than 95% of all that exists cannot be seen by even the highest resolution instruments. Their premise is based on several assumptions. For example, current estimates conclude that the Universe is 13.7 billion years…
December 29, 2020 Some stars fluctuate erratically. According to astrophysicists, a nova explosion occurs when a white dwarf star draws matter away from a companion star onto its surface. Gravity then compresses the material against the white dwarf’s rigid exterior, where it reaches fusion temperatures because of the extreme pressure….
December 24, 2020 What astronomers call a “Fast Radio Burst” can release more energy in five milliseconds than the Sun does in 80 years! Assumed distances to such high energy sources is said to be a billion light-years, or more, because of redshift measurements. If that is the case, then…
December 23, 2020 The Pleiades cluster contains more than 1000 stars, although only 14 are visible to the naked eye. The Pleiades is embedded in a cloud of gas and dust, otherwise known as a nebula, that consensus astronomers say evolved from thousands of blue-white stars “millions of years ago.”…
December 22, 2020 Galaxies are born in lightning. NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope on August 25, 2003. Spitzer’s mission is to scan the sky in infrared wavelengths, using detectors that were kept at -268 Celsius. That frigid temperature made it possible for the telescope to “see” wavelengths as long…
December 21, 2020 Many previous Pictures of the Day discuss the planet Jupiter—especially its electromagnetic interaction with its moons and the rest of the Solar System. Jupiter’s magnetosphere extends outward for nearly 650 million kilometers; beyond the orbit of the planet Saturn. Belts of ionized particles surround Jupiter, with the most energetic…
December 17, 2020 “I’ll believe it when I see it” could be the motto of the empiricist. His not unreasonable belief is that reasonable belief in an idea should be governed by tests that give results which can be sensed. His concern is that beliefs not anchored to what is…
December 16, 2020 Black hole physics remains questionable. “One thing that I’m sure of is the real pleasure of life – it’s not being known, it’s not having your own jet plane, it’s not having a mansion. The pleasure is to learn something.”— Francis Ford Coppola According to a recent…
Dec 15, 2020 The Sun is a plasma phenomenon. The Solar Dynamics Observatory records coronal holes as they move across the Sun’s photosphere, causing storms of charged particles to blast toward Earth. Heliophysicists believe that coronal holes are regions of “open magnetic fields”. The Sun’s temperature in its core is…
December 14, 2020 Cryogenic detectors do not find evidence for dark matter. That failure means “back to the drawing board” for theoretical physicists. Since deep cold does not contribute to dark matter discovery, scientists are now using quantum physics in an attempt at building instruments that are more sensitive to…
