A recent Scientific American article aroused a letter of protest from some prominent cosmologists, including renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who dispute the article’s challenge to the Big Bang theory. In this episode, we explore the many theoretical problems for the Big Bang, and we highlight alternatives available in the Electric…
Oct 06, 2011 Converging radial filaments indicate an interstellar Birkeland current “pinching down” into an hourglass shape. According to a recent press release, the longest lasting gamma-ray source ever recorded has been found by the Swift satellite’s Burst Alert Telescope. “Swift” is so named because it can quickly identify…
Sep 29, 2011 Are there dark matter galaxies orbiting the Milky Way? Sometimes, clues can be hidden in plain site. The key to solving a particular puzzle might simply be clouded by a layer of presumptions that obscure its true import. Such appears to be the case according a recent…
M101 (NGC 5457), the Pinwheel Galaxy. Image credit: Donald E. Scott Sep 23, 2011 A new supernova explosion highlights the same old gravity problems. On August 24, 2011 astronomers from the Palomar Transient Factory discovered the first type 1A supernova seen in decades. Type 1A class stellar explosions (or, implosions)…
Sep 20, 2011 The previous Picture of the Day described several of the many myths that refer to a celestial chain of arrows or a celestial ladder. It asked, how is this theme to be explained? A significant pointer is the realisation that stories concerning the arrow-chain form a subset…
